I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older

[pikesley@mastodon.me.uk]

@jik

https://mastodon.me.uk/@pikesley/116467113238982117

[wandrecanada@mastodon.social]

@jik Risk aversion increases the more you have to lose.

Also called conservatism.

[pinchy63@ottawa.place]

@jik
I’ve been the opposite. Gotten more liberal in my views as I’ve aged. Probably why I’ve lost lots of old friends.

[braxa26@mindly.social]

@jik Sadly, North Americans have been groomed to accept wealth hoarders, aka multi-millionaires and billionaires, as their leaders. AFAIK this started well before the "boomers" were born.

[jestbill@mastodon.world]

@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Economists learned the wrong lessons and drove the economy into a ditch. Carter suffered when the Fed put on the brakes.
Since the economy sort of improved, people voted twice for Reagan. The country has not recovered.

[guillotine_jones@beige.party]

@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I, for one, share the blame with YOU, Joyce, for, alas, I am also a Boomer of modest means.

[jamesmarshall@sfba.social]

@jik I have a different take: Some conservative older people have said that, implying it's just a generational cycle. However, I think that with the modern world changing so quickly and information getting spread instantly, there is actually a large-scale "before" and "after". The major shift in global awareness has been taking place since at least the 1960s. Obviously not everyone, but I think more and more people are in favor of compassionate, cooperative, and science-based policies, which translates into progressive politics. I'm guessing "conservative" parents are more likely to have children who are on the left, than lefty parents are to have conservative kids.

(Edit: I'm not dismissing other factors listed in this thread, like the wealth bias, etc.)

[crcollins@writing.exchange]

@joyce

I have gotten progressively more leftist as I've aged. Not that I was ever conservative.

@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik

[dplattsf@sfba.social]

@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

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.

[jik@federate.social]

@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?

[clew@ecoevo.social]

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.

@temporal_spider @jik

[johnlalford@mstdn.social]

@CuriousMagpie
Disagree. His attitude will be required to be able to get there

@jik

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.

[johnlalford@mstdn.social]

@vee
I'm a Boomer who feels that Boomers are a gigantic part of the problem. We can discuss separately, if you like. Your disagreement sounds just like the "Not all men!" faux argument that so many, rightly, ridicule
@jik

[curiousmagpie@beige.party]

@JohnLAlford @jik So many folks to block today.

[cassandra_complex@beige.party]

@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.

[user47@m.ai6yr.org]

@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.

[beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org]

@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.