the west

it's important to find the beauty in your surroundings

@reznikoffteaxs @TPUSA Modern day conservatives are so idiosyncratic in their beliefs. Half of them are in interracial marriages, support progressive policies, and like gay people. I truly don't understand them

@allaboutmethel @TPUSA meanwhile your classmates

Where can I find smart friends who I can debate politics and public policy with

@AezzieUwU Me with Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

GO PRIMARY HAKEEM JEFFRIES YOU IDIOTS 😭😭😭

this is why this happens—

@reznikoffteaxs @TPUSA I'd unironically have a higher chance of success if I was Republican. I heard that conservative law students are likelier to clerk for judges because most law students are liberals but only half of judges are.

@allaboutmethel @TPUSA

@RealMichaelRam2 @globalistwoke Close, I'm in the Charlotte metro. Born and bred and I could barely name anything outside of the three major metro areas

@allaboutmethel @globalistwoke Winston-Salem area in North Carolina

guess where I'm from based on the cities I know

Summer is going to feel like this

@Alicoh1 @EHPlimsoll1 @StatisticUrban To be fair, government incentives notably do very little to encourage having kids. But I definitely think we should help young families over seniors who provide significantly less to society.

@EHPlimsoll1 @StatisticUrban Do you think having kids is a societal good that should be encouraged?

Really, they should probably pay more in property taxes. Efficiently distributing housing is a far more important goal than ensuring Boomers can hang on to large houses that growing families need simply for sentimental reasons.

@ChrisDebate @barely_th3re Atlanta or Texas

@barely_th3re Can you tell where I’m from

eh shouldve done better

@kuraken20XX @StatisticUrban But it's strange. I don't want to deny the data. It's just weird how it goes against the general sentiments of me and the people around me. I think there's a dozen factors at hand. Figuring this discrepancy out is going to be a major asset for 26 and 28 and beyond.

@allaboutmethel @StatisticUrban Not any of the gen-z that I've talked to. They're struggling to even get a job out of college. How could they even begin to think about owning a home?

At the meta level, the vibecession question is simple: either you believe the economy is worse than during the Great Recession, as consumer sentiment implies, despite ~0 empirical evidence to this effect, or you agree that there's a gap between sentiment and material conditions.

@kuraken20XX @StatisticUrban I graduate in a few years and the future looks bleak. I'm actively planning out multiple routes to take just to be safe. But I think I can excel in my niche for various reasons, and brutally compete with others if need be.

@kuraken20XX @StatisticUrban I'm Gen Z and I don't quite feel too optimistic either. I've accepted I won't own a home because I want to live in a vibrant HCOL area, not some boring suburb. I'm also terrified of AI to the point of panicking.

@StatisticUrban Conservatives did really well in painting a bad picture of Biden, which included pointing out the higher costs of things like groceries and disregarding simultaneous wage growth. Trump isn't making them feel any better either with his erratic behavior now.

@StatisticUrban And how long has the AI sentiment been brewing? That is definitely a serious issue, and new grads are definitely feeling it in tech, law, etc.Still doesn't track completely because the vibecession has been going on for much longer than this.

@Da_Woodge @StatisticUrban Agreed

@StatisticUrban For me, i wish the discourse moved towards talking about how we actually get people feeling better about the economy, then just arguing that the facts aren’t real somehow.

@ikarinp It's actually so good, I had forgotten my prestige TV roots

@causeiexist @StatisticUrban I agree. They'd be wasting Rubio in 2028. Vance should take one for the team.

@StatisticUrban "It seems basically hopeless" is an argument for them to run and dispose of Vance, though. Save their best candidate, Rubio, for 32 or even 36

This might be a wise move, actually. On the current trajectory, it seems basically hopeless that GOP could win in 2028. That trajectory might change, but the headwinds are even worse than they were in 2024 for Dems.

@f_osoba @EtchAic @StatisticUrban Like in terms of groceries, bills, etc. I guess that ties into it.

@EtchAic @allaboutmethel @StatisticUrban Neolibs don't take into account that people pay money for their family members to not be broke, so having 15-20 percent of the population both young and old brings down wages for everyone.

Economically, Americans just are not doing particularly badly right now. Real wages, controlling for inflation, have grown for nearly all deciles in recent years. The only exception is the very lowest decile, solely in 2025, in large part due to Trump's tariffs.