Millenials Scare Me
Terra G
games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
the machine right outside. Then Senator Leahy is all coddling her asking
her about what her friends eat for lunch and is she worried about their health?
It's so inane. I mean, here's this kid ASKING them to legislate away one of
thier few priveledges. She is so damn concerned about how stupid her friends
are she wants to regulate what they eat for lunch. I mean, are kids going to
be going to congress and asking them to slap warning stickers on albums next?
I actually saw some kid on the news the other day who's this little geeky son
of a Anti-Smoking dude and he wrote a letter to the publisher of some comic book
bitching that some comic book people were smoking! So now they're changing
the comics because of some whiny little midwestern brat.
I"m not saying i'm really proud of kids pounding down Coke & Twinkies for
lunch or puffing on Camels in between classes, but dammit this is america and
if you want to be a fat, unhealthy slob, that should be your right. We're
turning all of our kids into little Tipper Gore's except their screwing all
their friends out of all the good stuff. I remember kids like this in school,
they're the ones who would tell on other kids to the teacher and remind the
teacher that we were supposed to have homework. The little brats. We used
to have fun leaving nasty goodies in their snowboots or fun kid retribution
like that.
anyway, now they're talking about how the Evil Capitalists at the CoKKKaCola
company give "incentives" in the form of beaucoup bucks for computers and shit
to allow them to install Coke machines in school. I think it's time to find a
basketball game on another channel...
Terra
Douglas Lathrop
: I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
I figure Damien will probably be a Millenial (You WILL bow down before
me, Senator!).
In all fairness, though, we had our share of snotty little politicos in
training -- except that ours were more into foreign and defense policy
than smoking or comic books (remember Amy Carter? Samantha Smith?).
At least there's some hope for the Millenials. My 8-year-old nephew is
just as much a wiseass as I was at the same age -- this, despite his
(Boomer) parents' Rush Limbaugh addiction and his (Boomer) teachers'
I-pledge-allegiance-to-multiculturalism approach to education.
Sarcasm will out.
Doug Lathrop
Tino D'Amico
> I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
> games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
> landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
> panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
> Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
> benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
> the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
> won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
> the machine right outside. Then Senator Leahy is all coddling her asking
> her about what her friends eat for lunch and is she worried about their health?
Since when do they have Coke machines in elementary schools?
Sheesh, I was born too early. We were pleased as punch when they finally
introduced these horrible, acidic 'fruit' punch drinks, as an alternative
to the not-legal-to-be-sold-in-stores-because-it's-too-old-but-apparently-
still-good-enough-to-donate-to-the-USDA-to-be-fed-to-the-nation's-
children sour milk. And lukewarm, too.
These kids today don't know how good they have it. (<--SARCASM.)
[snip]
> anyway, now they're talking about how the Evil Capitalists at the CoKKKaCola
> company give "incentives" in the form of beaucoup bucks for computers and shit
> to allow them to install Coke machines in school. I think it's time to find a
> basketball game on another channel...
Sheesh. Yep, that's right, if we keep Coke machines out of the
schools, kids won't drink Coke. It's that simple. (Just get under the
hood.)
A far better option would be to install Coke and Twinkie machines
in all schools, and throw out all the substandard Dep't of Agriculture
donated food that they serve there, labeling it as 'nutritious.'
Then, give the school cooks a pay raise and a bunch of raw
materials (flour, vegetables, etc.) and tell them to have at it.
When I was in elementary/jr. high/high school, the cooks always
managed to produce excellent meals when they cooked things from scratch;
unfortunately, at least 75% of the time, the only choices were
ADM-donated soyburgers (gag) or that odd rectangular pizza, which also
came out of boxes labelled USDA-NOT TO BE SOLD.
In the USA, if anything is of any value at all, it's going to be
sold. If it's so bad that nobody will buy it, you donate it to the
government to minimize the loss via tax deductions. And the government
doles it out to people who, because of incarceration (students,
prisoners) or poverty don't have any option.
Government cheese isn't too bad, though. :)
Tino
Brian K. Yoder
>I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
>games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
>landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
>panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
>Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
>benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
>the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
>won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
>the machine right outside.
Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
--Brian
--
+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Brian K. Yoder | "The children who know how to think for themselves, spoil |
| byo...@netcom.com| the harmony of the collective society that is coming, |
| US Networx, Inc. | where everyone (would be) interdependent" --John Dewey |
+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Eric Scheidler
: In article <940517013...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu> te...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu (Terra G) writes:
: >I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
: >games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
: >landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
: >panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
: >Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
: >benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
: >the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
: >won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
: >the machine right outside.
: Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
: the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
: her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
: themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
: and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
: their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
: bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
: boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
: --Brian
Ex*ACT*ly!! It's the millenials with boomer parents are to be feared.
Luckily, some of us X are raising millenials too. We're getting closer
and closer to heaving the TV off the balcony a'la SCTV--preferably while
"Barney" is airing. Maybe when ST:TNG is done... Or Seinfeld...
Hmmm... maybe I *shouldn't* be raising kids after all... Better break
that addiction. . . soon.
--
Eric J. Scheidler (uesc...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu)
******************************************************************
I placed a jar in Tennessee / And round it was upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness / Surround that hill.
-Wallace Stevens
******************************************************************
Terra G
writes
>In article <940517013...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu> te...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu
>(Terra G) writes:
I have just
>>landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
>>panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
>>Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
>>benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
>>the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
>>won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
>>the machine right outside.
>Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
>the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
>her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
>themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
>and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
>their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
>bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
>boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
God, you're totally right. I forgot, these are the people responsible for
Hands Across America and a spate of TV docudramas about diseases-of-the-week
and social-dysfunctions-of-the-week.
What really scared me, was that after the little kid had her say, the senators
and the "Nutritional Experts" at the School Lunch Department had a SERIOUS
conversation about the big so-called conspiracy of the junk food companies to
subvert all of their efforts at making kids healthy by donating lots of
computers and stuff to get their machines in the schools. If the friggin
schools would spend a teensy bit more time teaching the kids how to make the
right choices, rather than yanking away any possible "wrong" choices, maybe a
sense of personal responsibility would be learned.
I guess we're just going to have a lot more "twinkie" defenses and lawsuits
from fat adults who sue school districts for not preventing them from having 3
twinkie & coke lunches as children.
Terra
James E. Lee
: I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
: games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
: landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
: panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
: Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
: benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
: the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
: won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
: the machine right outside. Then Senator Leahy is all coddling her asking
: her about what her friends eat for lunch and is she worried about their health?
: It's so inane. I mean, here's this kid ASKING them to legislate away one of
: thier few priveledges. She is so damn concerned about how stupid her friends
: are she wants to regulate what they eat for lunch. I mean, are kids going to
: be going to congress and asking them to slap warning stickers on albums next?
: I actually saw some kid on the news the other day who's this little geeky son
: of a Anti-Smoking dude and he wrote a letter to the publisher of some comic book
: bitching that some comic book people were smoking! So now they're changing
: the comics because of some whiny little midwestern brat.
Well, as reprehensible as I find this, I would hardly say that it is
limited to "Millenials". But I am a bit dismayed to see this kind of
"thinking" <*heavy* sarcasm!> in younger kids. It strikes me as
possible that the media/groupthink may have gotten to many them before
they could reason and choose to think for themselves. Then again, there
have been people like that as long as I've been around (which isn't too
long.) Unfortunately, it does seem to be on the rise.
Sad though. I wonder if she will ever actually realize it...
: Terra
--
_________________________
J a m e s E. L e e
je...@othello.ucdavis.edu
James E. Lee
: >I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
: >games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
: >landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
: >panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
: >Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
: >benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
: >the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
: >won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
: >the machine right outside.
: Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
: the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
: her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
: themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
: and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
: their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
: bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
: boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
What scares me is the fact athat there are so many 12 yr olds for them
to use this way, and they likely don't know much better (having probably
been cultivated from an even earlier age.) Not to be paranoid, but as
you have implied Brian, this is a perfect way for whomever it is to
perpetuate certain ways of thinking that I was hopeful we might have all
begun to see through and reject. Perhaps someone realized that many in
our generation would rather think, so they have moved on to prey upon
younger, more malleable minds. Now the "war" (on non-thinking) has been
taken to two fronts.
(And BTW, I'm not into generational conflict, and that is not how I mean
this "war" thing. Nor do I mean to imply that ours is the only agegroup
capable of thinking.)
I hope this does not go beyond me exaggerating it though; I do have
faith in at least *some* of those younger than us to look hard for the
truth and try their best to see it clearly and base their thinking upon
it, instead of mindlessly swallowing what anyone chooses to feed them...
: --Brian
: --
: +------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
: | Brian K. Yoder | "The children who know how to think for themselves, spoil |
: | byo...@netcom.com| the harmony of the collective society that is coming, |
: | US Networx, Inc. | where everyone (would be) interdependent" --John Dewey |
: +------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Eric Scheidler
[ff]
: A far better option would be to install Coke and Twinkie machines
: donated food that they serve there, labeling it as 'nutritious.'
: Then, give the school cooks a pay raise and a bunch of raw
: materials (flour, vegetables, etc.) and tell them to have at it.
: When I was in elementary/jr. high/high school, the cooks always
: managed to produce excellent meals when they cooked things from scratch;
Hey, there's an excellent and entirely *new* idea: let's feed kids *food*
at school! Remember, <<just cuz u can eat it, that don't make it
food>>. Better yet, let a co-op of farmers, distributers and schools
arrange to supply the cafeteria with fresh produce, grains, and so forth,
following the food pyrimid--which so far has made a *great* poster. . .
hel...@hprpcd.rose.hp.com
: Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
: the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
: her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
: themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
: and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
: their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
: bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
: boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
I'm with Brian on this one. Bashing Millenials is not appropriate.
They would never being doing this sort of thing with prompting and
brainwashing from their elders.
But Millennials are cool. They'll figure out the schlock that they've
been fed and barf it back up in Boomers' and Silents' (and our)
faces someday. Just wait.
--
Helen Holder hel...@hprmfg.rose.hp.com
The only way to get rid of temptation
is to yield to it.
-- Oscar Wilde
Christine M Dorsey
>
>Sarcasm will out.
>
You bet your booties it will. At least if I have something to say about it.
You guys all realise that millenials think that we are REALLY Cool! It has a
lot to do with age but the one thing that I have noticed is that kids who have
a contact with someone from another agegroup (not gen-x cause it's too big,
just some people who are older than them) are genuinly 'cooler' than those that
only get to experiance their twitty little freinds and parents. Cooler in this
respect means a bit more looser, not as uptight, a tendency towards the
sarcastic, many times more freethinking than there peers. I see this alot with
my little brother and sister and their friends. You can tell without asking
who is th eonly child, the oldest child, who has older brothers and sisters,
who hangs out with thier Wacky Aunt and cousins. Do you relise the influence
we can have over them. I remember this being a thread once before.
My advice: They are still children (Mil are all under 12 right?), go out and
play with them. It's fun to begin with. Broden their horizens and all that
crap. They may seem closed off to you, but that's the nature of children.
as far as school lunches go:
We got a cafateria the year after I graduated from grade school. My Mom still
works their cause of Lil' bro and sis. I have noticed and she even told me
that since the caf. has come into play the nutritional quality of most
childrens lunches has gone down. Parents used to pack childrens lunches,
knowing exactly what they were going to eat. Now they blindly accept that The
Tuesday Suprise is going to be "Nutritional And Good Tasting". Bleck! Give me
a good ol' Pb&J and a Ho-Ho.
Also we had a computer room in our school several years before we had a caf. or
pop machines. I guess we weren't part of KoKa-Kolas target marget, Oh well!
--
Christine Dorsey
I smile in your general direction 8)
Brian K. Yoder
>Brian K. Yoder (byo...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: In article <940517013...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu> te...@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu (Terra G) writes:
>:>I'm doing my typical afternoon activity that I do when there are no Dodger
>:>games televised...channel flipping while reading Usenet, and I have just
>:>landed on C-Span. (oops, make that C-SPAN2) Anyway, there's some committee
>:>panel meeting over nutrition in schools, blahblahblah, and there's this little
>:>Millenial kid, probably 12 years old, reading her little essay on why the
>:>benevolent Senators should pass a friggin law to ban Candy and Pop machines in
>:>the schools because they allow kids to make poor nutritional choices and kids
>:>won't buy school lunches when they can get a KitKat, Doritos and a Coke from
>:>the machine right outside.
>: Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
>: the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
>: her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
>: themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
>: and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
>: their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
>: bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
>: boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first
>: place.
> What scares me is the fact athat there are so many 12 yr olds for them
>to use this way, and they likely don't know much better (having probably
>been cultivated from an even earlier age.)
Sure. Part of this "cultivation" is that the boomers set up a small number
of "youth leaders" who can "speak for their generation" and what they "speak"
is whatever the boomers with their hands in the kid's back say. Look at the
eMpTyVee politically correct stuff kids are inundated with and all of the
"Kid Journalism" projects on TV. Does a 10 year old really know enough about
politics and sience to be "into the environment" or have their own
independent opinion of "helping the homeless" or "wanting better nutrition"?
Of course not, the boomers behind this pap are just holding up small children
like human shields to silence criticism. Of course nobody can have a debate
with an 8 year old about whether his "youth leadership" crusade against
tooth rot is sientifically, politically, or economically valid.
The most cowardly version of this I have seen was something Tom Bradley
(ex-mayor of Los Angeles) put on back before the last King trial. He held a
press conference with a room full of first grade kids where he "bravely"
faced their questions about what he planned to do. What a coward! The guy
knew he couldn't face questions by real reporters, so he hid behind a crowd
of little kids. You may recall that Bill Clinton did the same thing during
the last campaign (and he resorts to this sort of thing when he gets into
deep trouble and needs to get "softie" coverage on TV.
WHenever you see politicians and media types using kids as their spokesmen
look out. The reason they are doing it is because they are hiding ideas
behind the kid which they could never get away with themselves.
>Not to be paranoid, but as
>you have implied Brian, this is a perfect way for whomever it is to
>perpetuate certain ways of thinking that I was hopeful we might have all
>begun to see through and reject. Perhaps someone realized that many in
>our generation would rather think, so they have moved on to prey upon
>younger, more malleable minds. Now the "war" (on non-thinking) has been
>taken to two fronts.
That's right. Actually what I think happened was that the boomers didn't
realize that we weren't boomers until many years after we did, and now they
are taking efforts to make sure that the next generation comes out with
the usual "youth leaders", boomer political causes, phony "conformity
through rebellion", and so on. Actually I think we benefitted from a sort
of benign neglect. The boomers didn't think they needed to set up "youth
leaders" for us because they thought we were all still fans of Tom Hayden,
Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.
> I hope this does not go beyond me exaggerating it though; I do have
>faith in at least *some* of those younger than us to look hard for the
>truth and try their best to see it clearly and base their thinking upon
>it, instead of mindlessly swallowing what anyone chooses to feed them...
I am hopeful as well, but as you have doubtless noticed, the boomer-run
political/media machine can hold onto a perspective for a long time regardless
of whether it is true. If they bring forward a gang of "youth leaders"
they'll remain media darlings regardless of whether any of the "youths" they
are "leading" like or agree with them or not.
I should point out that in Arkansas the Clintons were active in doing exactly
that with their "Governor's School" where politically appropriate students
were groomed to be "the voice of their generation" at public expense and
of course loyalty to the political establishment there was a big part of
the program. I saw an interfiew about a year ago with the ex-principal of
the school (who quit in disgust and fear of the little monster they were
creating there) who said that it was almost impossible to convey just how bad
the indoctrination and anti-intellectualism at the school was.
We really ought to be on the look out for the boomers putting forward
their own mouthpieces to "speak for a new generation". Let the kids speak
for themselves!
Peter Dubuque
>Brian K. Yoder (byo...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: Are you sure it's REALLY the millenials behind this? Who do you think asked
>: the kid to write the little essay? Who flew her to Washington? Who got
>: her into the hearing? That's right, BOOMERS! What's scary isn't the kids
>: themselves, it is this upcoming generation is being raised and educated
>: and shown TV (and eMpTyV) created by the boomers in an effort to duplicate
>: their oh-so-wunnerful statist dogmatic realtivistic fascism in another
>: bunch of kids. What scares me is not the 12-year old so much as the huge
>: boomer machine that put her there in front of the committee in the first place.
> What scares me is the fact athat there are so many 12 yr olds for them
>to use this way, and they likely don't know much better (having probably
>been cultivated from an even earlier age.) Not to be paranoid, but as
>you have implied Brian, this is a perfect way for whomever it is to
>perpetuate certain ways of thinking that I was hopeful we might have all
>begun to see through and reject. Perhaps someone realized that many in
>our generation would rather think, so they have moved on to prey upon
>younger, more malleable minds. Now the "war" (on non-thinking) has been
>taken to two fronts.
Personally I don't care much about vending machines in elementary
schools--if the kids themselves really want to get rid of these things,
that's fine with me (although they should probably do it by petitioning
the schools themselves instead of wasting time with legislation). What
worries me is the possibility of some of these kids getting up in front
of Congress complaining that their big brother's music is too loud and
has bad words in it, or how the big boys that hang out outside their
school scare them--at the prompting of their Boomer parents, of
course--and trying to get the government to restrict *our* actions.
> (And BTW, I'm not into generational conflict, and that is not how I mean
>this "war" thing. Nor do I mean to imply that ours is the only agegroup
>capable of thinking.)
If you won't say it, I will. :)
> I hope this does not go beyond me exaggerating it though; I do have
>faith in at least *some* of those younger than us to look hard for the
>truth and try their best to see it clearly and base their thinking upon
>it, instead of mindlessly swallowing what anyone chooses to feed them...
The Millennials are 12 years old or younger. How much of a free thinker
were *you* at the time? Not much of one, I'll wager, but considering the
way they've been brought up, they're even less likely to question
authority than we were. They'll have to *at least* hit puberty before
they start to see through their parents. In the meantime, we can expect
many more of these touching little pleas from young kids before Congress.
--
_______________________________________________________________________
Peter F. Dubuque dub...@husc.harvard.edu
Everyone has some redeeming quality...their mortality, if nothing else.
_______________________________________________________________________
Hey! Check out my new .sig! |
|
V