Since when is age discrimination okay?
Since when is age discrimination okay?

Frankie Avalon is 79-years-old. Are you shocked? So am I. Mick Jagger is 76. Paul McCartney is 77. But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

So onward we find the precise definition of ageism as follows: “Prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age.” That is something to keep in mind.

For instance, in no “help wanted” ads will you read anything like, “Old people need not apply.” Or, “Young people only.” It is against the law, I am pretty sure.

Not so in politics. While the culture forbids any derogatory reference to a person’s race, religion or gender, a person’s age gets no such sensitivity or respect. 

You saw that in action during the recent debate among the Democrat 2020 hopefuls, when Julian Castro peppered Joe Biden in connection to Biden’s memory issues, and heckled him with the insinuation that he is an old fool. No one on stage (far as I recall), rushed to Biden’s defense.

They seemed to agree that Joe wasn’t the problem; his age was the problem. 

In fact, the hectoring got picked up and elaborated throughout the news media, rendering Age Shaming quite okay. 

Geezer jokes from network to network and no consideration for what people are being hurt, scorned, and marginalized, and for no good reason, except as an exercise in cruelty.

We are becoming quite good and proficient at cruelty, courtesy of the Left.

How about Height Shaming? This Castro fellow had to stand on a booster box to make himself appear taller, and so if Biden, at 76, is too old, Castro, 45, is too short, to be president. 

You do not want to be too short or too old here in America, or Canada. Justin Trudeau would therefore qualify as the perfect specimen…you’d think.

Don’t blame me. I am only using the criteria of the moment, and if you are wondering if Benjamin Netanyahu’s age stopped him from a sure win this second time within the year– I wonder, too. The Hebrew press has thrown everything else at him, why not ageism as well, directly or roundabouts. 

Surely you caught all these mentions of Bibi, 69, being “old news,” as compared to Benny Gantz, a “fresh face” at 60. 

That is not so young, either, and, late breaking information, the trend is unavoidable – people tend to age. I know. We’d all rather still be young, like Frankie Avalon. 

Yes, America’s first “teen idol” is 79. He came at a time of our Youth Culture, when everybody was young, and life was a (1963) “Beach Party” with Annette Funicello

The leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, probably danced to the music. She too is now 79.

...many of our leaders and headliners are no spring chickens, not like AOC, for example, who proves each passing day that there is this other thing, “Young Fools.”
In fact, so many of our leaders and headliners are no spring chickens, not like AOC, for example, who proves each passing day that there is this other thing, “Young Fools.”

That’s right, you can be an idiot at any age.

Take Bernie Sanders, and more proof that at 78 a man can be a crackpot throughout his career; young, old, regardless.

Trump is 73. Got a problem with that? I don’t. I think he’s sharper than most of us and quicker and saner than his abuser Jerry Nadler at 72.

Not since JFK has a world leader personified youthfulness as Canada’s insufferable Justin Trudeau, and if Joe Biden is guilty of forgetfulness, so is Trudeau, only Trudeau forgot something much worse than Biden’s occasional lapses. Trudeau had to be reminded that not so long ago he partied in blackface. 

If Biden is “old,” what’s Trudeau’s excuse? He’s only 47, but nevertheless, “a vapid idiot” the New York Post calls him.

Hypocrisy and idiocy know no age.

On the other hand, Israel’s beloved “Iron Lady” Golda Meir ran the show in Israel during her 70s.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” His Holocaust to Montreal memoir “Escape from Mount Moriah” has been honored from page to screen at CANNES. His Inside Journalism thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” is being prepared for the movies. Contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com