Exactly. An entire cadre of parents and grandparents literally concocted a culture war out of thin air based on educators trying to teach their school-aged offspring to be more respectful and tolerant, and all they had to do was find a useful three letter acronym that would fit into a bullseye on a Fox News chyron. There is no remaining rock under which they won’t find liberal demons, unfortunately. Our last best hope is that through sheer cultural inertia and the widespread exposure of kids to people from different ethnicities, races, etc in online spaces, they’ll start to naturally pick up on the idea of diversity of thought and incrementally shed their parents’ hateful neuroses. It’s already kind of happening, and I sure hope it continues.
Another interesting dynamic is that boomers grew up during a time when SCOTUS helped usher in civil rights, abortion, affirmative action, etc. Their weird drift to the right can also be seen as a reaction to the issues that the judicial and political systems forced them to engage with. Gen Z is growing up in an era with a Republican Party completely untethered from reality and a SCOTUS dominated by hard-right cartoons, and I can’t help but think that over the next 10-15 years they’ll harden their stances to some degree in opposition to those factors.
Our last best hope is that through sheer cultural inertia and the widespread exposure of kids to people from different ethnicities, races, etc in online spaces, they’ll start to naturally pick up on the idea of diversity of thought and incrementally shed their parents’ hateful neuroses.
One can only hope.
But we already live in a good portion of the beginning, yet anti-semitism and race hate/discrimination is very well spewed everywhere you can look.
Maybe it’s the vocal minority but it’s the one most read and heard and so will stay in focus.
Exactly. An entire cadre of parents and grandparents literally concocted a culture war out of thin air based on educators trying to teach their school-aged offspring to be more respectful and tolerant, and all they had to do was find a useful three letter acronym that would fit into a bullseye on a Fox News chyron. There is no remaining rock under which they won’t find liberal demons, unfortunately. Our last best hope is that through sheer cultural inertia and the widespread exposure of kids to people from different ethnicities, races, etc in online spaces, they’ll start to naturally pick up on the idea of diversity of thought and incrementally shed their parents’ hateful neuroses. It’s already kind of happening, and I sure hope it continues.
Another interesting dynamic is that boomers grew up during a time when SCOTUS helped usher in civil rights, abortion, affirmative action, etc. Their weird drift to the right can also be seen as a reaction to the issues that the judicial and political systems forced them to engage with. Gen Z is growing up in an era with a Republican Party completely untethered from reality and a SCOTUS dominated by hard-right cartoons, and I can’t help but think that over the next 10-15 years they’ll harden their stances to some degree in opposition to those factors.
One can only hope.
But we already live in a good portion of the beginning, yet anti-semitism and race hate/discrimination is very well spewed everywhere you can look.
Maybe it’s the vocal minority but it’s the one most read and heard and so will stay in focus.