Older generations didn't fail us, the bourgeoisie did. Don't let capitalists get away with reframing class struggle as generational struggle when that's not what it is. Poor folks of past generations weren't the problem. It was the ones wealthy enough to have political influence and control that were the problem. And that will continue being true for future generations so long as capitalism exists.
If the bourgeoisie fucked my parents as hard as they're fucking me, I would have been brought up homeless. My mom was making the equivalent of like $60 an hour today when I was a kid, as an illegal immigrant with a two-year degree. I was born in the US and have a master's of science with a 4.0 GPA and can't even get a job.
Things have definitely changed with time, and the younger generation is having a worse time because of it.
I think the point the comment above you was trying to make is that it isn't the old generation that is fucking thr young generation harder, it is the rich that are fucking the young. The old may have had it better, but it was because the rich weren't fucking them as hard.
I feel fucked by the rich, but I feel more directly fucked by the people a decade or two older than me in management at the jobs I'm applying to. As much as I'd love for the US to be more socialist and have better workers rights, it didn't for my parents and it doesn't for me. The sole difference is that I feel excluded from society, despite toeing the educational line my whole life.
Extend your reasoning. Why are the older people still there blocking the way? Because they’ve been unable to retire for a miriad of reasons orchestrated by those in power.
That is the crudest I’ve ever seen class consciousness, and still be understandable. Great job.
Your overall point is valid - the top wealth holders are screwing everyone they can, regardless of what generation they're in. But the older generations have some insulation - they were able to establish themselves economically before the vice really gripped. However, they are also the ones that allowed this to happen & often cheered it on - by voting for leaders who would enact policies designed to benefit the elite class at the expense of everyone else. It's not a generation war per se, but it is partially their fault & the reason boomers are known as "The Selfish Generation". Ironic since their parents were members of "The Greatest Generation" who were willing to sacrifice everything including their lives to better the world. One would think their kids would have learned something other than "Gotta get mine" at the expense of future Americans (both economically and ecologically). So it is a LITTLE about the generation gap.
Isn't that one of the theories about generations though? One generation suffers, one generation builds, one generation enjoys it and pisses it all away. Repeat.
This should be the loudest comment in the room.
Thanks for the focus.
If you're under 40, please vote for as much as you can. I know in San Francisco, we're going to have like a 7 card ballot in Nov. With so much stuff on it, but please research the people and props that are on the ballot. There are so many progressive vs moderate things on the ballot that really need the youth vote... And yes anyone under 40 is the youth because so many people under 40 don't vote like the older people do!
Honestly, how many more times is the answer gonna be "vote", you don't seem thrilled about either party, nor the judicial system, nor the oligarchy.
It might be time for political action: demonstrations, organised negotiations/pressure, striking, etc.
At least the French seem to get a lot done with national strikes.
It's not one or the other. You can do both. The French do. Vote for whatever the least bad realistic option is at the election, and then you have years of time to do the other stuff
Voting isn't the answer it's just the minimum required effort in the USA. We need unions and to strike and all kinds of solidarity and resistance. But compared to those voting is cheap and easy. If everyone votes in their own self interest all the hard actions like striking will be easier and more effective.
It could help if people actually voted. Can't get people to do the bare minimum of show up to a polling location every 2 years and do 20 minutes of research. Good luck getting those same people to quit their jobs and strike while living pay check to pay check.
Even if you don't vote for president, vote local. There's usually more candidates because it's a lower bar for entry. It's also where many of your rights are protected.
Just a few good resources for voter guides and to get involved in the SF Bay Area:
SF Rising Action https://www.sfrisingaction.org
Bay Rising Action https://bayrisingaction.org
Democratic Socialists of America – San Francisco https://dsasf.org/
Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club https://www.milkclub.org/
Fuck. Gen X shit on by boomers. Now we're shit on by the generations after us.
I'm GenX. I was pissed off about how much boomers took so much and left so little for us. Millenials got it even worse. Gen Z worse again. The concentration of capital in fewer and fewer hands is a looming disaster
I don't think it's the boomers fault but rather the filthy rich, they are the ones who changed the rules so that they can take from us even more than from our parents/grand parents. Made it harder to own stuff and impossible to fight them and improve our lives so we stay occupied in their businesses trying to survive.
I read a comment yesterday where someone said “You remember how after we had all those occupy wall-street protests, and the media started heavily focusing on race issues?”
Every so often, someone comes along and reminds me to stop looking at trees and take in the whole forest, and I’m like “Ah, fuck. The forest is on fire.”
They didn't have to swallow and blindly vote for the propaganda they were immersed in, and at any time they could have collectively decided it was the wrong direction to be going.
Instead, they willfully and gladly kept voting for the same conservative policies and didn't make the connection as to why their lives and their kids' lives were getting worse. That was a choice.
I feel like America failed older generations too. The Vietnam war comes to mind immediately.
America has particularly failed veterans since the Revolutionary War, when soldiers weren't paid the money they were promised and given IOUs(not joking).
But every generation of American has had a better life than the previous generation until now.
Every generation up to and including boomers. Gen X, Millenials and Gen Z have had progressively worse conditions thanks mainly to boomer and older politicians pulling the ladder of social mobility up behind them in exchange for bribes from the rich and powerful.
That's right, America NEVER took care of the vets, even when fighting for it's own independence lmao
How are you measuring that ?
famously benedict arnold was a hero in the war for independence who kept asking congress for unpaid wages until he finally snapped and went full brit sympathizer after congress fucked around a bunch.
With a general understanding of American history. Do you disagree?
it's not really about what i think, but it's an enormous claim to make, based only on your general understanding of American history.
I wonder if you dont find it a bit dismissive, and disrepectful of the challenges faced by those born into the great depression ? or into world war ii ? or those conscripted and sent to die in Vietnam ?
Surely, anyone coming of age in those times, would be entitled to think "boy, the adults have really fucked shit up for us ?"
I'm not saying that gen Z has it the worst in all of American history. I'm saying that things peaked for boomers and progressively gets worse in either direction in time.
Every generation of Americans has had a war to fight because of the decisions of previous generations, that's a constant in American history. After WWII was Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan and I'm sure more to come.
Too bad all of the hippies got disillusioned and became CEOs. Unless I'm mistaken, every generation since has gone more to the left on aggregate. Fucking boomers.
It wasn't the same people. There's just a lot of Boomers who lie about having been a hippie because it's cool to have been a hippie now, but it was very unpopular at the time.
Mark my words, in 30 years everyone old will say they used to be a hacker.
Dude I nodded stardew valley once I'm totally a hacker
Modded
Fuck
And then the war in Afghanistan too. Most just don’t want to be on the receiving end of Americas bullshit (which ironically includes Americans)
America has never been great so I'm not sure why MAGA as a saying even exists. It's only ever been great for the ultra rich white man.
I don’t think it’s envy for what the older generations have (“I wish I had that too”) so much as disgust at what they were/are willing to do to make and keep it (at politicians who don’t even intend well, at lobbying, at war mongering, at continued climate degradation, at racism, at the brutality of capitalism and the impact of it’s growth mandate, that some individuals have power way beyond their ability to take responsibility for their harm, etc).
I think the younger generations would be quite willing to adapt to things like high density housing, trimming back consumption, reducing meat intake, etc. in the name of balance with each other and the climate, but that would cause deflation and we can’t have that.
I also think its disgust for what older generations will believe: trump is god's chosen moron, crime goes up every year, immigrants are illegal and invading, paying people fair wages is bad, etc.
When GenX were kids, both parents had to work, yet standards of living hadn't improved. It's not an intergenerational conflict. It's intergenerational mental illness caused by a top-down capitalist system that doesnt work to serve the public, in fact, captures and repurposes public-serving government.
Watching today as SCOTUS scrambles to justify doing what our plutocrats (their leashholders) want instead of what is just or what would serve the public.
Thanks to the internet, the proletariat is aware of all the lies, the mistruthes and fables we used to justify trying to work hard for a seat in Heaven, or upward mobility, or an honest wage. Those were all cons, and we know now we can't trust our bosses to treat us fairly. In fact, they're actively trying to automate us to homelessness, which they're then looking to criminalize.
The future belongs to the Proles!
If there is hope, it lies with the proles
basically a return to slavery, ultimately. actual slavery (vs wage slavery). as you say, trying to criminalize being homeless. as i type this, my states is hearing arguments about whether it’s ok to fine and arrest people for sleeping outside even if there is nowhere else they can sleep. in hawaii they banned using plankets and umbrellas while sleeping, regardless of weather. and so on.
Yes, capitalism sucks. It's better than fuedualism, but it still sucks.
Feudalism didn't organize enough intelligent people and trick them into producing enough shit like plastic, nukes, etc. to eliminate all life on this planet. Forever. Soon.
We humans cannot eliminate all life on this planet. Even if we set that as an actual goal, we would fail. We can wipe out a lot, cause vast harm to existing ecosystems, but life will go on long after we make ourselves extinct.
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