I think we may have bigger fish to fry these days; billionaires love it when little people fight amongst themselves. It's high comedy because in the mean time they're well on their way to owning everything.
I disagree wholeheartedly. This is a dumb exclusionary policy being fairly pointed out, not ageism.
I'll explain it with a comparision of the language used.
The language used for benches like this in my country, Australia: "Priority seating. Please stand for seniors and handicapped people".
Priority, based on needs. Anyone can use it otherwise.
The language used in this sign: "Benches are for seniors are handicapped citizensonly"
Exclusionary, based on privilege and needs. If you are old and infirm and a citizen ONLY YOU may ever use this bench, and if you're not a citizen (tourist, asylum seeker, migrant worker) you can fuck off regardless of your needs.
This is not a subtle distinction. This is language used to assert a hierarchy and exclude underclasses, and it's embedded into every aspect of your society without most people even noticing because they've never seen different.
I don't disagree with you. My point is simply that in the US right now there's a concerted effort to keep the citizenry in a frenzy of angry finger pointing to distract us from the fact that we are being robbed blind by the "Epstein class". The issues are real, but these are relatively small issues in comparison. Those folks pay actual money to keep us doing this shit and it works. In the US we have a desperate need to understand that this is engineered, and the engineers are laughing their asses off at the screaming rabble.
Pitting racism doesn't work so well with left-leaning audiences, so the billionaires try with ageism which is not so frowned upon. No demographic is without a wedge to exploit.
Went canvassing for the first time today. So many seniors living in shitty homes. Fixed income at $900 and rent is still going up while no jobs exist for miles. We cant single out a generation and just blame them while material conditions worsen everywhere.
You're not wrong... But the crossover age range of the vast majority of billionaires and seniors is a damned circle, it's both a class and age thing simultaneously. Boomers are usually defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, so that age range would be 62-80 as of 2026.
And that ignores the much larger number of them that are under a billion but still well on their way up towards it. In practicality, there's little difference between 100 million and a billion despite it being 90% less.
Of those mentioned between 50 and 70 years old, the ones up to 61 are Gen X.
Also the trillionaire is Gen X.
I have seen so many boomers going to the front of demonstrations to make the police hold back their batons.
It's not a generational issue, it's a media bombardment of manufactured issues with a generational spin. In that picture we should be angry at not having enough benches for everybody instead of blaming the beneficiaries of that dumb sign.
Or what? You get a ticket if you're not old enough? If you have a problem with not enough benches for everyone, maybe just make more benches? Not like they are expensive.
The anti-property tax propaganda is from the real estate hoarding corporate owners. As usual, these anti-tax wingnuts latch on to “why should I pay property tax (insert selfish reason here)” when the real reason is the real estate hoarding companies don’t want to pay property taxes on all the properties they’ve hoarded and are likely sitting empty. The same properties they used to price people out of homebuying, the same ones they used to increase rent super high because you can’t afford a home and will own nothing.
And of course anti-tax wingnuts don’t care that property taxes pay for schools, police, fire services,etc. (ain’t got no kids so why should I pay for school? My house has never burned down. Who needs cops when I got a Smith and Wesson?) and those things will still have to be paid for via some kind of tax, so in the end they still pay but the absentee owners get a huge tax break.
They held me back for one gym credit even though I played Football and Hockey since I was in HS in my Junior year. I quit school, fucked up their numbers and went to college a year early and aced my GED.
They begged me to come back, fuck that. I'm the asshole that will sue over 5 bucks and it costs me 1000 to get it back. I'm an idiot that way.
Edit: my info was based off of discounts so I was half right
Age 55 is generally not considered an official senior citizen by the government, though it marks the start of early senior status for housing, marketing, and select discounts.
Right? If I knew what I know now or had listen to the old guys I would be a millionaire... But nope, I knew better than any of them... Man I was a dumb kid.
I doubt this is about bench maintenance and more about giving and excuse to chase homeless people and kids away from the area. In other places they just use bench designs that are uncomfortable or make it impossible to lay down.
Ah, well that's just fucking lovely. So, presumably they're legally required to put a bench there, but they would also rather not have anyone actually exist there...
I'm Gen-X and we usually get dumped in with the Boomers here in the US. However, ours was the first generation to get fucked. Like all those golden pensions of yesteryear dried up and disappeared as soon as we began entering the job force. So those a little older than us are kickin' back enjoying 70% of their retirement pay or whatever, often with health insurance (as opposed to Medicare), and we're stuck with shitty 401Ks that yield not only less assets but less secured assets because you can easily go through your entire benefits before you die, as opposed to the pension system. And, of course, our retirement today doesn't typically come with any auxiliary benefits such as healthcare. Plus most of us are assisting our elderly surviving parents and adult children simultaneously!
Plus most of us are assisting our elderly surviving parents
I keep seeing this with people I know, including my spouse and myself. We have spent our entire marriage so far taking care of old family members. Why us? Because my wife is literally the only competent person anyone in her family knows. And she's very caring and compassionate.
Or she was. None of the elderly people we have supported have been nice or easy to care for. My wife got tired of feeling used. We have decided that we are no longer an unpaid skilled nursing service and therefore we are the most heartless people to have ever existed. It has not been popular but there aren't yet laws demanding we take care of them.
My family, on the other hand, is more organized and generally heathier. But i have still explained to my parents that they had better have a plan, because we aren't it.
And I wonder, how many other genx and millenials have made this same decision? How many will sleep on the Boomer-only bench?
It is generally cheaper where I live because towns have to build affordable housing and it is considered more acceptable to have poor elderly people than poor people with children.
The 55+ areas where I live are generally little rancher communities or apartments, some are low income type apartments but many are also luxury type apartments.
I could understand if the apartments or ranchers were built with accessibility in mind like shower bars and taller toilets, etc.
But mostly it's just because they don't like screaming children playing in the neighbourhood.
Is it a problem that the 55+ housing lowers prices of other housing in the area, or that seniors are selling their old homes and actually keeping the money from the sale?
In the area I live in there's a lot of places 55+ so it limits the amount of housing in the city available to working class people and those trying to raise families, increasing their housing prices. The community has a lot of old folks.
Unless you live in a really unusual area, 55+ housing doesn't really have much of an affect on area housing prices. It sells for less so other things being equal so developers have less of an incentive to build it over regular housing. People also sell their old homes and move into 55+ housing, making homes more suitable for families available.
Housing prices in general went insane during COVID and (at least in my area) the prices have not come down. Could the prices you're seeing on standard housing still be due to the COVID run up?
I'm disabled, but I'll gleefully cut the sign down and piss all over it in broad daylight. Anybody tries to stop me and it becomes a piss-coated harpoon. Every day if necessary, until they get the message.
That level of petty bullshit goes right back where it came from. I'm not at all opposed of going lower than my opponent - wtf are they going to do, try to get public and legal support for harassing a disabled person? Lmao
What about the younger handicap's? Are they all screwed because of those stinking Boomers? One day in the distant future we'll need to do something about those Boomers. /s
Wait, so we're supposed to have walkable cities and towns to minimize vehicle use, but we can't also have the equivalent of handicapped parking for the folks that need it most?
I'm not sure what's infuriating about this. It's exactly the same principle as handicapped parking, and there should be more of these.
Yeah, ideally you'd have enough benches around so that everyone can cop a squat as needed/wanted. But let's be fucking real here, a healthy, able bodied person in their twenties or thirties isn't going to need a seat as often.
Also, fuck that boomer stupidity. We're supposed to make a world that allows our elderly to have freedom of access and personal mobility. Idgaf what empty headed shit you have against actually baby boomers, we are all going to get old, die, or die before getting old. It's about fucking supporting each other when we're in need. Today's boomers? Well, you'll be them in fifty years and looking back at this and think "holy fuck, I wish I had a place to sit before trying this next block" this shit helps you, your mother, your uncle, and eventually your kids.
This is a dumb exclusionary policy being fairly pointed out, not ageism.
I'll explain it with a comparision of the language used.
The language used for benches like this in my country, Australia: "Priority seating. Please stand for seniors, pregnant, or handicapped people".
Priority, based on needs. Anyone can use it otherwise.
The language used in this sign: "Benches are for seniors are handicapped citizensonly"
Exclusionary, based on privilege and needs. If you are old and infirm and a citizen ONLY YOU may ever use this bench, and if you're not a citizen (tourist, asylum seeker, migrant worker) you can fuck off regardless of your needs. Pregnant women? Who cares, they're not old and they're women.
This is not a subtle distinction. This is language used to assert a hierarchy and exclude underclasses, and it's embedded into every aspect of US society without most people even noticing because they've never seen different.
How about put the bench there, and then if people are using it to the point the disabled and elderly can't use it, add the sign. I get what your saying comparing it to handicapped parking, but IMO it's a false equivalent. I've personally never seen a parking lot that was handicapped parking exclusively and people park there cars and can leave them there for hours as opposed to sitting on a bench for ~5-10 minutes at a bench and since you are physically present, you can get up of someone needs the spot more.
62 Comments
svdasein@lemmy.world · 85 pts · 2d
I think we may have bigger fish to fry these days; billionaires love it when little people fight amongst themselves. It's high comedy because in the mean time they're well on their way to owning everything.
pulsewidth@lemmy.world · 59 pts · 1d
I disagree wholeheartedly. This is a dumb exclusionary policy being fairly pointed out, not ageism.
I'll explain it with a comparision of the language used.
The language used for benches like this in my country, Australia: "Priority seating. Please stand for seniors and handicapped people".
Priority, based on needs. Anyone can use it otherwise.
The language used in this sign: "Benches are for seniors are handicapped citizens only"
Exclusionary, based on privilege and needs. If you are old and infirm and a citizen ONLY YOU may ever use this bench, and if you're not a citizen (tourist, asylum seeker, migrant worker) you can fuck off regardless of your needs.
This is not a subtle distinction. This is language used to assert a hierarchy and exclude underclasses, and it's embedded into every aspect of your society without most people even noticing because they've never seen different.
svdasein@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I don't disagree with you. My point is simply that in the US right now there's a concerted effort to keep the citizenry in a frenzy of angry finger pointing to distract us from the fact that we are being robbed blind by the "Epstein class". The issues are real, but these are relatively small issues in comparison. Those folks pay actual money to keep us doing this shit and it works. In the US we have a desperate need to understand that this is engineered, and the engineers are laughing their asses off at the screaming rabble.
guillem@aussie.zone · 9 pts · 1d
Pitting racism doesn't work so well with left-leaning audiences, so the billionaires try with ageism which is not so frowned upon. No demographic is without a wedge to exploit.
Zirconium@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
Went canvassing for the first time today. So many seniors living in shitty homes. Fixed income at $900 and rent is still going up while no jobs exist for miles. We cant single out a generation and just blame them while material conditions worsen everywhere.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 1d
is that rural, lcol areas. we still have 1 story homes in our pretty expensive col area.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 1d
Also against homeless people, which everyone, even poor people with some sort of housing looks down upon.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social · 5 pts · 1d
You're not wrong... But the crossover age range of the vast majority of billionaires and seniors is a damned circle, it's both a class and age thing simultaneously. Boomers are usually defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, so that age range would be 62-80 as of 2026.
And that ignores the much larger number of them that are under a billion but still well on their way up towards it. In practicality, there's little difference between 100 million and a billion despite it being 90% less.
guillem@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 1d
Of those mentioned between 50 and 70 years old, the ones up to 61 are Gen X.
Also the trillionaire is Gen X.
I have seen so many boomers going to the front of demonstrations to make the police hold back their batons.
It's not a generational issue, it's a media bombardment of manufactured issues with a generational spin. In that picture we should be angry at not having enough benches for everybody instead of blaming the beneficiaries of that dumb sign.
obvs@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 1d
You can tell that you live in a society that's about to totally collapse when you see signs like this.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 2d
Or what? You get a ticket if you're not old enough? If you have a problem with not enough benches for everyone, maybe just make more benches? Not like they are expensive.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 2d
$1500 plus installation and ongoing cleaning and maintenance, plus each one probably adds to insurance.
Better use of tax revenue than hiring another cop, though. In fact they could afford more benches if they fired a cop, that would be a good trade.
Whenever a city says they don't have the money, suggest they fire a cop.
StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 1d
Or suggest they don't spend money they don't have on flock mass surveillance cameras
Kissaki@feddit.org · 3 pts · 1d
"Oh, sorry, I didn't see the notice. Maybe it should be more obvious."
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1d
The anti-property tax propaganda is from the real estate hoarding corporate owners. As usual, these anti-tax wingnuts latch on to “why should I pay property tax (insert selfish reason here)” when the real reason is the real estate hoarding companies don’t want to pay property taxes on all the properties they’ve hoarded and are likely sitting empty. The same properties they used to price people out of homebuying, the same ones they used to increase rent super high because you can’t afford a home and will own nothing.
And of course anti-tax wingnuts don’t care that property taxes pay for schools, police, fire services,etc. (ain’t got no kids so why should I pay for school? My house has never burned down. Who needs cops when I got a Smith and Wesson?) and those things will still have to be paid for via some kind of tax, so in the end they still pay but the absentee owners get a huge tax break.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2d
Whats the age are you considered a "senior"? I got the handicap part already, so thats nice...
(it actually sucks, but I make the best of it)
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 1d
4th year of highschool
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Yeah yeah yeah you're technically correct :)
MML@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1d
Not true! I was still a sophomore!
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 1d
Well played!
They held me back for one gym credit even though I played Football and Hockey since I was in HS in my Junior year. I quit school, fucked up their numbers and went to college a year early and aced my GED.
They begged me to come back, fuck that. I'm the asshole that will sue over 5 bucks and it costs me 1000 to get it back. I'm an idiot that way.
EDIT: I may have had another stroke.
ThreeCheesesalute@lemmus.org · 0 pts · 21h
You are, yes
11111one11111@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 11h
Jokes on you. Fewshman year of highschool was the best 6 years of my life.
mrmisses@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
I think it's 55
Edit: my info was based off of discounts so I was half right
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Dang almost there... Where do the years go eh?
mrmisses@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Not far behind you. It's all just been wasted fucking around, for me.
Youth is wasted on the young.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Right? If I knew what I know now or had listen to the old guys I would be a millionaire... But nope, I knew better than any of them... Man I was a dumb kid.
Kissaki@feddit.org · 5 pts · 1d
If my job role is senior that counts, right?
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
In my book... Yes.
/Sr Engineer that almost a senior, this is like inception shit! I need a pizza delivery guys, ladders, and firefighters STAT!
CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 1d
This is so ridiculous I hope it's fake.
TransNeko@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 19h
It's America... I'm sure it's not only real but enforceable with jail time.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 1d
Looks like a private sign posted on private property. Can be ignored.
lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 1d
At least add pregnant women so you're not a complete dick.
But honestly, fuck this noise.
trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 1d
Surely, that sign is more expensive than any sort of additional maintenance cost from people using your bench...?
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 1d
I doubt this is about bench maintenance and more about giving and excuse to chase homeless people and kids away from the area. In other places they just use bench designs that are uncomfortable or make it impossible to lay down.
poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 1d
It also mentions citizens so presumably they can chase away anyone who doesn't look like a citizen
trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1d
Ah, well that's just fucking lovely. So, presumably they're legally required to put a bench there, but they would also rather not have anyone actually exist there...
Generica@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 11h
I'm Gen-X and we usually get dumped in with the Boomers here in the US. However, ours was the first generation to get fucked. Like all those golden pensions of yesteryear dried up and disappeared as soon as we began entering the job force. So those a little older than us are kickin' back enjoying 70% of their retirement pay or whatever, often with health insurance (as opposed to Medicare), and we're stuck with shitty 401Ks that yield not only less assets but less secured assets because you can easily go through your entire benefits before you die, as opposed to the pension system. And, of course, our retirement today doesn't typically come with any auxiliary benefits such as healthcare. Plus most of us are assisting our elderly surviving parents and adult children simultaneously!
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 6h
I keep seeing this with people I know, including my spouse and myself. We have spent our entire marriage so far taking care of old family members. Why us? Because my wife is literally the only competent person anyone in her family knows. And she's very caring and compassionate.
Or she was. None of the elderly people we have supported have been nice or easy to care for. My wife got tired of feeling used. We have decided that we are no longer an unpaid skilled nursing service and therefore we are the most heartless people to have ever existed. It has not been popular but there aren't yet laws demanding we take care of them.
My family, on the other hand, is more organized and generally heathier. But i have still explained to my parents that they had better have a plan, because we aren't it.
And I wonder, how many other genx and millenials have made this same decision? How many will sleep on the Boomer-only bench?
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 1d
Where I live they also have housing exclusive to 55+ so it's much cheaper since there's a smaller market for them.
Ruins the housing economy and then holds some that's only available for themselves for cheap while they downsize for a massive nestegg.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 1d
It is generally cheaper where I live because towns have to build affordable housing and it is considered more acceptable to have poor elderly people than poor people with children.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1d
The 55+ areas where I live are generally little rancher communities or apartments, some are low income type apartments but many are also luxury type apartments.
I could understand if the apartments or ranchers were built with accessibility in mind like shower bars and taller toilets, etc.
But mostly it's just because they don't like screaming children playing in the neighbourhood.
jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 1d
it should be more acceptable to be poor and childless than to drag someone into thw world without a way to support them.
spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1d
Is it a problem that the 55+ housing lowers prices of other housing in the area, or that seniors are selling their old homes and actually keeping the money from the sale?
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1d
In the area I live in there's a lot of places 55+ so it limits the amount of housing in the city available to working class people and those trying to raise families, increasing their housing prices. The community has a lot of old folks.
spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
Unless you live in a really unusual area, 55+ housing doesn't really have much of an affect on area housing prices. It sells for less so other things being equal so developers have less of an incentive to build it over regular housing. People also sell their old homes and move into 55+ housing, making homes more suitable for families available.
Housing prices in general went insane during COVID and (at least in my area) the prices have not come down. Could the prices you're seeing on standard housing still be due to the COVID run up?
tired_n_bored@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
In my town benches are the recreational place for teenagers. What are teens/young people supposed to do?
mrlemmyhimself@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Spend their parents money or get fucked
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
What if they're a homeless boomer? An unmovable object means an irresistible force.
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
I'm disabled, but I'll gleefully cut the sign down and piss all over it in broad daylight. Anybody tries to stop me and it becomes a piss-coated harpoon. Every day if necessary, until they get the message.
That level of petty bullshit goes right back where it came from. I'm not at all opposed of going lower than my opponent - wtf are they going to do, try to get public and legal support for harassing a disabled person? Lmao
BillCheddar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
The point is to create a rule that they can selectively enforce.
tazeycrazy@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 1d
Kids don't play outside anymore. Also Why are there kids outside!!!
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1d
What about the younger handicap's? Are they all screwed because of those stinking Boomers? One day in the distant future we'll need to do something about those Boomers. /s
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 1 pts · 1d
Some of Gen X is elderly now, too.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2d
Many boomers are struggling to make ends meet
Duhtocqueville@ttrpg.network · 1 pts · 1d
You mean “ends seat?”
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1d
Are you saying only boomers can be disabled?
Bazoogle@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
They're saying it's absurd to try to stop anyone from using a public bench
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · -2 pts · 1d
Wait, so we're supposed to have walkable cities and towns to minimize vehicle use, but we can't also have the equivalent of handicapped parking for the folks that need it most?
I'm not sure what's infuriating about this. It's exactly the same principle as handicapped parking, and there should be more of these.
Yeah, ideally you'd have enough benches around so that everyone can cop a squat as needed/wanted. But let's be fucking real here, a healthy, able bodied person in their twenties or thirties isn't going to need a seat as often.
Also, fuck that boomer stupidity. We're supposed to make a world that allows our elderly to have freedom of access and personal mobility. Idgaf what empty headed shit you have against actually baby boomers, we are all going to get old, die, or die before getting old. It's about fucking supporting each other when we're in need. Today's boomers? Well, you'll be them in fifty years and looking back at this and think "holy fuck, I wish I had a place to sit before trying this next block" this shit helps you, your mother, your uncle, and eventually your kids.
Gtfo with your ablist, ageist shit
pulsewidth@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
What a reactionary zealot response.
This is a dumb exclusionary policy being fairly pointed out, not ageism.
I'll explain it with a comparision of the language used.
The language used for benches like this in my country, Australia: "Priority seating. Please stand for seniors, pregnant, or handicapped people".
Priority, based on needs. Anyone can use it otherwise.
The language used in this sign: "Benches are for seniors are handicapped citizens only"
Exclusionary, based on privilege and needs. If you are old and infirm and a citizen ONLY YOU may ever use this bench, and if you're not a citizen (tourist, asylum seeker, migrant worker) you can fuck off regardless of your needs. Pregnant women? Who cares, they're not old and they're women.
This is not a subtle distinction. This is language used to assert a hierarchy and exclude underclasses, and it's embedded into every aspect of US society without most people even noticing because they've never seen different.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 1d
Handicapped citizens is a term used to be neutral in most places, nor exclusionary for non citizens
pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de · 9 pts · 1d
If it was a "senior and handicapped priority" seat it'd be fine, but literally not letting anyone else sit on it is messed up.
StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d
How about put the bench there, and then if people are using it to the point the disabled and elderly can't use it, add the sign. I get what your saying comparing it to handicapped parking, but IMO it's a false equivalent. I've personally never seen a parking lot that was handicapped parking exclusively and people park there cars and can leave them there for hours as opposed to sitting on a bench for ~5-10 minutes at a bench and since you are physically present, you can get up of someone needs the spot more.