• Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    As a millennial I’m going to lose my shit if they try to draft my only child after the shitshow I’ve survived

  • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Boomers had it good.

    Gen X had it mediocre.

    Millenials and Gen Z have been shafted.

    Given the state of education, economy, and politics, Alpha is straight up doomed.

    • JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone
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      2 hours ago

      Nobody realised at first but gen Alpha isnt named as suchbecause they looped the back around after ‘Z’, but its actually the first gen in NewGame+ mode.

        • korazail@lemmy.myserv.one
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          7 hours ago

          Afaik, yes. But. It doesn’t take effect until late this year. The synthetic THC industry is pretty damn big, though, and I’m holding out hope that we get some lobbying that supports things actual people want for once, and that turns into a bill making it legal instead of a loophole in an annual farm bill.

          Call your senators and reps.

    • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 hours ago

      Lol, yeah. There’s almost always something. I (and I think most millenials) had the housing crisis/economic crash as we entered the age of employment.

  • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    I really worry about the younger generations, they’re growing up in a toxic landscape of end stage capitalism. I’m worried they’ll think this is normal like a kid in an abusive household. This isn’t normal, this is beyond reproach in how abnormal it is. Please, fight with us.

    • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      Did you think the world was good before 1970? Are you a person of color in the US? This is capitalism. This is normal capitalism. It’s just white people feel it now too. The enslaved white employees are finally now feeling what capitalism does because they no longer benefit from it as the rich white were tolerant of until recently.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      21 hours ago

      One of the things that bolsters my resolve is seeing how much more politically engaged the youth of today are (though given that I’m one of the youngest Millennials and I’m 29, I’m not sure that Gen Z count as “the youth” any more). Some of it is a bit concerning, in that some of them are becoming politically engaged with right wing reactionary though, but the vast majority of what I’ve seen has been much more positive.

      I was talking to a teen the other month who tried using they/them pronouns for a little while, to see how it felt, because there were a few non binary people in his year, which made him feel curious. That blew my mind and made me feel hopeful.

      I’m disabled, so I’m not really able to attend protests easily, but there have been a few times where I have given people lifts to protests. I like being people’s protest mom. It makes me feel nice to be able to act as a steward for the younger generation. In my experience, they’re unable to comprehend that what we’re living under isn’t normal, because for them, it is. However, this seems to just strengthen their enthusiasm for radical change. All they know is that what they’re currently experiencing is intolerable for them, and so they have no choice but to resist. It’s sad, but admirable to see. In resisting, they also find that building solidarity and community also helps bolster their individual resilience, as well as their movement’s

      • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        20 hours ago

        Always nice to hear some positivity in a world drowned by negative, thank you. I just hope alpha come of age into this mess, go “this isn’t right” as well and start learning.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        21 hours ago

        This might be a hot take but being a extremist is better than not participating at all

        The tradeoff is that extremists tend to avoid critical thinking

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I feel especially bad for the immigrant gen-z.

    Imagine you just fled a political dictatorship with your family, and now you watch a new political dictatorship form but with AI and racism.

    At like fucking 15.

    • No need to imagine. I am that guy.

      I’m Gen Z, was born in China after the CCP failed to terminate me under the One Child Policy, which resulted in my birth. Parent had to pay a massive fine for my existence. Even politics aside, economy was shit at the time, hard for my parents to find stable jobs. My mom told me that work was just brutal, I remember my maternal grandmother had to take care of us often times because both parents were either at work or looking for work from morning to late at night.

      Government is so corrupt, they didn’t even enforce food safety regulations (not even sure if such regulations even existed). I remember my mom constantly warning us about food safety. Also you need to boil the water cuz its toxic. Steets were dirty, well at least the neighborhood I used to live in. Other areas might have it better.

      Hukou system meant that since my parents were from rural areas, they didn’t have all the rights of someone living in the city. Even though me and my older brother were born in the city. So the city didn’t even allow us into their public schools.

      And if we had stayed in the country, it’d be a struggle to get outside information. Like not just for political information and stuff (which honestly, probably doesn’t even matter when you’re struggling and you can’t change the system), but most importantly the entertainment would be limited, anything considered anti-government would be much harder to find, if not impossible, in mainland China. Unless you get lucky and somehow, as a local, manage to find a VPN if you never stepped foot outside the country. (Not sure if I’d even find out what a VPN is if I remained in the country)

      Like imagine you’re under a “rat race” for money then you go home and can’t find anything interesting to watch, because its “too political” and blocked.

      So yay, jumping from one boiling pot to another. Life is amazing! The universe do love its trolling.

      (Tbf life did get better in the US, for us, at least from around 2014 to now. But I’m now more of fearing for the future, such as a Chinese Exclusion Act v2: Electric Boogaloo)

          • socsa@piefed.social
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            18 hours ago

            My Mandarin is fairly mediocre, but it’s fairly interesting that the 汉字 for “traitor” or “evil” has the “woman” component in it.

            • ylph@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              Funny enough, the origin of that character is 姦 - which goes all the way back to the earliest forms of Chinese writing (the bronze inscriptions) and was a pictogram of 3 women together (see here), which represented “evil, treacherous, scheming, traitor, adulterer” and similar. 奸 was a later variant form with same meaning (the 干 was added as a phonetic component, and 3 女 were reduced to just 1), which was later adopted as the simplified form of traditional 姦.

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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        21 hours ago

        Thanks for your comment. I feel like I learned a lot from it. I didn’t know about the Hukou system, for example.

        For what it’s worth, I’m glad you exist.

      • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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        22 hours ago

        Do you think that right now it’s better to live in China or the US? (as yourself of this age)

        • I like one order of Norweigian Citizenship pls.

          But seriously, idk.

          Is this like a roundabout way of asking which country is it better to be born in?

          The thing is:

          If you are born an American citizen, it’s implied that you probably speak English so you’d have a better shot at immigrating to another anglosphere country, and since you’re probably already westernized so you’re more desirable to the immigration authorities (but then again, you’ll still need an actual eligible reason to go, like you have a “skill” in demand or like have family there)

          Being a born a Chinese citizen implies that you probably don’t speak English, or any foreig language for that matter. So you have more difficulty in trying to move abroad. (I mean the only other place that uses Mandarin is Taiwan, or maybe Singapore.) But if you wanna go to Canada, Australia, or Europe, you are now facing both linguistic and cultural issues.

          As for me personally…

          I’m actually not quite sure.

          But I honestly just despise the ruling party of China so… there’s that. That really skews my judgement against living under their rule.

          As for actually living there (assuming I don’t get harassed by the government for all the thing I’ve said overseas), I’d have to re-learn Mandarin, I can speak basics but I’d need to speak slower for my brain to catch up. I also can’t really write except by typing pinyin. And I also have trouble expressing thoughts since I’m so used to English at this point. I’d also no longer have citizenship there, so I’d essentially be like a foreigner, I mean I am a foreigner to them, legally speaking.

          And this fucking censorship thing. I’d have to figure out how to use VPNs… and like… at any time the VPN could stop working… that would really make me sad if I can’t watch certain stuff, I mean like…

          it would really be bad for mental health if I know a thing exist, but I can’t access it due to a stupid firewall.

          Also the air quality… ugh… that air would be very annoying to deal with.

          So… I don’t really wanna live there.

          Really hard to find jobs, I think the lack of stable jobs was like one of the reasons why my parents brought us to the US.

          I mean, the US isn’t exactly he most desirable place either, but if I were to move somewhere…

          I wanna go to like Canada or Australia something (cuz Norway aint gonna take me, they are very strict on immigration).

          Canada and Australia has a very big Chinese Diaspora population, so I feel more confortable there compared to like EU which I don’t think there are many ethnic Chinese living there.

          I don’t want to like stand out in a crowd and I’m the only one that looks like me, know what I’m saying.

          Over the past like decade or so since we’ve been here, my parents have like… financial assets invested in the US. Took like 5 years to save up money for that stuff. That’s all I’ll say, not gonna give any specific details for privacy reasons.

          So… I’m not talking on behalf of other Chinese Americans… I’m just saying for us speficially, I only see a path of the future in the US, unless I get lucky and somehow obtain an immigration visa for an anglosphere country. And it’d still be a pain to transfer stuff out of the US.

          In the US, my (or technically my parents’) house is fully paid off¹. And honestly I just like this house way better than that shitty apartment we had in Guangzhou, China. That placed sucked, it was urban hell.

          ¹My mom had to borrow a lot of money from family and friends, took like many years or something to pay it off. My mom had to work overtime a lot. Also btw China doesn’t have 1.5x overtime pay like the US does, also China has much lower pay, less work safety (no OHSA²), less breaks, no individual unions.

          ²Although, this admin is really trying to ged rid of OSHA too, RIP

          China doesn’t have “suburbs”, not really, if you want a job, you have to live in a crowded city.

          I like the “suburb” areas. Think of like Brooklyn, NYC, or Philly.

          Like if I have kids, I wouldn’t really want them to grow up in China… that education system is gonna cause so much anxiety and depression.

          I still remember being held after school hours in like 1st or 2nd grade because I couldn’t memorize a story word for word.

          As long as they don’t actually pass Chinese Exclusion Act 2.0, I don’t think we’re leaving any time soon.

          But it really depends on what happens in 2029.

          For example: In Vietnam, Chinese Diaspora had to flee when the North Vietnam government won the Vietnam War.

          That type of stuff could happen here.

          Ideally I would try to flee to Canada if that happens, but its hard to say, if they don’t accept us, I could end up in China if nobody else is willing to take Chinese Americans.

          Tldr: Kinda rambled a bit, but US is still better than China, for my family at least, for now at least. We don’t have any assets back in China.

          • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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            20 hours ago

            Damn

            Thanks, I’ve been trying to figure outu the truth about China. Western culture made me think it’s a hellhole and it seems to agree but only in part, not to the degree I’m used to seeing online.

      • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        Nah, not just to the US. We do have problems with emboldened neonazis in Europe, too. While not to the extend you might experience in the US, I wouldn’t want to be black or southern/eastern mediterranean here either.

        • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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          21 hours ago

          i have seen people that probably have relatives that work in a different country than the one they were born in complain about immigrants coming to their country

          • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 day ago

            And in the US it wasn’t? Set aside how non-whites were treated and exploited as cheap labor, how were asians treated during and after WWII, Korea, Vietnam? How are latin americans treated? How are middle eastern people treated since 9/11?

            Don’t make the mistake believing this is new. It’s just getting turned up to eleven.

              • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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                1 day ago

                This is not supposed to be a blame game or a pissing contest. That both Europe and the US have a track record of xenophobia and racism is exactly my point.

                • Jivebunny@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  mine as well. that’s what I meant with that. it’s always been there, even in Europe, being the ‘region’ in my previous comment.

                • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  that’s right it’s not, because us racism and xenophobia is casual compared to european and you know it. would you like me to bring the receipts?

    • awfulawful@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I have a family member to whom this happened three separate times during their youth. They are fairly unsurprised by what is going on in the US as it’s all very familiar for them.

  • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    Worked with a Gen-z guy on an H1B visa who was super happy Trump got re-elected. (He was pretty unimpressive in terms of job skills, among other things.) Then he got laid off. And everyone was very concerned about him. I think he was supposed to get married or something.

    I spent a lot of time trying to teach that guy stuff. He had trouble grasping the most basic concepts.

    It makes me angry and sad and annoyed all at the same time.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I really try to not waste my energy worrying about assholes anymore. “but maybe they’re a good/nice person in other ways” - I don’t give a fuck. that’s not good enough.

      if you are an asshole to other people, in any way, I will be an asshole to you, for at the very least I will simply not spend any effort to not be an asshole to you

    • Tilgare@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I mean, the math isn’t hard here, given the obvious pandemic time marker: College aged. If you were born in 2000, you couldn’t, in the middle of a pandemic, go out to the bar with friends for a drink on your 21st birthday for instance. And just generally, people’s early 20s often slowly ramp up, a fun warm up to proper adulthood; a time where expenses are at the lowest they’ll be for the rest of your entire life and the world hasn’t beaten you down mercilessly yet; so yeah, I imagine some of that what OP meant.

  • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This is my first time reading the phrase, “age of enjoyment.” I guess I wasn’t ever meant to know that I missed out entirely?

    • rainwall@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      99 dotcom bust, 911, 2008 great recession, covid, idiot tarriffs and this ai bullshit, all while in the worforce.

      Yeah, the older millenials be eatin lean cause they always been eating lean.

      • 7101334@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        I got arrested for possessing a dust-amount of cannabis when I was 13

        then I had to work through the pandemic as a cannabis dispensary manager because we were “essential medical personnel”

        with no medical benefits. Earning less money than I would’ve if I had been able to go on unemployment.

        It’s a shit country. The social contract does not exist anymore. Thinly-veiled threats of violence are the only thing still keeping the population in line, including the threat of homelessness which is also a form of violence.

        Once, when I was on acid, I asked myself - how would I define America? The answer I settled on is, “America is everyone who is stuck here” (or forced by economic or otherwise imperially-orchestrated hardship to come here, even if they would prefer to remain in their home country otherwise). Everyone who lives in America and cannot comfortably escape lives in a prison. You may get the equivalent of a Nordic prison if you’re privileged, but look how many wealthy celebrities live miserable lives - it’s still a prison.

        And so I live by advice I heard from a prisoner. I wish I could remember the source, but I can’t. The advice, as to how to survive in prison, was: “Take everything they give you. Give nothing in return.” It’s important to note that this applies to the government, to corporations, to capitalism, NOT to your fellow prisoners (Americans). The only way we get through this is each other.

      • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Don’t forget being blamed industries failing because recognizing our lack of income is impossible for boomers.

        Oh and being blamed for receiving participation trophies our parents generation forced on us.

        • BanMe@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          My favorite was the desperate headline, “millennials kill napkins” because we can’t afford so many different paper products (if they knew we were using TP for kleenex, they’d have run with that too).

          What really sucks is living near Millennials who were handed jobs and houses by their parents, and live life effortlessly, which makes it seem like the “dream” is still alive and I’m just failing at it.

          • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 day ago

            Have a friend whose Boomer dad said that he’d best hope he, the father, dies early otherwise he’s going to blow all of the inheritance. The dad is also a MAGAt so it tracks.

        • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 day ago

          I don’t hate to say it, Boomers are the most out of touch, entitled, enriched generation the USA has ever seen and they’re going to be the downfall of this country.