Elara : Everyone's opinion should be valued the same. There isn't a list of credentials that an opinion has to meet for it to be valid, regardless of the circumstances. This should be even more emphasized in politics because it plays a huge part in everyone's life.

If my friend's ordered a pizza and I declined to give any input on what kind of pizza I want, I can still tell them I don't like anchovies. There is no reason why I couldn't state my opinion.

I am going to make my own pizza analogy, but try to make it even more related to my view of politics.

So there are only 2 pizzas on the menu to choose from, the vegetarian and the cheese pizza with extra cheese. My friends ask which one I would prefer and I tell them I would rather stay home and eat a homemade feast. Half an hour later, a vegetarian pizza shows up . My friend digs in and says it is alright. Half way through the pizza he realizes that  half the veggies they said would be on the pizza are missing, and for whatever reason they put meat on it that he didn't want. So I tell him the cheese pizza would have been better because they can't screw it up.

If making a custom pizza was on the menu, I definitly would have ordered one.


Not voting doesn't necessarily mean you don't care about politics, atleast its that way for me. Like I said I care more about politics than half of my friends, I atleast know what the different platforms are. As far as I can tell, voting wont help change the system, unless a candidate is running on a platform of reforming the entire political system. Other than that you are just voting for who is in control of the system. Voter apathy hasn't changed the anything, but that is only because enough people are content with the system to keep it going. I will say that I would vote for someone if I feel they represent me well.

smotpoker86 : You are missing my point. The point was that if you actually wanted one of those two pizzas and you didn't say anything, do you really think you should be able to complain that your friends chose the other type? You keep harping on liking neither, while I am not. That is the point you are ignoring.

Elara :   Yes , I do believe my input on the pizza is valid regardless of my indecisiveness. Now my friends can always say "STFU and eat what you are given" and that is also a valid statement.

If I vote for candidate X and not candidate Y, I can state opinion on both of them, and vice versa.

If I don't vote for either of them, I can still state my opinion, as there is no reason why I couldn't.  In fact I think it is wrong not to have an opinion and having an opinion should be encouraged.


Lets say I don't vote for either of the candidates, and candidate X gets elected. Now candidate X does something that I actually agree with , so I praise X and his party platform (which has actually happened) .  Unless your argument isn't exclusive to complaining or negative thinking, I shouldn't be able to say anything good about candidate X either. And if your argument is exclusive to complaints, then I strongly think it contradicts it self.


People have reasons for not voting. Just read some of the replies in this thread , people clearly state reasons why they don't vote, and most of them are based how the political system is flawed or corrupt. There are also quite a few under aged people who don't vote and say they wouldn't vote if they could because they don't care about politics, which is still a valid reason and they can still form political opinions if they choose too.

Well....
1. I'm 14.
2. I'd be to lazy to do it anyway.
3. Does one little vote really matter?
4. I just don't care.
5. It doesn't affect me or my family.

Sorry if that's selfish sounding but it's the truth for me.

smotpoker86 : I was trying to avoid the "stfu" response but yeah. There is still the other point of my statement that you are overlooking... the part where I said "If you claim that you do not care"

Clearly, you, smotpoker, care. If you actually care, then you are probably doing something. But if a person claims over and over and over again that they do not care about politics or voting, or whatever and then they turn around and jump into a debate over it then that is really hypocritical. Either quit saying you don't care, or prove it by actually acting like someone that doesn't care.

Choko453 : It totally effects you AND your family.

Elara : I think we can safely end our discussion now as we have both got our points across numerous times and anything further would just be beating a dead horse. I would just like to point out one thing.

You claimed "you are overlooking... the part where I said "If you claim that you do not care" " but the closest you said to that was "why are you even in this forum if you don't care enough to vote" and "Not voting shows that you don't care".

I don't think I overlooked what you said, but it is possible that I misinterpreted it , or maybe you just didn't type what you meant to say.  But again, we can stop this debate here, as there is not much else than can be said in my opinion.

To end this conversation on a friendlier note, I would like to say that I agree with the second half of your last reply. People that truly don't care about politics shouldn't discuss politics as they most likely have a very uneducated view of it. I mean if they don't follow politics they probably don't know what they are talking about.

I would also like to think we agree on the fact that people should care about politics. Like you said to Choko, "It totally effects you AND your family.".
The truth is, some countries politics affect other countries and people from around the world. I think this is especially true in regards to American politics. ie. Wars and Foreign Affairs in general.

smotpoker86 : My first reply to you said it specifically in those words. The first post was not as clear, though you did cut off that first sentence before the end. I agree though, we have hit a point of zero inertia. That second part is really what I was getting at in the first post I made, and you got it exactly. People just spout things without ever bothering to look into the facts, and it is just a bad idea. I really wish that more people cared, because it matters so much.

Had to highlight the text you have in black, but yeah totally agree. We live in a global community now where actions of a neighboring country can have repercussions on us, be they trade, war, or other legislation. We might not be able to actively shape the legislature there, but we can let our governments know that we like or do not like it so that they can potentially do something about it via diplomacy, trade restrictions, etc.

I hope I don't when I get my own place because I just don't like politics.  If I'm forced to, then I will, but if I had a choice, I wouldn't.  I know, I'm picky.

I don't vote cause i'm not old enough yet
But i don't think i will when i'm old enough
I don't care much for politics at all.

not old enough XD i probably wouldn't vote anyway's :/