in this house, we have heckin' doggos, we adult like a boss, we drink IPAs, we listen to Matt and Kim, and we also are apparently the only age cohort meaningfully committed to liberal democracy
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This is a silly topic, according to sources, Gen Y is 1981-1996, the original post said that they were a sweet spot, after ethyl was banned (96) & pre internet, say 2000 or 04, I dunno.
Not my field of expertise.
But everyone keep focusing on these essentials.
The correlation between getting psyched for Mr. Brightside or Bombs over Baghdad playing and being on the right side of ~everything political is way stronger than it has any right to be.
Uh, no. Gen X is widely computer literate. Meanwhile Gen Z and Alpha don't know how to find where their phone physically stores the photos it takes or basic file management.
I'm young Gen X, and I don't know how to find where my phone physically stores the photos. The file structure on this thing is maddeningly opaque, and physically it's completely sealed. It's so frustrating; I know it's a computer, but it's hard to make it act like a computer.
Lol you don't seem to realize a LOT of us were raised on computers, especially the younger Gen X. Yet I know Millennials who never learned and never had to bother.
Both my husband and I were born before that and know computers. Hell it's what I do for a living. My Gen X boss was born before both of us and SHE knows computers even going back to UNIX. One of my best friends was born in 72 and knew computers just fine until her passing.
lol, the computer literate Gen Xers I know got that way at the computer lab at school. Heck, I had to log onto a mainframe to check my email. Didn’t have a home computer cuz they were pricey and available at work or school. My mom, a boomer, only ever had a work email.
This is my basic theory as well. Somehow growing up in the early internet age and having computer literacy plus a pre- and post-enshittification comparison inoculated millennials and only millennials against getting their brains cooked by social media.
My dude, I was on the proto internet when I was 19, before windows 95 came out. A lot of us middle to young genxers were.
You are correct about how people who were on the internet during the early years are very different politically than the ones who didn’t do the internet until the late 2000’s.
Lmfao. They absolutely are *not* "inoculated" against having their brain cooked by social media. Likely the first generation to be extremely susceptible to it in fact.
My dad is a boomer but he was also a Usenet guy which is another class of people who can handle social media, I think. He’s been trolling from the left on the internet since before I was born.
I can’t prove this but my guess is “susceptibility to misinformation in general” is a cross-racial phenomenon while “misinformation amplifying preexisting bigotry, translating into discrete voting choices for anti-democratic candidates who promise to enact that bigotry” is a racialized phenomenon
YES! Millens grew up with "oh god are you talking to someone on the internet/ are they a pervert?" lectures. By the time boomers stopped lecturing and joined, their kids had been using it for years and they felt it was safe. Zoomers learn on apps and don't learn how to be safe on the wider web.
For a while there I thought we all agreed that Indiana Jones was the good guy, only to find out that people on both sides of my age cohort think that he was being completely out of line with all those guys in the snappy uniforms.
Painful irony is y'all's bullshit now. We're in a fight with real stakes, and picture above is the man who made us believe that fight is worth fighting.
it’s just weird to use an example of someone who grew up w/o his father. and it’s not like his daughters are leaders (yet) so who is the father in this scenario?
I would react negatively to this insufferable sealioning bullshit, but it's such a throwback to Obama-era cultural norms that I can't help but be wistful for the person I literally just called my generation's political father in unambiguous terms
The Democrats are the less shitty side of the same oligarchy coin. Obama deported massive numbers of people. Failed to push healthcare for all or proper regulation of the financial sector. Filled his cabinet with industry insiders especially bankers.
Yeah, a good amount of it did. Doesn't mean they don't own both sides.
Falling for the idea that there are good billionaires is so sad - the Democrats have plenty of billionaires at least donating enough so that there are only ever two viable parties we can be guilted into voting for.
But then he also showed us that those beliefs can be an illusion, and that promises can be broken, and that we should not have faith in the system, that there is no savior from on high.
Oh right, i totally forgot that from 2008-2010 Guantanamo was closed, gay marriage and access to abortion were codified, Medicare for all and a comprehensive assault weapons ban were passed, and prescription drug prices were capped.
I was there in 2010
In the DNC bullpen on election night
I told James Carville this was going to be a permanent democratic majority
Everybody thought I was crazy
I was there
if you only believed that when obama was around then gave up when he was no longer president then your opinion is irrelevant because you don't actually care
I'm a better citizen than you and a more steadfast soldier against the tide of fascism because I've stood on our National Mall and wept openly at the words of an American President during a sacrament of state and I'm unashamed of this, but you are cool.
so is the canadian flag another example of your very meaningful lib activism or are you an actual canadian but still bragging about having a poopy pants baby sob at the obama inauguration
Yeah and the first thing he did after that was announce that secret death torture prisons and illegally bypassing constitutional rights were cool as hell
Baby, do you actually think crying is a weapon against fascism? Like that’s a thing you’re actually signing your name to, “I’ve done more to fight fascism than you because I cried outside”?
I too have seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
I understand that he looks good when viewed next to other politicians, but get him off of a pedestal. Dude still committed horrible atrocities in the middle east. Never idolize politicians like this.
This whole thread is so cringe and represents the worst elements of lib minded millennials. All my friends are leftists and hate libs. Anyone posting Obama unironically is pathetic
Or we've been told that we stink so constantly that we've collectively put our fingers in our ears and scream-sang the Animaniacs theme until everyone gets annoyed and stops talking.
Either way, I can't stand most of my own generation. Could just be a me thing though.
Gen X spent their half a century long life doing fuck all of political value are you insane are you demented you old fuck half a century doing absolutely nothing meaningful
you ley reaganism happen, you let clinton happen, you let bush happen, Iraq, Afghanistan, millions and millions of dead
Young Gen X here. Also committed to liberal democracy. However, the numbers indicate most of our generation is not. We’re the most MAGA of anyone but the boomers.
Well, not sure where you draw the line on "younger" Gen-X, but overall, our stupid fuckup generation are the ones responsible for the current disaster.
You don’t have to watch the decline of liberal democracy because of all the cigarette smoke and locks of greasy hair artfully falling over your eyes. Just an entire generation of Ethan Hawke-in-Reality Bites-looking mfers.
Is this true of young Gen X? The typical age breakdowns for voter demographics don't map onto generational cohorts neatly, so this isn't easily accessible information. The group that went heavily Trump is old Gen X/Young Boomer, which gets passed around on social media a lot as "Gen X."
Heh yeah. I have no idea either, and was making a joke. But I want to BELIEVE that we younger ones aren't the problem. (Or not AS much of the problem anyway.) But of course I DO remember many of the people I went to high school with so...
Yeah, as a "first year" millennial I sense little difference between me and people a few years older, but once it gets to, like, 6 years older, it's like completely different inner experiences. Muslims inherently terrifying. Men oppressed.
If I were to guess, I'd bet younger Gen X vote more like millennials than older Gen X do, but I think it's more important that most (all?) of the "Gen X sucks" political chatter is based on an age cohort that isn't exactly Gen X. Call Generation lead if you want.
I think this fundamentally silly as we're talking about slightly more than 1 out of every 2 vs. slightly less than 1 out of every 2, then making sweeping generalizations. But I'm not even sure if the data is quite what people seem to think it is.
I'm at the tail end of Gen X, so I'll still get my kids to watch to 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' but I also want our Democracy to survive what most people born before 1975 are doing to it.
The only meaningful test is really if you were dumb enough to vote for Trump again, which is the worst tranche, or were conflicted enough not to vote, which while not as bad is still pretty bad in relatively immediate hindsight.
Me? Gods, no. I was a disgruntled conservative vet who joined a militia, had the good sense to ditch that fashy bullshit, and went on a long journey from that to libertarian to libertarian anarchist to liberal and THEN I evolved into the filthy revolutionary leftist scum I am today. It was a process
Unfortunately there's too many vets who get steered into that trap. They're angry, bitter, they miss the comraderie, purpose, and clear sense of mission the military gave them, and the right wing militias, cynical, evil bastards that they are, prey on that longing. It breaks my heart.
Buuuuut, I wouldn't change any of my past. All that history just makes me extremely useful, seeing as how I can still talk the talk and walk the walk in MAGA circles without them having a clue about who and what I really am. I like to think of myself as a "daywalker"...😂
Russia never would have dared invading a NATO member. NATO membership being fully off the table for Ukraine is one of the major tenets of Russia’s position in ceasefire talks.
Any nostalgia for the 80s is horsesh!t. I was born in '71. If you weren't cishet, white, and middle class, the 80s sucked like a Dyson.
And the NATO thing is tricky, re: Article 5. Member states only have to take "such action as it deems necessary, including armed force." It's willfully vague.
. . . and I can't even be sure some of the 'likes' on this post aren't people who agree with him. Leaded gasoline and BPH leaching out of your Chewbacca doll have serious deleterious effects on brain development.
I often wonder that too. I was born during that awkward transition between Gen-X and Millennials. Even though I may chronologically Millennial, I consider myself culturally Gen-X, but...
Young gen X’er here (sometimes referred to as a xennial) and I too am confused at how our generation turned out. We tried so hard to seperate ourselves from the boomers, yet here we are.
Even when they were young, cynicism, apathy, irony, and general disillusionment with social institutions was common among gen-x. It permeated 90s culture. You can see how that might morph into support for authoritarianism by way of anti-elitism and anti-intellectualism as they aged.
the line from the end of Slacker sums up the problem (paraphrased): "Turning away from something in disgust is not apathy".
The thing is, though, when the comfortable relinquish all chances at holding the levers of power, it shows nothing but apathy for those who will suffer under its machinations.
Specifically, when it comes to electoral politics, it's why the 2 most popular progressive politicians in America are 83 and 35 years old, and no one in the generation between even comes close.
Growing up as a typical Gen X in the late 80’s/90’s, it only made me hate authoritarianism and control more. I legit do not know what tf happened to my generation, to be frank. I guess, money? I never had much of that.
If Trump is the archetype of everything awful about boomers, Joe Rogan is the archetype of everything awful about gen-x. He's not overtly ideological, but his cynicism about elites has morphed him into being a gullible idiot primed for authoritarianism.
Alex Jones is also Gen X — and same thing. The cynicism and distrust toward elites, gov institutions, etc. made him what he is. He's cynically greedy — but he's always been completely gullible for whatever conspiracy theory du jour is up for sale.
His dad was a Bircher dentist - he was pretty clearly always an RW nut but kept it generic “nutty” for a while before just being on in on RE stuff became big enough
Yep. He basically insinuated himself into the 90s ironic/bohemian Austin (not the far-right part of the city thats always been there) via public access TV, including working with Richard Linklater, and none of them believed he was serious about what he was saying
yes, this. often when we think about Gen X we think of early 90s MTV "rock the vote," politics in Spin and Rolling Stone, Nirvana fans etc. but another element of Gen X was Morton Downey Jr, sex comedies, "Married With Children" and it's no shock that curdled into Trump (or Hannity, Tucker Carlson)
Liberal democracy got us here. Millennials don't represent lib democracy in the city I live in. Moved past that via radicalization a loooooong time ago. This whole thread is giving older millennial suburban family vibes
I swear Gen X have been yearning for an authoritative figure for so long they fucked us all. And when you look at vote totals they went for trump massively. Finally got their abusive daddy, I guess.
I wonder if the political nihilism of Gen X comes from us being the "Baby Bust" and intuiting that demographically we just didn't have the numbers to reshape society in our image (except unintentionally, by underfunding Social Security, lol...)
Comments
Not my field of expertise.
But everyone keep focusing on these essentials.
no democracy while the economy is privately owned and controlled.
I am more of a supporter of democracy by sortition with mandatory education requirements
You are correct about how people who were on the internet during the early years are very different politically than the ones who didn’t do the internet until the late 2000’s.
it has never functioned in my lifetime
that's an issue.
This is not Indonesia, we expect them to do this.
Being better than Trump is such a low bar.
Falling for the idea that there are good billionaires is so sad - the Democrats have plenty of billionaires at least donating enough so that there are only ever two viable parties we can be guilted into voting for.
But then he also showed us that those beliefs can be an illusion, and that promises can be broken, and that we should not have faith in the system, that there is no savior from on high.
My bad!
In the DNC bullpen on election night
I told James Carville this was going to be a permanent democratic majority
Everybody thought I was crazy
I was there
I'm a better citizen than you and a more steadfast soldier against the tide of fascism because I've stood on our National Mall and wept openly at the words of an American President during a sacrament of state and I'm unashamed of this, but you are cool.
either way, lol
Fuck, we’re cooked.
I wept openly at ‘Mac & Me’ before I’d even heard of ‘ET’
but yea,
For the rest of us, he was a lesson that the party can't be trusted because no matter what we're told in the campaign, they don't work for us.
Either way, I can't stand most of my own generation. Could just be a me thing though.
you ley reaganism happen, you let clinton happen, you let bush happen, Iraq, Afghanistan, millions and millions of dead
But yeah totally I know. I was just making a joke about myself, and about the traditional stereotypes of my people.
Your GenX boss is an idjit.
And the NATO thing is tricky, re: Article 5. Member states only have to take "such action as it deems necessary, including armed force." It's willfully vague.
Whatever.
The thing is, though, when the comfortable relinquish all chances at holding the levers of power, it shows nothing but apathy for those who will suffer under its machinations.
Signed, a Gen X member of the 92 percent.
Now if only we could convince everyone both older and younger than us to stop being fucking idiots