Controversial Political Opinions

[JasonBlack]

(12-17-2022, 01:03 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(12-16-2022, 05:44 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: Eric The Green
Awhile back, you asked for evidence when I said that early wave Zoomers and late wave millennials just flat out didn't want to work. I don't remember where you asked for it, but here is a poll indicating 10% of young people saying they never plan on getting a job. The majority of first and middle wave millennials have been trying to fight stereotypes about us being "lazy" for 10-20 years, and we were just starting to make progress until this shit became popular.  

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/one...3e1c8hiJDQ


PS: In spite of this observation, I try give individuals the benefit of the doubt and not throw people under the bus. The 2020s are a REALLY shitty time to be in your teens to early 20s, and the ones who are coworkers are, by definition, among the ones willing to work. Still, I can't help but be a little annoyed at how millennials as a whole have lost a lot of progress in terms of being taken seriously at work because of this nonsense.

The "nonsense" seems to me to be the inequality and lack of mobility and opportunity in today's neo-liberal society in which minimum wages are blocked, overtime pay has ended which costs millions of jobs, education is devalued, and the rich take far more than their share of what our economy produces. There is also the problems of automation and outsourcing. There's lots of reasons for millennials to be discouraged about their prospects in this economy.

From the article:

" ‘High youth unemployment has been an issue for more than a decade and the pandemic was just another challenge heaped onto an already creaking system that makes it incredibly difficult for young people to convert their aspirations into good jobs.
‘In addition, our research found that young people who have faced additional challenges, such as young carers, care and prison leavers and those who come from less affluent families, are falling way behind their peers in the labour market at the earliest stage of their careers. 
‘The current system is baking in inequality and preventing millions of young people from meeting their potential.’

More than two in five (43%) do not believe that their education has equipped them with the skills they need to get the job they want. 
Two thirds (64%) of young people say that it is not easy to get a good job these days, and nearly a third (29%) say they have struggled to get interviews.
One in five (19%) say there simply aren’t the jobs available in their local area."

You accused me of not having evidence only to move the goalposts.
"You don't have any evidence for late millennials/early Gen Z not wanting to work"
"Well the reason they don't want to work is because they're discouraged by current economic conditions and policies" (as if I haven't already experienced a decade of it myself).

Quote:I admit I feel more like a war-monger these days than the pacifist I used to be, but there are distinct limits to my war-mongering that I still believe in. I don't approve of the USA or any other country invading another country unless it's in response to an attack on us or our allies. I do believe in upholding treaties and alliances. I want the USA to help other peoples rising up against their dictators, but only if they ask us to through a reputable government in exile or freedom-fighting group, and not by invading or by bombing that country. Biden is observing these principles in helping Ukraine push back against its totally unjustified and war-criminal Russian invasion and the destruction by Russia of their country and their people. I disagree with imperial aspirations and support independence movements against them.

Would I serve in a war; probably not me, either, but I am too old now and I was always too handicapped to be accepted, probably a deliberate choice I made when I incarnated through a mother with a similar handicap and a pacifist father into a nation that I knew would be going to war unjustly when I was coming of military age. But if conditions were better than that in this regard, and the cause truly just as I described, who knows; I might.

I don't have a huge problem with this take as long as two conditions are met
1) It has to be in our interests. This is, admittedly, a difficult question to answer, but at the very least, it should be agreed that sending our own sons off to fight in a foreign conflict should not be done if it's not even going to benefit us in the first place.
2) A draft is only acceptable if we are directly attacked as a country (even then, I really, really don't like drafts).


With that said, I don't know much about your history with regards to support of the military, but a contention I've had with several hawkish liberal 40+ year olds is that there is a tendency to think in terms of "we need to support our allies"....but they don't view like 50% of our own military to be "allies" because they are/were Trump supporters.