Voter Apathy: a Rant
This was originally posted as a comment on a group entry, but I thought I sounded somewhat intelligent so I thought I'd post it here.
Honestly, I get somewhat annoyed when people talk about voter apathy among youth as being purely because we're lazy and apathetic. Are some people? Sure. But what is also a problem, perhaps just as big, is that most politicians can't be arsed to care or talk about the issues that matter to youth. It's happened to me several times over the past few years that when I tried to talk to local candidates about things like trans human rights, decriminalizing prostitution, or comprehensive sex education, I've basically been laughed off, like why would I care about something so insignificant when the grown-ups have bigger things to deal with? It's fucking infuriating, and quite frankly, I'm sick of the responsibility being all on us. You're not going to vote if your politicians are constantly treating your issues like kid stuff. I still vote in every election (well, I've only been enough for two so far), and I was lucky to have a candidate who cared about the issues that matter to me and took the time to talk to me and answer my questions. It's great that vote mobs are getting some youth to vote, but the problem won't be solved until politicians start talking about the issues that nobody wants to talk about, which just so happen to be the issues that matter to us.
Honestly, I get somewhat annoyed when people talk about voter apathy among youth as being purely because we're lazy and apathetic. Are some people? Sure. But what is also a problem, perhaps just as big, is that most politicians can't be arsed to care or talk about the issues that matter to youth. It's happened to me several times over the past few years that when I tried to talk to local candidates about things like trans human rights, decriminalizing prostitution, or comprehensive sex education, I've basically been laughed off, like why would I care about something so insignificant when the grown-ups have bigger things to deal with? It's fucking infuriating, and quite frankly, I'm sick of the responsibility being all on us. You're not going to vote if your politicians are constantly treating your issues like kid stuff. I still vote in every election (well, I've only been enough for two so far), and I was lucky to have a candidate who cared about the issues that matter to me and took the time to talk to me and answer my questions. It's great that vote mobs are getting some youth to vote, but the problem won't be solved until politicians start talking about the issues that nobody wants to talk about, which just so happen to be the issues that matter to us.