Your opinion of this person?

[fezzyfestoon]

Among the many, many lies, exaggerations, misinterpretations, misrepresentations, and ignorance is the simple issue that while this person may have accomplished something that should definitely be a point of pride, most people around college-graduate age grew up with an inflated sense of wealth and opportunity during the '90s. Being taught from an early age that you're going to have to start working as soon as you can in order to accomplish something like graduating college is almost verging on a luxury. There are far too many kids that grow up being told what to do and exactly what will happen and how, but were then faced with the issue that they never had to fend for themselves or struggle to get by before. How can a 17 year old be expected to know better than their parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and society in general enough to plan for struggling through college? It's a pompous, ignorant, spiteful, and resentful thing to tell kids that they deserve what they've been handed by the generation before them, whether that be an education or an introduction to a lifestyle they have no chance of maintaining or understanding how to change. Our parents' tendencies towards fiscal excess and living beyond their means has put the vast majority of a generation in the extremely difficult position of being deluded into thinking they'll be fine forever and don't have to worry about saving or working for what we want.

[fezzyfestoon]

A FF through and through. Someone who gets it.

lol no

Intuitive and insightful. 10/10, would read again.

And yet you choose to respond to that rather than the legitimate opposition to your own rather lacking opinion.

[fezzyfestoon]

A FF through and through. Someone who gets it.

lol no

Intuitive and insightful. 10/10, would read again.

And yet you choose to respond to that rather than the legitimate opposition to your own rather lacking opinion.

Well, I tend to get ridiculed whenever I post my legitimate opinions on here, so why post at all?

Oh come on, dude. I've been universally disliked by both Republicans and Democrats since like 2008 and I'm still going strong. Some of the best learning experiences I've had on this place have been the ones in which I'm most ridiculed.

[fezzyfestoon]

that isnt even why its really offensive. the point is that we have a banking industry that literally stole peoples houses and almost unimaginable amounts of money and has ruined entire lives and only been rewarded for it. they will never be held accountable, ever. and these tools respond with 'well i manage to scrape by with my sh**tty job and paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, stop your bitching everything is fine.' it is disgustingly stupid not to mention a case of blaming the victim (which in this case is most people). i would say such displays of ignorance make me uncontrollably angry but to be honest i am burnt out at this point.

Well, that is certainly far more offensive, but I still think it's a ridiculous notion for people to look down on young adults for not having been prepared by their parents to handle hardships. That's the exact same thing as disdaining rich young people for having been born with money or ridiculing poor people for not having a good enough financial standing to better their situation. So essentially I completely agree. And would emphasize your point that almost everyone has been a victim. People that have done well for themselves have a lot to be proud and relieved about, but how that translates into being better than anyone at this point is a symptom of our obsession with the notion that any American institution is fair and if it doesn't work it's your own fault. The dominantly monetary based culture we live in breeds an unhealthy, aggressively competitive culture that is severely lacking in compassion or care for those who don't have the opportunities those who have succeeded have. There is a culture of bad sportsmanship that is so pervasive it turns us against each other. We have been brought up to believe our entire self worth structure should be based on appearance, status, and the dollar amount we can assign to ourselves in comparison to each other. There is no room for empathy because it reduces your status to being in solidarity with someone below you. Pretty disgusting and definitely an exhaustingly pervasive ideology to battle.

[fezzyfestoon]

Absolutely. There is never a problem and you are anti-American for suggesting a flaw, even when it becomes a crisis and everyone else finally acknowledges it. Anyone who identifies an issue within our nation before it reaches the critical point when it cannot be fixed is forced out of the mainstream.

[fezzyfestoon]

My favorite part is the instant knee jerk hatred the left has for this guy/gal.  Hard work and thinking things through doesn't work for 100% of people who try it, but it does for 90....95% of them.  You can keep telling yourself it doesn't, I'm sure it makes you feel better.

You may now return to your hating and recreational outrage.

Yes, if you don't understand life and all your options and responsibilities by 17, well then you're just hopelessly mentally incapable. Those foolish kids deserve to fail. Especially when they've been cajoled down this path of self destruction/assurance by every single authority figure of their most malleable and impressionable years. Inks 'em, they should've been born with more grounded parents. Their fault.

[fezzyfestoon]

Ah yes, I appreciate the accolades. Yet no real response to the concept of my retort? Color me unsurprised!

[fezzyfestoon]

You absolutely suggested that people should have everything figured out by 17. You said "hard work and thinking things through doesn't work for 100% of people who try it, but it does for 90....95% of them", which to me (considering the context of the response to the conversation) means that whoever is struggling through college or post-graduation has brought that on themselves. 17 is the age when a vast majority of college students make their decision with regards to their higher education. And that decision is dominated by the adults in those peoples' lives. If you read what I've put into this conversation so far, I've been critical of the expectation that the generation raised by that which operated on the concepts of overconsumption and debt-induced lifestyles is supposed to know better at an adolescent age. That's all. And that's who this person is talking about. People that are being blamed for their upbringing. Also, like I said, there is more than enough to be proud of by the people who have been able to support themselves and work harder than anyone to achieve something most take for granted. That doesn't mean they're better than those who had been raised to expect their education to be handed to them. Kids don't know better and shouldn't be the ones who are attacked and held fully responsible for being frivolous and careless with their education.

The ironic aspect of all of this talking down at me is my signature quotes. I firmly believe and actively pursue the perspective of those with powerful life experiences, and yet I'm ridiculed at every crossroads for being a part of the hopeless generation I was born into. It's disgusting to me how much responsibility for what's happening now is being thrust onto the people of my age and demographic. Especially when the criticism of policy enacted before our time is brought into the conversation. Somehow it still comes down to our young kind being showered with privilege and squandering it. We were ushered into this garbage society, we didn't create it. We may not know how to fix it and may be confused as to how we got here, but passing the buck off on the lazy youth by saying things like "you can keep telling yourself it doesn't [work], I'm sure it makes you feel better" is obnoxiously patronizing and spiteful.

[fezzyfestoon]

It's hard to take "personal responsibility" seriously when the types of people who use that phrase on a constant basis generally don't practice it.

Nobody does anymore. Nothing is anybody's fault yet someone will always fix it. Our entire society and those who participate in it are to blame. But it always has to be someone else's fault. It doesn't matter how screwed we are, there's someone to blame and it's no longer an issue because they suck and now that we've established that it's not an issue we actually have to address anymore.

I take "personal responsibility seriously for myself, which is as far as anyone can take it. Once we stop thinking politically about responsibility and the game of avoiding it, our society can potentially begin to repair itself...hopefully. It's not our fault, things happened to us as a people and we've been berated into believing we are to blame by political speak and cultural manipulation. Once we actually start believing in ourselves and not the "people" that run our nation, we have a chance of beating their corporatist domination of our lifestyle choices that leads to excess and irrational spending behavior.