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There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll lends credence to that way of thinking, especially where Generation Z/millennials (those born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) and Generation X (those born in the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s) are concerned.

The poll of 1,000 adults earlier this month found that “younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago.”

The poll contrasts with a similar survey conducted by the Journal 21 years ago. When asked then which values were most important, respondents sounded like their parents and grandparents, saying “hard work, patriotism, commitment to religion and the goal of having children.”

Not only will these current findings likely impact next year’s election (most of those running for president with more than single-digit polling numbers are much older men and women and thus represent a generation gap), they could also have serious implications for the future of the country.

The Founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.

How can this be? What has happened between the World War II generation, which gave so much so their children and grandchildren might enjoy the blessings of liberty, and the current generation, which seems cool to what once seemed to matter most?

Generalizations are always problematic, but I have lived long enough and witnessed the general decline to make some.

Prosperity is one explanation. People who make more money than previous generations and possess a lot of stuff seem less inclined to participate in community (how many of us know our neighbors, who are here today and move tomorrow?). Stuff and the personal satisfaction of achievement lead to a decline in one’s need for God — too much money, too little purpose.

Politicians become a god-substitute and politics their religion. Creeping secularism has affected theological truth to the point where people can believe whatever they want — or nothing at all — and escape correction. Heresy, even apostasy, has infiltrated many churches.

Then there is culture. Younger people are exposed to what we collectively call “media” more than any previous generation. Most of what constitutes culture proceeds from a singular worldview that denigrates, or does not promote, patriotism, belief in God and values previous generations not only took for granted, but instilled in their children.

Unrestricted abortion has cheapened how many young people view the value of human life. For growing numbers of the young, marriage has become passe as children witness the pain of their parents’ divorce and decide that living together without a formal, legal, or spiritual commitment is better than risking the cost and pain of ending a marriage. For some, children are viewed as a financial burden and an intrusion on adult lifestyles.

Sociologists and historians will tell us these things are cyclical, like weather. That has been true in the past when spiritual revivals often followed a fallow period of faithlessness and a focus on self. I’m not sure that cycle will repeat with younger people, given what they are taught at public schools and in liberal universities.

The values that shaped and sustained America through economic downturns and wars had to be taught and instilled in the next generation. Today’s younger people, as reflected in the poll, seem intent on making their own rules (if they can be called rules) and creating their own gods.

They will eventually learn the impossibility of it all as their substitutions will fail them. The question is can America survive when our moral, spiritual, and patriotic foundations are destroyed? If you don’t love your country, what’s the point of having one?  ~The Patriot Post

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If the trends measured by a recent survey continue, the nation itself is in its sunset years. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reveals that Millennials and Generation Z have significantly less belief in the importance of patriotism, faith in God, and conceiving children. And despite the fact that most Americans remain satisfied by the state of the nation’s economy and their personal finances, a majority of respondents are angry at the country’s political and financial classes, worried about the nation’s economic future, and what kind of country they are passing on to future generations.

“Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system,” explained Democrat pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted this survey in conjunction with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. “Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level.”

Horwitt’s Republican counterpart, Bill McInturff, was equally concerned. “There is an emerging America where issues like children, religion, and patriotism are far less important,” he warned. “And in America, it’s the emerging generation that calls the shots about where the country’s headed.”

It’s a decidedly less optimistic emerging generation. In terms of patriotism, nearly 79% of people ages 55-91 considered the concept important, compared to only 42% of Millennials and Generation Z, (those aged 18-38), who had the same outlook. With regard to religion, 75% of Baby Boomers maintained it was an important part of life compared to only 30% of Millennials and Generation Z. And the number of Baby Boomers who considered having children to be important was nearly double that of America’s youngest adult generations. And the overall number of people who considered having children important (just 43%) represented a 16-point drop from 1998.

Columnist Rod Dreher minces no words describing a future America that “is going to be childless, godless, and unpatriotic.” He continues, “Which is to say, there won’t be a future for that kind of America. Changing political leadership will not cause people to believe in God again, or desire children, or love their country more. These things go much deeper than politics.”

He knows where to place the blame: “The American liberal elites are destroying the country’s ability to sustain itself, and the conservative elites — including Donald Trump — are either utterly clueless about the nature of the crisis, or are flailing ineffectively in the face of it.”

Unfortunately, Dreher’s cynicism is not misplaced. The effort to indoctrinate America’s younger generations has been going on for decades. A quote courtesy of John Dewey (1859-1952), a man often referred to as the father of American education, is indicative:

“There is no god and there is no soul. Hence there is no need for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then the immutable truth is dead and buried. There is no room for fixed and natural law or permanent moral absolutes.”

As columnist David L. Rosenthal aptly notes, the vacuum created by the removal of so-called dogma and creed from education has been filled. “While promotion in public schools of faith-based ideology is supposed to have been prohibited, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, the faith-based ideologies of socialism, Marxism, nihilism, Islamism, Satanism, Darwinism, and others continue to be propagated in public schools,” he writes.

What Rosenthal doesn’t say is that the replacement of Judeo-Christian values with de facto progressive dogma and creed has made the rebuttal of that dogma and creed virtually impossible. Thus, for example, the same school nurse who must call parents if she believe a child requires some sort of medication can direct that same child to an abortion clinic without parental permission or notification, even as she must refrain from offering that child moral perspective regarding the termination of a life.

What about patriotism? In order to be patriotic one has to first believe in the concept of the nation-state. Is there any doubt that a globalist-dominated Ruling Class prefers open borders, unfettered multinational corporatism, and rule by “do as I say not as I do” elitists whose response to their own assertions the planet is headed for irrevocable disaster are belied by a record number of private jets to Davos for a global-warming conference, or the purchase  of a $15 million seaside mansion on Martha’s Vineyard? Isn’t it clear their demands for gun control will never affect their own armed security, or that their policies that have afflicted the nation with crime- and homeless-infested American cities will never intrude on their own guard-gated communities?

Isn’t it becoming clearer every day that the nation’s justice system has bifurcated, and that the guarantee of “equal justice under the law” is becoming a euphemism? Isn’t clear that those with a vested interest in “fundamental transformation” have likened America First approach to “Russian collusion,” “white supremacy,” and “fascism? ”Don’t the same elitists who bemoan the economic implications of our trade war with China blithely ignore the reality of national security impossible to separate from it — even as they are apparently intent on making an American version of that nation’s totalitarian-based credit score system to keep the “deplorables” in their place?

Unfortunately a certain level of nihilism among Millennials and Gen Z is justified. When push came to shove, they watched Wall Street get bailed out by Main Street. They’ve endured the future-wrecking debt accumulation engendered by what amounts to a College-Industrial Complex that demands degrees, even for jobs that don’t require one. And perhaps most important, due to the ubiquity of social media and technology, they’ve never known a single day of genuine, off-the-grid privacy in their entire lives.

That last bit is key. As stated in a previous column, access to social media should be limited to those over 18 years of age, and even more important, tech companies who are currently data-mining children as young as seven should be kicked out of America’s classrooms. In an age where one’s entire past now fair game, the digital trail produced by children too immature to understand the implications — in combination with tech companies intent on commoditizing all of humanity — is utterly unconscionable.

Children? Why bother when the world is going to end in 12 years, or when the future workforce will be completely dominated by artificial intelligence?

“It is time for churches, families, and communities of faith to have some very serious conversations among themselves,” Dreher asserts. “The signs of the times are written in flashing neon.”  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/65126?mailing_id=4499&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4499&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

China has repeatedly refused to act in good faith, blocking or heavily restricting U.S. access to Chinese domestic markets. Beijing has further discouraged foreign imports through a series of tariffs, subsidies, and other barriers to free trade, like its history of currency manipulation, artificially devaluing the yuan in order to make Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S.

Arguably the most damaging tactic used by the Chinese government is industrial espionage and theft of intellectual property. In addition to corporate espionage, the Chinese government, as a precondition for gaining access to Chinese markets, forces foreign companies to hand over intellectual property (inventions, designs, and other “creations of the mind”), passing it along to Chinese companies, which then produce cheaper knock-offs that directly compete with the foreign company.

The U.S. Trade Representative has estimated that America loses as much as $600 billion per year due to intellectual property theft by China.

Enter President Trump, who made immigration enforcement and renegotiating fairer trade deals the centerpieces of his 2016 presidential campaign.

If the official numbers are to be believed, the Chinese economy ($13.4 trillion GDP) ranks second globally behind the U.S. ($20.5 trillion GDP). However, there are a couple of caveats.

One, the Chinese economy, at a third smaller than the U.S., is spread out over four times the population. That population is aging faster than the American population, which means in the coming years it will be less productive and more expensive to care for.

Second, a recent, in-depth analysis by five economists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Chicago found the Chinese have been over-reporting economic growth by an average of 1.7% per year for at least a dozen years, meaning the Chinese economy is roughly 20% smaller than officially reported.

And you can be absolutely certain that President Trump is aware of this and much more in his negotiations with China, which have been chaotic and tumultuous of late.

One day President Trump is praising Chinese President Xi Jinping, the next calling him an “enemy.” Such hyperbolic and inflammatory rhetoric is part of the “whiplash” strategy that Trump says is his M.O., but it sends waves of panic through economic markets. Trump’s recent demand that U.S. companies pull out of China made for even more uncertainty.

Then, of course, we have escalating tariffs.

In early 2018, President Trump levied $9 billion in tariffs on imports such as solar products and large appliances, months later adding $25 billion in new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Then, in the last year, Mr. Trump targeted another $200 billion in imports from China for tariffs, with another $300 billion targeted by the end of 2019.

To state the obvious, tariffs are bad. They drag down economic growth by taxing American consumers, who are spending more in the form of higher-priced imports, reducing their purchasing power. The damage is compounded by increasing uncertainty in economic markets, which sidelines capital and reduces investment, and therefore job creation and economic growth. Retaliatory actions taken by China are another painful blow.

The U.S. trade deficit with China was roughly $420 billion in 2018, but trade deficits are not necessarily bad. Most of us have a “trade deficit” with Walmart and Amazon, but because their lower-priced goods allow us greater purchasing power, our lives are considerably better for the arrangement. With China, the issue is not so much the trade deficit as the unfair practices that drive it.

President Trump claims we are winning the trade war, but in a trade war even winning is painful. It is the economic equivalent of chemotherapy — painful and destructive, but the hope is you purge the disease (in this case, China’s unfair trade practices) while harming the patient as little possible.

The president is well aware of this, as evidenced by his recent admission of second thoughts about the trade war, and the acknowledgment it could lead to a short recession. The Congressional Budget Office predicts the average American family will pay an extra $580 for goods next year due to the trade war.

President Trump feels he has a very strong hand, touting a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that is a net benefit for the U.S., and hinting that a new U.S.-Japan trade agreement will be announced soon. Plus the fact that the U.S. is far and away the world’s most powerful economy.

After Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was quoted as saying “an escalation of the trade war is against the interest of China, the U.S. and the entire world,” President Trump said we are “winning” the trade war. He appears confident China will be ready to make a deal soon, saying, “I don’t think they have a choice.” On Monday, he praised President Xi as “a great leader,” adding that “one of the reasons that China is a great country is they understand how life works.”

While even top Democrats agree this trade war with China is necessary to force China to act in good faith, it will be better for all when it is over. Previous tariff skirmishes under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack scumbag/liar-nObama resulted in higher prices for American consumers, lost jobs, and slower economic growth.

And that benefits no one unless the results of the fight recoup the cost.  ~The Patriot Post

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worthless-Omar, the Minnesota Democrat member of what we call the “Gang of Four,” already has a sordid past — she’s alleged to have committed tax fraud through a sham “marriage” to a man who’s likely her brother. Now she stands accused of being a home-wrecker. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, her hometown paper, reports, “A Washington, D.C., physician alleged in divorce filings Tuesday that her husband, a national political consultant, left her after becoming romantically involved with U.S. Rep. worthless-Ilhan Omar, a client of his fundraising business. … Dr. Beth Mynett said her husband, worthless-Omar consultant Tim Mynett, confessed to her that he was ‘romantically involved with and in love with’” worthless-Omar.

Not just romantically, either. It was a fairly lucrative relationship for Mynett, who reportedly raked in roughly $230,000 from worthless-Omar’s campaign since 2018, including $160,000 just this year — an off year. That’s nearly one out of every three dollars worthless-Omar spent in a district she won with 78% of the vote. It certainly calls into question whether the expenditures constitute campaign-finance violations.

As for worthless-Omar’s reaction? “I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue and so I have no desire to discuss it.”

She’s evidently too good for even a denial. Thus, her constituents — of whom Muslims comprise a fair percentage due to having the highest Somali population in the U.S. — face a choice in 2020. Do they circle the wagons because this unfaithful liar is a minority with a “D” after her name, or do they throw her under the bus for her legal and moral sins?  

~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/65098?mailing_id=4496&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4496&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

San Francisco, a city described in song for its natural beauty, is descending into an abyss of homelessness, the use of sidewalks as toilets and a place you might not want to visit, much less live.

The latest, but surely not the last demonstration of insanity, is San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors’ adoption of new “person first” language guidelines meant to “change the public’s perception of criminals.” The words “convicted felon,” “offender,” “convict,” “addict” and “juvenile delinquent” are now out. These individuals will henceforth be referred to as a “justice-involved person.” Someone previously called a “criminal” will now be referred to as “a returning resident,” or “a formerly incarcerated person.”

Supervisor Matt Haney told the San Francisco Chronicle the intent is to keep people from being “forever labeled for the worst things that they have done. We want them, ultimately to become contributing citizens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from.”

A noble objective, to be sure, but language has — or used to have — a purpose beyond interpersonal communication. Like so much else today, language has now been appropriated to advance political agendas.

The encroachment of euphemisms on common sense is everywhere. Illegal immigrants have become “undocumented workers.” Babies in the womb lose their humanity when they are labeled “fetuses.”

Euphemisms are most used to hide a more accurate description of behavior or status in order to avoid conflict, or not injure someone who might be offended or hurt. It fails to communicate anything meaningful, while claiming to do so. George Orwell called it “Newspeak,” or “doublespeak.”

Too often, euphemisms are used to make bad behavior appear good, or at least tolerable, and to allow one to avoid responsibility and accountability. They are interpreted according to one’s personal wishes. As Humpty Dumpty told Alice in the Lewis Carroll classic: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

The English language once conveyed meaning. Properly written and spoken, it suggested one was educated and capable of conversing in polite company. Today, it is often used to cover up true intentions. Consider how often “racism” is misapplied.

The proper use of language can also be redemptive. That used to be a major goal, along with punishment, of penitentiaries — the word being derived from “penitent,” suggesting the possibility of changing one’s life after admitting wrongdoing and repenting so as not to repeat bad behavior. Is anything “bad” today, or has that also become subjective?

In our muddled language and culture, one dare not suggest anyone has done anything wrong lest negative labels be attached to them. Such labels are unevenly applied. The political left often retains them to attack the right, but should the right seek to use words that accurately describe the conduct or status of another they are condemned as old-fashioned, rigid, judgmental, or worse.

“Wardrobe malfunction,” has been a recent favorite, a euphemism for showing off what were once considered “private” body parts.

If you are unemployed, you are “between jobs” or a “consultant.” “Underserved community” means the politicians aren’t getting all the money they want. A corollary: you are no longer poor, you are “economically disadvantaged.” The list is endless.

Instead of applying euphemisms, San Francisco should be seeing to the homeless (“previously housed individuals”?) and the filthy streets that now require maps so people can avoid stepping in human waste.

Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but the city seems to lost its mind there too.  ~The Patriot Post

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