r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	travellingcats
Comment	I actually have a bit of a theory on this one. I’m 22 and I adore my grandparents. However, I have noticed a bit of a mean streak in them. They are lovely to me, but that loveliness often doesn’t extend to others around them. They say horrible things about lots of different people and I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon amongst others in their age group. I think the internet and the media are to blame. My grandmother is an intelligent woman, she can read huge books in the space of a week and has extensive knowledge about a range of subjects. She also left school at age 14. No one has ever given her lessons on how to be savvy online. No one has ever taught her the difference between a broadsheet and a tabloid. If the daily mail tells her that immigrants/young people/LGBT people/travellers/the EU/the left/whoever is fully responsible for everything wrong in society? She’ll believe it. She’ll believe it because, in her eyes, she read it in a reputable source. That generation just never really had a chance to develop the critical thinking skills that many (but not all!) people from younger generations were able to develop. There have also been enormous cultural shifts in recent decades. Take LGBT rights for example, Scotland was infamously tough on LGBT people in the 1980s. People should literally either move to London or stay in the closet. By 2015 Scotland was considered one of the most LGBT friendly countries in Europe. That is a seismic shift in attitudes. My grandparents were in their thirties in the 1980s. Do you really think they suddenly became LGBT allies in their 70s? That’s obviously a more extreme example, but I think it highlights the ways in which older folks often get stuck in their own ways. This effect wouldn’t be an issue- anyone can change their view when presented with new information but older people often live in their own little bubbles- surrounded either by people their own age who hold the same views or by younger family members who refuse to challenge their behaviour, saying things like “oh he doesn’t mean it- he’s just stuck in his ways”. Add online echo chambers to that and you end up with pensioners making life a misery for everyone else, like in this article. Of course, I don’t mean this to be an attack on older folks. Again, I adore my grandparents. However, I think we need to maybe re-examine the ways in which we treat older folks in our society. Can you imagine if younger people were vandalising cycle paths? We wouldn’t let anyone else get away with this behaviour and we are doing a disservice to older folks for letting them get away with this behaviour, especially if they aren’t showing signs of dementia or other conditions. It’s infantilising to say we should just let them get away with it. I’ve written screeds here but yeah, it’s an issue that irritates me no end and I think it’s something we need to talk about more.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/n5jfqt/glasgow_pensioners_admit_laying_traps_for/gx2wi16/
Created	Wed 5th May 2021 11:06pm
Status	normal ()

I actually have a bit of a theory on this one. I’m 22 and I adore my grandparents. However, I have noticed a bit of a mean streak in them. They are lovely to me, but that loveliness often doesn’t extend to others around them. They say horrible things about lots of different people and I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon amongst others in their age group.

I think the internet and the media are to blame. My grandmother is an intelligent woman, she can read huge books in the space of a week and has extensive knowledge about a range of subjects. She also left school at age 14. No one has ever given her lessons on how to be savvy online. No one has ever taught her the difference between a broadsheet and a tabloid. If the daily mail tells her that immigrants/young people/LGBT people/travellers/the EU/the left/whoever is fully responsible for everything wrong in society? She’ll believe it. She’ll believe it because, in her eyes, she read it in a reputable source. That generation just never really had a chance to develop the critical thinking skills that many (but not all!) people from younger generations were able to develop.

There have also been enormous cultural shifts in recent decades. Take LGBT rights for example, Scotland was infamously tough on LGBT people in the 1980s. People should literally either move to London or stay in the closet. By 2015 Scotland was considered one of the most LGBT friendly countries in Europe. That is a seismic shift in attitudes. My grandparents were in their thirties in the 1980s. Do you really think they suddenly became LGBT allies in their 70s? That’s obviously a more extreme example, but I think it highlights the ways in which older folks often get stuck in their own ways. This effect wouldn’t be an issue- anyone can change their view when presented with new information but older people often live in their own little bubbles- surrounded either by people their own age who hold the same views or by younger family members who refuse to challenge their behaviour, saying things like “oh he doesn’t mean it- he’s just stuck in his ways”. Add online echo chambers to that and you end up with pensioners making life a misery for everyone else, like in this article.

Of course, I don’t mean this to be an attack on older folks. Again, I adore my grandparents. However, I think we need to maybe re-examine the ways in which we treat older folks in our society. Can you imagine if younger people were vandalising cycle paths? We wouldn’t let anyone else get away with this behaviour and we are doing a disservice to older folks for letting them get away with this behaviour, especially if they aren’t showing signs of dementia or other conditions. It’s infantilising to say we should just let them get away with it. I’ve written screeds here but yeah, it’s an issue that irritates me no end and I think it’s something we need to talk about more.