I don't fail to see the dilemma here.
But I do not believe it is impossible to develop an objective standard test that confirms that a member of society is sufficiently informed to be entrusted with a vote. I recognize that such a system would not be a purely democratic system but I am happy to debate the relative merits of "more democracy" with anyone.
Recently I was again in my cups at the local pub and a RW zealot with whom I am familiar sat down beside me. Despite having an MSEE, he is a strong Trump supporter. So, mere education is not a solution. A lot of what he believes about the world is simply wrong and in my estimation has a great deal to do with the fact that he has never been abroad, nor traveled much outside of his home state. I've always found it stunning that so many Americans who have spent their entire lives within the four or five counties surrounding the county of their birth have established immutable opinions on the rest of the world. Whatever voting right test was designed in my Utopian Socialist Democratic States of America of the future, it would surely be a requirement that the candidate voter possessed a passport which had been stamped by no less than two different nations outside the Western Hemisphere in the previous two years.
For all of my adult life it has always grated upon my soul to hear someone say, "Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion." I, unfailingly, become unhinged when hearing that and demand, "No! Everyone is entitled to their own well reasoned opinion and some are better reasoned than others." I'll no doubt repeat myself here, but the fundamental problem in the US is that most of its inhabitants cannot follow a modus ponens argument.
Recently I was again in my cups at the local pub and a RW zealot with whom I am familiar sat down beside me. Despite having an MSEE, he is a strong Trump supporter. So, mere education is not a solution. A lot of what he believes about the world is simply wrong and in my estimation has a great deal to do with the fact that he has never been abroad, nor traveled much outside of his home state. I've always found it stunning that so many Americans who have spent their entire lives within the four or five counties surrounding the county of their birth have established immutable opinions on the rest of the world. Whatever voting right test was designed in my Utopian Socialist Democratic States of America of the future, it would surely be a requirement that the candidate voter possessed a passport which had been stamped by no less than two different nations outside the Western Hemisphere in the previous two years.
For all of my adult life it has always grated upon my soul to hear someone say, "Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion." I, unfailingly, become unhinged when hearing that and demand, "No! Everyone is entitled to their own well reasoned opinion and some are better reasoned than others." I'll no doubt repeat myself here, but the fundamental problem in the US is that most of its inhabitants cannot follow a modus ponens argument.
