Star Member sheshe2 (74,955 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216310965
Read a post that said DU sucks.
To many of us old peeps and we need new blood. We need to go.
I disagree. Us old peeps are the ones that vote 100% Democratic. My mom did til the day she died. We need more of us. Why? The youngsters don't vote.
They seem to want purity and free stuff. If they don't get that then they refuse to vote. Me, the elders never demanded free stuff. We worked. We worked hard.
That is all.
Not even black girl hates kids...
Star Member Nevilledog (32,227 posts)
1. Want free stuff?
Ummmm.....
Star Member Nevilledog (32,227 posts)
17. Meaning what exactly?
Star Member Pinback (10,842 posts)
34. "If you want free stuff, vote for the other guy.” - Mitt Romney, 2012.
I knew that sounded familiar.
Star Member Hekate (73,730 posts)
3. Probably the same one I saw. You are right.
We are, and always have, tried our best.
God help us all.
electricbro45 (19 posts)
4. I think DU is pretty cool.
I have been reading for many years and only recently decided to start commenting. I however would say that DailyKos needs to lighten the **** up! As a liberal site, they are pretty damn controlling, PC centric and oh so easily bothered and triggered anytime someone has a different opinion from the group consensus. I hate mob rules shit, and that is why I think Reddit is also pure shit; because if you have a different idea, you get torn to shreds. Not a good look for the party, or liberals in general.
Star Member tiredtoo (2,411 posts)
50. Ditto
Wait until the primaries, if you want to see some infighting here.
sarcasmo (21,509 posts)
5. Been here 18 years, and my gray hair is staying.
Buckeye_Democrat (13,684 posts)
7. Free stuff? It's called reparations for being born...
... into a world of climate change.
Working burns calories, which means more exhaled CO2. So pay up!
Star Member applegrove (104,702 posts)
11. Sounds like a troll. For years right wing had been trying to get DU
to change its rules about only allowing center &/or left posts. They would love to gum up our works. Putting the fig leaf of ageism on it sounds like more of of the right wing desire to destroy anything real so they can insert their false creation myths.
krkaufman (13,221 posts)
64. Honestly...
I don’t see how the OPost this thread is any better. Just division.
Star Member sheshe2 (74,955 posts)
74. My post has nothing to do about division.
muriel_volestrangler (97,131 posts)
100. Here's the part where you are divisive:
"The youngsters don't vote.
They seem to want purity and free stuff. If they don't get that then they refuse to vote. Me, the elders never demanded free stuff. We worked. We worked hard."
it's one thing to criticise the troll who said DU sucks. It's another to generalize as you have that "the youngsters" are the problem with the world. I know that people have been saying things like that for as long as civilization has been around (you can find ancient Romans saying it), but it's not helpful to perpetuate it.
Star Member jcgoldie (8,469 posts)
19. Kudos to the older generation but...
"Youngsters want free stuff" is just ageism in reverse. We were them once. They are no different, maybe even wiser than we were then...
Star Member DFW (45,518 posts)
99. I find it depressing that we have to fight for things that were a given 20 years ago
The right to vote or the right to terminate a pregnancy safely were not things we had to worry about twenty years ago. Now they are. That's a big "what's wrong with this picture?"
As for the "free stuff," I think that is a small minority, even if they do make a lot of noise. The "everything is free in Germany" crowd is still around, but facts do tend to knock them down a peg. I live here (Düsseldorf), am married to a German social worker, and know only too well what is free here (practically nothing) and what is not. Quoting selectively edited web sites from San José or Peoria isn't going to change facts on the ground here.
As for the young people one encounters, that will obviously depend on whom one talks to. On the bright side, at least, I will put up my meager contribution: one of my two daughters has opted to live in the USA, and has lived in crappy apartments when she had to, but she "had a plan for that:" she pounded the pavement in Manhattan to find work to enable her to not ask us for extra help. She is now almost 40, married, one child, and has found work that supports the way she wants to live. She votes straight Democratic, of course. So does her sister, who lives in Frankfurt am Main (works for a New York firm), but has kept her US citizenship. She has become a star in her field, has joined the 1%, but that's only because she is good at what she does. A neighbor already called her "madame 10,000 volts" when she was 2, and she hasn't lost any of her charge since then. Neither my wife nor I are like that. Her DNA must have undergone some mutation in utero.
My brother's two sons both live and work in the USA (when the younger one isn't stationed in Nigeria in the Hausa area, helping with infrastructure, while dodging Boko Haram). Two more solidly Democratic voters. They both work for a living, too. They live modestly, but haven't asked for a thing since they got out of college.
Now, I realize that using my family as an example is no more representative of American youth as a whole than the ones who think they are entitled to free everything because they think that kids in Finland (or wherever) have it. But I would be wary of using either as a "typical" example of American youth. We are a pretty diverse country, and there are as many stories as there are young people.
they always turn every post into ME ME MEMEMEMEMEMMEMMEMEMEMMEMEEEEEE!!!!!
Star Member JHB (34,550 posts)
25. What exactly is the source of "more of us" without the youngsters?
What were their complaints and criticisms? Did you listen? Did they feel listened to, or brushed off?
What counts as "purity and free stuff"? I failed "mid reading" in junior High, so I'll need a few particulars about what you mean by that to comment constructively.
I've been on DU for about 10 years longer than you have, and I come to it with a different background. I'm lucky enough that Mom's still around, but I don't know if she ever voted Democrat. My family background is conservative; Bill Buckley fans. Being a Democrat wasn't a legacy for me, it was a decision. I have had and continue to have a great many beefs with the policies and messaging Democrats have had over the last 30 years, but I'm still here.
You sound like you're in a funk. Talk to me, I'll get you through it.
Star Member sheshe2 (74,955 posts)
58. Yes they still want their pony.
Sympthsical (3,154 posts)
82. LGBT equality was called a pony for years
Do you really want to go with that verbiage to address real concerns?
You do realize you actually want people to vote for our party, right?
You're laying down all the greatest hits in this thread. "How Not To Attract More Voters, Vols. 1-8"
Star Member Demsrule86 (56,706 posts)
102. That is not really true...and LGBT equality has not been achieved either...we still have a fight on on our hands...make no mistake about that. My issue with this sort of poster and I assume voter is that they seem to equate the Democratic Party with Republicans and their vote is up for grabs which means we lose elections. I would say that happened in 2000, 2004 and if course the year that changed everything 2016. Vote Democratic always...I have no use for third parties. These folks need to start at the grassroots level and change hearts and minds in red and purple states-all states really...and won't succeed until they stop demanding power they have not earned at the ballot box.
Sympthsical (3,154 posts)
103. It is absolutely true
Source: Gay man. Lived through it.
When we had the gall to put the slightest bit of pressure on a politician, we just wanted a pony. And if we didn't get that pony, we were just being petulant about everything. Imagine. Being petulant about one's life and equality.
I always vote for Democrats in elections. However, I do not dismiss people's real needs, social and economic, as free stuff and ponies, which is what the OP did.
It's dismissive, callous, and betrays a total lack of caring.
Some people are liberals. Others wear blue shirts. Sometimes those are exclusive things, unfortunately. And the strictly shirts are readily identifiable by this stuff.
Farmer-Rick (5,637 posts)
40. I'm an oldster but I got free stuff
I got $300 a semester tuition at good colleges. I got summer factory jobs that let me save up for college. I got to work as a waitress and was still able to afford a car, rent, food, clothes and college tuition.
The federal student loans I got were deferred interest, at rock bottom interest rates. I got a good paying defined benefits pension plan after working for 20 years.
I got cheap cars, half decent pay and low rent while I tried to raise my family. I got good tax deductions for every child and for mortgage interest. I got no taxes on my stepdaughters social security, loan forgiveness or for making less than $20,000 a year on my side hustle.
My parents had good pensions and benefits, so I didn't have to pay for their care at the end of life.
I didn't have to worry about the earth melting away or if my children would curse me for bringing them into a dying world so that some filthy rich man could make an extra few bucks.
Millinials can not and did not get any of those things. They don't want free stuff. They just want the same stuff we got.
PS DU is great because as long as you don't bad mouth Democrats, you can talk about most anything and have a very good discussion.
stopdiggin (5,926 posts)
61. thanks. the 'free stuff' thing is not only offensive
but it is also just plain damned wrong.
(not to mention a solidly Republican trope - and a big favorite with the right wing talk shows)
Star Member Moebym (962 posts)
52. I'm 36, but a lifelong Democrat
And I agree with you.
I am every bit as progressive as the youngsters you speak of, but I grew up in the South, and I know very well how much of a struggle it can be to make progress when you're surrounded by the forces that would roll back hard-won progress and take us back to a much darker time if given power.
This is why I am a pragmatist above all else.
If young people like myself refuse to vote in '22 because Biden didn't cancel their student debt, Republican rule will give them much, much more to worry about beyond that. This is what too many fail to understand.
progressoid (46,545 posts)
56. Asking for free stuff? What BULLSHIT. Utter Bullshit.
I'm an oldish peep with millennial children. I watch them (and their friends) work their asses off. And it's a good thing they do. It keeps your pensions and Social Security solvent.
One might think twice about disparaging the very people who will one day be dispensing our medications and wiping our asses.
Star Member sheshe2 (74,955 posts)
65. Welp.
I'm an oldish peep with millennial children. I watch them (and their friends) work their asses off. And it's a good thing they do. It keeps your pensions and Social Security solvent.
My pensions. I paid into SS at 14 years old. I worked my ass off to KEEP YOUR PENSIONS and SS solvent.
You might think twice about disparaging the very people who will one day be dispensing our medications and wiping our asses.
I just spent 4 ****ing years with mom care 24/7. Don't disparage the elders that are actually doing that. I was with mom until the day she died 24/7 and yes I showered her, cooked for her and medicated her... baby monitor at night and in the end wiped her ass. She died on 01/20 in my arms.
