Are older people today out of touch politically with younger generations?

I agree with your younger GC that the tabloids are biased and so I no longer read them. I think people read the paper with whose views they agree and therefore opinions are polarised. It has always been thus.

I also agree that us Wrinklies are stubborn. But we've been there and don't want to see the younger generation making the same mistakes. But we're all Right Wing?! Ha!

I agree with the young people on the whole I think the old people have totally spoilt it by looking for ‘the good old days’ which of course never existed unless it means the colonial days when we exploited the world
Like Nfk I too spurn the newspapers and yes firmly believe they have blurred the truth however social media can play just the same role
Right wing blimey not this one

Sorry but I think the views are patronising, not all oldies read tabloids and are capable of making decisions based on experience, something the young lack

^having a bloody minded RW brain washed mentality.
Is there any truth in that view?^

None whatsoever!

On the whole I disagree and I resent the idea that we are so easily brainwashed. Maybe you should read some of the debates on here and listen to Radio 4 which many of us do! Then you would see that we are not 'self centered' and that many of us do things for charity and for our families. That is a very patronising attitude with assumes that younger people are in some way more intelligent than older people!

I think that younger people sometimes think they know it all and don't recognise that older people have more experience on which to base their opinions. Younger people can only have theories about things like nationalisation but older people have experienced it.

Younger people seem to fixate on single parts of the economy and blame older people for it without any understanding of the bigger picture. Yes, housing is expensive but so much else is a lot cheaper, furniture, clothing, food etc.

Younger people don't appear to appreciate how fortunate they are to have nurseries which enable both parties in a parternship to go to work to contribute to their lifestyle. We didn't have these, we didn't go out regularly for meals and have takeaways. We stayed home and saved for the things we wanted. We had interest rates of 15% to pay on our mortgages. They also have in work benefits we didn't have, women now get paid the same as men in most cases.

Life is very different and I don't think the older generation begrudge anything the younger have but we do resent the younger people blaming us for all their ills.

Incidentally not all older people voted to leave the EU as you would have seen on here at the time.

Perhaps you might direct your family to Gransnet OP!!

My gd's (18 and 20) are very much of the same opinion as I am politically and are equally clear that the present mess is not a result of the 'oldie' vote within our family.
Only one of our older generation is probrexit but voted libdem in the last election!
There is no intergenerational conflict here!

Is this research? If it is permission should have been asked.

Nonnie (13.48) - good post!

I feel sure james has been on here before, conducting some sort of research.
I could be completely wrong of course.
As an old person who has never read a tabloid and doesn’t know anyone who does (apart from the Guardian of course which is now a tabloid), I would dispute the idea that social media and TV offer a more balanced view.
Research has shown that social media merely feed into and reinforce people’s prejudices, and very little in television news constitutes debate.

No surprise here James - I agree.

Thanks Smithy. I do get fed up with being blamed for everything that is not right.

Which particular bit do you agree with jura?

The title in particular.

And that Tabloids are full of lies and bias, and have been shown to be so so many times, and so was the Leave Campaign.

Well I would agree with you jura about the role of the tabloids in the leave campaign.
As far as the title of the thread is concerned, do you mean you personally are out of touch, or all old people are out of touch?
If the latter, please speak for yourself and don’t presume to include the rest of us!

It's an old chestnut!

Noone takes their political views simply from whichever paper they read. We all watch TV, listen to radio, observe the world talk to family, friends, neighbours etc. And, we seen it all before.

James I think I am right in saying that you are a Corbyn supporter, as I seem to remember your posts from a while ago, also that you you voted Remain.That being so, you are hardly unbiased.
Your younger family members may be telling you that is what they think, but that doesn’t mean all younger people under 50 feel that way.
Mature adults have been around politics a long time, and make their own minds up.
Entitled younger people may be feeling this way, who knows, but we are not all yet ready for the grave,
It is our future too!
We all, regardless of age have a vote, and in the referendum not many young people bothered to use it.

Sorry if my post offended jane - of course it does not include all of older people - but overall, statistically speaking- which is why a majority of older people voted Leave.

lemongrove, it is their future an awful lot more than it is ours- for sure. Basic maths.

How patronising of those young people. They would soon complain if others generalised about them. Most of us are well able to think for ourselves.

Lemon I like that 'entitled young people' because I do think it sums up a certain type of young person who is only able to see things from their own perspective and is looking for someone to blame when they can't have what they want - instantly!

Furthermore, if I heard those sort of views being expressed to me, in my family, then I certainly wouldn’t find them ‘fascinating’ as you do.They are frankly rude.
‘Older people tend to be self centred’ ! Really? And young people are selfless I suppose? For those older people on this forum, for example,having brought up their children, helping bring up grandchildren and often helping with
elderly parents, the words ‘self centered’ are ridiculous.

Disagree with the general view of ‘oldies’. Totally agree about tabloids being biased. Just because I’ve passed my 50th birthday doesn’t mean I’m incapable of forming an opinion based on a range of information. That idea is patronising.

I think a lot of older people are stubborn, but I think the same goes for the young. I actually think we are at our most flexible between around 30 and 50, having got over student evangelism and not having developed views which have had time to set in concrete. It’s unarguable that the tabloids are biased, but the most biased views you are likely to ever see you will find on social media and internet based sources - but I do agree that all these biased sources of media have a very significant, and often very damaging, influence.