Looking back at the baby boomers doing radical activism back in the 60 and 70s, pretty much all of them "grew out of" activism or the left after college and just started working. All of them would eventually retire with huge pensions, have multiple homes under their belt, and had careers with high social status. Some would go on to become super capitalists.
The problem is that this pattern continues with every generation. Sure they say they sympathize with workers struggle or whatever, but they're always looking out for #1 at the end of the day.
If you go to school or hang around young leftists, almost all of them will eventually desperately try to get on the same path as the boomers and it makes me sick. Most people on this board will too once they get older and social pressure starts increasing.
The economic crisis has made it so that there is no more "career" to sell out to.
Mason Morris
Second concept is where do people get the idea that their work "productive" or "useful" when most of it is unasked for dogshit.
When you work at coca-cola trying to expand your market share in a favela, you're not being productive, you're being disgusting.
When you're desperately trying to get a job from a resurgent oil/gas and coal industry, you're not helping, you're just shitting up the air for everyone else and expecting everyone else to pay the consequences of global warming.
When you're a doctor selling $10 made in china eyeware for $200, you're not altruistically helping people, you're running a business.
Jaxson Ross
Most people work half decent jobs and end up getting homes. It takes them longer, but they're still doing it.
Brayden Richardson
In my opinion, the young leftie/old conservative phenomenon has a lot more to do with the fact that people are only exposed to radical ideas while they're in college or high school, and not with the notion that these ideas come into conflict with their later ambitions.
Remember, socialism is not about all of us making a vow of poverty. People can do all these things you've said and remain Socialists. The reason they don't is because there's no proletarian organization out there for them to belong to in adult age. These existed once but were repressed and legislated out of existence, leaving only the harmless student activism to articulate socialist ideas, turning them into a campus culture, "radical phase" thing.
During the days of the Second International, left-wing activism was a cradle-to-grave thing. People belonged to it their entire lives, interacted with other socialists their entire lives, were consistently learning new ideas and concepts their entire lives. This is what we need to bring back. Turning Socialism into a code of personal behavior against consumerism, careerism and making money for people to adhere to is misguided, and frankly a huge waste of time. Working people are entitled to their ambitions, because this is how they can achieve comfort under the current system. We want to change the system, not the individuals within it.
Xavier Perry
As sad as it is, this is true. I run a small HVAC business (just myself) and for wealthy people who don't know any better I will tell them thier entire AC or heating unit needs to be replaced when in reality it is just a broken contactor or a easily fixable leak.
And I'm not the only one, all HVAC contractors do this because otherwise you make no fucking money. And they do it to less wealthy people too.
Luckily, these past years, manufacturers have really stepped up thier planned obsolescence game so I don't need to lie as much
Isaac Nelson
The problem isn't what they do, it's what they describe themselves as. As far as I can tell, the average white liberal seems immune to cognitive dissonance and will always say they're being useful or working for others when obviously they're not.
Or how they always say they sympathize with socialism but spend 100% of their time enriching themselves and maybe donate to bernie.
Ian Perry
Why is being selfish bad?
Jaxson Lee
t. crypto-capitalist opportunist
Kevin Allen
Btw the point I was agreeing with you on was you can't just go into a career with the naive liberal idea that you just want to do something that "helps people" and still make enough money to support ourselves.
We're all complicit in the perpetuation of this system. And we don't have much of a choice. That's capitalism.
Like, I know a doctor who recognizes the fact he gets paid 50x more than a nurse who works all night for only a quick diagnosis and reviewing of x rays is fundamentally unjust. We need more people like that.
Jose Gomez
The "system" is just a collection of people voluntarily waking up and going to work.
Look at all the people killed by cops and their "service". There was no abstract system, someone woke up, drove over and pulled the trigger. They chose to do that.
Michael Sanders
Isn't revolution supposedly in their self interest?
Jaxson Ross
lol no
The system is structural and exists regardless of the human material within it. It's about how we achieve our material means of existence, how we work, how we produce and distribute. The individual mindset is complementary to it, because it is nurtured under its assumptions, trained to meets its expectations and keep it working. You can't slowly boycott it through individual lifechoices, one person at a time until it, presumably, collapses.
Isaiah Hughes
No they don't.
Over half of all American workers make less than 40k now.
The America of the 20th century is gone, user. The middle class aspirations you're talking about are little more than a passing dream of yesteryear.
Matthew Nguyen
Nah, they're a little bit older but they still go and buy houses.
The point of this post is that young people sell out to pursue a career, get married, buy a house and a dog, maybe pop out a couple of kids, etc. The problem with this is that there are no careers for young people to sell out to, and some old fucks buying houses doesn't change this.
Joseph Rivera
None of that goes into consideration in a cop's head when he pulls a gun on an unarmed person and mag dumps him. There are literally people who get off that. The system gives a them a place for their sociopathic tendencies, but they'll be sociopaths without it.
Easton Cook
Median Age 1970 30.6 2013 32.5
?
Gavin Price
Home ownership is down to 60% and that includes all the boomers who are still alive
Jason Reed
That means that home buyers are getting a good bit older.
Also, people buying houses doesn't mean anything. Most people don't buy at all.
Jose Gomez
Far from it. Cops know that the judiciary and police unions have their back and will fight tooth and nail for them. They can mag dump with impunity not because they're indulging sociopathic tendencies – though for a minority that may certainly be the case – but because they know they can do it and get away with it. They're trained to put their lives as enforces of the law above the wayward, probably violent citizen; and should it all go wrong the media will spin it for them. Individual choice doesn't happen without context. Cops are trained and socialized to know when and how they can shoot to kill and walk free.
Asher Wilson
Obviously they can get away with it, otherwise I wouldn't have brought it up as an example. But having the ability to do something doesn't mean you act on it. They're dumb, but not so dumb that they don't have any personal agency left.
Another way of looking at it is what attracts a person to get a "criminal justice" degree? They have lots of options to pick, so why does their personality type seek it out from the others?
Jace Collins
Sure it does. That much is obvious from the large number of police shootings that occur every year. Not all soldiers are sociopaths but nearly all of them pull the trigger too. Again, it's about context. In those conditions where a cop has a choice to pull the trigger or risk themselves, they'll likely pull the trigger, knowing what they know about their chances of prosecution (practically nil). It's not hard to understand.
