I teach at a public high school for “profoundly gifted” kids, and work pretty much exclusively with 16+ students. They’re all very smart, and range from libs to somewhat better than normal libs (we had one open ML, but he graduated a few years ago). They all think Trump is a fucking dumbass. As with every election, a big crop of our seniors is going to be eligible to vote for the first time this year.
For the first time in the decade or so that I’ve worked here, pretty much every single one of them has said they don’t intend to vote. They hate Biden almost as much as Trump, either because they condemn the genocide in Israel or just because they (correctly) believe that he has done nothing to actually benefit them. This is a population of kids who are much more politically engaged than your average teenager, and vote turnout in previous years has been high. I was actually very surprised at how many of them expressed contempt for the whole process this year, and indicated that they were totally uninterested in supporting Biden (and of course would not support Trump). I’m guessing this is part of a big trend that we’re going to see this year, and I’m preparing myself for libs blaming young people–for whom Biden has done little but make their future demonstrably worse–for Democrats’ loss.
I’m trying to convince all of them to vote anyway, just for some third party that speaks to them. Yesterday, we talked about PSL, Cornel West, the Greens, and Afroman for a bit. It would be incredibly funny to see young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart. I’ll keep working on it.
No real point here, just 
can you post this in /r/teachers or something? it would be pretty funny
Oh there’s an idea
The post would be deleted and/or he would be banned almost immediately.
Would still be hilarious though
Well you have to tailor it a bit
Say you told the kids about voting and they all laughed
young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart.
that’s exactly when the democrats will start supporting the republican initiative to raise the voting age
Not unreasonable to believe they’ll limit voting to landowners at some point
I don’t know history but wasn’t that a thing way back when
That was how it was when the country was founded. The founders believed that only people who owned land had a “stake” in the country, whereas I suppose the 90% of people who didn’t were just cattle to be herded.
Oh shit I just realized. “Stakeholder capitalism” is supposed to be about getting the people affected by pollution making decisions about polluting corporations, but they’re going to turn it into this.
I can totally see voting being framed as “privilege” of some kind in the future
Especially as corporations continue to buy up houses
We’re already there. Felons lose their “right” to vote just like they lose their “right” to not be enslaved. Another way the US criminal justice system obfuscates the fact that this piece of shit country is still the same piece of shit country it was 200 years ago.
In many local Australian elections, capitalists are literally given extra votes.
What the hell?
I don’t think they would ever want to ever or restrict “democracy”. The pageantry of voting and politicians having dramatic struggles within a ridiculously limited band of accepted reactionary opinion is doing wonders for consent manufacture. It creates an illusion of choice and secures a buy-in to the regime from the people. It also diffuses discontent into harmless electoralism rather than other, more fruitful methods of political action. It even gives them one more thing to add to the list of reasons why the aryan master race of the garden are superior to the savages of the jungle. And it’s not like it’s actually causing any real harm to the people who matter whether people vote for the blue or the red clown.
Only white landowning men could vote, yes. Meanwhile a century before then, only nobles could vote in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ironically, there were so many nobles that the percent of the population that could vote was about the same lmao
You’re right. Anything to avoid having to actually try to build a better world.
They could just go back to the old way and say you can only vote if you own land. Gen Z would never vote again
That’s kind of how it works de facto even if not de jure. The middle class that can afford home ownership are the ones most active in politics and driving the machinery. That’s why American politics are split between petty bourgeois red team and professional/managerial strata blue team and their cultural neuroses. Shoutout to the 2016 film Catfight with Sandra Oh for capturing that dynamic. Just two terrible people kicking the shit out of each other and making all of our lives worse for it
I’ve heard that dichotomy before, but I think that’s just where the aesthetics of politics end up being split: Between petty bourgeois reactionaries and managerial libs. I think the reality is closer to domestic/industrial capitalists versus financial capitalists, and both of those have representative middle class avatars.
Pelosi: “We’re tired of winning and we honestly just don’t feel like doing stuff. Therefore, we will raise the voting age as well to help give republicans a chance…and get me back to brunch!”
This may be a bad idea but maybe you could talk about Vermin Supreme and use that as an opportunity to explore the role of protest (& protest vote) and the limits of it, and things like critically analysing his platform.
You’d be able to do a cost breakdown of his “a pony for every American” policy and discuss what it’s satirising both from a historical perspective and a contemporary perspective as well as looking at what sort of shifts in the budget or what sort of tax policy would need to exist to make this a reality. You could also talk about it from the perspective of economic implications as a sort of Equine New Deal angle too.
I think it would be fun but it would still teach a lot of serious lessons. If the students walk away realising that it’s entirely within the realms of financial practicality to provide a pony for every American then you don’t need to tell them that universal healthcare is also just as much of a possibility and you won’t need to try to make a case for why presidential candidates claim that certain things are a financial impossibility.
If a pony for every American is completely possible then when someone tells that student “It isn’t possible to provide housing for all the homeless people”, they’re just going to laugh in their faces because if they know that pony is possible then a home is even easier and more practical.
This is a fabulous idea. It would fit the radical politics class to a T. I’ll add it to the schedule. Thanks!
Thank God you don’t teach at at regular-ass public school.
I’ve been doing substitute teaching and good God every last little shit is a goddamn nazi.
Thank God you don’t teach at at regular-ass public school.
I’ve been doing substitute teaching and good God every last little shit is a goddamn nazi.
Amen to that. Thank you for your service, comrade. I’m sure it’s incredibly hard, but you’re making a difference even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
Looks like Dems will have to choose a more electable candidate
Damn lucky you! I work with kids at a decent but small public school sometimes and I’ve not gotten too political yet, but all I’ve heard is one kid being like “guys you gotta VOOT” (voting for anyone besides biden has not been mentioned, its implied)
I should get more political tbh, just to try and keep minds and eyes open if nothing else, but we’re always busy so there isn’t toooons of idle chat time
I do think I’d get fired if I wore a keffiyah but might fuck around and do it anyhow, I’m wearing a scarf already
I teach (among other things) a class on radical political movements, another one on climate science, and most of them know I’m a communist. I still boggle at how much the school lets me get away with.
That’s cool as fuck
I just run an after school program that’s decidedly not political or philosophical in topic but its a very high density of queer and neurodivergent kids involved recently which has been great
After school programs are essential services in today’s society, especially for poor and marginalized groups. Thank you for your service.
Thank you! I don’t know if it’s all that but I try to be welcoming. I mainly do it because it changed my life back when I was in school, its how I met a bunch of lifelong friends and developed a lot of great hobbies/skills. It’s been so hard to get kids involved since covid, but that’s partly because other volunteers to help run it have been hard to come by
They’d never let the teachers get away with that in Florida. Thank you for what you do.
Yeah I definitely know I’m in a super privileged position to be able to do this stuff. The school I’m at is weirdly situated since it’s technically part of a university, and my background also helps me get away with even more. I was a “real academic” who left a very prestigious university to come teach high school here, and I think they give me a somewhat longer leash because of how good I look on paper. Also we just have a fabulous administration who always has our back. It’s a really great job (even pays well). Trying to use that privilege to do some good.
Because they’re gonna take up arms?
Whether they like it or not, probably!
reporting you to the FEC for trying to get 16 year olds to vote. it is ILLEGAL
Have them all vote, but only to write in you for local office.
It is the only funny outcome. You could end up ironically on city council
I 🫡 you but West just lamented Navalny’s death yesterday 😬
I mean yeah, he’s certainly not ideal. He’d be quite a bit better of a choice than the big two, though, and him getting a non-trivial vote percentage would lead to such incredible
from the Dems
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Yup, that’s been the strategy. They know me well enough to know I wasn’t going to shame them about it, but I think they were pleasantly surprised at how many interesting alternatives there are.
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Are they just abstaining from voting for president, or are they abstaining from everything on the ballot?
For most of them it was just President. They’ve seen how much local shit (like the school board) can matter. We’re in a very purple area that could swing fash pretty easily.
I got elected to some local positions in a purple area and my experience has been that local democrats are just as insane as national ones. You should try to invite some into your classroom and watch the fireworks (although they almost certainly won’t come because they are terrified of being embarrassed by people who get their news from places other than MSNBC). Those supposedly pro-trans members of the school board are still voting to dump shitloads of money on the Nazi police.
I live in an area where you’re either a white reactionary or a Latine who stays away from American politics, or doesn’t feel any involvement in it. No one wants to vote. The reactionaries I know all think it’s rigged and won’t matter, or they’ve concocted wild conspiracies about voter registration involving mandatory covid vaccination. They’re probably going to vote for Trump anyway, but none of them seem happy about it. The vibe is weird.
If weed is on the ballot you have to push them to
We already have recreational weed here, thankfully.
