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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Where Is America's Real Youth Rebellion?

I amend my statement.

I have yet to see that proven in a modern context. Maybe it's just egoism, but I believe that the amount of information available about individuals, and the amount of complete garbage that has to be sorted through to get to meaningful information, has caused a fundamental shift in our society, making rebellion/revolution nearly impossible.





mk  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

IMHO it's just your mindset. If anything, the state of media is ripe for it. It doesn't take but a second to tell everyone in the US that university students started occupying their student centers instead of going to class.

The Tiananmen protests of 89 weren't just limited to Tiananmen. They actually were mirrored at university campuses across China. That was when most Chinese didn't have home telephones.

Would you join a protest of your peers if it looked like it had legs?

OftenBen  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It doesn't take but a second to tell everyone in the US that university students started occupying their student centers instead of going to class.

COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO KNOWINGLY AGREED TO LOANS DECIDE TO NOT PAY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BACK!

RADICAL LIBERAL STUDENT MOVEMENT THREATENS GOD-FEARING AMERICANS SOCIAL SECURITY BY REFUSING TO REPAY STUDENT LOANS

Again, garbage is easier to produce than reasonable content.

    Would you join a protest of your peers if it looked like it had legs?

I'd start one if I thought I had a snowballs chance in hell.

mk  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Protests always face that kind of resistance. What matters is whether or not the populous is generally sympathetic or not. My guess is that most people understand that the cost of college is far too high, and that student debt is a huge problem. The millennials understand this, and their parents understand this. Companies that want to sell you stuff understand this.

OftenBen  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Protests always face that kind of resistance. What matters is whether or not the populous is generally sympathetic or not.

Agreed.

But its still a matter of spin. I know exactly how I would completely discredit such a movement nationally. Pick the most burnt-out, hippie looking kids I could, prop them up as an official student representative, preferably in their drug-rug across from or next to a guy in a suit, and ask them simple, baiting questions, get them to use words like socialism, instant target for national scorn and derision. One set of kids gets fed up with 'free speech zones' and spray paints an admin building, BOOM, insta-terrorist, might as well wheel the predator drones out of storage.

OftenBen  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hell, I'll even go one step further and provide the delicious counter-narrative Find a few rich kids who took loans because they messed up somewhere on their scholarship process, put them in suits, and have them talk about how they had loans, but through their hard work they found an honest American desk job, found a girl to marry and are expecting their first child while paying off the last of their loans. Cue 'Star Spangled Banner' and rolling_american_flag.gif

user-inactivated  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

As a millennial myself, I have to say: inb4 that actually happens.

OftenBen  ·  3410 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Huh?

user-inactivated  ·  3410 days ago  ·  link  ·  

"inb4" means "in before" - an expression that indicates that an event is so obviously going to happen that you can get a word in saying it will before it does.

OftenBen  ·  3410 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I know what inb4 means. I didn't know which part of my statement you were talking about

user-inactivated  ·  3410 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh. in that case, I meant "inb4" somebody actually uses that tactic (finding rich kids, etc.) to discredit a student debt movement.

OftenBen  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hell, I'll even go one step further and provide the delicious counter-narrative Find a few rich kids who took loans because they messed up somewhere on their scholarship process, put them in suits, and have them talk about how they had loans, but through their hard work they found an honest American desk job, found a girl to marry and are expecting their first child while paying off the last of their loans. Cue 'Star Spangled Banner' and rolling_american_flag.gif