"This is absurd," says 7-year-old.

[soleklypse]

Even though it's now a moot point (THANK THE GODS!) I just had to share this post by 7-year-old political blogger Stas:

Here is why I'm asking grown-ups to vote for Barack Obama. I am 7 years old so I can't vote

Comments

[dap6000]

no normal 7 year old talks (or writes) like that. that kid's got aspergers or something. in fact, i was willing to call bullshit till i saw the video currently linked from his front page. turns out it's not aspergers, he's just "gifted".

and as awesome as this kid and this particular post is, i hate any political argument that says you should vote for X by explaining reasons for not voting for Y. i have 2 problems with such reasoning.

1. there's more than 2 choices so assuming ruling out one of the major party's candidate is a de facto win for the other major party only serves to perpetuate the bias against the sort of political diversity that i believe is vital to the continued health of a democracy.
2. i don't like that politics has become more about who you are voting against than who you are voting for

[soleklypse]

1. The way our electoral process is set up, there really are two choices. Third parties don't really have a chance of doing anything but spoiling the election for the two leading candidates. This is not an "ought" but rather an "is." I agree that political diversity is vital to the continued health of democracy, but in order for there to really be more than two choices, we need to revise our electoral process. Run-off elections are probably the most common solution to that problem. Ranking your choices would probably be better. That way, say, in 2000, you could have picked Nader as your first choice and Gore for your second, and if Nader didn't win, your vote would have counted for Gore.

2. I wholly agree and, in fact, one of the things that made me so happy in this election is that I think it is the first time in my life that I heard people actually voting for someone and not just against the other guy. This is probably the first time since Nixon that the American public has had any confidence in who's running for President

[dap6000]

1. i by no means intended to imply that this is the only problem facing true political diversity. it's just one contributing factor. and while it's rather minor, it is something "we the people" can affect directly via our own behaviour.

2. i don't mind comparisons or point/counter point style political arguments. simply adding a couple of sentences explaining why obama/biden are qualified along with the reasons mccain/palin are not would change the whole tone to something that to me would seem a bit more civil.

then again, the kids fuckin' 7 years old. i'll cut him some slack there. as you point out, he's still doing a better job than most adults.

...and in his defence...

[soleklypse]

This was only one of several posts he made supporting Obama. Some of them were more focused on attacking McCain/Palin, while others were more focused on why you should vote for Obama/Biden.

And yes, he is seven.

[23press]

i fully agree with all six thousand of dap.

anyone who thinks "absurd," "rational," and "analysis" are words typically used by a seven-year-old needs to interact with more children and less intellectuals!

having said that, welcome to our zine :) wee will be ecstatic to receive submissions from you for our new zine project, and wee will send you a free copy if wee publish you!

[soleklypse]

What have I joined??

[23press]

joined? ha! nothing.

meant "welcome" in the sense of "welcome to our friendslist, which you joined," and also, "welcome to an opportunity to get published, if you'd like to, since we're accepting submissions for our radical discordian zine project, and everyone who gets published gets a free copy!"

didn't mean to scare you... just saying hello...

zine

[soleklypse]

Not scared. Just didn't expect to be solicited for submissions. Nothing wrong with that, though. Just don't expect much from me at this point. :)