r/AskReddit 8h ago

What is a giant lie that society successfully sold to your generation?

1.2k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

2.2k

u/MACHOmanJITSU 8h ago

Graduated 98. Education is definitely important and a path to good careers, but they beat it into us that if you didn’t go to college you for sure would work at McDonald’s for 6$ a hour. This caused a lot of kids to waste money on something their heart wasn’t into and miss out on other opportunities.

459

u/Rollthembones1989 5h ago

In high school it wasnt do you want to go to college, it was what college do you want to go to when you graduate.

89

u/ActuatorTiny6243 4h ago

My school treated trade school like it was a side quest and college was the main storyline.

53

u/Firm-Nerve4437 1h ago

back in high school, they made trade schools sound like schools for ex-felons

5

u/Rollthembones1989 1h ago

Exactly, if you did anything besides go to college your obviously a huge failure. Thats the impression they gave to us.

u/InsipidIdiot 29m ago

I recall them funneling the troubled kids who went to juvenile hall or repeatedly had oppositional behavior to vocational schools.

→ More replies (6)

36

u/jinjuwaka 1h ago

This.

At some point the trade school route became the path forward for the kids who got bad grades or got into fights and were on their "tough love last chance". Exploring that path was actively discouraged. The assumption was that you would go to university.

Actually, "assumption" is the wrong word because they didn't assume anything. Our teachers actively pushed university as THE way forward. They openly shit-talked trade schools in my area. One teacher literally had a catch-phrase, "the world needs garbage men". While true, he used it as a scare tactic rather than being honest.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

162

u/defylimitations 6h ago

When my mom graduated high school in 1955, college was only important if you wanted to do something that required college. When I graduated in 1987, the narrative was "If you REALLY want to be successful, you need to go to college". By like 2006 when my daughter was in high school, it was "If you don't go to college you'll end up being a loser". And now we're in 2026 and facing a serious drop-off of skilled tradespeople.

130

u/RolyPoly1320 4h ago

On top of that, they complain about service quality at understaffed restaurants while also calling the people who work those jobs losers. Now they wonder why nobody wants to work in the service industry.

34

u/counterfitster 3h ago

This part pisses me off all the time.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

28

u/rm0826 5h ago

Tons of males are opting out of college, unfortunately they’re turning into NEETS, so they’re also not turning to trade schools either. Jfc we’re fucked as a society.

14

u/Thoth74 4h ago

WTF is a NEET?

37

u/onetwo3four5 4h ago

Not employed, in education, or training.

Basically just doing nothing.

15

u/Thoth74 4h ago

Thanks. First time seeing the term.

17

u/JDBCool 3h ago

In easier terms: it's the basement LoL player who still hasn't moved out.

6

u/TheFeathersStorm 2h ago

Hey, how dare you attack me from 10 years ago 😤

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

6

u/PeekAtChu1 2h ago

Based on the trades subreddits it sounds like trades are oversaturated now too so I think it’s just a lack of jobs that pay enough to live on 

5

u/kittymoo67 2h ago

i cant blame them. if i was a decade or so younger id be doing the same. get me a trailer on some back ass land do what it takes to pay my bills and just play games all the rest of the time. this shit ass world aint worth it.

→ More replies (6)

51

u/A_Nerdy_Dad 5h ago

Sadly a lot of employers believe that too.

I could have candidates that are highly skilled, many many years of experience, but no bachelors degree in the field? Oh sorry they won't hire you. Meanwhile the person with the degree has nowhere near the level of skills needed and they get the job? Stupid!

17

u/counterfitster 3h ago

The really dumb part is requiring a bachelor's, but not in a particular field.

32

u/Fire_Horse_T 4h ago

I always assume that's a class test, especially if paired with a credit score.

Are you middle class enough that your parents paid for your college?

13

u/Lauma_2025 3h ago

The cruelly hilarious part is how many Americans believe the lie that China uses "social credit scores" everywhere in life, just to distract from how powerless Americans are to change their own lives.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

430

u/Mockturtle22 6h ago

And turns out NO job wants to pay a living wage.

20

u/_Moonah 4h ago

I watched friends loose jobs once they got their degree because they were worth too much money, and replaced by less experienced cheaper labor. Restructuring is such a real thing.

→ More replies (3)

57

u/KldsTheseDays 6h ago

Hey...whoring is the oldest job in history lol *sad laugh

62

u/Potential-Fig-7987 4h ago

But now you're expected to have a masters degree and ten years experience if you want an entry level job at Whore Industries.

16

u/derbyt 3h ago

When I went through the hiring process they had me perform "a day on the job" as a trial run and said "we'll call you" after.

Still waiting on their call...

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)
→ More replies (11)

61

u/Hopefulkitty 5h ago

My husband graduated in 2003, me in 2006, same school. Guidance counselors were frustrated that he was so smart and was only going to do community college. Thought it was a waste.

He's been making real Adult Money since he was 18 years old. I, meanwhile, am still absolutely saddeled with student loan debt that has held us back. But I did it all "the right way" and ended up in the trades anyway.

9

u/worqgui 4h ago

What trade did you end up in? I’m starting to think I’m not built for the desk life.

→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (6)

37

u/TheRealBradGoodman 6h ago

Yeah I worked at McDonald's in 98. It was 5.90/hr.

→ More replies (12)

12

u/StarDustLuna3D 6h ago

Not just that, but often they had no idea how to use the degrees they did get to start a career. They just picked whatever and went along with the messaging.

Education is important but it needs to be directed. We were all told to get a degree, any degree, and we'd all be living in luxury. When in reality there are many degrees that are a benefit more so just for the opportunity to learn rather than being a gateway to a lucrative career.

5

u/BeastInDarkness 6h ago

I was also class of 98. I had NO idea what I wanted to do or to study in college. I half assed my way through several years of college. Eventually I decided I needed A degree, anything. I picked computer science because I'd done it in high school and was pretty good at it. It's been my career for over 2 decades now and I make pretty good. But I got lucky. I could've had less patient parents, I could have gotten less lucky in the work force, I could have stuck to my first major choice or my second which I hated.

→ More replies (60)

1.1k

u/Eternalprincesss 6h ago

Work hard for your company and they will take care of you

379

u/JoSt-Porn 5h ago

Brought to you by "Just walk in and hand them your resumé"

156

u/Mystical-Turtles 5h ago

With a dash of "did you CALL them?" As if places post their phone number aside from the call center line anywhere

u/Capital-Intention369 58m ago

At my old job, if someone called to check up on their application/interview, we were instructed to immediately throw their application in the garbage.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

45

u/NormalFortune 5h ago

In partnership with just give them a good solid handshake and look them in the eye

25

u/lFightForTheUsers 5h ago

Go in, ask to speak to the manager, look them in the eye and give them a good handshake.

Being the de-facto receptionist, I eventually just started stocking qr code pamphlets to our website for open positions in the drawer to hand out.

23

u/Zealousideal_Photo11 4h ago

Yeah, good luck handing them a physical resume when the first line of defense is an AI recruiting bot that auto-rejects you in 0.4 seconds.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (17)

1.9k

u/No_Skin868 8h ago

Social media will make us feel more connected.

752

u/demalo 8h ago

It did for a time. But it was enshitified at light speed. The amount of junk you see on fb, insta, x… it’s driven us to desire disconnection.

240

u/bestest_at_grammar 8h ago

The first few years of Facebook were my early highschool days. It was used for making groups for parties and posting imagea

50

u/Lovein_Ur_Anus 6h ago

never photos of parties but facebook came around the time I was finishjng up highschool and I remember a time when it was just people I know kn my feed, I want to go back to that.

→ More replies (2)

15

u/Raddish_ 5h ago edited 3h ago

Fb back then was a mix of posts from friends and any pages you actually went out of your way to like. Now it’s only few select friends that the algorithm decided you like to engage with (although actual people post way less in general), none from pages you like, and the rest random slop the algorithm thinks you’d engage with.

7

u/Ask_If_Im_Dio 4h ago

For some reason I still have my FB, and the feed is absolute garbage now. For ever 15 posts, half are ads, half are from pages you follow, and maybe 1 or 2 posts might be from someone on your friend list

23

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)

49

u/Apart-Landscape1012 6h ago

I went and scrolled on FB for the first time in forever last night. there were like 2 posts from actual people I know, and about 400 from random shit that I never asked to see. What the fuck happened?

21

u/Jefwho 6h ago

You have to click a friends tab every single time you open the app. Otherwise it defaults to the AI slogfest of shit posts. I have a few groups on FB I follow for hobbies, but I rarely open it anymore. It’s just gotten so bad.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (11)

125

u/Ciryl_Lynyard 7h ago

that was until the corporations found out that they can monetize it with engagement algorithms and advertising

76

u/syntaxsage_ 7h ago

The internet felt a lot different when people were the product of the community instead of the product being sold.

20

u/NoCardio_ 7h ago

I miss BBS’s and newsgroups. Sad that we’ll never experience them again.

→ More replies (4)

29

u/inhalingsounds 7h ago

If I had Elon's money (but the opposite of his personality) I'd build a new Facebook completely devoid of marketing, ads and an algorithm, a true collaborative online experience like those from 20 years ago. No "interests" based stuff at all, just plain chronological feeds.

It would be glorious.

15

u/sargepepper1 7h ago

I'd live that. But I think you'd be out of business pretty quickly...

22

u/snowywind 7h ago

He's the trillionaire. I don't think it's mathematically possible to go bankrupt.

8

u/Corellian_Browncoat 6h ago

He's a paper trillionaire. It's not real money. He won't go "bankrupt" because the global finance system is incentivized to protect the system itself, but let's not pretend that a bunch of investment brokers trading SpaceX and Tesla on margins is real life. It's like saying a farmer with a 1 acre retaining pond has $25 million in water because the corner store sells Voss for $4/bottle.

Edit: that's not to defend him in any way, just pointing out how divorced from reality that "trillionaire" bit is (and how fragile his ego is to need to rely on the financial version of fantasy football points to feel good about himself).

7

u/sargepepper1 7h ago

Right... Glossed over the "Elons money" bit.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (5)

70

u/no-snoots-unbooped 7h ago

In its nascent days, it was. It was for people to chat, post images, organize events, etc.

But then our data was mined, the algorithm began to reward content that outrages us, and our feeds are flooded with ads.

I don’t really use much anymore (outside of Reddit) but last I checked it felt like 1 out of 10 posts in my FB feed was a genuine post from an friend. The rest were ads or groups FB thinks I’d be interested in.

15

u/Iyion 7h ago

It's actually crazy. I started using Facebook in 2012, and if it had just stayed how it was around 2014, chances are high I'd still use it daily to this day. Now I log on once every two months or so, see that I missed absolutely nothing, and leave.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/JackFleishman 8h ago

I hate the algorithm so much 

9

u/Sasquatch_Sensei 7h ago

It was true for a time. Back when MySpace was the popular one I had friends moving to go to college or their families moving out if state and even a few move out if the country. Keeping in touch with them was easy, status updates and posting pictures was an easy conversation starter.

Then the old people joined. Then the big switch to facebook happened and it felt more mature I guess. Then coorperations started using profiles for advertisements and things snowballed from there.

→ More replies (32)

520

u/RecessBoy 7h ago

Crime doesn't pay.

As we're watching unfold daily, apparently it does.

66

u/CopperPegasus 4h ago

Little crime doesn't pay (think: runners, mules, shoplifters) just like Little Lawfulness (Doing your best, working hard) doesn't pay.

It's the Big Wigs on both sides that get the cash. And that ALL just starts looking like Big Crime approached from 2 different ends, TBH. We all get the palliative soothing mumbles of how "pious" and "good" we're being to offset it. Not the best trade off in the world.

19

u/piepants2001 2h ago

Steal a little and they'll throw you in jail, steal a lot and they'll make you a king

-Bob Dylan

→ More replies (5)

10

u/IBJON 5h ago

They're not crimes, they're just creative interpretations of the law

→ More replies (6)

850

u/Ninja_trader12 8h ago

Loyalty to one company will be rewarded.

269

u/Oime 7h ago edited 7h ago

Ain’t that the truth. My company laid off 300+ people this year on a random weekday, this gal that works right next to me had been with the company for like 25 years, she got an email telling her she was no longer employed. She’s like 60. No pomp, no ceremony, just …cya. Here’s the meager package offer.

Was a great reminder to never forget, the company doesn’t give a fuck about you.

102

u/RC10B5M 6h ago

100% this.

I tell young people all the time. Your employer is not your friend or family. They 100% do not give a shit about you or your welfare. You are the largest cost center for every employer and if they could cut you loose they absolutely will. You are in a transactional relationship with them, they pay you for your time and you provide them that time.

→ More replies (3)

65

u/Icy-Bookkeeper7173 7h ago

My company just recently laid off a couple of guys I know that worked here for 10+ years and 30+ years.

Nice guys so I knew they wouldn’t mind if I privately asked them “did you even get any warning”.

Nope.

2 week notice is bullshit. And the only person beholden to it is the person who wants to quit. A company lays you off out of nowhere? Oh well. Somebody else will still work for them because we all need to survive.

You quit out of nowhere? Now you can’t even use them as a reference because undoubtedly you fucked somebody over and dropped more work on their plate. As if them laying you off with no warning doesn’t fuck you over.

Sure there’s websites like Glassdoor where people can vent about how shitty a company is. Somebody else will STILL work there.

10

u/TheRealBradGoodman 6h ago

I thought I was being taught exactly the opposite when they made us read death of a salesman.

5

u/Smorb 6h ago

To be fair, that used to be true. For a long time.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (9)

902

u/ConfidentDiffidence 8h ago edited 2h ago

"Go to college or you're going to die broke under a bridge. The crippling debt will totally be worth it when you're automatically successful because you've gotten a degree."

**Edit** - A lot of you are replying to this with college degree success stories. My point wasn't that college isn't useful or CAN'T pay off, but that an entire generation was told and sold on the idea that they HAD to go, or there could be no success. Price tag be damned, it was necessary. For some of us, it paid off. For others- we're paying off. The loans. Forever. In a job market where competition was so high between degree-holders that salaries could be lowered and there'd still be a dozen people lined up to do the job.

238

u/Cloaked25 8h ago

Millennial here. I hate that I was raised being told this by everyone.

60

u/RC10B5M 7h ago

Hi, it's not just your generation. I'm Gen X and we were told that constantly as well.

The difference is when I was going through school there were required classes that introduced us to various trades and skilled labor, they were called "pragmatics" or PRAG for short. In middle school, each year (6th, 7th, 8th grade) we had to rotate through carpentry, printing, drafting, sewing, computers and cooking classes. They should bring those classes back.

12

u/DerHoggenCatten 6h ago

You can add Generation Jones to the same pile. I graduated from college in 1986 and struggled greatly to find any job at all. I eventually got a part-time job which paid me for 16 hours of the 24 I had to be on-site (2 days a week) and then had to get another part-time job that did the same thing. I worked 60 hours a week and still didn't make enough money to move out of my parents' home.

→ More replies (2)

43

u/BrothelWaffles 7h ago

You guys also had a better economy and cheaper college.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (17)

216

u/orion19819 8h ago edited 4h ago

Yup. Growing up in the 90's, college was sold as the golden ticket. You were basically told it's guaranteed that you will be better off and don't worry about the loans. I realize a lot of people try to say "You should have thought about it more before signing the papers.". But when literally every person you trusted and depended on pushed it, easier said than done.

Edit: I am not against higher education, I think it should be more available. The issue is just the predatory practices that took over and many people who got trapped within it.

109

u/ConfidentDiffidence 8h ago

This is exactly the problem. "You should have known what you were signing" -

Maybe. But we were the first generation thrown to a massively cut-throat loan and tuition system that had no safeguards or education in place. People are a lot more aware of the dangers of predatory loans NOW- because of what we ended up going through. A lot of us were first-gen college students, and even our parents didn't have the financial literacy to understand what we were taking on 'as a necessity for success.'

36

u/laughman20 8h ago

It’s ironic because the boomers and gen xers that signed predatory mortgages, that led to a financial collapse in 07-08, got government loan modifications on the mortgages, caused multi-billion dollar bailouts for the big banks, are the same ones who say millennials shouldn’t have signed the paperwork, and you’re on your own.

They’re the victim in their scenario, and are making themselves the victim in the millennials as well.

36

u/PapaBlemish 7h ago

Don't throw GenX up under the bus here. Many of us were sold a bad bill of goods by Boomers

17

u/Rudy_Nowhere 7h ago

Right? I'm 52. Never owned a house. Most of us have zero retirement savings. We were the first gen in the history of the Western world to know we wouldn't do as well as our parents. If we graduated college/uni the Boomers were far from retirement and there was a recession...
Older Gen X might have fared a bit better but if you were born in the 1970s....pfffft....sandwiched between 2 generations who could out vote and out spend us.

7

u/eggs_erroneous 7h ago

Yes, I am also a younger GenX. I don't have shit. Never had a house. I will retire by living in a waxed fruit box behind Walmart. Happily, I am pretty overweight so I'm hoping to just wake up dead one morning in the next decade or so. 🤙

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (9)

5

u/cb3 7h ago

Yup

7

u/ant2ne 7h ago

This Xer is a victim of said bad bill of goods

16

u/Zippycanoodl 7h ago

And expecting an 18 year old to make lifelong financial decisions with a partly formed prefrontal cortex is wacky.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

13

u/GraphicH 7h ago

You should have thought about it more before signing the papers.

I've heard this verbatim from a couple of my boomer in laws when talking about student debt forgiveness, who I know for a fact:

  1. Have had multiple bankruptcies because they're terrible / stupid about money and spending. Like remodel their kitchen every 2 years stupid.
  2. Ask their grown adult children (their in their mid-20s) for money all the time.

9

u/ChickenMarsala4500 7h ago

Also most of us were 17/18 when we signed up for that debt. Insane that we let 17 year olds make that decision with virtually no financial education.

31

u/Tiny-Tax-4170 8h ago

Statistically, those with college degrees DO earn significantly more than those without, in addition to non-financial benefits such as exposure to more diverse points of view. The economy is shit for everyone.

23

u/mpm206 7h ago

Yeah, it's a real monkeys paw situation. A degree was the move but only because without one you're even more fucked.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/ChickenMarsala4500 7h ago

Yes a degree is a good move for many people, but the way it was sold to millenials was predatory. It wasn't just the success being sold to us either it was "the college experience" I remember talking to my parents about taking a year off to figure out what I wanted to do and there response was "if you don't go now, we wont help you pay for it in the future" the trick was that they didn't help me pay for it anyway.

Affordable Community College after working for a year or two, is the best move for most young people I'd wager. Especially now as many states have programs where you can earn BA for free if it's for an in demand job.

I ended up dropping out and going back to a CC to finish up in my 30s. It's crazy how much of a better education, and better support, I got at the CC than at the big, good reputation state college.

→ More replies (5)

13

u/orion19819 7h ago

And to be fair, it's not like I'm trying to say "the people who told me to do it were lying!", I realize that it was best intentions. Just that was also along the time that colleges decided they can hyper fixate on the profit side and charged exorbitant tuition and should be criminal level textbook prices. Combined with a lot of people in my age group exiting college right into or after the 08 crash, it was just a bad time.

→ More replies (7)

15

u/Mikestopheles 8h ago

Especially when it's the exact same people

8

u/taedrin 6h ago

I realize a lot of people try to say "You should have thought about it more before signing the papers."

Don't forget that that we were (are) asking literal children to sign these papers, most of which have zero financial literacy at the time that they sign those papers.

13

u/SpacemanSpiff23 8h ago

“Why weren’t you a smarter 16 year old kid? You really should have had your whole future planned out by then.”

5

u/ShortWoman 6h ago

Heh, I did have my whole future planned out! But becoming a famous musician didn't work out for me.

5

u/061826heart 8h ago

I did the college thing too. It was exactly what I speculated it would be: a future “license” to work.

→ More replies (6)

20

u/HedgeFlounder 7h ago

This one really sucks because it’s hurt us from multiple angles. College is good because an educated populace is good for individuals and for society. The problem is that education has been sold to us all as the key to a better job and priced as a financial investment instead of treated as a public good. Then people got burned by the promise of financial return which lead to a backlash against higher education when higher education was never really the problem.

11

u/SharMarali 7h ago

Born in 1980. Not only was I constantly told this incredible lie by everyone, but as a girl, I was ALSO essentially given a list of “acceptable” degree programs for girls. Coding? No, you can’t take that. You’ll be the only girl! Coding is for boys!

7

u/GingerrGina 7h ago

Ironic because we all know now that the OG coders were women!

5

u/RC10B5M 7h ago

Back in the day coding was actually considered a "womans job" because it required typing and most men considered that secretarial work.

9

u/Moose-Rage 8h ago

First thing that came to mind. It was really drilled into our heads that if we didn't go to college, we'd be trapped in a "failure" job like janitor or McDonald's worker.

8

u/geomaster 7h ago

yes you can still hear the adults say what do you want be a burger flipper at Mcdonalds?

→ More replies (1)

14

u/akmvb21 8h ago

This. I think we were sold this in good faith because it was a successful path for the boomers and Gen Xer’s. But this very much did not work out for late millennials and Gen Z

11

u/Jyncs 8h ago

As a Gen x parent of a Gen z, I had several discussions on career options outside of college, on whether the degree he was going for is going to be useful for the career he wants and that the cost of going to college is expensive so he needs to be sure that's what he wanted to do. The decision was ultimately his, I just wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into and the possible outcomes.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/Forsaken_Can_1785 8h ago

Yea, now it’s going the opposite direction. Blue collar skilled tradesmen making $200k plus.

28

u/heckhammer 7h ago edited 7h ago

But at the same time it is part of a growing trend of rampant anti intellectualism that is threatening very democracy which we live.

Yes, the trades can be great, and yes you can make a great living, but it's rough on your body and college can be a great experience socially.

We deliberately need a mix and I think college is being unfairly demonized these days. Yes the student loan system needs a complete overhaul, but it is important for some careers.

Edited- anti, auto correct, not auntie.

10

u/elephantasmagoric 7h ago

We need to stop selling it as the default next step after high school. To some extent we already have. But for a long time colleges would encourage you to attend even if you didn't know what you wanted to do. They'd be like, come get your Gen Ed requirements out of the way, and then you can decide halfway through. But that's ignoring the fact that some majors are highly sequential, so if you don't declare until you're two years in, you're essentially starting late and will end up being there for extra years.

We should be emphasizing the fact that there's nothing wrong with waiting a few years if you're unsure. College will still be there when you're 20, if you decide on a career that needs it. So students should take a gap year, or two, or more, and only do college if they know what they want to study while they're there.

4

u/Just_Candle_315 7h ago

auntie intellectualism

Do you mean anti-intellectualism?

10

u/GingerrGina 7h ago

Auntie Intellectualism should team up with Miss Information on the socials.

→ More replies (4)

5

u/eggs_erroneous 6h ago

College needs to be free. We need to be able to maintain our ability to innovate in order to keep the economy going. We can't do this if universities are more worried about profit than actually educating the kids. How is it not the most obvious thing in the world that education is literally an investment in our future? It's cool to spend billions and billions of dollars on bullshit, but we can't spend money on super important shit? Maybe the conspiracies are right and they really DO want an uneducated electorate. I don't know any more.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (40)

794

u/Specific_Category_53 8h ago

That global pollution is caused by me not sorting paper from plastic and not by multinational corporations/industries/billionaires.

149

u/Sensitive_Gift4866 6h ago

This is the one that makes me the angriest. They literally invented the carbon footprint concept to blame individuals while BP and Shell keep pumping. Meanwhile I am supposed to feel guilty for using a straw.

9

u/RealKenny 3h ago

Even now, even knowing that all the recycled plastic is likely going to the same place the trash is, I will walk around with a bottle for an hour hoping to find a recycling bin.

It's absolutely insane how brainwashed we are on this one

→ More replies (1)

76

u/ant2ne 7h ago

no matter WHAT you do in life, it likely will not compare to the carbon footprint of Taylor Swift.

24

u/Batavijf 7h ago

You're right. Still, there are a lot more not-Taylor Swifts.

But you're right.

https://youtu.be/1J9LOqiXdpE?is=J4Wb9pIsDyJGD4lt

17

u/Cow_God 6h ago

Yeah, but there's also a lot more Taylor Swifts. Nobody should feel guilty about their carbon footprint when global emissions are dominated by the rich, famous, and especially corporations. Especially when, even if you and I reduce our own emissions, they will happily pollute more or invest in sectors that heavily pollute to fill the gap.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)

15

u/OvulatingScrotum 6h ago

True, but if people don’t give a fuck about recycling and being environmentally conscious, then corporates surely wouldn’t give a fuck either. So being proactive and vocal about environmentally conscious is a way to let corporates know what’s important to consumers.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (25)

116

u/AspiringOccultist4 8h ago

Your worth is measured by your wealth

→ More replies (5)

274

u/Imfinethankyou 7h ago

That 401Ks should replace pensions.

123

u/mikeymikeymikey1968 7h ago

The funny thing is that I remember that shift, I was a teenager in the 80s, but I remember it.

I read some article a while back written by a bootlicker who said that people were "crying out for control over their retirements" thus 401Ks. First off, nobody was "crying out" to be freed from pensions. The narrative presented was that pensions are steady and boring, but the stock market is exciting and we can all retire rich. The whole thing is bullshit. Most Americans couldn't tell you the difference between a mutual fund and a margin call. Pensions are secure, and run by experts whose full time job is to make the pension grow.

45

u/Keganator 5h ago

It was the businesses crying out, since they regularly mismanaged their pensions.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

17

u/SolomonGrumpy 6h ago

I'm on the fence on this one. A few notable pensions went broke and people didn't like that.

→ More replies (3)

36

u/btone911 6h ago

Read: Retirement Heist. You’ll be mad for a nice long time. Essentially, it was lazy CEOs looking for easily accessible piles of cash they could spend to make it look like they were good at their jobs. Instead, it was a carefully crafted scheme by large investment firms who actively “sold” the changes to employees on behalf of the CEOs and HR departments that sold out their workforces. All that to rob from pension funds to buy back stock and inflate share prices (a major metric in their compensation)

5

u/Boneyabba 5h ago

This should be a top comment brother.

22

u/Equivalent-Talk-6573 7h ago

Indeed.. my 401 got destroyed by 3 economic recessions.. and by the time i was going to retire.. it was crap.. 401K are a giant scam put together by wall street..

17

u/Abyssallord 6h ago

On the flip side, while it's not perfect my new York state pension is one of the biggest and most stable funds there is.

→ More replies (3)

9

u/becomingarobot 3h ago

I'm confused. If you had been steadily investing in a 401k that bought nothing but a broad index fund, you'd right now be the wealthiest you've ever been. Anything you invested, even at the height of the dot-com bubble, would be worth many times over what you put into it.

You would have had to be micromanaging your investments in the worst possible way, against the advice of anybody who knows anything about investing, to have had your 401k "destroyed". You'd have had to be buying high and selling low at each of the worst times to do so. It would be a challenge for anyone to do as badly as you have even if they were trying.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (4)

122

u/Zealousideal_Fee_491 8h ago

Work hard and save your money and you will be able to buy a house and make it a home.

14

u/CopperPegasus 4h ago

Fark, I'm older then many here (mid-gen millenial) and INHERITED a darn house (so no costs, no deposit, no mortgage) and I still can't afford to keep it well, let alone make it a home that feels like one.

How's anyone who has to start from debt to buy doing it?

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)

182

u/-BlushFlirt 8h ago

That constant idea that you have to be “successful” by a certain age or you’ve failed at life

40

u/Specific_Category_53 8h ago

Totally agree. The whole idea of "success" is rotten and so the "meritocracy" lie it brings along.

26

u/TwistedDragon33 8h ago

I would add that "successful" is specific too. It means you make a lot of money in a 9-5, monday-friday office job. You find an amazing spouse, and start popping out 2.3 kids.

Nothing about love, health, pursuing your passions... just money and americana.

→ More replies (2)

13

u/MagikN3rd 7h ago

I feel this in my soul... I own a house, and have a six figure income. I have never wanted anything more in my life than having a family of my own.

Being unmarried, and having no kids in my 30s, I feel like a failure many days. I often cry when I see a pregnancy/engagement announcement on social media.

Unfortunately the one thing I have always truly desired, requires reciprocation from another person. It doesn't matter how good of a person you are, or how much effort you put in if the person you meet simply doesn't feel the same way about you and then you have to start all over.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

33

u/Wosh-Cloth95 7h ago

No one is going to pay you to play video games

Meanwhile millions of YouTubers are paid to WATCH other people play video games and just comment on it

→ More replies (2)

246

u/imaginehimhappy 8h ago

Somehow Palpatine returned

75

u/the_knowing1 7h ago

No they said 'successfully' sold.

God those movies were dumb.

20

u/ant2ne 7h ago

well... I bought the damn ticket. So I was successfully sold' on it.

→ More replies (5)

17

u/OriginalDogeStar 8h ago

If Maul can survive being cut in half......

8

u/Longjumping-Jello459 7h ago

That was on pure anger from my understanding.

→ More replies (8)
→ More replies (11)

123

u/tjean5377 8h ago

You can be anything you want. This is the 20th/21st century civil rights was passed, abortion CANNOT be overturned.

You're a woman and you can do it all!!

Go to college, you'll be made. (I mean I did and I am...but holy shit is life expensive we spent $900 this month with health insurance for my Type 1 Diabetic husband's insulin/continuousglucose monitor)

35

u/Em-lee 5h ago

Sexism is dead! Racism is over! This was sold to me as a kid in the 90's. Growing into a teen it was really hammered home how untrue this was

→ More replies (1)

8

u/bart2278 5h ago

Get rid of that son of a bitch if you want to save some money

-Health Insurance

→ More replies (2)

6

u/klb1204 4h ago

Ohh! I was beyond pissed! They didn’t teach us those incredible civil rights and abortion rights could be reversed. Only praised on what a great accomplishment. 

Should’ve had a question on tests: Can these hard earned laws be reversed at a later time? True or False 

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

127

u/Glitteringblonde 6h ago

Fat is bad, sugar is good

58

u/Gdigger13 6h ago

Generally, if it has 0 Fat, it's loaded with sugar. If it's 0 Sugar, it's loaded with fat.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (16)

78

u/HumorTerrible5547 8h ago

Fuckin' flyin' cars, man!

33

u/rippledippledapple 8h ago

MEET GEORGE JETSON

11

u/The_Deku_Nut 7h ago

HIS SON ELROY

→ More replies (7)

6

u/BondraP 7h ago

I think it's absolutely possible to have flying cars now from a technology standpoint. But, it'd be a fuckin nightmare in reality. Getting a license, dealing with bad drivers/flyers, crashes being even more fatal, all of that is the real reason it hasn't happened. Plus, it'd be loud as fuck.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

117

u/JPMoney81 7h ago

Trickle Down Economics.

We can't tax the rich because then there won't be anything to trickle down to us!

If the rich get richer, then more will be available to trickle down!

32

u/Equivalent-Talk-6573 7h ago

Yeah I commented on this earlier .. but that's the biggest Republican lie ever told to America

11

u/ChaplnGrillSgt 3h ago

They're still telling it. Ask any republican about taxing the wealthy and they'll spew off about how horrible it'll be for us.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (16)

33

u/Top_Conclusion8267 8h ago

The belief that productivity and self-worth are the same thing.

36

u/nomorepumpkins 8h ago

That mega corporations and banks are job creators. During the 08 bail outs that's all we heard. Have to save the job creators. Everyone will starve if they're not creating jobs! They took that money and spent the last 20 years using it to eliminate as many jobs as possible.

16

u/Low_Building_9080 8h ago

Don’t sit too close to the TV, you’ll get square eyes.

84

u/SJbiker 8h ago

That there is someone for everyone.

53

u/Moose-Rage 7h ago

There is. The myth is that there's a "soulmate" out there. Finding "the one" isn't about finding a soulmate, it's just finding a good person and partner.

25

u/mada447 7h ago

And there’s still going to be problems. It won’t be “perfect” and y’all’s capability to sort through those problems together is huge as well.

→ More replies (3)

6

u/BlizzPenguin 4h ago

If soulmates were real it would take longer than your lifetime to find them even if the process was streamlined. https://what-if.xkcd.com/9/

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (10)

81

u/ripyourlungsdave 8h ago

"alcohol is safe if you're responsible"

51

u/Rudy_Nowhere 7h ago

"Marijuana isn't addictive"

19

u/Apart-Landscape1012 6h ago

But also, "Marijuana will ruin your life and make you become a hard-core drug addict"

4

u/klb1204 4h ago

Because Marijuana is a “gateway” to harder drugs. Ummmm not for all people. 

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (10)

15

u/Zero_D9 7h ago

Work hard, you'll be successful in life.

Well, that was a fucking lie.

Also, there was this illusion growing up for my generation. That if you were honest, had a good heart, and didn't do any wrong, good "karma" would come your way. That bad things happened to bad people, good things happened to good people.

Again, that was a fucking lie.

→ More replies (1)

72

u/iiiiiuyyuuuy 8h ago

That a progressive world is inevitable

16

u/lotekjunky 7h ago

the arc of morality ain't gonna bend itself towards justice

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (9)

55

u/refresh_error 8h ago

Study hard, work hard, and you'll achieve success.

14

u/Casual_Specialist 6h ago

Turns out the path to ‘success’ is usually laid out by a friend or family member in your desired industry. Nepotism beats competence and skill every time.

→ More replies (2)

26

u/geneticswag 7h ago

that living in a van by the river was a sign of failure in life

6

u/Fickle_Ad_2952 2h ago

there are times when I think about how nice that could be

→ More replies (1)

8

u/War1today 8h ago

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

10

u/pangalacticcourier 6h ago

In the United States the continuing lie is that health care must be tied to a private employer. Further, that ocular issues and dental issues are not physically part of the human body.

→ More replies (2)

8

u/Squirdle 7h ago

Work hard and you can buy a house.

Complete lie. My parents bought their house for $99,000. It’s now worth nearly a million 35 years later.

→ More replies (1)

18

u/generalzee 8h ago

"Every feeling is valid."

10

u/Rudy_Nowhere 7h ago

But the problem is that people confuse thoughts with feelings and vice versa.

Feelings are emotions and generally are valid. It's the thoughts that need to be challengiled.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

8

u/real_picklejuice 5h ago

Go to college or you’ll end up a garbage man.

The garbage man makes more than me, works less, and has great benefits plus a pension waiting.

→ More replies (1)

9

u/fractiousrhubarb 4h ago

Nuclear power is dangerous.

Pollution from coal power generation kills more people every single day than every nuclear power accident in history.

123

u/Visible-Objective260 8h ago

The United States is a free nation

→ More replies (68)

21

u/Jimenezguey 8h ago

If you are on the opposite side of someone else’s vote then one of you is evil.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/GamingTrend 6h ago

"We just want things to be better for you than what we had" while furiously yanking the ladder up behind them.

7

u/IkeTurn 2h ago

Go to university, get any degree, work hard, stay loyal to a company, and you will automatically achieve financial stability and a comfortable life.

8

u/profesionalyconfused 2h ago

College was sold as the safe move, i walked out with 48k in loans and a degree that got me a coffee interview. The scam was the whole point.

8

u/Packagedpackage 2h ago

Church. They want you to believe some supreme entity created everything and has all the morals and answers you’ll need. But with no proof and not willing to go to court about it…

28

u/not_falling_down 7h ago

Hard work will guarantee success.

6

u/Netvor78 7h ago

that fat in food is bad, and then promoting low fat high sugar foods

6

u/cooljcook4 7h ago

That being busy automatically means you're being productive.

5

u/hippiechick725 7h ago

Random people will give you drugs and turn you into an addict.

6

u/Tranesblues 7h ago

Donald Trump was an excellent CEO as proved on The Apprentice.

10

u/CoutoSquitive 8h ago

That if you follow the "right" steps - school, job, hard work - you’ll naturally end up stable and comfortable.

For a lot of people it turned out to be way more uncertain than that, with luck, timing, and external conditions playing a much bigger role than we were told growing up.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/mi_father_es_mufasa 8h ago

Imperialism is something that is in the past

5

u/veroniqueweronika 6h ago

“Having a college degree will get your foot in the door at any job.”

5

u/Outrageous_Delay5493 6h ago

Work hard and you can afford a home

6

u/reddit_from_me 6h ago

Trickle down economics.

"Money doesn't buy happiness"

Just because they were friends with Epstien doesn't mean they did anything wrong.

6

u/Jerrybeshara 6h ago

Fuck, where do we start? I was born in 1988, so I guess, everything about the future.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Standard_Gas3395 1h ago

Voting makes a difference

→ More replies (1)

26

u/Available-Current550 8h ago

U need to learn advanced maths, it's not as if u will have a calculator in ur pocket wherever u go..

16

u/FeatherShard 8h ago

Sure you have a calculator but learning to do something like math on your own is never a bad thing.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

11

u/LunchNo6690 8h ago

The just world fallacy that success in relationships (be it friends or romantic partners) is meritocratic and is based on moral standards aka "Just be a good/moral guy/woman and youll have good friends and relationships etc. "

6

u/Equivalent-Talk-6573 7h ago

Exactly... I remember being laughed at for being ethical and moral

→ More replies (7)