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Nope, you were just way more annoying than you generally care to remember. Sorry you had to find out this way.

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If you say, “but actually I wasn’t annoying as a teenager.” Sorry, you missed your chance! Not my problem!

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    It is absolutely impossible for modern teens to be more annoying than I was. I was a Reddit teir edgelord atheist as a teenager. And used to constantly stir the pot at school for no reason other than to piss the teachers off. Turns out some 15 year old kid who thinks he’s got everything figured out insulting your whole belief system to rile the class up is very effective at that.

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I had my atheist phase as a teenager, and even as a Catholic nowadays, fuck religion. Atheists got coopted by the mens right and other right-wing memelords, but there needs to be a strong secular control of government and all these freedom of religion discrimination protections need to fucking die.

      Fuck evangelicals. Even the devil can quote scripture.

      • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Hey I realize this is super off topic, but what brought you back into the fold? Absolutely no judgement from this apostate - I just don’t meet a lot of leftists who return to religion as adults so you’ve got me curious.

        • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          I read Zealot that discussed Jesus place in Roman Judea as more of a rebel fighter that was essentially speaking in code. That to some extent the crowning of Messiah’s and tracing lineages to David was a way to say “he is the real chosen one” it was a mythologization of the human being that was fighting an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggle against the Romans…like seriously the Romans fucking suck.

          The Nazi Pope had also stepped down and Pope Francis was selected and he is absolutely despised by the right-wing Trad Caths; when I realized that religious infighting is just as complex and equally stupid as political infighting, I kinda made my peace with just…believing in something. As stupid as it sounds, we shouldn’t let Right Wingers have a monopoly on God. It is an affront to humanity, to cede spiritual matters, religious ritual, and morality to morons, evil, fascist, morons.

          I was already struggling with being an Atheist, ex-Ancap Libertarian, and in my way to becoming a socialists, now commie. I read a bunch of stuff. Marx cites religious utopians and their concern for the poor in Capital Vol I. Paolo Freire is a marxist and a radical Catholic christian, Fr. (now Saint) Romero died helping indigenous and was killed by the Great Satan and its death squads, Che Guevara was raised religious. Fidel Castro was taught by Jesuits. Paolo Freire says that both radicals and Christians should find his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed a useful resource. In Hammer and Hoe the communist and radicals in Alabama were having church meetings and highlighting different Bible passages to speak in code/keep track of meeting notes. The Bible, like any book, can be a tool of the oppressor or the oppressed.

          My wife and I had also just met, she was religious and I would accompany to church and I just kinda stuck with it.

          I am trying to come at the brokenness of the world from a place of Love, rather than just violent hatred.

          • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            I will definitely check out Zealot and some of the other works you referenced!

            As stupid as it sounds, we shouldn’t let Right Wingers have a monopoly on God.

            I don’t think this sounds stupid at all. I don’t have any faith and I’m not the type to fake it, but I often wish I did or I could for that particular reason.

            I am trying to come at the brokenness of the world from a place of Love, rather than just violent hatred.

            I think this is a good approach regardless of religious beliefs. For me it’s about what can be accomplished, and there’s just a lot less that you can get done through hatred.

    • averagedrunk
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      1 year ago

      I was an insufferable ass. I was too cool for everything. I was counter-culture, but that got too cool so I became counter-counter-culture. When that was too cool I basically just booked myself down to one niche interest.

      I missed out on so much actually cool shit because I was so insufferable.

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Yeah that kinda happens. I was counter culture, but not because I wanted some niche interest, but because I ended up on the fringes at middle/high school (grades 8-12), as the closeted gay/bisexual kid on a scholarship/bursary at some elite all boys boarding school. So I just embraced being on the outs and being a punk. Definitely missed out on some stuff because of it.

        • averagedrunk
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          1 year ago

          I was the poorest nerdy kid at a poor “sports are life” school, so not on your level of fringe but I definitely get where you’re coming from. I just kept leaning harder into it.

          I hope you’re doing awesome and catching up on some cool shit, friend.

  • rodbiren@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m pretty sure it is your job to stir the pot as a teenager. I’d better be pissed at each of you young people. Do something outrageous in support of your values. Fuck whatever world we currently find ourselves in. It is bullshit.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure it is your job to stir the pot as a teenager. I’d better be pissed at each of you young people. Do something outrageous in support of your values. Fuck whatever world we currently find ourselves in. It is bullshit.

  • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

  • LiberalSoCalist@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Say what you will about the zoomies but my generation was responsible for 4chan and 9gag. Their contribution to the destruction of Western civilization pales in comparison, and quite frankly I’m disappointed.

  • morrowind
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    1 year ago

    I wasn’t annoying as a teenager and I deeply regret it. Wasted those years of my life

  • I’ve found teens to be more kind in general than my peers were at their age. I think being a shithead, but erring on the side of being an aggressively kind shithead, is a pretty good place to be.

    Heard a kid the other day yell, “Shut the fuck up, stop being mean to yourself, and let me help you, fuckface!” Good energy, tbh. More of that.

  • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The kids are the best. I have a young adult kid and he and his friends have taught me all I know about neurotype, gender, communism, acceptance and introduced me to people like Hasan which was my first step into proper leftism. Without my kid I probably would not be here.

    I also love how they create safe spaces, how they stand up for things, my kid walked away from a work rehearsal where they used racist and misogynistic language. I never probably would have, back when I was a teen it was totally ok to comment my body and if someone touched you, you kind of had to just suck it up and move on.

    My heart breaks at how my gen and those before me have broken this world for them. I work with young adults in my work that have been left behind by this system. They are the best humans, each struggling in pretty horrible ways in the world we are leaving them. This is a big reason why I am all for revolution.

  • star_wraith [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    My experience (late 90s) is entirely anecdotal and I’m really not familiar with teen culture in 2023, but I suspect we were way worse. It wasn’t just how pervasive bullying was. It was how non-conformity was treated. I knew someone who was mocked for liking anime. There were a few guys who would play MTG before school started - just off in a corner not bothering anyone. And they got mocked. And in a school of nearly 2,000 students, there wasn’t even 1 kid who was openly gay. Of course there were gay students but none of them dared to be open about it to anyone other than close friends, I can’t imagine how bad it would have been for them.

    And all this time, by the 90s bullying occupied this space where it wasn’t sort of encouraged like in past generations. It was “bad” but no one felt it was something that had to be specifically addressed and rooted out.

    I get the impression things are a lot better now in this area, while teens do have challenges that we didn’t have. Academic and extracurricular performance seems to cause way more stress today. And then there’s the who social media aspect.

    But overall yeah, we were way worse.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Homophobia was off the charts in the 90s, and I lived those times and knew them well.

      Some things did improve. Teenagers today have problems and some bullshit they will hopefully change out of, but they don’t do homophobia the way 90s kids did.

    • Yeah, in my school kids still got viciously bullied for wearing glasses. I was bullied for 9 years straight and the teachers took part in it.

      Having done the raising of one of these newer kids from baby to adult and seeing lots of kids in the process, also did substitute teaching and work with young adults now, the difference is night and day. Yes, there are still bullies, but they get a lot less room to operate. Yes there are assholes with bad politics, but they get called out on it more.

      With climate change and identity politics they tend to all lean left, they just need help in reaching class consciousness. The “issues” they show are all caused by this violent system, so much selfharm and such. But that is on us, not them. I think a good material understanding would also help many feel less hopeless and start seeing a way out of this (meaning the older kids/young adults).

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I’ve taught long enough for me to say from my own experience: naaaah.

    I’m Hexbear’s resident wokescold and I’ll say the kids are different but not really worse overall than when I started. There’s a lot less homophobia and even transphobia is on the wane somewhat, so there’s that.

    An unfortunate number of them are Tate-R-Tots right now, but hopefully that will fade because they tend to be assholes the other kids stay away from anyway.

    • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I also feel like Andrew Tate fans are mainly younger teens and preteens

      I was in middle school in 2016 and definitely noticed A LOT of guys were falling into reactionary sentiment and even into the anti-SJW to alt-right pipeline (leafyishere was basically the tate of our time). Anyways, those same people seemed to grow out of the edginess sometime in high school.

      Think it’s just a maturity thing, 13 year olds are unfortunately easy to mold into bigots but are usually redeemable by the time they turn 18. Also, the kids seem much better at bullying each other for harmful beliefs lately

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I also feel like Andrew Tate fans are mainly younger teens and tweens

        They are. Some don’t shake as quickly as I’d like when they reach high school, and it worries me that they might try to put some of their idol’s “lessons” into practice on their own dates. sadness-abysmal

        Also, the kids seem much better at bullying each other for harmful beliefs lately

        I still don’t condone bullying, but a soft sort of “that’s cringe” vibe is certainly a good defense mechanism because Tate-R-Tots do hate being seen as pathetic by their peers.

        • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Some don’t shake as quickly as I’d like when they reach high school

          Tbh some of the reactionaries in my grade took til 10th or even 11th grade

  • FactuallyUnscrupulou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Teens today are more annoying because they aren’t getting in enough trouble. We’ve sterilized the idea of youth. When I was a kid our parents were freaked out by the Jacob Wetterling abduction and we were always under close supervision. Meanwhile, my dad and his buddies would tell crazy stories from their childhood. My dad was smoking cigarettes when he was 9 years old and started a fire in bunch of tall grass along the riverbank. Fire dept showed up and had to control the fire. Poor kids got it way worse than I did growing up I the 90’s.

  • Spike [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Teens are worse and more annoying, but its not their fault. They have no future prospects, climate change is here, all forms of mainstream media is trash, social media dominates everything, algorithms on these websites keep suggesting they watch fascists, lose family members to a pandemic that everyone stopped caring about. Like wtf are you meant to do other than be more annoying?