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submitted 2 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 170 points 2 weeks ago

Gen Z grew up on social media. The same that spreads the propaganda, the fake information and the toxic masculinity bullshit.

They also grew up with an impossible social economic context where they barely have any hope. Trump's making promises to make the country great again. What have they got to lose?

Why is anyone surprised?

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 80 points 2 weeks ago

What have they got to lose?

Gay marriage, contraception, porn, legal divorce? Just off the top of my head.

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Their POV is that the earth is going to burn to a crisp before they're out of paying back their college debt whether the tie is blue or red.

Play an online game and hang with some teenagers every now and again and just listen in. I hear some straight depressing shit. They have zero hope for anything.

Kamala might keep the lights on. Trump might accidentally trip over a good idea. Worth a shot if you're fucked either way, right?

They were wrong, granted... but justified? Sure.

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[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 43 points 2 weeks ago

As a Gen-X I will never blame the later generations. Especially Gen Z and younger, if I was in their shoes I'd be livid. You bring me into this mess and then tell me it's on me to fix it? F U

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago

As a Gen-Xer, we got the benefit of the boomers taking almost all the air out of the room, and their parents thinking our generation was even worse than the boomers. The boomers mostly ignored us, called us slackers, etc....some time goes by and we are getting lumped in with the boomers and the "greatest generation" and getting blamed for all the problems, so that's been fun.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Gen X had no future, it was all boomers until...oh, it's still boomers.

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[-] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 38 points 2 weeks ago

They also grew up during the pandemic so they might actually be less educated than Boomers.

[-] BoobaAwooga@lemmynsfw.com 22 points 2 weeks ago

People are surprised that they grew up with tech and are more susceptible to the propaganda than previous generations. People are also surprised at how vile and uncaring young men have turned into, they want to “own the libs” no matter the cost. They like seeing the pain they cause

[-] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 18 points 2 weeks ago

they want to “own the libs” no matter the cost. They like seeing the pain they cause

I have a hard time believing this.

When you actually talk to the kind of young, Gen Z men that regularly spout right-leaning propaganda, generally speaking, you don't see people who enjoy suffering.

You see young men who are suffering themselves, but are given no outlet by society to express or fix it, and are heavily propagandized to by fascists who know that by creating arbitrary divides, (the most common one you'll see with these young men being "men vs women," think Andrew Tate type rhetoric) they can redirect the anger of these young men from systems to other individuals and groups that aren't the actual cause of their problems.

When young men are the specific, designated target of right-wing propaganda, which explicitly tries to tell them that "men used to have it better," and actively tries to make them believe that they're not strong enough, not good looking enough, and not rich enough, then of course you'll get young men that feel, in some ways justifiably, shunned.

To put it how Jason Stanley put it in his book, aptly named How Fascism Works, "Misogyny is what faces women when patriarchal expectations are left unfulfilled."

Those expectations never need to have actually been reality, but just the very expectation that they should have those things can make them feel slighted.

But remember, while these young men are angry, sad, and scared, they still don't enjoy causing pain. (I'm talking broadly of course, you'll always be able to find some crazy dudes if you look enough) They just feel like they haven't been given what they deserve.

Just like the rest of Gen Z.

The only thing that makes them different is the fact they believe the source of their suffering is a different group of people.

I'm not excusing any of their behavior or beliefs, far from it. But claiming that young men enjoy inflicting pain on others because they hold beliefs that make them feel slighted by society is just plain wrong in the vast majority of cases.

[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You see young men who are suffering themselves, but are given no outlet by society to express or fix it, and are heavily propagandized to by fascists who know that by creating arbitrary divides ...

Man I cannot take another four years of "won't you think of the poor lowly Trump voters?" (this time Gen Z style). The original was cringeworthy and I doubt I'll like the sequel any better.

People have bigger problems than your average Gen Z white male Trump voter, as I'm sure they're accustomed to telling others online and in real life whom complain (when they aren't going on call of duty n-word tyraids and having discord chats with other idiots).

[-] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 7 points 2 weeks ago

won’t you think of the poor lowly Trump voters?

This is absolutely, categorically not what I was saying.

To clarify using this point I already made,

Just like the rest of Gen Z.

I'm commenting on the fact that they experience the same issues that the rest of their generation, and in many ways, society at large experiences, not saying that their own struggles mean we should subordinate our own opinion of what society needs for their sake.

I'm not pulling a "won't you think of the poor lowly Trump voters," I'm doing a "these are people too, who still think they're doing what's 'right'"

To these young men, society teaches them that they are fault because of the patriarchy, but leaves the door wide open for the right to proclaim that the sentiment means their own issues aren't being taken into account, which, in many ways, is true with the way liberal media often presents the patriarchy, denouncing its effects, but not clarifying that the patriarchy doesn't mean these young men should be doing perfectly fine already.

The messaging these young men see is (and I'm oversimplifying here, of course) "men as a category are in the wrong because of the patriarchy," but not "but young men still face many problems, just like the rest of their generation, so we should work on fixing that too"

So of course, the right swoops in and replaces what could be a positive secondary statement, and replaces it with "they say you benefit from privilege, but if you do, why is your life so bad right now?" (ignoring the fact that their struggles are almost entirely the same as the rest of Gen Z, men or not)

Again,

I’m not excusing any of their behavior or beliefs, far from it. But claiming that young men enjoy inflicting pain on others because they hold beliefs that make them feel slighted by society is just plain wrong in the vast majority of cases.

Believing, falsely, that your issues are caused by a different source than the ground truth, and believing that a man who says he can fix all of that will, y'know, fix all of that, in no way means that you enjoy inflicting pain.

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[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago

They grew up with tech without understanding it, which is a big difference from millennials.

[-] scala@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

They also grew up in a time where the education budget was slashed over and over, even some states like Florida getting rid of history and sciences during trumps last presidency. No surprise there.

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[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 97 points 2 weeks ago

Millenials appear to have been peak liberal.

[-] b34k@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago

Watching TNG reruns nightly as an 8 year old really gave me some hope for humanity’s potential.

[-] Riccosuave@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Same. Le sigh 😕

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[-] anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 2 weeks ago

We were teenagers under dubya and the iraq war. Depending on how much the country swings into actual fascism this time, gen alpha might wind up standing for general anarchism

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago

I think the ones that elected FDR 4 times have us beat

[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

Hell I'd vote for him a fifth time, but he's mysteriously not running.

Although I suppose he wasn't running the first four times either...

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[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago

First generation seen moving left as it ages and a reverse tendency might be happening with the Z men while the Z women are much more left leaning. It might also be part of why Z men seem so much farther right, the women of their generation are much farther left than women of previous generations so the division is much more clear. In truth the men might not be much further right than men of previous generations were when it comes to the policies they agree with, we just didn't pay as much attention to it back then...

Just some stuff they were talking about on the radio a few weeks ago...

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[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Sure...

"Liberal."

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

If this is true, it might explain so much of why they were so angry.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago

Its never been up to a single generation anyway

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

When the link snaps open the entire chain is broken.

It is up to every generation.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

I have been saying for the past 6 - 8 years that Gen Z is the future, they are different, they are compassionate, etc. My opinion changed on that Tuesday in a bad way.

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[-] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago

Why hasn't there been a push to counter the propaganda on social media with social media?

Use short form, humorous posts that integrate facts and ideas that give a different more positive take on others. I would guess there are great writers and actors that have a progressive-ish mindset that could put something like this together.

But honestly what is the reason this hasn't been done? Or if it is being done why isn't there more of a push to get it seen?

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 15 points 2 weeks ago

That would require ongoing funding outside of election years. These are paid for by Mercers and Kochs or the Kremlin on the right, and i don't think Gates or Cuban is too eager to fund left-wing propaganda.

[-] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

There is Holywood money in the world of progressive actors that could put something together but I don't know that world and how it works so I have no idea if it's something that is actually feasible.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 8 points 1 week ago

You will be surprised to learn how little money the most famous actors in Hollywood actually have, that's why they're all trying to sell vagina candles and tequila.

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[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Algorithms ensure that the only content that ends up getting to your eyes is content that you already agree with for the most part. Or content that you hate so much that you have an incurable urge to respond to it with swearing and vitriol. (or at least that's why I think TikTok keeps giving me Maple Maga bullshit)

In other words, you can put up whatever you want but thanks to modern social media, the only people who will ever see it are the people who already agree with you.

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

why I think TikTok keeps giving me Maple Maga bullshit

I mean... it shows the garbage to you, and you keep coming back..... maybe it's time to ditch tictack

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

If you don't control the platform, it might just be wasted efforts, although I guess they could try. But it might be that those pulling the strings can be sure that virtually no one is reached.

[-] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

It's a frustratingly true response... sigh

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago

The establishment wants to stay established, so they only use their established channels, not realizing how disconnected they became.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago

No analysis of how the older generations that turned out for Obama and Kerry went even harder for Trump than Gen Z ? Gen X went Trump by 22 percent.

Gen Z is doing their best and if you put this all on them then you're going to lose the next election too.

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[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 20 points 2 weeks ago

"But that is far from a sturdy monolith. It can, and should, be easily conquered. All it takes is a platform that authentically offers something—anything—to youth voters. As they’ve proved, time and time again, they’ll listen."

Democrats: Sorry, we'll talk a big game and then just have 2 fuckwit Senators ruin everything. Don't worry though I promise next time will be the same!

[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

In before Newsom or Shapiro nominee in 2028. (that is, in the far-fetched scenario we still have real elections).

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago

“Crazy how Millennials were the only ones to learn how to use computers and we apparently are also the only ones who learned to see through disinformation,”

Whoever this Dylan jackass is can piss right off. Gen-X built your fucking computers.

[-] Laser@feddit.org 13 points 1 week ago

It's like every generation loses the ability to do something in computer technology that was just abstracted away somehow. I as a millennial have never soldered a PC mainboard (modding an Xbox doesn't count), but I'd say that otherwise, my understanding is pretty good. And I think all of my friends understand the concepts of files.

I recently asked someone about 10 years older if he knew what partitioning and formatting means in the context, and he knew, despite initially saying he has no clue about computers, to show someone 10 years younger (who didn't know) that such knowledge was just basically required back in the day. And it's not like these terms are obsolete, the concepts are still the same, even though we went from MBR to GPT and from FAT32 or whatever to better filesystems. It's no different for phones, but not required and even hidden.

I'd say generally, the technology userbase broadened while average knowledge in the group declined, however I'm not sure whether the absolute numbers of people with a certain knowledge level actually went down.

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[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Well, TBF, the boomers helped bootstrap what Gen X was working with, and then there are the Elder Gods like Turing, Hopper, John McCarthy, Neumann, etc...

In any case, if someone thinks that learning computers means they can see through disinformation....LOLOLOL. This is exactly why I keep beating the drum for critical thinking and media literacy, steeped within a rich liberal (in every meaning of that term) educational program.

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[-] stoly@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I mean, Boomer grandparents did the real lifting if we're going back...

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[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

They about to be thrown off mom and dads insurance and learn the hard way about the "team" they voted for.

Not to mention the fact that inflation is about to go through the roof and there will be food shortages when they start deporting migrants.

[-] whithom@discuss.online 15 points 2 weeks ago

Trump Youth.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 10 points 2 weeks ago

It was pretty funny seeing people putting so much faith into these kids

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 8 points 2 weeks ago

The funniest one was when they thought Taylor Swift fans of all people would save democracy.

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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024

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