I'm Sick Of This Generational Warfare Crap
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaqhQfj3fyE]
Disclaimer: This does not apply to anyone here, but is rather a general observation on how younger generations are viewed on and offline. If I offend anyone here I apologize in advance, but frankly this kind of generational bullshit needs to be called out for what it is.
Seriously. People really do need to shut the fuck up about how lazy the younger generations are (supposedly). After all, younger folks have always been the cool thing to bash since....well, forever.
We have older people doing everything they can to destroy science education at the behest of a dying oil industry under the giuse of preserving deeply held personal beliefs, destroying jobs and what's left of organized labor for the sake of corporate profits and shareholder dividends, destroying health and medicine for profit, and they're blaming their kids, grandkids and great grandkids because there's literally nothing left for the porkies to plunder? Fuck that with a sharp stick.
Those older folks who insist on destroying the planet as their retirement plan don't even realize how fuckin' good they had it. We WISH we could have worked our way through college, or gotten a decent job right out of high school or worked our way up through a company. But we don't have any of that.
Instead, many of us younger folks have to work 2 or three fast food jobs in addition to acting as a taxi through Uber or Lyft just to pay insanely high rent for a run-down apartment even after we got the education we were all told to get in order to get a 'good' job that was sent overseas, filled by workers with H-1B Visas or automated before we even graduated. Or worse, some are forced into imperial service by way of economic draft, i.e. kill some brown people for a few years and get a free education and a guaranteed contractor job if you're lucky.
And what about younger folks with disabilities like myself who can't get a drivers' license? Most places won't even interview you unless you can drive, even if you meet most requirements and qualifications. Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid? Forget about it. For me, at least, they're utterly inaccessible which is why I gave up applying for them.
So even if us younger folks are lazy, how can anyone blame us for that? Laziness is an American virtue because we're always looking for the next get rich quick scheme. Our economy is built around that shit from the top down. Note how I didn't say the next big idea, because real transformative ideas are often swept under the rug for the same reasons I mentioned above. So if we are lazy, it's because we learned from the best. No whining from some reality TV star pretending to do 'dirty' jobs or youtube/facebook/twitter shitposter about how we supposedly hate hard work can change that fact.
See ya around,
Aspie
Comments
Look over there!
This generational warfare is just a diversionary tactic to shift the blame away from the greedy rich who are really to blame.
Stay focused on them.
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
Blame the Children. It Is ALL Their Fault.
WTF happened to our people?
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
The PTB and their sycophants do seem
to be happily ratcheting up the divisive rhetoric and language, using the same old tired arguments that still cause fights because people don't realize that they're being trolled by a system that laughs as they struggle in vain.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_RvsXu5Y0]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Some of that is natural
people of different ages have different concerns, and that manifests in voting patterns, but the "young people are scum" shit has to stop.
On to Biden since 1973
Spme of it is inevitable
and has been going on for a long, long time. Some Classic Greek manuscripts include rants about how the kids are going to rack and ruin, have no respect for their elders, etc - could have been written yesterday by some angry old codger.
But some of it is Divide and Conquer applied to generations.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I worked on a project once, looking at translations
…of ancient Chinese philosophical texts. On that day, the writings of students of Confucius were being studied. In one paper about filial piety, an annoyed Confucius was said to remark:
"This new music must be stopped. It is ruining the younger generation!"
That was about 2500 years ago.
I'm getting old.
I don't know how many more elections I'll be around for. The two duopoly parties are mostly boomers. The kids have got to step up. They will inherit the mess we've left. They've got to start voting in large numbers. Here's something else to think about: Lots of boomers think they're going to have a comfortable retirement when they sell their houses for big money. Who's going to buy those houses, who can afford them ? Millennials don't make enough and they're up to their asses in student debt. What to do ? I hope they organize. I hope they figure out a way to make themselves a better future because, believe me, the television-addled old boomers aren't going to do it.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I'm ready for the
barcalounger. If not the "retirement home." It is time for the "kids" to step up. After all, it is their future they fight for, not ours.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@AzazelloThe kids have got to step
I have significant disagreements with the man, but "the kids" tried and voted for Sanders. Democrats often like to talk about how their base is black women, which is I think roughly 8% of the population. No wonder they lose so much. Point is that the older, boomer crowd (including women and especially older black women in the South) voted for Clinton. There was a generational divide and it seems the older generations just couldn't stop fucking with the young.
As a millennial, I saw friends of mine who never had a lick of interest in politics be inspired by him. Once he "lost", they lost interest as well.
Stepping up
What you're describing here is not stepping up. It's giving something one try, and when it doesn't turn out the way they want, giving up.
"Stepping up" implies commitment for the long haul. Moving forward, step by step toward your goal, instead of waiting for permission to proceed.
"We're taking, not asking."
That's stepping up.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
IOW, they shoulda turned Philly 2016 into Chicago 1968 ?
After Bernie was cheated out of the nomination, they didn’t follow through on resisting Hillary and the Democratic Party establishment’s authoritarianism and fraud?
Not necessarily
I vividly remember the Chicago cops cracking the heads of the anti-war protestors during the 1968 Dem convention, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend taking that approach. I suspect the DNC under Clinton remembered it too, since they had the Wells Fargo Center in Philly secured more tightly than Fort Knox. If anything, TPTB are much more ruthless, and openly so, than 50 years ago.
I also think the American public has gotten a lot more jaded since 1968. What they found disturbing and shocking back then doesn't seem to have the same effect now. Maybe because there's just so darned much that's shocking. It's like the American psyche has developed a major case of PTSD which has made it difficult for us (collective "us") to perceive clearly and respond effectively. In this context, to me, "woke" has to do with moving out of the PTSD-induced coma.
(It would make sense that there would be differences in how the PTSD affects each generation, since their formative experiences are different.)
At any rate, I don't have the magic answers about how the revolution should proceed, but I think the initial level where it has to happen is in the consciousness of the American people, and it seems like this is already starting. A shift of some sort is taking place, and as we can see, it is incredibly messy and chaotic.
I guess the word I'm going for is "organic". So you don't just have a bunch of young folks going out and getting their heads cracked, which by itself would accomplish nothing. In fact, the powers that be would no doubt use it for their own benefit.
But with the American consciousness changing, the locus of power shifts, and you get a kind of force multiplier behind the efforts of individuals. This might sound kind of nebulous and woo-woo ("consciousness"?), but in fact, if you look back through history, this is how revolutions take place.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
@Centaurea
Applauds loudly, startling the neighbours.
Fighting a global pathological corporate/billionaire/military power structure poisoning and draining Americans, America and the world literally to death cannot beaten in one effort, or by one man, or by one group. But so many won't/can't even boycott the most criminal corporations in whatever way they can, with their mite...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
We know. Oh boy do we know.
We know what they've been doing for a long time. Occupy was maybe the first proof of that. We just don't know how to fight back effectively--look what happened to Occupy and DAPL. How do we fight against an increasingly militarized police force??
If milennials aren't voting it's because we know it doesn't fucking work. Even if the 'good guys' win they roll over and let the republicans run roughshod over us anyway.
I saw a Tumblr thread that gave me new hope the other day though; I don't remember what the OP was about, but in the comments people are getting it: It's not socialism or communism in itself that's the problem, the problem is corrupt government.
I suspect that one of the things we'll be seeing more of is maybe an entire underground economy.
This shit is bananas.
Right on, Dani
11 years ago we put the democrats back in power to stop what the Bush administration and republicans were doing. We all remember what Pelosi said about impeachment and her powder.
After the election she said that the DP doesn't need to change anything even though they had lost both houses of congress and lost 1,000 seats during Obama's tenure. Nope. Don't change a damn thing since what they've been doing was working so well for them.
Some delusional democrats are thinking that if enough of them vote for democrats, when they get control of congress again that they will impeach Trump and roll back what the republicans have done. Sadly, the democrats already had their chance to impeach him, but Pelosi again is saying that the time isn't right for it.
Remember the good ole days when the militias were going to take on the government with their assault rifles and other military equipment? How would they stand up against the military weapons that the police have at their disposal?
The OWS, BLM and DAPL protests were practice for in case we the people decide that we've had quite enough of what they have been doing to us.
I'm thinking that the PTB have given the police their permission to kill as many unarmed people as they want to see how we would respond to it. We have responded poorly. Most of the populace has only yawned and because the people that they are killing are crooks and they should have just done what they were told to do. Like that man in the hallway who was unarmed and on his knees screaming at the cop to not kill him. He did what the cop told him to do, but the cop shot him anyway. Then some of the people on the jury let him get away with cold blooded murder because "he said he was afraid for his life." He got more permission to kill anyone else who scares him.
Oh yeah, they will be ready for us if we ever decide that our water is getting too warm. Besides, haven't we shown them that we have no problem with them taking our civil liberties away from us?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
@snoopydawg
And this - as well as the barriers to '3rd parties' - is why both inside and outside '3rd party' tactics must be tried, and best efforts made to replace corrupt CorpaDems with nice, sane progs.
That's the point, as far as I can see, of Bernie's apparent direction and efforts - not to 'pressure' the hopelessly corrupt, but to try to use the system, which cannot otherwise be changed, to replace corruption with those willing to fight for The People and for planetary survival.
If anyone can think of anything better than working toward replacing political-corporate-patsy corruption within an existing party/parties, while also working on a viable new Party of the people which might take far too long to build to a point where it might climb over the current and potentially added arbitrary restrictions designed to quell such efforts at escaping the Two-Party Trade-Off Trap - and without a fair voting system or even a free and fair election - please speak up now, because all of our lives really do depend upon a shift to democracy in the US.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Oh god yes
When OWS was hitting the headlines I was railing "where are the leaders? and the demands...these kids don't know what they're doing!". Seeing the hopped up response of the militarized post 9/11 "police force", and the brutal provocations they carried out, I think it was one of the wisest moves I've seen. The direct law enforcement line to Obama, and his willingness to preserve the status quo for Wall St. kinda writ large the Neo Libs were in charge, and willing to use massive show of, (including deadly)force. Kent State wasn't a tragedy, it was a blueprint.
Maybe I have missed something
but I cannot recall reading anything here at C99 that has attacked the younger generation. In fact, I have posted several comments on this issue. These two comments sum it up for me.
I think we should be very careful about stereotyping and that goes in all directions. If you read my two comments from some time ago, I hope you will see that this type of generational mud slinging does nothing to further our real purpose. We must band together to fight the oligarchy which sees all us as dispensable. This is going to be a very tough battle and we need to be united if we are to survive.
First about my own generation, the Baby Boomers.
And this comment about millennials.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I'm actually surprised to
find the under 40 crowd at rallies, protests. True, most of us that turn out are over 40, but there are more under 40s showing up these days! Is great to see.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Excellent comment, as usual gg
I wonder why many tend to go farther right, as they age? I, like you, have moved left. Am still moving, too.
I am a mom of two millenials; and, they (their friends included) have what appears to be a much healthier way of dealing with things like interacting with each other regarding race, LGBTQ, immigration, religion, science, than my X generation. They also don't watch television, despite being raised with it. My daughter refused to vote because of Her, and my son was barely too young (18th birthday came later in 2016), but probably would have, despite asking me if I'd heard of Bernie, when I barely had.
They're our future. I'm ashamed of what we're leaving them, but I'm hopeful in their abilities to make a difference, even if it's just locally.
We've already been divided
Boomers were the first to be recognized as a targeted advertising target. Every "cohort" has been targeted since.The whole thing is stupid, but obviously effective. It's like the hippies hated the returning soldiers from Nam. Where the fuck did the military think "their" soldiers came from? A state run birthing facility? They were our sons, our brothers, our fathers and uncles, grand kids, cousins...they were family. Same with the millennial's, or any "cohort" that the media invents. And politically, the media can play let's you and him fight, and make even more $. We sacrificed what we could to help our son through college, 'til it hurt. He worked hard, and is still struggling to find anything in his field. I try to encourage him, but then again I am not him. I know what it is to be scraping bottom. I got NAFTA'd and never really recovered. In no way can I fault him for what many in his generation is facing. If I blame myself it's for believing in democrats, and encouraging him to vote democratic. This inter-generational warfare is crap. They're our kids, they're family. I done trying to lead. It's time for me to follow.
Absolutely, Snode!
Our kids are the future, and your comment coincides with gulfgal's perfectly.
I'm sorry about your son's situation. My daughter just took a $15/hr office job after quitting a Buffalo Wild Wings waitress job she took after moving back with a bachelors degree.
They have it rougher than we did, and some of us had it rougher than our parents when it came to jobs and retirement. Back in the day, you could work at a place for 20 or 30 years, and comfortably retire. Now, it's very hard to actually keep a fulltime job, even if you're habitually early, and get performance bonuses and unsolicited written kudos from customers (been there, done that, very recently).
It is a political and economic fight.
Millennials are being attacked for their growing leftist politics as in supporting Sanders and their rejection of debt peonage. Hillary Clinton and her campaign understood the danger Millennials represented to her campaign, and began a generational smear.
Exactly, so concise, too n/t
Yes
That's got to be it. Millennials know what happened to them, and they know who was behind it.
This!!
This, indeed!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Oh WOW! Yes, this, indeed n/t
politics
Some here took offense at a post that I put up recently about this same subject. They accused me of being divisive, but, that's just how I see it.
However, I am very proud of the younger generations, they have a different mindset; I don't know if I will see the changes that they bring to the world because fundamental changes take time. Congratulations to them! Oxford Dictionary paid them tribute making their word of the year for 2017, "YOUTHQUAKE"
It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan
Information is accelerating.
Generations barely live on the same planet.
A while back I proposed that 60 should be the top voting age (and the top donor age). People should start voting at 14. We would live in a better world.
People got angry but the fact is, this would a better country and a better democracy with better citizens if it worked that way.
This was actually Thomas Jefferson's idea (the smartest guy in the room), but he didn't know how right he was. When the human lifespan doubled about a hundred years after his Presidency, it really screwed up the system and has led directly to the state we are in, owned by the corporations, condoned by stubborn and fearful calcified brains in high places. Jefferson knew the Constitution would fail without Generational Sovereignty. You can't make people respect dead men's laws. This leads to lawlessness. Each new generation must buy in to the laws again by ratifying them once more. You can't build debts based on your crazy-ass wars, and then walk away (or die), and dump that debt onto the next generation. National debts must be paid within your lifetime out of your excess wealth. That's what Estate Taxes are for. And trillion dollar deficits that come from whacko tax cuts must be paid in full in ten years by the voting-majority generations. Even our obsolete slave-owner's Constitution implies that.
Each new generation must be born into liberty, not into a lifetime of crushing bank slavery. Jefferson didn't know that Americans would be too stupid and cowardly to update their Constitution as the society evolved — althouh he feared they might be. Jefferson didn't know about the lifespan-doubling bombshell looming up ahead. But he did know the truth of this:
People under 50 vote for their hopes.
People over 50 vote for their fears.
By age 60, citizens have done enough good or damage with their votes. But, right now, the wealthy elder establishment is able to pay congress to make these shitty, unevolved laws rooted in their feeble fears and dying aspirations, and then they kick the bucket and stick the rest of us with them. And the rates of incarceration and ruined lives grow and grow.
it's an old song
Generation gap
Dick van Dyke, Ann Margret, Janet Leigh ... good lord, they all look so young there.
Seriously, remember, the phrase "generation gap" was specifically coined to describe the relationship between the Boomers and their parents.
Go back in history ad infinitum and you'll find the same thing, generation after generation. Maybe we're more aware of it now and feel it more acutely because of the Internet, which allows everyone across the planet to be in each others' faces (and minds) constantly in a way that's completely new for the human race.
In 1970, it was the Archie Bunkers of the world sitting in their living rooms, ranting at the TV. The only people who heard it were their "nearest and dearest." In 2017, it's total strangers from all demographic groups virtually shouting pejoratives at each other, for anyone and everyone to see.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Remember the melting pot? I heard that phrase
a lot growing up. Well, now it's happened. The younger generations are a melting pot. They are open minded and very tolerant towards other races, sexes, sexual orientation, religion (though a lot of them are atheists), etc. You see the mixed race couples everywhere. I'm much more left wing now. Part of it came from spending my whole working life in a Right-To-Serf (and abuse them) state. I have hope in the young generation. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.