A Texas man overhears a bar conversation between a baby boomer attorney and his young niece, who thinks New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani would make a great president. Here’s what he thinks the conversation says about the state of America.
TikToker Davis Jones (@pdavisjones) told the story in a video posted last week. According to Jones, he was working on his laptop at his favorite bar when he noticed another regular. The regular’s name is Jerry, and Jerry is an extremely educated lawyer and former Democratic Party operative. “One of the smartest guys I’ve ever met,” Jones says.
Jones was intrigued because Jerry was sitting with a young woman who looked to be about 19. After a few minutes of overhearing the conversation, Jones determines that the young woman is Jerry’s niece.
The Conversation Between a Texas Baby Boomer and His Gen Z Niece
“I always pay attention to what Jerry is thinking,” Jones says. So he keys into what the pair is discussing. The niece is telling her uncle that she thinks Mamdani would make a great presidential candidate because “young people like her are basically locked out of the American dream.” (Mamdani was born in Uganda and therefore cannot run for president.)
Jones says, “And he comes back to her and says, I understand that this idea of affordability is a key issue for your generation. Because you guys are thinking that homes are so expensive and things like that.”
Essentially, Jerry attributes this to a different standard for affordability this generation than in his own. “She goes on to ask him if he thinks she should study something different from marketing in college,” Jones says. “[Jerry explains] the role of college was never really to train you for a job. It was meant to knock the rough edges off of people and teach them a little bit about the world to get a broad view of how things work.”
What Does This Have to Do With the Cost of College And SNAP?
According to Jerry, the problem with college is that “the government got involved,” Jones says. “The problem is the cost of college got so expensive that you had to turn college into some type of job training, direct economic thing. And that’s not what college was ever supposed to be.”
The niece then blames the current affordability on the Boomer generation, which she says took a disproportionate share of U.S. wealth. “And now the Trump administration is cutting off a bunch of people from [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and it seems unfair,” Jones says.
Apparently, Jerry loves to launch into lengthy historical monologues during debates. He tells his niece that she would be surprised to know that SNAP started as a program to get rid of extra government-produced cheese.
He tells her that SNAP started as a way for the government to get rid of excess cheese. Over time, the government added different staples to the list. “This would basically make sure that people in America didn’t go hungry,” Jones says. “He told his niece, ‘I believe that in a country as wealthy as ours, people shouldn’t go hungry. But what SNAP became … particularly on the liberal side of things, was a corporate welfare program.’”
And How Do Social Security And Post-World War II Fertilizer Factories Fit In?
In Jerry’s view, this actually hurts people living in poverty instead of helping them. Not only is Jerry not a fan of SNAP, but he blames government mismanagement for the current state of Social Security. He then proceeds to attribute the post-World War II boom to the number of factories the U.S. had to build to support war efforts, which were later turned into fertilizer factories. In Jerry’s view, those factories are about to age out of the system, which could bring up food prices. Scientists, though, believe the contemporary farmer actually uses too much fertilizer.
The niece then asks what everyone in the bar—erm, online—is wondering. What do you tell people, particularly young people, who feel the system is unfair? “She’s like, ‘What’s the answer? What are we supposed to do if America has this huge post-World War boom and now it’s over and people like me are looking around at the world and thinking we don’t have a shot at the American dream?’” Jones says.
He continues, “So, then, Jerry, this boomer, says, ‘Well, I can tell you that socialism is not the answer. Because that’s just going to take money away from people who know how to do business and put it into the hands of the government. You might believe billionaires are unattractive, but I tell you what, you don’t want money in the hands of the government.’”
@pdavisjones Last night I was sitting at one of my favorite watering holes, and I overheard a conversation between this really smart conservative, boomer guy that I’ve spoken with before and his niece. The niece was mostly listening to this guy as she basically told him that she thinks that Zoran mom Domi should be president and their conversation was super interesting. It was basically the perspective of a really smart baby boomer who’s conservative on the state of America today.
♬ original sound – Davis Jones
Viewers React to the Lengthy Eavesdropping Session
In the comments section, viewers said they couldn’t believe Jones’s ability to multitask. “Your ability to eavesdrop and report back is exceptional,” wrote one viewer.
A second person replied, “I was about to say, is he sure he isn’t the niece?”
And a third viewer responded to the thread with a riff on a Lord of the Rings quote. “I ain’t been dropping no eaves, sir. Only something about a ring and the end of the world, lol.”
Others weighed in on the substance of the conversation. “It’s incredible that young people think giving the government more power and control will fix everything in our country,” wrote one person. “The youth has no awareness of other governments around the world and what’s been done throughout world history, and even the history here in the United States.”
“Ask Jerry about the gap in pay between workers and CEOs,” said a second person. “It’s significantly different from his generation.”
Another person accused Jones of using this premise as a vehicle to voice his own opinions. “This is an old trick,” they wrote. “Relay an opinion within a story that has been overheard secondhand. It removes the teller one step from critique and passes the ‘authority’ of the opinion onto someone else.”
The Mary Sue contacted Jones via email for comment.
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