> Sounds very authoritarian and not democratic at all.
It's what we already have, just extended a little. We already limit voting to citizens, and we have mandatory education for age groups and as a prerequisite to do certain professions.
> I certainly don't want any government to have the power to re-educate adults and limit who can vote because they're voting wrong. That's Orwellian.
Look at the situation we are in now, though. We have an extremely ignorant, outright science denying, not insignificant subset of the population, who due to our system of government can elect in people who share their beliefs, who then go on to be in real positions of power.
What do you do when you have a slight majority of Trumps or MTGs as your representatives? More than likely, freedoms will erode and wars would likely increase.
So, how can you avoid that, or worse problems caused by an ignorant voting block? If you want to keep this form of government (which I would argue we should not), I'm not sure what other solutions there are other than to have some sort of test for voting. Maybe moving the definition of what constitutes a citizen like in Starship Troopers could work.
Regardless of what you may believe was "meant to be," we live in the reality of today.
Try and remove citizenship from an extremely well-armed populous and see what happens.
(Bring on the "you need F-16s, man!" Guess to which side the overwhelming majority of the military and private arms ownership leans? Hint: it's not yours.)
> Regardless of what you may believe was "meant to be," we live in the reality of today.
It's not a question of what I believe, the fats and argument are outlined in the link previously provided.
And if the last few years in US politics has shown us anything, it's that some people choose to reject reality for one of their own making.
> Try and remove citizenship from an extremely well-armed populous and see what happens.
The only insurrection attempt in recent history came from the right, and the only presidential candidate who threatened to be a dictator also came from the right.
Gun nuts are also on the right and allegedly compare very much about rising up against an authoritarian government. Except if such a government would agree with them, I guess. What traitorous hypocrites.
Those people with guns won't ever do anything because they are all preparing for an imaginary Red Dawn type situation. If legislation sneaks up on them, if it's a 'threat' they can't shoot, they will be helpless to fight it.
That side has also shown how incredibly gullible they are, so the simplest information warfare will likely pacify them. Russia has certainly demonstrated how easy a group they are to control.
> Guess to which side the overwhelming majority of the military and private arms ownership leans? Hint: it's not yours.)
Ooooh scary! lol.
Anyway, I'm done with this convo. I'd rather not enable this kind of fantasizing any further. Cheers.
Nah. Like I said, the changes will sneak up on the gullible while they're waiting for a Red Dawn type scenario. Wasn't ever expecting folks like you to show up on HN to be honest, but everyday you learn something new I guess.
It's what we already have, just extended a little. We already limit voting to citizens, and we have mandatory education for age groups and as a prerequisite to do certain professions.
> I certainly don't want any government to have the power to re-educate adults and limit who can vote because they're voting wrong. That's Orwellian.
Look at the situation we are in now, though. We have an extremely ignorant, outright science denying, not insignificant subset of the population, who due to our system of government can elect in people who share their beliefs, who then go on to be in real positions of power.
What do you do when you have a slight majority of Trumps or MTGs as your representatives? More than likely, freedoms will erode and wars would likely increase.
So, how can you avoid that, or worse problems caused by an ignorant voting block? If you want to keep this form of government (which I would argue we should not), I'm not sure what other solutions there are other than to have some sort of test for voting. Maybe moving the definition of what constitutes a citizen like in Starship Troopers could work.