Three of us vaporized for an hour or so and discussed politics for the first time. Not as weedy as a Bill Maher show, and no contention, either.
The other two kids came form conservative religious households, one white and one hispanic. Neither were particularly religious or conservative presently.
They questioned the reason that being an “outsider” can help someone be President. You wouldn’t ask a NBA player to be CEO of Samsung. Not because the NBA player hasn’t mastered a set of skills, worked hard, etc. But simply because one does not prepare one for the other. So it’s laughable to applaud a man with no relevant experience to the job of being President. If Americans understand why Carmelo Anthony can’t be CEO of Samsung, then the same logic should apply to Trump. (lulz, logic).
As a Milennial on the upper bounds of the age bracket, I’ve been around to see social media transform into right wing cesspools. Boby boomers had zero interest in Facebook in 2007, but now it’s more popular with baby boomers than it is teenagers, according to stats. Twitter was so much fun at its height in 2011, and now it’s gone the way of Facebook— taken over by middle aged(mostly white) people. User growth has stagnated at twitter, and most of its recent growth has come from older people, while teens and 20something turned to Snapchat and group messaging (instagram is doing quite fine). We discussed how these demographic changes have ruined twitter for political discourse. Conservatives, by personality, tend to move in packs. They are less individualistic. On twitter they brigade and swarm all manner of topics. On reddit they swarm immigration, race, and gun threads the most. I recently had a brigade of over 180 twitter notifications from some rightwing twitter account retweeting an argument I had with Donald Trump’s son pre-campaign. That would have never happened in 2011. Twitter has changed—a lot. (and judging by its stock chart, not for the better).
I don’t think it’s anything to celebrate. Everyone likes affirmation, including in their online interactions. I’d enjoy the internet more if it were as liberal-friendly as it was when I was 20. It doesn’t feel like it is...it’s changed as rural access expanded and became nearly-universal. It’s like being alive during the era in which rural electrification happened. [I”m tempted to make a joke about rednecks, but the consequences of rural poverty are more depressing than humorous. )
Another group topic: the idea that comedians can’t make valid political points. For instance, the latest episode of Maher featured a republican insulting margaret cho’s right to make ‘political’ points, since she is merely a ‘comedian’. But just using the ‘free market’ concept, let’s look at how some comedy central shows/ john oliver/other comedy shows have bigger budgets than a lot of journalists do. It actually makes sense for media with more resources to have research capabilities. Jon Stewart’s writers were veritable geniuses, in terms of the well-researched fact findings for certain bits.
In light of the fact that social security recipients at Bernie rallies are explaining to America that only $16/month in SNAP is available for them, the semantics of “entitlements” look increasingly absurd. Even some GOP candidates have criticized the use of ‘entitlement’ phraseology. It’s illogical.
Everyone I talk to goes along with me when I say that Obamacare was the only big package passed by Obama. Political junkies could be quick to cite dozens of counter-examples. But in the mass society as large, Obamcare is quite literally the namesake of Obama. While I may be oversimplifying it a lot by saying “Obamacare is the only big thing Obama has done”, no millennial I’ve spoken to has called me out on it. It’s a consensus that comes easily to dozens and dozens that I’ve personally spoken to in classrooms and in social circles of both sides of the political spectrum. But the No Child Left Behind / Bush tax cuts/ Iraq war are 3 immediate, well known pieces of legislation that Bush got. The Bush presidency did much more to change the government and country than Obama administration.
— on a sidenote, it’s important for everyone who pays even moderate attention to politics to have real life conversations with rational humans. As messy as International politics may be, we’re fucking up even our most basic domestic issues right now (water, even). Maybe that’s a rational explanation for the apolitical social lives of a lot of kids: why engage with such a hateful and vitriolic and repetitive scene like politics?
But like Colbert has said in interviews about the Late Show, an election year is the year where everyone actually pays attention. and what a year this one is. Now that Beyonce has turned black, everything is up for grabs.
