I think that folks aren't seriously thinking about the implications of young adults who know nothing other than a country which has normalized MAGA politics, God help us all.
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This is a problem with our education system. How many of you learned about Black Wall Street (1921), Mexican Repatriation (1929), or Operation Wetback (1954)? This is the time peirod that the writers of Project 2025 and MAGA want to return to and make America great again.
Who said anything about the economy. We can have that discussion, if you would like, but this thread was about education, or lack thereof. “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
One could make a solid case that MAGA was brought to you by people who have no memory of life before Ronald Reagan, and maybe that's part of your answer.
“Tricksy” Belsen - I see what you did there. Those were my fav books as a kid. I grew up in the Midwest and my tornado emergency plan was (1) grab the cat, (2) throw the Trixie Belden books in the grocery bag hidden for this purpose and take them, (3) head to the basement.
🤯 So excited to have found not one, but TWO Trixie Belden fans here! I had the entire series. My mom would always set aside the newest book as a bribe/reward when needed. 😁
This is why I think raising children, esp boys, in the age of tr*mp, is particularly difficult. Abnormality will seem normal. Good luck getting the toothpaste back in the tube, mom and dad. Unless, of course, you yourself don’t find it necessary to try. We are cooked.
Young boys were told bullying and bad behavior were unacceptable and yearn to be Trump or Nick Fuentes all telling at little girls “your body my choice”
I teach HS, and I have my own 2 teen boys born during the Obama years. They don’t remember ANYTHING before this fucking bullshit and it’s killing me. They don’t *really* understand how abnormal this situation is, no matter how we try to explain it.
Yes! This is a struggle for me too, with my daughter. Trump has been on the scene almost her entire life. They don’t have context and this shit is now normal to them. She doesn’t understand the searing anger I feel for trump and MAGA, and rage for what’s going on.
It also doesn't help when their teachers openly encourage it. My cousin was talking to me about how a lot of her teachers love talking about how they love Trump...
We were also a country at war for 20 years. Our govt has continued supporting highly visible foreign conflicts since. And for many of those young adults, it's been Dems in charge. So in their experience, Dems are the party of war, and somehow, DT has many people convinced the GOP is antiwar.
Frustrating to see people erase this all being a continuity going back to the Bush junta but what can I do? I had to grind my teeth as you all arbitrarily decided that history would now begin at 2016 and for what? To protect an Obama’s legacy built on fantasy? We’re decades deeper than people think
I mean I think for me at least having MAGA parents who I can TELL are brainwashed really made me go back and learn about what our country used to be, but yeah…I tried to convince a “my vote doesn’t matter” girl in my class to vote and it was like I was talking to a wall.
Even one of my friends was like “yeah I mean I can see why some people like Trump because of his economic policies” WHAT ECONOMIC POLICIES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? HE WASNT EVEN A GOOD BUSINESSMAN!!! Ugh. Don’t get me started on it. I’m disappointed in us, too. I just surround myself with people
who actually understand how bad this shit is and who are willing to do the research if they don’t understand rather than just shrug it off and say “it’s only 4 years”.
Thank you! My BS in Psych is from the '80s and set me on a lifelong path of learning about people - I've determined that they are frustrating as all hell. I don't know how we'll move forward from here, but if we stick together we'll get somewhere.
The internet raised these young adults, and their parents perhaps did not monitor them as well as they should. Look at the young men who went down the PUA route and the young women who went down the traditional wife route, too.
White men have voted for Republican presidents every time since 1968 and white women have done the same (except for once, 1996). They are the people raising these white MAGA young adults. America has a white supremacy problem.
It is white adults causing the problems in America.
Were they anything remotely resembling decent people who hadn't freaked the fuck out about social power changes because of Civil Rights/Feminism/LGBTQ+ equality, America would not be such a shitty place.
America has always been a shitty place. But we had a functional, though flawed, government. We passed LEGISLATION to counter the inherent bigotry. Please take a look at some of these cabinet picks. This isn’t a race issue anymore.
'Diverse' cabinet picks are just like all those White Women who have, for generations, continued to vote for the hyper-patriarchy-party that seeks to entirely second-class-citizen them.
Republican 'diversity' is purely white supremacy weaponization. It's the tip of the spear aimed at minorities.
Good part is that they'll witness amazingly brazen corruption and bribery, and will almost certainly radicalize a great many of them. Unless social media's powers of social control and persuasion have gotten so strong so as to prevent this...which I doubt.
I’m a high school teacher. It’s impossible for them to understand the before times. They don’t know anything but this. I’m stumped at how to help them understand how much different it is now from 20 years ago
Yea, teacher in TX and there’s so much we can’t talk about with the kids. They forced us to sign a pledge at the beginning of the year. We read Night in Oct. but couldn’t contrast present day genocide to the Holocaust. They’ve got a passage on their midterms that is about those moments of peace
between war in Pakistan. They have no idea what the poem is talking about. On one hand, they are happy and carefree, but on the other, they are not prepared for our current times.
Yeah I’ve used it and other materials. They just don’t grok it if you kwim.
E.g. 10 years ago I used to do a twitter diplomacy activity where they looked at how official gov accounts trolled each other (Israel/Iran eg). It was shocking to them then!
I had to stop doing it bc they just LOL now.
Not all of them think it’s all a joke but the internet has indeed cooked our brains. Nothing is real, nothing is true or matters. It’s all vibes.
(I am ready for winter break for real)
My college kid told me her professors have mentioned how different her class is from the classes coming through just four years ago. She could tell Harris wasn't going to win from the vibes. Boys especially. College is in a solidly Blue state and draws kids mainly from the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic.
Wait till they gut the post office and packages don’t arrive as fast. Or till they no longer have insurance thru mom and dad. Or can’t find birth control. Or can’t leave the house due to martial law. We’ve been sliding into this for decades, haven’t we?
Depressing, but on the positive side, stupid people are going to learn first-hand (because who wants to read/believe history) why all of those institutions, rules, laws, norms were put in place. Then they get the job of fighting and dying to re-establish them. fafo
I remember this — it was practically a phenomenon where kids were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Instead of the typical doctor, lawyer, whatever, a lot of them were saying “famous” — as if that’s something to aspire to. I truly believe reality tv did a TON of damage to this country.
This generation really is like their great grandparents generation of take it back don’t let them have more than you. Even tho the last 50yrs they still had the advantage and head start but somehow back to blaming everyone else and they are so detached and dumb. It’s all bad.
It’s so many levels and things that led us to this moment. From them having hate for 400yrs to them not taking advantage of going back to college while working full time back in 90’s. Black folks did. So now you have that older Gen X pissed off at life bringing up these kids and there grandkids etc
young people don’t watch MSM. democrats can, and should, invest massive amounts of money into social media content. That’s what republicans did and after 4 years of investment, it paid off.
you don’t just throw your hands up because the media environment is awful, you CHANGE the media environment
And I think this is what Harris tried to do but the problem is they only had like 3 months before the election to do it while the GOP started years ago.
exactly. long term investment would pay off for the Democratic Party. with TikTok gone; the social media landscape is about to reset. They can use this to their advantage
If people wanted dems to stop this they would have voted for harris. It is going to be bad. Really bad. Because 2/3rds of this country wanted it to be bad.
Everyone who didn’t vote or voted third party was okay with this happening. If they wanted something different then they would have gone to the polls. So yes, 2/3rds of the country wanted it
millennials came of age in an era of high unemployment and low inflation. that economic environment pushes people to support gov intervention in the economy.
Gen z has only experienced a low unemployment/high inflation economic environment. which can lead people to mistakenly support cuts
If your family is from a particular income bracket you might be happy that Mango Mussolini will be cutting Mom & Dad’s taxes. I’m not being pedantic but I’ve seen what passes for education these days-in the end product-and I’m not impressed. The ruling class needs an ignorant population.
We’ve blown through so many norms that I think we’re one generation away from adults saying “well OF COURSE the president requires us to buy everything from a list of specific companies, it’s always been like that! It’s the American Way!”
Totally true.
On the other hand (and end), seeing naive young people fighting to defend the worst enemies of their values, taking advantage of them (russians, islamists, muslim Brothers) is pretty sad too, and not Trump's fault.
I always have to remind myself that some people who are reaching college and voting age now were still kids or young teens during the last Trump admin, so they would have been blissfully unaware of how batshit those years were.
Hence why some even think life was “better” then, they were maybe 12!
Real trouble is that a few of them host wildly popular podcasts but they are absolutely ignorant when it comes to historical context of even 10 years ago with no incentive to learn. It’s crazy-making.
They were 12 and it was prepandemic. I really feel for the kids, who had a chunk of their most important and best years erased. That has to have an impact.
And meanwhile, the country is unwilling to do anything about the biggest problems they're facing. They're going to suffer through worse climate change because previous generations wouldn't stop driving SUVs. No gun control, so they get lockdown drills. We'd rather raise the retirement age than taxes
Right. These kids have also grown up in a world where they do shooter drills and climate change is happening. The adults have said to them that they don't matter.
That said, I know a few really great teens these days. It's a problem for certain but it's not every kid.
All so true. Well said. I’m lucky my kids haven’t succumbed to nihilism yet but I watch them teeter on the brink and it’s scary but understandable. I don’t even believe myself sometimes when I encourage them to stay engaged and keep fighting because it will matter. ☹️
After WWII, the US Army made German citizens walk through the death camps and clean them up. The US didn't want people to claim the Holocaust never happened. I never used to understand why "such cruelty" was necessary, but I do now.
Well we as a nation only spend 3 dollars on the education system, so there's that. Annnnnnnnd the southern states only use $0.37 on education altogether. We are making many, many, many non-critical thinking dummies.🤦🏾♀️🙃🤷🏾♀️
Yep, it's going to be not awesome.
Americans have yet to think seriously about the implications of the "war on terror". The country has been in a death spiral for at least 20 years with no conscious or organized effort to counteract it.
We really had no idea just how bad it would get once Gingrich started lying, cheating, and stealing to get his agenda over the line. He should have been pushed out with extreme prejudice back in 1995.
The Contract with America, or 'on', if you were one of the groups targeted by it.
Great book on that era: 'Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative', by David Brock. Highly recommended reading for foundations in how we got today's political climate.
Norms that the Clintons willfully gave up in a terrible beta attempt of "they go low we go high." Bill should have cross checked the GOP into the glass. Same with never going after Hastert for diddling pages. To quote:
Nothing like… anti intellectualism, anti established health, more and more guns, demonization of media and political movements, a diet of alpha male podcasts and crypto scamming.
These guys are gonna be violent, like 1980s style.
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White men have voted for Republican presidents every time since 1968 and white women have done the same (except for once, 1996). They are the people raising these white MAGA young adults. America has a white supremacy problem.
It is white adults causing the problems in America.
Were they anything remotely resembling decent people who hadn't freaked the fuck out about social power changes because of Civil Rights/Feminism/LGBTQ+ equality, America would not be such a shitty place.
Republican 'diversity' is purely white supremacy weaponization. It's the tip of the spear aimed at minorities.
It’s always a race issue, in this country that never dealt with the legacy of slavery.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/divided-states-of-america/
E.g. 10 years ago I used to do a twitter diplomacy activity where they looked at how official gov accounts trolled each other (Israel/Iran eg). It was shocking to them then!
I had to stop doing it bc they just LOL now.
(I am ready for winter break for real)
Especially when it comes to parenting and education.
To think that it was once a proud parents dream for their son or daughter to become the President of the USA!
Well I sure as hell don't want my child emulating that POS!
That was about 2010.
Who would have guessed the 2007-08 writers' strike would produce an IRL plot line to make the last season of 'Lost' seem plausible?
Lolwut
you don’t just throw your hands up because the media environment is awful, you CHANGE the media environment
yes they ABSOLUTELY are.
and proud of it.
2025 is going to be a rude awakening... the Global South/Majority has started bracing for impact.
What??? Are they aware…??
Gen z has only experienced a low unemployment/high inflation economic environment. which can lead people to mistakenly support cuts
On the other hand (and end), seeing naive young people fighting to defend the worst enemies of their values, taking advantage of them (russians, islamists, muslim Brothers) is pretty sad too, and not Trump's fault.
Hence why some even think life was “better” then, they were maybe 12!
That said, I know a few really great teens these days. It's a problem for certain but it's not every kid.
Especially in conjunction with the radicalization of young white men toward violent white supremacy in some circles, and violent misogyny in others.
Yep, it's going to be not awesome.
We hate them now, right? Well hate them even more. These mfs are radical.
Great book on that era: 'Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative', by David Brock. Highly recommended reading for foundations in how we got today's political climate.
These guys are gonna be violent, like 1980s style.