So I’ve given up reasoning with the kids. Now I just tease them…
American Consequences:
By P.J. O’Rourke
My three children, ranging in age from teens to early 20s, are (of course) “woke.” That is, they are strongly opposed to oppression, persecution, discrimination, prejudice, inequality, unfairness, and all bad things. Not that I’d prefer to have kids who favored bad things. That would be creepy. But…
Being woke also means being constantly, perpetually aware of all bad things. And “aware,” in this dad’s experience, is synonymous with “won’t shut up about.” Every night at the dinner table, for instance…
Meanwhile, it’s not like I’ve spent my day going to indoor Trump rallies without a mask, posting boogaloo boys memes on the Dark Net, and guarding statues of Stonewall Jackson with my duck gun. When the kids start making their woke arguments at the dinner table, I ask them, “Who are you arguing with?”
“We’re not arguing!” they argue. Then they contend, contentiously, “It’s important to be aware!” And when I fail to dispute that, the kids resort to the ultimate rebuttal of all parental attempts at understanding and shout, “You just don’t understand!” READ MORE
How can you “understand” something that has no coherent structure and lacks anything that qualifies as internal logic?
A shot of PJ O’Rourke is better than a vaccine for COVID-19.
Glad to see PJ still has his chops.
He nailed the reality of the whole woke scene in one line:
“My, what a delightful person I am. Oh, I’m so wonderful. Gosh, I’m swell.”
I like Mr. O’Rourke’s wit.
“I’m aware, all right. For one thing, I’m aware that it would be nice if the kids stopped saving the world for a minute and helped do the dishes.” Truer words have never been said.
And his comments that @flip mentioned are right on with the social media culture. Look at ME!! Like ME!!
I’ve read him for many years and have a whole collection of his books but I kinda drifted off when he proclaimed himself an anti Trumper.
If you haven’t read “Parliament of Whores”, you’re missing out. O’Rourke lays it out in a hilarious treatise.
first time I ever heard the term ‘MYOB’ was in a science fiction story, I read as a teen, called “… And Then There Were None” by E.F. Russell
a bit dated, but written w/ a sense of humor (it was written in 1951)
you can read it online … or download the .pdf
https://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php
Cut off the money, and cut them out of your will.
That’ll cure them.
Nice parenting, bud.
And by the time they’re in their forties they’ll be on the shrink’s couch with suicidal clinical depression.
My question is how did he pay so little attention to their
educations that they became what they are and now he has the joy of dealing with them spouting that crap?
Inequality is the by-product of fairness!
I understand that you’ve never paid a bill in your life nor suffered a moment of real discomfort ever you insufferable little cunts. So STFU and leave me alone before I really give you little shitbags something to cry about.
Giving money and power to politicians is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. – PJ O’Rourke
Avoid all that nonsense — just don’t have kids.
Give it a year – it will be a psychosis entry in the Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry