old people don't have anything to do BUT vote, and bitch and moan, and most importantly to them, reminisce. Which means they won't actually be paying attention to current events, because they think they already know everything and can't understand new perspectives. My inlaws have members three generations older than me, and those fucking people - one of them said that she'd never bothered updating the opinions her parents gave her because "if they were good enough for them they're good enough for me" - I mean, they're literally living fossils, venerating the dead and having zero understanding of anything that's happened since September 11, the last world event worth noticing in their view.

You couldn't get three words into a discussion of some of the concerns of the modern world without their eyes glazing over. It's not possible for them to "get it".