For those say in their 60s or 70s here. When you were in your 30’s or 40’s did you have the feeling that the world was a fucked up place? So much has been going on since I entered adulthood in the early 2000s and I feel like it’s getting more and more intense. It’s never ending.
Is it unique? Or has it always been this way?
YES. But a big chunk of people have been sheltered from that fact.
That’s why we have people: wanting civil war, because they’ve never had to personally suffer the loss, privations, and terror of a real war. Are anti-vax, because they haven’t had plagues of smallpox, the flu, or polio kill their kids, friends, and relatives. Pro-authoritarian, because they’ve never lived under a series of shitty power grifters and a corruption-based economy where absolutely nobody does well except the richest. Anti-social programs, because they’ve never faced homelessness or a disability.
There are so many things that people have had the luxury of avoiding that they’ve forgotten how shitty the world is. Spoiled children, they are.
Im 59, it was just easier to plead ignorance back then. Hell, beating gays was seen as ok, raping your wife was quite legal, fucking kids was mostly ok, racism was seen as humour, my mother took up teaching as she said the other career she considered forced you to leave if you got married (bank teller).
We slaughtered people all over the place with impunity, overthrew governments. Same as today really.
My mistake? I assumed it would get much better when my cohort of Gen X came through, same as young millennials think today. It’s not worse, it’s just we’re more aware.
I assumed it would get much better when my cohort of Gen X came through, same as young millennials think today.
TBF the same generation has been in power for 30-40 years now. If the torch had actually been passed it would be a different timeline.
I mean, your cohort still hates trans people and isn’t sold on the rest of the rainbow even if you aren’t rabid homophobes anymore
edit: ooo, downvotes from folk whose favorite game growing up was smear the queer
It’s not nice to generalise people. That’s why you’re getting downvoted.
by people like you who are unfamiliar with the word cohort? that’s fine.
maybe, just maybe, go look at statistics around this shit. i have worked for years in homelessness. i know exactly what i’m talking about. gen X wants to think they solved their homophobia problem, how did they treat their queer peers in school? could their classmates come out? Fuck no. Not until after graduation. How DO they treat their queer family members, siblings and children? do they accept them or shun them? less than 30% of gen X parented families accept them in our area. I’m in the san fuckingcisco bay area and gen x folk fled here to texas because they were not accepted. We’re known for being the one of gay capitals of the world but local gen x queer kids have had to flee because of their families. don’t even start
So, by your own admission, a percentage of Gen X parents are accepting of LGBTQ+ kids.
I don’t care where you’re from, some people will be dick heads and some won’t.
remind me, how many posts are you upvoting and cheering on about all americans being idiots because 22% of the population voted for trump
I’m friends with a few USA people. I know that they aren’t all idiots. So….next.
so call them out when you see them and take the lumps. stop being part of the hivemind. what does the percentage have to be for you to care? or do you just have to be part of the group that’s called out?
You make up whatever you like in that little head of yours, my friend.
my dude, i don’t lie. just because some of us have actually done shit with our lives, it gives us access to this kind of information. programming, uh, you get to draw catgirls and i see why you don’t understand.
ooo, downvotes from folk whose favorite game growing up was smear the queer
I’m not downvoting you, but you have to understand: yes, I vividly remember playing the game. I didn’t even know why it was called that, or what it meant. We were kids and we played a playground game (which was pretty fun). Looking back on the name, yeah, yuck. We also played a game called “Barf It”; the game had a name and the words didn’t mean much.
There are lots of Gen X allies out there and things that were a product of the time don’t define us all today.
There are lots of Gen X allies out there
yeah, i just had to talk a gen X “ally’s” son out of suicide because they’re great with the LGB but T? get the hell out of our house and the son is ftm. and this shit is not uncommon. miss me with this ally talk
So there are a lot of allies, but this guy’s asshole family isn’t actually one. Just because this is common doesn’t negate the existence of actual allies. Remember, anecdotes are not statistics. It can be a reason to be cautious, but it is not a reason to deny the existence of a group.
my dude, that was one incident. i am posting all up and down the fediverse about working with homelessness. why do you think i was talking with the son. how many of these do you want because i have hundreds. i have been doing this since i was… fuck. i can’t remember not working with homelessness charities. it’s just something my family has done. the biggest shelter in town is literally on a street named after me.
Goddam, Minnesota. Huge props to your work. You have my admiration.
For it to be data rather than anecdotes, you need to gather the data. Survey not just the examples you have, but the people outside of the demographics you work with. Form the questions in a way that gathers the data you really want - split it out to give you granularity. Are you a member of gen X? Are you LGBT+ yourself? Do you consider yourself an ally? Do you support the gay community? Do you support the lesbian community? Do you support the trans community?
Right now, the cohort you have the most experience with is the people who have suffered, which will skew your conclusions. However, this is the anecdotal evidence that tells you something is fishy. The next step is to get actual statistics.
my dude, i ran the organization for two decades (it’s why they put the shelter on a street with my name on it) i have the statistics. just the ones i have are a decade old. I had to retire due to disability.
this is literally my wheelhouse.
smear the queer
I doubt. Maybe I can’t generalize from my own ignorance, but we had no idea what this was referring to. It was no different than “kill the guy with the ball”, but my mom didn’t like us talking about killing our friends and brothers
ignorance is no excuse for your bigotry
It’s exactly analogous to someone using the n word because that was common usage at the time time, compared to using it now when all the negative associations are clear and (most) usage is not acceptable. Not the same at all
damn, you went straight from Queer to Nigg–? what the fuck? you are not slaves and not that oppressed. get over yourself
Not at all. I’m a sheltered white dude, oblivious in my security. But it’s important to point out that ignorance is a thing: we should know better but didn’t always.
Using offensive/insulting terms ignorantly may be wrong but it’s not the same as intentionally
that comparison is incredibly offensive and you should know better. You have never been ripped from your continent and your history and enslaved just for loving people. Black people have for the color of their skin. Queer does not equal Nigg-- and you fucking know that
or you don’t and you’re a racist maga. pick. this is one of those things that ain’t got middle ground.
The world was always fucked up, but we had a sense it was improving. That’s what has changed, majorly. We started having the feeling that as bad as it is, it is only going to get worse.
No, no it was not.
Example: when they found out what caused the hole in the ozone layer, they fixed it.
If we found out now, people would say that you can’t trust Big Academia or Big Science and nothing would be done. And don’t get me started on vaccinations.
We’re sliding rapidly backwards.
People who say it isn’t are just too lazy to do anything.
Stopping climate change is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE harder than protecting the ozone layer. Protecting ozone requires switching the chemicals we used in refrigerants and propellants to other, viable alternatives. That affected products worth, generously, maybe 1% of GDP?
Stopping climate changing the vast majority of the vehicles on the planet, along with the majority of our electrical power plants. It also necessitates stopping deforestation and overhauling a wide number of industrial processes, including for basic materials like steel and concrete. And that’s not even getting into methane emissions from livestock.
All of these things add up to a massive chunk of the planets GDP. It’s an extremely heavy lift, and it’s not fair to say that the world has gotten worse because we’re struggling more with climate change than the ozone hole.
I feel @starlinguk@lemmy.world was saying more than that. I don’t recall any serious studies or news articles suggesting the ozone hole was a hoax or that debunking a human cause. Although it was kinda an aside but the anti vaxine thing he points to. I mean one of the most effective medical interventions since soap and sterilization has people acting like its some sort of evil witchcraft that will actually harm you despite the clear evidence both clinical and personal to its effectiveness.
No one could see the ozone hole. We had to believe science and everyone did.
meanwhile climate change is not just easier to understand, but becoming apparent in everyday life. There’s been an overwhelming consensus in science for half a century. How do people still doubt? Or what kind of hatred could make you actively resist changes to mitigate it?
I’m 57 in the US and up until the last ten years I always thought that things would get better in my lifetime and that ultimately my country would eventually choose the right financial and moral paths. Now I not only don’t believe that will happen in my lifetime but I doubt if this nation will bounce back in my kid’s lifetime, if ever.
Same age, same thoughts. The past was violent & sucky but it really felt like we were making progress, things were getting better. Some things have, there’s a lot less violence where I live, and more to do, the city has progressed.
Honestly I think the slide started after Bush vs Gore, and very often wish I had been in the other timeline, where the votes got counted before he conceded, Gore seemed conceited but smart, geeky and took good ideas seriously.
I’ve never understood the concept of conceding an election before all the votes have been counted and verified. It’s like the voters and their votes don’t matter. And instead all that matters is the spectacle of it.
Fortunately there’s less of that here than in the US.
It was part of the spectacle and formality of the peaceful transition of power, something that got shot to hell around 2020 or so for some reason or other.
Always has been, the big difference is it wasn’t streamed straight into your eyes in real time
