Oct 12, 2022·edited Oct 12, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
The people writing about the need for the youngers to "buckup- show some backbone" ? They carry pistols because they're terrified of getting punched. They also refused to get vaccinated because they're afraid of needles.
The Kids These Days seem determined to be exactly like themselves which usually takes more courage than anything. Good for them!
Of course, the irony of the Right’s “suck it up, cupcake” message to the Libs is today’s conservatives are some of the biggest crybabies of all time. You could quite easily flip those WWII memes: “your grandfather stormed the beach at Normandy, but you shriek and throw yourself to the ground in a tantrum because someone changed their pronouns.” And don’t get me started on the people who claim to revere history but want to burn books they don’t like.
I hold out some modicum of hope that the prime law of conservatism, “It isn’t important unless it happens to me,” may function in the response to Biden’s call as it has in the shift on gay marriage. Lots of Fox viewers have family members with substance abuse issues and may realize Biden’s plea to Hunter is something they have done themselves, or wish they had. Hannity’s a ghoul in thrall to a heartless grifter, but despair over a loved one’s substance struggles knows no political boundaries.
Btw, the best novel about the GG is “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit,” the story of the transition from the horrors of WWII to the false refuge of 50’s suburbia.
Oct 12, 2022·edited Oct 12, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
In a general sense, I agree that people seem softer -- well, weaker -- than years gone by.
But there's a mix of stuff in that stew: A tendency, in decline since the 60s/70s Let it all hang out era, now amplified with all the reality TV horseshit, to engage in TMI and to no longer do as the olds did and suppress all the shit. Instead of complaining and whining about how life's shit and appear weak, show some real strength and hit the bottle and/or one's spouse. Or show the submissive side of Stoicism and just accept the abuse.
Put like that, sure, maybe it's not actually toughness going on there, just something misperceived as being tough. Most likely submission (again) and willing suppression instead of, you know, facing and addressing a problem. (of course, a factor there is the stresses, so to speak, of our awesome, feral economic system.)
Aside: I moved into Manhattan during the darkest before the dawn late 70s when only the main streets and avenues were safe to walk in the dark. OTOH, took a brief walk during the 77 blackout and nothing scary was seen let alone experienced.
As for the youngs with their sensitivities, gender fluidity, etc., etc., etc.: Given what a fucked up world we're leaving them, I give them all a pass for everything as long as no innocents get hurt.
And as for Hunter, I'm hardcore Team Hunter: To go through what he's gone through, cleaned up his act and now (of course my favorite) to have zero fucks to give the Republicans' bullshit. And re Hunter, recommended is the Marc Maron interview.
I think there's a whole lot of "my life sucked--and YOUR's should too!" going on with conservatives. The whole underlying concept of "standing athwart history yelling STOP!" is that you're determined to prevent life from getting better. Which is a sentiment I find frankly bizarre.
OTOH, I'm also absolutely amazed (and not in a good way) at the number of parents I've heard about who do not want their kids to succeed at anything because then the kids "will be better than me and look down on me." As one proud parent said at a school board meeting, "My son's gonna cut down trees when he grows up, and he don't need to read or write to cut down trees."
I'm 64 (late boomer, recently read somewhere that makes me "Generation Jones" lol). I can tell you quite honestly that nothing sets me off quite like those never-ending memes on FB, posted by my own contemporaries, that a) long for the "good old days", b) call younger people weak, stupid, and "woke" (like they even understand the term), and c) blame every societal ill on immigrants, the poor, or other disenfranchised. I mean, really, the good old days when we were racist and sexist and homophobic? Friends I've gotten drunk and high with while collecting unemployment benefits together in younger days are now calling for drug tests for those hoping to get the same benefits today. Those same friends all retired earlier than me, either because they made their cash or they've been too sick to work and are collecting benefits from the fucking government (Satan himself, according to them). And these are Canadians!
The past has always sucked. I can accept that knowing that gradually it began to suck less. Bringing back the shitty parts are not going to help us now or in the future
I think previous generations didn't have a never-ending, 24 hour-a-day blue light stream of conflicting, contradictory messages telling you 'who to be' and fucking with *any* sense of self they were developing growing up, regardless of where they stood politically, economically, racially, what-have-you. When you have a solid starting point, at least you have a stance from which to see the world and form opinions that are based on actual experience.
On a positive note, the youngs are in a much better place today to feel good about expressing themselves in non-binary ways and I salute that, even if they're being nudged by manufactured pop icons. Bullying survivors know what I mean, the 'burbs of Detroit in the 70s were no place to be weird.
Forgot to note the nihilistic (or is that psychopathic?) response to Covid. You know; one person’s self-perceived toughness in the face of a deadly global pandemic and disregard for dying and spreading the disease, well, is something much different than toughness.
I contend that people are as "tough" as circumstances dictate. My parents generation survived (well, mostly) the horrors of the Great Depression and WW2, not because they were intrinsically superior in toughitude, but because they had no fucking choice. And making life easier for their kids than it was for them was, like, the whole point of raising them.
that sounds like a tweet from someone who's just heard 'mother's little helper' for the first time.
as an oldster who was whelped in the first half of the 20th century, I kind of resist the sense that I've gotten softer. what I have definitely become is more tired. you just can't work at the same rate--at least in the raw physical sense of the work I've done all my life--without that feeling overwhelming you.
I don't know as the kids have gotten softer, but what I do observe is that they are a lot more sedentary. they may very well be mentally tougher, having had more to contend with than I did back in the halcyon days of peace, love, and understanding, but I see less of an interaction with the natural world.
Another excellent piece. I wonder, do callers to the Hannity clown still stroke each other with "You're a great American, Sean," "You're a great American, my friend"? I always loved how callers were always "great Americans" simply by dint of being his fans. Of course, Sean being a great American was a given, due to his heroic patriotism, moral superiority, and net worth.
According to some posts I see on social media, much of the younger generations' disrespectful wokeness supposedly results from parents' aversion to hitting their offspring.
As The Onion wrote the other day: Condemning the “woke left” for what he called the “modern evisceration of masculinity,” local conservative man Hank Daniels confirmed Monday that he was never going to stop being proudly frightened of everything.
The people writing about the need for the youngers to "buckup- show some backbone" ? They carry pistols because they're terrified of getting punched. They also refused to get vaccinated because they're afraid of needles.
The Kids These Days seem determined to be exactly like themselves which usually takes more courage than anything. Good for them!
Nice column!
Of course, the irony of the Right’s “suck it up, cupcake” message to the Libs is today’s conservatives are some of the biggest crybabies of all time. You could quite easily flip those WWII memes: “your grandfather stormed the beach at Normandy, but you shriek and throw yourself to the ground in a tantrum because someone changed their pronouns.” And don’t get me started on the people who claim to revere history but want to burn books they don’t like.
I hold out some modicum of hope that the prime law of conservatism, “It isn’t important unless it happens to me,” may function in the response to Biden’s call as it has in the shift on gay marriage. Lots of Fox viewers have family members with substance abuse issues and may realize Biden’s plea to Hunter is something they have done themselves, or wish they had. Hannity’s a ghoul in thrall to a heartless grifter, but despair over a loved one’s substance struggles knows no political boundaries.
Btw, the best novel about the GG is “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit,” the story of the transition from the horrors of WWII to the false refuge of 50’s suburbia.
In a general sense, I agree that people seem softer -- well, weaker -- than years gone by.
But there's a mix of stuff in that stew: A tendency, in decline since the 60s/70s Let it all hang out era, now amplified with all the reality TV horseshit, to engage in TMI and to no longer do as the olds did and suppress all the shit. Instead of complaining and whining about how life's shit and appear weak, show some real strength and hit the bottle and/or one's spouse. Or show the submissive side of Stoicism and just accept the abuse.
Put like that, sure, maybe it's not actually toughness going on there, just something misperceived as being tough. Most likely submission (again) and willing suppression instead of, you know, facing and addressing a problem. (of course, a factor there is the stresses, so to speak, of our awesome, feral economic system.)
Aside: I moved into Manhattan during the darkest before the dawn late 70s when only the main streets and avenues were safe to walk in the dark. OTOH, took a brief walk during the 77 blackout and nothing scary was seen let alone experienced.
As for the youngs with their sensitivities, gender fluidity, etc., etc., etc.: Given what a fucked up world we're leaving them, I give them all a pass for everything as long as no innocents get hurt.
And as for Hunter, I'm hardcore Team Hunter: To go through what he's gone through, cleaned up his act and now (of course my favorite) to have zero fucks to give the Republicans' bullshit. And re Hunter, recommended is the Marc Maron interview.
I think there's a whole lot of "my life sucked--and YOUR's should too!" going on with conservatives. The whole underlying concept of "standing athwart history yelling STOP!" is that you're determined to prevent life from getting better. Which is a sentiment I find frankly bizarre.
OTOH, I'm also absolutely amazed (and not in a good way) at the number of parents I've heard about who do not want their kids to succeed at anything because then the kids "will be better than me and look down on me." As one proud parent said at a school board meeting, "My son's gonna cut down trees when he grows up, and he don't need to read or write to cut down trees."
I thought this was pretty good, it's easy to ask "What's wrong with these kids?", much harder to ask, "What are they saying about what's wrong with US?" https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/teenagers-mental-health-america.html
When I was young, they were called "starry-eyed idealists". Now they're just called "soft". Sign of the times, I guess.
I'm 64 (late boomer, recently read somewhere that makes me "Generation Jones" lol). I can tell you quite honestly that nothing sets me off quite like those never-ending memes on FB, posted by my own contemporaries, that a) long for the "good old days", b) call younger people weak, stupid, and "woke" (like they even understand the term), and c) blame every societal ill on immigrants, the poor, or other disenfranchised. I mean, really, the good old days when we were racist and sexist and homophobic? Friends I've gotten drunk and high with while collecting unemployment benefits together in younger days are now calling for drug tests for those hoping to get the same benefits today. Those same friends all retired earlier than me, either because they made their cash or they've been too sick to work and are collecting benefits from the fucking government (Satan himself, according to them). And these are Canadians!
The past has always sucked. I can accept that knowing that gradually it began to suck less. Bringing back the shitty parts are not going to help us now or in the future
I think previous generations didn't have a never-ending, 24 hour-a-day blue light stream of conflicting, contradictory messages telling you 'who to be' and fucking with *any* sense of self they were developing growing up, regardless of where they stood politically, economically, racially, what-have-you. When you have a solid starting point, at least you have a stance from which to see the world and form opinions that are based on actual experience.
On a positive note, the youngs are in a much better place today to feel good about expressing themselves in non-binary ways and I salute that, even if they're being nudged by manufactured pop icons. Bullying survivors know what I mean, the 'burbs of Detroit in the 70s were no place to be weird.
Oops!
Forgot to note the nihilistic (or is that psychopathic?) response to Covid. You know; one person’s self-perceived toughness in the face of a deadly global pandemic and disregard for dying and spreading the disease, well, is something much different than toughness.
I contend that people are as "tough" as circumstances dictate. My parents generation survived (well, mostly) the horrors of the Great Depression and WW2, not because they were intrinsically superior in toughitude, but because they had no fucking choice. And making life easier for their kids than it was for them was, like, the whole point of raising them.
that sounds like a tweet from someone who's just heard 'mother's little helper' for the first time.
as an oldster who was whelped in the first half of the 20th century, I kind of resist the sense that I've gotten softer. what I have definitely become is more tired. you just can't work at the same rate--at least in the raw physical sense of the work I've done all my life--without that feeling overwhelming you.
I don't know as the kids have gotten softer, but what I do observe is that they are a lot more sedentary. they may very well be mentally tougher, having had more to contend with than I did back in the halcyon days of peace, love, and understanding, but I see less of an interaction with the natural world.
just my half-baked boomer $.02.
We never had participation trophies when I was a kid. Oh wait, actually we did.
Another excellent piece. I wonder, do callers to the Hannity clown still stroke each other with "You're a great American, Sean," "You're a great American, my friend"? I always loved how callers were always "great Americans" simply by dint of being his fans. Of course, Sean being a great American was a given, due to his heroic patriotism, moral superiority, and net worth.
According to some posts I see on social media, much of the younger generations' disrespectful wokeness supposedly results from parents' aversion to hitting their offspring.
As The Onion wrote the other day: Condemning the “woke left” for what he called the “modern evisceration of masculinity,” local conservative man Hank Daniels confirmed Monday that he was never going to stop being proudly frightened of everything.