Thread by @sblackmoore

There's a bunch of floating around about how 29-year-olds should have X dollars saved. It pissed me of. It pissed me of a lot. And thanks to my good friend insomnia I finally figured out why.

There's an inherent assumption in that attitude that says "Follow the rules and work hard and you will be rewarded."

Am ideas that America is built on. And it's all bullshit. Because with it comes the inverse idea.

"Don't follow the rules and work hard and you will be punished"

And along with that because we are a nation built upon judgement and shame if nothing else is this.

"You were not rewarded. Therefore you did not follow the rules. You did not work hard. And that is bad. And you are a bad person because of it."

So you get "think pieces" that mock an incoming member of Congress because she can't afford to live in DC. That Millennials are destroying everything and they're all a bunch of lazy good for nothings because they can't afford diamonds and houses.

Every single one of these essays, articles, opinion pieces cements the idea "You are a terrible person because you don't have $100k saved. Because you can't get ahead because of all that student debt, all those medical bills, shit wages," more firmly in people's minds.

The poor, the young, the disenfranchised, you're all sacrificial lambs to the American lie. "Oh god, I don't want to be like them. I have to follow the rules. I can't speak up. I have to be like everyone else even though everyone else is doing the same thing."

We're a judgemental nation. We are built upon shame. We are built upon envy. We are built upon the idea that the rules are to protect us. They're not. They never have been. They're there to protect social order, the status quo.

So I'm a little fucking tired of assholes on media who use their platform to mock a generation that they don't understand and don't want to understand. Because, well they're the youngsters. They have nothing to contribute. They have nothing of value."

Those "youngsters"are in their 20s and 30s and making history changing decisions whether anyone likes it or not. Their problems are different from Gen X and the boomers, but not as different as you might think.

We're all scared of the same shit. And in our culture of shame we want find someone to pin those fears on, and there isn't anyone to pin those on except ourselves.

So journalists, bloggers, etc. Stop it. We are ALL in the same boat, like it or not.

Stop blaming people who are drowning in a system that we designed, that we perpetuate. Stop shaming people simply because they didn't follow the rules. Or worse, they did follow the rules and they still got shat on.

I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of it.

Oh, yeah. And happy Thanksgiving.