Chain letters

First of all, I hate chain letters and propaganda articles. Granted, when people send them to me, I generally just delete them. I don't berrate these senders with evil thoughts and I don't actively hate them. Just hit delete and it's over. But every now and then, I actually read one. Today's blog is dedicated to the most obnxious chain letter I've received in quite awhile. You may want to read it before you read my ranting and raving. Or not.

Let's start with the title. "People over 35 should be dead." Okay. I know something is coming. I'm just not sure what. And just for the hell of it, let's throw in the last line too, "People under 30 are WIMPS!" since that's the line that really got me going (even at the ripe age of 30).

So the author who wrote this rancid article begins recounting a simpler time. A time before video games made kids fat. A time when everyone was safe outside riding their bikes around the neighborhood, eating worms and playing made-up games. A time when cribs were full of lead paint. A time when people didn't sue each other and everyone took responsibility for their own actions.

Give me a fucking break. I don't think it's 30 years olds who are suing McDonalds for hot coffee. In fact, the woman who sued McDonalds was 81, not 21. So my first thought was why does this writer hate those of us under the age of 35 so incredibly much? Is he pissed that he didn't make out like a bandit during the dot com boom? Did he sit on the sidelines wondering why everyone was so interested in "this internet thing" while his 20-something niece who worked at yahoo! ended up a millionaire? Most of the kids I knew played video games and ran around playing made up games and eating worms. We built tree houses and played ghost in the graveyard and all of that idyllic childhood shit.

I reread the article and thought, I can make gross generalizations, too. I wondered about about all of those people over the age of 35 who got divorced and left their children latch key kids. Maybe video games and TV was all kids under the age of 35 had available because they were stuck living in some apartment/condo/townhome with no money and one parent. I mean, my brother and I ate microwave burritos and watched three's company every day after school. Sure, in our early teen years, we could've gone outside to play, but after I got punched in the face by some shitty neighborhood girl, the couch seemed a safer place.

And our litigious society? Parents today should side with the law and not with their kids? I really could go on and on, but the fact is, I'm sick to death of articles like this. You can make your points (about the obesity, lawsuits, television violence and video games), but be a bit more intelligent about it, because your end conclusion, "People under 30 are WIMPS!" doesn't even derive from your rant. Idiot.