• STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    proof that old fuckers shouldn’t be allowed in politics due to a literally dysfunctioning brain

    EDIT: to say ‘ageism is bigotry’ is a gross oversimplification. I’m not prejudiced against people above a certain age, I’m against the idea of allowing individuals with dementia or other degenerative conditions having political control over other people while literally having impeded brain functioning and judgement.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve had some relatives reach a very old age and this kind of thing is just part of the territory.

      However my aged relatives were not in positions of great power. Neither should this man be.

    • FoxBJK@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Feinstein and now McConnell. It shouldn’t be necessary but it’s now bipartisan proof that maybe we should force people of a certain age into retirement.

      I’ll happily admit to being ageist. I don’t care. Once you hit the mid 70s (arguably earlier) you should be ordered to go the fuck home by Congress.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        if it’s ageist to say that people can be too old to be in government, then it’s definitely ageist to say they can be too young, too.

        Imagine having a toddler command the nuclear football. (oh wait. we already had that.)

        • Drusas@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately, ageism in the US is only illegal against older adults. I really struggled with this when I was overseeing young volunteers, one of whom was being treated like crap just because he was young by the older people he was volunteering for. Totally legal for them to outright speak of his age as making him useless (and he was a good worker! and kind!). I was so angry that I couldn’t do much of anything to help him.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think it should necessarily be a hard age cap (which is illegal in the US, anyway), but I do think all politicians and judges should have to be able to pass cognitive function tests annually with absolutely no concerns raised by them. I’d require it probably as low as age 50 or 55, because dementia can come early.

        And they should not be allowed to choose their own doctors for these exams. They should all see the same handful of doctors, randomly assigned each year, so as to reduce bias.

    • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The really annoying part is that I’ve seen people on the right already telling people to respect his health issues. Except when Biden stumbles over one word he should be removed from power and hospitalized for life. They don’t even pretend with the hypocrisy anymore

    • solstice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I worked in congress in 2002 after I graduated. The congressman I worked for was old to me then. I saw him on tv the other day and the guy looked one foot in the grave. I hadn’t thought about him in years and then I saw him and I’m like dude wtf why are you still working?! It’s shocking.

    • kool_newt@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      TBH, I’m ok with ageism, we already do it. It’s clear a 6 year old can’t run the country, it should be just as clear a 76 year old can’t either for the same reasons, mental development stage.

        • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          No. Bigotry is when you assign a presumption to a group based on a completely unrelated parameter associated with that group. It would not be bigotry to limit the age of those serving in congress. It is bigotry to say that every old person’s brain doesn’t work.

          “proof that old fuckers shouldn’t be allowed in politics due to a literally dysfunctioning brain”