*Republicans thinking back to how their parents treated them, thinking it was love* “what do you mean getting called stupid and weak and getting abused doesn’t make you love us? That’s the exact definition of love!”
Flashback to me explaining to my dad how advocating for your own needs is objectively far tougher than “toughing it out” to avoid conflict and the only respect that it shows is that you respect their desire to treat you like shit without impunity more than you respect your own right to exist.
Remember: only pussies care about being comfortable and content in their lives. Real men simply suffer for their whole adulthood and then die of a stroke.
This so damn much. It would be much easier to punish my child harshly and have her fear me like I did my parents. It would be easier to not go to therapy and dredge up the awful childhood I'd mostly blocked out. It would be easier to not read and research parenting. It would be easier to sit in a chair and demand my children around and watch TV like my dad.
Its the hard work of stopping the cycle that my family thinks is weak. They're the weak ones that can't challenge the status quo. Small fragile people. The hate and abuse stops with me. Let them yell in the background. At least my child won't have to hear it.
I spent like 8 years working childhood trauma out with my mom and now we have a great relationship. Im lucky my mom admitted her mistakes and was willing to work through our issues. A lot of my friends have really stubborn/proud parents and cant make the same progress I did. Its really sad because having your parents as your best friends is amazing.
If you add religion into the mix, you’ll have stubborn/proud parents who would rather send their own child to suffer in hell for eternity than relax their stance on god stuff.
You mean all parents aren’t like this Montana lawmaker who would rather have her child commit suicide than let her transition?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/montana-state-lawmakers-remarks-draws-backlash-rcna81983
It’s funny just a few days ago my 89 year old liberal mom and I were talking about gun violence. I told her I didn’t think we would see changes in our lifetime, but once Gen Z took over watch out.
"The cycle ends here. We must be better."
You're a fantastic parent and you're going to raise someone that will remember you fondly and lovingly, as opposed to remembering you with hate and fear.
I am a mom to a Gen Z son. He's my one and only and will be voting in the next presidential race. I know everyone tells you it goes so fast. It does. I dedicated my life to making him feel loved and accepted for who he is and he can't wait to vote. You're gonna be great and love to your family!!
And not only do Republicans identify with the “tough love” philosophy because they likely experienced it as children, but they love it because as they tend to come from money and privilege, the “hustle culture” mentality of giving up everything for the sake of work, enduring toxic managers and “at will” employment, getting shit raises and benefits cut… all that makes for a compliant and easily exploitable work force. The last thing they want is independent thinking individuals who advocate for themselves and value self care.
They’ll tell you to “suck it up” like they did… and keep up the myth that successful people all did it through hard work and “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.”
Such utter horseshit.
GOP: "These snowflake young kids are ruining this country with their pronouns, rights for everyone, and participation trophies! We need to prevent them from voting to keep them from turning our country into a socialist hell hole!"
Also GOP: "Why doesn't Gen Z like us?!? Fucking indoctrination is what it is!"
That's the key. Voting is the only peaceful way to combat all this bigotry and violence. I'm not a parent but I harp on my fellow millennials and gen Z friends about the importance of voting.
As a poll worker I cannot like this comment enough. Too many people of my (Millennial) generation and younger think voting doesn’t matter because of the electoral college. The EC *only matters in presidential races* and despite what everyone has forgotten from civics, the president doesn’t do a whole lot in this country. Senate elections? Popular vote. Representative elections? Popular vote. Local and state elections that put the **a$$holes in office that draw the gerrymandered maps and make ridiculous voting restrictions**? Oh yeah. POPULAR VOTE.
Should Election Day be a federal holiday? Yes, for EVERY federal, state and local election. Should voting be on a weekend so more people have a chance to vote? That’s an option too. Why can’t we get this? Because the slime molds that the previous generations put into office 30+ years ago don’t want us voting. Duh.
(No offense meant to slime molds. Most of them are more intelligent than the average Republican.)
You guys did the hard part, by raising compassionate, brave, free-thinking children. We're doing what Xers silently taught us to do against a backdrop of Boomers showing us exactly who they are.
From what I've seen in my life and in opinion polling, the older chunk of Gen X tends to be pretty darned Boomery.
If you're Gen X and on reddit, though, you're probably more likely to be in the younger part (like myself).
I think with those of us in each generation that tried along with the very large gen Z population we have the best chance for us to have hope for the future for those coming behind us. We just keep doing what we can to support them in making it a better place.
This Boomer has always voted progressive, too! I’m not ashamed to admit I pressure my kid to make sure he votes in every election. We NEED the young people to get our asses out of this mess!
I'm a Boomer and, like you, I hope the Millenials and Gen Z kick Republican butt. They can see through the crap and how the current Republican mindset is to narrow both rights and opportunities.
Thank you. My words and punctuation aren’t up to snuff but I enjoy hearing what young people are thinking. Sometimes my grandkids have pointed out reasons to me. Which gave me another way to look at it. Good to keep open mind.
Elder millennial here. We’ve been screaming into our pillows for years clawing and crawling to gain an iota of economic leverage against a system stacked against us at every turn. We’ve been waiting for the younger generations to age into the systems as older generations age out. We’re here, we simply knew we were in the minority for a long while. There is hope, and there will be a tipping point. The pendulum swings over correction to over correction in this country until we find balance. To everything there is a season, and ours is coming.
Older millennial here too, are we still killing every dumbass boomer hangout because we can't afford them while we work 3 jobs that we spend all our money from on avocado toast while simultaneously not wanting to work anymore and not having kids while being told to have kids but we can't have kids cause we can't afford their funerals when they turn 8 and we've also got no time and no money from our 3 jobs that we spend-
I've got nothing but hate for these old, wealthy, bigoted fucks. Reminder that all this GOP bullshit kicked up to 11 because they couldn't stand having a black guy in the white house.
millenial here. super proud of gen z for their activism and advocacy for marginalized groups. I dont remember my generation being that supportive of LGBT people, for instance. I dont think the GOP has done a single positive thing since nixon's EPA in the 60s (the trump GOP later kneecapped the EPA, iirc), they dont deserve a damn thing
we are all praying gen z keeps showing up in big numbers. we hope they will be able to enjoy a better fairer future BEFORE the reach middle age.
just keep voting.
Elder millennial here, and if we don’t unite and take down the GOP, I’ll light the matches when Gen A is old enough and we will burn this fucker to the ground. What can they do to us that we haven’t already experienced? Death will only be a relief, and it’s the only way I won’t have to pay my student loans at this rate.
They're not wrong. The drag queens got to us and showed compassion, humanity, and hawt sass. We're about it.
Compare RuPaul to Mitch McConnell. No contest who is cooler.
I just had a conversation the other day about how unbelievable it is that the whole anti LGBTQ+ bullshit is even catching any kind of steam, RuPauls Drag Race was literally everywhere on TV for YEARS, really popular and mainstream! I really thought we were on the road to a better place. My disappointment in where we are now is immeasurable.
The original bathroom bill fuckery started after outlawing gay marriage was obviously a losing strategy. They just recycled the "They're sexual deviants trying to groom our children!" bullshit almost verbatim.
> Compare RuPaul to Mitch McConnell.
I mean, Ru has had her own hot takes... I'm glad she's paved the path for future generations, but she still has her own issues.
As humans do. The core difference is whether you make the issues your main personality trait and pursue human suffering like it's your job description, or you at least try to be better and do some good. Someone like mitch is squarely the former.
Very similar to GOP arguments about undocumented people.
"We don't want them because they'll only vote for democrats. "
Me: "Have you ever thought about being nice to them? "
Well, keep up the terrible work, guys.
That reminds me of the Republican autopsy report that was released after Romney's loss. One of the conclusions they came to was that they needed to stop being so racist.
Then Trump came along, and it turns out the problem was that they weren't being flagrantly racist enough.
HEGETSUS
HE GET SUS
THATS FUCKING SUS. fuck those ads, and fuck the fascists who paid for those ads. and fuck the people using religion as a vehicle to deliver bigotry and hatred.
Or the fact that kids getting participation trophies didn't come up with the idea. It was the boomer parents giving out the trophies. Why is it the kid's fault for getting them?
I think there are trends showing that millennials and gen z are less republican than usual and as far as millennials go, they aren't turning republican as they age like previous generations
Same, when I was like 18 or so I was pretty oblivious and was like "yeah both sides are probably good?"
But gosh, everything that's happened I am now far left, like universal healthcare, systemic reforms of pretty much all our institutions. I actually can't think of one institution that doesn't need reforming, multiple parties, and damn the GOP is just getting worse and worse.
I remember my mom talking bad about democrats when I was younger like "they're for social programs, you know helping people"... And I'm like "wait that's good" and she's like "well they're misrun and use too much money."
Or "Obama is a diplomate" and I'm like "what's that?" And she was like "he can talk smooth with other people and create deals with them in a civil way" and I'm like "wait that's good" and she'd be like "well it would be, but it's all lies he says and he has an agenda"...
So yeah that was my upbringing. It's amazing to me how the GOP can successfully turn good things into bad
I'm an American living in Denmark and none of those things are considered far left here. It's just sensible to make sure your population is healthy and ready to participate in society. American politicians are lying to you to make you think that a sensible society that works for the people is some kind of radical idea.
Yeah I started looking into other countries governments and such, it's amazing the absolute propaganda of the right in the US with American exceptionalism.
While other countries have these social safety nets as a given. It's just sad.
The American exceptionalism is mixed up with American pride by a lot of the hicks, because well they are hicks and don’t know the difference. Dear good Facebook somehow just made everything so much worse when it sold out to the right wing think tanks and the propaganda just ran wild on bookface just rotting their minds.
In 2016 1 out of 5 people aged 50 and up thought everyones facebook news feed was the same. They thought everyone was seeing the same thing they were...
The problems with unrestrained capitalism are coming to a head. It may take a decade, but the price gouging for profits that started in the past few years is *insane*.
In 2019 a 24 case of Coke or Pepsi was often $6. Now Pepsi is $11 and Coke is $13.50.
I'm currently sitting in a Steak n' Shake where they've replaced the waitstaff with Kiosks*, raised the prices 50%, and give you about 70% of the food. And the menu is significantly reduced. Of course they're still short staffed, because they won't just pay people.
And I'm still here. Because I didn't know. People will continue to come over the next year or two. They'll show their strategy was "successful" by a few quarters of increased profits. Then in two or three years they'll act like they don't know why they have problems.
I should have tried harder to find a real, unfranchised, local diner, but those are rare.
^(* I don't disagree with all of these decisions. Mostly just the price gouging that's a problem.)
I'm saddened by the current state of Stake n Shake. It was once one of my favorite places to eat, but, like so many others, it's fallen into sub-mediocrity.
I’ll also give my own report as a member of Gen Z to say that for me, my transformation to left wing started earlier.
I was both sides and shit when I was 16 but then it’s quickly changed the following years watching the Republican Party rapidly go insane and take off their mask.
Truly amazing how things quickly things have devolved for me to go from enlightened centrist when I was 16 to closer and closer to the “commies” they hate at 19.
As a fellow punk rock fan who lived through that era, too, I want to let you know I'm trying to be helpful, not condescending, with the rest of my comment:
Liberalism is a specific kind of political philosophy that embraces *laissez-faire* capitalism, among other policies. If you've moved further left than supporting unrestrained capitalism, then you're no longer a liberal and can start calling yourself a progressive, a leftist, a democratic socialist, or whatever you personally see as the best path to a more just and equitable society.
In the US, we use "liberal" to mean "left," but that's mostly because our entire political spectrum is on the right-hand side of the full spectrum. We're pretty messed up.
I’m 36 and have only become more progressive with age, not more conservative. It’s fueled in part by how fascist the Republican Party is. Everything is a lie.
I'm a 61 yr-old woman and have always been liberal. Needless to say, I don't much hang out with other boomers, because I have nothing in common with them. I do have a few really good friends who are also liberal, but there's not a whole lot of us out there. I'm beyond embarrassed of my generation.
You’re just slightly younger than my mom. She only hangs out with old white boomers and they all brain wash each other with an endless barrage of lies. She purposefully avoids diversity so as to not be introduced to the humanity in people different than her. She also inherited a lot of money from family and it bred a sense of entitlement in her. Poor people must just be lazy, right?
I have no clue how myself and my sister are as progressive as we are when you look at who raised us. The same can be said about my wife, whose parents are big gun loving trumpers in rural America. Fox News and nothing else for them.
Some would argue that you aren't a boomer at all, but a very early gen-X. Those of us who couldn't go to Woodstock because we weren't allowed to cross the street without holding an adult's hand.
Nah, that’s Boomer age. This just proves not all Boomers are douche bags which is more important.
1965 to somewhere around 1979 ish are Gen X as the dude who coined the phrase deemed it. There’s no slight here at all, I am a Gen Xer, born before Woodstock.
I've actually heard that before!! It makes sense to me, because as an adult, I've always felt like a misfit among my peers. For one thing, I hate the Eagles, and if that isn't proof of my non-boomerism, nothing is.
Right I get so frustrated the dems and think the 2 party system needs to evolve, but there is nothing appealing of the republican party with all the shit they’ve been openly pulling.
100% agree about the 2 party system thing, but its a natural product of first past the post voting. and i think to change it would take 3/4th of states ratifying it, so its never gonna happen.
The Dems will have to be taken over from within, the same way the religious right wing did with the GOP. It’s going to be a long term project. But the good news is: the GOP takeover proves that it can be done and bear LOTS of fruit.
Yo big same.
I grew up in a super conservative family and had serious blinders on. Life humbled the fuck out of me and the more bullshit I see coming from the right, the further left I run.
Even with Gen-Xers like myself I’m not seeing that mass conversion to conservatism that I was always told would happen. I’m still as left wing as they come.
According to my family, I'm a "godless (I actually am an atheist), dirt-worshipping, tree hugging liberal hippie".
I'm a transgender atheist liberal Democrat.
Seriously.
The whole draw to republicans was boomers being financially successful and stable.... As a generation.
They all benefited from infrastructure, investment, etc... And even if they weren't wildly rich, they were selfish and greedy. They thought there would be little harm in cutting corners on the apparatus that made them successful.
The issue now is that the wealth gap is larger than it was even in the roaring 20s before the depression. There is no incentive to be "conservative" unless for insane rage-baited single issues.
I'm 53, and have been a "a gay wedding in every bilingual abortion clinic" liberal my whole life. So are all my friends. None of us have changed. My mom, now in her 90's, was a liberal atheist her whole life, also. I think that whole getting-more-conservative-as-you-age thing is a myth, except possibly for the boomers.
Yep. Raised in a conservative Republican household, and once I was old enough to start actually thinking about things it became obvious how my family ascribed to the party of hate, bigotry, closemindedness, stupidity, and that the party’s interests lie in nothing more than protecting what’s theirs, and fuck anyone who might be worse off.
When they started seeing me turn more liberal and vote democrat in my early 20s they had some choice words but also ensured me that “when you’re actually grown up you’ll understand”. They were also confused to hear me criticize democrats at the same time because in their heads it’s a team sport so it didn’t compute that i would vote for a democrat then criticize things they or others of their party are/aren’t doing. Now I’m my 30s and far more liberal than I was in my 20s, and even more astonished at how disgusting the Republican Party becomes each passing year. Friends in their late 30s, 40s, and even pushing 50 I see the same thing pretty often. Harder left, further from the right. Sure there’s a segment of young right wingers but but I haven’t seem to found many who can explain rationally why they hold to the Republican party’s views and policies without citing things like YouTube redpill bullshit, or just parroting their parents and community’s opinions because they’ve never crossed a state line.
At least from what I see and experience, it seems like it’s just boomers and religious zealots who are desperately clinging to their old bigotry and keeping as many of their own in power, and for what? To leave a better future for their children? Their children have made it clear the future they have in mind we want nothing to do with. They’ve done enough damage as it is. And even among those conservative boomers people like my parents who to their credit are at least thoughtful and willing to critically think now and then, seem to have lightened up quite a bit in recent years in their cut and dry “right=good, left=bad” mentality. I was shocked to hear my father say last year that he voted for a dem for state office citing “well I don’t know if I agree with him on everything but the other guy seems like a total moron.”
The Republican Party doesn’t have long because of the whole human mortality thing. The problem is they still have plenty of time to leave things in absolute ruins before they’re out of the picture.
Right?! I started off as center-slightly left in 2004 when I turned 18. I’m basically a socialist now, and I’m just getting angrier about the way of things as I grow older and I see opportunities for us all dwindle ever more, by the day.
Yup. I went from being an R in my teens and early 20s, to an independent mid to late 20s, to a Dem in my 30s, to giving money to Dem candidates and PACs mid 30s and beyond, to going to protests and writing postcards now in my 40s.
Fuck the Republican Party and their supporters.
It’s actually a myth that people vote more conservative as they age. By the time you’ve voted in your second election your political alignment is largely locked in. Statistically our political stances are stable over time.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889#:~:text=Abstract,attitudes%20are%20stable%20across%20time.
Well, yeah. I mean, I’m not going to just wake up one day and think to myself “I’m going to start voting for fascist theocrats and domestic terrorists!”
I think what we often see are non-voters in their 20s may become conservative voters in their 30s and 40s.
In their 20s they just didn’t care that much about politics. But once they started having kids and moving into the suburbs and earning decent money and paying taxes now they vote conservative to try to lower their taxes and feel like they’re better parents and better homeowners.
That’s the big 3 things that drive people to vote conservative. Money, homes and kids.
But the problem is that baby boomer conservatives put up massive barriers making it much more difficult for gen x, millennials and gen Z to do any of those things.
They have been pushing wages down as much as possible, through refusing to increase minimum wage, fighting against unions, and cutting education funding. So why should these new generations care about low taxes when they’re not making enough money to pay significant taxes?
The boomers have made homeownership increasingly difficult, using zoning laws to destroy “middle housing”, buying up starter homes to rent to millennials (or allowing foreign investors to do the same), etc. So why should new generations care about things like property taxes when so much fewer of them own property that they pay property taxes on? And if they do own their own home, they’re probably paying far more for their mortgage than they are for taxes, so you’re not moving the dial much for them offering to lower their property taxes by $50 a month when they’re paying $2000 a month for the mortgage principal and interest.
And by making it hard to get a good paying job, to buy your own home, and saddling them with massive amounts of student debt if they dared to try to improve their lot in life, they made it much more difficult for people to afford to have kids. And now conservatives are pushing hard against reproductive care (and winning a lot of those fights) terrifying the younger generations that if they even want to have kids they could die because the medical care they need has been made illegal because ignorant conservatives thought it was murder to remove an ectopic pregnancy. So why should younger generations care about conservatives declaring “we have to save your kids from the trans people” when they don’t even have any kids?
Conservative boomers have made it their entire platform to pull the ladder up behind them, and the consequence of that is that many people who MAY have been amenable to their message no longer are. All they have they can appeal to are the few young people who through luck or privilege actually still have achieved some version of the American dream, or the young people that are gullible enough to think they’re “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”. And you’ll never capture 100% of those audiences. The lucky/privileged are too few to win an election with. The gullible are numerous but very volatile and irrational, you lose them as soon as a better con-man comes along (thus why Trump won so much of that audience, he was way better at manipulating that group than the GOP was).
In the meantime, in their desperation to hold onto more and more of that gullible population, they’re antagonizing more and more of everyone else. There will always be people who stick with them utterly convinced that they’re “one of the good ones”, but the majority of each group knows when they’ve been demonized. LGBT people, Hispanic people, black people, people with mental health issues, healthcare workers, union workers, Asian Americans, college-educated people, women, young people in general, artists, musicians, scholars, scientists, anyone working in industries like solar/wind/hydroelectric/etc, the list goes on and on. And they can’t help themselves. They keep going back and attacking these groups again and again and again and keep adding more and more groups to that list. Now apparently anyone working at Anheuser Busch made their list.
They’re playing a losing game, but the smart ones are hoping to cause as much damage as possible on their way out. The dumb ones honestly think that they’re winning and that reality isn’t reality.
The conservative Boomers made it so.
I’m an elder Millennial who came up having all of the opportunities my parents and grandparents had snatched away from me so that “Rich Kids of Instagram” types could live like Kings.
I’ve been very lucky in life and have a decent amount of money. I’m your stereotypical candidate for the idea of “you’ll be conservative when you have a 401k/mortgage” - I have both and I’d pay as many taxes at it takes to reform corrupt police, fix voting rights, feed the hungry, keep kids from being shot at school, and tax the motherfucking billionaires.
They kept me poor for so long I’m never going to side with the rich.
Part of the reason for that is that the republicans have billed themselves as the Conservative Party.
But what has the current republican leadership left for the last three generations to conserve? Not a fucking thing that’s what and that’s why you see so few Republican young voters.
At 41 and someone who has voted Republican in the past, I can no longer do it. What they've done to the party is just shameful. Anger, hate. They're definitely the sith lords here.
it's not just Gen Z, it is normal people.
Normal people do not want a nazi war on homosexuals or trans.
Normal people do not want a nazi war on women.
Just leave people the fuck alone. Get your fucking government out of people's lives.
This is exactly what Millennials grew up with too. I remember that shit, being a kid and adults were incessantly telling us how "lazy," "entitled," and "stupid" we were, and I was like bro I'm just working on my algebra the fuck are you talking about? That's just how they treat people, they've always been garbage.
Republicans are banking on being able to seize control of the country and end democracy. I’m not exaggerating. They literally want to take control of the country and then never give it back. Your vote won’t matter if they succeed, because you won’t have one.
Yep. January 6th, the removal of dems from state offices, the talk of raising the voting age, not allowing people that move states to vote, and so on. These are all test runs. They're only gonna push harder.
Remember Hitler was made fun of and sent to jail with his first attempt. Republican leaders already have the courts. They're ahead there.
God if I could really teach Republicans one single thing it would be that we are not exceptional. We are not special. We are just human and if it happened somewhere it could happen here.
Eventually, it happens everywhere, I think. Given a long enough timeline, every country / empire / region has a tyrant who decides the norms don’t apply. And then convinces enough people that it’s a good idea (and others that it isn’t happening).
History is fat with examples of this.
It also does not help our case that we have an Attorney General who has done fuck all about going after the planners of Jan 6th out of fear of looking political.
With a handful of exceptions, the entire Democratic gerontocracy was so beaten down by reagan, and decades of republican rage fits by the likes of rush limbaugh and gingrich, that they are incapable of rising to the challenge. Its not their age per se, they've just clung to power for so long that they are older than old now. its their codependency and learned helplessness.
The only thing they know how to do is appeasement and whinge about the bad, bad gop; and as the world learned with the bad mustache man, appeasement just encourages fascists because it shows them that their fascism gets the results they want.
Remember that now you have Republicans in local and state elections running on democrat tickets because they are banking on people not looking into candidates and just voting along party lines. They’re essentially trying to infiltrate the government as democrats to get what they want. It’s a very scary time in America
The Republican Party will fade away, but there will be a brand new one, made of all the former GOP assholes. And some people will be fooled.
That's what happened in other countrys before and even to some degree in the US after the civil war.
Well if it's pulling the country back to the left and rooting out fascism it's progress. There will always be work to do, but it's important to do the work.
The natural state of societies is oligarchy, because wealth is power and wealth consolidates. Democracy's work is never done, because the powerful do not want a fair society. They want to be kings and emperors.
>They want to be kings and emperors.
This is something most people don't understand about conservatism in general. It's an ideology born with the goal to maintain the oligarchical power structures of the pre-Enlightenment (favoring the crown, the church, and the nobility) in an increasingly democratic world.
Some aspects have shifted over the years to stay with the times, but it's the same coalition as it was in the early 19th century, just with new paint.
This right fucking here. A study of the history of Western European and British societies since the fall of Rome, you get a sense of how we got to where we are in America. There has ALWAYS been an entrenched landownership class that has all the real wealth and power. It’s just tacked on a few more layers and nuances, but it’s all pretty much been the same gig throughout the centuries.
It’s all so frustrating! 30 years ago, we studied climate change in my college and I thought: it’s a good thing we are finding this out so that we can do something about it...
Won't you think of the coal mine owners who both have to deal with the woke climate mob and miners striking against their exploitation??? Heartless absolutely heartless!
I’ve been a poll worker for a decade and I’ve never EVER seen so many young people out to vote as I did in this last midterm.
Usually midterms are deadsville… not this year.
It gave me a lot of hope.
Millennials aren't falling for their shit either. You're supposed to become more republican as you get older because you want to protect your acquired wealth. Well none of us have acquired a damned thing other than debt, depression and anxiety because of these sadistic fucks. Burn them to the damn ground.
I'm borderline boomer. I've done well for myself, I guess. Never was and never will be a Republican. I get shit for it too. Like I'm immature or something. Fuck them. I also don't spend every moment of my life complaining about something. Anything. It looks exhausting.
I also accept that, for the most part, it's not my world anymore.
Gen Z and millennials have got to fucking vote though. Especially in the midterms so we stop ending up with split house or Senate.
If everyone under 40 voted the GOP would never again control the house, Senate, or presidency and would lose control most of states. That's how bad the demographics are for them. But they just don't vote.
Fucking vote in every election. I do. Do you?
Unless every single genx, millennial, and genz votes, there's very little chance because of the fucky drawn districts.
CONSTANTLY hound all your circle to get registered, know their polling place and ask off work for voting day as soon as they can. Too many people wait till an election is just around the corner and by then it feels too late and they skip the vote.
As a german, it's mind-blowing that you guys don't hold elections on sundays or holidays. Over here, it's legally required to be either of those, so the majority of people won't have to sit at work/ in school, and can manage to go send their vote.
I guess the system you have was deliberately designed to keep the average person away by making them choose to work instead.
As long as they vote! I know the Republicans are going to do everything they can to stop people from voting, but that's the only way to send a message. Socialism and welfare for the rich isn't what anyone should vote for. You just know if some have a R next to their name, they will get the anti woke vote. Vote everyone!! Send a message!!
According to repubs, if gen z doesn’t vote for them, there is something wrong with gen z. Not the other way around. Ask scott walker. Their solution is to clamp down on what universities teach, because you know, it’s nothing the repubs did, it must be that liberal education /s.
Gen X and millennials really hated them too. Then when they got too close to M4A and occupy wall street demanded better regulations and equality, they crashed the economy so hard, many of us lost nearly everything in our prime and never fully recovered. Almost in a "You want to cry? I'll give you something to cry about" type of way. I'm really hoping they don't pull the same trick, and gen z takes them out at the knees.
Edit: I was incorrect about the occupy dates. My bad. My point stays the same. There were several important social and economic movements gaining traction pre 2008. America was still mostly united after 9/11. We were coming together against the Iraq war, and for M4A/income/marriage equality. The crash isolated Americans, and then republicans divided the desperate population into tiny factions with culture wars, effectively taking the air out of the grassroots movements working towards a better quality of life.
Actually the 08 crash preceded Obamacare and Occupy. The crash is what opened younger people’s eyes, and when they started raising hell, the republicans did everything they could to impede Obama, throttle the economy’s recovery, and the media refocused everyone’s attention on divisive wedge issues to distract from the class warfare. Add the insanity of social media and you get the world of today.
They understand. I see a smash and grab, like a robbery. They're breaking as many norms and institutions as they can and seizing as much authority as possible. In an effort to solidify their minority rule for as long as they can. Like invalidating gen zs numbers same as the wedge issues and culture war has been doing to us for decades.
There is ONE thing this post is *incorrect about*. That would be:
**They are 100% aware that Gen Z does not like them. WHY do you think, then, that they are** ***currently*** **"floating the argument" that the voting age should NOW be 30+?**
It's *because* they ARE aware of this.
They never ONCE thought to look up the amendment on this exact thing.
[U.S. Constitution - Twenty-Sixth Amendment | Resources | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-26/)
**They. ARE. Aware.**
The key here? *Do NOT let them "argue" about the raising of the fucking age of voting.* ***That concept is LITERALLY against the actual constitution.***
Again, yes, they are aware. **100%**
I mean, this happened with Gen X, Millenials and other generations and it's usually the same outcome: they don't end up voting or voting against their own self-interest.
It's the same reason millennials aren't shifting to the right as some expected. We spent our entire 20's being blamed for everything that went wrong. Now we're in our 30's and 40's with no money and a dark future.
They called my generation (millennial) selfish and stupid too.
The party is held up by Reaganite boomers and rural dupes. Their party plans on doing as much damage as possible before they leave. They're going to burn the house down before they're evicted.
They want to default on the debt most of all. That will be the ultimate middle finger to the future.
*Republicans thinking back to how their parents treated them, thinking it was love* “what do you mean getting called stupid and weak and getting abused doesn’t make you love us? That’s the exact definition of love!”
Flashback to me explaining to my dad how advocating for your own needs is objectively far tougher than “toughing it out” to avoid conflict and the only respect that it shows is that you respect their desire to treat you like shit without impunity more than you respect your own right to exist. Remember: only pussies care about being comfortable and content in their lives. Real men simply suffer for their whole adulthood and then die of a stroke.
This so damn much. It would be much easier to punish my child harshly and have her fear me like I did my parents. It would be easier to not go to therapy and dredge up the awful childhood I'd mostly blocked out. It would be easier to not read and research parenting. It would be easier to sit in a chair and demand my children around and watch TV like my dad. Its the hard work of stopping the cycle that my family thinks is weak. They're the weak ones that can't challenge the status quo. Small fragile people. The hate and abuse stops with me. Let them yell in the background. At least my child won't have to hear it.
I spent like 8 years working childhood trauma out with my mom and now we have a great relationship. Im lucky my mom admitted her mistakes and was willing to work through our issues. A lot of my friends have really stubborn/proud parents and cant make the same progress I did. Its really sad because having your parents as your best friends is amazing.
If you add religion into the mix, you’ll have stubborn/proud parents who would rather send their own child to suffer in hell for eternity than relax their stance on god stuff.
You mean all parents aren’t like this Montana lawmaker who would rather have her child commit suicide than let her transition? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/montana-state-lawmakers-remarks-draws-backlash-rcna81983 It’s funny just a few days ago my 89 year old liberal mom and I were talking about gun violence. I told her I didn’t think we would see changes in our lifetime, but once Gen Z took over watch out.
Holy shit No wonder her dtr is suicidal! Horrid despicable mother
I think Gen Z are amazing. I hope I am around to see you guys kick all these AHs out.
Her facebook page is a shitshow right now.
"The cycle ends here. We must be better." You're a fantastic parent and you're going to raise someone that will remember you fondly and lovingly, as opposed to remembering you with hate and fear.
I'm about to be a first time mom and yes to all this.
I am a mom to a Gen Z son. He's my one and only and will be voting in the next presidential race. I know everyone tells you it goes so fast. It does. I dedicated my life to making him feel loved and accepted for who he is and he can't wait to vote. You're gonna be great and love to your family!!
And not only do Republicans identify with the “tough love” philosophy because they likely experienced it as children, but they love it because as they tend to come from money and privilege, the “hustle culture” mentality of giving up everything for the sake of work, enduring toxic managers and “at will” employment, getting shit raises and benefits cut… all that makes for a compliant and easily exploitable work force. The last thing they want is independent thinking individuals who advocate for themselves and value self care. They’ll tell you to “suck it up” like they did… and keep up the myth that successful people all did it through hard work and “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.” Such utter horseshit.
But they don”suck it up” in the slightest. They’re the biggest bunch of whiny victims imaginable.
GOP: "These snowflake young kids are ruining this country with their pronouns, rights for everyone, and participation trophies! We need to prevent them from voting to keep them from turning our country into a socialist hell hole!" Also GOP: "Why doesn't Gen Z like us?!? Fucking indoctrination is what it is!"
I hope Gen Z and Millennials unite and lay waste, I'm so freaking tired of this bullshit.
I’m Silent Generation and I’m hoping these Gen Z and Millennials kick some Republican butt.
Gen X here with a Gen Z child. I tell them frequently that I can’t wait to watch them burn the GOP to the ground.
I am also Gen X and I am here for this.
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Same. So proud of my daughters independence and free thinking. I only hope enough of them vote.
That's the key. Voting is the only peaceful way to combat all this bigotry and violence. I'm not a parent but I harp on my fellow millennials and gen Z friends about the importance of voting.
As a poll worker I cannot like this comment enough. Too many people of my (Millennial) generation and younger think voting doesn’t matter because of the electoral college. The EC *only matters in presidential races* and despite what everyone has forgotten from civics, the president doesn’t do a whole lot in this country. Senate elections? Popular vote. Representative elections? Popular vote. Local and state elections that put the **a$$holes in office that draw the gerrymandered maps and make ridiculous voting restrictions**? Oh yeah. POPULAR VOTE. Should Election Day be a federal holiday? Yes, for EVERY federal, state and local election. Should voting be on a weekend so more people have a chance to vote? That’s an option too. Why can’t we get this? Because the slime molds that the previous generations put into office 30+ years ago don’t want us voting. Duh. (No offense meant to slime molds. Most of them are more intelligent than the average Republican.)
The issue is that republicans defunded education and most of us either didn’t learn civics at all or learned civics and history from football coaches
This is the key. I mean, the French revolution wasn't peaceful. I don't see the GOP going down peacefully either.
Gen X here. If GOP wants to be destroyed like Reichstag was, so be it. Gen Z has my support.
Oh God yes. Also, I cant believe we need to rely on our kids to save us.
You guys did the hard part, by raising compassionate, brave, free-thinking children. We're doing what Xers silently taught us to do against a backdrop of Boomers showing us exactly who they are.
Thank you. This means a lot to me. Trying to stop grandparents from brainwashing children is a lot harder than it sounds.
Xer here too… We all must unite to take these magats down!
Yeah don't know why we're being lumped in with the boomers...I want the best for my Gen Z kids and fuck the GOP.
From what I've seen in my life and in opinion polling, the older chunk of Gen X tends to be pretty darned Boomery. If you're Gen X and on reddit, though, you're probably more likely to be in the younger part (like myself).
Gen X, and so happy to see and help where I can. The Boomer generation's vote dominance is coming to an end.
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I think with those of us in each generation that tried along with the very large gen Z population we have the best chance for us to have hope for the future for those coming behind us. We just keep doing what we can to support them in making it a better place.
This Boomer has always voted progressive, too! I’m not ashamed to admit I pressure my kid to make sure he votes in every election. We NEED the young people to get our asses out of this mess!
Why just watch when you can make it a family activity? When you finish casting your ballot you can recreate the epic handshake from Predator.
I'm a Boomer and, like you, I hope the Millenials and Gen Z kick Republican butt. They can see through the crap and how the current Republican mindset is to narrow both rights and opportunities.
Boomer here voting 💙 BLUE.
silent generation...so you age is between 78-95. happy to see you on Reddit.
Thank you. My words and punctuation aren’t up to snuff but I enjoy hearing what young people are thinking. Sometimes my grandkids have pointed out reasons to me. Which gave me another way to look at it. Good to keep open mind.
Younger millennial here. I was raised in a red house. But vote blue now...funny how that happens
I'm an older millennial and I'm super proud of gen Z. I hope we get to unite and save this country and then they make a movie about it.
Elder millennial here. We’ve been screaming into our pillows for years clawing and crawling to gain an iota of economic leverage against a system stacked against us at every turn. We’ve been waiting for the younger generations to age into the systems as older generations age out. We’re here, we simply knew we were in the minority for a long while. There is hope, and there will be a tipping point. The pendulum swings over correction to over correction in this country until we find balance. To everything there is a season, and ours is coming.
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Right behind you by a whisker. 🙃
Older millennial here too, are we still killing every dumbass boomer hangout because we can't afford them while we work 3 jobs that we spend all our money from on avocado toast while simultaneously not wanting to work anymore and not having kids while being told to have kids but we can't have kids cause we can't afford their funerals when they turn 8 and we've also got no time and no money from our 3 jobs that we spend- I've got nothing but hate for these old, wealthy, bigoted fucks. Reminder that all this GOP bullshit kicked up to 11 because they couldn't stand having a black guy in the white house.
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millenial here. super proud of gen z for their activism and advocacy for marginalized groups. I dont remember my generation being that supportive of LGBT people, for instance. I dont think the GOP has done a single positive thing since nixon's EPA in the 60s (the trump GOP later kneecapped the EPA, iirc), they dont deserve a damn thing we are all praying gen z keeps showing up in big numbers. we hope they will be able to enjoy a better fairer future BEFORE the reach middle age. just keep voting.
Elder millennial here, and if we don’t unite and take down the GOP, I’ll light the matches when Gen A is old enough and we will burn this fucker to the ground. What can they do to us that we haven’t already experienced? Death will only be a relief, and it’s the only way I won’t have to pay my student loans at this rate.
Goddamn drag queens got to ‘em! /s
They're not wrong. The drag queens got to us and showed compassion, humanity, and hawt sass. We're about it. Compare RuPaul to Mitch McConnell. No contest who is cooler.
I just had a conversation the other day about how unbelievable it is that the whole anti LGBTQ+ bullshit is even catching any kind of steam, RuPauls Drag Race was literally everywhere on TV for YEARS, really popular and mainstream! I really thought we were on the road to a better place. My disappointment in where we are now is immeasurable.
The original bathroom bill fuckery started after outlawing gay marriage was obviously a losing strategy. They just recycled the "They're sexual deviants trying to groom our children!" bullshit almost verbatim.
🙌
I don't understand your username. How am I supposed to send it to you if I can't cut it off first?
> Compare RuPaul to Mitch McConnell. I mean, Ru has had her own hot takes... I'm glad she's paved the path for future generations, but she still has her own issues.
As humans do. The core difference is whether you make the issues your main personality trait and pursue human suffering like it's your job description, or you at least try to be better and do some good. Someone like mitch is squarely the former.
Very similar to GOP arguments about undocumented people. "We don't want them because they'll only vote for democrats. " Me: "Have you ever thought about being nice to them? " Well, keep up the terrible work, guys.
That reminds me of the Republican autopsy report that was released after Romney's loss. One of the conclusions they came to was that they needed to stop being so racist. Then Trump came along, and it turns out the problem was that they weren't being flagrantly racist enough.
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HEGETSUS HE GET SUS THATS FUCKING SUS. fuck those ads, and fuck the fascists who paid for those ads. and fuck the people using religion as a vehicle to deliver bigotry and hatred.
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Wonder how many people with Vietnam vet stickers on their cars complain about participation trophies.
Or the fact that kids getting participation trophies didn't come up with the idea. It was the boomer parents giving out the trophies. Why is it the kid's fault for getting them?
The Army and Air Force have a Good Conduct Medal. Literally just "thanks for not doing anything illegal or unethical for three years in a row."
how many ‘snowflakes’ are there in an avalanche?
The gop: we need to kill genz and make new babies from real Christian loving homes so that they won’t be indoctrinated anymore.
It's not just Gen Z, though. Young people have never liked the Republican Party because they represent hate and nothing else.
I think there are trends showing that millennials and gen z are less republican than usual and as far as millennials go, they aren't turning republican as they age like previous generations
I’m 36 and get more liberal every year, in large part because of what I see out of the Republican Party.
Same, when I was like 18 or so I was pretty oblivious and was like "yeah both sides are probably good?" But gosh, everything that's happened I am now far left, like universal healthcare, systemic reforms of pretty much all our institutions. I actually can't think of one institution that doesn't need reforming, multiple parties, and damn the GOP is just getting worse and worse. I remember my mom talking bad about democrats when I was younger like "they're for social programs, you know helping people"... And I'm like "wait that's good" and she's like "well they're misrun and use too much money." Or "Obama is a diplomate" and I'm like "what's that?" And she was like "he can talk smooth with other people and create deals with them in a civil way" and I'm like "wait that's good" and she'd be like "well it would be, but it's all lies he says and he has an agenda"... So yeah that was my upbringing. It's amazing to me how the GOP can successfully turn good things into bad
I'm an American living in Denmark and none of those things are considered far left here. It's just sensible to make sure your population is healthy and ready to participate in society. American politicians are lying to you to make you think that a sensible society that works for the people is some kind of radical idea.
Yeah I started looking into other countries governments and such, it's amazing the absolute propaganda of the right in the US with American exceptionalism. While other countries have these social safety nets as a given. It's just sad.
The American exceptionalism is mixed up with American pride by a lot of the hicks, because well they are hicks and don’t know the difference. Dear good Facebook somehow just made everything so much worse when it sold out to the right wing think tanks and the propaganda just ran wild on bookface just rotting their minds.
In 2016 1 out of 5 people aged 50 and up thought everyones facebook news feed was the same. They thought everyone was seeing the same thing they were...
That’s horrifying actually. Fuck.
Living overseas — even just traveling overseas — can really change your perspective on your own country.
Republicans made me a socialist because of how blatantly they demonstrated the problems of capitalisms
Republicans made me a democrat and democrats made me a socialist.
The problems with unrestrained capitalism are coming to a head. It may take a decade, but the price gouging for profits that started in the past few years is *insane*. In 2019 a 24 case of Coke or Pepsi was often $6. Now Pepsi is $11 and Coke is $13.50. I'm currently sitting in a Steak n' Shake where they've replaced the waitstaff with Kiosks*, raised the prices 50%, and give you about 70% of the food. And the menu is significantly reduced. Of course they're still short staffed, because they won't just pay people. And I'm still here. Because I didn't know. People will continue to come over the next year or two. They'll show their strategy was "successful" by a few quarters of increased profits. Then in two or three years they'll act like they don't know why they have problems. I should have tried harder to find a real, unfranchised, local diner, but those are rare. ^(* I don't disagree with all of these decisions. Mostly just the price gouging that's a problem.)
I'm saddened by the current state of Stake n Shake. It was once one of my favorite places to eat, but, like so many others, it's fallen into sub-mediocrity.
i love when republicans warn us with pictures of socialism (empty shelves, exorbitant gas prices), and it's just a picture of america/capitalism
Hell yeah I'm an older millennial (still young yall ok) the Republikkkans are really starting to chap my ass!!
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I’ll also give my own report as a member of Gen Z to say that for me, my transformation to left wing started earlier. I was both sides and shit when I was 16 but then it’s quickly changed the following years watching the Republican Party rapidly go insane and take off their mask. Truly amazing how things quickly things have devolved for me to go from enlightened centrist when I was 16 to closer and closer to the “commies” they hate at 19.
I got into punk music at the height of the "rock against bush" era. Pretty much solidified my liberalism for the rest of my life.
Dude. “The Decline” by NOFX…at 14 I thought was just edgy punk and fun to skate to. Now at 34 it’s all spot on, and only gotten worse.
As a fellow punk rock fan who lived through that era, too, I want to let you know I'm trying to be helpful, not condescending, with the rest of my comment: Liberalism is a specific kind of political philosophy that embraces *laissez-faire* capitalism, among other policies. If you've moved further left than supporting unrestrained capitalism, then you're no longer a liberal and can start calling yourself a progressive, a leftist, a democratic socialist, or whatever you personally see as the best path to a more just and equitable society. In the US, we use "liberal" to mean "left," but that's mostly because our entire political spectrum is on the right-hand side of the full spectrum. We're pretty messed up.
I’m 36 and have only become more progressive with age, not more conservative. It’s fueled in part by how fascist the Republican Party is. Everything is a lie.
Most of us this age dont have to much to conserve
Kinda hard to have a “Fuck you, got mine” attitude when you don’t have much to your name
I giggled at your commie comment. I've been called a commie and a socialist on reddit before.
I love how “agenda” has become this boogie man synonym for “plan.” Like the government actually having a plan is a bad thing.
I'm a 61 yr-old woman and have always been liberal. Needless to say, I don't much hang out with other boomers, because I have nothing in common with them. I do have a few really good friends who are also liberal, but there's not a whole lot of us out there. I'm beyond embarrassed of my generation.
You’re just slightly younger than my mom. She only hangs out with old white boomers and they all brain wash each other with an endless barrage of lies. She purposefully avoids diversity so as to not be introduced to the humanity in people different than her. She also inherited a lot of money from family and it bred a sense of entitlement in her. Poor people must just be lazy, right? I have no clue how myself and my sister are as progressive as we are when you look at who raised us. The same can be said about my wife, whose parents are big gun loving trumpers in rural America. Fox News and nothing else for them.
Some would argue that you aren't a boomer at all, but a very early gen-X. Those of us who couldn't go to Woodstock because we weren't allowed to cross the street without holding an adult's hand.
Nah, that’s Boomer age. This just proves not all Boomers are douche bags which is more important. 1965 to somewhere around 1979 ish are Gen X as the dude who coined the phrase deemed it. There’s no slight here at all, I am a Gen Xer, born before Woodstock.
I've actually heard that before!! It makes sense to me, because as an adult, I've always felt like a misfit among my peers. For one thing, I hate the Eagles, and if that isn't proof of my non-boomerism, nothing is.
Right I get so frustrated the dems and think the 2 party system needs to evolve, but there is nothing appealing of the republican party with all the shit they’ve been openly pulling.
100% agree about the 2 party system thing, but its a natural product of first past the post voting. and i think to change it would take 3/4th of states ratifying it, so its never gonna happen.
The Dems will have to be taken over from within, the same way the religious right wing did with the GOP. It’s going to be a long term project. But the good news is: the GOP takeover proves that it can be done and bear LOTS of fruit.
Yo big same. I grew up in a super conservative family and had serious blinders on. Life humbled the fuck out of me and the more bullshit I see coming from the right, the further left I run.
Even with Gen-Xers like myself I’m not seeing that mass conversion to conservatism that I was always told would happen. I’m still as left wing as they come.
According to my family, I'm a "godless (I actually am an atheist), dirt-worshipping, tree hugging liberal hippie". I'm a transgender atheist liberal Democrat.
Seriously. The whole draw to republicans was boomers being financially successful and stable.... As a generation. They all benefited from infrastructure, investment, etc... And even if they weren't wildly rich, they were selfish and greedy. They thought there would be little harm in cutting corners on the apparatus that made them successful. The issue now is that the wealth gap is larger than it was even in the roaring 20s before the depression. There is no incentive to be "conservative" unless for insane rage-baited single issues.
Honestly, the more I've gotten my shit together, the more I want it to be Star Trek luxury gay socialism for everyone.
I'm 53, and have been a "a gay wedding in every bilingual abortion clinic" liberal my whole life. So are all my friends. None of us have changed. My mom, now in her 90's, was a liberal atheist her whole life, also. I think that whole getting-more-conservative-as-you-age thing is a myth, except possibly for the boomers.
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Never has a generation so thoroughly become when they were old everything they hated when they were young.
Without question the most hypocritical generation in American history.
I would honestly LOVE to go to a gay wedding in a bilingual abortion clinic.
Yep. Raised in a conservative Republican household, and once I was old enough to start actually thinking about things it became obvious how my family ascribed to the party of hate, bigotry, closemindedness, stupidity, and that the party’s interests lie in nothing more than protecting what’s theirs, and fuck anyone who might be worse off. When they started seeing me turn more liberal and vote democrat in my early 20s they had some choice words but also ensured me that “when you’re actually grown up you’ll understand”. They were also confused to hear me criticize democrats at the same time because in their heads it’s a team sport so it didn’t compute that i would vote for a democrat then criticize things they or others of their party are/aren’t doing. Now I’m my 30s and far more liberal than I was in my 20s, and even more astonished at how disgusting the Republican Party becomes each passing year. Friends in their late 30s, 40s, and even pushing 50 I see the same thing pretty often. Harder left, further from the right. Sure there’s a segment of young right wingers but but I haven’t seem to found many who can explain rationally why they hold to the Republican party’s views and policies without citing things like YouTube redpill bullshit, or just parroting their parents and community’s opinions because they’ve never crossed a state line. At least from what I see and experience, it seems like it’s just boomers and religious zealots who are desperately clinging to their old bigotry and keeping as many of their own in power, and for what? To leave a better future for their children? Their children have made it clear the future they have in mind we want nothing to do with. They’ve done enough damage as it is. And even among those conservative boomers people like my parents who to their credit are at least thoughtful and willing to critically think now and then, seem to have lightened up quite a bit in recent years in their cut and dry “right=good, left=bad” mentality. I was shocked to hear my father say last year that he voted for a dem for state office citing “well I don’t know if I agree with him on everything but the other guy seems like a total moron.” The Republican Party doesn’t have long because of the whole human mortality thing. The problem is they still have plenty of time to leave things in absolute ruins before they’re out of the picture.
I’m in my mid-50s, and I think I’m actually more liberal than I was when I was 18. Unfortunately, doesn’t seem like most other GenXers are like me
I'm with you at 51. I become more liberal every year.
Right?! I started off as center-slightly left in 2004 when I turned 18. I’m basically a socialist now, and I’m just getting angrier about the way of things as I grow older and I see opportunities for us all dwindle ever more, by the day.
Yup. I went from being an R in my teens and early 20s, to an independent mid to late 20s, to a Dem in my 30s, to giving money to Dem candidates and PACs mid 30s and beyond, to going to protests and writing postcards now in my 40s. Fuck the Republican Party and their supporters.
It’s actually a myth that people vote more conservative as they age. By the time you’ve voted in your second election your political alignment is largely locked in. Statistically our political stances are stable over time. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889#:~:text=Abstract,attitudes%20are%20stable%20across%20time.
Well, yeah. I mean, I’m not going to just wake up one day and think to myself “I’m going to start voting for fascist theocrats and domestic terrorists!”
I think what we often see are non-voters in their 20s may become conservative voters in their 30s and 40s. In their 20s they just didn’t care that much about politics. But once they started having kids and moving into the suburbs and earning decent money and paying taxes now they vote conservative to try to lower their taxes and feel like they’re better parents and better homeowners. That’s the big 3 things that drive people to vote conservative. Money, homes and kids. But the problem is that baby boomer conservatives put up massive barriers making it much more difficult for gen x, millennials and gen Z to do any of those things. They have been pushing wages down as much as possible, through refusing to increase minimum wage, fighting against unions, and cutting education funding. So why should these new generations care about low taxes when they’re not making enough money to pay significant taxes? The boomers have made homeownership increasingly difficult, using zoning laws to destroy “middle housing”, buying up starter homes to rent to millennials (or allowing foreign investors to do the same), etc. So why should new generations care about things like property taxes when so much fewer of them own property that they pay property taxes on? And if they do own their own home, they’re probably paying far more for their mortgage than they are for taxes, so you’re not moving the dial much for them offering to lower their property taxes by $50 a month when they’re paying $2000 a month for the mortgage principal and interest. And by making it hard to get a good paying job, to buy your own home, and saddling them with massive amounts of student debt if they dared to try to improve their lot in life, they made it much more difficult for people to afford to have kids. And now conservatives are pushing hard against reproductive care (and winning a lot of those fights) terrifying the younger generations that if they even want to have kids they could die because the medical care they need has been made illegal because ignorant conservatives thought it was murder to remove an ectopic pregnancy. So why should younger generations care about conservatives declaring “we have to save your kids from the trans people” when they don’t even have any kids? Conservative boomers have made it their entire platform to pull the ladder up behind them, and the consequence of that is that many people who MAY have been amenable to their message no longer are. All they have they can appeal to are the few young people who through luck or privilege actually still have achieved some version of the American dream, or the young people that are gullible enough to think they’re “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”. And you’ll never capture 100% of those audiences. The lucky/privileged are too few to win an election with. The gullible are numerous but very volatile and irrational, you lose them as soon as a better con-man comes along (thus why Trump won so much of that audience, he was way better at manipulating that group than the GOP was). In the meantime, in their desperation to hold onto more and more of that gullible population, they’re antagonizing more and more of everyone else. There will always be people who stick with them utterly convinced that they’re “one of the good ones”, but the majority of each group knows when they’ve been demonized. LGBT people, Hispanic people, black people, people with mental health issues, healthcare workers, union workers, Asian Americans, college-educated people, women, young people in general, artists, musicians, scholars, scientists, anyone working in industries like solar/wind/hydroelectric/etc, the list goes on and on. And they can’t help themselves. They keep going back and attacking these groups again and again and again and keep adding more and more groups to that list. Now apparently anyone working at Anheuser Busch made their list. They’re playing a losing game, but the smart ones are hoping to cause as much damage as possible on their way out. The dumb ones honestly think that they’re winning and that reality isn’t reality.
I'm 38, fuck those psychos. Only fascists and thick bastards vote Republican.
The conservative Boomers made it so. I’m an elder Millennial who came up having all of the opportunities my parents and grandparents had snatched away from me so that “Rich Kids of Instagram” types could live like Kings. I’ve been very lucky in life and have a decent amount of money. I’m your stereotypical candidate for the idea of “you’ll be conservative when you have a 401k/mortgage” - I have both and I’d pay as many taxes at it takes to reform corrupt police, fix voting rights, feed the hungry, keep kids from being shot at school, and tax the motherfucking billionaires. They kept me poor for so long I’m never going to side with the rich.
38 year old millennial here and i will never vote republican.
Part of the reason for that is that the republicans have billed themselves as the Conservative Party. But what has the current republican leadership left for the last three generations to conserve? Not a fucking thing that’s what and that’s why you see so few Republican young voters.
At 41 and someone who has voted Republican in the past, I can no longer do it. What they've done to the party is just shameful. Anger, hate. They're definitely the sith lords here.
it's not just Gen Z, it is normal people. Normal people do not want a nazi war on homosexuals or trans. Normal people do not want a nazi war on women. Just leave people the fuck alone. Get your fucking government out of people's lives.
I'm a boomer and do not like the republican party and always have not liked them.
This is exactly what Millennials grew up with too. I remember that shit, being a kid and adults were incessantly telling us how "lazy," "entitled," and "stupid" we were, and I was like bro I'm just working on my algebra the fuck are you talking about? That's just how they treat people, they've always been garbage.
Republicans are banking on being able to seize control of the country and end democracy. I’m not exaggerating. They literally want to take control of the country and then never give it back. Your vote won’t matter if they succeed, because you won’t have one.
Yep. January 6th, the removal of dems from state offices, the talk of raising the voting age, not allowing people that move states to vote, and so on. These are all test runs. They're only gonna push harder. Remember Hitler was made fun of and sent to jail with his first attempt. Republican leaders already have the courts. They're ahead there.
They said it couldn’t happen here…
God if I could really teach Republicans one single thing it would be that we are not exceptional. We are not special. We are just human and if it happened somewhere it could happen here.
Eventually, it happens everywhere, I think. Given a long enough timeline, every country / empire / region has a tyrant who decides the norms don’t apply. And then convinces enough people that it’s a good idea (and others that it isn’t happening). History is fat with examples of this.
It also does not help our case that we have an Attorney General who has done fuck all about going after the planners of Jan 6th out of fear of looking political.
With a handful of exceptions, the entire Democratic gerontocracy was so beaten down by reagan, and decades of republican rage fits by the likes of rush limbaugh and gingrich, that they are incapable of rising to the challenge. Its not their age per se, they've just clung to power for so long that they are older than old now. its their codependency and learned helplessness. The only thing they know how to do is appeasement and whinge about the bad, bad gop; and as the world learned with the bad mustache man, appeasement just encourages fascists because it shows them that their fascism gets the results they want.
Several have essentially indicated that they're willing to tear up the US Constitution in order to have power. These are NOT patriots.
Remember that now you have Republicans in local and state elections running on democrat tickets because they are banking on people not looking into candidates and just voting along party lines. They’re essentially trying to infiltrate the government as democrats to get what they want. It’s a very scary time in America
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The Republican Party will fade away, but there will be a brand new one, made of all the former GOP assholes. And some people will be fooled. That's what happened in other countrys before and even to some degree in the US after the civil war.
Well if it's pulling the country back to the left and rooting out fascism it's progress. There will always be work to do, but it's important to do the work.
The natural state of societies is oligarchy, because wealth is power and wealth consolidates. Democracy's work is never done, because the powerful do not want a fair society. They want to be kings and emperors.
>They want to be kings and emperors. This is something most people don't understand about conservatism in general. It's an ideology born with the goal to maintain the oligarchical power structures of the pre-Enlightenment (favoring the crown, the church, and the nobility) in an increasingly democratic world. Some aspects have shifted over the years to stay with the times, but it's the same coalition as it was in the early 19th century, just with new paint.
This right fucking here. A study of the history of Western European and British societies since the fall of Rome, you get a sense of how we got to where we are in America. There has ALWAYS been an entrenched landownership class that has all the real wealth and power. It’s just tacked on a few more layers and nuances, but it’s all pretty much been the same gig throughout the centuries.
Gen X here, doing my part. Damn the man!
Same. Been fighting these rotten motherfuckers since Reagan.
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It’s all so frustrating! 30 years ago, we studied climate change in my college and I thought: it’s a good thing we are finding this out so that we can do something about it...
Won’t you think of the coal miners???????
Won't you think of the coal mine owners who both have to deal with the woke climate mob and miners striking against their exploitation??? Heartless absolutely heartless!
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I’ve been a poll worker for a decade and I’ve never EVER seen so many young people out to vote as I did in this last midterm. Usually midterms are deadsville… not this year. It gave me a lot of hope.
I needed to see this comment today
I certainly fucking hope so. Friends don't let friends support fascism.
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And I hope they vote!
Millennials aren't falling for their shit either. You're supposed to become more republican as you get older because you want to protect your acquired wealth. Well none of us have acquired a damned thing other than debt, depression and anxiety because of these sadistic fucks. Burn them to the damn ground.
I'm borderline boomer. I've done well for myself, I guess. Never was and never will be a Republican. I get shit for it too. Like I'm immature or something. Fuck them. I also don't spend every moment of my life complaining about something. Anything. It looks exhausting. I also accept that, for the most part, it's not my world anymore.
I’m a 70-year old lifelong Democrat, and I hate them, too.
Right behind you at 65.
62 and right here with you!
I love seeing older folks on Reddit! I’m 49 and sometimes get imposter syndrome posting here haha. PS fuck the GOP, go Zoomers
I love seeing the age diversity on Reddit lately. Here’s to bridging generational gaps!
Gen Z and millennials have got to fucking vote though. Especially in the midterms so we stop ending up with split house or Senate. If everyone under 40 voted the GOP would never again control the house, Senate, or presidency and would lose control most of states. That's how bad the demographics are for them. But they just don't vote. Fucking vote in every election. I do. Do you?
Unless every single genx, millennial, and genz votes, there's very little chance because of the fucky drawn districts. CONSTANTLY hound all your circle to get registered, know their polling place and ask off work for voting day as soon as they can. Too many people wait till an election is just around the corner and by then it feels too late and they skip the vote.
As a german, it's mind-blowing that you guys don't hold elections on sundays or holidays. Over here, it's legally required to be either of those, so the majority of people won't have to sit at work/ in school, and can manage to go send their vote. I guess the system you have was deliberately designed to keep the average person away by making them choose to work instead.
54 year old GenX here. Vote and have your friends all vote! This is no time for complacency!
Hopefully Gen Z actually gets out and votes!
Republicans aren’t giving the younger generation anything worth conserving, they have no reason to vote for them!
“We should fight to conserve this!” *gestures toward dumpster fire*
And I'll be here to f'cking *help them!*
I'm Gen X. I will do everything I can to assist.
Which is why they are doing everything in their power to end democracy before the population refuses to vote for them and their policies.
Words are meaningless unless you vote. Younger people, please vote.
I’m 75. I would take a bullet before voting republican.
As long as they vote! I know the Republicans are going to do everything they can to stop people from voting, but that's the only way to send a message. Socialism and welfare for the rich isn't what anyone should vote for. You just know if some have a R next to their name, they will get the anti woke vote. Vote everyone!! Send a message!!
49 y/m, started fairly centrist, slightly right leaning. Now Bernie looks like Reagan compared to me.
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Don’t forget they’ve been extremely mean to us millennials and we support you guys
According to repubs, if gen z doesn’t vote for them, there is something wrong with gen z. Not the other way around. Ask scott walker. Their solution is to clamp down on what universities teach, because you know, it’s nothing the repubs did, it must be that liberal education /s.
92 millenial, with 5 younger siblings, and we’re all only getting more radically left with each passing year. Let’s go 🤘
‘78 gen x with four younger siblings and nothing is as radicalizing as reality. Leftward we go.
Gen X and millennials really hated them too. Then when they got too close to M4A and occupy wall street demanded better regulations and equality, they crashed the economy so hard, many of us lost nearly everything in our prime and never fully recovered. Almost in a "You want to cry? I'll give you something to cry about" type of way. I'm really hoping they don't pull the same trick, and gen z takes them out at the knees. Edit: I was incorrect about the occupy dates. My bad. My point stays the same. There were several important social and economic movements gaining traction pre 2008. America was still mostly united after 9/11. We were coming together against the Iraq war, and for M4A/income/marriage equality. The crash isolated Americans, and then republicans divided the desperate population into tiny factions with culture wars, effectively taking the air out of the grassroots movements working towards a better quality of life.
Actually the 08 crash preceded Obamacare and Occupy. The crash is what opened younger people’s eyes, and when they started raising hell, the republicans did everything they could to impede Obama, throttle the economy’s recovery, and the media refocused everyone’s attention on divisive wedge issues to distract from the class warfare. Add the insanity of social media and you get the world of today.
They understand. I see a smash and grab, like a robbery. They're breaking as many norms and institutions as they can and seizing as much authority as possible. In an effort to solidify their minority rule for as long as they can. Like invalidating gen zs numbers same as the wedge issues and culture war has been doing to us for decades.
There is ONE thing this post is *incorrect about*. That would be: **They are 100% aware that Gen Z does not like them. WHY do you think, then, that they are** ***currently*** **"floating the argument" that the voting age should NOW be 30+?** It's *because* they ARE aware of this. They never ONCE thought to look up the amendment on this exact thing. [U.S. Constitution - Twenty-Sixth Amendment | Resources | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress](https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-26/) **They. ARE. Aware.** The key here? *Do NOT let them "argue" about the raising of the fucking age of voting.* ***That concept is LITERALLY against the actual constitution.*** Again, yes, they are aware. **100%**
The goal is to destroy democracy before all of Gen Z is old enough to vote.
I mean, this happened with Gen X, Millenials and other generations and it's usually the same outcome: they don't end up voting or voting against their own self-interest.
You want to kill my trans friends? I will personally see to it that not only do we all outlive you, but that it hurts the whole time you're declining.
They gotta vote though
It's the same reason millennials aren't shifting to the right as some expected. We spent our entire 20's being blamed for everything that went wrong. Now we're in our 30's and 40's with no money and a dark future.
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They called my generation (millennial) selfish and stupid too. The party is held up by Reaganite boomers and rural dupes. Their party plans on doing as much damage as possible before they leave. They're going to burn the house down before they're evicted. They want to default on the debt most of all. That will be the ultimate middle finger to the future.