Boom

Earlier in the week, on Monday before Super Tuesday, I came across a tweet from a Bernie Sanders supporter.  It wasn't directed to me, but an open plea to TwitterWorld in general

I’m just going to say it:Boomers, you’re being selfish.This election is about OUR FUTURE & you’ve made it about your fear of Trump.40% of the 2020 electorate will be Millennial and Gen Z voters and we’re energized by BERNIE not Biden.Please think about that when you vote.​

Now, admittedly, being part of that group he was addressing about being selfish, I took personal note of his plaintive cries.  But it was more than that.  It was the sort of comment that passed along far too often as supposedly meaningful and heartfelt when -- regardless of the subject matter -- it's just far-more empty than they realize.  Not totally empty, mind you.  After all, I get the point that the guy and others usually are sort of trying to make.  But too often they get in the way of thoughtful discourse for seeming to be thoughtful when it really isn't at all.

I tried to decide whether to jump in, and eventually decided it was worth the time.  As it happens, I wasn't alone.  I've extended my own reply for here, but what I wrote was basically --

Please know that "I'm just going to say it" does not add weight and meaning to a statement.  What it usually means is the very opposite:  It usually means, "Okay, there is something I shouldn't say, and I know I shouldn't say it, but what the hell, I know it will make me look stupid which is why I've held back saying it, but I really like hearing my own voice."

The election is about your future.  It's also about everyone's future. It's about the entire country, and all parties, whatever their beliefs.  And it's about the present, too, because you don't get to "The Future" without nailing down a solid present. It's about many things. And thinking it's not about any of these other people and what they each want out of life and are working on getting right today, but that it's only about you and "OUR FUTURE" is, fact, the very definition of selfish.  And it's okay to be most-concerned with your interests and what the future will be.  And yours may actually be better.  Or not.  But you have to at least recognize that it is your interests.  Not everyone's.  In a perfect world, many of those interests will overlap.  That's what working on the present is often about.

Besides, that "fear of Trump" includes four more years of Climate Change denial, when scientists are saying there is little time to lose.  So, if you push the present aside, you might not have as much of a future as you would otherwise hope.  Not to mention building up an insurmountable national debt, crashing the economy, ignoring science to protect against pandemics, undermining the judicial system and trust in the media, breaking down protective intelligence services at the expense of foreign despots, building racial hatred to divide society, masses of gun deaths, and more.  The present is a very good place to start for fixing things to get to a great future.

I have written many positive things about Bernie Sanders, including just last week why he should beat Trump if he was the nominee in the general election.  But it's important to make clear that 100% of those "40% of Millennials and Gen Z" voters are not voting for Sanders. For starters, Millennials can be as old as 40, and a Gen Z voter as young as 18.  Thinking that 18-year wants the same thing as a 40-year-old is not only ridiculous, but that 40-year-old might be the parent of the 18-year-old.  In fact, going even further, when it comes to the general election, half of those "40%" are probably not even voting for the Democrats!

Actually, if you want to be realistic, and not only go further, but go as far as you can, in the 2016 presidential election, more than half of 18-29-year-olds didn't even vote at all, for anybody.  So, if one is as admirably concerned about "OUR FUTURE" as could be, then perhaps time is better spent getting your fellow compatriots to vote about their future -- which is indeed critically important -- than braying at the people who do vote.

Oh, and Bernie Sanders is old enough to not even qualify as a "Boomer."

That's what I wrote, though fleshed out here, as I said.  Other respondents, however, were pithier.  The one that stands out wrote --

"I’m sick and tired of all this 'boomer' shit. These privileged little shits think someone owes them something. They seem to forget their selfishness got us where we are today. They pouted and stayed at home because they didn’t get their way. There, I said it."

​I don't completely agree with such sentiments.  But I certainly understand them.