Ive actually thought about this a lot, specifically since 2020, but for the past 15 years as a white LGBT person.
I think the reason millennials are the ones to make fucked up depression jokes is in part because of the crisis after crisis being shoved in our faces through social media at an extent never really seen before compared to newspaper and TV. But the other part is how we could learn about all the atrocities that have happened. Like, in WWII’s Pacific theater, a lot of that never got discussed in school. Or how Korean war or Vietnam war or even civil rights were all just a footnote after the WWII section which took the bulk of my history class’s time.
I feel the Internet wasn’t mainstream as a kid, at least not in today’s sense. My whole family didn’t get a Facebook till the 10s. And I think millennials got to see past a lot of the propaganda because even the gov hadn’t figured out how to monopolize on the idea. Which I think is why GenZ is turning more fascist. Since the powers that be have figured out how to reach out through YouTube shorts and insta reels or whatever. It’s like it skipped millennials for a minute and swung full force once it figured out how to target a generation who grew up on iPads instead of IRC or AIM chats.
To add to that, the black loves matters movement and civil rights in the 2020 era, is the first time there was an awakening to white folks like me at a deeper level to start researching heavily into what civil rights even meant beyond who MLKJr was and who the Black Panthers even were beside ‘militant black people.’
I feel like the 2020 era was when white millennials as a whole, but also Gen X and Z to a degree, started to really see how much systemic injustice really effects us all, but especially POC and native Americans. I only had a vague awareness of anything up until I was in my 20s.
Now, the more I learn of the struggles, the more I can see how easy it is to be buried by propaganda. So when I hear “make America great again” all I can think is how it was finally starting to be truly great with progressive movements and that my definition of ‘great’ hasn’t even existed before.
And as a final note, that making America great again, to the standards of those who tout that concept as a banner, is to revert to where everyone who’s in the struggle together just goes back into silence and submission.
Ive actually thought about this a lot, specifically since 2020, but for the past 15 years as a white LGBT person.
I think the reason millennials are the ones to make fucked up depression jokes is in part because of the crisis after crisis being shoved in our faces through social media at an extent never really seen before compared to newspaper and TV. But the other part is how we could learn about all the atrocities that have happened. Like, in WWII’s Pacific theater, a lot of that never got discussed in school. Or how Korean war or Vietnam war or even civil rights were all just a footnote after the WWII section which took the bulk of my history class’s time.
I feel the Internet wasn’t mainstream as a kid, at least not in today’s sense. My whole family didn’t get a Facebook till the 10s. And I think millennials got to see past a lot of the propaganda because even the gov hadn’t figured out how to monopolize on the idea. Which I think is why GenZ is turning more fascist. Since the powers that be have figured out how to reach out through YouTube shorts and insta reels or whatever. It’s like it skipped millennials for a minute and swung full force once it figured out how to target a generation who grew up on iPads instead of IRC or AIM chats.
To add to that, the black loves matters movement and civil rights in the 2020 era, is the first time there was an awakening to white folks like me at a deeper level to start researching heavily into what civil rights even meant beyond who MLKJr was and who the Black Panthers even were beside ‘militant black people.’
I feel like the 2020 era was when white millennials as a whole, but also Gen X and Z to a degree, started to really see how much systemic injustice really effects us all, but especially POC and native Americans. I only had a vague awareness of anything up until I was in my 20s.
Now, the more I learn of the struggles, the more I can see how easy it is to be buried by propaganda. So when I hear “make America great again” all I can think is how it was finally starting to be truly great with progressive movements and that my definition of ‘great’ hasn’t even existed before.
And as a final note, that making America great again, to the standards of those who tout that concept as a banner, is to revert to where everyone who’s in the struggle together just goes back into silence and submission.
And that ain’t too great, imo.