2019 - By the Numbers, . . .

However, they negated all that by indoctrinating you to be a conservative. Manners mean nothing if you don't have compassion and empathy for others.

Several studies have found that the strongest influence on a person's political ideology is that of his/her parents. Trumpers have little Trumper kids. No-good snowflake liberals have no-good snowflake liberal kids. That's just the way it is. Your conservatism isn't really your fault.

But if you want to talk about values--my parents taught me that we are all equal and that we all have a responsibility to care for one another. "Preparing for life" was about treating others as we would wish to be treated. We were encouraged to seek out all of life's possibilities and follow our own path.

We also were taught to treat all races and ethnicities with respect and to judge people "by the content of their character," as MLK put it. We were taught not to regard someone with less money than others as any less worthy of regard. We were taught common decency. We were educated about our country's heritage and why it matters.

And y'know what? My parents were REPUBLICANS!!!! All that common decency stuff used to be part of conservative philosophy. Now, the Republican party has been perverted into an evil, cruel, distorted version of itself. I am appalled at how Republicans/Trumpers have abandoned their values, their patriotism, their common decency, and their respect for the laws of this country.

Is it maybe because all those old white guys no longer have their parents around to guide them?

Sure, you can use a flip phone. You can also use a typewriter instead of a computer and printer. You can drive a car from the 1970s with no computerized engine controls and no safety features. You can go to the library and look up what is the capital of Mongolia rather than using the internet. You can push a vaccum around your house rather than using a Roomba. All valid choices.

However, I personally do not disdain anyone who uses more modern and convenient options. Sure, many teenagers spend too much time with their smartphones. Thirty years ago, it was TV. Sixty years ago, it was comic books. Fifty thousand years ago, it was banging rocks together. One of the everlasting constants in human history is that the older generations sneer at the way the younger generations do things and dismiss any improvements as new-fangled foolishness.

Damfool horseless carriages, they'll never catch on!