Polling data shows gen Z is the least likely demographic to vote for One Nation, with support coming from older generations.
Young Australians have told triple j hack how a difference in politics has impacted their family dynamic.
Relationships Australia said it is hearing from more people experiencing family fallouts over politics.
Many genXers and boomers arent able to critically evaluate social media with the distrust that it’s earned. They came from an age where the person who presented the opinion was real and could be held accountable for it. i dont think they have a visceral feel for how almost everything they see now has been put in front of them with the intent to sell something or shape their opinion. They believe it when some unaccountable fake account tells them something with conviction. (Which is why Im not on r/australia and use Fedeverse/Lemmy ❤️)
Yes, strongly agree. With many people the solution to fix our families’ views would be to start from insight like this, instead of condemnation and outrage.
Yeah, agree. I feel like it’s more older gen x, there’s such a divide in gen x, older can sometimes have identical views to problematic boomers. (Obviously it’s not an across the board definition) I’m gen x, but closer to millennial and I can’t relate to gen x. My political leanings have always been very left.
The effected gen x and boomers come from a time when they got all their information from “the news” and just believed it. The news has since, essentially, become entirely coopted by the evil forces we know. Even as a little kid I would ask questions of the news, my parents couldn’t answer and just yelled at me for asking.
If you hand your thinking over to someone else, you are outsourcing that ability for yourself.
That combined with hard bias’ embedded within the manipulative representation of events. And manipulative phrasing leaning on “othering”, relying on the social anxiety of being ostracised if you oppose said views. It essentially forms a cult.
Forgive me if I repeat this poorly, I’m just relying on the electrified meat cased within my skull, but there was one thing most of the old and dandy philosophers agreed on, that you should be able to put down entirely all that you believe, so as to not accidentally fall for propaganda. It’s not a new thing, propaganda. And none of us are impervious. And then you have to be careful of not causing a confirmation bias for yourself, when seeking to question everything you believe.
It all starts with questions.
I’m a boomer (as many of you may be sick of hearing) and have to keep reminding you that a segment of my generation were there on the streets fighting to end the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons proliferation, sexism, anti-homosexuality laws and racism and to legislate for Aboriginal land rights, safe reproductive rights, environmental protections and so on.
It is true that by comparison to today’s society, times were simpler but they were no less political. We were aware of propaganda (as you say, it is not a new thing) and how it always seems to lead to the oppression of those who had the least resources to fight with (except each other).
Perhaps dividing ourselves (yet another division) by generation is another artificial way of alienating us from one another. So long as we believe unthinkingly in an ‘us and them’ we are a lot easier to manipulate and be pushed into squabbling amongst ourselves. Just what the empire managers want.
Bingo!
Yeah, I phrased it “problematic boomers” to try and differentiate between those with predominantly poor views currently and those without. I’m sorry I should have done more to highlight that there isn’t one mind among all, because its not fair and don’t believe that at all.
I absolutely agree with you that the generational divide has been used to cause division in so many ways. I’m sorry I caused you to feel like you had to defend your gen. I also really appreciate that you gave me that whole run down, that’s fucking awesome to see all gathered up in one place like that. (I know there’s more, too.)
I was more hinting at how to talk to people with problematic beliefs, in that questions can be powerful and propaganda comes for everyone, left and right alike. Because we’re all people who can fall for some bullshit, sometimes. If we know we’re just as likely to fall for bullshit as “they” are, it humanises “them” and then maybe all it takes is a good conversation (maybe not always) and you plant seeds of what if.
I’d absolutely love to sit around a campfire with you and ask you a billion annoying questions about everything you’ve seen. Not for the same reason, just because those chats can be awesome and you seem like you could paint a good picture of what you’ve been through. Hope we’re still friends!
Crikey, we were never not friends. All is well.
I feel somewhat embarrassed you might think I was some sort of groovy, militant activist. I certainly was always on the left side of politics and was involved in a few things but I was never your ‘out there’ collectivist or whatever. I was too naive to begin with.
Some people as they get older become more conservative and/or more cynical because they see that whichever party is elected, when it comes to the big, important matters, it makes little difference. Like, for example, sending our young people to kill others and destroy their homes and communities when these people have never harmed us, just for the benefit of empire, or, supporting massive industries that extract, pollute and harm nature, societies and individuals, or continuing the economic system that favours the haves at the expense of the have-nots (which keep increasing). So be it boomers, X, Y or Z, without some understanding of the machinations of empire, we will more than likely do what most do: look after ‘me’ and ‘mine’ and get caught up in whatever form the current rat race is in order to keep our heads above water or take advantage of our situation if we are lucky to have a good one.
We can all learn from each other. I am learning so much from reading what those of you who are younger than me (which is just about everyone here) have to contend with and your viewpoints. Aussie Zone can be our campfire.
81-born here. Very Xennial. Very Left. Some of my siblings are born in the 60s, and though older Xers, are very much like Boomers. It’s sad.
Aww! My little bro was born in 81, too! Good year, it seems. Although weirdly I seem more progressive than him, I was talking to him the other day and he defended capitalism! By the goddess I gotta school him and then pay out on him for that, for as long as its possible.
I have to laugh that the only thing that makes my generation noticed is bad political choices
I can’t argue with it to a large degree though
I’ve been voting Green for 35 years. It’s frustrating
Edit: c’mon, you got booted off r/Australia too, didn’t you. My ban was for saying I hoped Hanson died of covid, for that I was ‘brigading’
Happy 14th birthday
That’s nasty.
How about, instead, giving your view without disparaging anyone?
Think like a child, be referred to as a child, your ignorance was matched by your arrogance there.
How many children do you personally know can write out a sentence like the one that you just quoted?
Who else besides a child would choose to believe that gen x people are incapable of understanding social media?
If they were not a child, they would have suggested ‘the silent generation, and baby boomers’
The majority of social media users are millennials/z/alpha, social media is manipulating more of them than any other demographic, and the majority of ‘influencers’ doing the manipulation are millennials/z/alpha. Often the only real difference in thought processes, selfishness, and consumerism between millennials/z/alpha and baby boomers is… age.
That is all of course only if you wish to buy into the whole ‘generations’ thing…