No, Gen Z just isn’t conservative enough to settle for Dems. Put up a progressive, and they’ll show up.
doubt it will work as well as you think
Whatever the Dems do, even if it move their platform to the furthest left in the known universe most moral puritans on the left will just lable them mainstream, or corpo shills and find a reason to stay home. Regardless of policy position or idea, the far left has always moved the goalposts between each election cycle just out of reach of the main stream.
When they refused to vote for Gore because of climate change the party moved to the left to meet those voters, and the left said fuck off. When they moved to left to get voters that refused Hillary because of corporate speaking gigs the party moved further left on corporate accountability, and the left said fuck off. When Biden moved left during his term to protect the environment, hold predatory schools and lending servicers accountable, attempted loan forgiveness, expanded overtime guarantees, etc etc etc. the left said fuck off to his predecessor. The people who claim the left will just show up if you give them x are big fat liars. Their perceived moral purity will always be more valuable to them than progress and action.
And I say this as someone that is further to the left than the party. I am also profoundly disappointed in the parties lack of moral courage. I just believe in practical progress and action, something most self righteous moral puritans absolutely don’t believe in.
No. The party has never moved left beyond their rhetoric. Their actual policies keep moving right. For example, even as their climate rhetoric went left, they still broke records on fossil fuel extraction, waived environmental protections to build Trump’s wall faster, and tried to ban imports of green tech.
The real sticking point is war. The party refuses to move left enough to be anti-war, because they are beholden to defense contractors. And Americans are so sick of war, they’ll vote for anyone they believe might de-escalate.
100% of the USA relies on fossil fuels. Dems have always done both in the last 2 decades, focus on energy independence (which means meeting the present need) and on preparing for the future (clean energy alternatives). And they weren’t trying to ban green tech, they were trying to stop spyware from entering the country from china. Yes Biden blew it on the wall.
The real sticking point is war.
It’s the real sticking point now. As soon as the party shifts their policy stance there will be others, that’s my point.
People on the left have no clue how policy is made, how party platforms change, how minds are changed. If you want a seat at the table you actually have to take it. That means showing up and joining, going to meetings, voting on policy platforms, holding your nose and voting for your team and then pressuring you side to do what you want. It means saying “hey, if you take a moral stand on this, I’ll back you up in the next election.”
But that’s not the way of self righteousness and moral purity, the lefts smug moral purists would rather torch the world than work with people. They say “thank for taking a stand on this, but it will never be good enough, kindly go fuck yourself”. The party doesn’t move left, because the left is far far too self righteous to ever actually work with anyone that doesn’t pass their purity test. People like that don’t actually believe in democracy, in consensus building, it’s their way or the highway.
I agree the party needs to move left, but people that actually want to govern on the left need to meet them there.
I understand that’s what you want to happen. That you think the left should hold their nose, and compromise on the horrors of the empire to get a seat at the table.
But as this election has shown, that’s not going to happen. So it’s not the left that needs to hold their nose to get a seat at the table. It’s now the party that needs to swallow their pride, and acquiesce to the left, or they’ll continue to lose their seat at the table.
You’re missing my point. I am much further left than the party on most issues. I too wish for the party to move left. It won’t move left by left wing people disappearing, that behavior only serves to move the party right. The party needs 50% of the vote plus one, if you don’t show up to vote, they will get it from the moderate right next cycle. Every time you fail to be part of the solution you make the problem much worse.
Alternatively, people can get engaged with the party now, while we have time to take over. The party is made up of it’s members. If those members shift heavily left, so will the platform. You don’t win the game by refusing to play, you win the game by becoming the team.
But that’s the opposite of what is happening. Instead each time the party fails to gain enough power to enact left wing policy and instead is forced to concede to the middle they get punished and they have no choice but to move towards the votes.
We are repeatedly doing exactly what the right wing wants. Stay fractured and disorganized, and we all lose, forever.
Fuck Gen Z. Gen Y fo life!
Its the working class vs the 1%, not generation vs generation.
I have been saying for the past 6 - 8 years that Gen Z is the future, they are different, they are compassionate, etc. My opinion changed on that Tuesday in a bad way.
Turns out that growing up with a phone in their hand made a lot of them particularly susceptible to right-wing propaganda.
Ten Z didn’t vote Trump in. They simply voted for Kamala less.
Which helped Trump win.
Maybe they bought into Kamala’s messaging that Trump had no chance and that even Republicans hated him. No point turning up if its as good as won.
That’s not the message I saw. I saw him being considered an imminent threat, unlike in 2016.
I agree that this is the lesson, but it’s bolstered by decades of bad behavior by the previous generations who chose not to leave a livable world for their children.
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I am also elder Gen Z and im really fucken hoping its just our version of Gen X and Boomers being confused about Dragon Ball Z fights. Otherwise I hope the runts get trial by fired and knock it off.
They’ve been raised to believe their thoughts are valid and they should speak up, instead of shutting the fuck up and listening until they have enough experience.
Sorry, but that was a “kids these days” moment.
Why hasn’t there been a push to counter the propaganda on social media with social media?
Use short form, humorous posts that integrate facts and ideas that give a different more positive take on others. I would guess there are great writers and actors that have a progressive-ish mindset that could put something like this together.
But honestly what is the reason this hasn’t been done? Or if it is being done why isn’t there more of a push to get it seen?
If you don’t control the platform, it might just be wasted efforts, although I guess they could try. But it might be that those pulling the strings can be sure that virtually no one is reached.
It’s a frustratingly true response… sigh
That would require ongoing funding outside of election years. These are paid for by Mercers and Kochs or the Kremlin on the right, and i don’t think Gates or Cuban is too eager to fund left-wing propaganda.
There is Holywood money in the world of progressive actors that could put something together but I don’t know that world and how it works so I have no idea if it’s something that is actually feasible.
The Hollywood elites are full of conservatives and libertarians. The elites are the suits who finance those movies like Steven Mnuchin.
You will be surprised to learn how little money the most famous actors in Hollywood actually have, that’s why they’re all trying to sell vagina candles and tequila.
The establishment wants to stay established, so they only use their established channels, not realizing how disconnected they became.
Algorithms ensure that the only content that ends up getting to your eyes is content that you already agree with for the most part. Or content that you hate so much that you have an incurable urge to respond to it with swearing and vitriol. (or at least that’s why I think TikTok keeps giving me Maple Maga bullshit)
In other words, you can put up whatever you want but thanks to modern social media, the only people who will ever see it are the people who already agree with you.
why I think TikTok keeps giving me Maple Maga bullshit
I mean… it shows the garbage to you, and you keep coming back… maybe it’s time to ditch tictack
Why hasn’t there been a push to counter the propaganda on social media with social media?
Because the dems are also right-wing and have no credibility.
The actual left-wing is constantly pushing counter-narratives but without the massive funding of capital (eg. koch bros). No billionaire is going to fund a left-wing Prager U that talks about how billionaires are trash.
Because a lie will circle the earth a dozen times before the truth gets a foot (or whatever tf the saying is).
It is so much easier, and takes so much less time and energy to make up disinformation, than to fight it. And people on the left tend to actually care about the truth, and we also want others to understand the truth (and to gain the means for them to independently arrive at the truth), and spouting disinformation goes directly against that.
It’s amazing what people are willing to do to win when you not only make it acceptable, but encourage complete disregard for ethics.
No analysis of how the older generations that turned out for Obama and Kerry went even harder for Trump than Gen Z ? Gen X went Trump by 22 percent.
Gen Z is doing their best and if you put this all on them then you’re going to lose the next election too.
Depressing as it is, it’s fairly typical for people to skew rightward as they get older. The problem is if Gen Z is already starting at a certain position, right now…where will they be at when they reach the age of today’s boomers or Gen X/Y?
Remember: the boomers brought us the 60s. Over the years, the narrative has morphed from the boomers’ parents (and reactionaries among the boomers) clucking their tongues about the 60s to: OMG, the boomers are all in for donvict, and “okay boomer” and so on. Boomer is now shorthand for Faux News and hate radio addict. Not so long ago, that target demo was the boomers’ parents.
So, if it can happen to them, it is likely to happen for Gen Z, but maybe even worse.
The boomers were actually better than Gen X. The only reason we think people get more conservative is because we had a generation with reliable news. Then as they got older they kept Fox News on whenever they weren’t watching something else, just all the time. They didn’t realize Fox was propaganda and Gen X hasn’t realized CNN was bought out years ago with the specific idea of turning it into Fox News 2.
What we need in this country is some media literacy.
Trump Youth.
The zoomers are more like boomers than any other generation. The thought that they would save anyone but themselves is ridiculous.
Its never been up to a single generation anyway
Liberals solve the problems that cause voters to die. Conservatives push for the status quo, even if the status quo kills the voters. The more deaths, the more people move towards the liberals. What, right now, is killing Gen Z?
Gen Z males have been raised in this “men need to be the alpha dog - don’t let anyone talk down to you - don’t respect anyone” mindset throughout high school. Then, when they get out into the real world, that mindset lead them to flunk out of college, not hold down a job, and not be able to get/keep a girlfriend. With no education/money/girlfriend’s house and housing prices through the roof, they have to move back in with there parents who:
A) Are liberal and thus blame it on there attitude, which makes them even more conservative
B) Are conservative and blame it on trans-mexican-CRT-cowfarts, which makes them bond more with their parents.
How do we fix this?
Just replying to thank you for that glorious combo of terms. As the dirty migrant I am, I simply had to steal it for my username.
Good luck!
For many, it would be making them more community-minded and responsible as younger kids. The combo of rarely being held accountable for mistakes or failure to meet expectations (basically, gentle parenting) and a social education from algorithmically curated content feels like it’s been a major factor in developing their social/political attitudes.
They did good. Im sure they will.
If you want salvation, seek Jesus. The one from Revelations, the one that crushes people and had his clothes dyed red with the blood of his enemies. He is the only one who will save you now. Riding a white horse, and sword in hand, truly the fifth horseman of apocalypse. Only he can bring justice to this doomed world.
If Jesus came back he would burn down mega churches and banks. Jesus with a gun.
I find the sword a weapon for gentlemen, but yeah, that’s the Jesus I’m taking about, impaling conmen and their mega churches, pedophiles and manipulators.
“But that is far from a sturdy monolith. It can, and should, be easily conquered. All it takes is a platform that authentically offers something—anything—to youth voters. As they’ve proved, time and time again, they’ll listen.”
Democrats: Sorry, we’ll talk a big game and then just have 2 fuckwit Senators ruin everything. Don’t worry though I promise next time will be the same!
In before Newsom or Shapiro nominee in 2028. (that is, in the far-fetched scenario we still have real elections).
The lads depicted are Gen Alpha 18 year olds. Gen z is mid to late twenties now. Some of them are about to hit 30…
The birth year range for different generations is fuzzy, but I can’t find a single source saying that 2006 or 2007 would be considered gen Alpha. The youngest population that voted in this election is gen. Z, and not all members of Gen. Z are eligible to vote yet.
If we were able to age out of authoritarian conservatism, it would have happened a long time ago. Possibly as far back as “cooking food over fire is making kids these days weak”. That should never have been a strategy. Doubly so when there’s a time limit to solve global warming.
