_portrait.jpg){kind=link}
532
'Everything got worse': Gen Z express frustration, regret after Trump vote
(navigatorresearch.org)
this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026
532 points (99.3% liked)
Leopards Ate My Face
10529 readers
598 users here now
Rules:
- The mods are fallible; if you've been banned or had a post/comment removed, please appeal.
- Off-topic posts will be removed. If you don't know what "Leopards ate my Face" is, try reading this post.
- If the reason your post meets Rule 1 isn't in the source, you must add a source in the post body (not the comments) to explain this. If the reason is in the source but is tedious to find (e.g. in a lengthy video), you must add an explanation for where it is.
- Posts should use high-quality sources (for a rough idea, check out this list), and posts should retain the title (if one exists) from works like news articles, videos, etc. You may (but need not) edit your post if the source changes the title. (If you're only using an excerpt from an article that's otherwise not about LAMF, you can use the quote in the title.) Other types of posts should have a title which accurately, relatively neutrally describes their contents.
- For accessibility reasons, an image of text must either have alt text or a transcription in the post body.
- Reposts within 1 year or the Top 100 of all time are subject to removal. Within moderator discretion, this doesn't just include reposts of the exact same media but also includes e.g. a secondary source telling basically the exact same story as another that was already posted.
- This is not exclusively a US politics community. You're encouraged to post stories about anyone from any place in the world at any point in history as long as you meet the other rules.
- All Lemmy.World Terms of Service apply.
Also feel free to check out:
Icon credit C. Brück on Wikimedia Commons.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The Gen Z Trump voters might be the dumbest people on the planet right now. Genuinely.
Like, you expect the boomers to be stupid and impressionable, because ::gestures around::, but not the younger folks.
These people will live with their shame for a lifetime.
That's the generation that grew up with the large social media sites in place, and the constant message there traditional media would be untrustworthy.
I'm finding it difficult to understand why you think younger people are somehow less stupid and impressionable?
That's almost a by-definition sort of expectation here.
Young people are stupid and impressionable, just like how older people are less physically capable.
Impressionability is literally a defining aspect of being young and still having a developing brain. This is also why it's such a huge fight to corrupt our education system.
Think of how stupid the average genZer is, then remember: half of them are stupider than that.
Bravo!
I'd guess it has to do with the benefit of doubt based on a lack of evidence, and a dash of confirmation bias thrown in. For example, there's plenty of evidence that the generations before them suck at choosing leaders and then suck at governing when they finally get a seat at the table. I would choose to defend millennials because as an older millennial I am biased toward that generation. But Gen Z doesn't yet have a lot of evidence out there in either direction.
All that said, I feel like the statement "Boomers destroyed the planet in essentially every way and made life worse for every generation that preceded and followed it" is just fact. But again, I'm biased.
I think the key issue here is that, regardless of generation, most humans are stupid and impressionable.
Not sure someone unintelligent enough to vote for Trump can experience an emotion as complex as shame.
Realistically, others will be experiencing the shame for them for the rest of their lives while they continue to make poor decisions they feel no shame for.
“I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016 and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic, morally vacant, and psychologically mangled he is. I do not wonder anymore. He won for that exact reason. He was not a candidate. He was a mirror. If you were a racist, you found your guy. If you were a misogynist, you found your guy. If money was your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart was armoured shut, you found your guy. If you mocked disabled people, you found your guy. If you hated intelligent people, you found your guy. If you were a rapist, you found your guy. If you enjoyed golden showers with Russian sex workers, you found your guy. If you had done absolutely nothing to confront your emotional wreckage, you found your guy. If you were a serial cheater, you found your guy. If you were a perpetual bankrupt, you found your guy. If you stiffed honest workers, you found your guy. If you were a conman, you found your guy. If you mocked people’s appearances, you found your guy. If you longed for a toxic Daddy, you found your guy. If you were dissociated and disembodied, you found your guy. If you were unconscionable in every economic dealing, you found your guy. If you lied as naturally as breathing, you found your guy. If you had never eaten a green vegetable, you found your guy. If you were a white supremacist, you found your guy. If your ego contained a hole so large not even the presidency could fill it, you found your guy. If you were a sociopath who cared not one molecule about other humans, you found your guy. If he had only two of these traits, he never would have won. He won because he had hundreds of them, and millions of people recognized themselves in at least one. This has never been about Trump. It has always been about the people who finally had their worst instincts validated. Trump did not create the cruelty, he licensed it. He handed out permission slips for hate. He is merely a symptom of a far deeper disease: collective toxicity. If there is one sentence that explains Trump’s power, it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” That is the part that should chill the spine. Who knew that tens of millions of Americans were thinking such unconscionable things about their fellow citizens? Who knew how many white men felt so threatened by women and challenged by minorities that they were ready to torch democracy to feel big again? Who knew that after decades of apparent progress on race and gender, so many people were living in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to legitimize their worst selves and convert their bitterness into political power? We were living in a fool’s paradise. We aren’t anymore." — Michael Jochum
Stupidity is not related to age.
To be fair, he said "Gen Z Trump voters", not simple Gen Z.
Though that's the same, as most are further right than Boomers.
It shows the issue isn't intelligence but messaging.
To be fair, he said:
Like, you expect the boomers to be stupid and impressionable, because ::gestures around::, but not the younger folks.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/reverse-flynn-effect-hits-gen-123020869.html
https://www.vice.com/en/article/gen-z-is-the-first-generation-dumber-than-their-parents-neuroscientist-claims/
ignorance is though.
Saying reprehensible shit like that now makes me think that you are stupid and impressionable. Go figure.
found the gen-z voter guys!