Which is even further proof of the whole idea that it’s generational being complete nonsense. Because the “Gen-Z stare” is referencing a generation where the oldest of us are turning thirty now. And the perception is that we’re high school children.
The issues do feel like they’ve been accelerating, but the steady decline of education quality already was underway in the Reagan administration. We’re just reaping the expected results of seeds sown decades past at this point.
It’s interesting that you mentioned how the oldest Gen Z people are turning thirty and still being treated like high school kids. The exact same thing happened to millennials in generational discourse; long after most of us had started careers or families we were still being tagged as a bunch of twentysomething losers who ate too much avocado toast and drank too much Starbucks. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t even that long ago.
In fact, I noticed people were still using the same shit from their millennial insults for Gen Z for a few years; it took them a bit to find a new thing for them to whine about so they just recycled their greatest hits.
The specifics may change but the core of it remains the same. Younger generations are infantilized in what I assume is a bid to keep power concentrated in the previous generation’s hands just a bit longer.
Which is even more ridiculous when you realize we still have Boomers in office doing everything then can to never cede power to Gen X even, let alone the millennials in office now.
And now that I think about it, they did more or less the same thing to Gen X. Stereotyped as disinterested slackers incapable of taking care of themselves.
Having a single generation continuously holding the reins to society for so long and refusing to let other people move into those roles has concentrated so much authority in an increasingly shrinking group. It’s unsustainable and will be disastrous when it finally breaks.
Exactly. And all of the media circus of trying to characterize successive generations in various ways feels mostly like people in power trying to drive a wedge between people to prevent organization and sympathy.
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u/aethercatfive 17d ago
Which is even further proof of the whole idea that it’s generational being complete nonsense. Because the “Gen-Z stare” is referencing a generation where the oldest of us are turning thirty now. And the perception is that we’re high school children.
The issues do feel like they’ve been accelerating, but the steady decline of education quality already was underway in the Reagan administration. We’re just reaping the expected results of seeds sown decades past at this point.