Why I Hate Young Voters

I’m listening to my roommate talk on the phone to one of his buddies (a pretentious, apathetic dickbag, but that’s neither here nor there) about the election.

This is what’s wrong with society today. Direct quotes from my genius roommate…

speaking about McCain picking Palin-- “they’re in a strong position right now, and I really don’t see any way out of it, because THE MEDIA’S NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT”

“If Mccain wins this election I only see two ways for things to go: America falls, or we take it back by force

“we can’t do anything about it, because the republicans are lying through their teeth about everything”


Ok, now, leaving aside the fact that I’m going to vote against Obama, this sort of thing absolutely enrages me. First, the demand that the media should do anything (in the sense of active opposition and/or smearing), as unmistakenly advocated by my roommate over the phone, is retarded. The media should report facts and stories. It should not “do anything about” any candidate running. That’s ridiculous.

Secondly, the idea that we should defeat the entire idea of democracy simply because the candidate we don’t like is elected is retarded beyond all measure. I can’t even believe I heard him say that. I mean, that just blows my mind. What kind of thinking IS this??

Finally, both parties are sliming around. Obama’s letting the unofficials take care of most of the work, and McCain’s doing it with his campaign. I don’t think either party here is blameless.

Ok, rant over. I had to get that off my chest. I consider myself a reasonable man, but some things just really get on my nerves. I’m too tired to really go at it, but I can’t believe these are the kinds of people voting.

Well to be fair your roommate is a dickhead but not all young people are like this.

The media should be IMPARTIAL. And with the Internet it is quite easy to get both sides of a story IF YOU CARE TO.

Who says a REPRESENTIVE DEMOCRACY is a good system? I personally want a proper democracy where every citizen votes for every bill. The Internet can enable this very easily I believe.

I’m sure the Democrats lie just as much.

Sarah Pallin is hot but I wouldn’t vote for her.

EDIT: I know she is the VICE-presidential candidate only.

Young people are really dumb.

This generation is quite pathetic.

[quote]Nominal Prospect wrote:
Young people are really dumb.

This generation is quite pathetic.[/quote]

Well, of course. What do you think the goal was?

All those years of underfunding education and teaching young people that there is no right or wrong, just opinion, are finally paying off.

Highly educated people with an understanding of rational egoism are pretty damnned hard to rule!

At least your roommate and his friend will probably mature in their views. I’d be far more upset about the over 18 crowd who doesn’t vote. I bet the number of eligible voters out there who couldn’t fully name both tickets would blow your mind.

Because they can get it up?

Well, I suppose one thing is true, if McCain wins, they will still be able “take America back with force”

God knows the dems wanna take away gun rights, quite possibly to keep that from happening to them perhaps?

BTW, I’m one of these young voters. Well, I’m 26, so I guess that makes me young. Anyways, I’m definitely NOT voting for Obama. I will be voting though. If ya don’t vote, you have no right to bitch about anything that happens in the next 4 years…

[quote]Jason_w2006 wrote:
If ya don’t vote, you have no right to bitch about anything that happens in the next 4 years…[/quote]

That bit assumes two things: 1) that politicians do not lie, 2) that Kodos and Kang are substantially different.

Also, bitching is an inalienable right. Can’t take it away, pal.

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Finally, both parties are sliming around. Obama’s letting the unofficials take care of most of the work, and McCain’s doing it with his campaign. I don’t think either party here is blameless.[/quote]

McCain is presumably in control of what his official campaign says. Obama (or McCain) can hardly control what Joe Public puts on his blog or says in forums.

Actually, thinking of it, it’s really looks like the John McCain Campaign is in control of what McCain says or can’t say.

I really miss the old John McCain.

[quote]lixy wrote:
Jason_w2006 wrote:
If ya don’t vote, you have no right to bitch about anything that happens in the next 4 years…

That bit assumes two things: 1) that politicians do not lie, 2) that Kodos and Kang are substantially different.

Also, bitching is an inalienable right. Can’t take it away, pal.[/quote]

You cannot vote in this election.

Your roommate is an idiot for talking about “taking the country by force if we don’t win” if he was even semi-serious.

But he does have a point about the news media. The news media does have a duty to perform investigative journalism and ask hard questions. I think that’s what he meant. The investigative journalism department has steadily shrunk at most news organizations, but it still exists and it’s still important, especially now. They shouldn’t ‘smear’ candidates, but they should uncover everything and anything that might be important in helping voters decide who is the most qualified candidate. Some of that means investigating the candidates’ past to see if they have any skeletons which are damning of their moral judgment in past situations.

Not all kids are idiots. I have 4 younger brothers all around voting age +/- 3yrs and I wouldn’t consider any of them idiots. Young people are inexperienced, that’s all. I’m more afraid of old people that believe any piece of crap e-mail sent to them like it’s the gospel truth because they don’t know how to use the internet to find factual sources of information (friends of parents send me these all the time).

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
I’m listening to my roommate talk on the phone to one of his buddies (a pretentious, apathetic dickbag, but that’s neither here nor there) about the election.

This is what’s wrong with society today. Direct quotes from my genius roommate…

speaking about McCain picking Palin-- “they’re in a strong position right now, and I really don’t see any way out of it, because THE MEDIA’S NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT”

“If Mccain wins this election I only see two ways for things to go: America falls, or we take it back by force

“we can’t do anything about it, because the republicans are lying through their teeth about everything”


Ok, now, leaving aside the fact that I’m going to vote against Obama, this sort of thing absolutely enrages me. First, the demand that the media should do anything (in the sense of active opposition and/or smearing), as unmistakenly advocated by my roommate over the phone, is retarded. The media should report facts and stories. It should not “do anything about” any candidate running. That’s ridiculous.

Secondly, the idea that we should defeat the entire idea of democracy simply because the candidate we don’t like is elected is retarded beyond all measure. I can’t even believe I heard him say that. I mean, that just blows my mind. What kind of thinking IS this??

Finally, both parties are sliming around. Obama’s letting the unofficials take care of most of the work, and McCain’s doing it with his campaign. I don’t think either party here is blameless.

Ok, rant over. I had to get that off my chest. I consider myself a reasonable man, but some things just really get on my nerves. I’m too tired to really go at it, but I can’t believe these are the kinds of people voting.[/quote]

Your roommate will likely mature when he gets to the real world. I remember many people I was in school with playing the America will fail card when Bush was reelected. I know most of them have grown up and don’t really think like this anymore.

I mean you were never ignorant about anything in your life ever then woke up and smelled the coffee, were you?

No way… you lived your life through complete objectivity and was as mature as a 75 year old man at the age of 6.

Well, I feel better about it, or less annoyed, this morning :).

Horatio/AssonGrass–yeah people do mature as they age. I was just shocked at the utter crap spewing from his mouth. I know the guy on the other end of the phone is a wannabe intellectual with no real ability.

Yeah, I’ve done lots of stupid things growing up :). And I remain ignorant on a lot of things, even as I work to fix them, so yeah I’m kinda calling the kettle black I’m sure… But I’ve also made the effort all throughout my young life (I’m only 25, so this is self hatred to some degree :smiley: ) to rationally consider all things put before me, at least having SOME amount of real analysis take hold while I bitch and moan :). It’s been very important to me as long as I can remember to make the most rational decisions consistent with my worldview that I can.

The fact that an otherwise intelligent human (electrical engineer/computer engineer) being would throw his brain out the window and give into to rabidity is quite unnerving to me.

ryanjm-- yes he was more than semi-serious. He’s never used dry humor, and he doesn’t deadpan either. he was real serious at the time.

And yeah I agree with you, the media should investigate pertinent details and remain Impartial (it’ll never happen). But his implication was obviously that they should actively oppose and attempt to get Palin in some way. He never could articulate why. I know I’m the only guy that heard this conversation, so ya’ll can’t know for sure, but it’s exactly what he meant. My roommate is not that complicated or subtle :(. Never has been. He does in fact get his news from Jon Stewart.

We youngsters are pretty inexperienced, to be sure. You can’t really fix that except for time in the real world. I’m sure my views will most likely change in the future on a lot of things.

[quote]pookie wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
Finally, both parties are sliming around. Obama’s letting the unofficials take care of most of the work, and McCain’s doing it with his campaign. I don’t think either party here is blameless.

McCain is presumably in control of what his official campaign says. Obama (or McCain) can hardly control what Joe Public puts on his blog or says in forums.[/quote]

I do agree with that to a large degree. McCain has run a more negative campaign overall, which surprised me at the outset since he’s always been a guy I could have relied on earlier to stick mostly to the issues and leave his opponent alone as a Senator. I was and am sad. That being said Obama’s made a number of comments that were disguised to give him plausible deniability (along with some genuine mistakes). nobody’s perfectly innocent here.

[quote]I really miss the old John McCain.

[/quote]

Me too man, me too.

[quote]Nominal Prospect wrote:
Young people are really dumb.

This generation is quite pathetic.[/quote]

and im sure your parents and grand parents said that about your generation. (assuming you are past 40) every previous generation thinks theirs was the shit and the recent one is shit.

[quote]jayski wrote:
Nominal Prospect wrote:
Young people are really dumb.

This generation is quite pathetic.

and im sure your parents and grand parents said that about your generation. (assuming you are past 40) every previous generation thinks theirs was the shit and the recent one is shit.[/quote]

I’m not past 40. I’m actually part of the same generation that I’m lambasting. But I know your point - it’s made frequently. Young people are dumb in general and they always have been. However, in the past, they were guided towards productive means by society at large. That isn’t happening very often these days. So it’s not just the same old historical cycle repeating itself.

The main problem these days is that information is far too cheap and consequently, every idiot on the street has an opinion on something that he knows nothing about. It wasn’t like that before the High Tech era. Technology makes dummies far more vocal than they could ever hope to be otherwise. We need a new form of autocratic government for this digital age. A 21st century monarchy. The first country to get there will control the future.

The lies of social democracy have poisoned this generation, just as communism poisoned millions in the 20th century. Both are malicious ideologies which are actively promoted by special interests. Such things do not arise spontaneously, despite their appearance to that effect.

[quote]Aragorn wrote:

The fact that an otherwise intelligent human (electrical engineer/computer engineer) being would throw his brain out the window and give into to rabidity is quite unnerving to me.
[/quote]

Many of my closest friends are engineers… all smart, but smart in their own engineering world.


I personally believe, that, like, US Americans should vote for, like, Obama and stuff, because, like, some US Americans, like, don’t have hope and, like, change and stuff. And like, the Iraq and the Africa would have, like, hope and Obama would, like, give the Iraq and stuff, like, hope and stuff, and like, Obama will, like, change things. And give us hope, and, like, Obama will change, like, for our future and stuff…

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
The fact that an otherwise intelligent human (electrical engineer/computer engineer) being would throw his brain out the window and give into to rabidity is quite unnerving to me.

[/quote]

I’ve said this before on these forums: Knowledge doesn’t equal intelligence.

The ability to remember and recall information is much different than the ability to diagnose a situation and solve the problem on your own. Too many knowledgeable people fail to think on their own and fail to second guess what they hear, thereby never drawing their own conclusions.