True. Esp apparent to an American who’s lived in places where ‘oldness’ is not despised or feared and generations mix freely. Where spaces contain 80 year olds and 50 year olds and 25 year olds and no one doubts that all could have a good conversation.
Americans have a real problem with older people and the concept of aging. The culture is rife with ageism.
It’s going to official bite us in the ass if we don’t address it. Wow.
And when you say this, everyone has a caveat - we would call any requirement for any demographic to give a 'purity test' of how Good They Are before we should care about them what it is...but younger people seem to have thrown every single person over 70 onto the Boomer Bus until proven otherwise.
Call me crazy but I look at folks from other generations and don’t automatically see an enemy. And I don’t talk about what ‘Gen Whatever’ as a collective has done/will do/does do to me. Too much to ask, I guess
We definitely have a systemic problem with aging and the aged, as well as a personal one. Another true thing is that an enormous amount of our elected officials are over 70, because of incumbency, and it is not representative. Both things can be true.
I care for my two disabled elderly parents, I see our abandonment as a people up close every day. I also hear from my 19 year old cleaner that she doesn't know why to vote for these people who strike her as disconnected and out of touch.
