4 ms·

And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems: - Uninformed - Un

by ethbro 7y ago

And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems: - Uninformed - Undisciplined - Lazy - Uncoordinated People were self-organizing large civil society organizations and marching through clouds of tear gas and worse in the 1960-90s... and yet this current generation seems to think that posting a rant on Facebook is valuable? Incoherent, naive anger is useless.

Zarath 7y ago
And what did marching through tear gas give us? More interventionism in South America and... Ronald Reagan?
- ethbro 7y ago
  De facto voting rights for African Americans, desegregation, and women's rights to control their own bodies.
  - HappySweeney 7y ago
    They have de jure voting; de facto kinda not really.
    - ethbro 7y ago
      Compared to the 50s and 60s?
rjbwork 7y ago
Most of us just don't think we CAN do anything. It seems the world is run by the rich for the rich. We vote but we don't feel that anything we can do actually will effect any change.
- ethbro 7y ago
  One could make the argument that wealth inequality is higher than it was in previous eras. But there's always been a major disparity between capital owners and everyone else. Even in the 60s. And certainly at the turn of the century (1850-1920), when US antitrust law was actually first created. So maybe media centralization? But the 1960s featured a limited number of media channels controlled by a few owners (albeit with some paragons of objective, journalistic integrity). And the turn of the century was the heyday of centralized newspaper control. I'm honestly casting about for an external why and am hard-pressed to enunciate a coherent narrative. And in lieu of one, the only thing that's left are that people simply aren't actively protesting. Whether they're making that choice because of hopelessness or laziness, I don't really care. Because ultimately, it's a choice. Make the other one. (And it seems we might finally be, with regards to climate)

by ethbro 7y ago

Zarath 7y ago

And what did marching through tear gas give us? More interventionism in South America and... Ronald Reagan?

ethbro 7y ago
De facto voting rights for African Americans, desegregation, and women's rights to control their own bodies.
- HappySweeney 7y ago
  They have de jure voting; de facto kinda not really.
  - ethbro 7y ago
    Compared to the 50s and 60s?

rjbwork 7y ago

Most of us just don't think we CAN do anything. It seems the world is run by the rich for the rich. We vote but we don't feel that anything we can do actually will effect any change.

ethbro 7y ago
One could make the argument that wealth inequality is higher than it was in previous eras. But there's always been a major disparity between capital owners and everyone else. Even in the 60s. And certainly at the turn of the century (1850-1920), when US antitrust law was actually first created. So maybe media centralization? But the 1960s featured a limited number of media channels controlled by a few owners (albeit with some paragons of objective, journalistic integrity). And the turn of the century was the heyday of centralized newspaper control. I'm honestly casting about for an external why and am hard-pressed to enunciate a coherent narrative. And in lieu of one, the only thing that's left are that people simply aren't actively protesting. Whether they're making that choice because of hopelessness or laziness, I don't really care. Because ultimately, it's a choice. Make the other one. (And it seems we might finally be, with regards to climate)