It is crazy when you think about it. Everybody learns about right-wing takeovers of government in history and generally agrees the outcome is pretty horrible, and yet it just happens all over again. I guess fear is a hell of a drug.

Not with my luck

If that dude’s outfit was animated and played noise, and the guy jumped in front of whatever I was looking at and wouldn’t go away, and sometimes he put random shit in my pockets or got me sick, then I’d hate that guy just as much as internet ads

I mean, certainly he gets more credit than deserved. But I find it hard to deny the major impact he had. When he was hired back as CEO in the late 90s, Apple already had talented engineers, but there was no coherence or direction in what they were working on, and the next gen OS was never going to happen. Back then, CEO Michael Dell was asked what he’d do if he were in charge of Apple and he said he’d shut it down. Apple was a punching bag in the industry.

Jobs immediately made radical changes at the company, eliminating most of their product line which was superfluous and confusing, shutting down software projects that were “neat” but didn’t fit into a vision, putting them on the path to release OS X (which his company had envisioned and developed the basis for while he was away from Apple), changing their marketing strategy, making the most clear-cut product line I’d ever seen, and turning conference keynotes into must-see TV. And in addition to that he pushed Apple towards the iMac, the iPod and the music store, and the iPhone.

It took amazing engineers and a lot of work and pain to actually deliver these products. And Jobs does get more credit than deserved. But I think he does deserve a whole lot of credit.

There are always many reasons to stay home in any election. Most of them are selfish or deluded

That makes sense as a reason too. I think the 60s saw an undeniable cultural shift. The 80s is harder to pinpoint and yet I don’t know anyone born in the last years of the 70s that is comfortable with being grouped with Gen X without caveats.

It makes much more sense when a generation boundary is marked by some sort of significant societal shift. Like Boomers are people born after WWII ended. I guess Gen X kinda makes sense being defined as a generation that grew up after the civil rights act and the establishment of rock & roll. But it seems like there should also be something between that and the internet, because as you say there’s a difference in late Gen X. Maybe the advent of video games should be a cutoff. Someone who grew up with video games and VCRs in the 80s has a pretty different experience from someone who grew up in the 70s.

Ah, the good old days when I thought this was the least articulate president I’d see in my lifetime