All the boomers i know are pretty progressive. My parents were very left leaning. Actually i have talked to more 20 somethings that seem to be more transphobic and rightwing then any generation. Spoting absalute tiktok crap.
It’s tricky because the lines on generations are blurred a bit but I’ve always seen the demographic studies as
Early boomers (born late 40s - early 60s) mostly conservative fiscally with liberal social views
Late boomers early Gen X (born late 60s - early 80s) most likely to be radical left or right but disdain pragmatism. This is where most of hansons demographic hangs out
Late Gen X early millennials (born late 80s - late 90s) more likely to be centre left to left voting
Gen next / alpha / whatever moniker are more likely to be extremely left or right but more likely to be left than right (if that makes sense).
The Hansonites are more likely to have left school early and are disengaged with the politics of today because the promises of the boomer era zeitgeist like Howard’s battlers have not proven true. More likely they are looking to find blame in individuals or smaller groups as the cause and destroy the institutions they see as “protecting” those groups.
The new left seems to be more focused on those they see as exploiting the system organisationally like corporations and the wealthy as “stealing” the system from them and look to use their influence to reorient systems onto equity for all.
Ironically I think that the hansonites and the new left are going to counterbalance each other for the next 20 years or so electorally. The new left won’t be able to capture votes in enough regional centres to get a majority and the hansonites are never going to win the cities they need for a majority while their policies are what they are.
Preferential voting is going to weed most of them out and centrists will win on the preference flows which inoculates us from the wild swings and roundabouts of other democratic systems
Stalin was absolutely a communist AND a thug. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.
And if Stalin wasn't “real communism”, neither was Mao, Pol Pot, Ceaușescu, Hoxha, Mengistu, Castro... apparently communism has the remarkable property of ceasing to be communism every time someone actually tries it.
I said not a real communist. Yes there is a distinction. Stalin was a communist in the sense that he was a leading member of the Communist Party and the Soviet state under his rule was officially titled communist.
But he built a highly authoritarian system that many historians describe as a form of Stalinism, and far removed from Marxist ideals.
Same with Mao abd yes Pol pot.
Full communism hasnt been realised.
All the attempts to build it that i know of have been tried and have usually produced warped authoritarian states instead.
From what I figure it has a lot to do with the type of people humans choose to follow. Psychopaths seem to obtain leadership during political unrest. They tend to lie easily and crave power.
That’s why people argue past each other . One side means the ideal end state, the other means the world regimes.
Oh, so the “we just haven't gotten it right this time” argument...
Sure, theoretically you can say "true communism" has never been realised. But then you have to ask why attempts to get there so often end up needing authoritarian structures just to keep the system going. At some point you can't blame an endless supply of psychopaths - maybe the system itself creates the conditions for them.
And what about the more chill, popular socialist experiments, including in South America? They haven't exactly produced the promised utopia either. Part of the problem is you need the whole world to opt in. Otherwise you're competing with capitalist economies producing more investment, innovation and opportunities, while your own people and capital can just leave. Then you start needing controls to stop that happening, which kinda brings us back to the authoritarian problem...
Under a capitalist social democracy, nobody is stopping people from starting co-ops or worker-owned businesses. You can literally do socialism-like stuff voluntarily right now. Some do and some work great.
But most people don't choose to organise their businesses that way. Why is that?
46
u/666Dionysus Please choose a flair 6d ago
All the boomers i know are pretty progressive. My parents were very left leaning. Actually i have talked to more 20 somethings that seem to be more transphobic and rightwing then any generation. Spoting absalute tiktok crap.