Every generation tends to write off the newest generation as substandard to their own.
Boomers certainly took up that stance when it came to us Gen Xers and labeled us the “Me Generation,” simply because we rebelled against the typical patriarchal traditions.
Essentially, that was just a bunch of Boomer dads who were constantly pissed off at us kids (at the time) because we had the audacity to buck the traditional way of thinking.
We weren’t interested in following in parental footsteps and wanted to find our own way. We were hell bent on raising our children differently from the way we were raised.
It’s why Boomers thought we were so selfish, but in reality, Gen X just wanted to be different and Boomers hated us for it.
Curiously, Gen X stayed mostly silent through the battle between Boomers and Millennials who went at each other pretty hard as Millennials made the journey from teens to young adults.
“Boomer” all of a sudden became an insult, but Millennials simply didn’t understand that the Greatest Generation grew up under one world war, fought in another and survived the Great Depression.
Truth be told, Gen X is responsible for a lot of today’s problems with both the Millennials and Gen Z.
It was us who let our children live at home well into adulthood or at the very least paid our kid’s cell phone bill and insurance well into his or her 30s.
We were the original helicopter parents who just couldn’t summon the courage to kick our baby birds out of the nest with a fly or die mentality.
When I say “us,” I’m not talking about me. All my kids were told that their 18th birthday present was a set of luggage and they were out the door.
But when looking at the generational gaps in generalities, it’s more true than I care to admit about our own Gen X, which, unfortunately, hasn’t changed much regarding our approach to Gen Z.
Unfortunately, Gen X is still responsible for a lot of Gen Z, whether this next generation are our children or grandchildren, depending on where a Gen Xer falls into the age spectrum.
Though I am a proud Gen Xer for the way we approach life, we have to admit our wrongs at some point and realize that we were the silent plague that enabled Millennials, and now Gen Z, to go through a period of entitlement for God only knows how long.
This was done with all good intentions, so don’t get me wrong. We wanted to be different from our parents. We didn’t want to force our children to do things they didn’t want to do.
We wanted our children’s childhoods to be different from ours.
Well, we succeeded and as they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
Fortunately, Millennials are reaching full adulthood, but what does that mean for America?
Well they say that every young person is a liberal because they have a heart, while every older person is a Conservative because they have a brain.
Whether Millennials are shifting to the right to save America is a question that doesn’t come with an easy answer.
There are hundreds of articles out there on the subject and none of them mesh. It seems the liberal media is desperately making an argument that Millennials are bucking the aging trend and will remain liberal for a lifetime.
I’m pretty sure that falls into the media manipulation category and those articles are meant to convince Millennials that it’s wrong to change your younger political views.
The New York Times may be the exception in their recent reporting that Millennials are shifting to the right as they age. There are dozens of articles pre-2019 that Millennials were trending to the Conservative side, then all of a sudden there was a media blast over the last couple of years that Millennials are clinging to their liberal beliefs.
My theory is that Millennials are indeed shifting to the right, but it’s a slower process than previous generations.
Millennials are much slower to pay attention to politics and are still suffering from the self absorption that we Gen Xers inflicted upon them by coddling them for far too long.
They have lived in their bubble and are only just discovering the world around them and realizing that the wrong person in charge can really have an impact on how they live their life.
The bubbles are starting to pop throughout the Millennial generation. Life is forcing them to remove their rose-colored glasses and they are seeing that their political decisions can no longer be about naive idealism, but have real life consequences.
I admit, I have not been a fan of the Millennial generation. And I have wrongfully accused them of partaking in ridiculous things like the Tide pod eating challenge, when in fact, that – and so much more like the toilet licking challenge – is on Gen Z, not Millennials.
So Millennials had to overcome our tendency to coddle them with participation trophies and lifelong bill payments. And they also have had to overcome the educational indoctrination that really started with them. We just didn’t realize it yet.
Those two things set the Millennial generation back in a big way so it should be no surprise that it’s taking them longer to age into their political and global wisdom.
The evidence of what we did, as well as the educational indoctrination that was occurring right under our noses, was the election of Obama for a second term. The slow evolution of their political wisdom is evident through the “election” of Joe Biden.
My hope is that Millennials are discovering that voting personality over policy makes you, well, an idiot.
Biden was allegedly elected because Millennials believed in his “Uncle Joe” image. If they are paying attention, they are realizing that Uncle Joe is actually that creepy uncle in the family that is a pathological liar who inappropriately interacts with family members.
Not a single mean tweet from President Trump had an impact on how much you pay for a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread.
My theory is that Millennials will vote much differently in 2024 because now they are a few years out of college, maybe having families of their own and realizing that bad economic policies make real life much more difficult.
Mean tweets have nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, we have the first segment of Gen Z reaching the voting age and we are in big trouble. I’m not sure there will be enough Millennial converts to counter the real Tide pod eating generation of Gen Z.
Gen Z, after all, has been influenced by social media and segments of Gen X who still haven’t figured out the damage we did to Millennials. Gen Z is also being influenced by a large segment of Millennials who have yet to have their great awakening.
Gen X is responsible for the major growth spurt of Independents in America where both Republicans and democrats saw significant declines in party registrations.
Millennials kept that trend steady but Gen Z is blowing it out of the water as far as identifying as Independents, which we all know gives a slight edge to liberals.
The liberal independent army’s ranks have the potential to swell with Gen Z joining the ranks and that spells trouble for all of us.
Especially because Republicans still haven’t figured out a way to work together even as the democratic party we have known for decades is dying off.
It’s a small miracle that Millennials are finally waking up to the world around them despite the damage we and the educational system did to them.
Gen Z has had it much worse and could control election outcomes for the next decade.
That’s a horrifying thought considering – through no fault of their own – how they have been mentally manipulated from all sides.
The bright side here is that all of us have finally realized what’s going on within our schools and a lot of Gen Xers are waking up to the fact that maybe our good intentions did not produce the results we had hoped for.
I don’t know if we caught all of this in time to save the short-term future of America. Only time will tell, but we can rest easy knowing where our battles lie, giving us the opportunity to fight back.
It’s something we were very unaware of as our Millennials were traversing this perverted and distorted educational system of ours. So at least we know and we are definitely trying to do something about it.
The only question is did we catch it in time? If Millennials truly are shifting to the Conservative side, then perhaps we did. Perhaps there is still hope.
If not, we are in for a long and painful ride.
2020 and 2022 elections certainly showed us just how much water this ship is taking on. 2024 will ultimately tell us whether we saw the danger in time.
Gen X needs to continue to right our wrongs and educate our Millennials on political realities as they grow into their own. Gen X and Millennials need to put aside generational differences and work together to save Gen Z, and subsequently save this country from ourselves.
Stay vigilant out there my friends. I take comfort in the fact that we are the very least in this fight and no longer standing on the sidelines. Keep informed and keep sharing our truth.
