The young people who would have been most likely to lead the domestic anti-fascist fight in 2025 were repeatedly arrested, beat, jailed, mocked by elites and non-elites over the past 5 years. This was bipartisan. I find it interesting whenever some people ask 'where the young people are' now.
Young abolitionists/anti-police violence, immigration rights activists, Palestine solidarity folks - it’s also suggestive that mainstream Democrats and party leaders treated each of these three movements as a bigger threat than Trump and Republicans.
Not sure it's even possible for the Democratic leadership to effectively oppose Trump when the party's young people can never trust them again. (And they can't. Genocide is beyond all possible red lines.) There's never been a party more in need of new leaders and a break from its awful recent past.
They are working 4 jobs to afford their 4k rent for a 1 bedroom. It's been a 20 year assault on the youth in this country, exploited to line the pockets of our elders. Tin foil me think it's intentional to prevent change.
I don't believe this chart and want to know what calculation they are using for net worth.
I lobbed the soft ball with median, average is worse. All data is sourced from federal reserve board, historical tables and fed bulletin
It pretty much matches what fidelity has For most Americans their two biggest assets are (1) value of a home they own and (2) value of their 401(k) Most (65%) adult Americans own a home, this basically shows people paying off mortgages over time www.fidelity.com/learning-cen...
Agreed. The numbers for 20s through 40s look laughably high. Unless Spiders Georg the billionaire is included 🤷♂️
Median should ignore the effects of billionaires/millionaires. But the 20's number is so wacky. It's way above median income. you would have to assume a high savings rate and high return on investment.
A big part of people's net worth is their houses and 401ks. That's why there is such a spike.
Correct, you are able to purchase assets as your worth increases over time. It is indisputable, however, that the underlying value of these assets (held by the older cohorts) have erupted in value, while wages have not grown at all. There is no entry point to wealth generation for younger cohorts.
I thought this problem was bad when Occupy happened and I lost my job during the recession in my '20s. I am so mad that wealth equality has only gotten much worse since.
Because I can't quote post, dropping this thought here:
"Gen z will save us" That's such a heavy burden to place on young people! And why not save yourself then!?
The subtext is always “while we sit on our thumbs and watch”, isn’t it?
"while we send in cops to beat them and shoot them with 'less-lethal' guns"
The DNC doesn't exist to represent the left They exist to frustrate and roadblock the left, while dissipating any resources and enthusiasm This is why OWS didn't result in financial reform Why BLM didn't result in judicial reform And why The Bernie Movement didn't result in healthcare reform
nodding
Absolutely yes to both. The DNC gives anybody under 45 the 3S treatment (Sacrifice/Sabotage/Sideline) & the nonprofit complex often reifies the extractive environment it is situated within whether it means to do or not. Then “centrists” grouse about youth apathy like it fell out the coconut tree
The DNC resolution on Gaza is TODAY in the Resolutions Committee and a couple orgs garnered *182,000* emails addresses for it, which is an obscene number for 2025! They COULD all become small donors, but, well, I'm the positive poster, so, we'll see :)
Democratic Party leadership takes youth and minority participation for granted. Whenever the youth and communities of color deliver elections for them, the leadership turns around and makes a big show of de-emphasizing the issues young people & POC thought they were organizing for
Never gonna forget how much HOPE there was in the first Obama administration that we might get an immigration law passed that would have avoided the current mess. But after healthcare, leadership just punted on all the other legislative goals. What a lesson for a generation!
And this can be laid directly at the feet of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, and why they both have to go.
Fighting for basic survival. Older people have consistently voted to drain other generations for their own benefit: Boomers have 20% of US population but hold "a staggering $80 trillion of wealth, more than half of all household wealth in the nation." money.com/wealthiest-g...
and (I know you know this, this is more for people in the replies) I never go to a protest or organizing effort without seeing young people there, often at the forefront. they’re just not featured on the news because they never were, thanks to exactly what you speak on in this post
Indeed. I know they are there. I am also making the point that those who aren't were terrorized over the past 5 years with the tacit or overt acquiescence of the people asking the question now.
100% — wish people realized both the bravery of those who are still going out despite all the repression, as well as the role they might've played in allowing those young people now too scared to come out to be terrorized
Or not even scared, just unwilling to fight for a country like this current one.
!!!
Exactly so. The vast majority of protesters in 2020 were under 30, and I find it very interesting how many people now are like, "Why don't young people care?!" They do, they just don't participate in the illusion everyone's clinging to, they fight for real.
Are we sure about this?
Yes
Then we should gather a list of them and send them John Lewis’ Good Trouble books and other inspiration of those that didn’t just quit because it got hard.
Go ahead and tell us about all the times you put your own body on the line
Aggressively fucking stupid take.
Did OP say anything about "quitting because it got hard"? No. Many of the young people we're talking about here have been murdered or imprisoned for standing up, and you're here being a condescending dipshit saying they should read books about 'people who didn't give up'? Sit down and shut up 🙄
Towle obviously saw Joe Biden’s “I have no empathy” act and saw it as something to adopt.
They were rendered disabled through state violence, or incarcerated, or otherwise made incapable of continuing due to financial situations, degraded mental health, etc. It's not a matter of "quitting because it got hard". Our government DESTROYED them.
so what are you doing exactly, asshole?
The only people refusing to fight are liberals and elected Democrats, who are only willing to side with fascists.
been out in the streets much?
You aren’t reading the initial post. It’s stating young people over the past five years have been beaten and arrested so young people aren’t out leading now. It seems to me young people are online in doom apathy loops, and it has been middle aged and older doing the work.
One of the organizing networks I collaborate w/ is v. large, & led by Palestinians & Muslims in their mid-20s to early-30s; the rest of us are mostly in that age range, w/ *very* few over 45 like me. Our partner orgs also skew young. Don’t generalize about the youth; they’re fierce & doing the work
Because you haven't been out in the streets and have no idea what you're talking about.
“Out on the streets”? Do I have such an outsized ego/mental illness to believe what I as one person see with my own eyes is reflective of everything happening across the country? What exactly is “been out in the streets” supposed to signify here?
In other words, you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about because you’re not working or interacting with the people you claim to understand. You always have the option to stay silent rather than showing your ass.
have you been physically protesting the fascist government? were you protesting our last government while they genocided Gaza? not really a difficult question
They can’t lead shit when Democrats send the cops after them instead of supporting and boosting them and helping their fight against fascism. Maybe try being on their side for a change.
have you been out in the streets much
guess not
These are the young ppl who are being unenrolled at universities, being disappeared. We did not take adequate care of them when they were taking to risks when protesting for unpopular causes.
I just hope they haven’t given up the fight!
The Democratic party has been openly hostile to my most active involvement in politics my entire adult life, and I think I'm solidly middle aged! It's been disappointing but consistent, to say the least.
In 2025, the examples of @aoc.bsky.social @davidhogg.bsky.social @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social show how Democratic Party Leadership treats up and coming potential heads of the leftist faction. Not good for anybody plus it makes the Old Guard look pathetic. Grasping gerontocracy needs to step aside.
I would argue it's been more than just the past 5 years a lot of my peers organized and participated in protests and walkouts bc of school shootings. I remember a lot of us getting suspended and being threatened with our diplomas being revoked after Parkland specifically.
My local high school has had multiple walkouts and protests, all very carefully organized, for probably a decade at this point. Range from protesting racism and blackface (area changed from majority white to majority Black) to sexual violence and school shootings. It's not fair they had to do so.
Yep and when social media really took off a lot of those protests spread nationally and I don't think any of that work was ever even really covered
No, of course not. It's more or less the same as we're seeing now - try to pretend that the walkout of 800 kids was just a fluke and not something planned.
when people discuss how weak and/or disorganized the left is, way too little attention is paid to how, for the past century, just about every budding leftist leader has been imprisoned or murdered
this is so important to highlight. the kids on campus were part of or witnesses how protestors were treated and said, i don't want that. and now all these grown folks are looking at them asking why they aren't marching?!? 1) you hated it when they marched, karen 2) why aren't you marching, karen?
Don’t protest like THAT. Do it politely. Don’t be violent. Don’t disrespect police, they are only doing their jobs. Do this, don’t do that. Sanitized.
And the ones off campuses who are facing long prison terms and disrupted lives with people not giving them a second look. All of the BLM protesters, the Stop Cop City ones etc etc
More than 5 year The WTO Protests in Seattle were 1999 Occupy was 2011 There have been many others. Several generations. The Democratic Party regulars were never on our side.
Given how viciously even the tepid workplace reforms of DEI were attacked, I can’t believe there are people who ask this question 😡
Occupy, school shootings / gun violence protests, police violence protests, water protectors, BLM, anti-genocide, Cop City…doesn’t matter what young people are assembling against, the goal of people in power across the political spectrum has been to crush them. Unless they’re alt-right / Proud Boys!
Also the iTs NoT bOtH sIdEs people. Do they just watch mainstream news and call it a day or
Not to mention Ferguson activists being straight up murdered
As someone who went to quite a few BLM and Women's March protests (whether to observe or participate) in blue states, watching the media and cop coordinate the violence, and politicians on all sides blame the protestors, led me to the conclusion there is no benefit to protesting.
A colleague (white, female, 80+) recently asked me why she wasn't seeing people <45 marching. My response was, "Police brutality, detention, and federal prosecution can end their life. They're also probably working too hard just to stay afloat. It's safe for *you* to show up; we need you."
God I want to repost this because it’s incredible important that people understand between 2020 and the response to anti genocide protestors has chilled the response from young people massively.
As does conDon so her point is?
Her point is that both parties are aggressively opposed to free speech and the right to petition the government.
Whataboutism is a bad look for yall. Be better.
My god she needs to retire. Supporting the Trump machine is actually the expected behavior by the corrupt Pelosi.
Same here in the UK. The formerly left-wing Labour Party, now in government, has expelled more Jewish members than every other UK political party combined. Notably, each and every one of those expelled was a vocal opponent of genocide. The expression here is 'the wrong type of Jew' for Labour.
amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
Scratching my head at “left wing fascist”
It’s a pretty well trodden path for a certain type of bad faith argument usually I would add by Nazis trying to muddy the waters.
Not really, they're just getting involved in mutual aid networks, labor organizing and radical politics. The Dems chase folks off and they either fall into the clutches of the fash or they learn about actual left wing politics. The center has hollowed itself out
💯
Yes, look at what happened to those who went to fight Cop City in Atlanta- racketeering charges leveled against them for defending land and human rights.
Not to mention the murder of Tortuguita
A lot of the young people are now working for Zohran (and other DSA-style candidates) - and the mainline Ds are still keeping them at arm's length
We need to take note of these mainline Ds and make sure to vote them out. They are literally helping republicans.
Do we have to wait for the mainline Ds to die off? Or are they going to wise up and realize it's not about their portfolios, it's about the country and democracy and future generations?
Maybe there will be more Hammertime, inshalallah
hopefully on the front page!
spoiler: they will not 'wise up' in any sense
Which is exactly how we got here, now. Not "wising up" after Nixon, Reagan, Bush or 45.