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Gulf Coast
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Throwing this out as “a bad idea” to foster a convo:
What if enthusiast got together and started TESLA JR, basically taking the PPE from Tesla related to manufacturing the Cybertruck?
Think “franchisee” for production with Tesla providing the standards and post sale servicing.
If Tesla/@elonmusk are right about autonomy, then the robots can handle the building, Tesla can be relived of the intellectual drain from the CyberTruck (even if improvements slowed to a crawl).
Know it sounds crazy but food for thought!
cc @cybrtrkguy @cybertruck
For all those following @TMTLongShort (who’s currently on self-imposed X jail) he posted his post mortem on his temporary substack.
Calls out how we’ve got to stop shitting on zoomer men, and other things.
Worth a read and copied below.
cc @Bowtiedplayer
New post from JAPG.
Latest from @TMTLongShort
====================
FUENTES
I like most people my age (35) and in my profession (well off finance types) paid very little attention to Fuentes until now.
This was fairly easy to do as he is blacklisted on most of the popular social media platforms and has made sufficient incendiary statements that he is perceived as a “non-serious person” within the context of normal policy discussions and therefore political prognostication.
This was partially a function of his seeming lack of influence within Mar-a-Lago. Partially a function of his core demo being historically irrelevant to election outcomes outside of a handful of regional races. And obviously in part a function of his messaging being so bombastic as to seemingly discredit his core messages.
And before I go further I want to be clear. There are many things I disagree with Fuentes on.
I think cutting the nose off to spite the face was retarded. I think despite Fuentes having an above average IQ he falls very short of grasping what the admin was attempting to accomplish on the decoupling/geopol front and therefore is inciting anger over foreign policy that is directly oriented towards benefiting the young most white American male.
He is the equivalent of an impoverished heroin addict willing to shoot his dealer in the head for a hit even tho it will result in his going without another hit after that.
But his message needs to be heard. Because by having the power to destroy something you have power over it. And this week young male voters demonstrated that they have the power to destroy the Republican Party if they are not pacified.
Trump is now being held hostage. Whether he likes it or not.
Yes a lot of this is in fact trumps fault. He let the likes of Susie wiles convince him not to rock the boat too hard.
That the optics of corruption were ok. That lobbyists and donors were more valuable than being perceived as instruments of the voters will.
And most importantly they left a vacuum in two important ways that let the Fuentes’s of the world step in and wrest control of the minds of young men away.
A. They didn’t fucking communicate. They left it to a stewie pfp account on X to explain decoupling to the masses. They didn’t sit down and explain to the American people why Liberation Day happened and the value of re industrializing. Like I fucking told them they had to do btw. There should have been a Roosevelt style sit down with Trump on Rogan alongside Bessent explaining everything.
Would that have given China a strategic advantage by removing ambiguity? Yes of course.
Would that have crashed stocks temporarily? Yes of course.
But if polling was telling them they were going to lose midterms that should have been an acceptable price to pay. A blue sweep is more destructive to this country than China winning the fight for hegemony.
Because we just sent a message that the American people have zero tolerance for pain. Which means we just handed our adversaries carte blanche to do what they want knowing there is no credible threat of American intervention.
And downstream of this is now all our allies and vassals are scrambling to get out from under our protective umbrella.
Which in turn means they will sell US assets as it suits them and will ignore us on issues we care about as they see fit.
Much more on this in future posts but the main point is the cost of not communicating was very very high.
B. They overly prioritized the boomers finances without doing much for the zoomer. There should have been a federal house building effort on day one.
There should have been millions deported as a way to give young Americans jobs on day one.
…cont…
Latest from @TMTLongShort
====================
FUENTES
I like most people my age (35) and in my profession (well off finance types) paid very little attention to Fuentes until now.
This was fairly easy to do as he is blacklisted on most of the popular social media platforms and has made sufficient incendiary statements that he is perceived as a “non-serious person” within the context of normal policy discussions and therefore political prognostication.
This was partially a function of his seeming lack of influence within Mar-a-Lago. Partially a function of his core demo being historically irrelevant to election outcomes outside of a handful of regional races. And obviously in part a function of his messaging being so bombastic as to seemingly discredit his core messages.
And before I go further I want to be clear. There are many things I disagree with Fuentes on.
I think cutting the nose off to spite the face was retarded. I think despite Fuentes having an above average IQ he falls very short of grasping what the admin was attempting to accomplish on the decoupling/geopol front and therefore is inciting anger over foreign policy that is directly oriented towards benefiting the young most white American male.
He is the equivalent of an impoverished heroin addict willing to shoot his dealer in the head for a hit even tho it will result in his going without another hit after that.
But his message needs to be heard. Because by having the power to destroy something you have power over it. And this week young male voters demonstrated that they have the power to destroy the Republican Party if they are not pacified.
Trump is now being held hostage. Whether he likes it or not.
Yes a lot of this is in fact trumps fault. He let the likes of Susie wiles convince him not to rock the boat too hard.
That the optics of corruption were ok. That lobbyists and donors were more valuable than being perceived as instruments of the voters will.
And most importantly they left a vacuum in two important ways that let the Fuentes’s of the world step in and wrest control of the minds of young men away.
A. They didn’t fucking communicate. They left it to a stewie pfp account on X to explain decoupling to the masses. They didn’t sit down and explain to the American people why Liberation Day happened and the value of re industrializing. Like I fucking told them they had to do btw. There should have been a Roosevelt style sit down with Trump on Rogan alongside Bessent explaining everything.
Would that have given China a strategic advantage by removing ambiguity? Yes of course.
Would that have crashed stocks temporarily? Yes of course.
But if polling was telling them they were going to lose midterms that should have been an acceptable price to pay. A blue sweep is more destructive to this country than China winning the fight for hegemony.
Because we just sent a message that the American people have zero tolerance for pain. Which means we just handed our adversaries carte blanche to do what they want knowing there is no credible threat of American intervention.
And downstream of this is now all our allies and vassals are scrambling to get out from under our protective umbrella.
Which in turn means they will sell US assets as it suits them and will ignore us on issues we care about as they see fit.
Much more on this in future posts but the main point is the cost of not communicating was very very high.
B. They overly prioritized the boomers finances without doing much for the zoomer. There should have been a federal house building effort on day one.
There should have been millions deported as a way to give young Americans jobs on day one.
…cont…
…cont from @TMTLongShort
=====================
Don’t have the infrastructure in place? Cool you should taxed remittances at 80%. You should have fined and sued uber and Lyft and DoorDash and anyone else hiring illegals.
And you should have directly tied this to jobs for young people.
Performative and retarded? Of course it fucking is but you need to be seen as doing something.
By the same token there should have been a massive push to be seen punishing whoever enabled the people who shot Kirk. And if there wasn’t someone to blame they should have aggressively gone after adjacent groups anyways. To show they were listening to that demo and appreciated their loss.
To be honest a lot of the issue is old school republicans didn’t have the guts or temperament for any of this.
And that isn’t exactly fully trumps fault.
But to say he couldn’t have done anything is a fucking lie.
And while writing this out is cathartic for my rage it’s mostly because I am trying to predict where the admin goes next.
So why am I bringing up Fuentes now?
Because he is about to be the most important person in politics.
Because he has now demonstrated he has leverage. He has power.
Whether I like it or not (I don’t) he is powerful and ascendant.
And so as a rational person in the admin if you want to prevent massive collateral damage you need to scramble and hijack the movement while you still can otherwise they will continue to look to Fuentes and others like him for guidance and that is a much uglier world.
You need to attack the price level. Not the rate of change. You need to impoverish boomers to benefit zoomers. You need to find new scapegoats for the zoomer pain by targeting external trade partners to diffuse domestic tension lest we turn into another France with zoomers fighting boomers. You need to directly tie AI dominance with jobs for zoomers and you need to roll out legislation protecting their ability to find a job and earn an income by ensuring AI productivity and profits are captured domestically and taxed.
This will be my focus going forward.
I will try to figure out how we can navigate appeasing young people without burning it all down.
This is now the most important problem of our time.
China takes a backseat. It is relevant only to the degree that it impacts jobs for young men immediately. I no longer care about five years from now. I did before. I was wrong. We won’t last as a country if we let the anger of the zoomer fester. It will turn violent and we are a country with guns.
For now I’m still processing. I’m thinking out loud as I write. I enjoyed the prospect of intelligent people like Bessent coming to Washington with a plan. I am now far more depressed seeing how people like Susie, Bondi and others managed to fuck it up.
We can still salvage this. Never blackpill. But the moment is dire and the kids are angry 🫡
Full article & discussion at:
justanotherpodguy.substack.c…
What went wrong
We have sacrificed zoomers on the alter of boomers and now they are having their revenge
JustAnotherPodGuyNov 05, 2026
I have spent the last day reflecting on what went wrong. I called for a Republican sweep despite every indicator - betting markets, election polls, consumer sentiment surveys - pointing to this being a near impossibility.
So what went wrong and what are my takeaways?
First I want to make clear that there is no equivocation. My framing was badly broken.
But I am not apologetic. I made the mistake of miscalculating a critical input and my call was downstream of that.
I owe you guys nothing and I am here freely sharing my ideas and you are free to ignore them or call me a retard.
IDGAF. It really doesn’t bother me.
If you find this morally reprehensible feel free to fuck off.
People who engage my ideas civilly I make it a point of engaging with back. Those who simply sling insults get blocked. I try to be intellectually honest.
I am however not a cuck and feel no obligation to engage in humiliation rituals by letting people chirp in bad faith in my comments because it makes them feel good. Fuck that.
What bothers me most is being wrong. And I’m on here because I become less wrong faster when there is immediate pushback.
Now let’s dive into my analysis of where I fucked up and what it means for my core thesis.
I’ll start with the headline and then outline the upstream and downstream consequences.
A. There was a plan. Decoupling was being attempted. Hegemony was prioritized as the objective.
I knew this to be a fact not just because of the actions of the admin which I was accused of explaining away after the fact….but also because after my original decoupling posts went viral multiple people in the admin reached out and all but affirmed how they saw the world and what they were attempting.
B. Execution was atrocious. I assumed the same intellect that was capable of putting together a complex plan to address re-industrializing and containing China was capable of navigating the domestic flank.
I fucked up. Mea culpa.
C. What they missed is what I missed.
The young male American isn’t demoralized.
They are fucking livid.
They want to burn it all down and are willing to vote straight down the ballot blue despite being more right-wing than anyone in MAGA just to send a message that they can’t be ignored.
D. The admin thought they had time. They thought they could rely on the boomer vote to tide them over until the next cycle and by then re-industrialization would be driving prosperity for all.
They thought they didn’t need to communicate.
They thought they didn’t need to prioritize the bribes I said they needed to ameliorate the pain they were causing.
They thought they couldn’t crash housing because it would be too expensive politically with the Boomer class.
They thought the electorate looked like past midterm cycles. Boomers driving results with a focus on how well their stock portfolios were doing.
They thought only moderate increases in gas prices which remained well below the highs of the Biden era weren’t catastrophic.
They thought they had more time and they (and I) were fucking wrong.
In short they admin focused on the boomer and ignored the zoomer rationalizing it by reasoning that they were doing everything in service of the future the zoomers would inherit and like fucking retards forgot that zoomers are highly transactional, have no felt allegiance to the Republican Party that has prioritized boomers at every turn, and that social media and figures like Fuentes would mobilize a response mechanism that would fuck every measure of voter turnout in the complete opposite direction of what I and everyone in the prognostication business thought was reasonable.
The conclusion I come to is that we have no more rope.
Both sides will need to pivot hard to fighting for the zoomer vote instead of the boomer.
Housing needs to be crashed.
cont
…
Wealth effect impacts be dammed.
We need to retreat into Pax Americana. There is no participating with Europe or the global stage anymore.
Not in any meaningful way. Not until we have our house in order.
You guys won’t like this. You’ll be pissed at me. You’ll call me a groyper.
Idgaf. I’m being a realist.
The only way to prevent communism is to hear the message being sent by the young American male while we can still address those concerns without things devolving into race wars and socialism.
We need to take from the boomers and give to the zoomers. It’s the only way to save the system.
Because these kids are activated in a way I never thought possible and they’ve been radicalized.
I didn’t realize how badly they were affected by the Kirk assassination. How much corruption wasn’t what they had a problem with… what they had a problem with was blatant corruption while they were being economically ignored and impoverished.
I didn’t appreciate that yes the AI capex buildout is benefiting the median blue collar in middle American. But the median skilled trades person is actually a boomer. I didn’t appreciate that and i fucked up.
Mea culpa again.
My prior construct of how geopol works remains completely unchanged. What has changed is my belief this admin has the competence to even attempt to address those structural issues.
I thought the Bessent wing had rope. They don’t.
The JD wing will now be empowered. Isolationism and a focus on domestic affordability. But with massive tariff walls erected. And with copious amounts of communication.
Communicating what you are doing is now more important than substantive long term wins. This is the new world. Deal with it.
I want Europe and Canada to burn but not because of China anymore. I want them to burn as the cost of giving jobs to young people.
And I want them to be made the enemy so that all the anger isn’t directed towards American boomers.
Europeans are protectionist. They flood us with exports just like China costing American jobs. And they want us to protect them. Fuck that.
That’s the message.
And l stocks no longer matter.
Crashing the market is fine because the wealth effect isn’t win we thought it was. Zoomers would prefer gdp shrink if it looks like they are getting a chance to catch up even if its value destructive.
Everyone that’s on this app is going to hate me now. The Europeans will hate me. The finance guys will hate me. The Canadians will hate me. The homeowners will hate me. The boomers will hate me. The traditional repubs will hate me.
Thats fine. I’m telling it how I see it.
If you want the young male American to vote for you they need something now. Not in two years from now. Right fucking now.
And the only solution is to go to war with the boomers.
And the Europeans.
Economic war.
And you need to tell a story about weaponizing AI to benefit the young American male. If you don’t we lose AI too.
(I promised not to post on twitter for thirty days and I’m a man of my word but writing is cathartic for me and this is how I’m coping with twitter jail - feel free to share if you feel like it)
🫡
justanotherpodguy.substack.c…
J. Edward retweeted
Before the midterm elections, I had several GPF subscribers asking if the Republicans lose control of the House or Senate, whether it will make much difference to the U.S.’s geopolitical actions globally.
My field is geopolitics, and this is in a way a political question. However, in my work I have encountered an oddity in the United States, a demonstrable, consistent set of cycles. One is socio-economic, with a crisis occurring every 50 years, with the last one taking place in the 1970s. I also found a consistent cycle of institutional crises every 80 years, with the last one climaxing about 80 years ago, in 1945.
I wrote a book on this, “The Next 100 Years,” forecasting that the 2020s would be the first time both cycles shifted at roughly the same time. It would therefore be a more disrupted cycle, with the disruption and restructuring of American society, economy and institutions creating massive tension. That was published in 2009. In a later book, “The Storm Before the Calm,” I forecast that the election of 2028 would signal the beginning of the end of both cycles and a radically new, increasingly stable and significantly different socio-economic and institutional system. Since then I have developed some thoughts on why the United States reinvents itself with such regularity, but I have not fully thought them out yet.
In my view politics is the outcome of these cycles and not the cause of them. I think we are nearing the end of the instability that emerged during the first part of the decade, and will stabilize toward the end of the decade, beginning after 2028. So I do not look at the political tension we are experiencing as the cause of the current crisis, but as an outcome of the cyclical crisis. The U.S. has spent this decade reinventing itself, a disruptive and at times unpleasant experience, but one that is nearing its end, that will not be fully in place until nearer the end of the decade.
As I have said, I am still working through the foundations of these cycles, but the political unrest is in my mind the product of the cycle and in that sense a clearing of the table in preparation for the beginning of a new and significantly different cycle. The political instability, along with the social, economic and institutional instability, is the effect, not the driver of this cyclical process.
Liar.
You’ve actively sought to thwart any meaningful change.
Over the last two years, Senate Republicans have put up a strong record of accomplishment that’s created safer streets, more money in Americans’ pockets, and new opportunities for families and businesses to get ahead. After fighting Democrat obstruction at every turn, we prevented the largest tax hike in American history, secured our border in an unprecedented way, confirmed the president’s Cabinet at the fastest pace in two decades, and put strong conservative judges on benches across the country faster than we have since the Reagan administration. I’m proud of our team and everything we’ve done for the American people, and I’m looking forward to the important work we have in front of us over the next few months. As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done. Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House, and we’ll work with him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism. We cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream.
One of the hardest lessons for young men to learn is to be able to distinguish compromise from corruption.
Shades of grey; rarely black and white.
A difficult truth,
@MascMillennial @Bowtiedplayer
Leaning how to sus out compromise from corruption is one of the hardest lessons for young men to learn.
An execellent take on the dating & mating hellscape.
A friend sent me a couple of great and exhaustive articles from @GirlsChase that summed up well how we old-timers, Millennials, have seen the landscape change (article below). Here are the main points (for the second article, check the quotes):
Why Did Men Quit Trying to Learn to Seduce Women?
1) The shift from the Bad Boy to Chad
=> Historically, men believed they could become more attractive by adopting the behaviours of the archetypal bad boy.
=> The bad boy was seen as a character you could develop through confidence, rebellion, independence, and social skills.
=> The emergence of the Chad archetype changed the perception of attractiveness from something acquired to something innate.
=> Men increasingly believe attractiveness depends on genetics, height, facial structure and muscularity.
=> This creates a fatalistic attitude: either you are Chad, or you aren't.
=> Consequently, men stop investing in seduction because they believe their physical limitations make learning it pointless.
The transition from behavioural improvement to perceived genetic determinism has destroyed men's belief in their capacity to become attractive.
2) Hookup culture has replaced relationships as the default aspiration
=> Historically, the average unsuccessful man primarily wanted a girlfriend.
=> Hookups were considered exceptional rather than the standard outcome.
=> The rise of Tinder, hookup culture, mainstream sexual liberation and pickup artistry changed men's expectations.
=> Men increasingly believe women are constantly having casual sex with highly attractive men.
=> Consequently, being considered boyfriend or husband material is perceived as an insult rather than an achievement.
=> Men resent having to invest in relationships when they believe other men receive sex without commitment.
=> However, many of these men have not developed the attractiveness or seduction skills required for casual sex.
=> They reject relationship opportunities they might otherwise get because they believe they can't access the casual encounters they want.
=> The result is frustration, resentment and withdrawal from dating.
Men's sexual expectations have increased without a corresponding improvement in their ability to fulfil them.
3) The decline of self-help and personal transformation
=> The self-help industry historically encouraged individuals to believe they could improve their circumstances through learning and effort.
=> Younger generations have become increasingly sceptical of motivational speakers, gurus and self-improvement promises.
=> Many men now prefer philosophy, Stoicism or acceptance-oriented thinking.
=> Rather than attempting to improve their dating outcomes, they rationalise accepting their current circumstances.
=> The philosophy of being authentic becomes a justification for refusing behavioural change.
=> Men doubt both the effectiveness of seduction techniques and their own ability to implement them.
=> As a result, they dismiss even practical advice before testing it.
Men have moved from a culture of self-transformation towards one of resignation and acceptance.
4) Dating apps and social media have created tunnel vision
=> Dating apps prioritise pictures and physical presentation.
=> Real-world seduction relies more heavily on behaviour, confidence, conversation and social intelligence.
=> Success in online dating does not necessarily translate into real-world success, or vice versa.
=> Men increasingly use dating apps to avoid rejection, approach anxiety and uncomfortable social interactions.
=> Poor results online lead men to believe their chances offline must be even worse.
=> This reinforces the idea that looks determine everything.
=> Dating apps become psychological silos that discourage men from developing real-world skills.
=> Men increasingly attempt to meet women through Instagram DMs.
=> Social media creates an illusion of unlimited access to attractive women.
=> However, an unsolicited DM offers little opportunity to demonstrate charisma, confidence, or social competence.
=> Men receive little feedback about why their messages fail.
=> They consequently invent explanations based on height, wealth, status and genetics.
=> They then project these assumptions onto real-world dating.
=> Men mistake the limitations of digital interaction for universal truths about female attraction.
Digital dating environments obscure the importance of behavioural attraction and convince men that seduction skills are irrelevant.
5) Increased awareness of female mating strategies
=> Historically, men were more likely to accept women's descriptions of themselves as loyal, relationship-oriented and sexually selective.
=> The internet, Red Pill and manosphere communities exposed men to less flattering interpretations of female mating behaviour.
=> Men believe women are promiscuous, disloyal, hypergamous and primarily interested in exceptionally attractive men.
=> Men have overgeneralised these observations.
=> Many men now assume that most women cheat, have high body counts, regularly sleep with Chads or will eventually divorce them.
=> The universality of these assumptions points to declining sexual activity and divorce rates.
=> This pessimistic perception makes relationships appear transactional and unrewarding.
=> Men consequently question whether women are worth the effort required to attract them.
=> The perceived return on investing in seduction becomes increasingly unattractive.
Greater awareness of potentially exploitative dating dynamics has developed into widespread distrust, reducing men's motivation to pursue women.
6) Declining testosterone and masculine motivation
=> Male testosterone levels have declined dramatically since the 1970s, b approximately 62% by 2026.
=> He connects testosterone with libido, ambition, competitiveness, risk-taking and sexual motivation.
=> Reduced testosterone makes men more passive and less interested in pursuing women.
=> Lower sexual motivation reduces the willingness to tolerate rejection and the difficulties of learning seduction.
=> Men consequently lack the internal drive to acquire the necessary skills.
Part of men's declining interest in seduction to biological changes that allegedly reduce their sexual motivation.
7) The seduction community has acquired a negative reputation
=> The original pickup movement promised that virtually any man could learn to attract women.
=> It sometimes suggested that seduction could become easy and that techniques could work on almost anyone.
=> These promises created unrealistic expectations.
Men who failed to achieve the advertised results became disillusioned.
=> Critics portrayed pickup artistry as manipulative, sleazy, ineffective, misogynistic or ridiculous.
=> Some men rejected it because they believed it did not work.
=> Others rejected it precisely because they believed it worked through manipulation.
=> Many ordinary men nevertheless benefited from overcoming approach anxiety and improving their social skills.
=> However, the negative public reputation overshadowed those improvements.
=> The Red Pill gradually replaced practical seduction instruction with grievances, generalisations and simplified advice.
=> As experienced teachers disappeared or lost credibility, technical knowledge became harder to transmit.
Seduction lost cultural legitimacy as a learnable discipline, while the movement that replaced it increasingly prioritised explanations and grievances over practical competence.
8) The disappearance of successful role models and visible examples
=> Historically, men could observe naturally charismatic men succeeding with women despite lacking conventional physical attractiveness.
=> These examples demonstrated that confidence, humour, social intelligence and behavioural skills could compensate for physical limitations.
=> Genuinely skilled natural seducers are less visible.
The decline of pickup communities has reduced opportunities to observe experienced practitioners.
=> In-field footage has become less common because of platform restrictions, criticism, privacy concerns and reputational risks.
=> Online content increasingly features superficial pickup attempts or entertainment-focused rejection videos.
=> Men therefore lack compelling demonstrations that seduction can work.
=> Without positive examples, they become more convinced that physical appearance determines outcomes.
Men no longer see enough evidence of ordinary-looking men succeeding through social skill, so they stop believing such success is possible.
9) Economic decline, social isolation and the disappearance of third places
=> Economic pressures have increased men's anxiety about their futures.
=> Stagnating wages, housing unaffordability and rising living costs make dating seem less important.
=> Some men enter prolonged periods of financial self-improvement or monk mode, postponing relationships until they feel financially secure.
=> This leaves them socially underdeveloped.
=> Meanwhile, digital entertainment and screen addiction have reduced face-to-face socialisation.
=> Traditional third places such as malls, cafés and communal gathering spaces have declined or become less accessible.
=> Men have fewer opportunities to meet people organically.
=> Reduced social interaction weakens basic conversational and interpersonal skills.
=> Poor social competence makes learning seduction considerably harder.
=> This difficulty discourages men from trying to improve.
=> Economic stress and social isolation therefore reinforce one another.
Men increasingly lack the financial security, social infrastructure and interpersonal foundations necessary to develop seduction skills.
The three shifts:
Belief: Men no longer believe that becoming attractive is within their control.
Motivation: Men question whether pursuing women is worth the effort.
Opportunity: They lack the social environments, role models and practical experiences required to learn.
Men don't want to seduce women as much, if at all, because they don't want to work more than what others got for less, and they have gradually lost the belief, desire, and social conditions needed to learn.
Lyn - directionally I get the pushback on treating Anakin as an ideal. Deliberate child-killing and the emo empire-seeking collapse are fair things to flag as flaws in the character. Water is wet after all.
What's missed is where the identification is coming from.
You have a generation that’s been failed by the ones above it (Xers and Millennials got versions of this too, but not to the same degree).
When Zoomers finally find some scrap of culture they can latch onto to express a real frustration (powerlessness, institutional rot, no clear path that doesn’t feel rigged), the older cohorts don’t try to parse the substance.
Especially not when the young lack the shared artifacts to shorthand the experience more cleanly. So they use what’s at hand, however imperfect.
Pointing out the flaws is fair but using the imperfect vessel as a blanket reason to dismiss the underlying signal and the systemic issues it points at is not.
Reads a bit like “this letter can’t have any truth in it because I don’t like the font.”
A rare miss from you.
"...every normal process of human life...has been made so unattainable they'll never have them. And so corrupt they hardly even want them."
An excellent, and tragic, observsation.
When millennials, gen z, and soon to be alpha say that life is ruined. They don't mean they had to walk to school, work a bit extra to pay a bill, or got rejected once. Nor are they saying they had a horrible childhood or rough life, as many older people did.
They are saying that every normal process of human life, from housing, to relationships, pleasant public spaces, to employment, basic hobbies, and beyond. Has been made so unattainable they'll never have them. And so corrupt they hardly even want them.
There is nothing worth striving for, and they aren't allowed to strive for it anyway.
Everywhere they look are signs of decay, with almost no signs of hope.
They are stuck in an eternal night, that only promises to get darker, and their lantern is almost out of fuel.
Interesting observation.
Have noticed how the younger generations can fail to parse nuance, get the basics of tech (e.g. file structures), and basically be suckers-for-the-new (read: cargo-cult'ers).
Just assumed it was ignorance of youth but perhaps there's more.
cc @joshlessard200
