Re: And if you tell people that Medicare programs cover golf balls, greens fees, social clubs, ski trips, and horseback riding, they stare in disbelief.
Yes, I'm staring in disbelief because my Medicare covers nothing like that. It does provide 40$ every three months for over the counter meds, but nothing like that munificent list above.
Also the article fails to mention that Medicaid slaps a lien on the house of a senior who require long term care and requires its prompt sale, funds to be used to defray the care, the only exception being is a spouse is still living in the house-- though the lien is still there and will require sale at some future date.
Some of the numbers from that Manhattan Institute poll are so absurd that I'm skeptical that the poll was properly conducted/properly reported. As just one example, the poll claims that 36% of 2024 Trump voters think NASA faked the moon landing. Only about 10% of Americans overall think this, so it's almost impossible that 36% of Trump voters do (even if 0.0% of Harris voters think this, which I doubt).
In nearly fifty years on this planet, I've only met one flesh-and-blood human being who thought the moon landing was fake. He was extremely stupid, and I doubt he voted in many elections, if he was even smart enough to figure out how to register to vote.
I am a Gen Z guy in a thriving red area with crazy high house prices but also great job prospects… I think these numbers are not only accurate but could EASILY be higher from personal experience. The young, educated men on the right are going to hit the institutions like a ton of bricks (most are already inside them they just don’t feel emboldened to say what they actually believe because it is still deemed “radical”).
That doesn't really tell me anything. The author says "we" but doesn't really identify what that entity is - - is some company that is promoting satellite internet also doing public opinion polling? Not entirely impossible, but I'm fairly dubious.
I'm not normally someone who jumps quickly to the idea of a foreign wife, but I would think that has to be at least part of the solution for China, if I were in the position of giving advice to a Chinese guy whose prospects are below average. At what point do you focus on the foreign market?
I've had that thought with a romantically frustrated, autistic-ish young guy I know at my church. He's weird enough that it just turns off basically all the women around us -- they're nice enough to him but immediately dismiss him as husband material -- and I don't know that he can realistically tune it down any more.
I wonder if a foreign girl might react differently. I suspect certain social indicators of turbo-dorkiness just don't come across as strongly through language barriers.
That last sounds like a recipe for short-term gain and long-term pain, however. Especially if he found a foreign wife and brought her to the US, as opposed to moving overseas and staying there.
It's definitely a high-risk play. Especially when looking for a girl that shares his values. But I think it has a chance to work. How good that chance is, I'm not sure.
I have a theory that as a foreign wife becomes acclimated to the US, she might come to recognize intellectually that her husband is a turbo-dork, but she still probably won't feel the "ick" as deep in her bones as an American woman would.
And the thing is it's not like the guy is a total loser. Has a reasonable career path, actually gets out and does things, no vices, etc. A lot of foreign wives who become disillusioned with their American husbands, I think it's because they're total losers like that.
It's just that his comportment apparently gives roughly 100% of women "the ick".
For now, I'm hoping he matures out of it to some degree.
They’re mad at the boomers for housing prices. And immigration. And institutionalized leftism. And the sexual revolution. And toleration of crime. And young white men being progressively driven out as low caste. And 20 years of war in the desert (without decisive victory). And the economic regulations that destroyed wages. And insulted its children when they complained.
The sexual revolution started in the 1920's, took time off for a Great Depression and World War 2, and then resumed. Like almost all of the Boomer scapegoating, this claim is historically ignorant.
Nope. The sexual revolution started at Sodom and Gomorrah by that standard. Listen I know what you’re saying and knew what was going on before, God was half out the building by 1940, but restraint and fight was still there. It’s like saying the Russian Revolution started in 1848, kind of.
No, it's nothing like that. It's analyzing long term cultural changes instead of looking at their culmination. One approach leads to deeper understanding, the other approach is good for scapegoating and venting.
Maybe we should blame Gen Z and younger Millennials for the transgender insanity, because it manifested itself among them. Carl Trueman wrote a book tracing the cultural changes that led to transgender madness, which spanned about 3 centuries. No need to go back to Sodom and Gomorrah, nor to start the day before yesterday. That's the kind of cultural analysis needed (and lacking) in most of these discussions.
I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but consider: The house we bought in 1988 and in which we raised our children has tripled in inflated-adjusted value since then.
So yes, It would be approximately three times as hard for a younger family to buy it now than it was for us. But here's the kicker: It doesn't provide three times the housing benefit for that inflated price; in the contrary it's probably just barely holding its own. We have recently replaced the roof and the furnace, so it's not like it's badly depreciated, but still...
Aaron, If I were you I would take the same approach with the anti-Boomer sentiment that you do with people like Andrew Tate or the other manosphere luminaries: they really are onto something, even if their solutions are counterproductive or worse.
Your advice to young men is very similar to what I tell young men struggling to get a date. I tell them that flirting/social interactions are a skill and they need to practice that skill on people they have no romantic interest in.
When you struggle in attracting the opposite sex, every interaction with a possible romantic interest carries unbearable tension. It turns every conversation into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series. And that tension is fatal to attraction.
The only way to get past that is to practice in low-stress situations where failure has no consequences. I'm not talking about leading someone on with feigned interest. Rather, can you make the cashier smile? Can you get a chuckle out of the pharmacist? Can you carry a 10 minute conversation with the custodian in your building? Can you learn what does/does not work and refine your conversational style?
Not only will this help in personal and professional development, but you will build enough confidence that if a romantic target doesn't like it, you will be sure that someone else will. And that confidence will keep you relaxed and translate into much greater success.
Honestly it’s why I recommend everyone try to work a job dealing with the public. Talk to a thousand strangers under pressure and you’re a different person.
For romance in particular it helps to know you don’t really want someone who doesn’t want you and there is no winning someone over really. Learn to recognize interest over time.
Off-topic: Parul Sehgal on Norah Vincent and masculinity
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/magazine/masculinity-crisis-norah-vincent.html?unlocked_article_code=1._08.1tff.bserpxto9E2M&smid=url-share
Re: And if you tell people that Medicare programs cover golf balls, greens fees, social clubs, ski trips, and horseback riding, they stare in disbelief.
Yes, I'm staring in disbelief because my Medicare covers nothing like that. It does provide 40$ every three months for over the counter meds, but nothing like that munificent list above.
Also the article fails to mention that Medicaid slaps a lien on the house of a senior who require long term care and requires its prompt sale, funds to be used to defray the care, the only exception being is a spouse is still living in the house-- though the lien is still there and will require sale at some future date.
Some of the numbers from that Manhattan Institute poll are so absurd that I'm skeptical that the poll was properly conducted/properly reported. As just one example, the poll claims that 36% of 2024 Trump voters think NASA faked the moon landing. Only about 10% of Americans overall think this, so it's almost impossible that 36% of Trump voters do (even if 0.0% of Harris voters think this, which I doubt).
In nearly fifty years on this planet, I've only met one flesh-and-blood human being who thought the moon landing was fake. He was extremely stupid, and I doubt he voted in many elections, if he was even smart enough to figure out how to register to vote.
I am a Gen Z guy in a thriving red area with crazy high house prices but also great job prospects… I think these numbers are not only accurate but could EASILY be higher from personal experience. The young, educated men on the right are going to hit the institutions like a ton of bricks (most are already inside them they just don’t feel emboldened to say what they actually believe because it is still deemed “radical”).
Well okay, but at least the Manhattan institute puts their name to it. Where does your own 10% figure come from?
https://www.satelliteinternet.com/resources/moon-landing-real-survey/
That doesn't really tell me anything. The author says "we" but doesn't really identify what that entity is - - is some company that is promoting satellite internet also doing public opinion polling? Not entirely impossible, but I'm fairly dubious.
McMegan is writing for The Intercept now? Lo how the mighty have fallen!
I'm not normally someone who jumps quickly to the idea of a foreign wife, but I would think that has to be at least part of the solution for China, if I were in the position of giving advice to a Chinese guy whose prospects are below average. At what point do you focus on the foreign market?
I've had that thought with a romantically frustrated, autistic-ish young guy I know at my church. He's weird enough that it just turns off basically all the women around us -- they're nice enough to him but immediately dismiss him as husband material -- and I don't know that he can realistically tune it down any more.
I wonder if a foreign girl might react differently. I suspect certain social indicators of turbo-dorkiness just don't come across as strongly through language barriers.
That last sounds like a recipe for short-term gain and long-term pain, however. Especially if he found a foreign wife and brought her to the US, as opposed to moving overseas and staying there.
It's definitely a high-risk play. Especially when looking for a girl that shares his values. But I think it has a chance to work. How good that chance is, I'm not sure.
I have a theory that as a foreign wife becomes acclimated to the US, she might come to recognize intellectually that her husband is a turbo-dork, but she still probably won't feel the "ick" as deep in her bones as an American woman would.
And the thing is it's not like the guy is a total loser. Has a reasonable career path, actually gets out and does things, no vices, etc. A lot of foreign wives who become disillusioned with their American husbands, I think it's because they're total losers like that.
It's just that his comportment apparently gives roughly 100% of women "the ick".
For now, I'm hoping he matures out of it to some degree.
They’re mad at the boomers for housing prices. And immigration. And institutionalized leftism. And the sexual revolution. And toleration of crime. And young white men being progressively driven out as low caste. And 20 years of war in the desert (without decisive victory). And the economic regulations that destroyed wages. And insulted its children when they complained.
They asked for a fish and you gave them a stone.
The sexual revolution started in the 1920's, took time off for a Great Depression and World War 2, and then resumed. Like almost all of the Boomer scapegoating, this claim is historically ignorant.
Nope. The sexual revolution started at Sodom and Gomorrah by that standard. Listen I know what you’re saying and knew what was going on before, God was half out the building by 1940, but restraint and fight was still there. It’s like saying the Russian Revolution started in 1848, kind of.
No, it's nothing like that. It's analyzing long term cultural changes instead of looking at their culmination. One approach leads to deeper understanding, the other approach is good for scapegoating and venting.
Maybe we should blame Gen Z and younger Millennials for the transgender insanity, because it manifested itself among them. Carl Trueman wrote a book tracing the cultural changes that led to transgender madness, which spanned about 3 centuries. No need to go back to Sodom and Gomorrah, nor to start the day before yesterday. That's the kind of cultural analysis needed (and lacking) in most of these discussions.
I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but consider: The house we bought in 1988 and in which we raised our children has tripled in inflated-adjusted value since then.
So yes, It would be approximately three times as hard for a younger family to buy it now than it was for us. But here's the kicker: It doesn't provide three times the housing benefit for that inflated price; in the contrary it's probably just barely holding its own. We have recently replaced the roof and the furnace, so it's not like it's badly depreciated, but still...
Aaron, If I were you I would take the same approach with the anti-Boomer sentiment that you do with people like Andrew Tate or the other manosphere luminaries: they really are onto something, even if their solutions are counterproductive or worse.
Your advice to young men is very similar to what I tell young men struggling to get a date. I tell them that flirting/social interactions are a skill and they need to practice that skill on people they have no romantic interest in.
When you struggle in attracting the opposite sex, every interaction with a possible romantic interest carries unbearable tension. It turns every conversation into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series. And that tension is fatal to attraction.
The only way to get past that is to practice in low-stress situations where failure has no consequences. I'm not talking about leading someone on with feigned interest. Rather, can you make the cashier smile? Can you get a chuckle out of the pharmacist? Can you carry a 10 minute conversation with the custodian in your building? Can you learn what does/does not work and refine your conversational style?
Not only will this help in personal and professional development, but you will build enough confidence that if a romantic target doesn't like it, you will be sure that someone else will. And that confidence will keep you relaxed and translate into much greater success.
Honestly it’s why I recommend everyone try to work a job dealing with the public. Talk to a thousand strangers under pressure and you’re a different person.
For romance in particular it helps to know you don’t really want someone who doesn’t want you and there is no winning someone over really. Learn to recognize interest over time.