Ageism on MN

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

Ok so I expect this thread to be deleted because in part it will be a thread about several threads and mainly because MN has been turning a blind eye towards ageist posts.

Today I learned from MN that over 40s are elderly.
I've also learned that over 50s have lived their lives already and need to step aside to allow the younger generation to live.
I hate the daily mail but actually hope one of their journalists pick this up as MN doesn't seem to care

I have seen quite a bit of ageism on a few threads - directed at young people

Come on now OP, surely you know that the worst crime a woman can commit is to grow old.
The obviously cunty posts don't bother me much. I just think oh aye, wait till you're older and we'll see whether your attitude changes. I find the casual ageism worse.

I don't think there is any more agism than there is in the real world, posters are just more likely to air their nastiness online than to actual people they know. I also think it goes both ways.

If covid has taught me anything, it's how inherently selfish a lot of people are.

If covid has taught me anything, it's how inherently selfish a lot of people are.

True dat!

Mil and FIL were told by their doctor that once someone had reached 70 the NHS felt their job was done. It has crossed my mind that Dh who was 60 when he got cancer didn’t qualify for the life saving treatment and operation because of his age.
I think they thought they were saving money.
Problem is having to use all of our money/pension etc and blown through everything to keep him alive we now are claiming benefits and will probably need help for the rest of our lives.
It is the usual false economy.

I’m over 40 and really don’t care whether someone thinks I’m old. I know I’m not. I don’t look, act, or think old. Hasn’t it always been the case, that the generations below, think that the ones above are old and stuffy? I have teens who playfully call me and DP old. Meh! People need to stop being so sensitive. This way of thinking isn’t unique to MN. I’ve also seen posts where the young are denigrated as feckless and entitled, so it definitely works both ways.

I am going to be 60 next birthday. Ridiculous. Still spending a lot of time going to gigs and festivals (well, in a pre-Covid world). Working full time. Don't feel particularly middle aged, much less elderly.

I do think that some of it comes with youth. I was in my teens when Elvis Presley and John Lennon died, and they both seemed impossibly old (42, and 40 iirc) and their lives were pretty much over anyway. Today I have been weepy over Helen McCrory who has died at the ridiculously young age of 52.

Covid does seem to have brought out a lot of nasty opinions though. How much of that is SM, I don't know.

That is inappropriate speech. 50+ here and still feel young. Helps that my partner is a decade younger.

Ageism was absolutely venomous on MN at the height of the lockdown on many of the Coronavirus threads.

Plenty of ' The over 50s have already lived their lives' type threads are still going

If everyone over 50 steps aside.... who’s going to pay their benefits until they reach the ever increasing retirement age?

I do think it works both ways to some degree. If a poster comes across as naive (or frankly stupid), you’ll get a “you sound very young” comment.

Honestly someone saying that anyone over 40 is elderly would just make me laugh as “they sound very young stupid

My parents and their families escaped Nazi occupation where neighbours that had once been friendly turned against neighbours.

What Covid has taught me is that with the amount of people telling tales on their neighbours. History could repeat itself here in Britain.
Quite scary how quickly people turned

Speaking As an over 50, I don't find MN unpleasantly agist at all.

the aspects of society I find ageist - I find daft so ignore.

It's pretty easy to choose not to be offended by mere opinions. People are allowed to have opinions I don't agree with. We can discuss or debate which is fine.

lljkk I'm not surprised you have this opinion, given the views you have posted on Coronavirus board. I'm not offended by ageism (and disabilism), but disappointed. We can be more kind. We can think of others and their situation before we condemn.

To clarify my own situation, I'm still relatively young, but I am somewhat disabled with a progressive neurological disease. This will only become more complex in a number of ways as I age. I would hope people wouldn't write me off because, for example, I can't work any longer. That seems to be one of the metrics.

@lljkk

Speaking As an over 50, I don't find MN unpleasantly agist at all. the aspects of society I find ageist - I find daft so ignore.

It's pretty easy to choose not to be offended by mere opinions. People are allowed to have opinions I don't agree with. We can discuss or debate which is fine.

I agree with this, I don't know what thread is being discussed here but OP you didn't learn from MN that over 40s are elderly You read someone's opinion, it clearly rubbish so why would it alter your thinking?

The internet is full of nonsense and it seems the post was deleted when reported. Without active moderation what else would you expect?

@unwuthering

It isn't just the silly, ignorant, innocent ageism of youth - it's spiteful, and inhumane.

I agree. Growing up I probably saw my parents as old when they really weren’t. Mostly we had the tunnel vision of youth where all things to do with our generation were all consuming. I think of that as a teenage thing. It wasn’t nasty. It was just a lack of interest in all things outside our own youthful world. What is new is this pretty shocking entitled attitude and anger towards older people. It’s not from teenagers. It’s from adults. I have seen some appalling attitudes on here but am actually quite grateful to have a window on it. The more light shines on it, the better.

beguilingeyes I didn’t think John Lennon was that old but I think Elvis did look older than his years.

I think the world has moved on since I was a child when 60 year olds were very old people. They looked very old and acted very old and dressed very old.
No way would you get a 60 year old wearing jeans and a t shirt or a hoodie.
I remember one of our neighbours who were only probably in their 50s and how they dressed and how they talked

@FlyingBurrito it hasn't altered my opinion, and 'I learned from MN' was just another way of saying 'I read a post that said....'

If it was the odd post then I wouldn't be upset about it and wouldn't have posted - but there have been so many recently.
I hope those saying that the over 50s lives have already been lived remember that when they reach that age.

Two things that have changed since I was a teenager - social media has arrived so views that no one ever heard are given publicity, unfortunately the more extreme the more publicity, and that old people can live on for a looooooong time thanks to modern medicine.
When I was young 80 was a good age to reach and people died at home. Now it's 100.
So people, assuming they survive, have a long unproductive age. But as an oldie you realise that MANY people don't make it to the care home, DH and I seem to hear of deaths, or illnesses, of acquaintances weekly. So envying boomers, who might die tomorrow due to age related illness, is a bit silly.
But I don't think people have changed - young people think they know it all, older people know they don't.

I was constantly reporting ageist posts during the worst of covid.

The occasional post about young people is always challenged within a thread by people sticking up for them. That doesn't happen with posts about older people, so reporting is all we have.

Someone told me on a thread I was ageist to say we have an ageing population & that's one reason why covid is impacting us & other western countries harder.

I've been on mn for a few years and have actually found the opposite to be true. Anything under 45 considered 'young' and 'plenty of time to have a baby'.

It's pretty easy to choose not to be offended by mere opinions. People are allowed to have opinions I don't agree with. We can discuss or debate which is fine.*

Fair enough in some ways - but also its not acceptable as a solution to race or religion based negative comments,why is it ok for people who are older?
The posts where a poster says ,essentially,that old people all think....and then references her patents who are 60 ish - those it is easy to laugh at and debate about.But if any other group was being asked to die for the good of everyone else?

All the threads about how "boomers" have stolen ALL the money and fucked off into their massive houses and pulled up the drawbridge are pretty wearing OP, so I agree.

It's pretty easy to choose not to be offended by mere opinions. People are allowed to have opinions I don't agree with. We can discuss or debate which is fine.

I agree else we'd all have left MN years ago!! But there comes a point where enough is enough, some of the comments recently have been absolutely vile.

All the threads about how "boomers" have stolen ALL the money and fucked off into their massive houses and pulled up the drawbridge are pretty wearing OP, so I agree.

They are wearing but it's just as wearing when older generations deny statistics that show younger generations have it harder these days.