At lunch my father gave me a great example of what affects society nowadays, in particular white males over 55 years-old, meaning the Boomers (even if technically they are early GenX, a lot of portuguese people this age behave in fact like boomers): they are scared of problems that don't exist but they think are very important ones.
According to him, it's a big fucking deal that employers, or people responsible for employees, don't keep a close and detailed track of the employees whereabouts, in particular their absences and why, you may ask?
Because employees can leave the company's premises and go and commit a crime, such a great robbery or a murder, and then avoid condemnation since they'll use as alibi being at work. And since the bosses/managers don't keep a detailed log they get away with it!
I asked my father how many people he knew that got away with crime using this excuse, or how many did he heard about in the news. "None!", he said, "but that's what criminals use all the time"!
I can't really explain the logic here...
I honestly believe my dad imagined this as being very clever and so everyone else will think the same (my dad is for sure neurodivergent like me and my son). But could be that he heard this theory from someone else and thinks it's plausible even though there are no evidences.
Just for context my father was born in 1949 in Portugal emigrated to France in 1966 and lived there for almost 50 years. He also thinks Portuguese emigrants back in the 60s were badly treated by locals and authorities in France, but the same issues affecting African (including north-african) emigrants later are mostly their fault own because "they are different and don't want to integrate".
All my efforts to try him see the similarities between the 2 groups are to no avail. You can replace my dad with many others of his generation, including some, or many, of my own Gen X (although I'm actually a Xennial), and the issues listed above with other social issues of the present times.
A confirmation of that affects younger people is that my brother, 2,5 years older than me and a true Gen X, believes my father's concern is legitimate although he also doesn't know anyone, nor ever heard about anyone, that has used this "I was working" alibi excuse... 😞
All of this also helps understanding why populists gain so much support and get far more votes than they should: they play to these exact fears.
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