My parents grew up in the great depression a Midwestern dustbowl that went rainless for 3 years...both were orphaned because there was no food...mom met her mother when she was 18 and her mom could get her back and feed her.....kids think they've got it tough now with Skype and Iphones and video games
I think we were agreeing with each other in a roundabout way. haha. I hear ya man, it IS eerily similar. But this safe space, overly PC, bullshit has GOT to end.
Does this really make sense to you? Do you think every other generation before "this generation" had the same circumstances?
My parents had Vietnam. Their parents had WWII. Their parents had WWI. What is my equivalent? What is yours? Political correctness is a new concept. It is only a couple decades old. Things like participation trophies and winnerless games and safe spaces. This shit is all new. It started to head that direction when I was a kid, and it has gotten subsequently worse and worse.
Do 9/11 and the subsequent war(s) count for nothing? While those things may be new... Weren't there new things in the 60s, 70s, etc. that older people didn't like or thought was ruining the younger generations? Why does it matter that they didn't have the exact same issues?
9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not even remotely the same as Vietnam or the world wars. Firstly there was no draft. Secondly, the number of people who died in both Afghanistan and Iraq are maybe 10,000 total. There were nearly four times that many allied troops killed on d day alone.
It's not really about fault though. It's happening, and it's getting worse. You're right though, I don't blame the kids, but as I said it's a product of a number of different factors. It didn't happen over night. People are having fewer children, so they're hyper focused on the ones that they do have. The internet and national television stations like CNN and Fox News have drastically increased the reach of information in the past three or four decades. I believe that this had a major impact on parenting because, while the world isn't necessarily any less safe, there is a perception that the world is more dangerous today. For example, are there really more pedophiles or are we just hearing about them more because news is up to the second on the web? People feel like gun violence is going up, but in reality gun violence is going down, etc. The biggest problem, and this isn't just kids, is the complete lack of middle ground in our society today. It's really sad because Republicans and Democrats used to work together. Oregon is the amazing state that we have today because of cooperation between the two parties. Right now I see no common ground between the right and the left. It's just pure hatred and name calling. I'm right and they're wrong! This is being passed to the children and the kids are internalizing it. Part of the problem is that the issues have become social ones. Issues that most people refuse to concede. Issues like abortion, gay rights, and gun control. So when you're associating moral issues with political parties, it becomes difficult to see a middle ground with the other side. What is being missed is that kids aren't being taught that there's two sides to every issue. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just listen to someone and maybe you can better understand why they think the way they do. I watched a video of Milo Yiannopoulos at Miami University and he had an interesting point. He said that schools are so focused on equality of gender, equality of race, equality of religion (by completely removing it), but they're completely ignoring equality of opinion. I did debate in college, and it was really enlightening. When you are forced to argue from the other point of view, it can give you a window into how/why they might feel that way. It was totally worth it and I wish more schools would force kids out of the box and get them to analyze opinions from different angles. But they don't. They don't force kids to broaden their horizons. They feed them one line of thought, they protect them from scary things like To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn, and they aren't preparing them for the real world.
One of the earliest and best lessons my parents taught me was that there was almost always two sides to every story. And that no matter how right and justified I might feel about where I was was coming from, the other person(s) likely were as convinced of their own "rightness" as I was of mine. That tended to help put the brakes on a mad rush to judgement of the other person. For instance, I still believe strongly that we blew the election this time around. BFD. My opinion is based on my own personal situation and philosophy. I don't have the right to be angry (annoyed, yes, Angry, no) at the folks from the Rust Belt (for instance) who grew up totally different from me and who are facing struggles I've been lucky enough to avoid (Another early lesson learned was that nobody ever said life was fair. My life has been fairer than most). But that's just me. Nate hit it on the head. Somewhere along the line America in general has lost the ability to think critically and to respect the sensibilities of the people they share the world with. It's all about "me" and doing whatever it takes to make sure "me and mine" are taken care of and f**k everyone else. And while parents have to shoulder their fair share of the blame, too many of them are too focused on surviving to observe and share so many of the nuances (if they themselves have ever learned them) that others (like me) take for granted. I personally put the lion's share of responsibility on the corporate controlled media (right and left) for deliberately feeding us lies and disinformation to sell personalities, products, philosophies and agendas that keep the population ignorant, confused, angry and divided. It's hard to care about anyone else when you're scrambling like crazy just to take care of yourself and your family. Who has the time or compassion? Welcome to the America of the 21st Century.....
And really, the media is being controlled by people up the chain. They're just puppets with their strings being pulled by someone else. I believe that we are being pushed towards these contentious social issues, like gay rights and abortion and gun control, so that we won't pay attention to larger issues.... like the economy and government spending and the fact that they have allowed such a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Our government has sold us out, and they're hoping desperately that nobody will notice, so they get people fired up about things that they know are hot button topics. People have varying opinions on how the economy should be run, and I don't know hardly anyone that thinks shipping jobs overseas is a good thing, but if the politicians can make an election about gay rights, or abortions or gun control, people are less likely to find a middle ground. "I can't vote for that guy, he's against gay rights!" or "I can't vote for that woman, she's going to take my guns!" In reality, nobody is going to take the guns and nobody is going to take away gay rights. But what are they going to do? They're going to pass things that fuck up our economy for decades while nobody is paying attention.
