Is everyone here on the forum under 25?

48-2/3.

Age does not determine wisdom.

 

Im 16 years old....

 

One of the smartest, most knowledgeable posters in the history of the forum was 17 when he posted. I wish he was still here...

 

Who was that?

 

I think it is an unfair generalization. There are some young people here who are quite knowledgeable and lay out their arguments logically.

On the other hand there are some young people here who have just enough knowledge to shoot their mouths off while making very little sense. They usually throw out phrases like "innocent until proven guilty", "separation of church and state", and "clear and present danger" in a completely fallacious and meaningless context...then again, there are a lot of older posters who do the same thing.

 

If it's who I think it is, he was the most mentally unstable as well.

 

O NO NO NO...it wasn't him.

I was thinking of WhiteFox.

 

That is very true, Perriquine.

However, experience, which comes with age and maturity, often prevents you from making the same mistakes over and over each time!

Besides, most "conservatives" I know are conservative on some issues and liberal on other issues. I am a centrist and an independent. Consequently, I too am a fiscal conservative but I support gay rights issues and a woman's right to choose.

I sincerely believe strictly religious views should be left out of politics.

Unfortunately, most if not all of the liberals in this group apply the “cookie cutter” concept to a person’s politics. You are either a misguided “conservative” or an enlightened “liberal” when it comes to any and all issues!



The foolish Democrats are debt addicts and just don't know when to stop spending! With the Federal debt of $14.3 trillion amounting to $185,000 for every family of four, at some point we have to concede that the federal checkbook has its limits. Cuts in spending are only a start, other programs need to be abolished or radically changed. ... The old guard Democrats and old guard Republicans have been in Congress far too long. They are too beholden to special interest groups to have the good of average, typical Americans in mind.

 

Remind us who ran up that debt from the time it was about $1 trillion when Reagan took office.

 

Correction, until the bank comes and gets it you own a dollhouse. Wonder what neighborhood it's in? The taxes alone will probably eat up her allowance, college savings account, and whatever she is making from that illegal lemonade stand.

 

Honestly, there is a large percentage of my generation (I'm 21) that are sheltered and apathetic to a pathetic level.

At the same time a lot of my generation had to grow up fast. We are the generation that grew up in the era of uncertainty. We saw the horror of 9/11 as children and then lived through the unsettling times of the war on terror, the cold war era-esque fear of anything not American. We grew up in this environment, and some of us at least were listening. Some of us realized that "Hey, things are changing. We don't feel safe anymore and mom and dad are always on edge."

Now that we're older we are still feel the change. We aren't ignorant, at least not all of us. We realize that the US as a whole is changing. What I personally see most is this: We are no long interested as a nation in being unified. Politics and government has turned into an US or THEM mentality. Its no longer about what's best for the PEOPLE of this country.

Last of all...some of us are responsible for ourselves. I'm working full time at a hospital to pay for my own bills, my own tuition, my own car and car insurance.


I guess what I'm trying to say is don't label us all as lazy, apathetic, and unaware.

Some of us have been listening pretty intently to the older generation and how it's been dealing with the problems of the last decade. And frankly...we aren't all that impressed.

 

I just experienced a perfect example of youth vs. age.

I just went down to the store to get me some lunch and I decided to try the new Cheetos - Fiery Fusion ('sizzlin' cayenne & cheese). Having experience hot chips before, I only put a couple of chips in my mouth at first to test them. Let me tell you, "Fiery Fusion" is an understatement.

One of my "younger" employees came into my office. He saw the chips and asked me if they were any good. I told he that they were, but they were pretty hot. I then asked him if he wanted some.

Well the "kid" took a handful of chips and put them in his mouth. After about 20 seconds, the "kid" began to looked like a fish as he started to gasp for breath. His eyes started to water as he was staring at my soda, contemplating whether it was worth killing me over. He start to reach up to wipe his eyes. I told him "You don't want to do that", and said the word "that" just as he started rubbing his eyes. Well, cayenne pepper on a person's hands as they are rubbing their eye does not provide much relief.

Needless to say, my soda was safe, as it suddenly became irrelevant. The kid started running "towards" the bathroom. I say "towards" as he bounced off of every wall on his way to said bathroom.

Bottom line - experience means that you know better then to shove a bunch of hot chips into your mouth until your know their intensity. You also are wise enough not to rub your eyes after handling chips with cayenne pepper.

Granted age doesn't mean that you have learned these lessons in life, but it does mean that you have probably had more opportunities to learn these lessons.

I felt honored to see this "kid" gain wisdom right in front of me.

 

It's ridiculous to think your view of the world doesn't change throughout your entire life.

When you graduate from school, you'll feel different than you did as a student.

Your outlook on the world will also change

When you land your first great job...
When you lose your first great job...
When you buy your first home...
When you get married to the love of your life...
When you divorce the love of your life...
When your first child is born...
When your mother dies...
When your father dies...
When you have to face a serious illness...

Chances are, every single one of these events will happen to every single young person who posts on this forum at some point in their life... and lots of other 'lifechanging' events as well.

Until you experience those kind of things, you really have no way of putting things like politics into the proper perspective.

It's fun to hear the opinions of young posters because they have an innocent way of looking at things most of us old seasoned veterans of life lost a long time ago.

Doesn't make you smarter than the average bear, though. Just means you haven't lived long enough to know any better.

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/current-events/203898-national-debt-has-increased-4-trillion-under-obama.html

 

While attempting to restructure an economy and provide health care for the American public. And yes, I admit the attempt was poor.

 

You don't need to live all that to understand how goes the world. WIth a bit of observation and logic, you can understand the world very well.

You can know about politics into proper perspective before many of that things. When you get older, you get conservative, but in the sense that you become less combative. You won't try to change the things like a young. Although I've known old people more combative than many young.

The things, is that when you're older you have more things to lose, so your mind changes. For example you love someone, you have children, all these things are a chain to you, and make you become more conservative, accept the things like it comes, and more if you're living acceptably well. Or you've become greedy enough to want more, more and more, so you change your beliefs of when you were young to something that it will make stronger your position, in an individualist and egoist vision.

It is what means becoming older, normally. For example, my parents are more conservative than me, age and less information than me. Yes, many old people have less access to the information than the youngers, so youngers think differently.

 

Point is... life changes. And people change right along with it. As do their views of the world. But LOL @ you having more 'information' than your parents. Maybe over dinner some night, you could tell them what life in your homeland was like in 1976, according to the 'information' you have access to, but they don't.

It's not that activists with 2 sets of twins quit caring about the welfare of whales, it's just not a priority anymore. That's where young activists come in.

 

Not sure anyone on this thread thinks that. Your view of the world changes daily, at least mine. Sometimes the view looks very dim, others it starts to look brighter

Not real sure I agree with the time line, but I understand your point here

Yes your view on the world may change, but it doesn't mean these things won't happen to younger people as well. I was 35 years old when I lost my first grandparent. I am still lucky to have one who is living alone at 91 years of age and doing just fine. I have never been divorced, have both of my parents, never faced a serious illness. Just because I have only had a few of these "life changing moments" doesn't make me any more or less qualified, nor does it of one who is younger. Experiences are what makes one a rounded person, either good or bad, but some of us who have made chicken salad out of chicken (*$% at an early age in our lives, find it offensive that just because I did something with my life in my early 20's doesn't mean I didn't know what I was talking about.

As I said only a few of these moments have happened in my 47 years to this point, but the bigger lifechanging events for me surrounded my family, daughters first date, son's first date, the day they each got their driver license, first day of college, first day of school, a whole host of things that are more positive. As a child I grew up in a house with no heat other than wood burning stoves, barely enough food to feed us, mom out working 2 jobs to support three children, so some of us lived a life that most in my generation never had to.

Bull pucky. You don't have to have gray hair to be able to sift thru the junk and call it for what it is. This is the same crap the pre-boomers stated when JFK was shot, and everyone accepted the Warren Commission's junk. IF you want the same-ole same-ole junk then keep thinking that, but if we are to progress as a country, we need to listen to both the young and old.

It is usually the young or the young at heart who are willing to take the risks. Because of those risks, our country is much better off (generally speaking), as we age, I see the "fight" of my generation getting weaker, and saying "that's just how it is done", while the younger people ask WHY!!! What is wrong with that?

 

I've always thought that was odd. When I was younger I was pretty conservative. Less taxes and more personal freedom? Heck yes! As I've grown older I've come to understand that those taxes pay for all of the things which make a society a society and that people can't always be trusted to regulate themselves. I imagine that some day I will get angry enough at having paid my fair share for so long while other people avoided there that I no longer want to, but I really hope I don't.

 

The young and young-at-heart elected Barack Obama. They had their chance to prove how capable they were of setting the course for America... and they blew it. Now the adults are taking over again. Get used to the idea, dear. It's coming in Nov '12.

 

I'm 25 and I've probably seen more than most people double my age.

 

same here.

 

I would like to be twenty five again.

 

No disrespect intended, but you are not paying a mortgage, property taxes, electric bills, heating fuel bills, life insurance bills, grocery bills, etc., etc., etc.. While it is admirable that you are payin for your schooling and your car, those are in one case, a temporary bill and in the other, a rather minor bill.

 

Considering you political points of view having experienced all of the above hasn't helped you very much. Just saying.