• takeda@lemm.ee
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      6 hours ago

      Yeah, it’s not just mental capacity, her decisions right now no longer will affect her. We should have a younger people whose these policies will also impact.

    • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      12 hours ago

      No, we need a physical age limit. Aside from needing to get new people in so that we can pass on institutional knowledge before their staffers are voting for them while they hang out in a nursing home.

      The fact that we live in a gerontocracy is part of the reason we’re in so much shit in general. Why should the 83 yo senator from Bumblefuckia give a fuck about climate change, they’ll be dead way before it’s a problem. Why do they care about proper financial regulations when it might impact their ability to insider trade and pass off their unearned wealth to their kids.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Why should the 83 yo senator from Bumblefuckia give a fuck about climate change, they’ll be dead way before it’s a problem.

        They shouldn’t. I wouldn’t consider them wise if they didn’t give a fuck about it. Wise people think of the future as well as the present.

        Just for the record, I’m not defending her personally (hence my “giving someone else a chance to drive the car” comment), I’m pushing back against Ageism in general. Biological age is not always a good indicator for capability (see Bernie Sanders).

        Not sure why people keep conflating age with capability/morality, they’re definately seperate things.

        This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    • kevinsbacon@lemmy.today
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      18 hours ago

      The issue with lifelong politicians isn’t just their mental capacity but their lifelong detachment from reality as they live in a privileged bubble.

      Wisdom can be written down, that would be more wise to do anyway.

      • Tinidril
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        16 hours ago

        Yes, but there is also Bernie. He is far more attached to reality than any young Republican in the Senate (or Democrat).

        • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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          2 hours ago

          Undoubtedly. However, a Bernie who retired due to age or term limits, would still be able to mentor upcoming politicians. Handing the helm to a competent person and training their successors would be a much wiser strategy than what we currently got.

          Why the hell should we keep creatures like Pelosi, who exist exclusively to suckle from the fetid teat of the stock market?

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          14 hours ago

          No one can argue with that, but the reason his name comes up every time is that he’s the exception, not the rule. His net worth is also a fraction of that of Pelosi’s or most of his political peers.

          • Tinidril
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            10 hours ago

            A ceiling on net worth for representatives is certainly an interesting concept, but not really relevant to the conversation.

            It gets hard to show a correlation with time in service to detachment from reality when one of the longest serving members is the most grounded, and many of the youngest and most recent members are absolutely insane.

            Even Pelosi is pretty progressive relative to the rest of the Democratic representation, and certainly of Congress as a whole. (Very feint praise given the field). She is certainly out of touch, but she was that way when she was far younger as well.

            • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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              2 hours ago

              Part of the thing about being young, is having drive to do stuff. Be it good or ill. The Geronocrats have no drive, so they can’t fight the pull of the Right Wing.

              The problem isn’t with youthful Democrats, it is with the fact that the elders kept them out.

            • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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              10 hours ago

              The issue with lifelong politicians isn’t just their mental capacity but their lifelong detachment from reality as they live in a privileged bubble.

              The point of my net worth comment is that it’s part of her privileged bubble, and is one factor encouraging Bernie to be less out of touch.

              I also think Bernie still gives a shit about the common person, and I don’t think Pelosi can remember any details of how the common person lives, based on many of her recent actions, including but not limited to this.

              Ultimately my point is that citing Bernie is not (IMO) a reasonable rebuttal to the quoted bit at the top of this comment, and is very specifically not an apples to apples rebuttal of the Pelosi situation, even if he weren’t also a singular example.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        but their lifelong detachment from reality as they live in a privileged bubble

        Does that include Bernie?

        Wisdom can be written down, that would be more wise to do anyway.

        Something written may not be read. Better to have both, the Wisdom at ground zero in real-time (especially if the feces is hitting the fan), and written down afterwards for posterity’s sake.

        This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

        • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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          14 hours ago

          “Politicians shouldn’t be X”

          “BuT WHaT aBOuT tHIs pOLiTiCIaN?”

          “yeah, them too”

          Literally every fucking time lmao

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            Well, when someone says that ALL of them live in a “privledged bubble”, and I can see with my own eyes some that do not, I’m going to push back against that b.s. /shrug

            Metaphoricallyh speaking, people keep trying to treat Life like its an On/Off switch, when in truth is a Volume control/dial, it has variance.

            This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          14 hours ago

          Does that include Bernie?

          That was a slam dunk because he’s the obvious exception.