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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   19043 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026

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But, eg this past week, I saw some kerfuffle on the social medias involving zoomers complaining about boomers not understanding how hard it is, and when I looked into it, it was because some boomer said zoomers ought not spend $28 ordering lunch and even generated a realistic cheap plan to make their own sandwiches, and zoomers scoffed that that was basically concentration camp food. Every interaction of this type that I look into seems to play out like that, where basic financial responsibility and the most minor of suggested sacrifices is made out to be some huge ordeal.

That's because Zoomers could afford it if they just cancel their pensions. They want zoomers to be poor while they live the lifestyle they deny to young people.

But jumping at shadows is still jumping at shadows, and devoting significant energy towards criticizing others instead of criticizing oneself tends not to be all that useful for getting oneself out of a hole, regardless of who dug that hole or put one in there.

Sounds like something the hole digger would say to avoid consequences for their actions.

Sounds like something the hole digger would say to avoid consequences for their actions.

I mean, if you want to go down that road, I'd just say that those in glass houses ought not throw stones. But that's really irrelevant. It doesn't matter what something "sounds like" in terms of who or what they would say. What matters is if it's true. I'm not sure how it's not obviously true that improving oneself to become better at climbing out of a hole is a far better use of one's energy when one is in a hole than bitching at the hole-digger. Obviously, one could do both, but also, the response to recommendations to do basic financial planning indicates a whole lot of not doing the former.

That's because Zoomers could afford it if they just cancel their pensions. They want zoomers to be poor while they live the lifestyle they deny to young people.

Tremendously few people at 25 have the lifestyle they grew up with. Which makes sense! Their parents have had 25-35 more years of work, saving, and building up a home than they have.

People ought to be raised by 25 year olds, so this doesn't make a lot of sense. I think years of experience is overpaid due to cognitive bias towards elders and against innate intelligence, so I also don't accept that 25 year olds ought to make much less than their parents did in their late 30s. Boomers talk past zoomers with the suffer and save mentality. No, they do not accept your Luke Skywalker working man's „hero's journey” pablum as an excuse for immiserating young people in the summer of their lives. There is nothing noble in being poor, and squirreling away money just to get some relief when society decides you are finally old enough to make a dignified wage.

I also don't accept that 25 year olds ought to make much less than their parents did in their late 30s.

Flipped around, that means people shouldn't be making more in their late 30s than they did at 25... aka whatever you make at 25, you're locked into an amount close to that forever, no hope of significant advancement or growth?

If they're 25, and having babies, they're probably living on a single income, which might well be half of what they'll eventually make, even without raises.

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