"No Kings" and Older Adults as the Progressive Movement's New, Geriatric Red Guard.
Since the left has been increasingly losing the youth - radicalizing the geriatric set seems to be the only card they have left. On visible display during this weekends' "No Kings" protest event
It’s been extremely difficult to not notice something about the highly-publicized, much-anticipated “No Kings” protest event that’s been taking place over this weekend:
Namely, X-posters have been noting that these protesters are all, very decidedly old (and white):
More for you here (apparently New Hampshire):
And here - Washington DC:
Go over to X and type “No Kings old people” in the search box, and search media - you’ll find endless examples of this.
Yesterday, the very pleasant and highly irreverent
alerted me to this, which was a bit sad - but also strange. Watch (26 seconds):The lady being interviewed was asked why she joined the protests this weekend - and her answer was: “I just… I just…. I’m just so scared…. I’m 74 years old…. I worry about everything… and I just… I just… I’m just so scared.”
That’s it. She worries about everything. She’s old. She’s scared. Who made her this way? I’ll get to that in a moment.
There appears to be increasing evidence that the participants to these “No Kings” protests appear in many cases to be being actively recruited from assisted living facilities (ALFs) and other eldercare facilities across the country:
They look pretty thrilled rolling out of this facility in their walkers and wheelchairs - and I wonder who is providing the transportation for them?
Older adults in ALFs and other kinds of facility-based care are notoriously isolated.
During the coronapanic - they were famously “locked down” - or locked in, rather, with, as I’ve written about here, here, and here, their dining rooms shut down in many cases for months at a time, family visits were cancelled, and they were subjected to no social contact other than cruel “window visits” and the ministrations of overworked, masked, and face-shielded healthcare workers.
Notably, during that time all the ALF and skilled nursing patients had across the USA and the West in terms of connection with the outside world was just 24/7 cable TV news - which I found terrible. If you all remember what the news environment was like - it was constant fear - fear of Trump, fear of COVID, “mostly peaceful” riots, political rancor. And that was all they had.
Things have gotten better at my nursing home and others - yes, in-person visits are back and unrestricted, pass privileges are issued much as they were before, etc.
However, I’m reminded of what a still highly-bifurcated media environment the 65-and-older set live in, versus that of GenX and below.
Wanted to refer you to a research article I created via Perplexity.AI (I have a premium subscription - highly worth it, along w/ Elon Musks’ Grok.AI).
I haven’t vetted the statistics in it closely, but I found none of it that surprising: basically, when it comes to 24hr cable news networks, most notably MSNBC, but also CNN (and Fox) - they overwhelmingly cater to over 65 year olds. Apparently (from the Perplexity article):
“Americans ages 65 and older represent the largest segment of television news consumers, with 86% getting news from television compared to just 46% of those aged 18-29. This older demographic also represents the most politically engaged segment, with older voters typically turning out in droves during elections”
So, the spectacle of geriatric boomers being rolled out of nursing homes and trotted off to “No Kings” protest marches - it’s depressing. It’s predatory. It really is like the Democrat party finally recognizes what’s going on. They’ve lost the youth. There’s no more youth red guard. This is all they have left:
I have personally witnessed ALC residents being wheeled out for “No Kings” and “hands off” protests. Sometimes they even have a van to take them to the big protest.
Much of what you write, is probably true. Still and all, I find it kind of sketchy that you are using AI to come up with support data and AI to produce accompanying illustrations. I did appreciate your running the 'prompts' for those images as captions beneath the images. Never the less, carry on!