This was me a couple weeks ago at a family gathering, except with wild transphobic shit instead of wild malthusian shit. One minute they were all sitting in agreement talking about how rich people don't give a shit about any of us, which was so based of them that it surprised me. But the conversation somehow devolved into them saying the most evil shit imaginable when the topic of transgender kids in sports came up. I wanted to speak up so badly, but I'm not financially independent at the moment and I'm already the black sheep of the family, I'm sure it would have only made it worse.

I swear, American boomers are some of the most fucking demented people on this planet. I really want to say its the lead poisoning that made them so vulnerable to this strand of brain worms, but I get the feeling in the back of my mind that explanation is a cope. Please fucking shoot me in the head if I get like this about some other topic when I get old.

[–] BigHaas@hexbear.net 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They aren't lead poisoned and they aren't brainwashed, they instinctively know they're living off the oppression of others and they're fine with it. https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

[–] darkmode@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

The prevailing populist narrative grants the People (of the West) moral innocence by attributing to them utter stupidity and naivety; I invert the equation and demand a Marxist narrative instead: Westerners are willingly complicit in crimes because they instinctively and correctly understand that they benefit as a class (as a global bourgeois proletariat) from the exploitation enabled by their military and their propaganda (in Gramscian: organs of coercion and consent). [6] We’re not as stupid as we’re made out to be. This means that we can be reasoned with, that there is a way out.

settlers

[–] WithoutFurtherRelay@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m starting to really disagree with the premise of this article. It made sense to me at first when I read it, but the more I think about it the more absurd it is to me that we “subconsciously” intuit something as complex as international politics.

[–] BigHaas@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It doesn't take intuition to be aware that there are rich countries and poor countries, and that they are in a rich country. The lack of political understanding plus the convenient absolution of any guilty role in the matter is the reason they are willing to embrace liberal explanations of the world. Even though the explanation is always obviously ghoulish (you don't have to be informed to see the problem with "there aren't enough resources to both feed all these people and build all these missiles and megayachts, so we should reduce the amount of people"), they still find it preferable to giving up their treats.

[–] kristina@hexbear.net 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

im going to ask my kids to beat me to death if i ever become racist or some shit

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago

rat-salute Proudhon's magnum opus

[–] ScrewdriverFactoryFactoryProvider@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lead poisoning disproportionately affected gen x. It also still disproportionately affects poor people and people of color. So it’s probably not that.

[–] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My family is definitely poor and half of us are latino, so lead poisoning of some degree is not too unlikely. But I do agree that it is probably not why they're like this specifically.

[–] ScrewdriverFactoryFactoryProvider@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah I worded that poorly mb