I remember reading that when national parks tried to make a ‘bear-proof’ trashcan, they found that there was a larger overlap between the smartest bear and the stupidest human to make a viable product.
I feel like it’s a similar situation here. The smartest kid and the stupidest adult are far more similar than we’d like to admit.
I think it’s more like: the maturest kids and the most immature adults.
Side note: the National Park Service has an awesome team running their social media accounts. Their posts are always hilarious and informative.
Funny, I came here to make the exact same analogy. I totally agree - a mature kid and an immature adult have a lot of overlap.
Nice try little Timmy, but I won’t be telling you how to pass as an adult.
Because you are a kid and you don’t know but are pretending to be an adult. Nice try!
Everyone knows you hop on another kid’s shoulders and put on a trenchcoat, fedora, and sunglasses and gave the name Robert Businessman.
Very confidently wrong, poor reading comprehension, poor grammar, limited vocabulary, emoji gore, catch phrase/pop culture quotes/talking points repeated with no comprehension of what they’re saying, clearly not aware of how many things in life work, religious regurgitation while being surprised everyone doesn’t agree with them. Very easily impressed with basic factual statements, clearly thinking confidence is the main thing that makes someone correct. Thinks their mom telling they they are handsome is a valid point. Idk, that’s all I got.
Bonus: can also be applied to boomers.
Boomers are just decrepit toddlers at this point anyway
Could be a new gameshow: Boomer or Toddler
So every boomer on facebook. Got it.
By these standards, most of my adult relatives are actually children.
It’s like I tell my kids, an adult is just a child who got old. It’s also why a lot of cultures have a concept of adulthood that has nothing to do with reaching sexual maturity alone.
Those first two…and a couple others, also apply to a lot of adults I have had political conversations with the past several years…
Extreme/insane positions on everything. Not just one or two insane positions, not just political extremism; when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING. No nuance allowed. And it has to be fully sincere, otherwise you are dealing with a Jreg.
There are milder versions of this, but I have rarely met a child that didn’t have a strongly held insane belief formed from their limited experiences. My favorite was a kid who told me that eating pasta supports fascism because it comes from Italy, so loving Italian products means you support Mussolini. Pizza is fine, though, because that’s American.
I’ll bite. What’s a Jreg?
A youtuber who was relatively popular with enlightened centerists around 2019. Links so you can look on and cringe:
- A video where he regurgitates right-wing talking points directed at his cat in the name of “satire”
- An actually funny video about top 10 lists
- The video that made his channel really take off
- “Should we dehumanize our political opponents?”
- Man-made satire beyond mortal comprehension.
He also would attend rallies and spout political gibberist
He’s actually leftist I think, and was parodying centrists too
If I remember his coming out video, he’s a Democratic Socialist. Which, if the political compass made sense, would be just right of center. But I guess thinking people deserve rights is inherently left-wing to Americans lol
He’s Canadian
You mean We Have America At Home?
jreg is pretty based i think. His content is satire, for sure. A lot of his recent stuff has been delving into more philosophical shit though.
Dude literally doxxed himself and asked people to kill him (in lore)
I was a big fan of jreg pre-2020, but after giving up mainstream social media I currently believe that only cowards, frauds, and master satirists feel the need to use irony. It’s arrogant to think you are the third, and I dont think Jreg is either. I think he is a coward.
ah, i think you should catch up a little bit on jreg then. He’s had a similar story arc lmao.
He’s “unironically Jregular now”
Uuuuuugh. I remember being so black and white, there wasn’t any middle ground on anything. It was exhausting.
I’m just glad I decided to go full moral relativism right away back then. It was a good way to speedrun maturity, although I did maintain some kooky beliefs into early adulthood such as
- “if you are not multilingual you can’t be a good person, and the more languages you speak the better of a person you are”
- “The Democratic party is a puppet of the Republican party, and in reality the U.S. is only pretending to be a two-party state”
- “The age of consent should be 25.”
- “Evil people can be good functioning members of society, so we shouldn’t discriminate against people who hold evil beliefs as long as they are nice to others.”
It was exhausting. Opposite reason from you, there was only middle ground, no black and white allowed. But it came from the same mental place. Pride, arrogance, nieveté.
Glad we grew out of it.
Ha ha that’s hilarious 😂 such a cherry pick too
This. This is how I pick out if I’m arguing with an adult or not
yeah pretty much this. Dealing with one right now, people are funny.
I don’t think there is a “dead giveaway”. Plenty of kids can pass as adults online and plenty of adults seem like kids online. And sometimes with stuff like word usage/grammar/etc you can’t tell if it’s a child or someone who doesn’t speak English very well or maybe an English-speaking adult who happens to type like that. There’s a lot of different people in the world.
Yeah seriously, every time someone makes a generalization online “that subreddit is all 12 year olds anyway”, “r/teenagers is mainly grown me”, it really bothers me because no, you’re just overconfident in estimating people’s ages from text
frfr m8
I can’t get over ironically using stupid lingo, without being good at presenting it as ironic use…so I often seem like a child. I am certainly bad at forming sentences that are not stream of thought (with weird punctuation like parentheses containing clarification…like this…and overused ellipsis…)
I imagine that part of it comes down to motivation. I pretended to be an adult on a special-interest forum when I was twelve years old because I needed an escape from my miserable existence. At that time, I had no control over my life and every morning I woke up meant I had a new chance for traumatic shit to happen. I desperately needed to be someone else, so I took my time, researched shit, and avoided any conversation where I might be outed. I’m sure I didn’t fool everyone, but I got some shocked responses when I went back as an adult and owned up to it.
Kids doing it for the authority boost or just as a childish fancy will be easier to spot. Kids doing it as a coping mechanism for their horrible lives will probably blend in a lot better.
Damn. I know this life. I don’t wish it on anyone, except those who exposed me to it…
I have found the gen xers are the WORST at texting and writing in general. At least the ones I know.
I would die without autocorrect. I grew up with “mom, how do I spell (word)” and getting “sound it out”, witch werks grate in Inglish…
I grew up getting “Look it up!” and I still can’t spell for shit.
I HATED that one…look it up in the Dictionary…sure ok, let me look up a word I can’t spell …ffs!
Ever watch a kid who grew up after smartphones try to type?
“Redditors of Reddit, how do you sexily sex the sex out of sexy sex???”
Serious response: you can’t really make a very general rule. There are a lot of people who write quite maturely since their teens, and a lot of people who are morons since their teens and have endless dedication and determination to remain in that state for as long as they breathe.
They’re getting private messaged by YouTubers
Not understanding the difference between pre and post 9/11 politics
Hate to break it to you but people born in 2006 are turning 18 this year (and are technically considered “adults”).
Having just turned 43, I can tell you that I don’t think I became an adult until my early/mid 30s.
This is a truth that everyone under 30 denies until the day they turn 30. It’s like a magic spell is suddenly broken, and you realize you’re alone in an aging meat husk that now knows the glory of back pain.
I know a young person will read this and think this won’t happen to them. To that person: I am you from the future. Remember us as we were.
I think it’s kinda like the old dating age formula; you can date people (your age) / 2 + 7 years old, and you feel like that’s the age of an adult.
When I was 15 I felt like ann adult, but people younger than me were teens. When I was 25 I felt like an adult but people under the age of like 20 were just kids. Now I feel like people in their early/mid-20s are just about adults. I’m sure when I’m 50 I’ll think back to myself now and consider myself barely an adult.
I’m 27 and I think I’m there already
I thought that too. I regret to report: it gets worse.
I’m 40 and it seems like I can continually look back at myself from five years ago and think damn I was an idiot back then. I wonder how I will feel in five years…
Wow, you’re me!
That assumes you live in one of a small number of countries for which politics significantly shifted after one of those countries was attacked.
And also that you’re at least old enough to have had a reasonable mature understanding of the political landscape before 2001, so as to appreciate how things changed. Let’s assume that’d make you at least 20.
…So, we have to be at least 43 years old, and American, or you’ll assume we’re children?
To actually understand you’d have to have been following politics pre 9/11, which would make you probably 16 at the time. That means 39 right now. That’s a lot of adults you’re ruling out.
If you want to say understand society pre and post 9/11, then you’re probably talking 12 at the time, so 35 right now. Still a lot of adults you’re ruling out.
So, uh, what is the difference?
When they’re adamant that voting third party in the United States will be useful in some capacity, I assume they’re 13
I know a full grown adult that does that in every election. Local elections, sure, I can understand, but he does that with all of them, Basically a card carrying communist that’s a useful idiot for right wing politicians.
Conversely: when they say this is the most important election of “our lifetimes”, and the world will end if we lose.
(Doesn’t mean they’re wrong)
I don’t assume they are 13, but they at least aren’t old enough to remember what happened in 2016.
Or any other election year, for that matter. I don’t think a third party candidate has gotten a significant voter block in 100 years.
Almost anyone with an irrational political stance betrays their youth.
Political ideology has always captivated the passions of youth, but isn’t successfully implemented or even internalized except by people with age and experience and emotional regulation.
I agree with you. Do you think people become more conservative with age or is it society becoming more progressive and leaving them behind? Obviously ignoring the current regressive times of the last eight+ years there.
To contribute an answer to the original question I offer this post as evidence of age- thinking about how much has changed during my life may have come through above.
Do you think people become more conservative with age or is it society becoming more progressive and leaving them behind?
I am getting up there in years and seeing this play out over and over.
I think every generation wants to be more progressive than the last, but we tend to carry baggage of fear and insecurity through the generations. Or more specifically, older people tend to gain the political and monetary capital needed to affect policy and shape our societal outlook and attitude. They will always be more conservative than the younger generation who will want more freedoms and personal rights, inherently, and as the ruling class will clash with newer sensibilities, over and over.
What we’re asking here, is the conservatism reflected in our elders and leadership now broadly more harmful or helpful? Are we out of the touch or is it the kids who are wrong?
I think it’s a mix but mostly it’s not our real problem. Our real problem is that no matter what our age, we have greatly misunderstood how our own existence works. Most people have been taught that they have brains designed to exercise logic and reason and that brains are the best thing ever if you use them and make them smart.
No, our brains are not logical tools. We are not a rational species. There was no “age of enlightenment.” It’s all a hoax. Our brains are tools designed to write a story to explain how you feel. And that’s it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. When we all learn how our brains actually work we will collectively make better decisions, have more compassion for each other, and likely sink into even deeper despair as we all start to realize we have no free will.
You would need some real insurance that others were commuted to vote 3rd party no matter what. Otherwise the real benifit is just getting to that 5% mark where third parties get some bennies like federal funding and automatic ballot access in some places. Which is minor vs say stopping a campaign of vengeance from a candidate who has acted feloniously already and has abused his position to black bag political opponents before.
Why not vote 3rd party in states that only go one direction? Take NY for instance. What the fuck harm comes from voting 3rd party assholes for president? One time the state elected a republican candidate and it was (still is I think) the largest landslide in history. I’m 36 and have always hated the 2 party system. It’s been easier and easier as I got older too with increasing political polarity.
I aint reading allat💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Like if gay is bad and u a sigma (YT shorts raised me)
👇Nice yap sesh
I’m actually gonna give the benefit of the doubt and assume this is actually a grown idiot lol
This ‘compress’ everything is such a waste of CPU and energy. Plus “oops, all your files are gone, tee hee”. GZ everywhere is fucking stupid. More complexity for zero benefit.
- CTO at my previous company
Hackers mad
Hackers mad
Hackers mad
it depends on the application, if you’re just serving a static site, or talking on a public chatforum, yeah encryption is pointless.
If you’re talking an SSH tunnel? Yeah no this is stupid.
I don’t really know, but when they have weird illogical views that they defend with trump like arguments, I think they are kids. They might not be 10.
Some people’s bodies continue to grow well after their brain stopped developing.
Yes, but it’s a little worse than that. One might take that to mean environmental, congenital, or even genetic factors. But there’s more. Consider the role that trauma has to play here as it can directly cause arrested psychological development:
That was really interesting. I had a friend who’s brother killed himself when he was a young teen. If things didn’t go his way or he was overly irritated, especially when he was drunk, he reacted by destroying things like a pubescent boy might. He also came from a wealthy family so I always thought that contributed as well, like not caring if he breaks something just buy a new one. But he didn’t just break his own things. I had to end the friendship when he drunkenly threatened a woman who lived in my building with a gun. I hope he’s ok.
Sorry to hear about your friend. While I’m no doctor, that seems to fit the bill to me. I’ve known people that had other trauma when young, and yeah, maintaining healthy relationships seems to be the hardest thing for them. Your story reminded me of a lot.
Kids care too deeply about the most shallow things
Shut up you care about the most shallow things!!!
no i dont!!!1!!! i only care about the best things. you are stupid!!
For me personally the first tell is when they are morally loading every statement in an argument and are unable to engage with a topic directly. Adults should be able to discuss or debate certain topics on the value of the arguments alone without feeling pressured to include a declarative virtue signal in every clause.
“debate me” kids are another stereotype on the internet though. The idea that ideas should be entertained and discussed for the sake of it and come without implications attached is just another form of edgyness. It’s another thing that often goes away with age or with touching grass. I know because I was one of them. Now I understand that the fact itself of discussing something publicly has moral implications.
Yea, I agree. That’s why I used the word discuss because when the debate-bro mindset kicks in you’re definitely dealing with an angsty teenager (also the constant invocation of logical fallacies).
Assuming that getting married means you’ll never masturbate again.
Well. I was married to someone that thought it was disgusting, hated that I masturbated, and did her level best to shame me out of it. She also hated sex. (Well, with me; she suddenly liked sex once we were separated and she was dating.) And many fundamentalist religions do teach that no one should ever masturbate, and that women should always be sexually available to their husbands, no matter what. (Oh, and women don’t have sexual needs or desires of their own, they just exist to fulfill male needs.)
Once yearssss ago I dated a girl who was one of those uber conservative types, and early on tried to set a rule that I wasn’t allowed to masturbate as that was cheating in her eyes. I remember just laughing in her face and my response was a firm “no”. I can tell this annoyed her, but quickly realized this wasn’t an argument she was going to win and quickly dropped the matter. Anyway I guess I dodged a bullet with that one.
My ex-wife wasn’t even conservative, so IDK.
That sounds rough, sorry to hear that. Being with someone that doesn’t treat you well for too long is damaging. Sounds like you found one of the millions that was absolutely not the right one for you though and I hope you can let it just be that when you’re ready. I could stand to take my advice to be fair lol.
That’s just a fundamentalist though