The right to vote shouldn’t be restricted in any way. If you have legal restrictions then all it takes is bad actors expanding those categories and sorry, you just failed the critical thinking test because you think that climate change is real and life doesn’t begin at conception. Better get ready for your shift at Amazon, serf.
Media literacy and such should just be part of the education everyone gets.
Comrade_Spood@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
This was literally used as a way in the south to prevent black people from voting. Yall failed history, maybe you shouldn’t vote. Or maybe we should remember laws that restrict rights tend to affect more than their target and will be used in bigoted ways, and so we just shouldn’t restrict people’s rights and shouldn’t give anyone the power to restrict others.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
They’re not wrong, their intent is good. Universal democracy sucks, we just haven’t found a better replacement for it yet, to paraphrase Churchill
Comrade_Spood@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Everyone deserves the right to have power over themselves and things that affect them personally, no one deserves the right over others. Thats the issue. We insist on using methods of organization where there are those that govern and those to be governed.
Also maybe Churchill isn’t the best person to be paraphrasing in this context considering how imperialistic and racist he was.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
In case you didn’t realise, I’m not disagreeing with you. We’ve found out that limiting the vote is a bad thing, since it tends to lead to further suppression of the groups limited. I’m just pointing out they’re right to be frustrated too, since democracy isn’t perfect and has its very noticeable flaws.
Why does it matter who’s being paraphrased? The statement stands on its own, judge it on its own merits and not who came up with it.
jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Incorrect, fptp voting systems suck.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
FPTP systems suck more. That’s not to say there’s no issues with better voting systems.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 day ago
I agree that imposing a test to vote is a dangerous idea that should not be done.
But it is worth stopping to consider that America’s history is not the only way things can be done. As everyone is hopefully aware by now, America has a uniquely bad democratic system. Rather than taking the sensible approach of having a single, nonpartisan, national electoral commission, they have each state and even county run elections according to their own rules. That allowed the implementation of extremely hard tests in predominantly black areas while white areas had easy or no tests. Something a unified national system could not do.
Comrade_Spood@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
I do not think centralizing control and decision making is the answer to that. What little decentralization America has rn is exactly what is protecting states like Maine from being completely in the pocket of fascists. The answer is further decentralization to the point people do not have power over others.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 day ago
There are very good cases for decentralisation. But if you’re going to have national elections whose results affect the entire country, the rules for them should be consistent and overseen by a nonpartisan national body, not by the highly partisan state legislatures of each state.
PunnyName@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That crap was insanely convoluted. Perhaps he could still use a relatively simple test to ensure people have basic voting condition.
Like, there are people alive who believe both parties are the same.
Comrade_Spood@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Or you could juat make it so no one has the right to govern others. Then you wouldn’t have to take people’s rights away just cause they have beliefs different than yours, like you are suggesting. A problem in this world is people only seem to think about taking things away and punishing people to solve a problem, which doesn’t work.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
So, anarchy? I’ve never heard a good explanation of how that would work on a widespread basis with billions of people.
EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Then they should be educated out of those ignorant views, not have their rights restricted. What are you gonna do when some wannabe fascist decides that “basic voting condition” means believing that trans people don’t exist, that climate change is a hoax, and that the ultra-wealthy shouldn’t pay any taxes actually?
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Slippery slope. Today it’s ‘Can you read?’, tomorrow it’s ‘Please explain the history of the Republican party in great detail’.