Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?

[Mongrel]

Yeah, I maintain the following two things now and forever:

1. There's a serious world-threatening problem going on right now, and if you think that's just doomsaying, you're an idiot.

2. The future is overwhelmingly liberal. We are more liberal and environmentally conscious as a generation than any generation before us, worldwide. Our kids even more so.

So, yeah. It's crass, but you're not wrong. The Boomers have to fucking die.

"Once these old reactionary fucks are all dead we can start building a just and equitable world"

-some guy in 1971, probably

True, but it's worth ponting out that the sheer number of Boomers means they have a disproportionate effect vs any other chronologically-adjacent generation.

[Thad]

There are also some pretty significant demographic trends that I'm hoping will make a real difference here.

The notion that Boomers started out liberal and became more conservative as they aged is largely a misconception. Most Boomers were always conservative; they just happened to like sex and drugs and oppose the draft when they were draft age.

White people in general, and white men in particular, are still mostly conservative, even among younger generations. But our share of the electorate is decreasing, and that's one of the reasons Millennials are more liberal than Boomers (and we're about to hit the point where Millennials outnumber Boomers in population; we're a long way from Millennials turning out to vote in greater numbers than Boomers, but it's going to happen eventually, short of somebody discovering a cure for aging within the near future).

There's a wing of the Republican Party -- the Bushes, Romney, Steele, Priebus -- that recognized that the Republican Party can't continue to win elections unless it expands its appeal outside of white voters. That wing lost the argument; the party has decided that, instead of trying to be less racist, it's just going to try to make sure nonwhite people can't vote (voter suppression) and, if they do, their votes matter as little as possible (gerrymandering). They've effectively conceded that their options are "be less racist", "lose", or "cheat"; they've opted for "cheat".

So while the population is becoming more liberal, the conservatives in power are rigging the game so they'll stay in power -- and so that even if they're defeated, they've gummed up the works so that it will be as difficult as possible to undo what they've done.

[Friday]

paco, you're absolutely not wrong that every generation blames the generation before and then after it for the world's woes.

But unless you can counter my "Millennials and their kids are way, way more liberal than any other generation in history, due mostly to changing demographics" I believe my assertion, while coincidentally sounding like a typical bullshit complaint common to all humans, retains weight.

I guess you could rephrase my "fuck boomers, they need to die" if that rankles you to "the demographics of America are changing and the voting block is changing with it."

[Mongrel]

[Brantly B.]

Put it this way, until we kick the people who actually will receive social security out of power, there's a 0% chance our needs will be addressed in any way.

[Thad]

Put it this way, until we kick the people who actually will receive social security out of power, there's a 0% chance our needs will be addressed in any way.

Nah. Ain't no way I'd trade Liz Warren, Ron Wyden, and Bernie Sanders* for more Josh Hawleys and Tom Cottons.

Demographic trends can be useful for broad analysis, but they break down on smaller scales -- say, if you're looking at a group of 535 people like Congress. Older elected officials aren't necessarily more conservative or out-of-touch, younger ones aren't necessarily more liberal or with-it. It borders on the tautological to say this, but an elected official's constituency is a much better predictor of their politics than their age is.

It's not so much that we need to vote out all the old people as that more young people need to vote. There are plenty of older public servants who are good advocates for young people's interests and, unfortunately, there are plenty of younger ones who aren't.

And that's before we get into gerrymandering and institutions that are undemocratic by their nature like the Senate and the electoral college.

* Sanders is a Silent, not a Boomer, but anyway, he's old.

[Mongrel]

This could probably go in about half-dozen threads - cops, police state, collapsing civilization - but ultimately, the Administration is behind this one.

[mharr]

You know what else is fucked psychologically here? That police are still using 1970's ass crappy typewritten photocopies so when they check for medical cautions they're seeing that full list of scary phrases every time. And we know how vulnerable they are to scary ideas.

[Mongrel]

I love that "Martial Arts Expert" is a listed item.

[Mazian]

[Grath]

... also there are SO MANY STORIES about how it didn't work for shit.

[Friday]

jesus fucking christ.

[Brantly B.]

As the thread notes, that's from 2015, which means she posted that and then was hired. Which isn't surprising.

But it's fine. None of us have forgotten what we did to that wall, and none of us have any reason to believe we can't do the same again.

[Yoji]

And wasn't it just the anniversary of the wall coming down yesterday?

And ain't that the truth about the wall not even working? The problem with any static defense is that they stagnant; give him enough time and Solid Snake will find a way over, under, around, or through.

For fuck's sake, I saw a Palestinian tunnel in the news some years back, big enough to roll a car through and complete with elevators on either end.

And this just warmed my fucking heart, or at least tickled my spite bladder: https://youtu.be/QQo79GHq4T0

[mharr]

Okay, that's the first time I've actually seen this 'wall'. It's a fence. Five minutes with a battery angle grinder.

The alligator moat would have been more cost effective.

[Mongrel]

[McDohl]

That ratfucker right there.

[Yoji]

Said it before, but it bears repeating: maybe we should be wary of a guy with a tattoo of Nixon on his back.

[Mongrel]

oh my god does he really

[Yoji]

According to Time and, more importantly, Snopes:
https://time.com/5513051/roger-stone-ri ... nald-trump
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/roger ... on-tattoo/

These. Are. Not. Good. People.