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Where do you draw the line? Are most people from the near past a "nut" in some respect? Your case is more extreme, but pretty much all of my elders are nuts in

Where do you draw the line? Are most people from the near past a "nut" in some respect? Your case is more extreme, but pretty much all of my elders are nuts in one way or another in regards to obsolete beliefs. My own parents, for instance, who are otherwise intelligent people, still believe minimum wage should be $6.75 even though they also believe inflation has made groceries too expensive. Are they just stuck in the past or are they nutty?

tombert 2y ago
I don't have a strictly defined "line", though overt racism is pretty much always past it. If you're alive and not in a mental institution today, then I don't feel bad judging you by the same standards as everyone else. If an 80 year old says something racist or sexist, I really don't care if that stuff was acceptable when they were 15: it's not acceptable now. Based on what you described of your parents, I wouldn't call them nuts just based on that. ETA: I'd like to clarify a bit; even though I don't agree with your parents in this example, and I think they're wrong, being wrong doesn't imply "nut". I guess I view it as a matter of degree. I think overt racism is way worse than being a bit wrong about what minimum wage should be, and while, as I said, I don't have a strict line, the line does more or less exist.
kbelder 2y ago
And don't forget you can make some pretty sweeping generalizations about how young people are nuts, too. With similar justification: "We're different, so you are crazy."
- tombert 2y ago
  Sure, and if a young person does something nutty then I'd call them a nut. It's not hypocritical on my end to do this. My other grandmother is the same age as my idiot grandmother, and yet she's managed to somehow not be really racist around my wife. I guess I don't know for sure what's in her brain, but at least outwardly I wouldn't classify her as a racist, so please don't misinterpret what I say: being old doesn't inherently make you a nut. If a young person says something dumb or offense, it's perfectly fine in my mind to hold them to the same standard.
jemmyw 2y ago
> still believe minimum wage should be $6.75 even though they also believe inflation has made groceries too expensive. Are they just stuck in the past or are they nutty? They're nutty. Other older people manage to understand the value of things and wages in the world now in comparison to when they were younger. I'm only in my 40s, I get surprised by changes since I was in my 20s, but each surprise is an update.
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tombert 2y ago

I don't have a strictly defined "line", though overt racism is pretty much always past it. If you're alive and not in a mental institution today, then I don't feel bad judging you by the same standards as everyone else. If an 80 year old says something racist or sexist, I really don't care if that stuff was acceptable when they were 15: it's not acceptable now. Based on what you described of your parents, I wouldn't call them nuts just based on that. ETA: I'd like to clarify a bit; even though I don't agree with your parents in this example, and I think they're wrong, being wrong doesn't imply "nut". I guess I view it as a matter of degree. I think overt racism is way worse than being a bit wrong about what minimum wage should be, and while, as I said, I don't have a strict line, the line does more or less exist.

kbelder 2y ago

And don't forget you can make some pretty sweeping generalizations about how young people are nuts, too. With similar justification: "We're different, so you are crazy."

tombert 2y ago
Sure, and if a young person does something nutty then I'd call them a nut. It's not hypocritical on my end to do this. My other grandmother is the same age as my idiot grandmother, and yet she's managed to somehow not be really racist around my wife. I guess I don't know for sure what's in her brain, but at least outwardly I wouldn't classify her as a racist, so please don't misinterpret what I say: being old doesn't inherently make you a nut. If a young person says something dumb or offense, it's perfectly fine in my mind to hold them to the same standard.

jemmyw 2y ago

> still believe minimum wage should be $6.75 even though they also believe inflation has made groceries too expensive. Are they just stuck in the past or are they nutty? They're nutty. Other older people manage to understand the value of things and wages in the world now in comparison to when they were younger. I'm only in my 40s, I get surprised by changes since I was in my 20s, but each surprise is an update.

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