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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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Boomer elites did this, not the boomer people making smart choices for themselves. Just like Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z, the boomers who came out of college weren't making the laws. It's good to be reminded that these laws are shit, but I think there's a better question. Why are there so many anti-boomer articles coming out when it's the bank managers, the politicians, etc., making these laws and most of the US just votes at best?
This is a vote, vote, vote for people that will help build the middle class up again, that means all ages at the local levels. Also, it means break up the monopolies so we can build a better working environment. This is a distraction, please don't fall for it.
Boomer elites will transfer their money to millennial elites.
These articles are an attempt to create an age based division.
The problem is, it never works. We all have parents and grandparents. Many of us have kids. And we tend to love them, regardless of social, economic or political differences.
Solidarity between generations is extremely solid and very hard to break.
These articles are just weak and failed attempts to sow discord.
BINGO. THANK YOU.
I'm so tired of the Millennial-Boomer division that the corporate media constantly stokes.
Once again, GenX elites are ignored!
Well you guys are just sort of there. Do something, or make some noise at least.
The point of the middle class is to split the working class in terms of income and wealth, so they spend their time antagonizing each other and mostly ignoring how the upper class is stealing everything.
We don't need a middle class; we need a strong working class.
You want a class that's got more education? Educate the working class. You want a class that's got more wealth? Enrich the working class. You want a class that's got the time and inclination to make informed political decisions? Deliver workday/workweek reform for the working class.
I think the middle class and the working class are the same? But yes, do all of those things. Free healthcare, college and university education.
Yes, but the corporate media does its best to portray the illusory "middle class" as somehow different from working class or the socalled "lower class". It's just more divisive bullshit to try to make the working class fight over crumbs.
This, absolutely. We need to realize that it’s always the rich vs. the rest of us. Anything else that draws lines to separate people only serves the rich. They win without fighting when we blame anyone but them for the mess we are in.
I don't disagree with your general point, but the idea that we can just vote these systems away is just as much as a distraction that you shouldn't be falling for, as the generational division.
Modern "democracy" exists to uphold capitalism, and capitalism needs these divisions, along with a desperate working class, to exist. When you agree to only play within the rules they've set, you've already lost, they've made sure of it.
We are stuck with a corrupt capitalism right now, so voting at the local level as well as the federal level is one of the only ways. Trump was killing our country with his covid shit, then Biden came in and fixed it. That's an obvious reason why voting works. At local levels, you'll have good transit and your utility companies aren't bending you over if you vote well. We have to fix this shit because the greeds are in office constantly trying to break it in their favor. It's exhausting but we have to do it.
I never said "don't vote", what I am saying is - harm reduction is all well and good, but don't think it will actually change anything fundamental about the status quo, because it won't, if it did, they wouldn't let us do it, as the saying goes..
much more worth it then to invest energy and other resources in things that actually will create change, like organising within your community to actively support each other instead of waiting for the system to do it, because it won't. Building solidarity not only among workers, but within all communities, and from there creating dual power structures (communal food banks and kitchens, child care, hobby clubs, youth clubs, libraries for books but also toys and household items, as well as potentially groups doing direct action and those who support them from the backlines from medics to propagandists, there is something for everyone).
Create the roots for a better way of living, then destroy this one. They are never going to give it up willingly (or "legally", again, according to the "laws" they write, including those of "democracy").
Why not both?
I think it has to be both.
There are many times throughout the history of the United States where a community came together and became prosperous only to have everything taken away by people supported by the state through shit laws and/or law enforcement turning a blind eye. Look at Black Wall Street aka the Tulsa massacre.
I get that corruption is prevalent and is difficult to clean out, but there was massive sea change after the 1930's crash that lead to the US having a massive, strong, and healthy middle class.
Oh like we did too Cuba and any other would-be socialist nation?
If include other countries, that list gets pretty long.
Yes.
🙄
Never mind that it's mostly the people who still believe in this puppet show that is "democracy" who don't do both, not those pointing out how pointless voting really is (and yet I still fucking vote, in case you decide to deliberately miss the fucking point again).
Hi I was looking for resources about this? My “liberal” neighbors are either apathetic or make a self-aggrandizing exercise out of attempting mutual aid and outright resist any but very right wing leftist ideas.
What a stupid mentality. If only younger people showed up to vote. Of course elected representatives are representative of their constituencies. Only old people show up to the polls. They are doing their job. Maybe get involved in your local government instead of coming up with this nihilistic attitude about capitalism etc.
Edit: or perhaps keep romanticizing about the Bolshevik revolution that ain't ever happening in the US and sit on your asses and whine on Lemmy.
Like moneyed interests don't lobby to get the deck stacked
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/04/upshot/voting-wait-times.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924527679/why-do-nonwhite-georgia-voters-have-to-wait-in-line-for-hours-too-few-polling-pl
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-legislature-congress-redistricting-maps-e2b881d326360ec52caccc43c01234aa
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.php?ind=f03&Bkdn=DemRep&cycle=2012
Take a look at that breakdown. It was pretty even in 2020. Then look at the previous years.
Very hard skew toward the minority population party. There was only this correction in 2020 because Trump at the wheel would have tanked the economy.
Like i said elsewhere: and if media conglomerates are publishing this info, it’s for more reason than, “oops, we were wrong, admit and cut to the next story.” It’s kind of like body cams: if what we’ve seen is this horrendous, what are they still hiding and why?
But guess who spent the last 50 years voting for the politicians that did make those laws?
Yup, boomers. They, as a generation, overwhelmingly voted for this.
First of all, Trump lost the actual vote by 2 million votes the first time. It's rigged for r's.
Also, have you made mistakes voting? Did you just vote the way your parents did most of the time? I think voting r was a family thing and the marketing apparatus is insane to make it seem that way. Why don't you complain about all of the individuals who voted r after we know how bad it's become, those are the ones to dislike. Proud Boys are young.
You mean since Nixon in the 70s? Yeah, those are the people I'm complaining about.
Yup.
'Boomers' is an ageist term at this point. We have to judge people as individuals. Not based on race, age, or generation.
Shifting blame for what a few elites have done over decades and decades, onto an entire generation, is, as you said, a distraction.
Except Boomers, as a whole, swallowed right-wing bullshit and voted again and again for politicians and policies that fucked things over for future generations to come. They enjoyed the post-war economic boom fueled by socialist government policies and then promptly shut the door on their children and grandchildren by killing those same socialist programs. Time and time again, they fell for corrupt conmen, ultimately leading to the election of Trump and a resurgence in fascism.
No, not every boomer voted for right-wing assholes, but virtually every boomer fails to take responsibility for the current economic environment, choosing instead to blame immigrants, minorities, politicians, or China. No wonder Trump appealed to them.
People lose their mind as they get older. But blaming them gets us nowhere.
Boomers also elected Clinton, Obama and Biden.
Yeah, I am more progressive than the average boomer.
But there are also alt-right millenials and Gen Z.
Age based politics is dumb and will never succeed. It really only appeals to a small minority of people.
I'm not going to throw my parents under the bus and neither are most people.
Business as usual neoliberals?
I’m not sure the voting demographics support that assertion. More like in a few elections boomers will got overturned. And the backlash is always severe.
Edit: Easy to google and find an infinite number of sources: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2011/11/03/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3/
That's a weird way to show those statistics. Young people don't vote in general, unless they feel the need to. Young people are going to vote a certain way but that's who shows up to vote.
I think you deleted your comment. But I don’t think it’s weird at all. If what you say is true than it makes the impact of the choice gap between older and younger voters even more important. Clearly younger voters had to come out in massive force and extremely aligned to overcome the huge conservative bias of their older voting group peers in those elections.
I didn't delete my comment, can you not see it?
False alarm it was my app not making it easy to see the preceding comment. :)
Boomers as a whole? What does that actually mean because Boomers voted around how everyone except the super young generations who vote, vote. It's the same percentage, trump didn't win the popular vote the first time, he lost by millions of votes.
This is the same thing I heard boomers say about the "Greatest" generation, and now I'm hearing the same thing about Gen X and Gen Y, too, though.
As a GenX-er: You're hearing things about us? Usually, we get ignored. I can't tell you how many times I've heard stories about "the generations: Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z" as if we don't exist.
Same, and I'm Gen X. What I sometimes hear (from Gen Z and Gen Y) is the usual BS narrative about how we (all of us, apparently) are responsible for things like donnie and the state of the Republican Party in general.
But yeah, mostly Gen X is completely overlooked. Give it time and I'm sure we'll be the new boomers when it comes to ageist nonsense.
Having a "boomer mentality" means they are selfish and follow the "fuck you, I got mine" and "I got everything handed on a silver platter and nothing changed" rhetoric.
It hasn't been solely used to describe the baby boomers for a long time. I know some Gen Zers with the same mentality.
Well said, generational division is pure divide and conquer. Fortune.com isn't in the business of agitating for class consciousness.