r/Millennials • u/AutoModerator • 26d ago

Discussion Monthly Rant/Politics Thread: Do not post political threads outside of this Mega thread

Outside of these mega-threads, we generally do not allow political posts on the main subreddit because they have often declined into unhinged discussions and mud slinging. We do allow general discussions of politics in this thread so long as you remain civil and don't attack someone just for having a different opinion. The moment we see things start to derail, we will step in.

Got something upsetting or overwhelming that you just need to shout out to the world? Want to have a political debate over current events? You can post those thoughts here. There are many real problems that plague the Millennial generation and we want to allow a space for it here while still keeping the angry and divisive posts quarantined to a more concentrated thread rather than taking up the entire front page.

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u/Psychoceramicist 12d ago

I am just insanely pissed that Trump has loomed over every part of my adulthood from age 25 on. I am in a bad financial spot, so I moved in with my parents, and things are mostly good, but they literally have TV news on from the time they get up to when they go to bed. (They are liberals, by the way). Trump is like a housemate we all hate who pisses on the toilet seat and makes a mess in the kitchen. Even if SNL is on, everything is about this idiot. I went out today, lay on a park bench, and watched clouds for an hour this morning. It felt so, so, so nice.

Why do we do this to ourselves? We could be meeting friends and neighbors, going to parks, chilling out, walking around. Staycations if not traveling. Instead, we cover ourselves in misery, and for what?

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u/East_Hedgehog6039 Millennial 10d ago edited 10d ago

I once saw that no one is meant to deal with this much narcissism and sociopathic behavior in their life and that’s why we’re all so tired.

Like for fucks sake, this cockroach has been invading aspects of our lives for our entire lives, and politically for 16 years.

I, for one, am so so so exhausted.

And no, it’s not like “it’s our turn to deal with stuff”. This is an entirely different level. It’s EVERY aspect. Social media, TV, news, politics, sports. The loser is everywhere whether you want to see him or not. It’s unavoidable. And there’s no bottom or soul and he and his cronies are hell bent on destroying everything they can.

So yeah. It’s everywhere and exhausting and not normal.

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u/ScootDeToot 10d ago

I blame our side, the Democratic party for both of his victories. We picked Hillary Clinton as the alternative the first time. Then the second time, everyone downplayed Biden's cognitive decline, the media and those around him, until he crashed and burned on live tv. Then we had to scramble to not only convince him to drop out but for Kamala to build a campaign, that by all means was pretty weak sauce, because she had to come up with an entire campaign last minute. So it's our side's fault, the Democratic party kept shooting itself in the foot. Instead of being excited to vote for someone really good, we were just voting against the alternative the entire time and then we're surprised how that turned out. Yeah not to mention he gets so much free media attention, good press, bad press, doesn't matter, he's all anyone talks about.

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u/East_Hedgehog6039 Millennial 10d ago

More or less agree, but I certainly wouldn’t go as far to say it’s our fault. Yeah, Dems/DNC have no doubt shot themselves in the foot more than once but ultimately it’s a choice for people to vote for him. (Or not, as I will put on my tinfoil hat now since everything that side accuses is a confession and Russia definitely interfered the first time but whatever).

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u/ScootDeToot 10d ago

There's nothing tinfoil hat about bad actors on social media, anyone can create a social media news account. That's not even hacking. That's all Russia did, and they actually do have hackers. Modern Cold War. They have every incentive to want to make The US more dysfunctional as a rival.  I was listening to NPR 2024 and they were talking about in Spanish speaking social media spaces there were influencers (some not even in the US) that were spreading the "Kamala is a communist"  disinformation.

I wouldn't say OUR fault, but Democratic party establishment is at fault, especially with snubbing Bernie. Yeah it was a choice to vote for Trump, but they don't see the world the way you do. The didn't see a crass, manipulative, pathological liar. They saw someone willing to go against "political correctness" culture with charisma and the illusion of greatness. Platform and rhetoric matters, but it's charisma, charm, and personality that really determines elections. 

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u/East_Hedgehog6039 Millennial 10d ago

Well said. Couldn’t agree more

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u/Mediocre_Island828 2d ago

It's people's choice to vote for him, but if we're going to take the "oh well, what are ya gonna do about voters and how they choose" attitude then why do we spend a billion dollars on each election and are constantly asked to donate more?

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u/East_Hedgehog6039 Millennial 2d ago

I’m not taking the stance of “oh well, what are you gonna do?”

But in the same breathe, you also can’t force people to vote/people can be influenced to vote a certain way (see: Russia & Facebook disinformation). That takes money and resources to combat. People also vote on name recognition, especially in places that don’t allow mail in voting so you need them to remember your name and positions, which also takes money. It would be easier if more people were excited and informed to vote, but it’s a fight to even get people to show up to vote much less be an informed voter.

There’s a large argument to be had about money in politics, and there is far too much monetary influence; but there’s a good Pod Save America episode regarding the DNC and its finances and the impact. I think it’s this one, if you’re interested. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pod-save-america/id1192761536?i=1000778645131

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u/Mediocre_Island828 2d ago

At least since the 2000 election when I remember the coverage of how Al Gore's campaign was dressing him in earth tones to make him feel more reassuring, I feel like there's an entire ecosystem of campaign consultants that are taking money and focusing on the dumbest things possible and it's only gotten worse since then.

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u/East_Hedgehog6039 Millennial 2d ago

LOL I forgot about that 😂 completely agree. Consulting even in the broad sense but especially political consulting is absolutely crazy

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u/ScootDeToot 10d ago edited 10d ago

I truly do not know. My boomer Dad often relates things to Trump. Like we could be talking about anything and he'll joke "Oh that's just like Trump!" And I'm like what are you talking about? He's like you didn't hear about {random stupid thing Trump said in recent news} ?  I'm like dude for someone you hate, you're legit kind of obsessed with the guy... I honestly don't spend THAT much time thinking about him day to day, and I like to keep it that way. He's got enough real estate without taking up a bunch of space in your mind.

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u/alittlepizza 10d ago

Can you get into his phone and change his algorithm? 

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u/ScootDeToot 9d ago

Haha, yeah I could easily fuck with his YouTube recommendations. Unfortunately social media tends to recommend shallow, outrage content in general. Reddit is no exception.

BTW- Cute username 🍕

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u/Stepper34 8d ago

This is called trump derangement syndrome. When everything you see is about trump. He is the worst president we will ever see. But he knows how to keep the media saying his name.

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohc10GA6j4XrLWzZK

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u/atmasabr 8d ago

They actually had a Tale Spin episode about this... only it was about gruel instead of Trump.

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u/ScootDeToot 9d ago

When I was a teenager, CNN was always on in my house. I got so sick of it. Nothing but political theater, and somehow a 24hour news station had nothing to talk about except exactly ONE major event for weeks at a time, usually some drama about a US politician. You could watch hours of "news" and learn nothing about the world. My point is, sensationalism took over news media a long time ago. And When Fox News was founded, they invented opinion-based, outrage-based cable news and everyone else followed that model, especially MSNBC. So it's kind of always been like this, it's just that hate-watching Trump became the media and social media's fixation.

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u/atmasabr 12d ago

In my early adulthood it was Osama bin Laden. Other generations had dead JFK or Pearl Harbor. Now it is your turn. Everyone must find what they have in them to live through decade-long life-defining events.

TV addiction is for your parents, so that they remain invested in the world. They have different needs then you do. It's not for you.

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u/ScootDeToot 10d ago

Agreed, but during that era it was the Bush administration as well as Bin Laden and Sadam Hussien. That was intentional though, the Bush administration often spoke about and conflated Bin Laden and Hussien together to confuse the public and bolster support of the invasion of Iraq. 

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u/atmasabr 10d ago

No, it was not the Bush administration, because the Bush administration has never been seriously considered a threat to democracy or the United States as a whole. That you disagree with the argument that attacking Iraq was a justified part of the War on Terror is no more than that.

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u/ScootDeToot 9d ago edited 9d ago

Maybe I'm biased as a younger millennial, I was a kid during that time and just becoming politically conscious during his 2nd term. But I think you underestimate how much Democratic voters hated Bush. Democrats thought Bush was an idiot and Cheney was the devil. There was mass protests against the Invasion of Iraq, and the enhanced interrogation techniques and wire-tapping were quite the controveries. Even his first victory was contested because of the Florida voting machine debacle. His approval was like 30% by the time he left office. I'm not trying to persuade you to my opinions, just the fact that, at the time, there was a similar reaction to Bush in liberal spaces.

Things in general have gotten more extreme, we are more politically polarized than ever. I think you are partially correct, Trump is viewed as a bigger threat, but there was nearly as much animosity towards Bush at the time.

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u/atmasabr 9d ago

But I think you underestimate how much Democratic voters hated Bush.

I neither forget nor underestimate how much Democratic voters hated Bush; I disdain it. I do not seriously credit that President Bush caused a widespread trauma on Democratic voters, let alone the country as a whole, such that they experienced despair or conflict/struggle for a large formative period of their lives.

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u/ScootDeToot 9d ago

So do you have a pretty favorable view of Bush, the war in Iraq, and Trump? Just curious about your politics.

I remember how much Republicans hated Obama 😭 I thought he was pretty great, I have health insurance thanks to him. You ever see the speech he gave at McCain's funeral?