The Damn I'm Old Thread - Putting Up With Being a Geezer

[Firth]

My mother, for YEARS, had one distance contact lens and one close-up contact lens. Said her brain got adept at listening to whichever eye was in focus and ignoring the other. Never needed glasses for reading, or glasses for driving.

Well yeh, paradoxically that’s called mono vision. But the issue was about progressive which I was told is non-discrete.

[Garyhead]

Ok.....Here's a new situation that's making me feel weary and old.......My Ma (84) and older brother (62) are in a battle online over politics.....now it seems my brother is making the 300 mile R/T drive tomorrow to "visit" my Ma..... I guess I better be there to "moderate." It is sad to see how the Older Folks (the Greatest Generation) are duped by their inability to filter out the BS. And...they watch the most TV in their dotage.... I've been trying these past few years to educate my Ma to "look at the source" of your information. It's sad that this woman, 30 years ago, could spot the BS of the National Inquirer at the grocery store checkout stand but is now unable to navigate 21st century manipulation of information.....and there are no signs of dementia. She is sharp as a tack. I keep telling her Walter Cronkite is Gone!....getting in front of a camera in a coat and tie doesn't mean they are telling the truth.

I just used Politics as an example.....not to continue in this vein......She is also duped by dubious Medical & Health claims she sees online and on TV. This is why I need to be there when my brother arrives as he only sees her a couple days a year.......I see her every few days. I need to temper him to realize her current lifestyle limitations and to temper Her to not publicly shit all over her son online for disagreeing with her. (old-style bullying)

Why? Because I'm the Son who has to deal with the fallout..... Yes, I could walk away but.......my conscience will not allow that....

[progmatist]

^^ Growing up I gave my parents numerous reasons to walk away from me. When the roles are reversed, very soon I suspect, it would be unthinkable to walk away from them.

[rcarlberg]

^^Oddly, my parents went the other way as they aged. Up until Nixon's impeachment my dad was a staunch Republican, God & Country, My Country Right Or Wrong... Needless to say we had many knock-down-drag-out fights over Viet Nam. However, when Tricky Dick's duplicity was finally exposed (to even the willfully "turn-a blind-eyers") my dad did a 180 and became a crusader for Truth, Justice and the American Way up until the day he died. I was proud of his intellectual honesty.

I figure anyone today who buys into the "alternate facts" agenda has to be consuming one media outlet only, and ANY exposure to the wider MSM will rapidly open their eyes.

There's a suite of beliefs promulgated by Russian-fed conspiracy websites, including flat earth, anti-vaxxer, chem-trails, George Soros, Dem sex trafficking and others... but I doubt your 84y.o. mother is an internet junkie.


Incidentally, just between you & me, I date most of our current troubles to Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, normalizing bad behavior. If he'd died in jail we wouldn't have had so many subsequent Chief Executives changing or ignoring the Law.

[Rarebird]

We just had to put down my dad's old cat. She lived for almost 20 years and was at this moment really dying. It's a hard blow for my dad, so I hope it doesn't take his will to live.

[Dave (in MA)]

#thereTheyGoAgain

[Jerjo]

In the "dumb shit the young 'uns are doing" department

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaema...es-taste-trend

[Firth]

In the "dumb shit the young 'uns are doing" department

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaema...es-taste-trend

Especially this comment:
if true then i'd be constantly tasting ass as my b@lls bounce to beat of my thrusts

[rcarlberg]

Flavored suppositories, yummm

[SteveSly]

^^Oddly, my parents went the other way as they aged. Up until Nixon's impeachment my dad was a staunch Republican, God & Country, My Country Right Or Wrong... Needless to say we had many knock-down-drag-out fights over Viet Nam. However, when Tricky Dick's duplicity was finally exposed (to even the willfully "turn-a blind-eyers") my dad did a 180 and became a crusader for Truth, Justice and the American Way up until the day he died. I was proud of his intellectual honesty.
aw.

Same with my father. He was a full-blown republican when I was growing up, and thought democrats were idiots. At some point during the Regan years he started to change. He really had a problem with the influence that the religious right started having on the Republican party. By the end my dad had become a full-blown democrat and his favorite TV show was “Real Time With Bill Maher”. He absolutely hated Trump. Go figure……..

[moecurlythanu]

^ My Dad went from full on Republican when I was young to leaning strong Democrat by the 90s.

I may have had something to do with that, I don't know for certain.

[rcarlberg]

There's an old quote often credited to Winston Churchill -- but variations of it go back a hundred years earlier: "If you are not a liberal when you are 30 you have no heart, if you are not a conservative when you are 40 you have no brain."

There's also the verifiable truism that the more education a person has, the more likely they are to be politically liberal. I think that's what happened to my dad: his eyes were opened.

[yamishogun]

There's also the verifiable truism that the more education a person has, the more likely they are to be politically liberal. I think that's what happened to my dad: his eyes were opened.

Not in America:

"When it comes to education, the parties have switched places over the past two decades.

According to a Pew Research Center poll released this week (2018), Democrats are now the party of college graduates, especially those with post-graduate work. Meanwhile, people with a high-school degree or less, by far the larger group, slightly lean toward Republicans.

Both preferences are the reverse of what they were in the 1990s.

Also:

"The discrepancy becomes even greater when Pew distilled the sample down to people who have post-graduate education — at least some work toward a master’s, doctorate, law or similar degree. In that group, Democrats had a 2-to-1 edge, by 63 percent to 31 percent. In 1994, the two parties were almost evenly divided, with the Democratic lead just 47-45."

[rcarlberg]

Yami, as usual you're in the weeds. Re-read what I wrote, then re-read what YOU wrote.

Read this too:
https://www.theatlantic.com/educatio...litics/575113/

The education gap has been the way it is since the Civil Rights movement thanks to the Southern strategy.

[yamishogun]

Yami, as usual you're in the weeds. Re-read what I wrote, then re-read what YOU wrote.

Read this too:
https://www.theatlantic.com/educatio...litics/575113/

The education gap has been the way it is since the Civil Rights movement thanks to the Southern strategy.

I can't read the Atlantic article. This is from the same Pew survey:

"Just 25 years ago, those numbers were perfectly reversed in the Pew survey, with the GOP holding a 54-39 advantage among people with college degrees."

By 1994, there weren't that many conservatives left in the Democratic Party but fewer today. What constitutes liberal has also changed over the past 25 years. Progressives today aren't liberal in the sense they were in the 1990s when liberals were usually pro free speech.

[rcarlberg]

Progressives today aren't liberal in the sense they were in the 1990s when liberals were usually pro free speech.

I won't sink to your level and argue nonsense.

[moecurlythanu]

Yeah yami, college groups aren't necessarily representative of those they advocate for in every respect.

[yamishogun]

Yeah yami, college groups aren't necessarily representative of those they advocate for in every respect.

These aren't just college groups. According to a CATO survey: "51% of Democrats support a law that requires Americans use transgender people’s preferred gender pronouns." 52% of Democrats support making hate speech against the law. That is definitely not a pro speech stance. 25 years ago, it is hard to imagine any significant percentage of liberals arguing for the government to dictate a speech law like that.

[Gruno]

Not what this thread was supposed to be about...

[Lou]

Not what this thread was supposed to be about...

[Firth]

I can't read the Atlantic article. This is from the same Pew survey:

"Just 25 years ago, those numbers were perfectly reversed in the Pew survey, with the GOP holding a 54-39 advantage among people with college degrees."

By 1994, there weren't that many conservatives left in the Democratic Party but fewer today. What constitutes liberal has also changed over the past 25 years. Progressives today aren't liberal in the sense they were in the 1990s when liberals were usually pro free speech.

Libertarians haven’t changed, but support for libertarian ideas has changed amongst the major political parties. IMO the best change to the US constitution would be to make elections party independent, ie people vote for people instead of party. The parties are so corrupt that ideas and truth are filtered to the lowest common denominator.

[rcarlberg]

According to a CATO survey:

Bingo

[yamishogun]

Bingo

Bingo? The Atlantic based an entire article on the survey: "America's Many Divides Over Free Speech", October 9, 2017. It is behind a pay wall but can read: "A new survey explores the country's views on hate speech, political correctness..."

[rcarlberg]

IMO the best change to the US constitution would be to make elections party independent, ie people vote for people instead of party. The parties are so corrupt that ideas and truth are filtered to the lowest common denominator.

Two comments:

1. This would work only in conjunction with a Constitutional amendment -- and I think a good one -- to make campaigns publicly funded. There's too much money in campaigns, and too many millionaires buying offices, and the parties control the funding at present
   
   
2. Public education would need to be a component as well. There is a substantial number of low-education voters who vote the binary party-line without researching the issues or candidates, in a simplistic "us versus them" mentality

I would like to add a couple more ideas to the discussion:

1. Shortened campaign seasons, 6 or 9 months max, instead of the current 4-year cycle
   
   
2. Coalition governments, where if one candidate gets 50% of the vote and the other gets 50% (i.e. neither gets a majority), they have to work together in a compromise government

[Jerjo]

I don't mind political threads but this one is not the place for it. Bad enough we get Yami's snake oil advertisements but now this discussion? Come on.