>>134927600>>134927614You know how we encourage animals we keep as pets to maintain infantile behavior even late into their lives because it makes them dependent on us and easier to control? Thats basically what has happened to the last couple generations of american adults. The version of the world they were promised was sold off when they were still children for the benefit of the boomers, so the prosperity and stability they were told would mark functional adulthood is forever out of reach of all but the luckiest of them. Left in the lurch they are vulnerable to predation. Political actors benefit from keeping the people poor and stupid, because that leaves the desperate to believe comforting lies and lacking the education needed to realize how badly they are being manipulated. Meanwhile, franchise media sells them a comforting bubble of everything they remember fondly from their childhood, rebooting any 80s IP no matter how trashy or small, to encase them in a forever time-capsule of "pop culture" that has been frozen in time.
Everything adds up to a constant drumbeat on all sides of 'don't grow up, there isn't room for you there. Stay a child in any way you can for as long as you can. The future isn't your problem, keep your eyes fixed on the past.'
