(06-06-2020, 10:33 AM)Camz Wrote: I agree with most of your points, but I'd argue the name "Gen Z" is even more problematic. That name says nothing about its ""generation"" (really its a cusp), the only thing it implies is that its 2 generations after Gen X, which is a name actually makes sense.
I believe this Artist-Adaptive generation started in 2003 or 2004, those born before are generally more civic and bold (I was born in 2005 I'd know), generally share more Millennial traits, as well as more shared experiences and memories as a whole. Most on this forum would agree.
Gen Z being the "school shooting generation"
- The first recorded school shooting in the United States took place on July 26, 1764. This was even before the US declared its independence from Britain.
- Zero tolerance policies started to become a thing in around 1994 when even people born in 1976 were still in high school, but they weren't viewed as completely necessary until the aftermath of the Columbine shootings five years later when the oldest people in high school were born in 1981. There were also some notable school shootings even before then too, like the Olean shooting in 1974 and Frontier shooting in 1996.
- Anyone who says this seem to forget the birthyears of those who were in school during the Columbine shootings: They were 1981-1993. Both perpetrators (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold) were born in 1981, and their victims were born from 1951 to 1984.
- People born in 1997-1999 were already out of high school when the Parkland shooting took place, and even people born in 2000-2002 weren't in K-4 (the grades taught by Sandy Hook school) when the Sandy Hook shooting happened.
- A 2019 study showed that they were arguably more socially liberal than even their Millennial predecessors.
- By what I have seen, many people on the alt-right seem to be Gen Xers or older/core Millennials. Such examples include Varg Vikernes/Louis Cachet (born 1973), Richard Spencer (born 1978), Jason Kessler (born 1983), and Martin Sellner (born 1989). You do have some Gen Zers on the alt-right, like Nick Fuentes (born 1998) and Jaden McNeil (born 1999 or 2000), but their amounts are small compared to Gen X and Millennials.
- Many of the Charlottesville attendees were Millennials. However, someone in the Gen Z age bracket (James Alex Fields) committed a murder there.
- Many of the ones in the George Floyd protests are probably born 1997+.
- The March for our Lives movement and the September 2019 climate strikes are easy ways to disprove the "Gen Z is the most socially conservative generation since WWII" idea that started in around 2015.
- If they were really that socially conservative or alt-right, I don't think they would be listening to people like Lil Nas X, Juice WRLD, or Billie Eilish.