Millennials and GenZ horribly misidentified

[Eric the Green]

(05-08-2019, 12:46 PM)AspieMillennial Wrote:

(05-08-2019, 12:05 PM)michael_k Wrote:

(05-04-2019, 04:48 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: The 1997-2003 cohorts are NOW acting civically about guns, about climate change, and about inequality, college debt and low wages. Unlike you, they know these issues are civic and are on the ballot for a vote. They are just coming into their own as a civic generation, and we haven't seen anything yet from millennials, born from 1982 to 2003.

I think it's unfair to imply that earlier Millennials (1982-1996) are 'uncivic'. I mean there was the whole LGBT rights movement that sprang up as that group came of age, which had a huge impact on how differing sexualities and identities are perceived. The whole same-sex marriage movement would likely not have gotten off the ground if it wasn't for the earlier-wave Millennials, despite the Boomers and Gen Xers who later agreed that a law change was necessary to enfranchise a minority.

One of the reasons also why we see the later Millennials/Gen Zers making effective protest is due to the ideological groundwork laid out by the first wave. There are politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (b. 1989) and Sarah Hanson-Young (b. 1981) who are markedly more progressive than many others elected in their field, but both these women have had to endure being the devil of the conservative media and all the smears associated with it. Being a 1991 born Australian myself, if you are caught supporting Hanson-Young too loudly within a moderate-conservative audience of older people you are likely to be called an idiot and told to 'f*** off'. As a cohort of downtrodden, frustrated and quietly-progressive adults are formed, you have a lot higher chance of vocal youth movements not being shrugged off before they can gain traction - they'll have backing from some of the older crowd as well.

I think one of the frustrations that arose with the older wave of Millennials is that we were expected to be 'heroes' by the older generation, but within a framework we did not consent to, as if everyone was trying to write what we'd stand for, for us. When we stepped too far outside of those margins, there was hostility and closed communication and we couldn't reach anyone no matter how much we cared or thought about things, which led to many 'giving up'. It makes me wonder if maybe the older wave of Millennials should be considered a Nomad-Hero hybrid generation, in that we have Civic ideals, but we tend to get be treated as Reactives when we attempt to express them.

I'm a first wave Millennial but don't really have the ideals of any major generation. To me, progress is usually something negative. When someone starts talking about the word progress, say goodbye to anything that actually works right and say hello to a bunch of wars about privilege and stuff. Progress is the poor having a much lower living standard because of technology changes and because of climate change alarmism. Progress? Hah! The left tells us we genuinely need a low standard of living. So when they support no right to self defense or free speech, a low standard of living, and identity politics and privilege wars there's nothing it really offers me. The left thinks it's "progress" what things like a burkini are celebrated. The left thinks we need to have no borders and import everyone. The left wants to stop lots of gun use just because they're alarmed about school shootings. I see school shootings as a wedge issue to get rid of our freedoms on purpose. The mass media are a bunch of sensationalists that cause destruction for the money. Both sides of politics are obsessed with privilege and these idiotic wedge issues. It's sheer stupidity. All buzzwords, hiveminds, and no meaning other than to accuse others. I care about specific issues but I don't care about joining a side. Issues are important to me, not these political games.

You can't understand progress if based on the wrong ideas. 

Climate change concern has nothing to do with the poor getting a lower standard of living.

The immigration issue is just a scare tactic, and is not legitimate.

Free speech for whom? Racist hatemongers?

Owning and using guns has absolutely nothing to do with freedom.

Priviledge is a very major real issue when so few own so much in this country.

If you buy these conservative slogans, then you are not in a position to understand "progress," or know what issues are important. Conservatives today have nothing to offer at all. To oppose them is not to take a side. It is just common sense.

None of this has to do with any generation.