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The older I get (36 now) and the more I see conservatives fucking up absolutely everything for everybody the more left/socialist I become.
IIRC there was study a while back that debunked the idea that people get more conservative as they age. It turned out that rich people with no morals live longer, because they’re entirely self interested, and being entirely self interested they can afford healthcare, thus living longer than non-conservatives on average.
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rich people with no morals live longer, because they’re entirely self interested, and being entirely self interested they can afford healthcare, thus living longer than non-conservatives on average.
From a philosophical point of view, everyone with absolutely no exception is “self interested.” I believe the idea you’re talking about is whether bettering the lives of other has been incorporated in your identity at a young age making your self-interest ultimately beneficial for others. It’s a complex topic, but the idea is that you don’t really truly do anything for others, ever, but if someone convinced you that if you don’t do good by others, then you should be ashamed or that if you do, you’re a better person, then you do good for others for your own sake, to view yourself in a better light.
I’m a bit confused about your comment though. Are you arguing that the study found that rich people skew the data because of their longer life? If so, I find that hard to believe given the proportion of “rich people,” and the consequently negligible ability to statistically skew a population if it were actually randomly sampled.
well what it did is found that conservatives tend to be wealthier, because they’re more likely to take steps that make them wealthy at the detriment of others, and their community. Being wealthier, they have better access to health care and live longer, which means that older people tend to be more conservatives because poor people die younger. Not because getting older makes people more conservative.
I wish I still had the link, it’s way in the rear view back on zombie reddit.
As for the “everyone is without exception self interested” thing, that’s seems like a bit of pedantry because it’s not so much that liberals aren’t self interested it’s that self interest isn’t their primary motivation where in conservatives self interest is really all they’re interested in (they call it “me and mine”). one sees the world as collaborative, while the other sees the world as a socially Darwinistic competition. Which it isn’t.
The idea that “ you don’t really truly do anything for others, ever, but if someone convinced you that if you don’t do good by others, then you should be ashamed or that if you do, you’re a better person, then you do good for others for your own sake, to view yourself in a better light.” is false. It’s a very convenient falsehood because it justifies just about any form of behavior. Typically when someone makes a broad statement about something “everyone” believes all they’re really saying is that that is what THEY believe it, and that they can’t imagine how anyone could ever think about things differently.
Mate… I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if I don’t see the paper for myself, I’m inclined to be critical of your summary of it. I don’t disagree that it is plausible conservatives indeed are more wealthy, but you have too many assumptions in your comment for any proper conclusion to be taken.
And the idea about altruism isn’t really mine, it’s a very very old and still existing idea in philosophy. Of course it has proponents and opponents, but it hasn’t really been rejected to a degree sufficient to dismiss it, it just remains like pretty much all philosophical concepts, debated. So claiming it is false is a bit arrogant, especially without a proper argument. It would be like claiming free will exists or doesn’t exist with confidence (and this analogy is ironic because egoism is a significant part of the free will debate).
And btw, before you think I’m defending conservatives, you should know I’m a scientist, so I am critical of anything and everything until I see the evidence, and even then, I am critical of the way the evidence was gathered and how it was interpreted. I’m not trying to be “pedantic,” I’m trying to be accurate, because a minute twist on the truth makes it false.
I’ve actually gotten WAY more liberal/left as I’m aging. Almost 40 now and when I started my career as a cpa I was pretty hard core capitalist, although I’ve always been socially liberal and never voted R in my life. These days I’m like…tear this whole fuckin thing down and eat the rich lol I don’t care anymore.
They also say you get more conservative with the more money you make. Nope, I make six figures and am left as fk.
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Sorry there is lots of great discussion here and I’m just chiming in to say it’s cool you were able to track down and credit the artist (and put in that effort) for what appears to be like a screenshot meme
Yo, I have my misgivings about major corporations like Google and all… But Google Lens is a pretty great tool.
The older I got, the less I felt inclined to associate with made up political categories. Closer to what people call “left” than what they call “right”, but damn do people believe some dumb shit across the board.
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I’m glad that things worked well for you and that you’ve been able to carve out a good life!
Perhaps it would be worth considering that there are reasons a person might try to do things the same way as you and still fail to achieve the same level of comfort and success.
Not everyone has adults in their life poised to guide them well.
A major medical event in America can put someone into a financial hole that is incredibly difficult to escape.
You might be born stuck with a lousy local school system for the first 12 years of your education. Even excelling here, let’s say you get a full-ride scholarship to an ivy league university, what if you can’t leave home because your disabled parents need you?
There are so many things that can contribute to people falling behind, or never making any headway to begin with. Personally, I’ve been pretty lucky and I’m faring okay among my peers. I own a house and a car, I don’t have to check my bank account before I buy groceries or gas to see how much I can afford. But the system is filled with pitfalls and relies so much on pure luck for any given individual. The idea espoused by older generations that young people get more conservative as they get older basically relies on an “I got mine” attitude, which is one I personally cannot abide by.
It’s almost as if life is different for everyone. I tried to do exactly what the adults told me, except I grew up poor with learning disabilities and got booted out of the house at 18, therefore I do not get to have the “good life”?
Now I’m 38 with 2 kids and way too much student debt just to be able to even get the slightest leg up and be able to start a career. I will never own a home and I will not retire, even though I did everything the boomers set out for me.
Screw your pity, no one wants it. Society is against them and it is against you too, you’re just too blinded by your “good life” to see it so you’ll contribute to making it worse instead.
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You shouldn’t have had to live without to get where you wanted to be, that’s the point. We can and should make life more fair.
I wish some blood drinking occultist that runs the GOP would wind up going to Baba Yaga. That’d be great. He’d get eaten and his skin turned into the binding for a book.
Hey though that hut on chicken legs always had its choice of views. What with the constant spinning and all. And her security was pretty good too with fences made out of human bones.
