Okay, I am sorry to quote myself but this a topic I've picked over and embodied for years, both personally and professionally.
When I shot off a bird thread about it in the grocery store parking lot in October of 2021, it resonated with a lot of people so I'm going to reproduce my words here, where there may be a different or more nuanced discussion about it.
Here goes: getting older does not make people conservative, that's a myth made by conservatives. (1/_)
Ageing doesn't cause conservatism
(begin quote)
"Let's get something straight. Growing old doesn't make people #conservative. In fact the more marginalized identity statuses a person has, the LESS conservative they grow over time.
The reason we equate "old" with "conservative" is that #marginalization kills people off younger.
Some of the most radical people you know are old.
It's just a lot of others died before they could get there, so there's a diminishing proportion. (2/5)
There is a TON of research on this, I'm not just spitballing.
I've been in this field for decades. And I've watched the statistics I studied play out IRL over and over and over for myself and everyone I've known. (Including hundreds of clients.)
This is one of the reasons I'm so annoyed with the intergenerational divisiveness being pushed down all our throats. It's bullsht.
We have allies and enemies across every generation.
(3/_)
This is also related to the myth that "racism will die out" or "homophobia will die out" as older people die.
No, bigotry and fascistic attitudes *don't* just die out, they must be actively fought and defeated on an ongoing basis.
Because sometimes we make the mistake of thinking "Oh, the youth must not be bigoted like their forebears" but guess what.
If that were true we wouldn't have had the tiki torches or the terf explosion.
Allies and enemies in every generation.
(4/_)
(end quote of myself!)
Just as privilege accrues the older you get, ALSO marginalization and deprivation accrue. If you start out on the downside, you can end up much much worse off as you age.
Thank you to @mattalhonte for the following related link:
(5/5)
It's not a "rule," it's an inaccurate expectation of some politicians who have never consulted any sociologists during their election campaigns.
