:FACEPALM: A Facebook posting by my 25-year-old niece

[markpkessinger]

Last edited Tue Oct 1, 2013, 05:26 AM - Edit history (1)

So I logged onto Facebook a little while ago, and came across this posting from my niece. Initially, I only saw the original posting. THEN I saw her follow-up comment:



This isn't the first time I've heard a younger person making comments along these lines. But who is feeding these kids this stuff? I responded to her, but I did so pretty delicately because I am not interested in starting a family row. Here is what I said in response:



Obviously, there's much more that could be, and indeed should be, said. But somehow, I think a better approach is just to try, in a non-combative, non-confrontational way, to plant one idea in her head, to give her just a little

What a depressing, not to mention disappointing, exchange.

[JI7]

1. has she responded ? i think more people need to do this, and the fact that you are related to her

might mean she will consider what you said instead of dismissing it if it was someone she didn't know.

[markpkessinger]

2. No response yet . . .

. . . but then, I'm sure she was in bed by the time I posted my comments. If she responds, I will update this thread.

Since she is only 25, I am hoping she hasn't become entrenched in that kind of thinking.

[JSK]

3. Your reply to her was really excellent. nt

[B Calm]

4. It's simply amazing how politically stupid some people can be.

[MichaelKelley]

5. HI

I think this is the general awareness about the government and it shows the interest of younger people in the race. She has responded in a good way and I think everyone else should also respond.

[tavernier]

6. Excellent response by you

Unfortunately it is quite obvious that she is a Fox watcher. Her brain is already being controlled.

[Enthusiast]

7. K&R.

Your niece is only repeating what she heard on Fox "News" or C-Span.

Well, that's all anyone hears on this media.

There is a united effort to slash and destroy social security.

The alternative to social security is to die young. There is no good alternative to social security.

Silver spoon Dubya Bush thought of the social security surplus as his own private piggy bank when he slashed taxes on the wealthy and waged two unnecessary counterproductive wars that did far more harm than good.

It's too bad the truth is not widely recognized or understood.

I'm just saying.

[TNNurse]

8. So sad

They do not learn history in school. They do not know how people fought to make life better for American workers. They see ignorant (by which I mean uninformed) elected officials making decisions and completely ignorant (and some really stupid) "news" people commenting on them.

I realize that a lot has happened in the world since I was in school. They do have more to learn. Apparently some places have just decided that there is too much not worth the effort. If you just focused on wars since I graduated from high school in 1967, that would be a lot of information, but I was at least aware of the basics of the the ones before that time. Unless there is a veteran in the family, they do not learn much and UNDERSTAND less.

If school children were taught actual facts about why unions were formed, why 10 yos no longer work in factories. Why there are safety rules in the workplace. Why their employer cannot make them work 10 hr, 7 day weeks. If they even knew why young women get to participate in sports in school, that they have the right to vote and have a voice in their government, it would help.

If they are out of work today, because of the shutdown, I hope they understand who did this. I hope they know that the people who decided this are still getting paid.

[bigwillq]

9. I am Team Jamie

with her first comment.

[clayton72]

10. You guys are reading in way too much

Come on, how do you know where she gets her news from just that one sentence? Are your attitudes widening or shrinking the divide?

This read of her sentence may be totally incorrect, but perhaps she's commenting on how the red states receive more federal money than they pay in taxes. "Keep your damn government hands off my medicare."

Young and old people both have a tendency of saying things that rub each other the wrong way and an insensitivity about doing so. But each day you wake up you're the oldest you've ever been and the youngest you ever will be and we all have that in common. Build bridges, not walls.

[noiretextatique]

22. 'our money'

Is classic rw propaganda. they use that phrase to divide people; the assumption is some are deserving and others are not. Some people even believe ACA is a 'handout' for black people. We know the memes and code language. I applaud this uncle's attempt to educate his niece.

[RiffRandell]

11. I dragged myself into a discussion Sunday.

A hs friend posted that the Dems are the ones shutting down the government because they won't sign the bill that delays the ACA, therefore won't compromise.

One of his friends comments that the definition of Democrats compromising is "giving us 100% of what we want"....wtf planet do these people live on? One of my other friends liked it. UGH!

I commented on my friend's post, spewed out some facts and said, "well at least the Republicans kicked poor kids off food stamps, and looked mighty proud of themselves afterward."

The guy I don't even know told me to "do some research about what's really going on in this country as obviously I don't have a clue." Profile says he's a tea party member.


Good response to your niece.

[CANDO]

20. The right likes to say "do the research" alot.

What they don't say is where they get their research. Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Alex Jones, Stormfront, Townhall.com, etc, etc.

[theKed]

12. Its pretty broad-brush

But not wholly inaccurate. She's not talking about SS draining national finances at all, but rather the generation receiving it. A generation that saw the dismantling of a lot of financial safeguards, that left industry gutted in their wake, kept the poor progressively poorer with each year, and ensured most jobs young adults can get - if they get one - are low paying and part time.

Is it fair to broadly condemn an entire generation thus? Not really, especially not those who rely on SS to live. But her frustrations are VERY real. Hervgeneration, and mine, have been collectively shat on financially.

[lapislzi]

13. If I were her, I wouldn't pay those student loans either.

Looks like the money was wasted, as she cannot distinguish the correct usage/spelling of "theirs," which is a pretty simple thing that I learned in...about the fourth grade.

[Demo_Chris]

14. I suspect that she is not condemning Social Security, but the generation now collecting it...

More, I suspect it is a popular sentiment among those who are inheriting the smouldering wreckage of what was once the greatest nation on earth.

[bettyellen]

15. then she should be attacking those keeping those policies in place now... but her misplaced

anger - towards recipients of a program that pays for itself- shows she would most likely vote just as stupidly as those in older generations who voted for schmucks like Reagan. In fact, she sounds just like a Reagan supporter villifying the needy.
Nothing to be proud of there.

[Demo_Chris]

18. Who, exactly, should she be happy with?

The generation she seems to be angry with exported all the jobs with their free trade mania, demolished the unions, allowed the infrastructure they inherited to crumble, ran up the debt (from less than our annual defense budget today) to TRILLIONS, refused to even fund their own pensions, voted for endless wars and a national survelliance police state (once they were too old to fight themselves that is), and now want her generation to pay the bill.

They did it all because THEY didn't feel like paying for anything themselves. They inherited the greatest nation on earth, threw the biggest party in history, and in an orgy of self-gratification and greed that would make a Roman blush they burned it to the ground -- all while congratulating themselves on how freaking wonderful they were.

And were all that not enough, now they want to talk trash about the young people struggling in the ash and wreckage.

So yeah, I think she has every right to be pissed as us older folks, and if she gets a few things wrong we are the last people on earth who aught to be judging her. By all rights we should be spending what's left of our days trying to pay the bill and fix the damage. But instead, we just passed yet another law to suck what little wealth young people have remaining -- a freaking insurance mandate -- so that us older folks can enjoy reduced cost health insurance.

And no, it wasn't Republicans who did all that, it was Americans -- and our party voted for it too. Hell, we're still voting for it. We're still ramming through free trade deals and insurance mandates and expanding spy programs as fast as we can. We're still -- a decade later -- fighting wars we have no plan to win and trying to launch new ones. Not Republicans, both parties. And it isn't young people who want all that. Hell, the leader of our party is trying to pass chained CPI so this young lady wont see a dime of the Social Security she is paying. Reagan didn't pass NAFTA, we did that. Just like we "reformed" welfare. Reagan said it was okay to be a greedy fuck, and both party's said hell yeah.

This girl is inheriting our debt, the poverty, the Walmart job, and the NSA. Instead of judging her, just apologize.

[noiretextatique]

23. you have a point...however

some of us opposed all of this, even when the dems joined the party. we were also a part of the movements that the rw backlash destroyed. hell...I joined the green party because of Clinton! obligatory note: I voted for Gore and Obama.

[Demo_Chris]

25. I hear you. I am not trying to make it personal...

Note that even here on DU, today, after seeing the end result of decades of corporatism and free trade and the exploding police state, after all the warnings, the cheerleaders for the machine are still shouting down anyone who dares raise their voice. For them it's just a political game.

The one group in America who is actually blameless isn't us. It's not Democrats or even self-labeled liberals, it's young people. And like Republicans blaming Obama for not "fixing" the economy, a great many older people want to blame young people for the same thing -- and just like the GOP standing in their way, talking trash, and actively working to fuck things up, we are doing the same with young people.

We're handing them a broken infrastructure, gerrymandered districts, twenty TRILLION of debt, two wars, a borderline police state, the greatest wealth and income inequality since 1916, a broken healthcare system, no jobs, no security, and we are telling them that it's their responsibility to fix it. Fix it, but keep the money flowing toward older folks, because the people who fucked it up in the first place need it more than they do. We've got our pensions and homes and social security and stocks, we own what's left of the businesses where they work part time, we've got cars and furniture and frequent flier miles... and they've got their Walmart Job and an insurance mandate.

Obamacare isn't a gift to the young, it's a gift to the old at young people's expense -- just one more fucking from the system. And that's what we are so passionately defending today. So if young people are bitter, who dares cast the first stone? Not me, but I'll damn sure point out the hypocrisy of anyone who tries.

/rant

[Ikonoklast]

31. You are so wrong.

Obamacare isn't a gift to the young, it's a gift to the old at young people's expense...

The only people that say this are those that think they are still immortal, and are in no need of any type of healthcare.

Don't want to pay for your own healthcare?

Fine. There should be a way for you to opt out, but when you do, it's all on you.

Don't stick the rest of us with YOUR hospital bill, including those in your fellow cohort.

[bettyellen]

30. wow, you don't seem to know much about ACA, but lack of affordable insurance crippled many careers

in the 80's through today. Lots of people lost their homes over medical bills. No more, I hope. I think it is an awesome thing.

My point was- she is blaming the wrong people- same as too many people of the last two generations did- which is why we are in this mess right now. Teleport her back and she'd be voting for Reagan. I did not, I fought tooth and nail. Which is a lot more than she is doing. Not apologising to whiners who target the wrong people.
This generational warfare is a distraction, and you are both falling for it.

[tabbycat31]

16. As for the SS comment

Many younger people (including myself, I'm 33) have been conditioned to believe that they're more likely to see a UFO than collect SS when the time comes. They're paying into the system and believe it will be drained by their parents before they see a dime.

[markpkessinger]

26. The thing about that is . . .

Right Wingers were saying the same thing (i.e., it won't be around when you retire), since I was in my 20s -- and I'm 52.

[Sissyk]

27. It wasn't just Right Wingers, markpkessinger.

I'm 50 and have been told that most of my life. I started planing.

[tabbycat31]

29. Well you might have heard this in your 20s

Kids her age have been hearing it since birth. I can remember when I was a teen working in a movie theater how everyone in the breakroom complained on payday that they were paying into SS but not going to see a dime of it.

FWIW at 33 I still feel this way. I support the program and will vote for politicians who do, but I realistically don't expect a dime of it. I see it as one more way that I am paying for generations who had it better than I do.

[PowerToThePeople]

17. I do not agree with her, but

I can understand her weakness towards an idea such as this. There is a BIG generational gap that is hard to overcome. Those that were adults prior to the full effects of Raygunonics were felt and those that came after. Salaries have barely increased durring that time. Schooling, darn near free back then, costs multiple years worth of salaries. Housing was reasonable affordable, now it is completely out of reach for the majority of younger generation folks. The one thing that the younger generation has available in larger quantity than prior generations is cheap, offshore consumer items. They have more "junk" available at low cost than other generations.

My parents can not even see this. I have even printed graphs and charts showing the extreme disadvantage the current generations face financially to their generation. Yet, they still hold on to the "bootstrap" mentality. They hold some young doctor or dentist that they know as how the younger generation can still make it. But, they made it just as well with only a high school diploma.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Also tell her, from me, that "People that" should be "people who..." nt

[Sissyk]

28. Teacher?

lol!

My Aunt still does that and I'm fifty.

[tavalon]

21. I have those all the time with my step brother,

though most of my fellow posters are as liberal as I am so often by the time I get there, he's burnt to a crisp.

[Lancero]

24. Not stated the best...

But still, you missed the point.

It was a potshot at Republican/TP supporters. You know, old white people.

[gejohnston]

32. the naivity of youth

sometimes it is amusing, sometimes it is frustrating.