747
me_irl (discuss.online)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/me_irl@lemmy.world
124 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 34 points 5 days ago (1 child)

While I understand the reason why a demographic dropout would be a catastrophe, I fucking hate how they say it's our fault, when they were the ones who fucked up everything in the first place

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago* (1 child)

    I'll spot you "they" as the endless white nationalist nags and natalist pundits. For some reason "population collapse" never shows up as a concern for Palestinians or Cubans or Bangledeshis or Congolese. It's only ever a rich white European problem.

    But this endless "I didn't start the fire" rhetoric kinda ignores how the prior generation as a whole had about as much control over their material conditions as we do now. Just being mad at The Olds neglects how many of them delivered the education and health care and technology and agriculture that brought us to the modern moment [in a good way].

    Not to be all "you hate capitalism and yet cell phone" but you gotta see the prior generation as the same group of disaffected working class as we have in the modern day.

    Ffs, our parents were inundated with "Overpopulation" as the crisis du jour. They were lectured over having too many kids and having kids when they were too young and not being economically independent enough to care for anyone but themselves. We inherited that from them and internalized it. And now we meticulously practice contraception because we've been drilled to believe it's the responsible thing to do.

    Only post-COVID have we really seen the Natalist Panic taking off. It's a complete 180⁰ and largely the product of Millennial insecurities.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 child)

    Yeah, I meant "they" as the past gens (aka Baby Boomers), and no, we DO NOT have the same control over our material conditions as they had. Think that while house prices, rents for services and prices for a lot more things are growing up endlessly, at the same time salaries are not only totally unchanged, but they're going down. Take into account that real estate is mostly dominated by older people, and most CEOs and other high-ranking figures are older people too.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] -2 points 4 days ago

    we DO NOT have the same control over our material conditions as they had

    Explain that to every Boomer drafted to die in Vietnam. Or live long enough to get lead poisoning from paint and car exhaust. Or weapons testing radiation. Or AIDS.

    Hell, explain it to the folks whipped out after any of the market crashes and recessions of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Nevermind the big ones in '01, '08, and '20.

    Think that while house prices, rents for services and prices for a lot more things are growing up endlessly, at the same time salaries are not only totally unchanged, but they’re going down.

    The Cold War Peace dividend accrued primarily to a minority of college educated white men. Mass incarceration, deindustrialization, and pollution ruined the lives of the plurality. For every white collar Reaganite with a boat and a white picket fence, there were three hippies, migrants, and racial/sex minorities eating that guy's exhaust.

    Take into account that real estate is mostly dominated by older people, and most CEOs and other high-ranking figures are older people too.

    Survivorship bias. If you couldn't secure a permanent residence or you lost it to unemployment, bankruptcy, and foreclosure, your life expectancy plummeted. Meanwhile, if Greatest Gen parents owned a home (and they were the ones who really got in on the ground floor) then your odds of owning one were significantly higher.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent