It's a common mistake among conservatives that they believe everyone is as self-centered and greedy as they are
I've not become more conservative as I age because I'd kill myself before becoming that awful to people around me
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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Not knocking your worthy efforts, but the vast majority of people don’t turn conservative because of ideological reasons, they do it because they want to keep what they acquired over their lives.
The people don’t become conservative any more because everyone younger than 40 pretty has pretty much gotten the economic middle finger across the board, so people turn radical instead. If I have nothing to lose I don’t feel protective of the status quo.
But the greedy fucks in charge around the world are so removed from the reality of life they cannot see past their bank account, and would rather concede to fascism to keep things going for a bit longer, than making the needed changes. For the lost generations and the planet itself.
Well it's worth noting that teenage boys have started leaning a bit more to the right, likely in large part because of Andrew Tate and others in the manosphere, plus right-wing think-tanks like PragerU targeting schools and kids.
Though it's not like the gap between conservative and liberal boys is that big, plus it's not uncommon to hear from men on the left say that they had a phase of watching Ben Shapiro debate compilations only to grow out of it, so it's not like this is the end of the world.
Still, it's also true that Millennials and Gen X are getting fucked by boomers when it comes to money: Millennials only hold 3% of total US wealth, and that's a shockingly small sliver of what baby boomers had at their age
I guess we can only hope that the latter is a stronger motivating factor than reactionary propaganda and efforts to curtail education that are coming from the right.
PragerU is like barely removed from Nazi propaganda. It’s so fucking insidiously and evilly incorrect I can’t believe YouTube allows it at all. Fucking YouTube
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What exactly are older people afraid of losing? It's not like even the farthest left politicians are in favor of doing anything more radical than raising taxes on people who are wealthier than the vast majority of boomers.
I don't think they are afraid of losing anything specific. It's ingrained at this point.
"If you made straight A's and someone else made straight F's, how would you feel if you both ended up with C's? That's fair right? No? Welcome to the Republican Party. Isn't everyone who doesn't agree with this an idiot? I'm glad we aren't idiots."
I grew up homeschooled and the Christian curriculum my parents used had similar feeling brainwashing tactics. "Scientists searched their whole lives to disprove the Bible, then ended up Christians instead!" Making you feel smart for not wasting your life like the other guy, you are already in the "good" group.
I've grown up in the same educational situation, and this is exactly what I've experienced. Their attempted indoctrination turned me into a liberal, antichristian agnostic. But with mental health issues, because emotional abuse is better than "letting your kid go to hell"...
Well Jesus was a peace loving socialist hippy, who would have been seen as a woke liberal by any US Christian conservative. They would have crucified him and not seen the irony.
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To what extent do you think education has played a role in allowing kids to critically analyse these types of people. Because in my history classes, we learned about ways people influenced others in nefarious ways and I'm wondering if kids see the same common pattern and know when to avoid.
Just a thought 🤷
Oh, I definitely think it's played an important role. There's a reason the right wing regularly attacks education. Seems to be a global thing, too -- not just the US.
Also just a thought, though!
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I see boomers posting “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” on FB all the time, and they genuinely, unironically think they were here >strong men create good times< instead of where they really were, here >good times create weak men<, and so now we are absolutely here >weak men create hard times< thanks to them.
They're just so close to seeing the point.
I thought it was weak men make me hard
13 year olds when they discover sex ed
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The actual baby boomers were the weak men created by the good times.
The strong men created by hard times were their parents who fought in wwi and wwii
My generation (millennial/gen x) is also weak.
My children’s generation, unfortunately, might be the ones who grow to be strong, if we don’t turn around this disaster
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Historically, people have become more conservative, not as they age, but as they become more financially secure, own their own home, and want to keep more of the fruits of their labour.
That's increasingly not happening, and we're not happy about it.
and want to keep more of the fruits of their labour
Most conservatives want to keep the fruits of other peoples labor.
Exactly. If you went to school for 16 years to become a neurosurgeon, I have no problem with your $500k salary. But a $1mil+ salary because you started a fast food chain where the employees make minimum wage? That's slavery.
"Fruits of their labor"
Well, fruits of exploitation of the global south that made your labor worth so much more than theirs.
Boomers assuming people become conservative as a function of time as opposed to a function of "getting theirs". I have no evidence but it seems to be you're less likely to become conservative without having amassed some wealth to conserve…
People become more conservative as they gain wealth, not age.
I gained wealth and only realized how bullshit and unfair it all is 🤷♀️
Yeah, I should clarify that you have to gain wealth and also be an asshole.
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"You need to have a sense of ownership and responsibility for your community."
"So you're actually going to let me invest in the community and own things?"
"What? No! Jesus, no. I want you to feel responsible for my stuff and work to preserve a status quo that will never serve you."
100 years ago a big part of the young generation was socialist too. Look how much changed.
This whole obsession with policing people's nationality came about because states were trying to clamp down on the massive amounts of working-class agitation that erupted across the world straight after WW1 - but all that history has essentially been scrubbed out from the "official" narratives.
This. We have to be weary that the owning class will put "leftists" in front of us to "vote for" and then this political energy will go to waste. Or they will draft us, or change the voting age, or get KOSA to pass. Idk. We gotta keep dodging the wrenches and throwing our hammers back at them.
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Doesn't matter if they "become socialist" if they still vote for the same 2 party system. Democrats will never allow America to become actually left-wing
The 2 party system doesn't change until voting changes. First-past-the-post voting actively encourages 2 dominant parties. Ranked choice voting isn't perfect, but it's definitely better than FTTP and it has the most momentum in the US right now.
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In the UK we have something called the "Shy Tory Factor", where opinion polls almost always favour the left, because people will tell people (including pollsters) that they voted for one party, but then voted in a way they view they will be judged against.
IIRC it's also noted in US politics, and IMO it's highly likely that in certain areas you'll find many people that will say all the right things in public, but secretly prefer Trump over Biden, regardless of what either party stands for.
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Even as a perfectly self centered capitalist I would still pick more socialism. System has not bought my loyalty, so why should I care about it?
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