Any Swipe At Young People Is an Act of Fascist Authoritarianism

Your tips are greatly appreciated! Upgrade at 30% offHow many times have you seen that meme that says “Here’s a list of all the things that you’re entitled to in life” and then the list contains no items?Yeah, super tough and funny and all that. We’re all laughing.However, if you go up to the person who shared that list and treat them with anything they consider to be disrespect, all of a sudden they become all haughty. You see, they insist that they are “entitled” to respect, even as they strut around and squawk that nobody else deserves to demand anything.Funny how that works.I’m so tired of these ignorant and contradictory ideas that are completely normalized in the USA.For some reason, American culture thinks it’s totally fine to bash young people. They do it all the time. It’s just something people mutter under their breath, “What’s wrong with the youth of today?” They say this expecting agreement, so people are completely blindsided when I start screaming at them.“There’s NOTHING wrong with the youth of today. What the heck is wrong with YOU? Why would you say something like that? I see young people who are working hard with legitimate concerns about the world. They have concerns because YOUR generation screwed everything up. What do YOU have to say for yourself?”What we need to do is normalize the response that calls out the unfair attacks. At what point did our society simply stop caring about the lives of our children? When it’s considered “normal” to constantly bash young people in the media and never offer them the opportunity to respond, your society is corrupt.Young people are not the problemI’m a member of Generation X. I heard all the same attacks when I was growing up. They made me bitter and resentful and I was always powerless to do anything about it.I absolutely hate it when I see some young person trying to gain credibility with the older generations by saying, “My generation isn’t doing much.” To any young person reading this, you don’t have to seek the approval of old jerks who find fault in your behavior even though they don’t know anything about you.Those people are LOSERS… all of them. Instead, seek out the attention of people who respect you and recognize how hard you work.I’ve been alive for 50 years and things have gotten worse instead of better. Honestly, if some young person came up to me and started screaming at me for the sorry state of the world, I wouldn’t blame them.Look around. I’ve had 5 decades to make a positive impact and I’ve failed. Young people have a right to be mad at me. We’re turning over a complete disaster. Nobody from my generation or any generation that preceded me has a right to brag. The world is a mess. The older generations are the ones that screwed it up.They suck!Young people haven’t had time to make a mess of things. Who decided it was acceptable to start screaming at babies? The babies didn’t mess anything up, it was the parents.How about a little humility?How about modeling the concept of respect?How about if we stopped trying to cover up the laziness of older generations by blaming our failures on the young?Do we care about the mental health crisis or not?Every now and then there will be a news report where people lament the fact that our children are suffering an “unprecedented mental health crisis.” In the very same breath, the reporters who mention this will often pivot to bashing young people for “quiet quitting” or some other completely trumped-up line of attack.At moments like that, you need to interrupt the speaker and start making noise, “A second ago you were pretending to care about the mental health crisis among young people, now you’re attacking them. Do you care about young lives or not? What if some kid reads your lies and fabrications and becomes so overcome with remorse that she takes her own life? Would you feel guilty about that?”Young people are bullied all the time! They’re bullied in the news, they’re bullied at school, they’re bullied on social media, they’re bullied at work. They never get a chance to respond, then people turn around and make further attacks on young people even as they claim “We’re doing it for the kids.”Let’s be clear, America does NOTHING for young people. NOTHING!Why would it be so wrong to just treat young people with respect? When was the last time you read an article that said, “Actually, young people are working really hard and acting responsibly.”That’s the TRUTH!Again, young people haven’t been around long enough to ruin the world. The world is in a state of disarray because of the irresponsible decisions of the older generations. Young people haven’t messed things up, old people have.We should be bashing old people. We should be calling old people “entitled and lazy.” But watch what happens when you say something as innocuous as “Okay boomer.” Boomers flip out, and that phrase is a minuscule fraction of what young people have to endure ALL THE TIME!Old people are hypersensitive to their own suffering and indifferent to the suffering they inflict on the youth.It makes me livid when young people are unfairly attacked. It should make you livid too. Do you care about the lives of innocent kids or not?Young people are the key to electionsI dislike how young people are blamed for election losses that are actually caused by bad establishment decisions. I saw somebody attacking young people in the lead up to the 2024 election.“Dear young people, I love you, but you have to understand that there is never a ‘perfect’ candidate. You have to compromise. You can’t say, ‘I’ll show them and vote third party’ because that just hands the victory to the fascists and that means it’s ALL YOUR FAULT!”This narrative has been going on for decades, and it’s a complete lie.It’s the incompetent moderates that hand power over to the fascists, not young people!The reality is that young people have a right to DEMAND that political candidates embrace their positions. Voters have a RIGHT to insist on candidates that REPRESENT THEM. That’s the whole IDEA!The way politicians win elections is by listening to the voter base, not giving entitled, haughty lectures about how it’s impractical to give the people what they want. That second strategy ALWAYS LOSES!To be clear, America CAN have universal health care. America CAN have free education. We have the resources to do these things, it’s just a matter of making the CHOICE to do them. If we’re going to get there, somebody has to apply some pressure.That somebody is not going to be the cowardly passive moderates.If young people won’t vote for a candidate that refuses to even acknowledge that universal healthcare and free education are possible, we should get down on our knees and thank those young people for having the courage to stand up for what they believe is right.But no, people want to bash them into submission instead.If candidates want to win, they have to embrace popular progressive policies. Insisting that voters “simply can’t have” what they want is a form of authoritarianism.Fascists always take swipes at progressivesWhen people lecture young people to “compromise” and accept a candidate that refuses to work for the objectives they want, they’re really just making an unfair attack on progressives.Again and again and again we’ve seen that progressive policies are popular in the United States.There’s this absurd idea that it’s “safer” to run moderate candidates that refuse to embrace progressive ideals. Well, first of all, those candidates tend to lose. Even when they do win, they obstruct the democratic agenda. Finally, moderate candidates are prone to switching parties and giving Republicans supermajorities.The evidence is clear. Young people are right to demand candidates that embrace progressive policies because moderates are nothing more than fascists in waiting.If you lay down like a doormat and allow evil people to walk all over you, or switch sides when you see profit in it, you’re the one holding back progress. Progressives don’t do those things!Voting for candidates that will obstruct and switch sides is a waste of effort. Even if they win, you lose.Don’t bash young peopleWhen you get into social settings, people like to draw attention to themselves by taking obnoxious swipes at young people. This is a form of narcissism. They expect that you’ll join them in laughing at innocent, vulnerable kids.They sure are surprised when you say, “Do not bash young people ever again. Young people aren’t the problem. You’re the problem. Quit trying to blame somebody else for your failures as a human being.”Boy, does that shut people up. It makes the whole room uncomfortable. Keep doubling down.“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Ever hear that? It’s a quote about something called RESPECT. What if some kid overheard your irresponsible remarks and succumbed to depression? What the hell is wrong with you people? Quit piling on kids. Kids have enough on their plates. Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size? I’m so TIRED OF SEEING YOUNG PEOPLE ATTACKED!”God, it makes me angry.Let’s make some progress toward kindnessWe have to work to make it so that everyone in our society knows it’s WRONG to bash young people. It’s a waste of energy. It’s a lie.The young people I know are working hard and doing everything they can to earn my respect. In turn, I try to do everything I can to be DESERVING of that respect. I try to earn THEIR respect too. I don’t feel I’m ENTITLED to it just like the meme implies.Our country has forgotten the other half of the equation “Respect is a two-way street.” Old people need to WORK to EARN respect. They shouldn’t just get it because they’re old, loud, bullies. Old, loud, bullies need to shut up and go away.As far as I can see, the last few generations have completely failed and they need to be called out on it.Quit bashing the innocent. The world’s on fire. Let’s act like grownups for a change.NEVER bash young people. Be decent. If you’ve ever said or written anything mean about a younger generation you should be ashamed of yourself.Thank you for listening! This publication is reader sponsored. Your support means the world to me. Thank you for being here, and I look forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow!Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offTwenty dollars a yearMy CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. 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