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Clarke Wood's avatar

That was a brilliant article. The amazing thing I see in social media is there is veritable horde of people that do not realize they are in a class war and do not know which side they are on.

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Davis Thomas T Glover's avatar

Thanks again Nora, your insights are always appreciated. I am 58 almost 59, I was arrested protesting free-trade & other Predatory capitalist policies but after watching what happens to the Truth these days have considered just giving up.

The NeoFacists are controlling the narrative & progressives are to busy fighting among themselves to care.

Poilievre will be a disaster for Cda & they'll blame Trudeau just as they've blamed him for the result of Harper's Legacy

Canadians have somehow missed the post & are now handing the nation back to a regime hell bent on dismantling what's left of our social democracy.

People already can't afford healthcare but Trudeau broke his promise on electoral reform & created massive debt (which doesn't actually matter).

Austerity for the masses will pay for deregulation & more tax cuts.

Pierre has made it clear he will gut Cda like a Cod & the majority cam survive on the entrails because Trudeau.

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g beemer's avatar

Agree. I’m 64, joined a union at 18, led a strike at 25, protested free trade, fought for pay equity, bought fair trade, bought local, advocated for the vulnerable, (currently work part time at a shower for the homeless), protested discrimination and racism in the workplace, my wife the same. All that sacrifice and fighting feels worthless now as we have lost. Neoliberalism have become too entrenched, the powerful too powerful and the younger generation lack the tools, support and guidance to understand the power of collective action. After four years of Poilievre they will be shell shocked. I continue to argue with my boomer colleagues who complain that the youth are entitled and unwilling to work. We partied all summer, had negligible tuition, no competition from women or racialized people for jobs, and complain about entitlement, its rich. The boomers never paid their share, gave up on collectivity, swallowed the neoliberal pablum, and irreparably harmed those who followed.

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Jen Shaw (nee Christie)'s avatar

This is so insightful and good. I thought maybe it was just agriculture who had all these programs for “young” people that went up to like 45 cause the farm population is declining so fast. I didn’t give much consideration that this really is in so many spaces & why that is. The ongoing infantilization, consumption, and then using all this to prevent “youth” from rocking the boat. If I didn’t already want to scream today after all the JT takes, I certainly do now.

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Jim Stewart's avatar

Well written synopsis of a generation that needs to fulfill a mature role in society. .. though..

I am left with a darker thought .. Trump will benefit those who sit atop the economy.

This is the worst aspect of populism.

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Heather F's avatar

Wow! Amazing article! Thanks

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P E R S E P H O N E's avatar

Once again you manage to say all the things I have been thinking over the last couple of decades but that I don’t have the skills or background to fully articulate. This would be a fantastic topic for a book, especially if it looks at the invention of childhood in our society & how that carries through to so much else. I think about this a lot as a former high school teacher & current parent to a young child, especially now that I am sick & disabled to the point of being unable to work. The confluence of these things has made me realize just how insidious capitalist culture is in shaping who & what we believe we are practically from the moment we are born, & how it feels impossible to even subvert this unless you have a great deal of wealth as a parent, which obviously most of us millennials don’t.

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Eleanor M Owens's avatar

Love this article. I had a suspicion we were being infantilized deliberately to disempower us, and you've explained it so well. Our generation was told we were privileged since we were children--and when you've been told your whole life you're privileged, you feel like you don't have the right to ask for anything of your country or of your leaders. I guess that was the point.

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Daphne Gordon's avatar

Ulp

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