a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by Quatrarius
Quatrarius  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: "This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded."

everybody born after 9/11 has grown up in a time where change is impossible because this is the best the world will ever be - government is the thing where people older than your grandparents sit on their hands and forget what day it is, mass media is the thing that shows people your parents' age things from their childhood so they can clap their hands when they recognize darth vader, and the only outlet and place you can be free is the internet, which is 90 percent corporate-made skinner box shit at this point, and also the only thing you've heard from birth is that the world is gonna end in 20 years if we don't do something, and it's 20 years later and nobody seems to have done much

the attitude of the times is "it's too late; and if it isn't too late, you will never be able to do anything about it" - instead of whipping yourself about how you've ruined your kids or jerking off over how good of a parent you are, help make the world a better place or step aside





user-inactivated  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This so much ....

The world sucks and nothing is getting better. There's nothing to do. Work is pointless and unfulfilling and wtf do I need the money for when I'm living with my parents anyways

kleinbl00  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah dude I get it. We set our prices at "going rate plus two bucks an hour" but fuckin' hell I wouldn't do that job for that money. If I was in a loving house with people who loved me and my essentials taken care of I wouldn't get yelled at for a living for this side of $90k.

What does this do to the economy

Quatrarius  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

it's like brother think about all the reasons you might feel sad or anxious about the world when you look at the news, and then imagine how you would feel with no house, job, car, money, social circle, and no reason to expect the future to be any better - the dream is to break even: you try your best to hit maintenance level or you kill yourself. sorry jackass tough luck

kleinbl00  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    government is the thing where people older than your grandparents sit on their hands and forget what day it is

The average age of the Soviet Politburo in 1984 was 69, when the US widely proclaimed that the USSR was done because it was run by a bunch of old people. The average age of the senate right now is 64 1/2, Nancy Pelosi is 82, Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley are 88 but hey Amy Coney Barrett is 50 so we've got that to look forward to forever.

    mass media is the thing that shows people your parents' age things from their childhood so they can clap their hands when they recognize darth vader

    and the only outlet and place you can be free is the internet, which is 90 percent corporate-made skinner box shit at this point

It's funny - online advertising is worthless so to make it profitable you need ALL OF IT and you need to make sure nobody can step outside of your silo or else you'll be able to avoid it.

    and also the only thing you've heard from birth is that the world is gonna end in 20 years if we don't do something, and it's 20 years later and nobody seems to have done much

To be fair this has been true for at least the last 100 years. Virginia Woolf committed suicide because the outbreak of WWII demonstrated the boundless cruelty of man towards man. HOWEVER there's a profound difference in the level of helplessness and disinterest espoused by everyone who's had the right to vote for more than a few years.

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” - Max Planck

I think we're at a tipping point. I think "OK Boomer" was the start of the avalanche. This is the annoying thing about Strauss-Howe generational theory - they posit that every four generations the prevailing cohort is just fucking awful and the next cohort rises up and straightens shit out (for broad definitions of "straightens shit out", just ask Steve Bannon). Strauss and Howe, of course, are hard-core boomers so of course they don't paint their generation as one that fucks shit up but uhh... their theory sure does.

I think the kids growing up worried about getting shot in elementary school will have a different attitude about guns. I think the kids growing up with everything around them dying from heat will have a different attitude about global warming. I think the kids growing up with killer pandemics and no insurance will have a different attitude about healthcare.

But it's gonna be rough while we transition.

Quatrarius  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

yeah the problem with waiting for the kids with better opinions to take over is that shit sucks now and the feinsteins of the world aren't going anywhere until god takes matters into his own hands so it's a wash

kleinbl00  ·  692 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is how regimes fall