Thread by @soychicka

Gen X, particularly the Oregon Trail µgen, was the first generation to come of age with access to personal computers.

Exposure to this metaphor in interaction design innumerable times before getting laid -> we've internalized and identified with its utility.

Do Not Go Forward.

So, aside from the visual representation of the "Cancel" button literally BEING the name of the generation, we're a generation that has been been bred to (or driven to) adopt cynicism and an innate distrust of imposed authority.

And, until now, apathy.

You see, we're also the generation who was first raised on artificial sweeteners, milk & soda in plastic bottles - not glass, mono & diglycerides, PUFAs,

and the first generation to see an explosion in the number of children born on on the Autism spectrum.

Our generation entered adulthood as ongoing attempts to brainwash us into rejecting science, to facilitate the oil industry pulling another 30 years of record $200bn+ profits, but at the cost of a 10x domestic increase in the # of natural disasters - 2x domestic oil profits.

We've known something was wrong, was unjust, was unfair... but with monopolies on political power in the hands of the shareholders + boards of oil cartels, food manufacturers and pharma, where lip service only came with $2600, & access requiring much more

And where a president was hounded for years, and when he was finally impeached over the fallout from a blow job - the VERY SAME DAY - those responsible rewarded a pedophile responsible for the deaths of multiple victims, in the most powerful position in their party.

Yeah... think about it that way & apathy made sense.

And maybe you'll understand why so many members of this and subsequent generation found conspiracy theories sold to protect those responsible for the above, instead projecting onto the opposition, credible and/or entertaining.

And, for the most part, Generation X hasn't had a chance to lead - why would we want to be affiliated with this system, where you either surround yourself in filth, or find yourself accused of such - by well-financed PR teams (and, to some degree, hostile foreign actors).

But, let me reset.

What does it mean to cancel?
Like I said above, it's preventing something from going forward.

To cancel a person, then?

It's a democratic decision to annul or revoke someone's continued influence on society, based on bad behaviour.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Why?

There is no social contract that ANY individual has a permanent right to influence.

The public is not indebted to any individual to ensure their continued social relevance - we don't have kings or earthbound gods.

En point: for any government officials to demand we do would be a violation of our free will - as protected by the US Constitution.

Seriously. it doesn't mean we're going to strip you of anything you've earned (unless it was acquired through criminal activity).

Canceling just means that we're not that into you anymore.

So, add it all up with the fact that a generational rejection of positional authority and weaker economic status than past generations has reduced the probability that Gen Xers would desire or successfully run for elected office.

But, along with the risks, there are now more ways to use democratized communications technologies to communicate and raise funds. And that, I think, should give all us Gen Xers a reason to reflect on why we haven't participated - and how that can change.

But until then, there's just something about "cancelling" that is so inherent to the understanding of the world that anyone who grew up with a mouse in hand gets - and that's what makes US relevant, and @foxnews a sad relic of the past, where recursive authority ruled.

Sorry, dude.

We have our cancel buttons. We learned BASIC when we were 10, and we can see culture as a loop rather than an inherent trajectory...

But every loop must have a condition upon when it exits - infinite recursion without external control leads to stack overflow.

So, let's execute this shit asynchronously:

somebody.listen() {
while (somebody.is_not_a_douche == true ){
print("okay, you're cool. carry on.")
}
print("X.")
}

Got it?

(Probably not.)

For this generation, the earlier generations who shaped a generation of apathy and inaction - and those who are tools of their perpetuation, are exceeding their available resources.

The more resources you've consumed, the faster your time will come.

Especially if you've executed any illegal operations.

So, sorry @FOXnews.
This is the only kind of X you're gonna get.