Thread by @JuliusGoat

Ever notice how the national discourse about generations always contains a tacit presumption that older generations are rightful gatekeepers of power, knowledge, experience, and resources, and anything the younger generations receive is a gift?

https://twitter.com/aldotcom/status/1013115406645649408

Millenials have decades more skin in the current game than the sixty and seventy year olds that litter the halls of power.

We should be electing *mostly* millennials.

And not just millennials.

I think it's ridiculous that 12 year olds can't vote and 90 year olds can.

I'm not saying strip the vote from 90 year olds. But man, I wish people who weren't going to be around much longer didn't vote as if they weren't going to be around much longer.

I think we'd balance that out a lot more if we put the kids in the game a lot earlier.

And elected officials s/b subject to ongoing education credits, just like other professionals. It is scandalously unacceptable to have a Congress that clearly doesn't understand the internet.

We’ve only had one president since 1993 who wasn’t a Boomer, and Boomers are 70+ now—and the non-Boomer was pretty much the only good president of my lifetime.

Put the kids in the game.

And by "put the kids in the game," I mean "give the vote to 12-year olds, seriously."

I don't mean electing Millennials. Millenials are grown-ass adults, and they should be over 50% of the people we elect imo.

"Twelve year olds aren't mature enough to make good voting decisions."

Donald Trump is president. Next?

I'm going to try to clarify, in case I'm painting with an overbroad brush:

I don't disagree with the first sentence of this.

So: 1) I think we should be electing *mostly* millennials because millenials are at the age where we'd expect to see people starting public careers.

2) While I think any elder has 'skin in the game' because they should care about future generations, even if they don't personally have children/grandchildren, the sad fact is that, demographically speaking, that is not how elders in our electorate vote, like, at all.

For those elders who *do* feel that responsibility, and *do* vote that way, I see you, and I salute you, and you give me hope. However, my subject is the broader trend, so I will speak broadly, which brings me to ...

3) My solution to the broader trend is a younger electorate.

Finally:

4) While we should elect good people regardless of age, older generations are not having a problem getting elected;

5) The question "should we be electing more Millenials" reveals a very pervasive and common assumption, which is what this thread is pushing against.

Full disclosure: I am Generation X. I don't discount us. I just don't perceive us to be the punching bags that Millennials have become.

And I wish I was more eloquent so that I could be clearer, that this isn't about ignoring older people who care, but rather pushing back against toxic societal assumptions, which blame the young for suffering under the very problems they've been handed by those blaming them.

My point is not "we must take older people out of the game."

My point is, "of *course* we should also put younger people in the game; isn't it interesting, this ever-present assumption that we shouldn't? Isn't it interesting how the very question reveals the bias?"

This is true. Also true: the retirees who will suffer this fate are not people who are retirees today. They're Gen X and Millennials and younger.

Put the kids in the game.

https://twitter.com/wholedogcamp/status/1013387754514927617

Here's an idea: What if instead of assigning generational names based on birth year, we assigned names that stayed consistent for age ranges, and you'd move through them as you age?

If we did this, I propose we call the generation 20 and under "The Greatest Generation."

Calling our youngest—our future, our potential, our hope, our energy—"The Greatest Generation" might just focus our minds and assumptions in a way that we need to be focused.

If you want my humble opinion.

This isn't perfect or anything—extemporizing—but what if this is how we talked about each other?

0-20: The Greatest Generation
21-40: The Power Generation
41-60: The Experience Generation
61-80: The Wisdom Generation
81-1--: The Beloved Generation

"Should We Be Electing More People From The Power Generation?" is not a headline that would happen, for example.

And so on.