Biden Doesn't Want To Hear Millennials Complain: 'Give Me A Break'
newsweek.com/joe-biden-says-millennials-dont-...Posted Mar 2, 2019, 8:44 PM UTC
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newsweek.com
this guy's campaign is gonna be over before it begins and i couldnt be happier
(edit because I realized that phrasing could be misinterpreted in a bad way)
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Biden will have big donors backing him up all the way to the convention, that's why he's relaxed. Biden is also confident young people will not vote in the primaries, leaving Bernie et al., behind.
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He's right. Young people don't vote.
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They did in the midterms, in unprecedented numbers
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Basically anything higher than zero is "unprecedented".
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Any time the word "millennial" is used in a headline like this, it's worth pointing out that millennials are adults between the ages of 20 and 40.
Pew Research Center decided a year ago to use 1996 as the last birth year for Millennials for our future work. Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward is part of a new generation.
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So they are, at the oldest, 38. Not 40
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Wow - Super Joe tells an entire generation to go fuck themselves. This is beyond obtuse.
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Besides the economic data does not support his assertion.
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Absolutely correct. The baby boomer generation was pampered by society beyond belief. The economy was strong throughout their childhoods and youth. Many of them rebelled against war and social injustice, but Joe Biden was not one of those people while Bernie Sanders was.
Skipping ahead to the forward time, for Joe to callously dismiss what those in the 20-40 age bracket are experiencing is so beyond tone-deaf that I simply cannot believe that anyone in the DNC wants to push this guy as a candidate. He's a walking disaster. Yes, the article is old, but I guess it's good that a little light has been shown on it.
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I assumed this was a clickbait title, so went and read the article. It's possible this was taken out of context if we get to watch the full interview, but it appears pretty straightforward.
Has anyone watched the full interview? Is there some context below we are missing before the outrage machine starts it's typical machinations?
Millennials who think that times are tough in 2018 have no room to complain, according to former Vice President Joe Biden, who said that he had “no empathy” for young people who compared today to the struggles of the 1960s.
“The younger generation now tells me how tough things are—give me a break,” said Biden, while speaking to Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times to promote his new book. “No, no, I have no empathy for it, give me a break.”
Biden compared the complaints of millennials to what he experienced growing up in the 1960s and '70s, mentioning the civil rights and women’s liberation movements that were gaining traction simultaneously with the Vietnam War, making the United States a troubling place for young activists at the time.
“Here’s the deal, guys,” continued Biden. “We decided we were going to change the world, and we did.”
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Yeah, I typically like Joe, but this is a terrible look for him and not what we need in a potential Democrat presidential candidate. "We decided we were going to change the world, and we did?" When you consider the economic disparity and environmental issues we're seeing now, that statement is laughable.
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I agree. Joe's not my first choice in the primary, but I like him and his focus on income inequality he's taken on. But at a time when a large section of the electorate is hurting due to housing, stagnating real wages, increased healthcare costs, and out of control student loans - saying you have no empathy and you don't want to hear complaints is a bad look.
Now, later he talks about voting. So before going over the top, I think w need to find the context of his statement. If it was about how young people need to vote more since that is how they changed the world, it's still very poorly worded, but more understandable. If it's really about not feeling empathy for hurting millennials and Gen Z kids, I don't really know what he's thinking.
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Ugh, but you fucking didn’t.
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Huh?
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I mean Biden and them didn’t change the world.
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Biden is right
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He tells the LARGEST generation to go fuck themselves.
Truly a cunning politician.
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If this is true, Biden may want to stay retired and avoid the embarrassment of being revealed as the neoliberal baby-boomer he's always been,
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Goddammit. Uncle Joe's gotten into the sherry again.
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Wow. Do we need a good kick in the pants, too? Do we have to hear about how Joe walked seven miles to school and seven miles back in the snow back in his day?
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Did his homework by candlelight
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"I worked odd jobs all summer to buy my first car, a brand-new cherry red 1967 Mustang. Millennials are too lazy to do that these days!"
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shhh, he's busy pandering to the Working Class Voters, hush now and let ol' Unca Joe do his magick
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The only reason Biden is polling well right now is because of people nostalgic for Obama. The second he starts campaigning and those people see how awful he is his numbers will tank.
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The only reason Biden is polling well right now is because there's a couple of Big Money financiers paying Big PR to shove his candidacy down America's throat -- just like they did with Hillary; and we all know how that turned out.
The true Obama nostalgics are nudging Michelle - who to my mind would be a far more viable candidate than Mr. O'biden-- though she's repeatedly said she has zero interest or intention in taking up the mantle.
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Michelle hates politics it will never happen. Might as well wait for Malia and Sasha.
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Malia and Sasha
Oh shit, I would vote for either of them.
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Let’s see what they’re offering the voters.
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Biden is very popular among older democrats, he also is leading in every SC poll, indicating that his support among african Americans is strong as well.
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Good. I'm glad he said it. There's a big, energized and fed up voting bloc that needs to know where Biden stands on the challenges and hardships that millennials face. And he doesn't get it. This will help winnow the field of candidates early.
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Struggles Biden has no understanding of, or empathy for, and counting: young people, women, POC, LGBT...
He's a 75-year-old, blue-dog, good ole boy baby boomer. I'm glad Obama loves him and he seems like a loving father, but this man is not the future.
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I think this headline is old, I remember seeing it before.
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I think Biden is old, I remember hearing him gaffe before. But yes, this is from January 2018.
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Unless he ends up being the nominee, then you will swallow your pride and vote for him. But until then, yes, fuck the old bastard.
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i think biden getting the nod would be the only way trump wins in 2020
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YEah, this is what I thought.
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Oh-- whoops. Someone sent it to me and I was so amazed I didn't even look at the date.
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Really tired of Baby Boomers not named Bernie Sanders.
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There it is folks. Animated privilege.
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Anime has rights too.
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Someone should tell him he has to win over millennials to win the White House. Keep this up and they will stay away from you. He ain't going to win the Primary, let alone face Trump.
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Then we don’t want to listen to you campaign.
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Millennials have the power to elect the next president if they turn out and vote, and taking positions against them is unwise. If any dem plans on campaigning for mostly boomers, they will lose.
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Alienating voters Uncle Joe?
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That’s why you’ll never be President, Joe
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Oh dear, Joe. Gaffe number 2 and you haven't declared yet lol
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Article is from January 2018. Appreciate the example of why Biden will faceplant when he runs, but still...
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Polls are useless at this point.
It's just name recognition.
Not entirely useless, just entirely skewed by name-recognition. Still slightly useful for comparing candidates with already very high name-recognition (Biden, Trump, and maybe Sanders), and also for measuring rising name-recognition among fresher faces (eg Harris).
But like 90% useless as an indicator of win chances, yeah.
I haven't found myself having strong feelings about Biden either way - I'd of course vote for him if he were the nominee. But that comment about Pence just really bugged me.
Well, he does very well with older people. Reddit and Twitter are not high on him, but Facebook and your grandma's sewing group loves him, which is why he is a legitimate candidate and I think gets underestimated here.
I do agree that a lot of people like Biden the VP and I will be interested in seeing how he does once he announces a platform and starts getting a higher level of scrutiny like Bernie, Warren, Harris, Klochubar, Booker, etc.
There are a number of things I like about Biden, but I can't say policies are among them. It's not enough to just like the guy.
Especially when he brings this kind of attitude to the table. He's shown great empathy at certain moments but can't demonstrate it for younger generations? That's a red flag.
Ok, so often these are taken way out of context - so I went back to find the source materials - which you essentially need to watch in video form (I couldn't find a full transcript):
https://www.latimes.com/politics/95641832-132.html
So in fairness to Biden, this quote seems to be in response to a question about less young people getting into public service and how it's not held in very high esteem.
Biden worded his answer terribly. Absolutely terribly. But it appears his point is more about how young people need to vote and get involved in politics or else they won't be able to change the world.
His central point about younger people needing to be more civically engaged is spot on - his wording or the suggestion that because they don't get engaged enough, that somehow they deserve no empathy for poor conditions was worded very poorly and is unlikely to go over well.
Again, could not find a full transcript, but one article did at least list a longer portion of the quote, though again, cutting off some important context prior to the start of the quote:
"The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here’s the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did. We did. We finished the civil rights movement in the first stage. The women’s movement came to be. So my message is, get involved. There’s no place to hide. You can go and you can make all the money in the world, but you can't build a wall high enough to keep the pollution out. You can't live where—you can't not be diminished when your sister can't marry the man or woman, or the woman she loves. You can't—when you have a good friend being profiled, you can't escape this stuff. And so, there's an old expression my philosophy professor would always use from Plato, 'The penalty people face for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves.' It's wide open. Go out and change it."
But at least he responded to that criticism with class he didn’t double down on Pence being a nice guy.
Meaning “stop complaining and do something about what’s pissing you off.” What a dumb title.