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> by the time that millennials walk the halls of power, their parents will have signed away all their rights. It's not as though 'millennials' are so big on ri

by jff 9y ago

> by the time that millennials walk the halls of power, their parents will have signed away all their rights. It's not as though 'millennials' are so big on rights, take a look at Twitter to see how happy people are to suppress e.g. free speech as long as they're the ones who get to do the suppressing.

zanny 9y ago
This might just reflect on one of the more sinister aspects of democracy. You live life expecting eventually "your people" will take over some day. That generations prior were monolithic and wrong, and that since your own peers share your mindset it must mean people your age are just wiser. Eventually, you realize that you were just in the intellectual minority of a generation that was majority unintellectual. Like every generation pretty much ever. We have just become extremely effective in isolating ourselves from exposure to the real "average". But even online, there is a vast difference between the ignorance of certain sects of Facebook or the comments on a yahoo news story and the trolls on 4chan - the later are still "our" people. Even if they want to abuse their intellectual leanings, they still grew up with that mindset. The average Facebook post or comment on a Fox News or CNN story reflects the broader, more general mindset much better. And the outlook isn't good. For any generation.
- EugeneAZ 9y ago
  IQ qualification for the privilege to vote.
  - zanny 9y ago
    It isn't IQ. It is environmental culture during childhood development. If you grow up in a family that values intellectualism you will probably be intellectual, curious, logical, and skeptical. If you grow up in a family that is hostile to intellectualism, you are more likely to be ignorant and manipulated by emotional falsities as well. The problem is more kids are growing up anti-intellectual than intellectual. IQ has nothing to do with that, intellectuals uplifted civilization from effectively universal anti-intellectualism (at least in Europe) in the 16th century to where we are now. We have the most intellectuals ever now, but that doesn't mean we are close to a majority, and that also means as long as anti-intellectualism is prevalent you need systems of rule by minority (in various forms) to see progress happen.

by jff 9y ago

zanny 9y ago

This might just reflect on one of the more sinister aspects of democracy. You live life expecting eventually "your people" will take over some day. That generations prior were monolithic and wrong, and that since your own peers share your mindset it must mean people your age are just wiser. Eventually, you realize that you were just in the intellectual minority of a generation that was majority unintellectual. Like every generation pretty much ever. We have just become extremely effective in isolating ourselves from exposure to the real "average". But even online, there is a vast difference between the ignorance of certain sects of Facebook or the comments on a yahoo news story and the trolls on 4chan - the later are still "our" people. Even if they want to abuse their intellectual leanings, they still grew up with that mindset. The average Facebook post or comment on a Fox News or CNN story reflects the broader, more general mindset much better. And the outlook isn't good. For any generation.

EugeneAZ 9y ago
IQ qualification for the privilege to vote.
- zanny 9y ago
  It isn't IQ. It is environmental culture during childhood development. If you grow up in a family that values intellectualism you will probably be intellectual, curious, logical, and skeptical. If you grow up in a family that is hostile to intellectualism, you are more likely to be ignorant and manipulated by emotional falsities as well. The problem is more kids are growing up anti-intellectual than intellectual. IQ has nothing to do with that, intellectuals uplifted civilization from effectively universal anti-intellectualism (at least in Europe) in the 16th century to where we are now. We have the most intellectuals ever now, but that doesn't mean we are close to a majority, and that also means as long as anti-intellectualism is prevalent you need systems of rule by minority (in various forms) to see progress happen.