Are the Baby Boomers the problem in American politics?

It’s a pretty radical idea that people should not be allowed to vote just because of the time period in which they were born.

I think the resentment against boomers has been talked about a ton already. They’re not the problem, but they are a problem. Statistically, boomers’ votes are problematic. First, they’re more likely to have voted for Trump than Biden. Second, they were crucial in voting against the candidate who would have easily beat Trump in 2016 and 2020.

There is also legit resentment about (what is see as) boomers pulling up the ladder behind them.

Anyway, they’re not the problem, but discussions of age and voting stats shouldn’t be avoided just because someone knows a few left-leaning people in their 70s.

They are a problem, not the only one.

According to a new report, Baby Boomers are far more likely than any other group to not only ingest fake news and misinformation, but they are also more likely to share it with others. – ” ‘Older adults consume more misinformation and are more likely to share misinformation,’ said Briony Swire-Thompson, a senior research scientist at Northeastern University who specializes in social media networks. During the 2016 election, users over 65 shared more fake news than any other age group and seven times more than users between 18 and 29. In 2020, Trump has dedicated almost half of his reelection campaign budget to Facebook ads — many of which include blatant misinformation — to users over 65 years old…”

”...The first and most obvious explanation for older internet users’ increased vulnerability to misinformation is the effect of aging on the brain. A huge body of research has demonstrated that the same factors that make older Americans susceptible to financial scams — lower impulse control, slower cognitive function, higher rates of social isolation — also make them vulnerable to misinformation.”

@jca2 She didn’t mean don’t let them vote. I think she meant more they should get out of the way.

@hmmmmmm I am surrounded by boomer Democrats. More Republicans here than Democrats, but still a lot of them. Almost all of my parents’ friends are Democrats. My entire family as far as I know. I have a small extended family. My grandparents were Liberal and Democrats.

^ In 2016, when we had someone who could have beaten Trump, the vast number of young people voted for Bernie. But older people – especially boomers – came out for Clinton, who had a slim chance of beating Trump. Then, after the primary, eople 65+ in 2016 voted for Trump 53% to 44% Clinton. People 18–29 voted for Clinton 58% to 28%.

^^Hillary won the popular vote. I know it doesn’t “matter” in terms of winning, but the country did vote for her.

You’re right that it doesn’t matter. But pay attention to the words I typed. They specifically address your comments. If boomers had voted like “young” people did (really, anyone under 50), Clinton would have won. And if they had voted in the primary like “young” people did, we wouldn’t have even had the Clinton problem.

I’m just trying to point out that statistically, the older you are, the more right-wing you vote. Anecdotes about your family aren’t really relevant.

@hmmmmmm Young people are notoriously unreliable to actually go out and vote. I think the target market should not be 25 year olds, although from what I understand voting is up among young people for this election. Baby boomers are starting to die, Gen X, which is my generation, are probably one of the biggest voting groups I would guess, and Gen Xers have more people that identify as Democrats than Republicans, unless it has changed.

If the baby boomers are to be faulted, it should be for the fact that we came of age during the best of times this country is likely to ever see and failed in our responsibility to see to it that our children might say the same. It is in our failure to both see it coming and recognizing the reasons why that my generation fell down. And the reasons boil down to the fact that we are taught and trained to ignore the realities of how our society operates for a description benefiting those spinning the yarn. Once again, you can determine who spins the tale by simply watching where the money goes.

<——Boomer and Democrat. Your friend is full of shit. She wants people 60 and over to just go away like we should give up on life? Maybe we should commit suicide on our 60th birthday so some millennial can have our jobs? I question your taste in friends.

The actual spawning of Trump can be credited to the traditional reasons for the rise of brutish right wingers. There’s nothing like tough times to cultivate the rise of right wing extremists. The current situation is a direct demonstration of what happens in hard times. Our problem is that what passes for the left In this country is to feeble a joke to fortify resistance to right wing screwballs

Oh, ffs, blame everything on an enormous demographic so you can absolve everybody else from responsibility.
What a completely asinine premise.

Well, Hitler pretty successfully blamed everything on the Jews and convinced a bunch of folks to hate them too, very effective.

What a load of crap all this is.