Hell, I'm 46 and it's really hard to not be cynical these days. I want to believe there's still good people out there but I run into so many assholes.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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me_irl
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I'm also 40 something. Oh for the dizzy optimism of the 90s...
I will forever seethe that I missed out on the 1990s, especially considering how IT was a money printer back then & the rave scene was top notch. I just about caught the tail end of the old internet as well, even that has gone to complete corporate dogshit.
And owning a house wasnt a Pipedream : (
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I'm over 40 and struggling not to conclude life on this planet peaked 30 years ago
The 90s were seriously such a bop.
The Matrix was right.
At this point we can only hope the Matrix is real and they reset this simulation soon because what we're seeing are the side effects from the uprising outside.
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If you were a kid in the 90s, sure. Your parents shielded you from all the chaos.
The 90s also had terrorism (IRA, WTC bombing, German and French hijackings, Israeli settler massacre, sarin gas attack in Japan, Oklahoma City bombing, bombings of US service members in Saudi Arabia, PKK suicide bombers in Turkey, Dagestan bombing in Russia (possibly a Putin-orchestrated false flag)). It had the ongoing AIDS epidemic, which was terrifying. It had the first Gulf war. It had the LA riots of 1992. It had the columbine shooting.
It's much worse today
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Yep. It peaked right around Ronnie Reagan's sell-out to the wealthy. If folks want a better quality of life they will have to take it back from the rich.
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Not just those under 40.
Plenty of my gen X friends have come to accept that they will never retire like the boomers. A lot of millennials never thought they would.
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Kind of feels like there's two kinds of people out there right now in the US. Once you think we're fucked, and the ones who think they have enough generational wealth that "their" kids won't be fucked.
There's probably a sizeable third pool out there that are just watching propaganda and going everything is fine everybody's overreacting or I don't care it doesn't affect me. I think even that pool's shrinking a bit.
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I landed a job a job at a company that’s circling the drain, I feel like a parasite feeding off a host until it’s gone and I move to a new one
I'm a public librarian. Just dreading the day we are defunded. They’ve already attacked our national orgs.
Maybe this varies geographically, but our town's libraries are directly funded by the town. We recently improved a millage for renovations. I hope they would be pretty insulated from... sillyness.
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I remember agreeing with that back in 2021 when it was posted, and now, well...
Everyone over 40: "Yup, social media has really fucked those kids' brains up"
I am well over 40 and I agree with OP. Then again, I didn't give up my empathy at the door to adulthood.
Whereas the reality is that things are so fucked because these idiots get their news from Facebook. The Trump administration admitted to making a mistake deporting Kilmer Garcia - they’ll never find out because they’re too busy sharing OAN articles about that trans women they bullied out of fencing.
Social media was a mistake. User age has nothing to do with it.
I have seen so many 50+ year olds that waste several hours a day doomscrolling Facebook say this unironically.
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Half a century here, I've never had a time in my life where the next year was better than the last
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Well, interestingly, gen z men are the Trumpiest demographic:
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/11/american-gen-z-podcasts-trump-harris
I guess the meme still holds true, but their concerns about the future are very different. TBH I can totally understand them becoming disillusioned with other old politicians following old voters who will just “do nothing at let it all happen.”
This is the saddiest shit ever. Young men being angry at the « Men » will vote for the men that will sold them to the bone mill in a heart beat.
There’s a Turkish proverb : and the forest vote for the axe because they where made of the same wood
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I know a surprisingly large amount of MAGA/Trump adjacent fans because of my type of work.
- They're all single dudes. Maybe divorced. Maybe never went on a date.
- There's Joe Rogan involved.
- After a few beers, they all will unprompted share their views on Jews, blacks, trans, lesbians, or some other racist shit then back off and pretend it's just a joke.
- Tell them anything involving empathy "Sorry your dog died" is met with silence or coldness.
- They all don't give a shit about anybody else besides themselves. And often see themselves as the victim. "Oh Trans person was brutally beaten? Yeah it's a violent world like one time some guy threatened me gotta stay strapped."
- They may not like Trump's antics. But to them, the Democrats aren't helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
They may not like Trump’s antics. But to them, the Democrats aren’t helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
Thats the main one though. Truth is there are a lot of working class white Americans with no representation. Working class minorities tend to band together to weather the worst of it, and are maybe somewhat represented by candidates who come from minority backgrounds. But the working class whites? All they have is the orange clump and a sea of sick media posts from a deranged billionaire telling them that immigrants are the cause of all their woes.
And from a historical context, its not the least bit suprising. A demographic of young men with dwindling prospects, crumbling social support structures and animosity towards the establishment, if only we had seen this before...
The government will work for the betterment of ALL, or else you get the fashists again...
They may not like Trump’s antics. But to them, the Democrats aren’t helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
Unless they make 6 figures that point is true though. Not that Trump is going to help them either. But at least he pretends to care about them, whereas the Democrats outright said that their life reality of rising prices and stagnating wages is fake because the stock market is making new record bubble numbers.
At this point, it's gotta be in the high six-figures with the decades of unending price gouging.
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Who are the positive role models? Weve got all these young guys watching sniveling cucks like andrew taint
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A while ago, I was talking to my mum and offhandedly said that I'd have to move north at some point in my life, due to climate change. For me, that's just a given, with record hottest summers coming in regularly and current summers already incapacitating me for weeks at a time.
But my mum's reaction was basically "What's this about now?". She's lived in her childhood town or close-by for basically her whole life. And she's old enough that she doesn't have to worry about the aftermath. But yeah, that was still brutal, how different our realities were in that regard.
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I'm glad to see folks talking on here. Makes me feel better knowing we're here all going through it. Gives me that Band of Brothers vibe "We stand alone, together."
I think they've got it the wrong way around. The under 40s have a chance of rebuilding after the war. Yes, there are hard times ahead but they are young enough to come out on the other side.
At 49, I'm quite sure I either won't make it through the coming storm at all or at least won't be able to enjoy the aftermath for long once things get better again.
The under 40s are going to be the ones fighting the wars, as always. Even if there is an other side for humanity after what's coming, no one alive today will ever have a peaceful life ever again.
I'll take prison or a bullet to the head before I decide to fight for a nation that has pulled the rug out from underneath me.
I hope more young people see it this way, maybe we'll actually get to a point where we can watch all these leaders duke it out in person because no one will fight for them
Wait til they hand you the gun, play good boy til they let you touch the weapons
Then, aim them at the most superior officers possible and open fire indiscriminately
You do the world a favor and are likely to have your end come suddenly from a direction you don't see
In my 30s, feel the same way. Why would I offer myself to the meat grinder for a nation that removed about me all the time?
Gen Xer here (born in '67). I would encourage young people to NOT join the military at this point in the timeline. It's not about serving your country any more, it's about a bunch of greedy fucks using you to further their fucked up, anti-working class, anti-humanity agenda.
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At this point we have to contend with small wins like Die Linke getting almost 10% of the vote in Germany, Elon Musk getting bullied out of politics, and Carney winning in Canada.
I won't contend with small wins anymore. I want it all, heaven or hell
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Unfortunately Musk didn't get bullied out of politics, his office was always meant to expire at the beginning of May. He achieved what he set out to do: dismantling federal government completely to make deruglation, tax avoidance and corruption much easier.
This is just him doing the typical right wing martyrdom whining whenever somebody criticises them.
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I wouldn’t be gentle. But then again both my parents are dead so I don’t actually have anyone to be bitter at.
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