GenZedong

Didn't we just witness Columbia University students being beaten, arrested, and expelled for pro-Palestine protests?

The Vietnam War protests arose on elite California and East coast campuses, but we soon had students at conservative, middle US, Kent State being gunned downed by the National Guard over anti-war protests. It was only 8 years from the creation of the SDS and the Port Huron Statement to the Kent State Massacre; the interwebs would surely shorten the timeline. All that anger is just awaiting a spark.

I think I'm one if the few people on this site in that age range (I'm 23), and I actively organize with many people in their early 20s. My experience is much less universally negative, though there are elements of it I see. Irony poisoning, apathy and disillusionment seem to be extremely widespread. On the one hand, certain reactionary viewpoints (esp misogyny) will be stated more openly by some, but finding a genuine supporter of any given reactionary politician is quite rare in my experience-- in fact even those who are vocally misogynistic tend to be equally vocally anti any reactionary politician they can name. No one has much hope for the future yet turning that disillusionment into action can be quite difficult.

In my workplace, "Epstein class" rhetoric is pretty much universal. sympathy with Iran and Palestine is commonplace (people post Iran Lego videos in the work group chat regularly, and people reply "death to Israel"), sympathy for the us army and the police is minimal. However this coexists with jokes about sexual assault, ZOG posting, and hustle grind brainworms, and even pro deportation comments. Oh and ableist language is all pervasive. But I'm openly queer and trans on a blue collar job in a rural area, and I have only ever had serious issues with that around coworkers over 40. I don't know if that would have been the case 10 years ago.

I think the overall trend is disillusionment and even pseudo radicalization becoming extremely normal, without any coherent ideological framework behind it. The tendency usually expresses itself in adventurism or inaction. I have yet to see it manifest in fascism (to most people my age, trump is the usa establishment) in the traditional sense, but neither is it progressive per se. It is discontent that seems to reject action, organization or ideological coherence.

People who are "kids these days" have been watching ben shapiro and steven crowder owning libs on YouTube since they were in diapers. They knew they hated SJWs before they learned what society or justice are.

A 16 year old was 10 when 2020 happened. Fifth graders.

I remember once asking for pro-communists vids to counter capitalist narratives, a communist told me that we don't need to push out ideology as any rational human being will come to it themselves

We really need to up our fucking propaganda efforts, relying on the rationality of the imperial core is fucking nauseating.

Yeah many millennials and most of Gen-Z are the exact target demographic of Fascistic ideology given the poor job - life style prospects. I really don't blame any of them, there is almost noting attractive about being a socialist / communist from a western POV. Fascism is much more inline with the values instilled in us from birth, and tell me- where are the socialist leaders? Where are the communist militias amidst the ICE raids? Where is the alternative? From an outside perspective, the left adjacent seem obsessed with losing.

Honestly, I appreciate being able to talk to someone who is openly imperialist. It's a nice break from liberal / dem soc mental gymnastics. And the bright side is that someone susceptible to fascist thinking (aka someone who is dissatisfied with neoliberalism) is also open to socialism, fascists just have way better propaganda- and modern critical thought for the average person is what they just saw on their tiktok feed.

I wholly expect an overtly fascist takeover (we're kinda in it now) once this next lib majority break is over with.

I'm an old fuck, 41, and I remember growing up that I held this naive assumption that youth would always be a progressive force.

spoiler

I was wrong.

I wouldn't get caught up in generational generalizations too much. Things like bleak prospects and disillusionment can lead to fascism, yes, especially in the imperial core, but it can also lead to class consciousness and being a revolutionary. It is part of our task to impact which way it goes and not take it for granted that the conditions will necessarily produce one or the other; and to remember that people are not static and can often still be moved.

I blame covid, I saw it in real time lol.

High school pre-covid you'd be ostracized for being a cringe right winger, even though I was a transfer student to a petit-bourgeois-filled area, it was still the norm to not be a POS. Not saying they weren't reactionary, plenty of anti-communism and "muh trans people in sports" going around, but kids would still get punished by the community for being racist or misogynistic.

Same was the case for college, except the pandemic hit and we went to online classes soon after. Once we got back to in-person classes I could see the shift, pandemic lockdowns forced people to be terminally online, and depending on where the algorithm sent you dictated how you would become as a person.

I also talked to some younger guys not long ago and they were all pieces of shit as well. No decency, making fun of people right next to them, saying racist shit without a care for getting called out.

The other day I went to korean bbq and held the door open for these high school kids as I was leaving and I got clowned by them. Being nice to people means you lose "aura", I guess.

They were white men weren't they.