At this point I'm genuinely considering the only way to convince them to put the ladder back down is to ask them if they want more than 1/10 of their retirement care nurses to be white.
Similar to how I think the only real solution to MAGA is to start a psyopp that all citrus fruits make you queer.
They won't be willingly lowering any ladders. We're gonna have to dilute their political power and pull the ladder back down. Of course, the later generations still have too many rich assholes that will try to prevent that, so it'll be a fight either way.
The problem is there are plenty of ass hole genX that took all the wrong lessons from the Boomers.
I fear that the lauded “Boomers dead golden age” just leaves a bunch of bitter latch-key genX that want to “get theirs” because daddy wasn’t around enough.
As if there aren't plenty of asshole millenials and gen zs. It is not a thing that dies out with generations, otherwise it would have died off a million years ago. It perpetuates itself through societal and structural conditions.
Can't wait for JD Vance, Pete Buttigieg, and Mark Zuckerberg to hold the keys to the castle. Hope all y'all are excited to start a shooting war with China.
But he's been a corporate plant and a soulless climber within the Democratic Party since his mayoral days. The absolute worst that the party has to offer.
Your article says Pete started work in his 20's as a consultant for McKinsey. Some people blame his work for contributing to price fixing bread at Canadian grocery store(s) 6 years before he started working there.
This doesn't feel like a big deal to me or your average American. This feels like a campaign to run the career of a young and potentially effective Dem politician through the mud. Like had been done to Hilary and and now AOC. This doesn't mean that Pete Buttigieg is perfect, but let's not pretend he's the same as JD Fucking Vance.
They can say whatever they want. Their work visa philipino care aid isn't gonna give any more fucks cathing them when they have 20 other geriatrics in their care. If they want white people they can talk and relate to than they'd better make healthcare a viable profession for their grandchildren.
I have a boomer on my wife’s side that just remortgaged his house at 84 to buy an $80,000 Toyota Tacoma with all the custom add-on bullshit. They are not only intent on spending every cent they have, but also signing loans they never intend to pay off.
I have a boomer on my wife’s side that just remortgaged his house at 84
Why attribute to dementia what can be attributed to malice of forethought?
Boomers are also falling for phone scams and online phishing attacks in record numbers. Almost as though they're old af, living alone, and incapable of taking care of themselves.
Someone who uses a ladder to reach a higher spot (uses privileged situations to improve their life standards) and pulls the ladder up from behind them so those that follow can't use it.
For example: taking advantage of government subsidised secondary education to reach a higher income without loads of debt and then voting to get rid of the subsidies so you can pay slightly less in taxes because "you don't want to pay for someone else's schooling"
See my formerly poor father who got a pell grant and used it to get out of poverty to comfortable middle class but is a conservative who generally does not want the government helping people because it could be abused.
On the bright side he became disillusioned with MAGA and now just generally hates all politicians which I will consider a win for him
Greg fucking Abbott, governor of Texas had an accident when he was younger that paralyzed him. He sued the fuck out of those responsible, and then proceeded to pass a law that caps penalties to those responsible for accidents.
We didn't sell it. They sold it because it wasn't to be used by anyone else after them and they kept their ladder money until it gets funneled into the medical system because their kids "didn't earn it".
Yeah, this inter-generational blaming is really the most effective propaganda method applied by the ruling classes to make people forget about class war.
I work in hospice, and was recently made aware of a child who was contacted as their parent's emergency contact (parent in the hospital signing into hospice, but rapidly deteriorating.) She said she'd sign papers if needed to make sure her parent didn't end up on the street, but otherwise wasn't interested in updates/contact till her parent passed.
There's many flavors of ways this will come back to bite people.
It's so easy to turn billionaires into the main villains of the story, but it's a lazy thing to do. The real evil is the unregulated and unchecked system that allowed billionaires to be a thing. Keep that in place and grifter billionaires will just keep on popping up.
Nah. Billionaires didn't force Reagan and Clinton to deregulate the US and set the stage for what we have today. Capitalism existed while FDR implemented the new deal, etc.
There weren't as many billionaires influencing politicians because there were vastly fewer billionaires, and the value of the dollar was way higher. A 100millionare in the 80's would have, I imagine, had similar influence to today's billionaires.
Hell, Reagan had the "Kitchen Cabinet" that was all wealthy business owners.
Billionaires are a symptom, not the sickness. Yes, we need to rid ourselves of billionaires the way we rid ourselves of the robber barons, but they are not the problem no matter how hard you wish them to be. The problem is the system that allowed them to exist. Rich fucks were always around to exhert influence, but not like this. We had guard rails in place to limit their political influence, to break up monopolies, to set limits on political donations, to set limits on campaign finance, to set limits on media influence, etc.
By all means, break out the guillotine, but you cannot stop there. Saying "billionaire bad" is not enough. You have to have wholesale reform or you are going to end up in the same place, or much worse.
I genuinely do not understand why my point was so hard to grasp. Billionaires are bad, yes I agree, but billionaires are the end product of a system that allow billionaires to exist. Do not only focus on symptom, focus on the cause.
The problem is unrestricted, unregulated capitalism. Get rid of the top 20 billionaires and others will take their place, just as bad or maybe worse. Regulation goes a long way to addressing many of the problems we are seeing in our world today. Is it the only solution? Definitely not, but having had most regulation gutted (started in the 80s and just getting more hamstrung from there) has escalated the problem immensely. Reintroducing strong business regulation is a good start because, contrary to what a lot of you all are hoping for, most folks aren't ready to seize the means of production and make a wholesale change to a socialist utopia.
I am not confused, and I don't think we are necessarily disagreeing. My point isn't that billionaires are faultless or good. My point is that they are not the root of the evil. We cannot just rid ourselves of the billionaires, pat ourselves on the back and call it a day. We have to do that, and then go further. We have to, at the very least, put the guardrails back in place to ensure a new crop doesn't pop right back up.
The great crash and the following great depression took care of the robber barons. We regulated in order to avoid them again, but eventually forgot our lesson. I suspect that the AI crash will take care of this current batch of rich fucks, and we will once again regulate and focus on people like FDR did. I just wish we would stop forgetting the lessons of the not so distant past.
Ok, I think I see what you're getting at. Billionaires constitute the capitalist class, but individual capitalists aren't the problem; it's the capitalist class that needs to be abolished
Exactly! We need to set checks in place to make sure the mega rich are not allowed to be a thing. I am sorry but nobody should be rich enough to set up space tourism as a side hobby while his employees piss in bottles at the warehouse. That's fucking insane!
Right.. The people at the top weren't billionaires, but they were the wealthy elite, who had hundreds of millions of dollars, and before that, tens, and before that just millionaires.
The wealthy elite are always the ones that pull the strings in a capitalist organization of the economy..
I think you are GREATLY, GREATLY misunderstanding the level of lobbying the rich do to keep and expand their power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book) gives you a peek behind the curtains of just a few billionaires. Its scary how deep their roots run through society. Now imagine that times 1000's of billionaires. They litterally control how 95% of the population, eat, sleep, think, pray, and vote.
Oh, I didn't have kids simply because I don't like them, never had any desire to be a parent, and there is literally nothing in my life that children wouldn't ruin
The important thing about not having children is that any reason is all the reason that is needed. I've heard so many people want an explenation, instead of just accepting that to some people, children just straight up suck.
My life would also get infinitely worse by having children, because how I wanna live my life, and what I dream of, is completely incompatible with taking care of someone.
I have kids, but I don't understand how some people feel like it's an obligation to have them.
Nobody should feel obligated to do so. It's damn hard to do more or less properly and requires quite a bit of sacrifice.
Oh, and if society as a whole complains about a low birth rate, maybe let's focus more on the hardships the new generations have to face: hard to find and keep a job, unfair pay, costly rent, and the nearly impossible cost of homeownership.
Let's tackle those and see what happens instead of pressuring people into parenthood.
I can't speak for everywhere, but in my community and among my family members, the number one reason they want everyone to have kids is religion. Their god(s) tell them to have children, and so they do (my FIL has five!!!) They see fecundity as godliness, and so at best they see childless adults as confused or misguided, and at worst they see them as heathens and heretics. Most of my family are good people and understand the value of self-determination, even if they don't understand my reasons. But there are outliers; someone once told me that they were glad I wasn't having more children because I live a "pagan" life and my children would be punished by god unless I raised them into the church... No clue why they thought I was pagan, as I've always been clear about my personal dismissal of religion.
Plenty of people just don't want kids, but they feel pressured to come up with reasons such as money, the environment, or whatever else, because people can't accept "I don't wanna" as a reason
I have lost count of the number of times I've heard "that's selfish" when I say that I am child-free
If they are very insistent and won't keep bugging me with such a (i feel) personal question, I feel that I am right in giving them too much information.
"We aren't having kids because I keep busting on her tits and face" something like that.
I have kids and absolutely love it. In fact there's not much that my kids haven't made better. Of course there's day where I wanna smash my head against a brick, but most days are wonderful.
I've never heard someone say they don't want kids and thought really anything of it. If someone doesn't want kids that's nobodies business but their own and I think for most people it makes sense to not. They're a lot of responsibility, they cost a lot of money, and take up all your time. It just so happens that if I had no responsibilities, nothing but free time and more money I'd be shooting up and sleeping in a ditch somewhere.
The black death was a great time for worker's rights. Terrible for other reasons but great for worker's rights.
Population decline may cause some issues around aged care, and I'm worried about how the demographic impacts might impact progressive politics, but overall I think having kids causes more harm to the working class than not. Which is probably why Japan has more faith in capitalism than basically any other country surveyed, everything is downstream of the unemployment rate and Japan's is remarkably low.
EDIT: All this is probably why Elon Musk wants you to have more kids.
Gen-X here (the ones immediately after the boomers but before the Millenials), it is amazing how many of my school mates ended up having no children. Yes many did, but a surprising number did not. In my circle (childhood neighbors, classmates, family) it's almost half.
Roughly the same amount of people want children and roughly the same amount of people have children
What has changed is when they start having children and how many they have
In the past if you had 100 women, maybe 90 of them would become mothers with 3 children
Now 85 women become parents but they only 1 or 2 children each
So yeah, fewer people are having children but not enough to really matters. The big issue is that we settle down, get married, and start families later in life, giving us less time to produce more children. So family size is shrinking.
Take every family with kids and add 2 kids, there's your missing numbers.
It's not that money isn't an issue, but it's not the driving force you would assume it is
It's not that money isn't an issue, but it's not the driving force you would assume it is
Do you not think that people settling down and starting families later is related to money? In the 70s the average age for getting on the property ladder was mid 20s, now it's mid 30s. If you don't feel settled and financially secure you'll delay things like starting a family.
Again, money is an issue, but it's not THE driving force you would assume it is
For example, lifestyle plays a big part. People want to be younger longer. They want to graduate high school, go to college, party, drink, sleep around, go to concerts, etc... once they're a little older they want to get jobs, focus on their careers, spend their days at breweries, traveling, etc...
The dream of getting married within a year of graduating high school and having your first child by the time you are 20 is long gone
This means that roughly the same amount of people are still having children, they're just having less children because they start having children later in life. The average family size use to be 3.5 kids, now it's 1.5 or 2.5, I can't remember
You can see this if you go watch shows from the 50s and 60s. Shows like My Three Sons or The Brady Bunch. It was totally normal to have 3 kids; hence "middle child syndrome"
There are also less accidental pregnancies thanks to better sex education and easier access to contraceptives.
And when it comes to internet doomerism, people are claiming they're not having kids because they're concerned about climate change and over-population
And yes, money is also part of this list but it's not as simple as, "can't afford it"
Which isn't surprising. At 22, even if you made $300k a year, you probably still wouldn't want to stop living your life to have a kid, especially if you are a woman. At 35 or 40, sure, that money would definitely help you make the choice to have a child, or more children, but also, by 35 or 40 lots of people can already afford it
And lets be real, it's not like poor people almost never have kids because they make great life choices... I just keep thinking about the beginning of Idiocracy. The middle class family waits until they can afford it, the trashy family in the trailer park had like 6 kids. It's a movie, sure, but the idea is kind of the same. Money, to you, might be an issue, but it's not to everybody.
Yes, money is a factor, but it's not the only factor and it's not necessarily the largest factor
People want to be younger longer. Graduate, go to college, drink, party, sleep around, get a job, focus on their career, go to concerts, hang out a breweries, travel, etc...
Tying yourself down with kids by the age of 20 or 23 is no longer a common dream. So the same amount of people have kids in life, they just star having kids later and end up with less of them.
There are less accidental pregnancies thanks to better sex education and access to contraceptives and when it comes to doomer-ism, young people are worried about climate change, over population, and like you saw from an earlier response, stupid cry-baby shit like, "I don't want to make another wage slave"
I keep thinking about the beginning to the movie Idiocracy. Yes, it's just a movie but the picture it paints remains somewhat valid. While money was an issue to the middle class family, the trashy poor family in the trailer park ended up with six kids.
So yeah, maybe money is an issue to you but it's not to everyone.
And don't get it twisted. Being poor and having kids doesn't make you a bad person. Lots of people grow up poor to hard working, intelligent, loving parents who give them a pretty good life overall. PS5s and new cars don't make you a good parent. A soccer ball and a tent can do wonders
Do people want to stay young longer or is it that people used to be able to afford to save for a house on an entry level wage. Now, until you're on a decent wage it's going to take 10 to 15 years of hard saving to get a house deposit. Faced with that unsurmountable task people say fuck it and just spend for now.
The dream is to be young and rich so you can travel and go to nightclubs and shit... not be young, rich, and a mother of 6 children
Eventually you get tired of the nightclubs and that's when you want kids... but influencers like MrBeast, IShowSpeed, even the Kardashians didn't rush out with their money and have kids
In 1970, the average woman in the U.S. had her first baby at around 21 years old. That’s hard to imagine now: new federal data published in April show that in 2022, the average first-time mother was a little older than 27
The foundation for this trend was laid in the 1960s, when the birth control pill came onto the scene
it has become increasingly common for people to have children later in life for a range of reasons, including concerns about finances and child care, waiting longer to get married or find a partner, and prioritizing education, career, or leisure time during young adulthood.
it's still far more common for people to want children than to plan to stay child-free, and that most prospective parents want more than one baby. What’s different from decades past, Guzzo says, is that people are increasingly pushing back the ages at which they have those kids, often into their 30s and beyond.
Paul Simon sums it up in "That Was Your Mother" off Graceland, singing to his child:
That was your mother and that was your father
Before you were born, dude, when life was great
You are the burden of my generation
I sure do love you, but let's get that straight
This would hit a lot harder for me if I didn't spend the last decade watching a disturbing fraction of the population not just vote for, but vocally support and make a part of their personality, one of the worst people on the planet. (edit: you know, the "greater of two evils.")
This literally what not voting for the lesser of two evils got us. Letting what you refer to as the greatest evil run the country is cutting off your nose to spite your face, and the lesser evil still gets blamed. Damn, that's some effective evil.
Yeah, exactly this. People actively arguing against voting for the lesser evil, letting the greater evil win and now blaming the lesser evil anyways (otherwise they would have to accept responsibility). Idiocracy in motion.
Trump and his ilk are a symptom, and the underlying cause is the working class desperation brought about by forty years of bioartisan Neoliberal austerity policy.
Trump is the final form of the Clintons' Third Way politics.
Openly fascist and white supremacist candidates have run in the GOP primary since my grandfather's time at least. They never used to get the time of day bcs the working class used to not be getting squeezed so hard.
They never used to get the time of day because they had to buy up all traditional and social media while also eroding education and at the same time our democracy to a point where they had a good twenty year track record of manipulating vote tallies (fucking challenge me on this I dare you)
Well you're certainly making a good argument for them having gutted education.
A fascist strongman becomes a viable candidate when the working class sees their quality of life eroding while the rich get richer and then sees that elections do not change that fact.
Now you can make whatever case you think you have now that I've "challenged" you, and we can all have a good laugh about how wrong you are.
I really don't see any way in which you've at all challenged me. Implying I'm stupid isn't really a challenge so much as projecting how weak your argument is that you have to stoop to ad hominem.
Which is funny because I actually agree with your main point, but it's far, far from the only factor, nor does the blame lie where you're trying to place it.
So that's a solid "no" on presenting whatever you think you have that contradicts the assertion that bipartisan neoliberalism created the conditions which allowed Trump to become a viable candidate?
I'm sorry, what? What on earth have you given me to refute? An assertion? You feel free to provide some 'evidence' and daddy will come back and refute it for you, okay bud?
I think it's more so this is what uneducated and propagandized voting gets us. Also continuing anti-voter practices like gerrymandering, PACs, and not employing choice ranked voting. Not to include lobbying, and things like citizens united. Informed people making rational decisions isn't the problem. The horde of ignorant and propagandized individuals is the problem
Let's divide into 6 generations, 2 or optionaly more genders (depending on if we have more or less fascism), and let's also add classism on top of that, vs everyone but the top.
Yeah cool, which generation holds disproportionate political power even now as congress turns into the most expensive nursing home?
Which generation raped the living world and its childrens' futures as increasingly more evidence came in of their effect on the world itself?
Which generation, holding political power, refused to release the Epstein files or prosecute anyone related to him even as detached as the banking industry that allowed him to launder millions at the least?
Feel free to fucking vote, homeslice. Not just the big ticket elections, but the state elections, too. In fact state legislatures are just as important as Congress. We’re not going to gripe our way out this mess….
I'm stressed about how the warping and corrupting of an already problematic society is effecting me and my existing loved ones. I don't think I can actively create additional even more dearly loved people that I have to then introduce to this civilisation and convince them not to go insane looking at it. I would never feel a moment's peace again until I or they were dead.
My favourite part about all these memes is that Gen X get excluded.
They're just as screwed over by baby boomers but they're at least 60% as elitist as baby boomers.
Gen X are convinced of their superiority but how can those currently 50 year Olds tell us millennials we're lazy and entitled while still bragging about how they all fought against the machine and how brilliant they are.
Yes yes Gen X you are still totally fighting the machine as you crush everyone under 50 for not following the rules.
The difference is we didn't whine about being left a destroyed planet after the war. People gave their lives back then. Now they complain about prices.
You’re right, instead of just complaining, we should be risking our lives in revolution against the capitalists who dragged us into two world wars and are now squeezing us for every cent, destroying the planet, and telling us to procreate for their own good.
Hitler was a capitalist. Fascism is what capitalists when they are threatened by rising worker power and/or reduced rates of profits. The other capitalists fought him because he was disrupting their profits, but in many ways the entire war started because socialist movements were disrupting global imperialism.
Was Hitler a Capitalist?
Nazi economic policy was neither free-market capitalism nor state socialism; it was a totalitarian command economy.
State Supremacy: Private enterprise and property technically existed, but business owners were strictly subordinated to state control. The regime set prices, wages, production quotas, and dividends.
Ideology over Profit: Capitalists who cooperated made profits, but those who resisted were ousted or nationalized. The economy was driven entirely by state rearmament and racial/ideological goals, not free-market forces.
Capitalism isn’t “free markets”, capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. The Nazi leadership were all members of the capitalist class who took direct control of the state to consolidate power and steal wealth from other capitalists and the working class. Those who were not in the in-group were “nationalized,” but control of and profit from those nationalized businesses went to loyal capitalists in the Nazi party.
And then you lead-poisoned fox news boomers voted a pedophilic fascist into the white house. This isn't even a "don't throw stones from glass houses" situation, your house is made from tissue paper.
Yeah you guys like to hit on boomers and claim. We're all brain dead and everything yet. We literally built everything you guys are using now. Especially the internet. Stop complaining and start building. Stop complaining what the government and change it yourself. You have the voting power. Get off your butts. Stop complaining about wages and unionize. Etc etc etc
Stop complaining what the government and change it yourself. You have the voting power. Get off your butts. Stop complaining about wages and unionize. Etc etc etc
You realize these are not mutually exclusive, right? This seems like the lead poisoning talking ngl.
you guys like to hit on boomers
Also that is Not what "hit on" means lmfao. I'd rather hit on a slime mold.
I don't agree at all with the person you are answering to, but the meme blames a whole class of people based on a birthdate they never chose nor cannot change.
I've seen plenty of compassionate boomers, that's why it makes me sad to see so many memes stirring intergenerational division on Lemmy. They feel like a carte blanche to blanket hate someone.
Also people seem to forget that eventually they will be next on the generational chopping block.
Actually, now that I think about it, why would I want these people to reproduce? Please carry on playing the victim in your parents basement, gambling, getting high, wasting money, and having zero ambition.
My parents bought a house in the late 80s for less than $100,000. My dad worked, my mom didn't. We vacationed every year, sometimes multiple times a year. We owned brand new cars. My dad made then what I make now, roughly $65-70k a year.
People making 6-figures now a days, dual income, no kids, still can't afford a home. I'm married with a single income (my partner is disabled) and we might order out once every two weeks if we can afford it after all our bills.
But it's poor financial decisions and totally not reality. When that same house my parents bought in 1989 for under 100k, sells for nearly $1 million.... It might not be the younger generation's decisions that are the problem.
You might want to look into some reality before blowing your nose on the Internet.
When we were all born, our parents handed us a recurring expense that only escalates in price. Our cost of living. We are living a life that was forced upon us without our consent.
Raped into life, forced into wage slavery. Thanks mom and dad. Hope they just inject drugs for dopamine next life and leave me out of it.
Says a dude who will never have even a quarter of what the average baby boomer had at their age, like 7+ children, a home at 19 years old, economic stability, or at least a happy family of four without a college degree. Why? Are they smarter, work harder, or what?
🤏🫵🏿😂🤡
It is not people's fault inflation keeps increasing but wages do not. It is not people's fault things like the Iron River or the unnecessary blockades and tariffs exist. It is your fault though, that the Jeffrey Epstein Class keeps winning and raping children. You are literally a Jeffrey Epstein Class Suppoter for helping those pedophiles continue to worsen and abuse the system.
You are not a Mega Donor. You have never donated more than a million dollars to the politician you wanted. Their ads, campaigns. You were always forced to elect politicians chosen by people richer than you, and very soon, even if you are rich, you will be eaten. Keep it up. You create the friction people need.
171 Comments
eestileib@sh.itjust.works · 203 pts · 23d
Yeah not too far off. The post WW2 generation are the most successful ladder pullers of all time.
Canconda@lemmy.ca · 99 pts · 23d
At this point I'm genuinely considering the only way to convince them to put the ladder back down is to ask them if they want more than 1/10 of their retirement care nurses to be white.
Similar to how I think the only real solution to MAGA is to start a psyopp that all citrus fruits make you queer.
ceenote@lemmy.world · 55 pts · 23d
They won't be willingly lowering any ladders. We're gonna have to dilute their political power and pull the ladder back down. Of course, the later generations still have too many rich assholes that will try to prevent that, so it'll be a fight either way.
Canconda@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 23d
Really we're just running the clock until their vote doesn't hold enough swing.
darthelmet@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 23d
A race to see which happens first: Boomers dying off or irreversible global climate catastrophe. Place your bets.
mursejoy@lemmy.zip · 35 pts · 23d
The problem is there are plenty of ass hole genX that took all the wrong lessons from the Boomers.
I fear that the lauded “Boomers dead golden age” just leaves a bunch of bitter latch-key genX that want to “get theirs” because daddy wasn’t around enough.
gdog05@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
There will be but the millennials outnumber them so readily and are much more apt to have the gumption to affect change without Gen X.
Rothe@piefed.social · 9 pts · 22d
As if there aren't plenty of asshole millenials and gen zs. It is not a thing that dies out with generations, otherwise it would have died off a million years ago. It perpetuates itself through societal and structural conditions.
Mac@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 23d
Am i allowed to bet now that the outcome is certain?
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 23d
Uhhhh...
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 23d
We're running out the clock until climate change starves half the global population to death and then water shortages and war kill the other half.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 22d
Gen X carry the torch, then our generation, then Gen Z.
Each grown under the system of selfishness, the rest are discarded.
Do not believe that we are special.
Canconda@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 22d
You are not factoring in the world wars.
The boomers were raised by people with ptsd who were raised by people with ptsd.
Has nothing to do with being special and everything to do with millennials being the first generation not raised by collectively traumatized parents.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · -10 pts · 23d
At which point the Millennials will be in charge.
Can't wait for JD Vance, Pete Buttigieg, and Mark Zuckerberg to hold the keys to the castle. Hope all y'all are excited to start a shooting war with China.
protist@retrofed.com · 6 pts · 22d
Why lump Buttigieg in with those assholes?
Johnmannesca@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
Yeah, South Bend is doing fine last I checked
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
I mean, just for starters...
But he's been a corporate plant and a soulless climber within the Democratic Party since his mayoral days. The absolute worst that the party has to offer.
mytchj@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
Your article says Pete started work in his 20's as a consultant for McKinsey. Some people blame his work for contributing to price fixing bread at Canadian grocery store(s) 6 years before he started working there.
This doesn't feel like a big deal to me or your average American. This feels like a campaign to run the career of a young and potentially effective Dem politician through the mud. Like had been done to Hilary and and now AOC. This doesn't mean that Pete Buttigieg is perfect, but let's not pretend he's the same as JD Fucking Vance.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 22d
We're going to have to build a new ladder
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 23d
And fruits and vegetables. Vitamin C sneaks in in a lot of places if you aren't living off preserved food
Septimaeus@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 22d
lol vitamin C. Yes gran, I’ve had vitamin C enrichment for years and it made me the cunning linguist I am today.
Asafum@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 23d
You know as well as I do those types of people would just say "why do you think I want to deport 1/3 of the country?"
Canconda@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 23d
They can say whatever they want. Their work visa philipino care aid isn't gonna give any more fucks cathing them when they have 20 other geriatrics in their care. If they want white people they can talk and relate to than they'd better make healthcare a viable profession for their grandchildren.
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 23d
Damn, Grandma is getting fucking roasted next Thanksgiving
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 23d
I know I'm going to end up caregiver for another entitled boomer I just know it.
Fluke@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 22d
You get to choose how much you actually care, don't ever forget that.
mursejoy@lemmy.zip · 47 pts · 23d
I have a boomer on my wife’s side that just remortgaged his house at 84 to buy an $80,000 Toyota Tacoma with all the custom add-on bullshit. They are not only intent on spending every cent they have, but also signing loans they never intend to pay off.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 23d
Why attribute to dementia what can be attributed to malice of forethought?
Boomers are also falling for phone scams and online phishing attacks in record numbers. Almost as though they're old af, living alone, and incapable of taking care of themselves.
mursejoy@lemmy.zip · 30 pts · 23d
No no he has a boomer 2nd wife intent on leaving nothing behind to the kids from his first marriage. It’s 100% petty spending.
I’ll never give a boomer the benefit of the doubt when a situation can be explained by selfishness.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 22d
Just stop expecting things from them, and write them off.
Family nowadays are the last people you should trust.
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 25 pts · 22d
Boomers were called “the me” generation by their parents, they rewrote the narrative to call themselves boomers.
ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world · 20 pts · 23d
What is a ladder puller?
Asafum@lemmy.world · 79 pts · 23d
Someone who uses a ladder to reach a higher spot (uses privileged situations to improve their life standards) and pulls the ladder up from behind them so those that follow can't use it.
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca · 107 pts · 23d
For example: taking advantage of government subsidised secondary education to reach a higher income without loads of debt and then voting to get rid of the subsidies so you can pay slightly less in taxes because "you don't want to pay for someone else's schooling"
gibmiser@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 23d
See my formerly poor father who got a pell grant and used it to get out of poverty to comfortable middle class but is a conservative who generally does not want the government helping people because it could be abused.
On the bright side he became disillusioned with MAGA and now just generally hates all politicians which I will consider a win for him
saltesc@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 23d
Ah! So irony can be a noun.
mursejoy@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 23d
Wow almost full circle. Uneducated—> college —> ladder pull —> far right maga —> hates all politicians.
Now maybe if he went back to school one more time he might actually understand what a stupid path he took.
ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world · 11 pts · 23d
Thanks! Great metaphor.
Gerudo@lemmy.zip · 25 pts · 23d
Greg fucking Abbott, governor of Texas had an accident when he was younger that paralyzed him. He sued the fuck out of those responsible, and then proceeded to pass a law that caps penalties to those responsible for accidents.
That's a ladder pull.
Cybersec@piefed.social · 4 pts · 23d
Wow I didn’t know that, thank you
MrRandom@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 23d
A boomer /s
Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 22d
Clarence Thomas
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 22d
The problem is have with the term "ladder pullers" is that it implies the ladder is still around and functional, just waiting to be lowered.
We sold the ladder for scrap metal.
gdog05@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 22d
We didn't sell it. They sold it because it wasn't to be used by anyone else after them and they kept their ladder money until it gets funneled into the medical system because their kids "didn't earn it".
zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 23d
We can change that.
Let me introduce you to Madame La Guillotine. She will be taking care of this.
ceenote@lemmy.world · 98 pts · 23d
The "fuck you, I got mine" generation.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 22d
Next time, we spare no Nazi.
No scientists, no business exception, no common soldier excuse.
Nooses for everyone.
Doug@piefed.social · 91 pts · 23d
ageism alienates allies; no war but class war
Rothe@piefed.social · 24 pts · 22d
Yeah, this inter-generational blaming is really the most effective propaganda method applied by the ruling classes to make people forget about class war.
fireweed@lemmy.world · 70 pts · 23d
Not to defend Boomers, but let's not let the "Greatest Generation" off the hook that easy...
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 23d
They get a pass for the horror they lived through
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 23d
Boomers lived through plenty of horrors. Vietnam, deindustrialization, the Volcker Shock, leaded gasoline/paint, AIDS...
The 1970s was a fucked decade.
darthelmet@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 23d
The 20th century in general is kind of unfathomably different from most of the rest of history. It was a wild time to be alive.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 22d
You could say, humanity learned how to REALLY fuck around.
We are now REALLY finding out.
Thanks, grampa
darthelmet@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
We have made absolutely massive technological strides in fucking around.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
Thankfully, we will be dead from the last centuries fucking around and won't get the chance to use most of it.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
You're saying that as if we haven't been adding even more ways to fuck around since 2000.
darthelmet@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22d
The rate certainly increased post Industrial Revolution.
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 23d
Sure they get a pass for that, then they squandered it with their epic entitlement.
Emi@ani.social · 60 pts · 23d
I want better world for children but I'm not bringing any into this hell hole.
insomniac199@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22d
It has been a hellhole and im afraid but it always will be.
fodor@lemmy.zip · 53 pts · 23d
Lol yes yes but there are so many boomers who are fucked, just like the rest of us.
Duranie@leminal.space · 28 pts · 23d
I work in hospice, and was recently made aware of a child who was contacted as their parent's emergency contact (parent in the hospital signing into hospice, but rapidly deteriorating.) She said she'd sign papers if needed to make sure her parent didn't end up on the street, but otherwise wasn't interested in updates/contact till her parent passed.
There's many flavors of ways this will come back to bite people.
Napster153@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 22d
Survival bias, where the ones who lived long enoughh to stereotype are not the ones who suffered similar to the next generation
DandomRude@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 23d
Things would be very different if there were no billionaires. But they do exist, and that's why we live in a world where children have no future.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · -16 pts · 23d
It's so easy to turn billionaires into the main villains of the story, but it's a lazy thing to do. The real evil is the unregulated and unchecked system that allowed billionaires to be a thing. Keep that in place and grifter billionaires will just keep on popping up.
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 46 pts · 23d
Billionaires are the capitalists that maintain capitalism.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · -14 pts · 23d
Nah. Billionaires didn't force Reagan and Clinton to deregulate the US and set the stage for what we have today. Capitalism existed while FDR implemented the new deal, etc.
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 23d
There weren't as many billionaires influencing politicians because there were vastly fewer billionaires, and the value of the dollar was way higher. A 100millionare in the 80's would have, I imagine, had similar influence to today's billionaires.
Hell, Reagan had the "Kitchen Cabinet" that was all wealthy business owners.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · -10 pts · 23d
Billionaires are a symptom, not the sickness. Yes, we need to rid ourselves of billionaires the way we rid ourselves of the robber barons, but they are not the problem no matter how hard you wish them to be. The problem is the system that allowed them to exist. Rich fucks were always around to exhert influence, but not like this. We had guard rails in place to limit their political influence, to break up monopolies, to set limits on political donations, to set limits on campaign finance, to set limits on media influence, etc.
By all means, break out the guillotine, but you cannot stop there. Saying "billionaire bad" is not enough. You have to have wholesale reform or you are going to end up in the same place, or much worse.
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 22d
I can't even tell what point you're trying to make anymore...
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 22d
I genuinely do not understand why my point was so hard to grasp. Billionaires are bad, yes I agree, but billionaires are the end product of a system that allow billionaires to exist. Do not only focus on symptom, focus on the cause.
Oyml77@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 22d
The problem is unrestricted, unregulated capitalism. Get rid of the top 20 billionaires and others will take their place, just as bad or maybe worse. Regulation goes a long way to addressing many of the problems we are seeing in our world today. Is it the only solution? Definitely not, but having had most regulation gutted (started in the 80s and just getting more hamstrung from there) has escalated the problem immensely. Reintroducing strong business regulation is a good start because, contrary to what a lot of you all are hoping for, most folks aren't ready to seize the means of production and make a wholesale change to a socialist utopia.
lalla@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 23d
Yes but the point is that billionaires/the 1% has been pushing the system that way. It didn't come out of thin air.
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 23d
I think you're confused. Do billionaires own the means of production, or don't they?
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · -2 pts · 23d
I am not confused, and I don't think we are necessarily disagreeing. My point isn't that billionaires are faultless or good. My point is that they are not the root of the evil. We cannot just rid ourselves of the billionaires, pat ourselves on the back and call it a day. We have to do that, and then go further. We have to, at the very least, put the guardrails back in place to ensure a new crop doesn't pop right back up.
The great crash and the following great depression took care of the robber barons. We regulated in order to avoid them again, but eventually forgot our lesson. I suspect that the AI crash will take care of this current batch of rich fucks, and we will once again regulate and focus on people like FDR did. I just wish we would stop forgetting the lessons of the not so distant past.
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 23d
Ok, I think I see what you're getting at. Billionaires constitute the capitalist class, but individual capitalists aren't the problem; it's the capitalist class that needs to be abolished
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 23d
Exactly! We need to set checks in place to make sure the mega rich are not allowed to be a thing. I am sorry but nobody should be rich enough to set up space tourism as a side hobby while his employees piss in bottles at the warehouse. That's fucking insane!
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 23d
Right.. The people at the top weren't billionaires, but they were the wealthy elite, who had hundreds of millions of dollars, and before that, tens, and before that just millionaires.
The wealthy elite are always the ones that pull the strings in a capitalist organization of the economy..
bagsy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
I think you are GREATLY, GREATLY misunderstanding the level of lobbying the rich do to keep and expand their power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book) gives you a peek behind the curtains of just a few billionaires. Its scary how deep their roots run through society. Now imagine that times 1000's of billionaires. They litterally control how 95% of the population, eat, sleep, think, pray, and vote.
Lumisal@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 23d
Gee I wonder who would have been motivated to create such a system. Perhaps people like Smedly Butler would know
DandomRude@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 23d
Yes, that's right. But the responsibility for this lies with none other than the American people.
This is by no means a law of nature, but the failure of what is called democracy in the U.S.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 22d
Oh, I didn't have kids simply because I don't like them, never had any desire to be a parent, and there is literally nothing in my life that children wouldn't ruin
MBech@feddit.dk · 32 pts · 22d
The important thing about not having children is that any reason is all the reason that is needed. I've heard so many people want an explenation, instead of just accepting that to some people, children just straight up suck.
My life would also get infinitely worse by having children, because how I wanna live my life, and what I dream of, is completely incompatible with taking care of someone.
ours@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 22d
I have kids, but I don't understand how some people feel like it's an obligation to have them.
Nobody should feel obligated to do so. It's damn hard to do more or less properly and requires quite a bit of sacrifice.
Oh, and if society as a whole complains about a low birth rate, maybe let's focus more on the hardships the new generations have to face: hard to find and keep a job, unfair pay, costly rent, and the nearly impossible cost of homeownership.
Let's tackle those and see what happens instead of pressuring people into parenthood.
ContriteErudite@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 22d
I can't speak for everywhere, but in my community and among my family members, the number one reason they want everyone to have kids is religion. Their god(s) tell them to have children, and so they do (my FIL has five!!!) They see fecundity as godliness, and so at best they see childless adults as confused or misguided, and at worst they see them as heathens and heretics. Most of my family are good people and understand the value of self-determination, even if they don't understand my reasons. But there are outliers; someone once told me that they were glad I wasn't having more children because I live a "pagan" life and my children would be punished by god unless I raised them into the church... No clue why they thought I was pagan, as I've always been clear about my personal dismissal of religion.
Wild.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 22d
Plenty of people just don't want kids, but they feel pressured to come up with reasons such as money, the environment, or whatever else, because people can't accept "I don't wanna" as a reason
I have lost count of the number of times I've heard "that's selfish" when I say that I am child-free
Always from fucking morons.
MBech@feddit.dk · 7 pts · 22d
You don't own morons an explenation. They won't accept it anyway.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
I usually respond with a hearty "fuck off"
I have been doing this for a long time
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
If they are very insistent and won't keep bugging me with such a (i feel) personal question, I feel that I am right in giving them too much information.
"We aren't having kids because I keep busting on her tits and face" something like that.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
I'm sterile and so is my partner
I've had plenty of people get nasty and say "what would you do if she got pregnant?"
I always respond "oh, that's not possible, especially the way we do it" and see how long it takes to click
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
I have one kid, and everyone asks when Im having another. Some people just expect you to keep breeding.
For me the one kid is fine. Two would be a substantial downgrade in quality of life for my wife and I AND our kid. Three is right out.
neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 21d
I have kids and absolutely love it. In fact there's not much that my kids haven't made better. Of course there's day where I wanna smash my head against a brick, but most days are wonderful.
I've never heard someone say they don't want kids and thought really anything of it. If someone doesn't want kids that's nobodies business but their own and I think for most people it makes sense to not. They're a lot of responsibility, they cost a lot of money, and take up all your time. It just so happens that if I had no responsibilities, nothing but free time and more money I'd be shooting up and sleeping in a ditch somewhere.
Tenderizer@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 21d
The black death was a great time for worker's rights. Terrible for other reasons but great for worker's rights.
Population decline may cause some issues around aged care, and I'm worried about how the demographic impacts might impact progressive politics, but overall I think having kids causes more harm to the working class than not. Which is probably why Japan has more faith in capitalism than basically any other country surveyed, everything is downstream of the unemployment rate and Japan's is remarkably low.
EDIT: All this is probably why Elon Musk wants you to have more kids.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 22d
Thank you fistingenthusiast for not letting kids get near your entertainment lol
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 37 pts · 23d
Gen-X here (the ones immediately after the boomers but before the Millenials), it is amazing how many of my school mates ended up having no children. Yes many did, but a surprising number did not. In my circle (childhood neighbors, classmates, family) it's almost half.
VelvetPinkOtter123@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 23d
Anecdotal
Roughly the same amount of people want children and roughly the same amount of people have children
What has changed is when they start having children and how many they have
In the past if you had 100 women, maybe 90 of them would become mothers with 3 children
Now 85 women become parents but they only 1 or 2 children each
So yeah, fewer people are having children but not enough to really matters. The big issue is that we settle down, get married, and start families later in life, giving us less time to produce more children. So family size is shrinking.
Take every family with kids and add 2 kids, there's your missing numbers.
It's not that money isn't an issue, but it's not the driving force you would assume it is
then_three_more@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 23d
Do you not think that people settling down and starting families later is related to money? In the 70s the average age for getting on the property ladder was mid 20s, now it's mid 30s. If you don't feel settled and financially secure you'll delay things like starting a family.
VelvetPinkOtter123@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
Again, money is an issue, but it's not THE driving force you would assume it is
For example, lifestyle plays a big part. People want to be younger longer. They want to graduate high school, go to college, party, drink, sleep around, go to concerts, etc... once they're a little older they want to get jobs, focus on their careers, spend their days at breweries, traveling, etc...
The dream of getting married within a year of graduating high school and having your first child by the time you are 20 is long gone
This means that roughly the same amount of people are still having children, they're just having less children because they start having children later in life. The average family size use to be 3.5 kids, now it's 1.5 or 2.5, I can't remember
You can see this if you go watch shows from the 50s and 60s. Shows like My Three Sons or The Brady Bunch. It was totally normal to have 3 kids; hence "middle child syndrome"
There are also less accidental pregnancies thanks to better sex education and easier access to contraceptives.
And when it comes to internet doomerism, people are claiming they're not having kids because they're concerned about climate change and over-population
And yes, money is also part of this list but it's not as simple as, "can't afford it"
Which isn't surprising. At 22, even if you made $300k a year, you probably still wouldn't want to stop living your life to have a kid, especially if you are a woman. At 35 or 40, sure, that money would definitely help you make the choice to have a child, or more children, but also, by 35 or 40 lots of people can already afford it
And lets be real, it's not like poor people almost never have kids because they make great life choices... I just keep thinking about the beginning of Idiocracy. The middle class family waits until they can afford it, the trashy family in the trailer park had like 6 kids. It's a movie, sure, but the idea is kind of the same. Money, to you, might be an issue, but it's not to everybody.
Cybersec@piefed.social · 6 pts · 23d
Of course it’s money related? I would love to have another child but can’t afford to. Anecdotal yes, but it’s the similar situation for others.
VelvetPinkOtter123@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
Yes, money is a factor, but it's not the only factor and it's not necessarily the largest factor
People want to be younger longer. Graduate, go to college, drink, party, sleep around, get a job, focus on their career, go to concerts, hang out a breweries, travel, etc...
Tying yourself down with kids by the age of 20 or 23 is no longer a common dream. So the same amount of people have kids in life, they just star having kids later and end up with less of them.
There are less accidental pregnancies thanks to better sex education and access to contraceptives and when it comes to doomer-ism, young people are worried about climate change, over population, and like you saw from an earlier response, stupid cry-baby shit like, "I don't want to make another wage slave"
I keep thinking about the beginning to the movie Idiocracy. Yes, it's just a movie but the picture it paints remains somewhat valid. While money was an issue to the middle class family, the trashy poor family in the trailer park ended up with six kids.
So yeah, maybe money is an issue to you but it's not to everyone.
And don't get it twisted. Being poor and having kids doesn't make you a bad person. Lots of people grow up poor to hard working, intelligent, loving parents who give them a pretty good life overall. PS5s and new cars don't make you a good parent. A soccer ball and a tent can do wonders
then_three_more@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21d
Do people want to stay young longer or is it that people used to be able to afford to save for a house on an entry level wage. Now, until you're on a decent wage it's going to take 10 to 15 years of hard saving to get a house deposit. Faced with that unsurmountable task people say fuck it and just spend for now.
VelvetPinkOtter123@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21d
They want to stay younger longer
The dream is to be young and rich so you can travel and go to nightclubs and shit... not be young, rich, and a mother of 6 children
Eventually you get tired of the nightclubs and that's when you want kids... but influencers like MrBeast, IShowSpeed, even the Kardashians didn't rush out with their money and have kids
then_three_more@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21d
Do you have some surveys you can point me to that backs that up?
VelvetPinkOtter123@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
https://time.com/6965267/women-having-kids-later/
In 1970, the average woman in the U.S. had her first baby at around 21 years old. That’s hard to imagine now: new federal data published in April show that in 2022, the average first-time mother was a little older than 27
The foundation for this trend was laid in the 1960s, when the birth control pill came onto the scene
it has become increasingly common for people to have children later in life for a range of reasons, including concerns about finances and child care, waiting longer to get married or find a partner, and prioritizing education, career, or leisure time during young adulthood.
it's still far more common for people to want children than to plan to stay child-free, and that most prospective parents want more than one baby. What’s different from decades past, Guzzo says, is that people are increasingly pushing back the ages at which they have those kids, often into their 30s and beyond.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
Money is big, but no amount of money will convince me to make a kid whose future is either wage slave or wage slave master.
FrChazzz@lemmus.org · 30 pts · 22d
Paul Simon sums it up in "That Was Your Mother" off Graceland, singing to his child:
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 22d
Dad?
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
Damn.
Th4tGuyII@fedia.io · 24 pts · 23d
Honestly yeah. I'm here so I'm gonna try my best, but why would I want to drag another being into this shit?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 22d
This is what "voting for the lesser of two evils" got us.
Zink@programming.dev · 28 pts · 22d
This would hit a lot harder for me if I didn't spend the last decade watching a disturbing fraction of the population not just vote for, but vocally support and make a part of their personality, one of the worst people on the planet. (edit: you know, the "greater of two evils.")
I'm in the US, of course.
alekwithak@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 22d
This literally what not voting for the lesser of two evils got us. Letting what you refer to as the greatest evil run the country is cutting off your nose to spite your face, and the lesser evil still gets blamed. Damn, that's some effective evil.
Tja@programming.dev · 2 pts · 22d
Yeah, exactly this. People actively arguing against voting for the lesser evil, letting the greater evil win and now blaming the lesser evil anyways (otherwise they would have to accept responsibility). Idiocracy in motion.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 22d
yup. its not because of clinton, obama, biden. its because of reagan, bush1N2, trump
DudleyMason@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 22d
Lol, no.
Trump and his ilk are a symptom, and the underlying cause is the working class desperation brought about by forty years of bioartisan Neoliberal austerity policy.
Trump is the final form of the Clintons' Third Way politics.
Openly fascist and white supremacist candidates have run in the GOP primary since my grandfather's time at least. They never used to get the time of day bcs the working class used to not be getting squeezed so hard.
alekwithak@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 22d
They never used to get the time of day because they had to buy up all traditional and social media while also eroding education and at the same time our democracy to a point where they had a good twenty year track record of manipulating vote tallies (fucking challenge me on this I dare you)
DudleyMason@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
Well you're certainly making a good argument for them having gutted education.
A fascist strongman becomes a viable candidate when the working class sees their quality of life eroding while the rich get richer and then sees that elections do not change that fact.
Now you can make whatever case you think you have now that I've "challenged" you, and we can all have a good laugh about how wrong you are.
alekwithak@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 22d
I really don't see any way in which you've at all challenged me. Implying I'm stupid isn't really a challenge so much as projecting how weak your argument is that you have to stoop to ad hominem. Which is funny because I actually agree with your main point, but it's far, far from the only factor, nor does the blame lie where you're trying to place it.
DudleyMason@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
So that's a solid "no" on presenting whatever you think you have that contradicts the assertion that bipartisan neoliberalism created the conditions which allowed Trump to become a viable candidate?
alekwithak@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 22d
I'm sorry, what? What on earth have you given me to refute? An assertion? You feel free to provide some 'evidence' and daddy will come back and refute it for you, okay bud?
LodeMike@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 22d
And otherwise not voting
Zephyr@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 22d
I think it's more so this is what uneducated and propagandized voting gets us. Also continuing anti-voter practices like gerrymandering, PACs, and not employing choice ranked voting. Not to include lobbying, and things like citizens united. Informed people making rational decisions isn't the problem. The horde of ignorant and propagandized individuals is the problem
Bluedragon012@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 22d
Current generation: "yo (llm Ai) are we cooked?!"
FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 23d
Nice meme but it feels like there's wayyy too much whitespace on the right side
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 22d
That's where the AI prompts are hidden.
anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 22d
Ah, the Epstein Generation.
modestmeme@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22d
Tate Generation exists too. In fact, raping children/women isn’t a generational thing. It’s pervasive.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 22d
Let's divide into 6 generations, 2 or optionaly more genders (depending on if we have more or less fascism), and let's also add classism on top of that, vs everyone but the top.
anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
Yeah cool, which generation holds disproportionate political power even now as congress turns into the most expensive nursing home?
Which generation raped the living world and its childrens' futures as increasingly more evidence came in of their effect on the world itself?
Which generation, holding political power, refused to release the Epstein files or prosecute anyone related to him even as detached as the banking industry that allowed him to launder millions at the least?
Rothe@piefed.social · 4 pts · 22d
In your manic obsession with age you completely forget to look at the actual deciding factor of wealth instead for the people who holds power.
anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
Which generation disproportionately hoards the most wealth?
modestmeme@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 21d
Feel free to fucking vote, homeslice. Not just the big ticket elections, but the state elections, too. In fact state legislatures are just as important as Congress. We’re not going to gripe our way out this mess….
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 23d
You forgot the OG
Which Millennials of a certain economic cohort are still far too willing to say in private, nevermind in public.
ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 21d
I'm stressed about how the warping and corrupting of an already problematic society is effecting me and my existing loved ones. I don't think I can actively create additional even more dearly loved people that I have to then introduce to this civilisation and convince them not to go insane looking at it. I would never feel a moment's peace again until I or they were dead.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 23d
Entitled to what?
ScrooLewse@lemmy.myserv.one · 2 pts · 22d
A future
halfapage@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 23d
BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 22d
My favourite part about all these memes is that Gen X get excluded. They're just as screwed over by baby boomers but they're at least 60% as elitist as baby boomers.
Gen X are convinced of their superiority but how can those currently 50 year Olds tell us millennials we're lazy and entitled while still bragging about how they all fought against the machine and how brilliant they are.
Yes yes Gen X you are still totally fighting the machine as you crush everyone under 50 for not following the rules.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 22d
The difference is we didn't whine about being left a destroyed planet after the war. People gave their lives back then. Now they complain about prices.
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 22d
You’re right, instead of just complaining, we should be risking our lives in revolution against the capitalists who dragged us into two world wars and are now squeezing us for every cent, destroying the planet, and telling us to procreate for their own good.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22d
Lol. The capitalists should have let Hitler continue?
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22d
Hitler was a capitalist. Fascism is what capitalists when they are threatened by rising worker power and/or reduced rates of profits. The other capitalists fought him because he was disrupting their profits, but in many ways the entire war started because socialist movements were disrupting global imperialism.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 22d
Was Hitler a Capitalist? Nazi economic policy was neither free-market capitalism nor state socialism; it was a totalitarian command economy. State Supremacy: Private enterprise and property technically existed, but business owners were strictly subordinated to state control. The regime set prices, wages, production quotas, and dividends. Ideology over Profit: Capitalists who cooperated made profits, but those who resisted were ousted or nationalized. The economy was driven entirely by state rearmament and racial/ideological goals, not free-market forces.
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
Capitalism isn’t “free markets”, capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. The Nazi leadership were all members of the capitalist class who took direct control of the state to consolidate power and steal wealth from other capitalists and the working class. Those who were not in the in-group were “nationalized,” but control of and profit from those nationalized businesses went to loyal capitalists in the Nazi party.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d
Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.
-Benito Mussolini
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 22d
good luck with that.
gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 21d
And then you lead-poisoned fox news boomers voted a pedophilic fascist into the white house. This isn't even a "don't throw stones from glass houses" situation, your house is made from tissue paper.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 21d
Lol. No I didn't. Not American.
gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 21d
Comparable blood lead levels though
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 21d
Yeah you guys like to hit on boomers and claim. We're all brain dead and everything yet. We literally built everything you guys are using now. Especially the internet. Stop complaining and start building. Stop complaining what the government and change it yourself. You have the voting power. Get off your butts. Stop complaining about wages and unionize. Etc etc etc
gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 21d
You realize these are not mutually exclusive, right? This seems like the lead poisoning talking ngl.
Also that is Not what "hit on" means lmfao. I'd rather hit on a slime mold.
Tabooki2@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 20d
Lol.
forbiddencherry@lemmy.today · -50 pts · 23d
ITT: people blame anyone and everyone but themselves for their poor financial decisions.
NewDark@lemmy.today · 23 pts · 23d
And here you are blaming individuals for a broken system. Very helpful
guillem@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 22d
I don't agree at all with the person you are answering to, but the meme blames a whole class of people based on a birthdate they never chose nor cannot change.
I've seen plenty of compassionate boomers, that's why it makes me sad to see so many memes stirring intergenerational division on Lemmy. They feel like a carte blanche to blanket hate someone.
Also people seem to forget that eventually they will be next on the generational chopping block.
forbiddencherry@lemmy.today · -32 pts · 23d
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 23d
You'll never be a billionaire, and that makes me happy.
veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 23d
Got'em
forbiddencherry@lemmy.today · -15 pts · 23d
Actually, now that I think about it, why would I want these people to reproduce? Please carry on playing the victim in your parents basement, gambling, getting high, wasting money, and having zero ambition.
NewDark@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 22d
Starting to sound a little eugenics-y don't you think?
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
I guarantee that they're a racist
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 22d
Getting high in the basement is an aspiration. I wish I was doing it right now, but the wage slavery must continue.
I also wish I had more money for drugs, and enough disposable income to be able to waste a bit gambling. Someday soon I will get there.
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 23d
My parents bought a house in the late 80s for less than $100,000. My dad worked, my mom didn't. We vacationed every year, sometimes multiple times a year. We owned brand new cars. My dad made then what I make now, roughly $65-70k a year.
People making 6-figures now a days, dual income, no kids, still can't afford a home. I'm married with a single income (my partner is disabled) and we might order out once every two weeks if we can afford it after all our bills.
But it's poor financial decisions and totally not reality. When that same house my parents bought in 1989 for under 100k, sells for nearly $1 million.... It might not be the younger generation's decisions that are the problem.
You might want to look into some reality before blowing your nose on the Internet.
Montagge@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 23d
Which poor financial decisions exactly?
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 22d
When we were all born, our parents handed us a recurring expense that only escalates in price. Our cost of living. We are living a life that was forced upon us without our consent.
Raped into life, forced into wage slavery. Thanks mom and dad. Hope they just inject drugs for dopamine next life and leave me out of it.
Montagge@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 22d
That's not an answer to my question but okay
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 22d
Youre right, I should have bought more ammo.
PepperoniNipple@lazysoci.al · 4 pts · 23d
Says a dude who will never have even a quarter of what the average baby boomer had at their age, like 7+ children, a home at 19 years old, economic stability, or at least a happy family of four without a college degree. Why? Are they smarter, work harder, or what?
🤏🫵🏿😂🤡
It is not people's fault inflation keeps increasing but wages do not. It is not people's fault things like the Iron River or the unnecessary blockades and tariffs exist. It is your fault though, that the Jeffrey Epstein Class keeps winning and raping children. You are literally a Jeffrey Epstein Class Suppoter for helping those pedophiles continue to worsen and abuse the system.
You are not a Mega Donor. You have never donated more than a million dollars to the politician you wanted. Their ads, campaigns. You were always forced to elect politicians chosen by people richer than you, and very soon, even if you are rich, you will be eaten. Keep it up. You create the friction people need.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 22d
Damn, you suck