In the Netherlands we have a political party, 50Plus, dedicated to the (financial) interests of people near or past their retirement age. We have elections in November and this party nearly failed to publish a list of candidates before the deadline because of infighting. Their last conference even had the police involved and a few court cases. These people have only one thing in common: their age. They would be very lucky to retain their only seat. The conflict of ideas is much more important than conflicts between generations.
The "Ok boomer" to meme seemed like a rensponse to all those thousands of condescending articles about millenials being lazy, entitled, not being able do deal with frustration, etc. Something that I'm suprised I took so long for us to admit we were fed up and create an answers that perfecly resumes all that sentiment.
The "kids these days" mystique goes back at least to Ancient Greece. I do think a little historical understanding would probably alleviate a lot of it. Great video, Alice!
It's probably been around forever... i.e. The Wheel generation doesn't realize how good they have it, we of the Flint Axe generation barely had fire. I think it's a feature of human development... changing perspectives as we follow our paths through our social structures.
True but is it historically normal for the young to have such an ideological resentment of their parents? Seems like a symptom of capitalistic alienation and new left cultural deconstruction to me.
@@LS-xs7sg as a student of History, it is one of the constants of Humanity: young people raising the middle finger to their elders because the young are the ones who dare.
@@Jamhael1 I think it is a question of degree though. In the West the parents are no longer financially reliant on the young (because of pensions and the welfare state etc) and the young are less dependent on parental social networks to get by. In the past a son would have likely learnt his fathers trade and been adopted into that social milleiu. Nowerdays a lot of kids go to university and move to a metropolitan city. In rural areas the average British child is unlikely to be able to afford a property in the same village in which they grew up. I think the current cultural and economic system drives alienation in general but especially in the young from the old.
Thanks Alice. I realized that this generation war was bad when my mom came to me genuinely hurt to tell me that dhe tried her best (she voted green all her life). The conflict is, as always, left v right. I prefer an old syndicalist to a young fascist
Boomer v gen z means the same as any other culture war: people with the same interests-not to be exploited-end up fighting among themselves instead of fighting together against their own exploitation.
Yup, every time I see people using these invented classifications to draw lines between each other in debates I get so frustrated. You are doing the work of those who want to see discussions on unionising, worker coops and so on shelved in favour of these Flavour of the Month, personalised bickering for entertainment.
Here in the US, boomers hold most of the wealth and not only actively support keeping us young people from acquiring the same wealth, they laugh at those of us who are struggling. They're the ones doing the exploiting.
gen-z started it. no one born before 1995 has ever thought of accusing older people for their own struggles as (young) adults, because older people are the ones who raised them to live a more comfortable lives that they had and because the more you age the more you realize older people have been young too and they were learning how to become an adult as well, there's no other way to make it. It seems to me gen-z don't want to become adults, fallible adults, that make a lot of mistakes and own them and also live a very average if not mediocre life, like everybody else. gen-z are the by-product of our rich, tired and lazy societies of the west, there's no gen-z VS boomers everywhere else in the World, except mostly the US and other free-market turbo-capitalist countries. you can buy a house if you are a gen-z, they just don't want to commit 30 years of their life to do it, it's understandable why: if you don't have long term projects, everything looks pointless, if you cannot imagine that you will outlive your 20s and have at least other 60 years of suffering on this planet waiting for you, you can't commit to taking care of your older self. the most important lessons from boomers that gen-z should learn is that they took care of their own future, instead of fighting with their grandparents, and in the end it payed. be like them. the only real fight worth fighting for is the class struggle, no one's future should be predetermined by birth rights, social class, upbringing and, most of all, sheer luck. p.s. avocados should not exist, they are the symbol of everything that's wrong with our soulless times. minimum wage is a completely different issue, most non US boomers started working when they were kids (like 6-7-8 years old) and minimum wage wasn't even a thing and yet they managed to survive and become the envy of a younger, wealthier, healthier generation with access to the most abundant amount of free quality stuff ever. my father biked 50km to go to the movies and saved for weeks to afford buying the tickets. let's not pretend there aren't enough reasons for gen-z to consider themselves lucky enough to not blame other generations. p.p.s.: don't buy avocados, seriously, don't!
I'm glad you mention the working-class were always there in the politics, just hidden and underground. People forget that those folks were working working-class, so they couldn't take the time off to march during business hours.
Speaking as a Millennial, I grew up wanting to be a journalist. From the time I was in middle school to the early days of college, I watched the old model fade away. My dreams of working at a newspaper no longer became feasible and I had to learn how to enter a new market. I was young enough to pick up a few tricks, but I still think something to consider for older Millennials especially is that the world we were told to prepare for didn't really come to fruition. We were prepared for a more tactile world and not the digital one that has been overwhelmingly the default for over a decade now. I'm not saying we're hopeless, but part of my issue is some of our dreams are more relevant to a world that existed in the 90s instead of 2010s.
90s-born millennial here. I used to work as a freelancing journalist for U.S., UK publications. I went into the industry when a lot of it was changing due to technology and ad revenue dissipating from print sources. It was soul-crushing to be reduced my abilities and where I was, the politics were quite unusual making it difficult to speak openly about what happened with some level of public pressure much of it caused by the publisher's mouth. Proud of my experience but not something I look back fondly.
I agree although I'm not sure what it's got to do with technology. It's more of a capitalism problem. You could have still been a journalist but capitalism ensured that everything that could be automated or off shored to the global south was. Yes tech facilitated it, but it was due to capitalism and cost cutting at every turn.
Thank you! I'm Gen X, and most of the time we don't exist. If I'm talking to a boomer online, they assume I'm a millennial. If I'm talking to Gen Z, they assume I'm a boomer (with no insight to my values, just because I'm an old). I've been attacked online for stating I'm Gen X because someone's father is a Gen X white dude, and they hate him. 🤷🏻 I know my values. I'd really like it if people stopped assuming my values. I'm also a pansexual, nonbinary, polyamorus, invisibly disabled, neurodivergent, Bernie Sanders stan who believes psychedelics and cannabis should be legal AF. I'm also agoraphobic because the young conservatives are far more numerous and vicious than they're given credit for (how old do you think your average black-pill incels are?) I have CPTSD, and the generational trauma of family/ancestors that experienced The Holocaust while watching history repeat itself. For the most part, younger people give me hope, but I feel sorry for them, the shitshow they inherited, and the horrible people in their own generation they have to deal with. It's also lonely AF out here because my age group is so tiny, and it's hard to find people with similar values. Most boomers are conservative. Most people younger than Gen X think I'm a boomer, and maybe a replacement punching bag for all the people in my generation and older that they hate. If I understand the current issues, use the correct language there's plenty of young incels, MRAs, MAGAts and other young conservatives happy to dogpile me on the wrong social media platform. I'm old. I'm liberal AF, and it's made clear to me that I'm supposed to be supportive of every identity and demographic (which I'm happy to do) but expect no support in return because it's cool to bash old people. I'm moving to the middle of nowhere into a school bus so I can be the old witch living in isolation separate from the rest of society. I'm an ally without the strength to engage with the world, with no support, and with no allies of my own.
Well, my experience is I can get along with older conservatives so long as there’s a shared interest that isn’t politics. With millennials and gen-z, they really like to wear the “right wing asshole” as their personality. They are outnumbered in their own generation, but they are worse. I think its the effect of growing up with the whole 4chan internet edge lord BS.
I'm a 66 year old white guy and I firmly believe that what actually matters is class, not age, accent, consumer preferences or educational background. Class in the actually meaningful sense of one's relationship to the means of production. It's still bourgeoisie against proletariat - not old against young.
And the answer to that is, what does it mean to say, "what actually matters is..." Does that mean refusing to speak out against the more subtle dog whistles and smears of minority communities that the right spreads everywhere? Or is it constantly keeping class in mind to avoid being sucked into a sort of rainbow capitalism where everything is fine as long as we have lesbian attack drone operators? Where does one draw the line between weaponised identity politics and identity politics in service of liberation for all?
I think the question is not whether the working class supports the LGBTQ+ community, but rather if the left still genuinely fights for the well-being of the working class, regardless of their self-identifications. Ultimately, it's about whether one is willing to fight for what is common to all people, essentially the essence of being human, so that we can all finally be human, that we are all subjects and not objectified to fulfill the needs and imaginations of others.
I disagree - completely. It is perfectly possible to want to better society for all humans while recognising some people have more struggles to overcome than others. Queer women, for example, have more to deal with than the average woman on a societal level; acknowledging that doesn’t mean one thinks we shouldn’t fight for the well-being of all women, it simply means one realises this isn’t enough for all women: for some, you need to tackle homophobia on top of racism in order for them to be able to have the rights they deserve. It’s the idea of intersectionality, really. Acknowledging and addressing the struggles of a certain minority with so-called “identity politics” doesn’t take away from the bigger picture. It’s like saying we shouldn’t fight for the working class because a lot of middle class people also suffer under capitalism - yeah, everyone is affected on some level but that isn’t the point. The most oppressed are the ones most in need of liberty. No one ever disagreed All Lives Matter, but sometimes the point one is trying to convey is that Black Lives Matter.
This. So much this. Basically the past 10 or so years in the US, any left wing push has been purely for social changes until very very recently, Biden been showing a lot of union support. I guess it's a bit different in France where neoliberalism hasn't completely destroyed the working class, *yet*. But over here in the US, the working class has been really weak. It's the main reason why Hilary Clinton lost the 2016 election, she obviously didn't care about the working class and as a result, basically the entirity of the rust belt voted for Trump since he at least acted like he did. If you consider political capital a finite resource, I'd rather have it used on improving the lives of everyone, and not just a minority of people.
i think that we indeed need to focus on class issues, but it is categorically wrong to present queer/feminism/racial minority issues as separate from class issues. queerphobia, misogny and racism all have class components to them. they all struggle as workers, and in fact struggle more due to these social disadvantages. to help these communities you have to know both that they're victimized as workers and victimized as minorities. the first reason why these movements seem separate is because liberals want it to seem that way. but it is pure pink and rainbowashing. they want to make it seem like women's or queer liberation or racial equality is achievable under neoliberal ideology, when it really is just another thing keeping them down. the second reason why is because broader worker movements have failed to consider the needs of these groups and ignored their pleas, so they're forced to create their own movements. for example black feminism is not a thing because black women wish to divide feminism. but because white feminist received support from black feminists on women's issues but white feminists neglected to support black women's issues. so they made a distinction to better be able to fight for their needs
One thing I find strange is how generation X is often completely overlooked, as if nothing really characterizes them. It's always just boomers, millenials and gen z...
Generation x is a smaller generation, because they didn't have a baby boomer like millennials and (of course) baby boomers did when they were being born. So it makes sense that they wouldn't be the media's punching bags as often as the generation before or after them. Generation x was talked about more during the 90s and 2000s though, though I don't think the media was as harsh towards them as it was towards boomers and millennials. As for gen z, I have a feeling that in the future, we won't be talked about as much as we get older, but I could be wrong.
Thank you very much! I like that you often try to paint a more nuanced picture than most other channels. In my experience (a greying Gen X leftist) things are very seldom black and white. It seem like polarization have increased the last two decades, but it has always been there to some extent. It is so simple and reassuring to just fit yourself into one readymade identity. I once met a young highly educated man who was a member in an extreme christian sect. I asked him "Why"? His answer surprised me - "I like the ignorance. Here you have all the answers in a neat package".
Praise to The Algorithm for dropping this in my Recommends. Already paused for two long comments, Liked and Subscribed. Final comment, re: "class is more important than identity" - you made the point perfectly: the working class comprises people of _all_ "identities" so wtf does this even mean? The people who spout that line are _usually_ cis-het-pale-male (and less, but too-often, -female), who carry in their heads an oddly specific _identity_ of what "working class" means, which implicitly excludes workers who aren't in that category. *And this is the point.* The people who own the means of production have always been acutely aware how tiny a minority of the population they are, and how screwed they are whenever the people they lord it over get together and push back in unity. *And the means of production includes the mass media* - newspapers, television, movie studios, social media, publishing houses, the entirety of what a comrade calls the "head-fixing industry" - *and they know how to use it.* Not in some kind of conspiratorial way - not puppet-masters pulling strings, or micro-managing from on high - but simply in the way they *craft the message* for the audience. [for more on this, see my other comment about how "generation" is used] It's an age-old strategy by the ruling class, *divide and rule* - and all of this is part of that. By "othering" various "identities" they drive a wedge within the working class, which they can then exploit to expand and extend such "identity"-based divisions. And so much better for them if they can convince cis-het-pale-normative workers that it's those "others" and the people standing up with & for them who are being "divisive"! There's an age-old slogan on the labor left that stands in direct contradiction to the rulers' strategy: *An Injury to One is an Injury to All!* Our strength is directly proportional to our solidarity; if a fellow-worker is being oppressed _on any basis_ then we all stand with them against that oppression. And if anyone tries to tell me that "those" people aren't "real workers" and should be disregarded in favor of the "larger movement", I know what they're trying to pull, and it alternately pisses me off or amuses me that they think it'll work on me. As I said in my other piece, I can smell astroturf.
Hola , soy chilena y prefiero escribir en mi idioma nativo, el español , ya que es el que hablo todos los días. Nací el año 1965 osea, soy generacion X y te sigo a pesar de la diferencia de edad y de experiencias de vida por el simple hecho de que eres una mujer inteligente, que se expresa, siempre, con mucho respeto por su audiencia . Sé ,con seguridad, que planteas temas que me mantienen al día de temas que no encuentro en la conversación normal del día a día.La verdad ,las divisiones entre generaciones son un marco , al final, como siempre, lo importante son los encuentros que mantenemos con cada ser humano .
Great video! It contextualize a lot of things for me. I feel like the previous generations project the fear of the past generation and at the same time criticizing the next generation through that unprocessed trauma. It's very frustrating to be in a space with more unhealed people than actively healing, but eventually we'll get there, humans are very stubborn, lol. That being said as a millennial, I will say that I love the younger generation in general for living through trauma and actively healing it at the same time. I hope I keep learning till I pass on, thank you so much for your videos
Gen X here. I learned at a young age that *everything* is pointless. In my advancing years the only hope I have for humanity is our own extinction, preferably sooner rather than later.
I'm a fellow doomer, but I'm sure that only if those who care keep fighting then the worst can be avoided or at least the bad guys will be held accountable. Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Boomers worked in a time when computers were bleeding edge stuff and trained to do manual or repetitive labor that is now automated or shipped to China. One of these jobs could pay for a mortgage and a passable lifestyle. None of that is applicable since the mid to late 80s. Flipping burgers is worse than welfare checks and food stamps. Boomers retiring will only increase the workloads of Xers and Millennials since payrolls are the one thing companies push to cut. I’m just happy that many Zers are refusing to burn out like Xers and Millennials and it’s now dawning on companies that they don’t have an infinite pool of applicants to churn through.
I've been of the view for the longest time that boomerism isn't tied to age, but rather the mentalities that made the boomer generation which is one of hate and fear. I don't really refer to older people who are more understanding as boomers, similarly to how I'll readily call a young person a boomer for holding trashy conservative views stubbornly. Idk but tbh I think it's somewhat linked to media consumption, tho it's probably also something that needs to be researched further and maybe if somebody has the answer they could tell me how to save my sisters from their decline into boomerism ☠️
Je sais pas si on t'as déjà fait la remarque mais je trouve que le format et l'approche que prennent tes vidéos + la structure et la qualité de tes réflexions me rappelle un peu la chaine de contrapoints, dans le meilleur sens possible du terme. C'est toujours un plaisir à regarder en tout cas merci beaucoup
I always had an issue with my dad growing up, i am 22y.o rn and he is 67y.o he grew up very different to me, and at a certain point he just completely shifted and started to actually listen to what i have to say and in turn i started to learn more and more from him. Sometimes all it takes is a common problem to start a conversation. I definitely got lucky
you're such a good essayist! i wasn't expexcting much clicking on the video considering it's length (short essays naturally tend to be more superficial) and the topic, but i was pleasantly surprised!
Hey Alice, i normally never comment on videos but i just wanted to thank you for your work. You really revived my hopes for leftist politicial debates that actually go into depth and are critical. This is what drew me to left politics in the first place and i am so motivated by hearing your thoughts! Keep up your great work❤
When I was I rideshare driver, I normally don't engage in conversations with my passengers. But few times I had, the majority of people I drove generally don't care about the generation war. What they do care about is whether or not the people in position of power or influence are not only experienced in what they do, but are also intouch with the average person and not just pandering to whatever their people or group is. Solving shared problems and improving life for all with no exclusion. And this came from people of all ages including those just straight out of high school or from a senior home. On the flipside, I have also driven people who to me, I feel like they drank their own Kool Aid. These are the ones who really push class, generations, politcal / social identities, and race as the end-all-beat-all of why the world is falling apart. Those kinds of people don't sound like people to me. More like physical manifistations of the worst hot takes you would hear or read on the internet. And they scare me because of how radical their stance is, and how that can, and sadly has, turned into something tragically destructive. The 2019 Christchurch shooting, The 2021 US Capital seige, and the recent pro-Hamas / civilian killing rethoric even coming from big name "lefty" content creators as well as local community leaders come to mind here. All I am going to say that the future is looking a bit bleak for all generations if any of this keeps up- the rise of the silenced majority, at the mercy of only the loudest of tryrants.
Most leftists are not pro-Hamas, but anti-Israel. The paradox arises where, the Palestinian people have no better government than Hamas; because any other would be worse than Hamas. Besides, which leftist content creators have you heard supporting Hamas?
Боритесь одно поколение противо другого, боритесь мужчины против женщин, всё что угодно, любой вид борьбы, мясоеды против вегетарианцев, рэперы против рокеров, 70ые против 80ых, чем бы дитя не тешилось только бы не вешалось!(с), всё что угодно, Человек Америка против Бэтмена, русские против украинцев, израильтяне против палестинцев, американцы против китайцев, только не рабочие против буржуа, вот в чём заключается вся гнусная суть противопоставления одного поколения другому, отвлечь угнетенных от действительной борьбы.
Im going to quote famous office worker, Creed Bratton: the only difference between me and a homeless woman is this job. If I fogging don't take care of my job, my a## Will be in the street, I am conscious of the fact that I am replaceable and also afraid of the current economic situation, which has made me kinda workaholic, is not narcissistic at all😢
How do you feel about the consistent mantra online of "it's not my job to educate you" or "google is free"? In general I agree that it is our responsibility to be empathetic, understanding, and to teach others -- but I also understand the arguments about emotional labor, particularly for members of these minority groups. I am conflicted about how to approach these discussions myself...
The older generation is not the problem for us. I find them open minded and fun to talk to. They definitely molded my left leaning politics since I was a very religious person voluntarily. Its the middle aged ones who are a thorn. I don't know what happened in the 45 and above group but they all sound like Ron DeSantis to me.
Gen x was raised in the 80’s at the peak of Reagan and thatcher. Movies from the 80s are all about crime and mowing random people down. The first generation of deranged suburbanites. Boomers are alot kinder imo.
@@PinkPulpitotrue I guess. They grew up where the fear of something new and unknown was grained into their minds, what hinders their willingness to learn something new.
It's all windmills and roundabouts. It's really disappointing that a) young people don't acknowledge the work carried by previous generations and that b) older generations don't learn when it's a good time to step aside.
Why I feel like everyone forgot that there's actually another gen and is GenX (between boomers and millenials)? I think is something relevant to this analysis that no one is taking into consideration
Damn ! That was great ! I'm really bumed by the fact that youtube is so bad at making links between videos of different channels. I would love to see that Swiss show with boomers and queers in a cottage.
I like this video on the whole, but I think a large oversight in your research is discussing French boomers and American boomers in the same breath, as well as French and American zoomers. Boomers especially have a wildly different approach to politics from one country to another, as influenced as they each were by the fallout of WW2.
Yeah, I thought so because the boomers in my country fought for independence in their youth. They understand the dynamics of a ruling class oppressing the common folk. They taught me my left leaning politics.
When it comes to the boomers on the whole is that there were major political movements in a lot of nations at the time. With those in America many of those movements did not even begin with them.nut instead started with the Silent Generation whose childhoods were shaped by WW2 and The Great Depression.
After the intro I wanted to figure out the cost of a colour TV in the 1960s or 1970s after inflation adjustment. It's like $5k (or $2-10k depending on when exactly were at, inflation got high-ish and prices slowly came down with time). It was high-end consumer electronics at the time, such a weird example.
Another great video, Alice. Thanks for educating us all and putting things into perspective. I would just like to add that "old white men" is also a buzzword and one with a racist, ageist and sexist undertone that creates a boogeyman from a whole demographic as it is quite general sounding. You have the same types of people in power everywhere in the world, not just in the West. From Manilla to Washington and from Pretoria to Abu Dhabi to even fucking Sarajevo, its some wealthy men (and some women) that make life unbearable, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex etc. And the same working class is more often than not their voting body, just as some other wealthy people can be leftist, too.
Here in the USA, I lived through a pretty dramatic regression. The neoliberal Reagan Revolution set us on a course of “the middle class” going from growing to shrinking. Bill Clinton’s Presidency epitomized boomers in the relatively progressive party jumping on the further-right bandwagon economically, with “culture war” issues - candidates debating over a fictional TV character! - being trotted out seemingly as distraction from the new bipartisan consensus. It was no longer in economics progressives versus conservatives, but relative conservatives versus more rapidly regressive radicals. People in their 20s today were born into the wreckage from a couple of decades of that - already pretty much wiping out the improvement achieved in the prior 40 years - and came to adulthood after a couple more. When I was in elementary school in the 1970s, the phenomenon of severe ‘stagflation’ called for a lot of thrift to make ends meet. We kids didn’t reckon ourselves on that account poor, but adults understandably got more stressed as it went on. (The solution in the 1980s was a rapid series of recessions, not a pleasant circumstance either. What accompanied those in many neighborhoods and towns was a degradation from which they have never recovered.) The upcoming generation has known - compared with the downturn in the 1970s -a slower but enduringly inexorable grinding away of prospects as the perennial norm. Those with a longer horizon, more acquainted with the history before their time, might be more prone to resentment of the boomers (at least of those who ended up fairly comfortable ‘winners’ in the zero sum game of shrinking opportunities). Those boomers’ privilege is having a security in retirement that seems out reach today. (In California in the 1970s, a ballot initiative regarding property taxes artificially locked in a privilege of those who were already homeowners versus those who would subsequently enter the market.) My own view of “identity politics” is that what’s objectionable is making tokenism something to crow about while the vast majority of whatever demographic continues under the same oppression. It’s only worse when it serves to drive the divide and conquer wedges of the real ruling class. This critique is not “class reductionist,” because I do value highly recognition of intersectionality. The value of it, though, is from the understanding that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. What we need is not some quota at the top of the hierarchy, but to change the rotten system itself.
Millennial, UK-U.S. speaking. I personally believe I have the upper hand against Gen-Z because my experiences are perhaps more varied than theirs as far as media and cultural trends that occurred but at the same time I realise everyone has a fight in their life that they know they can't win. At the end of the day, what people care about most is surviving, eating, and putting a roof over your head. Never take that away from people.
"If you're not a Liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're old, you have no brain." The way I understood this saying was that it's a famous misquote that got heavily circulated in the early days of social media.
I know it as "who isn't a communist when they're 20 has no heart, who is still a communist when they're 30 has no brain", allegedly by Winston Churchill :D
@peaceblossom8 I heard the source as a Putin quote. "If you do not mourn the end of the Soviet Union, you have no heart. If you seek to bring it back, you have no brain."
As a Gen Xer I'm both glad and mad that you never even mentioned us. Glad bc we already grew up knowing everything was bull sh-- and we're happy to stay out of this pointless debate and continue just doing our own thing. Mad bc as usual everyone else keeps acting like we don't exist.
Just excellent. You have said what I have been thinking, but didn’t know how to put into words. Obviously the boat has a leak. But since all generations are in the same boat, we should focus on how to fix the leak.
I don't see why a harder work environment and less stability would lead young people to agree with the statement "I'm an important person" more than old people. 5:37
The only decent generational analysis is that by Keir Milburn in his book Generation Left (2019, Polity Press). He adapts Stuart Hall and argues that 'age is a modality through which class is lived'. Essentially, generational differentiation is only really a proxy for social class differences. The historical tendency to become more conservative as you age is not anything inherent in ageing but in the tendency of people to accumulate assets over time. The novel aspect of the analysis is that it is useful in explaining the recent divergence in voting patterns on age lines. In the UK in particular, in the 2017 general election you were 9% more likely to vote Conservative than Labour for every decade older you were - this is a new trend that has emerged only in the past 15 years where previously there was basically no strong correlation between age and voting pattern. This is not simply some spontaneous generational war, it's a result of the fact that since the 2008 financial crisis the ability for young people to acquire assets and start accumulating wealth has almost completely broken down. Hence younger people in the present historical period tend to be receptive to socialist politics, because they actually don't have anything to lose but their chains. Property ownership is the basis of conservative politics because its motivating affect is fear of dispossession. So conversely, older people who have houses, pensions, investments, savings and such to lose are more likely to vote for conservative politics. These trends are of course only generalisations, and there are of course poor pensions who vote strongly for the left in the UK, and a relatively narrow class of wealthier young people who are inclined to the right. So yeah, the only good generational analysis is actually just class analysis by proxy. Yay materialism
@@swaagiyoongiThey're disagreeing with the video itself. Think Alice is downplaying how relevant these categories are in how strongly they communicate political leanings along with class dynamics. She should look at data from the 2020 Dem primaries in the US cuz age was a HUGE factor in who supported Bernie.
3:05 - This right here. The way "generation" as a concept is understood and used among the general public, including (especially!) journalists & essayists, resembles the way it's understood and used by the people who invented and use the tools of social science for a living - _market research_ - the way astrology resembles astronomy. The latter being _scientific_ - using statistical analysis, cross-referencing with other demographic criteria, to better craft and target a _message_ of some kind to a particular audience; the former being _moralistic_ - assigning moral values to large swathes of people based solely on _when they were born._ Background, if you care: My first non-temp job (starting in 1984) was as the word processor at a public opinion / market research firm - so I typed, and read, _everything_ and I understood a good deal of it (outside of the math; calculus kicked my ass in college which is why I became an office worker...). I learned a _lot_ at that job; I'd venture to say I've got a better inside view of how it's done & what for than anyone without a college degree in the subject. The _pro bono_ project we did was the thing I'm most proud of (in a very short list) to have been involved with in my working life: they did the first-ever random-sample survey of a whole city's gay male population for the newly-formed San Francisco AIDS Foundation in order to help them with their safe(r) sex messaging (all previous surveys had been amateurish jobs focusing on gay bars & bathhouses and "gay ghettoes" like the Castro). I joined the year after the initial "baseline" survey; my first work was on the proposal & design of the first follow-up. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the work we did on that project saved lives. But of course, _pro bono_ is Latin for "many measures of evil to pay for one measure of good" - and while the above is the source of my greatest professional pride, the work we did crafting astroturf political campaigns (before that term was coined) on behalf of real estate developers east of the Oakland/Berkeley Hills is the source of my greatest shame. Fortunately I have the excuse that this is already too damn long to get into the details. Suffice to say, I'm heavily sensitized to the scent of astroturf in mass messaging. *A whole lot of this "generation-war" discourse is astroturf.* I doubt anyone's read this far, but to those who have, I'll leave with one parting thought: Whenever you see reports of "the polls" in the newspapers, what you're seeing is a tiny sliver of the results of the polls - the sliver whoever is presenting them _wants_ you to see. The only people who see the entire results - the methodology, the cross-referencing, the error bars, and the full professional explanation of what it all means - are the clients. *You are not the client; you are the target market.*
I think boomer, gen z, and other just a label we need to refer a group of people with certain age range, the problem is when we start putting stereotype to that label
Chloe Swarbrick is a legend. She reps my local electorate, the biggest city in the country, and was one of the first Green Party MPs to win an electorate for parliament outside a very hippie area in the countryside.
I kind of have answer to work part. When I see the work moral of my fathers generation, it’s that you go to work and do it full time regardless of efficiency or meaning. I’ve literally heard stories about people being insanely drunk in work somewhere in the 1970-1980, but because they were at the right place at the right time and at least seem to do something they were ”working heroes”. My generation (millenial) people want to do something meaningfull either themselves or to the world. Like older generation seem to think you have to do 40-hour work week, even if you need only 10 hours to finish work in question. Younger generations seem to think it’s better to do 10 hours efficiently instead of wasting time.
I’m in the older segment of “Gen X” and my parents of the generation born during the war instead of in the boom after. It seems to me that too many of my generation fell into cynicism (in the colloquial, not philosophical, sense). The upcoming generation seems to have more of the energy for activism trying to improve the world, which strikes me as more normally the character of youth.
thats interesting that u mention may 68, cause in the same year there was a historical event in Mexico, “Matanza del 68”, where students were killed by the military because they were protesting.
Its not pointless to me because if we don't fight the ideas that got us here.then we stuck. Like prejudices and misinformation.its not every older person but alot tho
you can fight harmful ideas without targeting a whole generation, though. it shouldn’t be about how old somebody is, it should be about whether or not they’re prejudiced. this us vs them narrative is right wing propaganda: instead, we should strive to gather as much support as possible from all kinds of people (after all, the whole point is kind of that the left doesn’t discriminate, isn’t it? and that includes age)
Very easy for someone from France to say, where old people support social safety nets and cam be actual sociailists. Here in the US, hating boomers is just a form of self-defense.
1968 was a big year in France, and also in the USA. That year, the political party I joined much later - the *Peace and Freedom Party* - ran *Black Panther* Eldridge Cleaver as its first candidate for POTUS (and many other Panthers for legislative and local office). It didn't become officially socialist until 1974 (interestingly, "libertarians" (ancaps) were part of the original coalition) but it was always feminist; the original "About the Peace and Freedom Party" pamphlet proudly proclaimed (vs the way many "leftist" outfits ran at the time), "Women run for office, _not coffee,_ in the Peace and Freedom Party." And our banner for Pride proudly proclaims, "Standing for Gay Rights since 1967". So, anyone who generalizes, "Boomers can't deal with 'identity politics'" - the Boomers I know _invented_ * identity politics! * ;-) one of the funniest things about the anti-Boomer generation-war thing, from my Gen Jones perspective, is that the Boomers famously thought they invented everything Left (not entirely their fault given the utter destruction of the Left by the post-WWII Red Scare) and were even more up their "My Generation" ass than today's Zennials!
The points are valid - and yes I'm aware stepping in it like this is a bit hypocritical, but I feel it's an important distinction that Boomers aren't depressed because they grew up in a neoliberal society. They grew up in a world of constant change and constant anxiety and *made* the neoliberal world to either cope or compensate themselves for it, and they can't understand why having it all still didn't make them happy.
13:52 I would partially agree with Maria here. Sure, she seems to completely disregard the existance of intersectionalism - I for one believe in the necessity of extensive analyses of systemic xenophobia of all kind (transphobia, racism, sexism, etc), however class at the end of the day still is the primary root of opression. Before race, gender or sexuality, the primary life-or-death question is if you are able to afford food or this month's rent, how much of your time you need to spend on jobs and wether or not you can let other people work for your monetary gain. Again, intersectionalism is very important, but at the end of the day the overarching conflict remains between captalists and the proletariat.
It's DISGRACEFUL the way that the youth of today by saying "OK, boomer." Boomers never said anything like that. OK, the early boomers did say "Never trust anybody over thirty" and occasionally "Kill your parents." And the tail end boomers, the first punks, did talk about "tired old hippies" and occasionally said "Kill hippies." But none of that is as bad as "OK boomers." Right?
Hello! I'm from the country that unleashed Brice Couturier upon this world (sorry for that!). I didn't dare to read his book, but he's been a regular interviewee on "France Culture" over the years, and of course he had been invited to talk about his book. And yes, his views were awfully misinformed and simplistic. Sigh. Anyway, nice work!
Baby Boomers - TV Generation X - Video Games Millennials - Internet Generation Z - iPhone Generation Alpha - Artificial Intelligence ??? - End of human life
Regarding the study on how millennials response to "I am an important person" and narcissism: No one talks about, why is that even a question. Either it is the "everyone gets a trophy" schooling or that our communities have been completely destroyed. People are more isolated, so they need to reassure themselves that they matter. The community isn't there to show them how important ever member of the community is.
Yeah the whole generational fights always felt distraction to me and I always had this disinterest feeling whenever I heard words like boomer and gen z. It turns our attention away from real fights that we have to fight to better society. Real struggles with real implications. We can't fight generations to make world better place. It just doesn't work like that.
Thank you for clearing up this boomer vs millenials vs gen z vs gen BS! I am constantly annoyed by this rhetoric. First of all, it has always been the same content: older generations complain about younger generations: last time the millenials were lazy. Now it's gen z. Give it a few years, and gen alpha is lazy. Second, as you said, none of these groups are homogeneous. The media portrays it as some universal law, that gen xyz doesn't want to work, which effectively blocks the discussion about the underlying causes. Yes, I don't want to work (for an exploitative employer, with unjustifiably low pay, under horrific management, in industries trashing the planet). Give people meaningful jobs under fair conditions, and these people want to work, no matter which generation they belong to!
you need to abandon this illusion leave it all behind go in to nature and find space go to retreat and find emptiness go within and rediscover everything that is already there that was veiled and conditioned
@@amberhide04 I am yet to see a zoomer who could make an exploding phone happen. I must disclose I don't buy Samsung, too, so it's gonna be a Mission Impossiburu
As an early Gen-Xer with a Boomer sibling & cousins, they were the most entitled generation on the planet! The only exception being all those guys that got drafted & sent to VietNam!!!
Neoliberalism is an economic and political ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, limited government intervention, and deregulation. It emphasizes privatization of industries, and reducing the role of the state in the economy. It's not a complicated word. You will hear it from leftists, most of the time.
uhhhh no??? it's a pretty well defined thing just literally google and you get 2 good descriptions: "favoring policies that promote free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending." and "an advocate or supporter of free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending." just because you don't want to do the bare minimum of research doesn't mean no one wants to
Dear Miss Capelle, I have several questions regarding trans people. (I haven't the slightest clue of what they are.) For instance; Did they have the love a child ought to get? (are transgenders traumatised?) Reading about the horrible side effects Alan Turing had to endure being exposed to these hormones. Raised in me the question: Who would go through such torture voluenteraly? Doing such irreperable dammage to themselves, they must have endured some trauma. Hence why I believe hormone treatments should be made illegal. From my POV there are much healthier ways to express such feelings. We should allow biological men to wear dresses, and women mustaches. That's called freedom of expression. As far as Piers Morgan is concerned; evereyone trance has extreme body modifications. - How common is plastic surgery amongst the trans community? Moreover; Children are being taught they can change their sex through some man worman machine. According to Ben Shapiro. -What do these gender classes actually teach; How I wish the news where dispensers of objective truth, I feel less informed about the topic, than back when I was ignorant about trans people.
But I LOVE. WAR. Through my life, I have discovered so many forms of war. You get up in the morning, you get into your shitty car, und you see a rich CEO who works half as hard as you do drive down the street in his Porsche. Class war. You make it to work, und you find out that the annual drug test is today. Und you just so happened to take a puff of your one-hitter a couple nights ago before dinner with your wife's awful parents. Drug war. But then, you find out that the only ones being called in for testing are your black und Hispanic co-workers. Race war. Then you try und post about it on your Facebook, but then all your friends start arguing about what's right und what's wrong. Flame war. You finally get home, und you decide to relax by watching a program about: "Who gets the box?" "Vhat's in the box?" "How much is what's in the box worth?" Storage Wars. who going to come out on top? who will be left in dust? That why love war. For ironic reasons,the best reasons.
Very interesting video. I share the concepts you express, but I am concerned to see that within the people of generation Z there is a majority mass that expresses libertarian, ultra-capitalist values and is dangerously close to fascism (majority male but also women). I don't remember that in other generations (I would be on the border between generation x and millennial). Its a pleasure to watch your videos.
There's also way more communists and socialists than before, I believe. The internet has radicalized a lot of people in both directions. The fascists are a reaction to us wanting to change. On top of that, it seems like a very, very large amount of normies generally share and agree with anti capitalist ideas in memes and pop culture. Gives me some hope.
Rule-of-thumb is with older generations, you just don't discuss certain topics so openly fearing backlash. Homosexuality, abortion, transgender identity, certain ethnic/racial groups, in their younger lives in the past none of them were used to seeing such a thing and despite having differing politics than them, I just don't bother getting into fights with them because I know given my age and status I would lose the culture war. The world doesn't belong to the young, it belongs to the powerful, rich, old, and lighter-skinned.
I really like the first part of your comment: older generations, due to the environments they grew up in, associate a level of danger and taboo with actively discussing and identifying as (what they grew up learning were) "unacceptable" modes of existence. I think a lot of older left-leaning people were informed by this, and are therefore both concerned by and uncomfortable with the increased visibility of, say, queer people. To them it might seem like an "unnecessary" risk or a needlessly frivolous label -- because they grew up expecting disrespect and lack of acceptance of the basic concept of things like the existence of queerness. "Identity politics" and more visible queerness are, like the the trans man on the reality clip shown says, a kind of privilege! A privilege won by past's progress and protest; a privilege we are able to exercise due to the efforts of the queer movement before us. Older (leftist and queer) people grew up within the foundations/earlier stages of our current social climate but, depending on the person, they did not or were not always able to really follow along with that social development as it happened. Adjusting to that change is healthy, but it might take time and an active deconstruction of their fear and social conditioning to view queerness as unacceptable.
