That’s not a bad idea. But then you have to outlaw money in politics, because as soon as money is in the picture, it invariably favors rich old dudes, or people with connections that can only be formed over time.
In other words, nothing like this will happen in America in my grandchildren’s lifetime, let alone my children’s or mine.
That’s an illusion.
America 7 millenia ago might have been empty enough of people to be peaceful (though I highly doubt that) but people died young of easily treatable diseases because they didn’t have vacc…
Nevermind…
That’s the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
As I got older and I reflected on all the grumpy old men waving at the clouds and complaining constantly about this-or-that being better in their days when I was a kid, I realized why.
Now I’m the old man and I avoid becoming bitter my reminding myself of the following truth:
When you’re a kid, the world belongs to the grown-ups - your parents, adults of authority around you.
When you reach teenage years, the world starts being yours: you’ve developed tastes for things people your age do and create. As you go through puberty, your identity is reinforced with things of your time, and other young people your age with which you do the same things. You all have a bright future in front of you.
When you get out of puberty, hopefully you get our of school and start working: the world is fully yours. The trendy things in the world are things you find trendy too. Other people speak like you. You’re not a powerless kid and you’re not weaker old guy/gall yet. You’re fully part of it and it suits you. You may not like the world, but it’s yours. It shares your values and your values are what makes the world go round at that point in time . Your personality, your cultural identity and the cultural norms you respect, and your value system are fully developed, and a pure product of their time.
And then they stay that way. But the world keeps evolving. Slowly but surely, the things you learned become deprecated. The things you like become old. The way you speak becomes strange to younger ears. The values you believe in no longer apply. The world slowly shifts beneath your feet, but it’s happening very slowly, year after year, until…
You reach an age at which you’re very visibly and obviously out of sync with the world. Even you notice it at this point.
And here lies the trap: you can either reflect on how the world has changed and acknowledge that it’s not your world anymore, but it’s younger people’s now. People who are now the age you once were: it’s their turn to have a go at owning the world. You’re just in it for the ride.
Or you can take refuge in your old values, wallow in the old things you’ve liked for decades, and bitch and moan about the world going to shit. It’s not going to shit, but it feels that way to you. It’s easier to reject the world around you than admit it’s just not how you like it anymore, but it’s poisonous: it turns you into a bitter person everybody hates.
I choose to ignore the things I dislike - which, at this point, constitute a lot more of the world than the things I like from the past, from my youth. But I also choose to not pass judgment on them because they’re not from my world: they’re from today’s youth’s world, and I have no say in it.
If you’re old and angry, think about this. You might find some comfort in letting go.
The corollary of all this is: there is no better America in the past: the past simply seems rosier to older eyes. America has always been as great or as shit as you find it to be today.
Are you somehow implying that somebody in the Trump regime may have a conflict of interest?
Surely not…
Yeah, I realized the computer world was going down the drain when Scott McNealy inadvertently spill the beans on the industry’s true intentions in 1999, and a few years later, I quit programming entirely and changed career.
I still use computers because I have to, and I maintain a few open-source projects of little importance so I can say I’ve done my part. But mostly I’m busy avoiding computers and trying to maintain whatever shred of privacy I have left.
My first computer was an Altair.
It was a machine from a time when personal computers were a hopeful symbol of a better future for the whole of humanity. Tech bro sumbitches monetized that hope away, and now our future is an adversarial billionaire-feeding dystopia, promising more billionaires and more dystopia.
I’m old enough to retire soon, and I constantly feel someone took away the future I was promised as a teen. As a frustrated gen-Xer who generally had it good despite everything, I can’t imagine the kind of despair young people today are going through. At least I can remember the Altair, and that’s something.
I have more respect for people who finish their studies. It takes more effort, dedication and talent than striking it rich on the latest fad du jour - which is what Gates, Fuckerberg and this cretinous AI-loving kid did.
If the name of the kid who founded this hateful startup rings a bell, it’s because he’s not new at this dystopian shit:
This is NOT a Harvard startup. This is a Harvard dropout creating a buzzword startup.
It’s quite amazing the number of Harvard dropouts who become terrible persons. If I was a Harvard dropout, I sure wouldn’t boast about it.
Bone-petite is as much French as a neo-Nazi will ever master. This guy is probably considered sophisticated in MAGA circles.
the former FLOTUS
Melania’s title is Gold Digger in Chief.
Do an end-run around the crazy bobby brainworm and his ilk.
You know, if you push this logic to its logical conclusion, you should also go around FEMA, federal education, federal SS paramilitary disguised as immigration officers, illegal federal taxes disguised as emergency tariffs…
And when your state has enough federal nonsense to go around, it might want to defederate entirely, and that’s called secession.
Your state of Colorado might not be big enough to amount to much on its own in the world, but larger states like California, with the GDP of large nations, really should consider it. Because while the federal ship is still afloat, the entire deck and rigging are on fire at this point.
With Trump and his sycophantic appointed hacks, “If you hire clowns, you get a circus.” has never held more true.
Food pedants aren’t gullible. They know full well water isn’t worth anything like the price it’s sold when it’s bottled. But they’re pedants: it’s their job to look sophisticated. They literally make a living out of talking bullcrap about food.
That’s why I said: if they want to pay silly money for water, they’re welcome to. What I oppose if ordinary people listening to them and getting taken for a ride next time they go out for dinner.
But I think reasonable people won’t fall for that one. It’s just too stupid on its face. And people who are too dumb to know water is just water, well… a fool and his money…
That’s a blatant scam for self-appointed restaurant critics and other food pedants.
Let them be scammed. Why not… I have nothing against taking money from fools, so long as they don’t convince reasonable people to do the same.
Just wait until he discovers that the truck has a battery and can charge the phone with the engine turned off. It’s gonna blow his mind.
But I thought Trump could declassify things just by thinking about it? His words, not mine.
That’s where you’ve been had. Trump doesn’t think. He says any old shit that goes through his deranged mind at any given moment, even if it makes no sense or contradicts what he said 5 minutes earlier.
Coherent thinking is done for him by other people - namely the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Those particular sonsabitches never wanted a pedo president, nor do they want anything declassified. But Trump is the best fascist racehorse they could find in 50 years, so they put up with his shenanigans.
If you went through school without learning anything, it means you’re a normal person.
Don’t worry too much. What you need from your school is a degree, not an education. You do your own education. The degree doesn’t mean you know anything: it only tells your employer you were patient and dogged enough to sit through boring classes and terrible teachers all the way through.
That’s the real value for your future boss: they like someone who can withstand and survive the idiocy of the workplace. You getting your degree is reasonable proof that you won’t be a snowflake and leave them hanging when the going gets a little tough.
But make no mistake: you know nothing out of school. Nobody does. All employers know that. The best you can hope to get out of school is the ability to learn all the rest quickly after you’re hired.
Yes, and Bernie Sanders is old as dirt yet a decent politician in touch with young people.
But they’re exceptions. We need AOCs and Mamdanis and Sanders as the norm in politics.