Why Conservative Boomers Support Institutions that Hate Them
How do we fix this mindset at scale?
I had a conversation with a father of a first-year university student - a good man who I really respect, but who is a Boomer Conservative (Boomercon). We got into a discussion about the diversity-factor in hiring, college admissions, etc. I brought up the story of Brentwood, where L.A. parents discovered their support of Black Lives Matter had resulted in their children not be accepted into an ivy league school, simply because this school had decided they weren’t taking white children.
This story turned the gears of his mind. He reflected on his own experience - expressing frustration at his son's disadvantages going into at university. He noticed that while he “understands why this is being done”, “it doesn’t seem quite fair to penalize a good student for just being white (referencing scholarship lost due to skin color) ”.
BUT, this same father still has deep reverence for the university system. He follows all of the sports. Talks about the institution and how much value it adds to both the lives of the students and the community. Still funds his student’s university experience.
Conservative Boomers (and boomers at heart) struggle with the cognitive dissonance of loyalty toward institutions that wants their ideology, progeny and legacy destroyed.
How do we change this?
The Curse of Information
Not everyone has (a) the same insight into “behind the curtain” political/social dynamics, (b) the ability to process the gravity of this “behind the curtain” experience and (c) the will to change one’s lifestyle in response to a decaying culture.
Public universities are a top 5 source of cultural rot in the United States. I personally know many conservatives (of all generations) who still religiously watch college sports; especially football. I’m convinced nothing the college does could remove this support. Universities could impose mandatory gender-swapping surgery on 50% of the students, and stadiums would still be at capacity each Saturday afternoon.
Granted, college football is better institution than the NFL, but it still pours heavy funding into institutions who hate the core of this nation.
Is it worthwhile to convince every normie conservative to abandon the lifestyle of watching sports altogether?
The CEO of GAB Andrew Torba takes this position. He took some heat last week when he responded to a user complaining about the lack of sports content on his platform:
Many users pointed to this interaction as a reason why GAB will not be successful.
Users mocked Torba, saying he puts too much focus on the niche political and not enough attention on normie cultural happenings.
Some users insisted GAB be ‘neutral’ in regards to the political.
Should we insist on hardcore boycott of every source of sports and entertainment?
The tough reality: Cold turkey methods of quitting sports entertainment will not work, because most conservatives do not have the mindset of an activist.
Conservatives are motivated by an enjoyment of life and living in their world. They are generally not miserable every single day. Why should they spend months organizing a political organization when there are businesses to run, kids to feed, games to attend, etc.? (Contrast this with cliche childless, over-educated Starbucks employee who harbors deep resentment at the world…and becomes Antifa)
I think there have to be highly strategic, specific, aggressive boycotts of cultural events. Give them a very good reason why it’s in their best interest to abandon X sport, and turn their attention and support to Y sport. This is not ideologically pure, but it is practical.
A majority of conservatives have zero grasp on the magnitude of problems we face. In their minds, the cultural and political insanity of 2022 is simply the result of “mistakes” made by Dementia Joe. Once people “come to their senses” we will “get our country back”.
When you offer them a glimpse into the dark void, most people look away. They do not have the mental ability to process grave information. It’s depressing. It’s overwhelming. It can’t be that bad… can it? “Besides, the game is on in 15 minutes”.
The last few months (and even weeks) have started chipping away at this veneer. I’m seeing normie conservatives pressed for answers. They know things are bad.
Food prices are up. Gas prices are up. War is breaking out. Transgender people are running the military. Famine is on the horizon. Jobs are being destroyed. Dissent is being crushed.
We need to get boomers to take a second look at institutions
Boomers still put too much stock into The System.
The System has worked well for them. They were able to go to college and have a good experience. They were able to get well-paying jobs. They bought a house on one income. The stock market provided a huge boost to their personal wealth.
A defining mark of the Boomer mentality is the inability to see that things have changed. This is why conservative parents still pay tens of thousands of dollars to send their kids to college. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator, and this causes parents to unknowingly point the guns of the culture at themselves and their family.
Two key factors in my own red pill experience:
Seeing story after story after story on cultural decline. I couldn’t ignore it. I couldn’t explain it away as a fluke. Society
wasis decaying.Having a framework with which to explain this decline.
Conservative and right-wing media does a pretty good job with Point #1. They can point a camera at the symptoms of a problem and say “this is bad”.
These media sources have NOT done a good job of diagnosing the underlying problems. The go-to is the usual suspects: Big Government Socialism, Dementia Joe, etc., etc.
Point #2 is the prime area of opportunity. When you give people a glimpse into the dark void (assuming they are willing to look for longer than 10 seconds), you need to also provide a framework with which to categorize and make sense of this information. Right-wing Twitter is a great framework, but is too far down the rabbit hole for most normies.
If a journey requires going from A to Z, we cannot expect those at journey point C to understand an esoteric criticism of capitalism residing at journey point X. It’s not going to be persuasive.
There needs to be an organized way to move masses of people from checkpoint C, to D, to E, and so forth.
Lot’s of possible options to explore. PragerU style videos. Facebook posts. Memes. Etc.
Andrew Torba’s thesis regarding the necessary rejection of institutions that hate you and your family is correct. But this is starting at journey marker X for most normies who are camping out at journey marker C in the cultural discourse.
How do you think we should move normal people down the pipeline of information?
Why Conservative Boomers Support Institutions that Hate Them
Are there any plans to begin writing posts again? If not, are there any other sources you can point me to? This type of writing is very important.