That quote has been changed a bit, but in it's original form I think it was Churchill.

And the general idea is that as you age your idealism is tempered by practicality, as well as having adapted to the situation and built something of a life of your own, so you've gradually moved from the camp of "very little to lose/give up in exchange for all these benefits" and toward the camp of, "you know what, I'm doing okay, I've figured out a way to make it work, and I'd rather 'the system' just leave me alone at this point, since I'll be footing the bill for things that aren't even going to benefit me that much".

Obviously it's a lot more complicated than that, but that's the gist.

It's also worth remembering that "liberal" and "conservative" meant something different mid century than they do now. Especially with the MAGA influence.

Most jobs like that, or really any pay scheme other than piece work or an hourly wage usually has the process of:

1. You can take as much PTO as you like.
2. You can take as much PTO as you like...provided you get all your work done.
3. You work like a dog, get all your work done, and take time off.
4. Since you were able to get everything done and have time left over to not work, your boss increases your workload, so now you have to work like a dog, all the time, or else you'll never get everything done.

It's like playing chess, and while the other player can't change the rules as they go, but a condition for playing with them is that they get two moves every turn.

Right?

Unless it's a cause you'd donate to, and by extension donate your music to, get it back!

The artist has perfectly captured the feline character when being scolded here: annoyed, defeated...but utterly incapable of shame or remorse.

Right?

"Nobody wants to work anymore!"

Like no shit man.

News Flash: nobody has wanted to work ever. They work because the compensation lets them live the lives they want outside of work. If nobody wants to work for you, it's because you either aren't willing to compensate them enough to do that, or your job makes them so miserable that it's not worth it for them to trade away that much happiness for the compensation.

Or both. In lots of cases it's both.

My biggest resume gap was a 6 month gap. I was laid off (technically "my position was eliminated") and immediately started looking, but opportunities were slim.

I knew the gap may not look good, even if I was searching the whole time, so I enrolled in a few classes at the local community college when the new semester began.

As it happened, a few weeks after my layoff, my grandfather fell ill as well and it turned out to be a relief for the whole family that I was able to pull the overnight shifts caring for him at my grandparents' home in the last month and a half of his life.

Though my stretch of unemployment lasted long after he passed, the few times I've been asked about this gap in an interview, my response has usually been "I was caring for my dying grandfather" with no elaboration.

At that point, the majority of interviews who asked either let it go and move on or express sympathy and continue. The one interview I've been in where that wasn't enough and they tried to get into specifics, I wrote off that position mentally in that moment and it was just going through the motions until I could get out of there. I figured any place that would pry for details in that situation to see if they felt it was justified was the type of place that would feel justified prying into my private life if I were employed there.

Everyone over the age of 20 thinks they're old now.

Everyone older than them responds with some variation of, "Just you wait!"

Always been this way.

Because Trump, as weirdly as he may go about it, has made his way through life on his (inherited fortune from his from his crook of a father and) force of personality.

He gets people to do what he wants them to do by projecting an image, a brand, through the way he acts and speaks. Look at The Apprentice. He's playing this role that says (without saying out loud), "Look at me. I'm a straight shooting, no nonsense business leader and my personality and business sense have brought me success, money, fame, luxury, and power. You want that too? You want to be like me? Then do what I say."

Not saying it's authentic or that it should work, but Trump's entire existence is based on this tactic. He's constantly projecting an image, and it's that projection of that image that gets him his way. His force of personality is just as, if not more central to his power as his money (make no mistake, the money is necessary too).

This, in contrast with Musk, who's typically cultivated his following based on ideas and drive. He gets people to go along with him because he's seen as a modern day Edison (and to be fair, the comparison, in some ways, is apt... especially the less flattering ones), a groundbreaker, rules breaker...a visionary.

Simply put, among the people who follow these guys, people follow Musk for what he says (in terms of his big ideas), people follow Trump for the way he acts (in terms of the image he projects). It takes a strong set of blinders to ignore Musk's sharing of his worse ideas and Trump's less than impressive antics, but their respective cults have had plenty of practice in those mental gymnastics.

Thus you're left with the mind boggling (to the rest of us) situation where Musk's followers don't care how he acts, because they are laser focused on his ideas, while Trump supporters couldn't care less about the crazy or incoherent stuff he says, so long as he keeps projecting that macho, confident persona.

So that's how Musk gets away with being "Trump, but more childish": he's not depending on the personality like Trump, so he can act that way without turning his supporters off, because they don't care about that in the first place.

Musk's entire angle is "it's okay to be a humongous asshole if you achieve your goals.

Trump's is, "It's okay to be a humongous asshole, as long as you can sell it as arrogance bred from success."

I mean...the moment any large corporation figures out a way to replace human workers that need things like bathroom breaks (and basic human rights, and paychecks) and do the same work with robots and AI... literally the next moment, they'll have the AI start generating layoff notices.

It's just less flashy when it happens that way because there's no need for that AI to look like a beautiful young person.

Yeah, all Google accomplished with this bullshit was finally getting me to switch from Chrome to Firefox as my main browser on desktop.

I mean...those are all valid questions.

Any or all of which could've been asked.

Also 17 year old kids, the vast majority of which have never taken on significant debt and have no frame of reference for the scale of obligation they're taking on.

It blows my mind that we look at an 17 year old and, as a government, we say, "Alcohol? Too young and immature. Handguns? Too young and immature. Tobacco products? Too young and immature. Voting? Too young and immature. Enlisting in the military or want to take on 5 or 6 figures of debt that will drive your major life decisions for the next few decades? Sign here."