I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older
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@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Men tend to get more conservative as they age, but women don't. Women tend to get radical. Of course, I'm a fucking boomer, so I guess what I have to say doesn't count since it's all my fault anyway. And just so you know, none of my boomer friends are as well off as their parents were.
I have gotten progressively more leftist as I've aged. Not that I was ever conservative.
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I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2@jik I don’t know if I’m more or less conservative, but I’m less patient with politicians, promising any kind of slogan without a credible plan to deliver it. Perhaps it’s easier when you’re young to dream about possibilities as you get older you prefer competence of any political persuasion. I get tired of people talking about whether somebody is socialist or not as the primary attribute. I’m far more likely to ask are they actually going to be able to do what they are promising
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I've also heard the theory that "you get more conservative as you get older" is a tale of survivorship bias.
It only looks like people get more conservative because conservative people live longer because they are selfish bastards who hoard all the resources (good food, health care, etc).
@davidtheeviloverlord @jik as I understand it there are several things happening that add up to old people being on average more right wing than young people, that get misinterpreted as people getting more right wing as they age.
One is the thing you mention - straight cis white male able bodied people tend to be more right wing, and also to live longer because wealth and privilege, so they are over represented among old people.
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@davidtheeviloverlord @jik as I understand it there are several things happening that add up to old people being on average more right wing than young people, that get misinterpreted as people getting more right wing as they age.
One is the thing you mention - straight cis white male able bodied people tend to be more right wing, and also to live longer because wealth and privilege, so they are over represented among old people.
@davidtheeviloverlord @jik another is that society gets more left wing faster then individual do. Someone who in their youth in the 70s was left of centre, and has gotten a little more progressive over the next 50 years, is right of centre in the 2020s.
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@davidtheeviloverlord @jik another is that society gets more left wing faster then individual do. Someone who in their youth in the 70s was left of centre, and has gotten a little more progressive over the next 50 years, is right of centre in the 2020s.
@dragonfrog @davidtheeviloverlord Hmm, can you elaborate on that? Society is made up of individuals, so what exactly does it mean to say that society gets more left wing faster than individuals do?
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@jik You could say I've grown more conservative, but only for a very strict definition of the word. I'm now conservative enough to believe that anyone who puts families on the street, gobbles up wealth from every possible source, destroys everything that has taken centuries to create, I think those criminals ought to be punished. I feel very Pentateuch about it.
Sort of related, I’ve found that it is much easier to destroy good stuff than it is to build it. Mere neglect destroys pretty fast.
This leads to, oh, etymological conservatism, but away from political conservatism.
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@jik others might get there, but with hateful attitudes like yours you won't be one of them.
@CuriousMagpie
Disagree. His attitude will be required to be able to get there -
@dragonfrog @davidtheeviloverlord Hmm, can you elaborate on that? Society is made up of individuals, so what exactly does it mean to say that society gets more left wing faster than individuals do?
@jik @davidtheeviloverlord young people start off very progressive compared to the society of crusty conservative old people around them. Tweny years later they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their kids' generation - they've moved left, and they're stodgy centrists now. Twenty more years and they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their grandkids' generation, moved a bit further left (but more slowly than in the previous twenty) and they're crusty old conservatives now.
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@jik Would you be ever be so kind as to stop lumping everyone into the huge basket of "boomer". I'm considered a boomer and everyone of my friends are card carrying leftists. Might I suggest "Monied Boomers". Otherwise you're just being blindly classist.
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@CuriousMagpie
Disagree. His attitude will be required to be able to get there@JohnLAlford @jik So many folks to block today.
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I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2@jik
My dad always hated that I was some clusterfuck of socialist and anarchist, and always said I'd grow up and become conservative.Except it turned out I was transgender, so that's right out the window. I'm not about to start voting my rights out the window.
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But that's all over. The boomers have fucked up the U.S. economy and the world for everybody, and my kids will be the first generation of middle-class white people since WW2 to be worse off financially than their parents.
If the fucking boomers think the kids entering the job market now are going to get "more conservative" as they age, they're deluding themselves.
Politics are going to change for the better in the U.S. It's going to be painful to get there, but we're going to get there.
2/2@jik I’ve been told since I was a kid that we’d inevitably swing left as a culture. I’m well into my 40s and we’ve only gone the wrong way.
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I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2@jik We simply have pensions because we worked for union shops They were very strong after World War II until Reagan broke the air traffic controller union. If we truly, diligently worked on building more union shops we would have a middle class that mattered again.
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I object to the term solely because it such a broad brush to paint with. Suddenly everyone in my age group is tasked with being responsible for what clearly has been engineered by those with wealth and power over the last 30 odd years. It sure wasn't me.
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@JohnLAlford @jik Do you honestly think I had any control over the political actions of those I voted for? Any control over the various K street entities and the lobbying they did after my vote had been counted and that person sworn in? Because you sure do make it sound like I did.
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@JohnLAlford @jik It’s complete farcical nonsense. The power in every situation rested not with the people, it rested with those we entrusted and they were bought and sold. Because no K street entity plays only one side of the street.
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@JohnLAlford @jik This falsehood of dragging the “Me Too”movement into this clearly states to me you think sloganeering and using it is somehow useful. This says more about you than me. Using an issue as a bus to throw someone under when that issue is clearly a leftist issue is suspect at best. Also, not the topic at hand.
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@JohnLAlford @jik This is a discussion about dividing people by class along age lines and associating blame based on a random date range promoted by marketing people so they could have an easier time targeting ad placement. Do you see the inherent problem with this? Ya’ know lumping a class of people together and calling/inferring/implying they are bad? Because using that term does exactly that.
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@JohnLAlford @jik This is a discussion about dividing people by class along age lines and associating blame based on a random date range promoted by marketing people so they could have an easier time targeting ad placement. Do you see the inherent problem with this? Ya’ know lumping a class of people together and calling/inferring/implying they are bad? Because using that term does exactly that.
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@JohnLAlford @jik It’s ageist. It’s wrong. It only serves to divide. You've conflated what boomer means, not me.
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I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2@jik In Australia that trend has already been reversed by millennials. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-26/millennials-rewriting-the-rules-of-australian-politics/106050836
I've also seen Boomers move left, aside from the Overton window shifting, there's a backlash against neo-liberal economics.
