Current Events > Millennials are no longer becoming more conservative as they get older.

(+) Yeah! (+)

People will come up with a lot of reasons for this, but I think it is probably because millenials lives aren't really better at age 35-40 than it was at age 20. Our parents made great strides in this time. They had shed their college debt, were maybe on house number 2 or 3, could afford 2-3 kids, etc. Now, millenials, at age 35-40, still have tons of college debt, can't even approach buying a house, and it appears we'll NEVER be able to retire, etc. What exactly drives that person to conservatism? In previous generations if you really thought Republicans could drive down the monthly income you needed in retirement by 50 percent or something, then it made sense. Now? We don't even think we can retire.

I think the only boomer conservative view I hold is that now that I got a toe into real estate, I'm hoping my home value and the property values in this general area increase. Becuz lemme have some money

But yeah otherwise the GOP can get fucked

MacadamianNut3 posted...

I think the only boomer conservative view I hold is that now that I got a toe into real estate, I'm hoping my home value and the property values in this general area increase. Becuz lemme have some money

But yeah otherwise the GOP can get fucked

that's still kinda fucked though. Housing in general is fucked. Name me something else that can get 20 years older, have 20 years of preventative and necessary maintenance ignored, have ridiculous repairs made like 7 layers of shingles on the roof, and we all act like that shit should double in value.

It's a very "i got mine" mentality.

The_Top_Crusader posted...

Im barely a millennial in the oldest bracket but it counts. I was raised really conservatively and stuck with it mostly for a good decade and a half into adulthood, but Ive definitely moved to the left since then (not that Im super liberal, but definitely much more moderate compared to where I started).

I grew up in a very conservative family. I used to say I was conservative and even listened to fucking conservative talk radio while driving into my college classes everyday.

When Obama won the election and Glenn Beck literally started crying on air that America was over now I fucking realized these people were a bit insane. It was no longer 'lets laugh at political news' and the most pathetic cry baby shit ever. I stopped listening when it was all panic mode 24/7. I wasn't in deep enough in the brain rot that I also became panic mode over Obama.

I did vote against Obama in his first term, and for him in the 2nd term. I actively think Obama was the best president in my lifetime so far too.

My mom also stopped being conservative during Trump's presidency.

This is an honest to goodness benefit Trump had, and it was pushing some people into switching sides against him because he was a fucking disgusting person in his 4 years in office. As long as the person wasn't in that Fox News brainwashing routine I think most people who were in the 'well how bad can it be' for Trump to get elected realized, it can be PRETTY DAMN BAD.

<_<

whetstone314 posted...

It's a very "i got mine" mentality.

Yeah I know

I need money tho. Like not a want to have more money than I actually need.

MacadamianNut3 posted...

Yeah I know

I need money tho. Like not a want to have more money than I actually need.

Well, that's kinda the republican mantra...just saying.

whetstone314 posted...

Well, that's kinda the republican mantra...just saying.

I might be Republican now. I def need money.

I used to be a moderate when I was a teen and first getting into politics. I'd watch both Fox News and CNN and all the talking heads on both channels. I watched both Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher (he was different back then). As time went by I saw more and more how awful and wrong conservatism was.

Now I hate it and it's followers and proponents with a huge passion as I find them disgusting and reprehensible. I've recently became the same way with capitalism. How could anyone with any sense not see that both conservatism and capitalism are nothing but exploitation and greed used to take advantage of the poor to the benefit of the rich? You have to be a total idiot or a privileged asshole not to see that.

This whole analysis seems entirely shit if age is a cross-sectional variable. If it's longitudinal, that would be interesting, but I don't think it's likely. They don't say anywhere, so I assume it's cross-sectional, and all they have done is segregated up the usual plot based on generation. Means nothing, really.

Our generation has less wealth, less power are less independence then any other so it kind of makes sense why most of their mind sets wouldn't change more as they grow older.

So it's more of a product of our era thrn some sort of moral awakening.

That makes sense, with the internet being widely accessible, you can see all the BS now. Previous generations didn't have that luxury

I really think that wealth accumulation is what traditionally moves people to conservatism, and the millenial generation got a raw deal financially in a lot of aspects which lends to us, as a whole, not being as invested.

I also think that people are just fuckin wild anymore, and nobody truly cares about anything.

Prismsblade posted...

Our generation has less wealth, less power are less independence then any other so it kind of makes sense why most of their mind sets wouldn't change more as they grow older.

So it's more of a product of our era thrn some sort of moral awakening.

It's a little of both.

Being thrown into a shit situation tends to make you more empathetic and understanding of others in a similar situation. Of course, some people just become bigger shitheads as well.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

American conservatism isn't even really conservatism anymore. It's just being a dick to marginalized people for no reason.

so it IS conservatism

this is a great trend but its too little too late

whetstone314 posted...

People will come up with a lot of reasons for this, but I think it is probably because millenials lives aren't really better at age 35-40 than it was at age 20. Our parents made great strides in this time. They had shed their college debt, were maybe on house number 2 or 3, could afford 2-3 kids, etc. Now, millenials, at age 35-40, still have tons of college debt, can't even approach buying a house, and it appears we'll NEVER be able to retire, etc. What exactly drives that person to conservatism? In previous generations if you really thought Republicans could drive down the monthly income you needed in retirement by 50 percent or something, then it made sense. Now? We don't even think we can retire.

100% this

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Yes, and the GOP has been in a death spiral since Trump took office.

After their abysmal showing in the 22 midterms, they know it.
The question now is what horrible things are they going to do in order to maintain power? I shudder to think of it...

They're certainly not above throwing out the framework of democracy and resorting to violence.

The_Top_Crusader posted...

The group that calls themselves conservatives has pretty much abandoned the fiscal policy and family values stuff. Except being more anti-gay than they were trending when McCain and Romney were the standard bearers.

Oh boy, don't even get me started on the massive hypocrisy of the right-wing.

Just look no further than all the "groomer" rhetoric being tossed around.

These are the same people who worship Donald Trump, a sexual predator who hosted Miss Teen USA pageants, openly bragged about groping women, and has had more marriages and mistresses than I'd care to count. Yet he's hailed as a paragon of virtue by the right.

Then there's Herschel Walker, who paid for a girlfriend's abortion while claiming anti-abortions policies, among many other scandals.

And most recently there's Andrew Tate, a hero figure among the right who was just arrested for being a literal rapist and sex trafficker, who thinks women are objects that belong to men and recruited teen girls into his webcam operations.

But the gay couple who wants to adopt children are the real "groomers", right? Sure, uh-huh. Whatever.
>__>

Rekt

YellowSUV posted...

Race is purely a social construct. What is considered white, black, any other race has changed over time. In the 1800s if someone had ANY traceable black ancestors they were considered black. Only specific Western Europeans were considered white. Irish and Italians were not considered white in the 1800s even though today the vast majority of America would consider these people white. Whiteness was eventually expanded to include all Europeans in part to keep the racist system in America alive.

I wouldn't be too surprised if "whiteness" expands once again to prop up racism. Perhaps Latinos and Indians* (*the country in Asia) will join the umbrella of "whiteness" in the future. That said, maybe I'm wrong and the cycle will be broken, but racism and the social construct of race is powerful tool used by the rich elites to divide the poor and middle class.

One other thing to consider is the disproportionate power Republicans have in the government. Tons of low population Midwest and mountain states full of white people (going by what is currently considered "white") will keep Republicans in disproportionate power in the Senate for a long time.

The blanket of Whiteness is already starting to include Latinos/Latinos. Look at the white supremacists waving DeSantis flags alongside their swastikas.

It won't help though. Your average young American is against bigotry. If you tried to set up dividing lines -- White Gentiles, Black people, and Indian people against Jews, Asians, and everyone else -- the majority would not bite.

Most young people have been raised in a society in which bigotry is discouraged. Yes, there are a few Kanyes in the world who would leap at the chance to hop on the Us Against Them bandwagon. But there aren't enough to sway an election or alter the course of the nation.

It's inevitable that they'll lose.

Patchwork posted...

I really think that wealth accumulation is what traditionally moves people to conservatism, and the millenial generation got a raw deal financially in a lot of aspects which lends to us, as a whole, not being as invested.

This is a valid point. It becomes endemic of our socioeconomic landscape. Conservatives are conservatives because they're already well off, and it becomes an issue of protecting what you have versus getting what you want. All we want is to be able to live comfortably and not have to worry about having an emergency derail everything. If millennials had a bigger piece of the pie, they'd be more invested in keeping what they have instead of trying to get more, which would have them leaning conservative. The gulf of haves versus have nots has never been more disproportionate as it is today. It's like we're back in a feudal landscape, but with better band-aids. Our Lords are corporate run. We are the serfs.

COVxy posted...

This whole analysis seems entirely shit if age is a cross-sectional variable. If it's longitudinal, that would be interesting, but I don't think it's likely. They don't say anywhere, so I assume it's cross-sectional, and all they have done is segregated up the usual plot based on generation. Means nothing, really.

To be clear, the data are meaningless since age is confounded with year of birth. Older people are mostly more conservative because they grew up with more conservative culture, not because they became more conservative as they got older. So, hard to understand what's going on exactly with millenials in this plot. But it's almost certainly not "millenials have gotten less conservative as they have gotten older".