Fogies and Hippies

by digby

Atrios wonders today why everybody is so derisive about the (incorrect) idea that the left blogosphere (or Jon Stewart’s audience) consists of a bunch of college kids when it would be a benefit to have college kids reading papers and being informed etc.

I’m pretty sure it’s because the right’s narrative hasn’t changed since the 1960’s — the Democrats are held hostage a bunch of radical students who know nothing of how the world really works but are dangerously trying to destroy capitalism and civilized society. Listen to Rush. You can’t tell much difference between what he says and what my Dad used to blather on about at the dinner table in 1970’s on the subject. The “crazy teenagers vs the grown-ups” paradigm still persists.

Doesn’t it seem that this tired, old-fashioned trope, which bears no relationship to reality anymore, if it ever did, is ripe for the dustbin? How is it possible that it persists after all these years?

This is one of those fundamental, ingrained images that undergirds the conservative narrative and we have not even tried to counter it except by having our politicians act like fogies — which hasn’t changed a thing. Isn’t it past time to unveil a new set of images that are actually relevant to the new millenium? Any ideas?

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