Green is 77 and last year was using a chair to get around the Hill. Symbolism or not, he actually does need the cane. Green is many things, and he's one of my reps. I love him for it. But performative — the man absolutely isn't. His a fabulous rhetorician, and doesn't need visuals to make his points

my "other" career is in psychology — and that was my own read on him. He seemed exasperated at evening having to show up, because he likely knew what he was in for; but still had to do president things. For someone like him, the farce of that taking time away from his actual job has to wear.

This was my thought too. Looks like the kid sitting outside the principal's office knowing he fucked up

Leadership?

You mean like "What Did the Democrats Do This Week?"
• Continued to grant unanimous consent
• Refused to weaponize parliamentary procedure
• Refused to work outside safe, comfortable norms
• Took a long weekend off yet again
• Finger-wagged
• Strongly-worded letters

Leadership indeed

Ironically, all the legal "well actually" about how they *technically* didn't make that argument really amount to this. It's news when they say it's news, entertainment when they don't want it to be.

That's my own read on the Zoomers. We really only started coming into our political own in our late 20s/early 30s. The War on Terror really defined our gen. I have a feeling all this will define Z's.
But for all our similarities when we were kids — plenty of them do have it more together.

Yeah, even the current crop of Gen X Dems are exactly this. "Nothing really matters or will change. If we don't rock the boat, it'll be fine."

That said — I'd kinda argue the biggest diff is curation.

SM curates via algorithm. BBSes and iboards curated more directly — direct interaction kept posts current.

You can argue that the less-invasive algorithms (here, Substack, though that's enshittifying quickly) are similar, but still.

Social media just made the old BBS/iboard/chan system more open to the public and added a few features ("like" metrics, sharing, etc.). They're less walled than the BBSes are, and lack more of the anonymity. But there are still walls.

Alex Jones is also Gen X — and same thing. The cynicism and distrust toward elites, gov institutions, etc. made him what he is. He's cynically greedy — but he's always been completely gullible for whatever conspiracy theory du jour is up for sale.