FWIW, I'm 22 to give relevance to my ramblings.

 

I hear the 'old timers' talk about the figurative good old days. Back when you didn't need an FID, or when you generally could do harmless things in this state without people freaking out. Even as late as August of 2001 when you could be a kid and do stupid things without being labeled a domestic terrorist. 

 

I grew up in the PRNJ, hardly a place where "a kid can be a kid". Still, I remember going into the woods as a kid and playing paintball seemingly every weekend with a couple of my friends. Nowadays, there are cameras there and I would probably be arrested and sent to therapy or juvie or something.  

 

I'm pissed the rifle club in my highschool that my dad was in was long gone by the time I got there. I'm jealous of the things the 'older' generations took for granted (civil liberties and muscle cars, although I will likely/hopefully be buying a 1965 Mustang soon). However, every time I see some kid getting kicked out of school for a gun shaped poptart or some other libtard nonsense, I'm happy I was born in August of 1991 and not August of 2001. I've realized this country has been on a path of change for my entire adult life, and I'm happy I got to grow up in a world not dominated by Liberal Arts Majors. I think there is such a difference in society before and after 9/11 that historians will compare the change to what the Second World War had on this country, albeit for worse. 

 

I've realized this country is only going to get worse, and people will refer to this as the 'good old days'. I'm happy I got to be here.

 

Although I'm still pissed I missed out on $100 SKS rifles. 

I know how it feels man. We've gotta get more people on the alert about all this crap.

I'm 22 and I just don't see it that way. I think nostalgia for the past tends to make people forget how far we've come in plenty of areas and how bad some areas were back then.

I think 9/11/01 was definitely a game changer for our country. With the civil liberties being taken away from us everyday, I feel the terrorists have already won. They don't need to fire another shot, they took more from us on that day then most realize and our government is taking more from us each day, you know for our safety. 

 

But to borrow a song lyric, "the good old days weren't always so good and tomorrow is not as bad as it seems", at least I hope not.

I'm 22 and I just don't see it that way. I think nostalgia for the past tends to make people forget how far we've come in plenty of areas and how bad some areas were back then.

Revisit this thread in 5 and 10 years. At 22 people for the most part are still jackasses. Ignorance and not in a bad way mind you in case you think I'm insulting you is bliss. I'm 36 and would have said the same thing as you at age 22. I don't think most people see the big picture in life at 22. Too busy chasing poon and going out.

Well said, 302W!

Playing paintball? I'm 32 and remember shooting real guns in the woods. Shooting bb guns in my yard and the field at the end of my caldasac. Walking down the street with a long gun over your shoulder. IF a cop stopped it was just to ask how you've been or what you were after. All that without even stepping out of the car.

 

 

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Playing paintball? I'm 32 and remember shooting real guns in the woods. Shooting bb guns in my yard and the field at the end of my caldasac. Walking down the street with a long gun over your shoulder. IF a cop stopped it was just to ask how you've been or what you were after. All that without even stepping out of the car.

 

 

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So can you imagine how well we had it in the 50's?

Revisit this thread in 5 and 10 years. At 22 people for the most part are still jackasses. Ignorance and not in a bad way mind you in case you think I'm insulting you is bliss. I'm 36 and would have said the same thing as you at age 22. I don't think most people see the big picture in life at 22. Too busy chasing poon and going out.

I partially agree with this statement but being 22 these days is a lot different than when we were 22. The internet was in it's infancy back then and nowadays you see everything front and center. Take for example Wikileaks and Snowden. The type of crap those guys exposed has been going on forever (maybe not the high tech surveillance portion of it) and most people weren't wise to it. I think these days, everyone is, even younger people. Yes, there are those who are blissfully ignorant, young and old. I have friends my age that don't watch the news and have no clue what's going on. I'm sure plenty of younger people fall into that category as well. But for the most part there is way more information out there these days. The young may just be missing the frame of reference for changes. A 22yr old doesn't know how it was 20 years ago so how do they know how far we've come? Or if the distance we traveled was in a positive direction?

 

What I can say is that in my view things have gotten progressively worse as I get older. However, is that due to things actually getting worse or my increasing awareness of just how F'd up things are, or possibly a combination of both? 

Combination of both.

There is good and bad. In the old days racism was more acceptable, homophobia was much more acceptable, crime was worse, and people with disabilities (like autism) were treated very poorly and as if they were doing it on purpose, etc. etc.

 

Don't get me wrong I feel parents are raising a bunch of prissies these days. Girls and boys. Making them scared to fail. Raising them to be entitled brats. I say this and I don't even support corporal punishment only natural consequences. However parents prevent natural consequences of their kids actions to "protect" them. Kids attack each other or teachers and teachers are fired for getting physical to stop them. A kid slips and falls and mommy babies them for 45 minutes. A mom lets her 9 year old son use the subway system in NY and everyone wants her child taken away by the state. Be damned self-reliance. There are many many more examples.

 

Don't get me started on firearms. Weapon of equlization, the ultimate tool for equality and empowering the weak and downtrotted... and it is vilified because people have lost the ability to take responsible for themselves.

Revisit this thread in 5 and 10 years. At 22 people for the most part are still jackasses. Ignorance and not in a bad way mind you in case you think I'm insulting you is bliss. I'm 36 and would have said the same thing as you at age 22. I don't think most people see the big picture in life at 22. Too busy chasing poon and going out.

 

I find the selective dismission based on age seems to directly correlate to whether or not an individual has a particular world view or not. I'll use this thread as a direct example. OP creates a thread about how they realize how different it is now is from years ago and how we're going down the wrong path. I, being the same age, don't agree with that assessment. Somehow I am the one being a naive "jackass" who couldn't possibly have any valid worldview because I have my head lodged up my ass until I turn 30. That seems to be the definition of an ad hominem.

 

Despite the fact that we (as a country) didn't renew the '94 AWB, have several Supreme Court decisions affirming individual ownership, defeated a new attempt at reinstating an AWB (after several tragedies in which AR15s were involved), and are equalizing gay rights, apparently we're totally far behind 'the good old days'.

 

I'm no fan of the NSA and the information that came to light as a result, but to blame it on liberals seems unfair, since the entire policy was created by GWB's administration. Besides, the complete fallout of Snowden's leaks isn't totally clear yet.

 

I also have my fair share of liberal friends and little to none of them seem to think that Zero-Tolerance policies make much sense at all. It seems to me to be a continuation of a national, bi-partisan anti-bullying campaign. Not to mention many other policies are a response to an increasing number of civil suits from when children get hurt at schools doing activities many people (myself included) would consider "kids just being kids".

I'm saying most people at age 22 are jackasses. In 10 years you will look back on a lot of things and say to yourself... What the F was I thinking. That's all I'm saying.

Let me add that when I'm 46 I'll be saying that about what I'm doing now.

I'm saying most people at age 22 are jackasses. In 10 years you will look back on a lot of things and say to yourself... What the F was I thinking. That's all I'm saying.

 

I am of the opinion that we should not be so critical of ourselves. I look at it as, "that is what I thought with the experience and knowledge I had at that time. Some has changed, some hasn't, some has changed back."

 

Like you said in your second post, it happens to all people of all ages if they keep an open mind at least. I know people who change very little. For better or worse.

Personally I think the greatest loss over the last twenty years is the lessons of being an adult - what it really means, how tough it can be and how to impart that to children. 

 

I know plenty of forty year olds that can't behave at their own job let alone teach their kids how to hold a job or God forbid, inspire and mentor someone. 

If you're  Generation Y, you should read this:

 

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html

 

Most won't bother, the few that do will read it and say "well, yeah, but it doesn't apply to me" and a few will understand it and actively manage their expectations.

 

Why does it apply to this thread?   Because 25 years ago, it actually was a pretty good time.   Everyone that wanted a job could get one.   There weren't 50 million people using EBTs.   If you worked, you got rewarded. 

 

Now I work and I just have to pay more taxes so that someone else can use their EBT.

Yes, lets go back to the 1770s.

Yes, lets go back to the 1770s.

+1000

If you're  Generation Y, you should read this:

 

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html

 

Most won't bother, the few that do will read it and say "well, yeah, but it doesn't apply to me" and a few will understand it and actively manage their expectations.

 

Why does it apply to this thread?   Because 25 years ago, it actually was a pretty good time.   Everyone that wanted a job could get one.   There weren't 50 million people using EBTs.   If you worked, you got rewarded. 

 

Now I work and I just have to pay more taxes so that someone else can use their EBT.

An excellent graphic and article, I'll be sure to use it when next I get the inevitable "But that's not fair" whine from one of my junior associates.

If you're  Generation Y, you should read this:

 

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html

 

Most won't bother, the few that do will read it and say "well, yeah, but it doesn't apply to me" and a few will understand it and actively manage their expectations.

 

Why does it apply to this thread?   Because 25 years ago, it actually was a pretty good time.   Everyone that wanted a job could get one.   There weren't 50 million people using EBTs.   If you worked, you got rewarded. 

 

Now I work and I just have to pay more taxes so that someone else can use their EBT.

 

+1

 

PS - I'm happy to have been born in the 50's.

 

There is good and bad. In the old days racism was more acceptable, homophobia was much more acceptable, crime was worse, and people with disabilities (like autism) were treated very poorly and as if they were doing it on purpose, etc. etc.

 

I was about to say...

 

Or remember the good old days when you could get arrested for possessing pornography, drunk driving was an excuse for your accident and all of the stores were closed on Sunday because you had nothing better to do than go to church, right?

 

I do miss the "good old days" of being able to smoke wherever I damn well pleased and gas was $0.69 a gallon, but don't want to give up my internet connection to time-travel back to the 80's for that.

 

Edit: I will admit that I love smoking and remember quite fondly the days when you could light up a cigar on an airplane.

That generation y article has merit but it is important to remember the crucial fact that the wages have generally not gone up to match inflation. Still the whole "everyone is special abd unique!" Crap they tell kids isn't exactly the best idea.

I blame Obama

Who told you all of this? Let me guess the TV right, or maybe a revisionist history book.  Word of advice, go to an estate sale and buy a history book from the 1850's and read it.

 

Things weren't all that bad in the past.

There is good and bad. In the old days racism was more acceptable, homophobia was much more acceptable, crime was worse, and people with disabilities (like autism) were treated very poorly and as if they were doing it on purpose, etc. etc.

 

I was moreso rambling about the general stupidity of everything nowadays. 

 

For example, in the first grade my friends and I were all obsessed with Goldeneye64 and regularly talked about it in school and whatnot. If I were born ten or fifteen years later and mentioned Call of Duty in the first grade, I would probably be thrown into counseling to talk about violence and made to hug things while DYFS and the police showed up and arrested my dad for something stupid. 

Who told you all of this? Let me guess the TV right, or maybe a revisionist history book. Word of advice, go to an estate sale and buy a history book from the 1850's and read it.

 

Things weren't all that bad in the past.

Research, and no not school text books. I forgot to mention sexism and ageism was worse as well.

Who told you all of this? Let me guess the TV right, or maybe a revisionist history book.  Word of advice, go to an estate sale and buy a history book from the 1850's and read it.

 

Things weren't all that bad in the past.

So are you honestly saying that Albanian was inaccurate with the description? So all the primary sources (the stuff actually filmed/printed/recorded at the time) that unequivocally demonstrates that "In the old days racism was more acceptable, homophobia was much more acceptable, crime was worse, and people with disabilities (like autism) were treated very poorly and as if they were doing it on purpose, etc. etc." is all just revisionist history?

 

Please, stop fooling yourself. Would it be "revisionist history" to read in that 1850's history book about the virtues of slavery?

 

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.

— ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Another 22 year old here. Sure, a lot of my peers ARE too busy chasing poon and being stupid and thinking thy know everything. You know what I'm doing? Working my fanny off in grad school.

 

You think we're coddled and sissies? You try graduating from Rutgers with a suma cum laude physics degree and then go to school for a Physics PhD..... and I'll show you the meaning of hard work.

 

I'm with the above regarding Goldeneye on N64. My friends and I dedicated ourselves to memorizing the different guns and "playing with them" at recess, progressive nonviolent teacher types be damned.... and I'm growing up to be a law-abiding, gun-owning educator.

 

I have a question for you older folks: where the hell were you when all this antigun bullshit started? How'd you let it get so bad that we had a freaking state AND national assault weapons ban before I could walk and talk?