In praticular the mainly American kind of agism, and more specifically towards the younger people I’ve noticed, as an example: a 17 year old is somehow a child and knows absolutely nothing, but an 18 year old is suddenly a full grown adult that’s expected to do everything on their own now right away, unless it’s inconvenient in whatever conversation is occuring, then that 18 year old is still a “kid” when in another conversation they’re an “adult”, which I’ve never seen anyone point out whatsoever when it occurs, and with it also the “groomer” and “paedophilia” hysteria the American media is endlessly pushing onto the people and causing further age hierarchy and superiorites among the people (said “groomer” and “paedophilia” panic also being used against the LGBT+ community), only intensifying these points. I’m sure I’m not the only one noticing this trend, it’s overwhelmingly everywhere on the internet now in one form or another and has become or is becoming the norm beyond just America, it’s spread to other regions and is gradually becoming more and more prominent with each year, even in my day to day life now I’m noticing ageism becoming slightly ingrained in society with time, it’s now normal in certain societies and the internet as a whole to discriminate against an adolescent and harass them solely over their age or for doing anything even remotely hinting at sexual behaviour or any form of romantic relationship between them and others - basically anything and everything that can be used to discrimate against that adolescent will be used against them I’ve noticed (and in the case of older people: discriminating against them solely for being too old or talking to people younger then them), causing people to be treated on the basis of “higher number = human decency, too high or low of a number = discrimination, isolation, and harassment” and call pretty much anyone that doesn’t agree with them on this as a “paedophile” with full acceptance from the internet and certain societies as a whole - and completely distorting what that term even actually means, very remenisent of the red scare to an eerie degree (same exact way some Americans and especially the bourgeois and media call any social democrat a “communist” without even knowing what “communist” actually means - or purposefully leaving that detail out and creating a whole new definition of it by lying over and over again in the case of the latter, but now applied to age and with “paedophile” instead). To me it’s yet another way to divide us through hysteria and lies, it solely exists to weaken us, keep us afraid, keep us divided, and keep us biting at one another over anything and everything, be it skin colour, nationality, religion, hobbies, biology, sexual orientation, gender, language, or age, instead of looking to the roots of our systematic suffering and uniting in solidarity to end it, it’s nothing new whatsoever, especially from the United States who’s notorious for setting these trends in the first place, but nevertheless extremely saddening to see be pushed upon the masses until it becomes the norm in one form or another, adding further to our already fragmented and disjointed world and causing further suffering for everyone, be it young or old. Though what are you’re thoughts of this my fellow comrades? I’d love to see others’ analysations of this trend.
What I find peculiar about age discourse in online anglophone social media is that it’s especially Euro-American centric.
Of course over here we have the same old elders who reminisce about a time that has passed, many on the supposed destruction of traditional values. Hell, my country was the progenitor of the infamous “Asian values”, which I would say is a prime example of what Amin calls reverse Eurocentrism or backward-looking culturalism.
But what I see in age discourse is rarely that, instead, it becomes a sort of individualistic free-for-all where each age group complains about the perceived slight that another age group had inflicted on them.
A lot of what I seem to see in Amerika is the effect of an hyper individualist consumer culture, that they propagate in their youth the rugged individualism and settler dream of owning your own land and house. Pushed to the extreme, an artificial age threshold is set where you must move out and be “independent” (a settler) or be perceived as free-loaders. That is when you become an adult.
Everyone seems to know about the trans generational homes in a lot of Global South societies. I see that as a stark contrast to this “ageism”.
So I do have to wonder if this ageism actually manifests to more than just rhetoric by disgruntled teenagers online, or heavily propagandized boomers. And what I mean by this is that does age (-ism) truly assert itself within a social structure, of a similar pervasiveness to that of, for example, race (-ism)? Does it have a mechanism of self-reproduction? (Besides the obvious role in social reproduction).
That final question is important because I think if it doesn’t - if it’s merely an expression of other aspects of culture and the economy, than it’s use as a unit of analysis falls away quite quickly beyond a primarily descriptive typology. Because unlike all the other things you mentioned, like gender, race or sexuality, everyone, if not artificially shortened by NATO drones, will grow old and will follow through the indoctrination and economic processes @muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml described.
Regardless, vulgar ageism, of which your traits are predetermined solely by your age, is, well, infantile. It definitely is ridiculous and I don’t think anyone here will disagree to that.
Also, please format paragraphs. It’ll make your post much more readable.