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.
Yet another peeled layer in the shit onion that is America. On the flip side one can thank them, who needs drugs to open ones mind to endless alternative possibilities when this system shows us endless angles of misery?
I think it’s a natural consequence of the material conditions. The oldest lived in a time when the economy allowed great opportunity to become rich, the middle aged received a medium amount of opportunities, and us young Americans got fucked.
This also reflects in class membership (most bourgeois are old or older and white as the US has always maintained it’s apartheid despite virtue signalling with movements and laws that never changed the status quo when it came to property ownership/wealth) and the politics thereof advocated.
However, the size of the bourgeois class to the proletarian class defines the fallacy that is subscribing to the ageist idea instead of Marxism: The bourgeois class is, has always been, and will always be smaller than the proletarian class, and thus the majority of old Americans’ interests align with the proletarian class as class determines politics. One can demonstrate this by visiting a local hospital or “old folks home”, how many rich old people do you see? The country is filled with non-rich old people, and even though the big bourgeoisie are indeed predominately old white men, that does not mean all old white men or all old people are the bourgeoisie.
There is also the asterisk, the anomaly of the poor identifying as the middle class. I believe this is a mix of the economic environment the old workers spent most of their developing years in, as well as the faith the bourgeoisie have earned from them in that time and so they are more likely to drink the koolaid, to ask how high when told to jump, etc…
There are other contradictions such as specific characteristics of either age group which do not correlate to economics/politics which lays this nonsense bare as well such as if old people are the enemy and thus they control society, why aren’t loud cars blasting music considered terrorism? Why are prescriptions not free for all old people? Why are “retirement homes” hellholes? Many many many holes in this scenario.