5/2/2018 9:54:36 PM
Re TVO Agenda May one, on the fate of democracy. Steve, this time I had to write, even though it's terribly hard to figure out how to do it. I do not "do" social media because I'm tired of being tracked and recorded wherever I go, in our "free and democratic" society. I am willing to bet that young people fail to support "liberal democracy" as the best form of government, for the same reason that 15 years ago, high school girls were adamant that they were not feminists: because they do not know the standard/formal/academic meaning of the term. I talked with dozens of those girls, and every single one of them thought they should have the same rights, and same pay, etc. As men. They didn't realize that was what feminism *is*. "Social" and "liberal" mean way different things to the young now, because they're all wrapped up in "socialism" and "anti-common-man" media, "socialist" and (bleeding-heart)"liberal" mean in the circles "rightist"/pseudo-conservative social media bots and trolls inhabit, meaning, roughly, communist-like-in-Russia, and "collecting taxes ("stealing the money we worked for") to distribute to "friends of politicians. "
In some parts of that, they got the idea from somewhere that's not all wrong. It's on par with those who think that the form of government we have is called "capitalism. " Seriously. And again, it's not all that hard to figure out how they get the idea, however inaccurately it's named, in "dictionary language. "
Given that "the young" are more likely now than in past generations to also be poor, or at least precariously employed, they do not vote for the same reason as the poor do not: no one in government is on *their* side. And AFAICT, those who do vote tend overwhelmingly to do so in their own personal self-interest (at least as they perceive it), rather than in the good of our society, generally. Apologies for my long windedness. -- f.