So I was looking through a collection of sexist
vintage ads, and I thought to myself, "isn't it weird that so many people went along with this and didn't realize how wrong they'd be 50 years later?"
And then I realized that people of that generation probably thought the same of the generation before them, and they the prior generation. Every generation we appear to grow more... liberal I suppose?
However, I don't consider myself a member of some unique snowflake generation that won't be subject to the same pattern. I'll be 70 years old one day, cursing at how the world is going to hell because _______, while the rest of the world looks at me and goes "damnit grandpa, why can't you just die".
So what will that issue be? I'm hoping gay rights won't be a major issue by the time I'm 70 so what else is left? Will we consider people with intellectual disabilities to be just as smart as the rest of us? Will we decide that owning pets is immoral or that pets are as smart as the rest of us? Will we scorn old people who think 5-year-olds don't know as much about the world as adults?
I really can't figure out what I'll be hated for in 50 years, and it kind of bugs me. What do you guys suggest?
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Also, I'd bet that video games will be seen as at least a proto-art and the whole "GAMES ARE DRIVING YOUTH TO KILL EVERYONE" will be gone.
Where am I going with this? No idea.
Yeah I mean.. .that "Gathering Storm" ad?
That sickens me already. Now imagine we're 50 years in the future, Gays have equal rights to straights, they can marry, they can serve in the military, there's no society difference.
Now look at that ad again.
Also the state of the global underclass in general, and being slow to get off fossil fuels. But those are pretty large systemic problems, not just societal mores.
Right, I guess what I'm trying to say is that gay rights is the cheap and easy answer. It doesn't really reveal anything interesting about us. The vast majority of folks on this forum are pro gay rights. Nonetheless, we'll still be shitty old people with shitty opinions. What are we certain we're right about that we'll one day be wrong/against society about?
And even the this forum skews wildly liberal excuse doesn't work, as this generation is at LEAST 2:1 pro-gay rights. It's hard to say, as generally we're blind to our own faults, but I think we're pretty cool thus far. It might turn into apathy? I suspect that will be Gen X's huge flaw.
Nah come on, we can find something legit. Meat-eating is a cool one, I hadn't considered that. I can totally see how, as we become more aware that we're just a slightly more evolved species rather than being some kind of mystical creature unrelated to all others, we'd have a growing problem with slaughtering things for meat. I can definitely see youngins yelling at us one day that we have the equivalent of pig concentration camps and we see nothing wrong with that despite pigs having feelings and shit (mostly shit).
This is a generation that grew up on video games. I doubt that will be the problem. :P
I'm expecting another generation of accepting newer extreme behaviors and sub-cultures, which will in turn bask in their mutual disdain for a new crop of sub-cultures.
I'm expecting some eventual change in how we view tribal cultures... not sure which direction...
I'm rather curious where the massive rise of the latest flavor of Abrahamic mythology, Islam, will take culture.
I agree with this in the context of fossil fuels. We've known since the 70's that it's unsustainable. Jimmy Carter recognized it and wanted to fix it, but everyone else until Obama basically ignored it.
"You guys knew you were going to run out of oil for 40 years and you didn't do anything!"
To tie in with this, I'm thinking as the public's understanding of genetic engineering, cloning, stem cells, etc. becomes more solid, a lot of the problems people have with it now are going to seem really silly and childish in 50 years.
Well, that's not our generation, for the most part. It's one I think the Boomers suck about.
BloodySloth's idea might be the best yet.
Considering we've all lived through two or three stupid bubbles now.
Eating horrible food that fucks up the environment and our health.
Still being crazy for money, even if it fucks up third world countries.
Ostracizing anyone who has somewhat different views on sex.
Not understanding the culture of other countries at all.
being lazy and unintellectual.
Basically all the same stuff that previous generations have done, people are still going to do it.
So what will we be hated for being vocal in a loudness that only senior citizens with no reason to still be alive can pull off? Will we be marching with our little walkers in favor of slaughtering animals for real meats? Will we be marching against genetic engineering because we don't like the idea of seeing a generation born that's better than us in every single way?
Yeah, sure, but give me new stuff. What will the future bring us that we can grumble about? The current generation may have all the racism/sexism/whateverelse that the previous generation grumbled about, but they also have to deal with this gosh-darned technology bullcrap.
Why do I need the Internet? I can get all my information from a library! Technology is stupid! See? That's something relatively new, in that it has risen to the forefront with the most recent generation of old folk. So what new stuff do we get to look forward to?
Regardless how excited you or I may be about the idea of an Atheist president, well I've told less funny jokes before.
Though I suspect, even in "fifty years", transsexuals will still have a very tough time. But I'm a pessimist.
That, and things like American Idol. The future will not think we were callous and insensitive, but just flat-out depraved. Also our tendency to go to war and the same tendency to be unwilling to mobilize society or adjust our daily lives to reflect that fact.
Right, but that's precisely what I'm saying. Luddites may have existed but they weren't really the major reason-senior-citizens-are-annoying until like 10-20 years ago. Suddenly, consumer technology has exploded, especially the computer/cell-phone sort, and old folks are left scratching their heads.
All I'm saying is that it's new in how major the issue is because my grandparents avoiding new technology creates a far bigger difference in how they perceive the world compared to me, relative to my great-grandparents refusing to use the new self-cleaning oven or some other inconsequential shit.
You're looking too far. You think sexism is gone? Our grandchildren are going to see the state of advertising in our era the same way we look at those ads.
At least, I hope they do.
Primarily cars
It's going to be seen as ridiculously wasteful in about 50 years
Especially things like Hummers and such (moreso than now)
haha nope this will never end
The magnitude, however, will change.
Though I'm not sure if it'll be increasing or decreasing.
This one's... actually kind of correct, if a bit blunt. Most people go for looks first in a potential mate, I mean it's biology.
Honestly about the OP I think religion, or more accurately religion in politics (notably gay rights) will be seen as fucking ridiculously stupid. That a candidate HAS to be a GOOD CHRISTIAN will also be looked on as ridiculous.
We could pursue a more isolationist foreign policy, abandoning space exploration altogether along with a few of the more theoretical fields of scientific inquiry, and I could see a lot of our more hippyish tendencies being regarded as downright psychotic (Veganism, Mansions for Pets, Vermont) or we could tend more toward a socialist upheaval and watch as Hummers, American Idol, and (hopefully) Scientology are regarded as the great follies of our age.
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I am going to go with cars as well.
You let 16 yr olds drive and jabber on cell phones? What were you thinking?
Standards change.
People used to find it attractive if women shaved their eyebrows off and some of the hair on their forehead.
That but I'd say it's going to be more "You have three cars for a family of four???"