To think that people with extreme political views shouldn’t be allowed to vote?

[EdgyEagle]

Far-left and far-right ideologies are tearing society apart. Should we limit the influence of extremists?

It's a perfectly legitimate question. How do you define "far" left or right. Who decides? One man's extreme is another man's moderate

Barring people from voting because you don't like the way they vote is facisim and I don't think we want that, or do you? In which case, you are the extremist

How do we balance far right and far left - are we excluding equal numbers from both sides or do you have an idea of how far right and left you can be before being disenfranchised in this dystopian fiction?

Absolutely not.

When an extreme position is banned it actually becomes more popular. Many people are drawn to something forbidden.

When there is freedom of speech and anyone can stand for any platform then it is obvious quite how unpopular these extremes are. It's a good thing for the distasteful extremes to be fully visible as what they are - frothing-at-the-mouth loons. I don't want them driven underground into secret meetings where their lies and exaggerations can be spread unchallenged. I want them out in the open where their ignorance can be ridiculed and their disingenuous twisting of facts exposed.

Well I don’t have a problem with inheritance tax; I’d love us to live in a country where everyone was warm and fed, and has access to decent healthcare; and my heart breaks at the plight of those poor Palestinian children. That would make me ‘far left’ in the eyes of many people.

Not necessary. They generally cancel each other out.

So everyone has to declare in advance how they're voting, to see if they are allowed a vote?

How do you suggest that's done?

Wanting to ban some people from voting is a pretty bloody extreme political view, in my opinion.

Well, you can come off it now. It is going to be YABU, very much so.
You cannot ban anyone from voting, of ban any political ideology or party just because you do not deem them within a given spectrum.
Only if they are pushing for illegal actions, then they will go to jail.

Intolerance vill not be tolerated.

I think anyone who votes labour or conservative is extremely unhinged. And therefore shouldn't be allowed to vote

You are suggesting that the only people allowed to vote should be those without any political views?

And who else shouldn't be allowed to vote? People with certain skin colour? People from a certain religion? People with a certain heritage? Sounds very Germany in the 1930s.

Women? For some reason we appear in most lists....

I think that would be an extreme view - your concern is other people's extreme views but curbing freedoms to vote is very extreme in my opinion.
When you want to dictate this sort of thing it comes across very "curtain twitching" behaviour.
As long as people are law abiding they should vote whatever their views, freedoms are hard to win back once lost and humans invariably have such different standards on what is far left and what is far right.
I would say I'm in the middle ground but believing in biological sex is considered far right by some so no this would be a terrible idea.

Sounds like a good start.....😂

Quid custodet ipsos custodes, buddy. Just think about it for five seconds. How did you think "voting" worked under Stalin?

So a world where only your self-evidently correct opinion prevails.

No, the solution to extremism is better centrism.

How very Orwellian. No freethink allowed.

Of course not. Everyone is entitled to their vote.

If anything, I'd say the people who 'don't deserve' their vote are the 'a-political' types who have literally never thought or read enough about politics to have an informed opinion and vote based on their parents/random selection/other spurious reason. At least extremist have an opinion!

But of course even those people do and should have the right to vote.

If people are denied a political voice they turn to other methods to get heard, particularly if they have extreme views. It would encourage violent protest etc.
I also agree that the definition of "extreme" is subjective.

Removing the right to vote from people you disagree with politically is a pretty extreme political view.

How is this going to work? Who decides what counts as extreme, and how do they find out everyone's political views?

Your view is extreme.

Does your heart break for the Israeli children who were murdered in the attacks, including those who are still being held hostage?

I genuinely don’t know what ‘extremist’ means in the context you’re discussing. To my mind, voting for reform, denying climate change, being in favour of the death penalty and being anti-abortion are all extremist views, but denying people who hold them the right to vote would hardly be uncontroversial. I expect there are people who would consider me to hold extreme views on the basis that I believe in entirely decriminalising abortion at any stage of pregnancy, don’t believe in custodial sentences for the overwhelming majority of crimes and think we should defund the police.

Who gets to decide what extremism is? You can’t just make a vague statement like ‘oh we all know what extremism is’ and expect it to stand. It’s an ever-evolving concept created by a country’s shifting political perspectives, not a fixed point you can use to exclude groups of people from the process of creating those perspectives.

One way of limiting the effects of extremism is to have compulsory voting as they do in Australia.

Would that work for you, @EdgyEagle ?