Ha ha ha, am seventy-five and can tell you that older people are worst than younger at one hell of alot of things.........no bragg, just fact......but the things that we are better than younger people at........we're a hell of alot better.....just can't remember what those are.

I really take exception to that. However, I do not dispute it's accuracy.
It sure explains why I want to smack the shit out of so many people my age,
and older, for being so fucking stupid.

I am part of that over 50 white male demographic but I don't watch Fox "news" or listen to Rush Limpdick or Alex Jones or Sean Hannity or any of the many other fulminating right wing nut jobs plying their brain rot over the airwaves. I do read books and The New Yorker and Harpers (print versions) and the Washington Post and The Atlantic and Applenews (online). Is that why I don't have many friends in my demographic?

i love the atlantic but this is total crap. first of all, people of all ages do or don't pay attention and understand what's going on; it has nothing to do with age. among those who DO pay attention, all else being equal, people who have a lifetime of political history can compare and contrast and tell what's true and not MORE easily than someone who's been paying attention for less time. maybe senile people have a harder time. not all older people are senile, and not all young people give enough of a shit to learn the difference. nope, not buying this premise ONE little bit.

g

A generalization that does not take into account the person's intelligence.

Wow do I disagree with that one. I am almost 68 and my friends are all like me, Very well read and passionate about this election. And as pointed out, many on this site are not youngsters.

Older people on this site seem to be quite capable of telling fact from opinion.

This is precisely why scammers often prey on the elderly.

We've just had more time to develop and perfect our confirmation biases.

My demographic, angry white male almost 60 years old have drank the Faux news cool-aid. It is hard for me to converse with people I work with because I live in SW MO, bible belt central. It is hard for me to understand their thinking. I can remember in school being taught about how bad pollution was and how wrong Nixon was, but now the people I went to school with are acting just like our parents who supported Wallace for POTUS in the 60s. What went so wrong with them to change their views on life?

Teaching skeptical thinking is the cure for that and it would also open the eyes of people who think faith is a good means for knowing what is true.

Or, they understand that truth isn't nearly as objective as we'd like to think.

There are obviously some immutable facts of nature. But a great many things depend on perspective and POV, especially as it regards human interactions.

Thank goodness I'm not over 65 yet!

We can only hope that younger generations will see the reality of our corrupted world, and be more responsible when is time to vote!

Sadly not surprising, at least not from my observations here in TX. Plenty of exceptions to keep one humble, though.

I love how on here people are just providing their opinions on whether or not older people are better or worse at separating fact from opinion. The irony is Alanis levels of palpable.

Here's some supporting articles stating the same thing:
[usnews.com]
[perryvillenews.com]
Here's a quiz you can take yourself:
[pewresearch.org]

You may not agree that older people are more susceptible to lies and opinions parading as truth but that doesn't make it any less true. You may not BE one of the older people caught in this but most of your age demographic still are. That's the same as combating climate change by saying it snowed yesterday.

Politicians have been taking advantage of this fact for years, its a real problem for the entire human race. We wouldn't have Brexit or Trump if older folks weren't so susceptible to bullshit. The world would be a better place, so how do we fix it?

Yeah this makes alot of sense. They have grown up not being able to trust any source of info and do the leg work to find out more

Just look at the situation with Brexit in the UK, largely caused by the older generation falling for bullshit and not having the ability to examine information critically! How to fuck up a country for the next few generations in one easy step!

If you were not a victim of the education system to start with and you will probably always be fine. But older people were taught badly and taught to respect that bad education too much. For a while things seemed to be getting better, yet life goes full circle and I now see a whole new wave of dogma engulfing the young.

Very depend on people

My dad is 71, about to be 72. He's conservative and watches Fox News every day. He believes people on Food Stamps can get money back after they use their EBT cards (they can't, I've asked several people on Food Stamps if they've ever heard of this and looked online. People on TANF can do this with their EBT card). He claims to have personally seen this done at Walmart. I wouldn't be surprised if someone on Fox News made that claim before he "saw" it happen.

I'm sure there are exceptions but it is true for the most part. A friend of mine is in with the silver haired legislators group in this state and he is trying to explain things to older people for the upcoming mid term elections. He told a group of seniors how Trump is taking away your social security and the GOP will claim portions of that money next year to help balance the budget. One senior there decided they could take all of his money because he didn't draw that much anyway.

Young or old, this is what we are up against when you present facts.