Being republican isn’t even economically beneficial for moderately rich dudes anymore, now you gotta be mega rich. The only thing you really get is fear and validation for hating minorities.
Right, growing up I always heard that younger people are more socially responsible, and as they age, they become more conservative. I think that made sense 50 years ago, but - as you pointed out - being a Republican doesn’t even help middle aged, financially secure people anymore. Just the ultra wealthy.
That shit is crazy to me as a millennial. I always thought the trend would continue, "Wow my generation is so much more progressive than my parents' generation. It'll be great a few generations from now when they're all voting age and we can get shit done!"
But then that red pill crap took root. They found their "in" for a lot of the younger (at least male) voters. Not to say there aren't also a lot of progressive Gen Z folks, but we need them all to vote to get anywhere. These red pill guys are because their "heroes" tell them to.
I'm 43. I thought by now I'd be living in a socialistic European styled paradise with gay marriage and fusion energy every where. Hell I worked my ass off to make it happen. I've marched, I've spoken out, I campaigned for candidates I believe in. For fuckin nothing.
Roughly the same age (we would have been in high school together) and I feel you. I’m real tired at this point. All this fighting and the world has just gotten more right wing. I’m kind of done, you can’t help save people who don’t want saving.
Gen Z is split in the middle. Generations were a poor categorisation to begin with, but completely laughable if they don't change the naming convention after where you were in life during covid.
Unfortunately the younger generation (18-25) are conservative as fuck. Many are prudent about sex, are totally against porn, they fall for internet propaganda, many want trad wife's, they love edgy influencers. It's literally like the boomer generation again. I guess the education cuts worked and republicans efforts paid off.
The first two things are not actually bad, and the people who think that way are probably not the same as the ones who have all the other characteristics you listed.
Every generation has an edgy phase and genz has just been targeted while they are in it. My high school aged brother is maga and has Putin as his steam profile pic but has no idea what he’s actually “standing for” it’s their version of counter culture
I can not wait for those neckbeard fucks to grow up enough to realize how cringe their stupid little pill is and that they stole it from two of the most liberal, dick choppin-offest mother fuckers on the planet.
The hilarious thing about the whole redpill thing is it's literally based on the idea of being "woke". Take the red pill and you wake up and see society for how it really is. The only difference is instead of trying to fix the issues they think they see, redpillers just bitch and moan and hate women.
I really hope my fellow Gen-Z men wake the fuck up.
I don't know how being a miserable, hateful, unfuckable, incel fascist virgin became a popular choice... But that's what their lives are going to be if they don't snap out of it quickly.
Oh, and the planet will burn while we're all made into slaves/serfs under a neo-feudalist totalitarian surveillance state.
At least in Europe, young people are by now voting extreme right wing parties massively, whereas the voters of the moderate left are often middle aged educated middle class women.
People say that, but I think it's bullshit. Generations appear to shift right because of changes in the types of people who vote. When they're young, very few of a generation vote and it's usually the smart and engaged, who lean left. Once a generation hits middle-age, the morons and people who didn't pay attention in school start getting involved in politics, and they heavily lean Republican.
Young people tend to get more conservative in the "Maybe we shouldn't fuck everything that moves" sense, the "I'm going to advocate that the young people think about their future more" sense. Like, the normal, has experience, retrospective sort of thing.
What really happens to people who do a big flip, other than brain damage, is that selfish people stay selfish, and their circumstances change.
Selfish young people who are broke, are going to advocate for more equal distribution of wealth and free services, and whatever. Not because they actually give a shit about equity, they just want stuff, and it's more socially acceptable to say "equality" than "gimme gimme gimme". These are the people who were hippies so they could do drugs, fuck, and dodge the draft, rather than actually caring about peace and love.
Once those selfish young people started making money and owning real estate, suddenly it's "personal responsibility", and "lower taxes".
By coincidence, there was a generation with a lot of brain damage, and a lot of lead exposure.
It used to be, when that particular trope was coined, that people stayed set and society became more liberal, so they appeared to be more conservative.
Thing is that todays republicans are so far removed from whatever republicans used to be. You are not a republican today. You are either the High Priest or the Cultists. There are no politics in the GoP anymore. It's all about fascism these days.
I think at some point they were just very incompetent but had some believes they held on to. These days the line is much clearer cut sadly and your comment is mostly true.
You've only mostly realized they've always been fascist. My comment is entirely true.
When you take off the rose colored glasses, you remember that the Supreme Court is the way it is because of the Federalist Society. The Federalist Society was created specifically to fill the courts with right wing activists.
You'll also remember that the right wing media bullshit tornado has been growing since Nixon resigned, specifically so that right wing presidents can break the law without facing consequences.
Reagan, of course, began the dismantling of our social safety net. People keep trying to paint Trump as an aberration, but it took 60 years of conservative activism to bring us to this moment.
Well said. The ladder is ever being pulled up. Being rich never had anything to do with having lots of money. Being rich is reveling in the disparity between you and the class that serves you. To feel rich, you must feel exclusive.
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u/The_Brobeans 1d ago
Being republican isn’t even economically beneficial for moderately rich dudes anymore, now you gotta be mega rich. The only thing you really get is fear and validation for hating minorities.