The Casual, Very American Cruelty of the Notion That Stupid Should Hurt
As readers of this blog are all too aware, I am morbidly obsessed with Conservatives and boomer memes. You know, the kind your racist, embarrassing aunt or Elon Musk disseminate via social media in a muddled, failed attempt to say something sassy about the kids today.
So I end up spending a LOT of time gazing in disgust at one of the most ubiquitous of these odious staples of online discourse.
You’re probably familiar with the meme I am referring to. It’s an image of poor Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty lying down against a tree. A decidedly off-brand Patty asks Charlie, “What’s happened to this younger generation Charlie Brown?” and an even more off-brand Charlie Brown crankily responds, “It all started with bicycle helmets, and now it’s “everyone gets a trophy”, Kids don’t know what it’s like to feel pain when they do something stupid. Stupid should hurt.”
I’m not entirely sure why, but boomers seem perversely proud that they grew up in a world without basic safety precautions, a wonderland without mandatory seat-belts or airbags where death lurked around every corner.
Actually I do know why baby boomers can’t stop bragging about how deadly and poorly designed their childhood playgrounds were. It’s because they think, incorrectly, that it makes them tougher, and consequently better, than a “woke” generation they see as incapable of enduring even a moment of danger or discomfort.
A generation notorious for its narcissism and self-obsession casts stern judgment on the young people of today for not sharing their ostensible stoicism or toughness. Just about the only thing that can crack this otherwise impenetrable facade of steely toughness is putting a trans woman on a beer can or introducing female M&Ms that aren’t sexy or feminine enough.
It’s fascinating to me that the meme I’m referencing sees protecting your head from potential brain damage as an unforgivable act of coddling that marks the first step towards a “woke” dystopia where hurting anyone’s feelings is against the law and the world is one big safe space where no one will be triggered.
A distinct element of magical thinking seems to be at play with these memes, a curious conviction that during those miraculous 1960s and 1970s no one died or even got hurt in car accidents.
It makes sense that poor Charlie Brown would be the unwitting messenger of this sour, ugly message because for Charlie Brown life is suffering. It’s hard. It’s brutal. It never lets up.
That’s how a lot of boomers think the world should be: dangerous and hard and miserable and full of suffering. At least for young people! They should of course be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor and the spoils of being a red-blooded American (USA! USA! USA!) but the generations that came after them should suffer in order to build character, resilience or toughness.
Here’s the thing. I had a MISERABLE childhood. I suffered and suffered and suffered. I like to think that it built character and resilience and toughness but it also left me with an almost inconceivably vast network of psychological scars and damage and all sorts of trauma.
I wouldn’t wish my childhood or my upbringing on anyone. I wasn’t on anti-depressants but I should have been! Good lord I should have been! I would have benefitted so much from being diagnosed and treated at an early age. It would have spared me a lot of pain and misery.
The world is already a harsh and difficult place. My job as a father and a responsible citizen is to make the world kinder and more just.
I’ve suffered enough. I don’t want other people to suffer as well.
Besides, it’s not really stupid that right wing boomers think should hurt: it’s being poor. They think that working at a place like McDonald’s should hurt. They think that not having health or dental insurance should hurt. They think that being in debt should hurt. They think that being unemployed or underemployed should hurt.
All of those things hurt. They hurt like hell. But for folks on the right they don’t hurt enough.
It’s up to us, consequently, to make sure that being poor hurts less and also that fewer people feel the pain and hurt of poverty.
As adults we need to make the world hurt less, not teach our children that is life is pain and that the only way to have value is through suffering.
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