Amen, brother Grudgie. I cannot tell you guys here on the forum how difficult it has been trying to get my narrow-minded relatives from my father's and grandparents' generation to see reason and get out of the "vote Republican and they'll fix it" or "work within the system to change things" or "God will see us through." No He fucking won't. If you think God is with you while you sit and wait for shit to happen...you'll just end up wishing you had done something later, after you've lost everything. Jews and Nazi Germany, anyone? Working within the system...what a crock. We have to work just as hard to convince our parents' generation of their bullshit decisions as we do to try and find a way to make good decisions ourselves.
I have a wife, two small kids, a bachelor's degree from a respectable middle Georgia college, $10,000 in student loan debt, and no job offers that pay enough to warrant leaving my kids at home to go to work. I literally just worked my last day at my job. I gave my notice a couple of weeks ago, because I'm not making enough money an hour to warrant the costs incurred by gas, food, vehicle maintenance, daycare, stress, wife's sleep deprivation (she's a night shift nurse), and overall family mental, physical and emotional well-being. I did everything I was told I was supposed to do since I was a child. I graduated high school with honors, got a scholarship to the local college, fought to put my wife through college, she fought to put me through college, and now I'm stuck. I work hard. I single-handedly revamped the entire working process at the job I just quit. I took it from a point where the boss was going to scrap the project, and I not only met his goals but exceeded them. There was no position to move up, no increase in pay, nothing. The economy is shitty, I inherited it from the previous generation, and I'm the one who has to figure it out? Fuck it. I'd rather leave the previous generation holding the bag and make my own way in a place where I don't have to inherit all your bad decisions. My family's future is worth more than this. God help me, America or no America, if I see a way out, if I see a path to freedom and opportunity, I'll take my family and leave the rest behind. I'll take my rifle and plenty of ammo, my possessions, my family, my education and my work ethic and I'll forge a path. Without the previous generation.
Don't give me this shit about lying down and taking it while the Man Upstairs smiles while pissing on me. I had to educate my own father about why working within this system is fruitless, and why a shitstorm is coming down on us - and he is a very intelligent and open-minded man. He should have been telling me this the first 20 years of my life, not me telling him this after the first 20 years of my life. The generations before us may have passed down what it means to "be an American," but they sure as shit didn't pass down the most important duty - be always vigilant, be ever watchful, trust but verify, all the lessons from the Founding Fathers. That our generation is having to relearn what they truly mean, many for the first time since their parents didn't teach them, is a testament to the failure of "freedom-loving people" to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.
This rant is a response to the linked post, not to every member of the older generations. I have a lot of respect for guys like JohnyMac, my father, and many others who always carried the torch or who are trying to make amends and carry the torch now.