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Are Old People Ruining American Democracy? (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 1 day ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] iocase@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago

As long as what you want is what the economic elites want, it happens.

The correlative factor between what the regular people want and what ends up happening is 0.05. elites are 0.78. business interests are 0.48

If you want to see change become an oligarch, and if not join a business lobbyist group. If you can't do either you're SOL.

[-] normalentrance@lemmy.zip 6 points 8 hours ago

Money is, for sure.

[-] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

It's not about age, it's about corruption. Old politicians have had more time to make deals, forge alliances, and prove themselves useful to money.

One way to mitigate this is term limits for Congress. Force them out before they can do too much damage, before they can entrench themselves, and gain the support of some billionaire. Less reason to throw millions at a candidate if they'll be gone in eight years.

[-] the_armchair_potato@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

No, the low IQ wing nuts who make up at least 50% of the population who allow people like Trump to become president. They literally ruin anything good we could have a society 😒

[-] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 hours ago

It's been ruined for a long time, big money interests has always had a stranglehold on it. That tends to be older people sure but not all of them are beyond 30 either.

[-] fira@lemmy.today 13 points 13 hours ago

That’s a funny way to spell “sociopathic rich bastards”

[-] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 1 points 13 hours ago

sociopathic rich bastards

I mean they are generally old too, it's just not their defining characteristic.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I mean, most of them have kids and grandkids, so that money is going to end up in the hands of the young in any case. And they were raised by sociopaths, so the chances that they will be as well is non-zero...

In any case, when outlets like the NYT do things like this, they know that they are using a red herring....let's get some inter-generational froth going and people won't notice who is making off with all the money and power...

[-] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 hours ago

There's some truth to the inter-generational conflict. A lot of the boomers and early Gen X were granted limited access to the tools of the owner class (eg. "Reverse Mortgages" are really just a tiny version of the same equity financing the ultra-rich use to access their wealth without sacrificing control of their companies or paying taxes). They've socially conditioned and co-opted a lot of our elders into protecting their interests for them, however you are correct that it's more of an attempt to obfuscate the real threat (the sociopathic rich bastards) and keep us fighting with each other rather than organizing against them.

[-] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 1 points 8 hours ago

American democracy is an oxymoron. It can't be ruined if it never existed. FFS the country is run by two Private Companies who have no legal or constitutional reason to be democratic in who they put up as candidates and because this has been the case since the beginning no one else has a chance.

[-] SaltyAmerican@lemmy.world 16 points 16 hours ago

They have you focused on old people so you are distracted from the fact that capitalism is the problem

[-] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

To be fair most old people clutch their pearls when you say radical things like "capitalism is the problem"... so yeah. They've ruined a lot of shit.

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[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 16 points 17 hours ago

Nah. It's capitalism and social engineering by the powers that be. That shit is divisive as fuck. The old will be dead soon enough, but that 1% at the top bullshit has gone on for a very long time already. Decades, generations.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 38 points 22 hours ago

Billionaires are ruining it. Don't let the NYT shift the blame.

[-] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Who's voting in primaries for the kinds of politicians who refuse to take on billionaires?

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 21 points 22 hours ago

The boomers that vote for far right grifters and are happy to pull up the ladder behind themselves certainly deserve a share of the blame too.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago

Nearly half of boomers have no retirement savings. Blame them all you want, but the problem is the rich. Always has been. Always will be.

[-] edible_funk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 hours ago

Most boomers gleefully enabled the system.

[-] femtek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 17 hours ago

The population that voted for them even though it hurts them are still at fault, even if they didn't write the billionaire backed legislation.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

Well I can tell you for sure it wasn't only boomers that voted for them.

I'm just trying to emphasize that this is a class war, not a generational war.

[-] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

As someone who's phone banked in plenty of primaries: It's boomers. Sorry to burst your bubble.

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[-] decolo@piefed.social 17 points 19 hours ago

No war but class war, brother

[-] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Agreed. And Boomers picked the side of the capitalists.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago

Not all Republicans are old.

[-] KingOfSleep@lemmy.ca 8 points 14 hours ago

And not all old people are conservative.

This isn't an old person problem; this is an asshole problem.

[-] Rothe@piefed.social 21 points 22 hours ago

Yeah, there are several new generations of fascists ready to take over when the old ones die off, with exactly the same opinions and goals. It is not an age thing, it is a class thing, but oligarch mouthpieces love to spout this particular brand of obfuscation as part of their propaganda, because it seems to be really succesful strategy.

[-] Malyca@lemmy.zip 0 points 9 hours ago

Lots of boomers and Gen x though.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 32 points 23 hours ago

Does NY Times want to distract us from having class solidarity?

[-] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

Where are all these boomers with class solidarity? Show me.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 14 hours ago

Always.

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago

No. Voter apathy, arrogance and virtue signalling transcends age and gender.

[-] EvergreenGuru@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

Yes.

We need to set limits for the age of our politicians. These people are too old and frail to lead.

One day they’re cheating the stock market with insider trading and the next they’re falling down and getting gravely injured.

Or they disappear into a nursing home because of their advanced dementia, or they just turn the capitol into their nursing home, like Feinstein.

Or they’re taking up space on some panel despite their aggressive cancer diagnosis, only to die and delay government hearings.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026

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