: The amount of outright race-baiting and extra race-baiting in political ads over on FB is getting kinda startling.
Figures, though, what with all the Boomers over on there, especially the panicky faux-Christians alt-white one. Reading their comments on the ads demonstrates to me that perhaps cognitive ability and IQ tests should be brought back into use in re: voting.
Those MFs are irretrievably GD stupid, and I say that not lightly.
@thedisasterautist I was talking with my older sister about this yesterday. I can tell she doesn’t the changes that have occurred in media. We grew up with Walter Cronkite on the news. As rock solid as you could get. The changes since then are so many and so fast, it’s hard to get a grip on them before everything changes again! I think this is where many boomers are. It’s not that they want to be panicky, but it all moves so fast for them. The feeling that they can’t catch up scares them
@thedisasterautist
We were raised in a Chicago blue collar/blue politics family. We all seek to be knowledgeable voters. For her to do that is hard despite her desire to be up on the facts. So I think if media makes her head spin, it’s even harder for people who don’t want to work for the truth or who don’t understand how much more complicated it is to seek the truth. They’re older. They tire out easily. They don’t like things being complicated. Not an excuse but my explanation.
@allin: I totes get that. I noticed it in the 1990s, as early as '90 and '91. It shifted up into 2nd-gear by 1995, and then its acceleration became steadier. It took many Boomers fifteen years or so to "understand" Facebook, well behind the curve. It took a lot of them eight to ten years to "understand" computers enough to not be more scared of them than they were of angry stray pit bulls.
It's quite ironic and irksome that as a generation they often insisted they were the smartest people in...
Screw them, as a generation.
Screw Reagan, Mergers & Acquisitions, Neoliberalism, easy credit cards and consumer debt, endless deficit-spending to afford a lifestyle their kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren will pay for, and all.
Yes, I'm a pissed-off Gen-Xer who saw it coming when he was twenty and like many others who did, couldn't get anyone to listen because we "were too young" and such "to understand".
@thedisasterautist It’s unfortunate you feel as you do about an entire generation of people. I worked hard as a teen in many jobs including factory work and on dairy farms in the summer. I saw the people around me doing the same. As I said, we were blue collar people. So I never felt I was getting handouts. Nor didI feel I was somehow taking advantage of future generations. I felt an obligation to work hard and that’s what I did.
@thedisasterautist As a high school bio teacher of several generations before yours, then yours, and several generations afterwards, I would never felt comfortable painting generations with such a broad brush. I was privileged to have the children and then the grandchildren of some of my first students. It was my pleasure to learn and grow with each generation.
@thedisasterautist Of course, I respect your right to your opinions and will make sure I steer clear in the future.
@allin: I don't feel that way about an entire generation, which is why used words like "generally" and "often" and "tended [to]". Broad strokes are necessary when speaking of entire demographic populations, after which details are brought out in discussion.
"Several generations before" me and after? How old do you think I am? I'm 54. My eldests are 30. My paternal grandmother was born in 1918. She, my parents, me, and my sons are four generations and take up the entire 20th century.
@thedisasterautist Generations as noted by letters or phrases…. Z, X, alpha… whatever. Not actual generations. You referred to yourself as such and I assumed you’d understand that’s what I was talking about. I did teach kids in your generation, and some of their kids and grandkids.
@allin: As has often been said, to me and to many others across the general population, if you're the exception to a criticism that applies to others, then it doesn't apply to you.
I'm sorry if you took/take criticism of others in your generation personally as affronts, but it doesn't diminish any of the points made. I'm not the only person to make the observations either. Others who have include Boomers and not few of them. I've known and still know some who recognize the mistakes made...
@allin: ...by them as a generation, recognizing that they may or may not have contributed to the problems. Many were doing their best at the time and honestly, which is all one can do, and many were in it for the ride and for fun and profit. That changes not the effects on subsequent generations. I remember all of it well, having lived through it as well. 🤷♂️
@thedisasterautist You can’t really believe that one might read your actual words and then know your intention lay beyond your actual words. How would that be possible? For example:
“Now* they're all alarmed and pearl-clutching in the world they made? In short...
Screw them, as a generation.”
@thedisasterautist
Or this one:
“It's quite ironic and irksome that as a generation they often insisted they were the smartest people in the world.”
And
“laziness born of lives of relative ease in comparison to their parents and generations subsequent to them”
This one blows my mind. Boomers were lazy? Especially in comparison to subsequent generations?? Yikes!
Yes, you had a sprinkle of terms like generally, often, and tended to, but not in relation to many of your sharpest comments.
“Yes, I'm a pissed-off Gen-Xer who saw it coming when he was twenty and like many others who did, couldn't get anyone to listen because we "were too young" and such "to understand".”
So you has this knowledge. What did you do with it? If you did nothing besides bemoan how boomers destroyed the world, weren’t you then a part of the problem?
@thedisasterautist
PS. I remember it all well, having lived through it. 😉
@allin: ...the world. (I wish I was being facetious, but I'm not. Their parents were often intransigent based on tradition. The Boomers generally were intransigent because they were post-WW2, lived in relative comfort due to the 30-year economic boom, and they thought they saved the world from everything (Vietnam and racism, mainly). And they tended to think the economy would always keep rising. But here we are.
*Now* they're all alarmed and pearl-clutching in the world they made? In short...