In the past they would’ve been old and grumpy and then died before they could cause real problems. Now with old people living longer than ever they can fuck things up for the rest of us.
In the past they would’ve been old and grumpy and then died before they could cause real problems. Now with old people living longer than ever they can fuck things up for the rest of us.
Honestly, and surprisingly, it’s the older people who have the most decency nowadays, from what I’ve seen … A lot of people around my age (30-ish) and many, many younger than me seem to be exhibiting something akin to sociopathic tendencies.
I’m not talking about politics or other such grand scale stuff, I’m talking day-to-day interactions. More and more new neighbors are demonstrating a complete lack of respect for others in their neighborhoods, playing loud music at ungodly hours, parading around in their overrevved cars with the bass thumping directly into your brain stem, younger people (30-40 and below) are far more impatient in traffic, far more self-absorbed, self-concerned, and egotistic. Of course, the older people aren’t all good, with outdated and regressive mentalities still flourishing among their ranks, but in terms of habitual decency, they’re in the lead…
These are all purely personal observations, of course, but I genuinely think an innate sense of respecting other people’s existence has been diminishing, if not entirely lost generation to generation.
These can, of course, all be tracked all the way back to the voracious consumerism engendered by Capitalism. The main symptoms are not clustered around older people, though.
You only see it that way because of your age. Old people have mostly aged out of those behaviors, but believe me, people have been doing all of those things you list for as long as the technology to do them has.
I’m sorry to say, but I disagree. I remember older people having been more respectful ever since I became aware of the world around me, even those only slightly older than myself.
I used to hang out with the “older kids” during high-school, Seniors and beyond, and these groups have been calmer and more polite, even when out drinking and doing stupid things.
On the flipside, the generations immediately after mine started behaving like… well, like animals early on… I still remember entering a 6th grade class while I was in the 8th and witnessing one of the students being hit in the head with a chair. I knew most of my generational peers and can tell you with absolute certainty that no such thing ever happened for as long as I was in school with them.
This extended throughout University as well, as the dorm in which I was staying got a lot (I mean, a LOT) noisier and more chaotic, to the point where the surroinding neighbours started calling the police pretty much regularly, because the freshmen were throwing mattresses and fridges out the window (literally). Edit to add: the worst we ever did during the three years I spent there (I’m talking my generation and those above us) was play the guitar a bit too loudly while hanging around in the hallway, sharing cheap beer.
And it goes for what I’ve said about neighbourhoods, too, the only people pumping music and constantly yelling at all hours are usually teenagers, students, or people my age. Most 40s and above can barely be heard after 10PM. I’ve never heard as much noise in the neighbourhoods in which I’ve lived throughout my life (I moved around a lot) until about 6-7 years ago. Everything got WAY worse starting with the tail end of the Lockdowns, too…