I’m a millennial and my generation sucks
nypost.com
nypost.com
If someone wanted to argue that intergenerational differences are significant, they'd have to contend with the fact that the ratio of intragenerational:intergenerational variance is far smaller than intrasex:intersex or intraracial:interracial variance, and commit themselves to also being a racist or a sexist.
It's routinely taught in org-psych and related fields, for example, that different generations have X characteristic that makes them better or worse suited to a particular role. Imagine the uproar that would ensue if we taught that "women are better at teaching professions while men are better at science", or "you should prefer asian employees in STEM roles vs black employees".
Maybe someone would then say, "hey, our condemnation of racism isn't based upon some ANOVA or arbitrary significance test- we aren't racist because Every Human has intrinsic worth." In which case, we can stop promulgating this antiscientific ingroup/outgroup hysteria and just focus on the Every Human part.
Though now you've brought it to my attention. Intergenerational conflict really is just another form of bigotry, why isn't is condemned publicly as such?
The outrage over isolated killings of charismatic megafauna is matched only by the indifference to extraordinarily large-scale habitat destruction that sees multiple species go extinct every day. See also factory farming.
The incredible revulsion we feel toward an individual pedophile is diluted over an entire industry of child sex trafficking until it reaches homeopathic levels.
I think the condemnation of racism and sexism were basically gavaged into society by social movements and brave people fighting for their rights. While this was definitely an incredible step forward, it did little to neuter our base instincts for prejudice; we were instead outfitted with a sort of pattern-matching, Pavlovian hair-trigger that fires whenever someone says the word "black".
It's said that society progresses one funeral at a time, and that could be the reason why intergenerational prejudice has had no champion. Who will fight for Gen Z once they're dead?
So instead, I'll digress to the stereotype of my generation and settle for a hasthag.
#mindblown
The writer, as some one who allegedly is '... Interested in other people'; has an extremely elitist attitude with a matching level of arrogance. He's an old soul, eh? He looks and sounds like a straight down the line dickhead from my perspective.
Though I'd gladly see less selfie sticks and Kardashians from my generation. The consumers of those products are hardly just us. Have you seen what media our teens now consume? Our parents are more than capable of zoning out at the next Stupid Shore. Is that the responsibility of social media? Our parents? The schooling system?
Articles on generational discussion are deliberately polarising. In the same light as left vs right, secularism vs. religion, socialism vs. capitalism.
No discussion. Just perversion and conflict.
Edit: formatting, grammar.
Take any group that's large enough and you can create stereotypes to make them ugly in your eyes.
Each generation brought and brings new things, discards things valued by earlier generations, and moves forward as best it can.
Help, contribute, learn to love those outside your age group and outside your values and we'll all be better off.
The Baby Boomer's didn't invent the transitor, first computer, first personal computer (Altair), the cell phone or the basic internet protocols. That claim rightly belongs to the previous generation.
What a crock of shit. There's always been social cachet available for people willing to piss on their own generation; this is neither novel nor particularly well executed.
I can't tell if this statement supports or contradicts the rest of the article, but regardless, this bears watching again...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFwok9SlQQ
The generational pile-on goes back and is pretty meaningless.
I'm used to being ignored by Boomers, who think our arts and culture were nothing like the glory of the 1960s. But this article doesn't even acknowledge we exist!
It characterizes Millennials as: "entitlement, dependency, nonstop complaining, laziness, Kardashians"
Except for the last, those are our stereotypes.
Joking aside, there's indeed nothing novel. People in the 1940s make the same complaint about the youth of their time; who expected everything to be given to them on a silver platter.
Hesiod, 8th century BC
[Edit - possibly a mis-attributed quote according to wikiquote]