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Comment by javajosh | Hacker News Reader

Look, if 10-year-olds think it's wrong for them to be allowed to work at low-paid and dangerous jobs, then they should have voted for someone else.

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And worker harder at school, those bootstrap are not gonna pull themselves

Exactly! They're being given the OPORTUNITY to work in dangerous low-paid jobs.

Can't they just put together a spreadsheet of their assets, personal investment opportunities, and future income to decide how to optimize their legacy and retirement?

You misspelled "OPOORTUNITY"

And should have pooled their allowances to purchase the house belonging to a SC justice’s mother. If you can’t even do that, do you really deserve a childhood?

“Kids don’t vote” - Thomas Carcetti, “The Wire”

I don't know if this is sarcastic or not.

I'd call it satire more than sarcasm, my primary target is the kind of argument that blames the victim. In this case, children cannot vote and therefore it is the adults' job to protect them. By allowing them to work these jobs, adult lawmakers are exploiting people who don't even get a say. It's self-evidently abhorrent. If you disagree, how do you even begin the conversation? It's like arguing with someone who thinks a plate of human shit is delicious - it's such an alien and disgusting position that it's almost impossible to engage with, except, perhaps, with satirical contempt. Which is what I did.

I'm not sure either. It's really hard to tell

It's a one-sentence comment that undermines itself no fewer than four times; of course it's sarcastic. The only question is whether the two of you are being sarcastic.

It would be sarcastic if people didn’t believe things like that. If you’re in a bad situation, that’s your fault and not my problem. Kids with bad parents should have stood up for themselves.

It leads to the implication that the kids should have picked better parents.

I wish I was joking.

There are clearly people who believe it's the parents fault, and not our responsibility (especially through government) to fix it. There may be people who believe it's the child's fault for... being born to those parents? Not earning full scholarships at 10? I am skeptical that there are many of those people.

To a first approximation, there is no one who believes it's a 10yo's fault for not voting for different politicians.

I have problems understanding online sarcasm all the time, and people do believe some ridiculous stuff, but no one is under the impression that 10 year olds have the right to vote.

A victim of Poe’s Law.

I was assuming the one above me was sarcastic so I did a +1 to make it more obvious. Seems that didn't achieve the intended effect

Haha, sorry to dampen the joke then, I wasn't sure.

Do you think kids can vote?

I was assuming the one above me was sarcastic so I did a +1 to make it more obvious. Seems that didn't achieve the intended effect

It's probably sarcastic.

Probably.

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