rationalskepticism.org

Hermit wrote:Lost your heart, and the expected trade-in, a brain, never showed up? You've forgotten about the protests and riots, the rebellion against the powers that were, and joined them instead, haven't you? Comrades have been imprisoned, even died, fighting the introduction of emergency laws. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame.

Not that the smugly finger-pointing Millennials are doing any better. Not many massive protests, let alone riots, these days. No repeats of what happened in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Mexico City, Washington, Zürich and every other major western city in the late 1960s.

The rot set in during the first half of the 1970s when people were too busy trying to maintain their wage to find enough motivation to maintain their rage. Yes, that's where the Boomers abandoned the barricades, but succeeding generations refused to pick up the slack. Let's not discuss Generation X. That generation of future stock brokers, funds managers, real estate agents and lemonade stand tycoons undermines attempts by Millennials to blame everything on the Boomers.

Let's take a brief look at the Millennials themselves. A much smaller percentage of them votes for the conservatives than any other age group. Bravo, Millennials. So who do you vote for? Sanders? Corbyn? Whoopdedoo. They would have been the centrists when the Boomers were firing, or moderates at best. And did I mention 'voting'? Why, yes, I did. Turns out no other age group is as apathetic when it comes to turning up at a polling booth. If you can't be bothered getting out of bed to make your mark on a voting form it comes as no surprise that you'll find your participation in protest marches altogether too much of an impost.

Back to the most serious issue today: Emergency laws. Yes, they are a more serious threat than the nascent pandemic. So called democratic governments are using the Covid-19 virus as a vehicle to roll out new and expanding already existing surveillance and control legislation, and they are doing that without accompanying sunset provisions. When similar attempts were made in the 1960s, protesters had their skulls smashed in by police batons. Live shots were fired by the cops. One of them ricochetted, killing Benno Ohnesorg. What do we hear today? Wall to wall complaints. About toilet paper and surgical grade face masks. Well done, Millennials. Show us Boomers the way. No? No. Apparently not. The occasional article, post or tweet about government proposals to override constitutional rights and freedoms gets no traction. Our intrepid Millennials are too busy blaming Boomers for the sorry state of current affairs to bother with those threats.

Thank you, Millennials, for showing us how to do things properly. Not. Don't bother setting your alarm clocks. You're not going to get out of bed out of concern for your future and the future of your children, so there really is no point of them other than to make sure you get to work on time, or if you do decide to take part in a riot, it's in order to smash a shop window and liberate a smart-TV.