I've also heard the theory that "you get more conservative as you get older" is a tale of survivorship bias.
It only looks like people get more conservative because conservative people live longer because they are selfish bastards who hoard all the resources (good food, health care, etc).
Aug 7, 2026, 10:23 PMSo we agree that wealth & unrestrained capitalism is the problem, and blame boomers. Not greedy capitalists regardless of age. Musk is not a boomer. Zuckerberg is not a boomer. Etc etc etc. But let’s blame boomers.
Aug 7, 2026, 10:33 PM@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Men tend to get more conservative as they age, but women don't. Women tend to get radical. Of course, I'm a fucking boomer, so I guess what I have to say doesn't count since it's all my fault anyway. And just so you know, none of my boomer friends are as well off as their parents were.
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Economists learned the wrong lessons and drove the economy into a ditch. Carter suffered when the Fed put on the brakes.
Since the economy sort of improved, people voted twice for Reagan. The country has not recovered.
@Jestbill @joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik True that! He also broke the unions when he fired all the air traffic controllers. And go figure they are union again. The ignorant are still trying to divide us with this ridiculous rhetoric about boomers.
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I, for one, share the blame with YOU, Joyce, for, alas, I am also a Boomer of modest means.
I have gotten progressively more leftist as I've aged. Not that I was ever conservative. 😈
@crcollins @joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Came here to say this too, born in 1968, saw the effects of Thatcher in the UK, and her and Reagan were the start of the rot in my opinion. Trickle down economics, and all that privatisation, sure made me more left.
Aug 8, 2026, 8:58 AM@mtnrbq65 @crcollins @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I think sweeping generalisations about people on the basis of anything but what drives them aren’t helpful. Some people, because of trauma, deprivation etc, are defensive & look after themself & their own. Some people are driven by their values, around integrity, compassion etc. And some are driven by greed for wealth &/or power.
@Susan60 @mtnrbq65 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Yes. Makes me sad when I see people posting about "Boomers," as if we are all a monolith & not the largest cohort in the history of the USA. I arrived during the latter half of this, "Generation Jones." Never had all that glorious wealth and was always more interested in jobs that did some good rather than paid a lot. I took the "hippie" movement to heart, I guess, which I was too young to be a part of.
@crcollins @Susan60 @mtnrbq65 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik I’m also Generation Jones and have yet to see wealth. I’m also a progressive liberal, for whatever that’s worth.
Aug 9, 2026, 6:28 AM@CA_Hawthorne @crcollins @mtnrbq65 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I’m not familiar with the term Gen Jones. Not used here in Australia.
I too was too young for hippiedom or 2nd wave feminism.
“Liberal” means something different here. Our Liberal party used to be genuinely liberal, a centrist party, but has swung over to the right. Meanwhile our “Labor” party, formed originally out of the Trade Union movement, is more like a centrist “progressive” party, but has lost its soul.
@Susan60 @CA_Hawthorne @crcollins @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
I think Gen Jones is wedged in between Boomers and Gen X. It's for people who were born on the cusp, and feel they don't belong in either of those generations, no matter what the "official" dates say.
@davidtheeviloverlord @Susan60 @crcollins @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
Gen Jones (1956-62/64?) is the back half of the Boomers. My siblings were born in the early 50s and I was born in '59. Very different experiences. On TV, westerns for them, Star Trek for me.
Liberal and conservative is muddy these days, and especially from country to country. At this point, I lean towards being a Democratic Socialist (Bernie-crat).
@CA_Hawthorne @davidtheeviloverlord @Susan60 @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
Oh, Star Trek on TV instead of US westerns? That might explain the difference right there 🤣
I don't call myself "liberal" anymore as it seems like centrists Dems have claimed that. I've always registered as "independent" rather than either of the two parties &, at this point, am far left of the liberals.
@crcollins @davidtheeviloverlord @Susan60 @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
Political labels are kind of crazy right now. There are democrats who fight, and those who don't (most). There are progressives, and there are corporates (most). Corporates are paid to look the other way, or lamely complain, while the radical right robs our treasury.
Increasingly, no matter the label, people are starting to see through them. Is it too late? Pretty close.
Aug 9, 2026, 10:54 PM@CA_Hawthorne @crcollins @davidtheeviloverlord @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
US politics has always been more right leaning than Australia. Your democrats are more like what our conservative party used to be. Centre right. Hearing them referred to as “the radical left” Is a joke. Even this new crop of more left wing activist politicians wouldn’t be seen as “radical” in Australia. Just old school left leaning.
Aug 9, 2026, 10:48 PM@davidtheeviloverlord @CA_Hawthorne @crcollins @mtnrbq65 @joyce @jik
The label isn’t used here, but the idea is familiar.
The cut off points between generations are arbitrary. What matters more is the size of the family & age of the parents. I had friends who were the youngest of 5 kids. I was one of 3 kids, & my parents were several years younger than theirs. Their fathers had fought in WWII; mine had still been a kid. Those different ages & life experiences of parents made a big difference to their parenting styles.
I think that will show up again in kids born this century, with big differences between parents who had kids in their 30s or even 40s after establishing careers & buying a home, & those whose parents started families younger. One lot of parents wealthier, but older than the other lot. (Having teens in your 50s & 60s… glad I didn’t have to do that.)
@crcollins @joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik I've seen suggestions that it is not individuals that get more conservative, but populations: rich people have a greater tendency to be conservative and a smaller tendency to work themselves to death at an early age.
Aug 9, 2026, 6:30 AM@ElyseMGrasso @crcollins @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Yes, that makes sense. But I do think that retired people can feel vulnerable when on a fixed income. Not as vulnerable as people who can’t afford to retire tho!
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik *some* women get more radical true 😹 *some* treat life more freely as they get older… but there is another definition of “conservative” which does apply to most older people… simply, not as likely to take risks (rather stay with a particular predictable routine, do something familiar etc.) doesn’t completely mean they will be politically conservative. But lots of people like to use it that way.😕
Aug 8, 2026, 8:59 AM@em_and_future_cats @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
And I think that being on a fixed income & knowing you can’t “start again” can make people very cautious.
@Susan60 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Yes very much so. It also doesn’t help that you look forward (ahead in time) to your life at a certain point & say “I don’t think I have another 20 yea” because that’s sometimes the amount it takes to get oneself back to “stable” (of course this isn’t necessarily true all the time, sometimes it’s 50+ years or seemingly never) . It’s such a shame that we can’t make it so we’re all financially stable (like we did with ssp & pensions )
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Frankly, I’m sick of this bs blaming the boomers. They act like we had no struggles. I had a house foreclosed on in the 80s. I worked three jobs from the time I was 17 till I was 21 then I got a union job. I worked my union job and sold real estate on the side. They can sit around and whine or organize unions and join them.
@Beachbum @joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I think the most important problem with "blame the boomers" is that we all saw what was going on and wanted to make it better (I know, "all" is an overestimate, but let's say those of us who were paying attention, which was a lot of us).
But we failed. It's not that we didn't try, or didn't have good intentions. It's that we failed. Bill McKibben is a boomer. He didn't stop global warming. It's not because he didn't try.
The problem I see is that the people blaming the boomers think it's because they didn't try, but the actual problem is that what they tried didn't work. So if we keep trying the same thing, it's going to continue not working.
We have to stop blaming each other and start cooperating or this is just going to continue until our unmarked graves exist in a venusian atmosphere.
"Blame the boomers" is part of the problem, not part of the solution, just like "blame the immigrants" and "blame the trans people" and every other fucking divisive story that we get told or that we tell each other.
Stop being divisive. That's it. That's the thing we need to do first. If we don't do that, it's never going to get better.
(I say "they" for boomers because I was born a year late to be a boomer myself, so I'm in a weird liminal generation that partakes of both boomer and Gen X, but is neither.)
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik I have to say I am better off than my parents were. I decided when I was 17, living on carnation instant breakfast, peanut butter n jelly in an apartment that cost me $60 a mo in 74, still in HS, that I would never have to go through that again. I always worked two jobs, sometimes three jobs. Had a Plan B.Our children started working when they were 15 cuz they were taught a good work ethic.
Aug 9, 2026, 4:17 AM@Beachbum @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
I think life experience matters more than generation, although of course one impacts the other. But “class” or wealth are most impactful.
I’ve taught private school kids who’ve not been spoilt & who understand the value of hard work and that privilege is a thing. And I’ve taught kids in the same school with no idea. And others, whose parents had been poor & worked damned hard in shitty jobs to get established (back when such a thing was possible!) but whose kids have been spoilt rotten.
My own kids grew up knowing what it was to have to budget tightly & go without, & it’s served them well.
Partner’s kids were more privileged but not spoilt, & had after school jobs as teens.
@joyce @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Are you the kind of radical boomer woman that think that "ACAB" should not be used, because "not all cops...", and that tend to reply when arguing with radical feminists "not all men..." ?
Aug 9, 2026, 4:08 AM@PH7831 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
And are you someone who stereotypes boomer women?
@Susan60 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Political opinions and ideas almost always run on statistics and stereotypes.
Is ACAB a wrong slogan because it stereotypes the police ?
Aug 9, 2026, 6:21 AM@PH7831 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
It’s not a thing I say/use, not used here in Australia.
@Susan60 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik you never heard about it ?
Aug 9, 2026, 6:33 AM@PH7831 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
Possibly… I know a lot more about what’s going on over there than what many USians know about what’s going on over here.
@Susan60 @joyce @davidtheeviloverlord @jik what makes you think I'm from the US ?
Aug 8, 2026, 9:02 AMAnd others before them of course. Many capitalists just start off with good ideas for products etc, but then get caught up in the business of making money.
Aug 7, 2026, 10:46 PM@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik It wasn't Zuck and Musk who got Reagan into the White House – The US boomers set the scene for the tech bros by voting for deregulation of pretty much everything.
⬆️ @Mabande
>> It wasn't #Zuck and #Musk who got #Reagan into the White House – The US #boomers set the scene for the #techBros by voting for deregulation of pretty much everything.
This is so far off!
Don't forget that between Reagan and #Trump there were multiple #Democratic prez who each served multiple terms.
Problem is not with the electorate (boomer or not) but with #billionaires and billionaires alone who control #Republicans, #Democrats, and #SCOTUS
⬆️ @Mabande
>> between Reagan and #Trump there were multiple #Democratic prez who each served multiple terms. Problem is not with the electorate but with #billionaires … who control #Republicans, #Democrats, and #SCOTUS.
It does NOT matter who set the scene and who got elected.
What matters is that billionaires control ALL the levers of society and government, and THEY, the billionaires alone (not the electorate) get to set the direction.
Aug 8, 2026, 7:06 AM@rameshgupta @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik I'm hashtag glad I hashtag don't hashtag use a hashtag screenreader, cause hashtag that'd be hashtag a hashtag bunch to hashtag listen to.
You do realize that what you're saying is "the voters can't ever influence anything and no candidate will ever do anything for the people", right?
But okay: the US two party system is largely captured by billionaires.
It hasn't always been like that, though. Can you figure out _when_ they succeeded with it?
⬆️ @Mabande
Get over your hashtag angst 🙂 They are more for the system than for humans. Mastodon relies on hashtags to organize content so that you can follow hashtags instead of or in addition to clicking them.
I said what I said. It doesn't matter who elects whom, and billionaires get their way.
Electorate voted for prez+Congress, not for deregulation. Congress did deregulation. Biden confirmed Clarence Thomas. Billionaires got Citizens United in 2010.
@Mabande
>>>> It hasn't always been like that, though. Can you figure out _when_ they succeeded with it?
>> #Biden confirmed #ClarenceThomas. #Billionaires got #CitizensUnited in 2010.
#Republicans stole 3 #SCOTUS seats and #Democrats played dead. You know why?
Because BOTH are controlled by the same billionaires.
Biden could've expanded SCOTUS after #Jan6 coup attempt by using emergency powers. He didn't. You know why?
Never mind. Rhetorical question.
⬆️ @Mabande
LONG after #Reagan, HWBush, and #Clinton were gone, #BCRA still prohibited electioneering communications paid for by corporations.
>> #Biden confirmed #ClarenceThomas. #Billionaires got #CitizensUnited in 2010.
Clarence pubic-hair Thomas (see #AnitaHill hearing) was the tipping vote in 5-4 decision on Citizens United which was contrived to get money from billionaires. Corporations could POUR MONEY as "natural persons" but could NOT VOTE as such
Aug 8, 2026, 11:11 AM@rameshgupta Okay, so I'm gonna untag @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord and @jik from now on, cause you're just fishing for interaction via hashtag spamming and self boosting like some instagram influencer on a dopamine quest, but I'll continue the discussion in the next post if they're interested in reading.
Aug 8, 2026, 11:11 AM@rameshgupta
Anyway: I said the billionaires got their deregulation via the boomer-induced Reagan presidency and that enabled their capture of the US two party system.
And you're arguing that no, it couldn't be so because every president since Reagan has been doing the billionaires bidding.
What's not clicking for ya?
@Mabande @rameshgupta By the way, it wasn’t just boomers that voted for Reagan and his ignorant Reaganomics.
Aug 8, 2026, 4:52 PM@Beachbum (Untagging rameshgupta as he blocked me and I don't think he wants to be pinged in half a convo.)
Nobody said that it's only the boomers (or even all of 'em), but without the _majority_ of them going for Reagan, twice, we absolutely wouldn't be as deep in this mess.
Their actions at the group level matters because they were the largest cohort for a long, long time (apparently until 2024, when enough of 'em had died off to let millennials take top spot (financially: still the boomers)).
⬆️ @Mabande
>> you're just fishing for interaction via hashtag spamming and self boosting like some instagram influencer.
You blame an entire generation of Americans for things that did not happen until 2010. Clinton and Obama had the most successful Democratic presidencies of modern times and both served multiple terms.
You are now trying to devine my intent.
>> I'll continue the discussion in the next post…
GTFO off my mentions and never return.
@rameshgupta @Mabande @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik I am sure that Joe Biden considers that one of the worst things he ever did. Hindsight is 2020.
@rameshgupta @Mabande @Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik We have not had a Democratic president in my lifetime who did as much damage to our economy as the Republicans. When Clinton left office, we had peace, prosperity, and a surplus. Imagine that.
Every Democratic president was left with a financial crisis. Do the research. Great recession, Obama fixed it, Covid disaster, Biden was fixing it.
Aug 8, 2026, 9:01 AM@Mabande @davidtheeviloverlord @jik
In the US maybe…
Aug 8, 2026, 9:10 AM@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Yes, I know we're both from the _dozens_ of people not from the US, but in a thread by an USian, writing from a USian viewpoint about USian conditions, it might be apt to realize the thread's use of boomers might be primarily about USian boomers.
You pulling up examples of US-based billionaires kinda makes that point too -- they used the boomer-deregulated US market to take both billions in resources and make life worse for billions in the world.
@Susan60 @davidtheeviloverlord @jik Right! Everybody wants to blame boomers.
@davidtheeviloverlord @jik as I understand it there are several things happening that add up to old people being on average more right wing than young people, that get misinterpreted as people getting more right wing as they age.
One is the thing you mention - straight cis white male able bodied people tend to be more right wing, and also to live longer because wealth and privilege, so they are over represented among old people.
@davidtheeviloverlord @jik another is that society gets more left wing faster then individual do. Someone who in their youth in the 70s was left of centre, and has gotten a little more progressive over the next 50 years, is right of centre in the 2020s.
Aug 8, 2026, 12:41 AM@dragonfrog @davidtheeviloverlord Hmm, can you elaborate on that? Society is made up of individuals, so what exactly does it mean to say that society gets more left wing faster than individuals do?
@jik @davidtheeviloverlord young people start off very progressive compared to the society of crusty conservative old people around them. Tweny years later they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their kids' generation - they've moved left, and they're stodgy centrists now. Twenty more years and they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their grandkids' generation, moved a bit further left (but more slowly than in the previous twenty) and they're crusty old conservatives now.
