Thread by @wesupportlee

I am easily the most politically conservative person under 70 years old that I know in my field of training, at my degree level.

That would be as an M.S. in Entomology.

Yet, I am not overall highly right-wing.

A thread.

1. I believe that climate change is happening and is driven by fossil fuel combustion. My approach to remediation involves nuclear energy, often disliked by Californians, Democrats & liberals.

2. I don't watch Fox News.

3. Kids and adults need to be up-to-date on vaccines.

4. More specific to my field, I believe that pesticide use needs to be limited using IPM and IVM. Details elsewhere.

5. I am not particularly religious. I don't support the Religious Right.

6. I strongly believe in conservation of natural areas.

7. Where I am far more conservative than others in my field relates to things like personal responsibility, avoiding student debt, responsible parenting, etc.

My experience at age 30 as an Elder Caregiver broke me from my field, and also largely estranged me from my family.

You see, my family demanded that I "get back into entomology and stick with it" under Caregiving circumstances.

Then, when I returned to the field with the best of intentions, I was unpleasantly rejected on a day that I can't forget, 25 March 1994.

Despite having trouble in a few lower-division "weed-out" classes, I mostly succeeded in my upper division and graduate work.

And, I did not incur one penny of student debt. Although most with high student debt are younger than me, I know of at least 1 person older than me.

The older person with debt is a Baby Boomer.

I consider myself an older Gen X'r.

My generation wasn't handed anything. We were 18 years old when Reagan was President and at Hus peak popularity.

We didn't "collaborate" in o-chem. We competed.

College costs have risen at much greater than the rate of inflation since the early 1990s. That is the main driver of the student debt problem.

Gen X'rs and Baby Boomers rarely have student debt, despite the BB'r exception noted above.

We in Gen X were raised in an environment that encouraged taking individual responsibility for our problems.

I moved out of a high-co$t state to a low-cost state to go to graduate school. I moved from California to the Deep South.

I entered a funded program.

No debt here.

I took another form of personal responsibility.

I avoided having kids while in grad school. No "larvae" for me. (I still don't have kids, and I have no regrets). I abstained.

I didn't like the idea of AFDC or welfare and wasn't married.

I graduated. Got a job.

I had difficulties as a female manager in an all-male pest shop.

Then I temporarily left the field.

It angered my family who didn't understand how difficult the employees were toward a younger, more educated woman manager.

My mother was becoming ill from years of chain smoking. This included in front of me as a young child, contributing to recurrent colds, flu, ear infections, and bullying in school because my clothes stynk like cig smoke.

She was from the WWII generation, born in 1920s.

Panicked, she called me home from what was going to be an experience teaching English in eastern Europe.

My 30th birthday should have been a celebration. Instead, my mother _demanded_ that I "get back into Entomology and stick with it."

I did just that.

Despite various Caregiving-related interruptions, I worked in my former lab.

After my mother passed away, I returned to a neglected, filthy workspace on 25 March 1994.

It was my last day employed in Entomology.

From that date through the 1990s and 2000s, I was suffused with anger at how I, a woman in science and a former Elder Caregiver, had been treated in the field of my training, the very field that my mother _demanded_ I "get back and srick with."

I was estranged from my family.

Many years later, Dr. Karen Walker published a study that vindicated my experience and alienation from Entomology.

academic.oup.com/aesa/article-a…

I am still somewhat isolated from my fairly small family. They don't understand the struggle I went through in my career related to Elder Caregiving.

They aren't all right-wing, either. Some younger members are on the Left.

In all of this, I NEVER:

*Took out a student loan.
*Applied or received any sort of what was called "welfare" or benefits. I did not have kids and did not qualify.
*Attempted to claim disability.

I was underemployed for many years. My savings aren't where they need to be.

To conclude, I resent young people who expect a mythical beneficent government to pay off their student loans.

I resent young people who don't play the game in weed-out classes.

I currently live abroad.

There is a type of ignorance exhibited by some older, uneducated people in lower-income places. They provide terrible levels of service at their stores or whatever based on the lack of services when they were young.

I'm different. I am educated.

Young people in college + in graduate programs need to take personal responsibility the way I did.

*Wait to have kids. Commit to your career first.

*Don't take out student loans. Look for a program with an assistantship.

After that, realize that there are NO GUARANTEES.

Realize that life is competitive.

Realize that the world doesn't owe you anything.

@threadreaderapp unroll please.