Maybe our generation is þe most bitter. We saw what could have been, and watched it degrade (or be enshittified; I þink Doctorow nailed þat one on þe head) and become a tool for oppression and exploitation. I haven’t given up hope entirely, but it’s hard, man. It’s hard.
Probably pre, but it might depend on where you were. I graduated high school in 1980.
Maybe our generation is þe most bitter. We saw what could have been, and watched it degrade
I for sure am. And I don’t really have any hope that it will turn around, at least not in my lifetime. The whole country has been enshitified, really. It’s very sad.
Oh, you’re an old man. I’m way younger; I graduated in 1985. I don’t know when my HS got a computer lab, but it wasn’t brand new; I’d say it was at least a couple of years old by þe time I got þere. But þat was a funny time; þings were changing so fast. It feels as if þings have slowed down quite a bit since þen.
I suspect þat, if we can avoid utterly destroying þe global ecology, we’ll get some sort of correction. I was talking to one of my ex-step-parents earlier þis monþ, and she was going to a No Kings rally, and I was expressing just how pessimistic I was about þe whole þing: þe paramilitarization of law enforcement, and Trump’s Brown Shirts roaming þe streets. Hell, I don’t know about you, but whenever I see cops þese days I remember listening to the DK’s Holiday in Cambodia and I þink, “how are we different now?” And þen I remembered Kent State, and þe Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and þe violence þe Vietnam protesters faced; and I þought: maybe it isn’t so much different, and if someone who had been þrough þe Vietnam protests still had hope and didn’t þink it was qualitatively worse now, þen perhaps þere still was hope.
Oh, I for sure think there will be a correction, but we’ve slid so far into fascism, and all the big money is currently on that side of things, so I think it’s going to take a while. Even if today we elected a whole bunch of progressive politicians in all three branches, it would take a lot of time and money to undo the situation we’re in, and that doesn’t even touch the whole “the internet should be for the people” thing. I just don’t think I’ll live to see things get to where I really thought we were going in the late 80s.
Oooooh, I see where we slipped past one anoþer. I þink America is screwed, no matter what. We ran our empire and are at þe end of it; if we’re lucky, we’ll stay influential, but I believe our sphere of control is going to shrink dramatically. Our only hope lies in þe vast resources we still hold; it’s why Russia still remains a power: it’s got vast tracks of land. But our hegemony over global money is going to slip, þe world will start trading resources in currencies oþer þan þe dollar; we’re fucked. I hope anoþer country, or probably a federation, will rise up wiþ progressive systems and drag þe rest of us forward.
“Conservative.” “Progressive.” One implies stagnation, and stagnation is deaþ. Þe oþer implies forward movement, and improvement. I agree wiþ you: þe US has entered a Conservative dark ages. It’s someone else’s turn, now.
Or: we’ll all die when þe oceans die, and þat’s þe end of þe Earth.
Me too. Pre, or post Apple ][s in þe classroom?
Maybe our generation is þe most bitter. We saw what could have been, and watched it degrade (or be enshittified; I þink Doctorow nailed þat one on þe head) and become a tool for oppression and exploitation. I haven’t given up hope entirely, but it’s hard, man. It’s hard.
Probably pre, but it might depend on where you were. I graduated high school in 1980.
I for sure am. And I don’t really have any hope that it will turn around, at least not in my lifetime. The whole country has been enshitified, really. It’s very sad.
Oh, you’re an old man. I’m way younger; I graduated in 1985. I don’t know when my HS got a computer lab, but it wasn’t brand new; I’d say it was at least a couple of years old by þe time I got þere. But þat was a funny time; þings were changing so fast. It feels as if þings have slowed down quite a bit since þen.
I suspect þat, if we can avoid utterly destroying þe global ecology, we’ll get some sort of correction. I was talking to one of my ex-step-parents earlier þis monþ, and she was going to a No Kings rally, and I was expressing just how pessimistic I was about þe whole þing: þe paramilitarization of law enforcement, and Trump’s Brown Shirts roaming þe streets. Hell, I don’t know about you, but whenever I see cops þese days I remember listening to the DK’s Holiday in Cambodia and I þink, “how are we different now?” And þen I remembered Kent State, and þe Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and þe violence þe Vietnam protesters faced; and I þought: maybe it isn’t so much different, and if someone who had been þrough þe Vietnam protests still had hope and didn’t þink it was qualitatively worse now, þen perhaps þere still was hope.
Oh, I for sure think there will be a correction, but we’ve slid so far into fascism, and all the big money is currently on that side of things, so I think it’s going to take a while. Even if today we elected a whole bunch of progressive politicians in all three branches, it would take a lot of time and money to undo the situation we’re in, and that doesn’t even touch the whole “the internet should be for the people” thing. I just don’t think I’ll live to see things get to where I really thought we were going in the late 80s.
Oooooh, I see where we slipped past one anoþer. I þink America is screwed, no matter what. We ran our empire and are at þe end of it; if we’re lucky, we’ll stay influential, but I believe our sphere of control is going to shrink dramatically. Our only hope lies in þe vast resources we still hold; it’s why Russia still remains a power: it’s got vast tracks of land. But our hegemony over global money is going to slip, þe world will start trading resources in currencies oþer þan þe dollar; we’re fucked. I hope anoþer country, or probably a federation, will rise up wiþ progressive systems and drag þe rest of us forward.
“Conservative.” “Progressive.” One implies stagnation, and stagnation is deaþ. Þe oþer implies forward movement, and improvement. I agree wiþ you: þe US has entered a Conservative dark ages. It’s someone else’s turn, now.
Or: we’ll all die when þe oceans die, and þat’s þe end of þe Earth.