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Translation: you’ll become more conservative when you have children and own a home
Millennials: 😆
Zoomers: 😂
Alpha: 🤣
Whateverthefuckcomesnext: 💀own a home
Too bad boomers ruined my best chance at that.
I have a child and own a home, and am a member of the lost generation. Fuck the Republican Party and any conservative who believes their selfish bullshit should outweigh the greater good of others.
Republicans are fascists, not conservatives.
Democrats are the conservative party.
I agree about Republicans. I don’t agree about Democrats. Some, of course, are conservative, as they historically always have been. But a good portion are quite liberal.
There are two kinds of Democrats: conservatives and hostages
As a whole, the Dems are pretty center of the aisle, because America as a whole is fairly conservative compared to Europe (despite 60% of the population being more liberal than the government at most times). Europeans generally consider the Dems in the US a conservative party, and corporate Dems are definitely closer to the right than to the left. The other issue besides the general conservative leaning in the country though is that there’s about 50 other groups of various left leaning shades that would be their own separate parties in Europe but are bunched in with the corporate Dems and therefore have little say in the party platform.
Seems people feel the need to try to educate me, not really sure why. But whatever :)
I agree with everything you said except, im confused about the use of the term lost generation. That’s a generation born in the 1880-1900s.
My mistake if so. I was under the impression that term was used for those of us born between 1978 or so thru 1983.
In any case, I don’t see myself in the same vein as GenX nor Millennial, at least stereotypically.
I had an feeling you actually meant GenX but I just wanted to make sure. I know that GenX is often thought of as the latchkey generation. I’m on the edge of GenX/millennial.
I just see myself as apart of the “ boomerang “ generation where I’ll be worse off than my parents. Fun times.
Having to mow the lawn is the first step in the pipeline of fascism
Everyone knows it’s a gateway chore
You joke, but if you ever talked to a homeowner about their lawn and heard them complain about their neighbor’s lawn…
Mowing the lawn is the only hour of uninterrupted creativity I get in the week. Also my neighbour’s lawn is 50% dandelions.
Your lawn is green concrete; a lifeless painting with nothing for pollinators.
Your neighbor’s lawn has wildlife in the deadlands of the suburbs.
Except for the magnolia tree and vegetable garden cleary visible in the photo…
A tiny little strip of life, carefully manicured to minimize nature as much as possible.
Might as well pave over the rest of it and just have potted plants for all the good that does.
my neighbour’s lawn is 50% dandelions.
its too late, you’re hitler himself
While I disagree with your take that dandelions are bad, that’s a great mow job! How do you get stripes that pronounced?
I put the wheels on one side a notch lower than the other and alternate directions when you mow.
Wait is Alpha the next generation’s name after Zoomers?
Yeah, for now. That might change. Millennial was originally Gen Y.
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Which is weird since conservative politics is all about cutting funds for schools, gutting the department of education completely, no pre k or free lunches for kids, and getting rid of a large portion of our law enforcement. Just doesn’t make sense why any one who cares about education or safety would be conservative
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You should look past the Cato Institute’s analysis of the KC schools situation. For example, the summary and conclusion sections of this article from the University of Michigan law school show that the conservative criticisms are based on myth.
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You may revise your opinion after reading the summary and conclusion, but maybe you just figure the liberals at Michigan Law can’t possibly understand all the nuances vs someone watching their local news.
Also, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Your skimmed analysis of silly twists of numbers belies the full picture, and in my opinion, total desegregation without changing the major obstacles of the systemic segregation of the city’s real estate, was doomed from the start.
BTW, I agree with you that merely throwing money at an issue without cause isn’t correct. One might argue against the ridiculous and constant over-budgeting of the military, for example. In KC, I believe it had many successes, though obviously not a complete realization of the goals (that shouldn’t have needed to be implemented in the first place).
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How would they prove to you that the funding for schools is necessary? What studies do you require? How is the state going to conduct these studies (in your view), in a timely manner that will positively impact this generation?
There is plenty of research showing, e.g., that fewer kids per teacher provides for better education. Studies that show the benefit of school nurses, counselors, and other wellness experts. All of this costs $$$, often way more money than any given community is willing or even able to put up. This is why strong state funding is so important, rather than relying on levies and bonds. Requiring your specific state to prove the value of teachers, special education, etc is quite an ask. Why isn’t the existing research good enough for you?
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Then why conservative when they actively hate children and society in general? It seems insane to lean that way.
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How myopic to forget the Republicans’ stonewalling after Sandy Hook and Uvalde.
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Yeah, so then it’s not about the children, it’s about guns. American conservatives care more about guns than they do about children, I don’t think it’s even possible to deny that.
It’s an amendment; it wasn’t originally there. We’ve changed those before and we can do it again. I’m sure people said the same thing about the 18th amendment.
Not in my case. I grew up pretty conservative she moved right libertarian until learning economics in college which moved me left. I bought a home and have two kids and am squarely on the left. I care about schools and crime which is why I want more funding for education and programs that actually decrease crime.
Healthcare is the big one for me. We should not be forking over 20% of our paychecks for healthcare. People on the right are fucking nuts to believe that the cost is because of too much regulation considering we have the least regulation and pay twice as much with now limited options. We need Medicare for All.
Economic issues always come down to economic incentives. You care about property values because your home is an investment. You care about stocks because you have a retirement plan. You care about not being a burden on your children when you’re old and having inheritance to leave behind when you die. You care about crime because you have things to steal and a life to lose.
I don’t have property. I will never retire. I will never have children. I am nothing and no one and that will never change.
When I was younger I was a pretty typical liberal. By 30 I was a Marxist-Leninist and desired nothing but the complete destruction of the demon shithole country called Amerikkka. 😘
I am nothing and no one and that will never change
I hope you find some comfort one day.
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I am a machine that exists to create value for my boss. I’ll never doubt that.
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No offense, but it seems pretty naive to say things will get better. I try not to jump on conservatives when they are willing to engage, but that’s a pretty rough take.
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Optimism is for older generations, who lived the before times when life got better year-after-year.
That has never happened in my entire life.
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I have heard this my entire life and now that I recently have kids and a home, I find it to be an insane take. If anything, the greater my knowledge of the world becomes the MORE liberal I am. I’m significantly more aware of rigged systems and injustice as I age.
Reality has a liberal bias.
In order to be conservative you have to be afraid, irrationally. Afraid your guns will be taken, afraid the gays are going to out-breed you (not even kidding, they really “think” that), afraid what you want won’t be what everyone does, afraid other people are smarter or more capable, afraid that when you die you won’t get magicked somewhere to live forever. Basically afraid of everything whether it makes any sense or not. And afraid someone else will find out how afraid you are all the time.
They’re pathetic and not fit to walk a dog much less run anything.
A lot of that specific brand of conservatism is very American. While everywhere has conservatives, and I totally agree they’re build on a foundation of personal fear, they have very different presentations in different places!
Yet they are fools everywhere. I can confirm for Germany, bunch of anti-science idiots who make my blood boil.
afraid the gays are going to out-breed you (not even kidding, they really “think” that)
Do, uh, do they understand how reproduction works, or…?
afraid what you want won’t be what everyone does, afraid other people are smarter or more capable
Well, yeah, that’s almost certainly true.
afraid that when you die you won’t get magicked somewhere to live forever.
Atheists would say that’s true too.
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My old man has told me this my whole life and I always tell him no, because I’m not a cunt. 42yo so far and still going strong.
I’m more conservative than a lot of people here, but no, I’ll never be a religious nut cheering on death. If that’s conservative they can keep it.
Boomers got more conservative as they grew older because they’ve been eating shovels of propaganda since reagan and never learned how to fact check like younger generations
Don’t forget the leaded gas fumes and rampant racism!
Don’t belive everything you read online, kids!
Proceeds to freebase Facebook conspiracism like it’s the 70’s again
I was actually more right wing as a kid. Now that I’ve learned some things about the world that’s when I became a left leaning liberal.
Went from voting far right in 2017 (fucking welfare abusers ) to far left in 2022 (fuckibg corporations costing three times more than welfare) kek
greatest comeback
I’m at a pretty low level of rightishness, but I fluctuate a bit. I’ve been socially left since my late teens and sort of homeless but libertarian economically. My personal ethics are definitely closer to some left-lib ideologies.
I’m really uncomfortable with subjective categories. My brain wants objective lines. I’m also extra empathetic. Working out a personal philosophy that fits both is kind of time consuming, but worth it because my brain really likes objective lines.
I remember a high school friend’s father saying something to me like, “You’ll get more conservative when you start paying taxes.” This was around 1993-1994 or so.
I’m 45 now, modestly wealthy, and pay plenty of taxes. I can’t envision ever voting for a Republican for any public office ever again…and the current circus of bullshit around TFG just seals that deal for me.
They only became more conservative because the party used to be somewhat sensible but also used a bit of nostalgia in their campaigning. Now they just use hatred and nostalgia for times where you could openly be hateful. More flies with honey and all that.
Also as someone who is in a not great position, thanks for voting and caring. Selfishly I ask that you especially listen to help for disabled folks. I am in a really bad position and its hard to get out of it because so few people care. When people don’t care then they don’t think about it when voting and we end up in worse positions. Disability benefits, where I am anyway, are stagnated and haven’t risen alongside inflation in 30 years while rent/food costs have exploded. Minimum wage isn’t a livable wage and disability here gets less than minimum wage.
Sorry for the ramble. Been a harsh couple days.
Same (though not American). I did the opposite. I started off conservative cause that’s what my family and community was. Then found out that was hateful bullshit and am now extremely progressive. I’m happy to pay my taxes (and I pay waaaay more than average). I do sometimes wish they went to better things and weren’t squandered as often (especially on MPs paying for $16 glasses of orange juice), but overall Canada does a decent job at using its taxes. It’s impossible for taxes to go to 100% agreeable things, since there’s no satisfying everyone. They’re ultimately a net benefit.
I also don’t have kids but am happy to see kids get the benefits of my taxes (and many other things taxes go to that don’t directly benefit me). People who expect tax dollars to always benefit them are selfish and narrow-minded, which I think is the root reason some people don’t like taxes.
Even if conservatives go back to being about “small government”, I can’t see myself voting Republican. I don’t think I’m anything. I can see “small government” working. But I can also see the democrats vision of “government should do things” working too. I can see either technique working. The problem is, back when Republicans used to promote “small government”, I noticed after a while, they never made government smaller. When I confronted some of them on that, they used to say at least its not as big as what the democrats want. What the fuck does that even mean? Democrats, on the other hand, actually try to do stuff.
They want small government for the rich and big government for anyone that’s not a conservative pentecostal Christian. Simple. Lol
The older I get, the more liberal I get.
Just turned 38 and from an ultra conservative household, every since I broke the indoctrination I’ve just gotten more and more liberal
Literally the story of my life, without the ultra part. They were evangelicals, however.
Interesting, I didn’t realize you could be an evangelical and not be ultra conservative, having been raised by the full package
They were kinda close, but I’ve definitely seen far more strict than what they were. They both supported Trump, but died before Jan 6th.
I’m sorry for your loss
Thank you
Same. I’m almost 42 and I’ve never been more liberal.
Mid-40’s, same.
49 here. Liberal AF.
Same. Only getting more and more liberal as I get older.
GenXer. I’ve gotten more progressive. I used to consider myself a moderate dem back in the 90s. On the other hand, the 90s moderate dem is now considered a commie woke libtard, so shrug? Shocking that I want justice for all, fair wages, end systemic racism, end homophobia, etc. So librul! I’m destroying Western society! Oh wait, I’m a POC immigrant woman, course I’m destroying America!
This is the woke agenda smh my head
I hate it when boomers, specifically, say this. My grandfather, who is Silent Generation, will tell you that he’s gotten more liberal as he’s gotten older. Whenever I hear a boomer say this, it’s used as a shaming, like “you don’t understand now but you will when you’re older”. Turns out I haven’t gotten more conservative. I listened to minority populations and then came out and it’s turned me more leftist.
Boomers, in general, are a generation of spoiled children that, for the most part, have never seen the true hardships of any other generation. “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” Boomers are the weak men that created hard times for the following generations, yet they keep living and consuming as if our world wasn’t dying. “Fuck you, got mine” I guess.
Yeah, same. It’s also part of their mindset that “progressive = immature” which I’ve always found really confusing.
Yes, the idea that my taxes should be spent for the benefit of all is immature. Gotcha.
I’ve gained empathy as I’ve gotten older. The literal opposite of conservatives
Young people tend to be more persuadable before 30, and tend to bake in their political views around that age. So big events in one’s 20’s tend to lead to lasting partisan affiliations for life after that.
FDR’s presidency won over a lot of people to the Democrats in the 30’s and 40’s. Eisenhower’s presidency shifted people over to Republicans in the 50’s. Nixon pushed people away from Republicans. But by the 70’s Democrats were losing a lot of voters, and then Reagan won a bunch of people over to the GOP. Then 9/11 won people over to Republicans, while the Iraq war pushed them away.
But each of these things had an outsized effect on those under 30. So Boomers who remember getting fed up with Democrats in the 70s and crossing over for Reagan (and then voting Republican in every election since) just thought it was the effect of age, rather than the effect of that particular political moment in 1980.
And even though this data and the analysis is mainly for Americans, it’s probably reflective of how people shape their own political beliefs everywhere.
That’s probably true… It would be nice if people would voluntarily read books at all ages and get educated so that they can have actual political beliefs instead of ‘x party good, y party bad’
That might have been true decades ago, but now people have:
- Greater access to knowledge, and are forced to think more critically about what they consume.
- More extreme views, which picks off the weak.
- Most importantly, older people had stuff. They owned houses, had stable, life-long careers, and had settled down before they hit their thirties.
People in their mid to late thirties nowadays might have a fancier job title, but many of them are still struggling like they were before. It’s hard to be protectionist when you have nothing but your life to protect…
Add Less Lead Exposure. Empathy is a function of the brain and lead damages it.
I think it’s your third point, mostly. Maybe even as sharply stated as: boomers became more conservative as the system and status quo brought them wealth, comfort, and security, so naturally they wanted to keep that going. For the generations that have followed, the system and status quo have only continued to bring those benefits to the boomers, not to them, so they’re less likely to trend conservative to perpetuate a system that has failed them.
Additionally, in the years since the boomers came of age, the political right has moved away from a traditional conservative platform to a very extreme and hateful version of itself. Even if many millennials had shifted slightly to the right as they aged, the party typically associated with conservatism has moved so much farther to the right that even with their gradual shift, these millennials are still far closer to the left, or at least to “not whatever the right is saying”.
More people become conservative when they have something to lose. Why would you want to conserve a status quo where you don’t own anything of substance and probably never will?
while the last point is perhaps the main determinant theory behind why many older people are not being owing more right wing, I’m a little confused by your first two points.
especially the fact that people have greater access to knowledge and are forced to think more critically. if anything, with the advent of the internet, echo chambers have never been easier, preventing critical thinking. this leads to a growing of extreme positions which further reinforces such views due to tribalistic fallacies in our thinking and the need for these tribal identities to distinguish themselves.
I think it also depends on whether or not they were provided the education to use the internet well. If all people get is a vague “have at 'er!”, of course we would have more echo chambers. Ever hear the saying “don’t believe everything you read online?”
Properly teaching people how to verify their information sources and how to reflect on things would probably result in fewer echo chambers. “Huh. I don’t want to keep looking like a fool who spreads obviously false things around.”
There’s also internal bias to think about here. If someone is already dead-set in believing only their current mindset, they’re likely not going to be open to other sources. Instead, they’re probably going to search for whatever will back up their claim. People don’t usually try to prove themselves wrong in an argument.
This means that part of getting rid of echo chambers will also be teaching people to accept and acknowledge their own errors. We should be teaching people to go for the best answer, not to just prove themselves right. In this way, this problem also preceeds the internet. That mindset has hindered science for literal centuries. It even goes back to the first days of science in Greece. (Thanks for that attempted halt of progress, religion.)
It’s easier to blame the internet than the people doing these things. Sadly though, it’s in human nature.
I also think having kids has an impact, which we’re not doing as much.
My kids made me more liberal…our conservative government cut property taxes to starve our public education system, I donated most of the rebate to my kids school, some of it went into their education fund.
People who aren’t as fortunate as we are, deserve the same opportunities we have when it comes to public services.
A lot of people get caught up in finding the best local district for education or sports here. I think that mentality prolly says something about them.
That’s very true. could you explain your statement about “picks off the weak”?
Eat the rich at any age
The older phrase used to be “You become more right wing when you get older”, whereas it’s quite likely it was missing the specific cause, which was “You become more right wing when you stop learning”. [Edit] Typo
That’s an interesting thought actually. Makes sense
