this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

There's data on this: https://d6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net/prod/42800fa0-876c-11ed-b4ef-3dee38a55a6d-standard.png

Millenials, and presumably gen z, are getting less conservative with age, a complete reversal of the traditional trend. We're also the first generation that's poorer than our parents.

They kept the money flowing in the post-war economy, and kept propping it up with increasing globalisation, pushing the poverty onto poorer nations, but it looks like that's stopped working and now the economy is cannibalising its own young.

I hope this sparks revolution, and I see our job right now as building the structures that will make a better world afterwards.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 35 points 1 year ago

I think it’s less that people get more conservative as they age and more that they get more conservative as they get wealthier. Previous generations typically could get wealthier as they get older, but younger generations are being screwed over, hence the reversal.

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[–] RealAccountNameHere 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My brother (staunch conservative) once paraphrased Churchill to me: "Anyone who is a conservative when they're young is heartless; anyone who's a liberal when they're old is brainless."

Now that 50 is just over the horizon for me, I say that someone who voted for Donald Trump thinking I'm brainless is a compliment. Also, forgive student debt, give us universal healthcare and a universal basic income, fuck the rich, and come the revolution, may each of you reading this get to throw a Molotov at someone who owns a private jet. 💙

[–] Zealousideal_Fox_900 15 points 1 year ago
[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And may you also have the privilege to throw a flaming bottle of petrol at the wealthy

[–] RealAccountNameHere 5 points 1 year ago

Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, friend.

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Boomers to me in my teens: "Don't believe anything on the internet, find actual trust worthy verifiable sources."

Boomers to me in my 30's: "Don't trust the LameStream media! I found this guy on Facebook who made a real compelling video about how all Hollywood stars are transgender!"

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A real compelling video about how all Hollywood stars are transgender!

Well, that's news to me.

I know this is probably exaggerated for comedic purposes, but I'd like to see a video that actually argues that because it sounds really funny. In a completely unhinged way, of course.

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I actually used that example because some old guy at a thrift store said it to me. There are actually videos of people comparing unflattering photos of celebrities saying they have an Adam's apple, or "too broad of shoulders to be a woman". I didn't believe it either, but it was a big thing in small circles called transvestigation. I don't know if it's still being spread anymore though.

[–] bermuda 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah there was a whole movement back in 2008 that tried really hard to prove that Michelle Obama is a man. It's really weird even by conspiracy standards.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's not so weird, it's just that right-wingers have no imagination, and so many of their smears are of the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I variety. (ETA: See also, the "Joe Biden has dementia" thing.) The "Michelle Obama is a man" thing came about because a lot of people used to joke that Ann Coulter is a trans-woman because of her prominent Adam's apple. (Which she really does have.)

[–] bermuda 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure they were just being homophobic.

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[–] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People who know the truth already know that Hollywood stars can't be trans, because they're not real. Hollywood stars don't exist, they're actually all just crises actors pretending to be Hollywood stars.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hollywood stars are all... actors? And their job is to pretend to be someone else?

I think you might be onto something here.

[–] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's actors all the way down.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could be talking to one of these "actors" right now!

[–] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago
[–] Piers 1 points 1 year ago

It's because they don't have the skills to assess content critically enough to avoid being taken in by nonsense and projected that onto younger people. From their perspective somehow it's just ok now to expose yourself to media you can't safely navigate. From the younger perspective we were being told we mustn't consume media we had the skillset to safely navigate.

[–] stormtrooper@sopuli.xyz 39 points 1 year ago

I used to be conservative up to my mid 20s because I didn’t know enough about the world and all I had was my parents’ influence.

Now in my mid 40s I’m as progressive as they come, and I believe there are absolutely no redeeming qualities of being a “conservative” and it’s ruining society.

[–] Steak@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago
[–] Frog-Brawler@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This resonates with me a lot as someone that's been left of center in FL for the past 27 years. I feel really defeated actually. I've typically identified as politically active, but I just feel run-over at this point. I am working on getting approval from my job to leave this state, and I'm 2 out of 3 hurdles done. I can't fight fascism my entire life, and I feel like I have. I'm tired.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

LoL same... I already fled Florida without my work's approval because they don't ever really mean it when they ask me to come into office but mostly cause I'm a contractor and they just don't care as long as they can fire me next economic downturn for them.

I've been so beaten down again and again and kept getting back up to show up to protests and political activism since high school and never have I found a community that lasts as a community and neither does it feel like any movement keeps momentum before dying out having done nothing.

We have gone so long without any reasonable transition of power and no real repercussions for ignoring the will of the people and not helping them and I'm tired of people saying it's pointless to even try.

Sorry. Yeah burnt out too.

[–] gjoel@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're conservative when you're young you have no heart.

If you're liberal when you're old you have no money.

Guess why the new generations don't become conservative with age.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah it's a simple as as you get older you want to protect the things you hold important. Money is what most of the older generations value and hold utmost importance too.

Millennials have gotten conservative but it's over things they think they own like internet social media platforms and Internet content.

You can look at the rise in smaller internet bubbles and infighting of other artists "encroaching" on their territory to see it.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just because the world is shitty the way it is, it doesn't mean that it has to stay that way.

And just because you personally benefits from the injustice of the broken system, it doesn't mean you shouldn't oppose it.

That's the part of the movie's message I feel that people tend to miss.

[–] ThePenitentOne@discuss.online 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Most people just don't care enough to do anything about injustice, or don't think about it at all. It's infuriating to see how apathetic and irresponsible people can be. Just look at the meat industry. People could stop, but they don't. They only care that their virtue is signalled and that the suffering is far enough detached and out of sight so that they don't have to face it and actually self-reflect on their cognitive dissonance or flaws. What's worse is that eating meat is often culturally engrained, and so similar to religious indoctrination, even harder to quit. All this, done by years of lobbying of the meat industry and other unethical practices. These problems of injustice are deep-rooted in our society, and entitlement/lack of empathy. The arguments used for factory farming these days are the same slavers used in the past, and even now it is just transferred elsewhere so that people can be exploited all for a cheaper product to consume.

Things get even sadder when you realise that all the injustice in the world is for nothing but ego or extreme selfishness. I honestly think it's a large reason people still believe in religion. When you face the injustice in the world and become aware of it, you either have to ignore it/find a way to cope or actually do something. As long as people remain ignorant, uneducated and don't have empathy for others, this will continue.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The one that's playing in theater right now that I can't promote because of the strike.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh hey, I missed your name. I liked the movie but was disappointed that the Kens were treated with dismissal at the end, told they don't get representation in the new government, which felt like a squandered opportunity to convey a message of true equality and inclusion. It seemed to me that the message was that inequality is okay, as long as it's your group benefitting from it. But you're saying the movie's message is the exact opposite. Can you clarify why for me please?

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's more realistic to show that "systematic inequality cannot be overturned overnight even if slight improvements have been made." Not a fantasy happily-ever-after ending, because that's how the real world works.

Also, our protagonist actively choosing to refuse to participate in the unfair system at the end despite benefiting from it should have been a clear message that it wasn't something to be accepted.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I hadn't considered her refusal to participate as part of the message before, but you're right! Thanks for sharing that perspective. I had a nagging feeling that I was missing something, and that was it. Excellent job taking such a silly idea and using it to share a serious message, all wrapped up in goofy antics and fun.

[–] Death2lois@lemmy.one 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] NattyNatty2x4 2 points 1 year ago

Wtf does this even mean

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Becoming more conservative is a result of having amassed a fortune to protect. No fortune, nothing to conserve.

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[–] HellAwaits@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Boomers really are the dumbest, most arrogant and obnoxious people on the planet, huh

[–] BigNote@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

It's really quite simple; all of the wealth has gone to executives and shareholders.

Regular working people have been fucked.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

What I find funny about right wingers trying to say that people will become more right-leaning as they get older is that the quote that they're citing seems to point to the idea that the left-wing person's ideas aren't going to change and that they'll continue to hold the same beliefs.

“It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.”

Seems to imply that it means you'll get stuck in your ways and continue to hold left-leaning views, the exact opposite of what the boomers are saying, it's based on an older version of the word conservative, meaning to keep things as they are. Ironic that they're citing it as a reason for why they think people will become like them when it seems to point to the opposite, that they'll stay the same and continue to hold left-wing views.

Of coarse the idea that someone will stay the same or change in some predictable way is a generalization, people grow and change in different ways depending on the individual, same applies for getting stuck in said ways.

[–] MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, it’s true that you get more conservative as you “grow up”. The problem is that the last few generations of kids are simply refusing to grow up, in the traditional sense. They aren’t starting businesses and buying homes and rental properties, they’re not getting married and having children of their own.

For some reason instead they just decided to take out big student loans and then stay at their parents house and play video games and TikTok. If they would just grow up and start a successful business then of course they would get more conservative, but they just want everything for free.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Youth unemployment rate is at a low point in basicly the entire Western world. So most are obviously not sitting at home.

To start a business or a family you need money and some stability in life. With no wage growth and high housing costs with generally high house prices, combined with high intresst rates, buying a home is incredibly hard for young people and much harder then a few decades ago. However that means more people are forced to rent, which drives up rents. This leads to a tight financial situationa nd living with your parents is a good way to save some money, to get into a somewhat decent place at some point.

The big difference is that the old generaation mainly the middle class actually benefited from the system a few decades ago, so they want it back, as it was better for them back then. So they are conservative. Young people see the current system as broken and want change. As the best educated generation ever, which is much more likely to work then their parents.

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[–] crackajack@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you can't win, you have to resist.

I don't think getting older necessarily mean you become conservative. I reckon many people conflate with looking for stability with capital "c" Conservatism. I certainly understand now what one means by looking to settle down. But it would not make me fiscal conservative; become a pro-lifer; religious; or traditional.

[–] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

I happily went the other way.

[–] Piers 4 points 1 year ago

The difference is whether you are fundamentally upset about the unfairness of society or if you only care about whether you personally are being hurt by that unfairness.

[–] skabbywag02@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's doesn't necessarily mean the pendulum goes all the way, and it's not just about politics. For example, do find some things like music or games younger kids play now dumb or worse than your own childhood experiences, well then boom, you're a little bit conservative now. The cycle repeats.

[–] criitz@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

I don't think that about kids music or games

[–] DeathWearsANecktie@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Lol I was more conservative as a teenager than I am now.

No one with a conscience can afford to do anything except fight harder because it's not really about us at this point, it's about the Zoomers, Alpha Genners, and future generations.

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