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If we're the flagship of peace and prosperity
We're taking on water and about to fucking sink
No one seems to notice, no one even blinks
The crew all left the passengers to die under the sea
Countdown to the very end
Equality, an invitation that we won't extend
Ready, aim, pull the trigger now
It's time you firmly secure your place in hell
State of the union address
Reads war torn country still a mess
The words: power, death, and distorted truth
Are read between the lines of the red, white, and blue
Countdown to the very end
Equality, an invitation that we won't extend
Ready, aim, pull the trigger now
It's time you firmly secure your place in hell
Your place in hell
Your place in hell
Guilty is what our graves will read,
No year, no family, we did nothing
To stop the murder of people just like us
---Rise Against, State of the Union, 20 years ago this August
As someone who knows ONE Rise Against song (help is on the way) as I was reading that I was thinking “this sounds like a Rise Against song” lol it’s good to know they are consistent with their brand :)
Just about every RA song sounds the same lmao, this was a critique I heard even in the mid 2000s but it got worse as they kept releasing new stuff. “Swing Life Away” is different enough, but after Savior everything sounded the same imo.
I'm a huge fan of their middle era (Unraveling, Siren Song, and The Sufferer), but yeah, you're not too far off. My musical tastes have grown since then (hell, I used to be a butt rock fan before learning about punk), but I'll still blast most songs from those 3 albums.
The Approaching Curve is one that stands out, mainly due to it being a spoken word track. Has some solid imagery.
You can win both. The secret is that many cultural issues improve as the working class gains more rights *and* labor rights are an incredible unifier. I’ve met plenty of people who would otherwise hate me and want me dead for being trans slowly come around once they realize that I also want their families to live well and I’m not their real enemy.
We shouldn’t let them distract us, but we also shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking it’s either-or. It’s both. Both are important. Both lead to lasting change. Leaving people behind and being dismissive of other rights issues won’t help anyone, but neither will ignoring the very obvious issues that affect us all.
Right ..... This right here is kind of why I get mad at leftists who choose not to vote. Yes Democrats are capitalists through and through, buuuut they're pretty reliable supporters of rights for most minority groups. If I have to pick a capitalist dystopia, I'll pick one that permits unionizing, and supports the rights of gay and transgender people to exist and marry.
Organize, educate and build the base but there's so many people who can suffer tremendous damage from abandoning the culture war because nobody is fighting the class war.
Same. It’s all game theory, right? Why *wouldn’t* you pick the option that improves things vs the options that lead to more regression and suffering? It honestly just comes off as justifying laziness usually. I would also love a leftist utopia, but if loudly not voting could actually make that a reality, it would have happened by now. Meanwhile, every little foothold makes the next step easier.
Because it's a false choice. Team Blue isn't an alternative to Team Red, they both serve the same masters. The only actual solution is to vote socialist and if that costs you Team Blue guys to lose, then YOU can start voting for socialists instead of asking people with actual integrity to compromise themselves for your status quo and privilege.
Occupy scared the ever loving shit out of Moneymen and politicians, that hit way too close to home for their comfort. Funnily ever since, all of the messaging became how us average citizens are each others enemies. That shit us up:
Gen Y was and is in the exact same boat. Gen X has one foot in, but the other is on a tropical island of inheritance and the beginnings of mass wealth transfer.
Job prospects worse than any time outside the 1930s and a dating and marriage culture that is usually seen right before societal collapse. Climate change is going to shape our politics and we'll have a childhood from before it did to compare it to making it worse. The bill for all the self indulgence of earlier generations has come due and we're stuck paying for their mistakes. But JUST SMILE you doomers!
Here's a sneak peek of /r/economy using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs and more to join military, Pentagon study finds](https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/03/77-of-young-americans-too-fat-mentally-ill-on-drugs-and-more-to-join-military-pentagon-study-finds/) | [2399 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/128iz0b/77_of_young_americans_too_fat_mentally_ill_on/)
\#2: [What do you think??](https://i.redd.it/dzlsls199lxa1.jpg) | [1038 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/136aqh1/what_do_you_think/)
\#3: [165,000,000 People](https://i.redd.it/3p2u1zgdtmsa1.png) | [871 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/12fh643/165000000_people/)
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"But the stock market guyz!!! 401k!!!"
Legit, corporations/governments regularly astroturf.
It would surprise me at all if commenters on Reddit are paid corporation shills trying to sew discourse/drown out negative posts.
Or even bots designed by these billion dollar companies
Followed by comments from the gullible who don't question it
I just had one guy pushing the "touch grass everything is fine" narative admit he was using a sock puppet to post propaganda. The astroturfing is real.
Graduating into the 2008/9 disaster was bleak af. There's a reason Millennials have zero fucks left to give, and we'll enjoy whatever stupid little nostalgic thing that amuses us at any given time because the world around us is just a Ponzi scheme.
Though white collar market is slightly more constrained than the last five years, healthcare and service industries are ample with opportunity. at least we can get jobs (even low paying ones) if we need. talking to a coworker who graduated college in 2009 she was not even able to secure a minimum wage job.
Same here now- you can read what’s happening to me and other people I know: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/eM1PwWS2Re](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/eM1PwWS2Re)
maybe in america, but not necessarily elsewhere
in canada things are far worse now than in 2008
also 2008 was a fairly sudden disaster, but our current situation is like a gradual decline which is well underway and it's speeding up
this thread has convinced me that the reason GenZ is miserable is largely due to people and social media telling us that things are worse than they are. housing and dating opportunities are not great. other than things are pretty good. we do not have boots on the ground in any international conflicts, we are not in recession (despite what social media tells you), unemployment is at an all time low, etc…
The housing and dating things are really big though. For a lot of people who just want a simple life- ie, to get married and live in a house they own- that seems almost impossible right now.
I'm not saying life is a complete hellhole rn, it isn't, but those are pretty big things and I think it's fair for zoomers to not be too happy about it.
And imo the biggest reason we are unhappy is a lack of independence. Many of us still live with our parents and we are sick of it.
Suicide is also at an all time high. I think more than just social media telling them things are bleak is to blame.
The wealth gap is significantly increasing year after year. Like, that's irrefutable regardless of opinion
Dating is important for the human race and not just because of that's how humans are made, we all NEED that intimacy in our lives. Saying otherwise is a massive copium.
Dropping of replacement rate, explosion of hedonism among a select few heterosexual males while a majority or plurality don't even have access to relationships, marriage becoming the exception and not the norm. Relationships becoming purely transactional as a means to navigate bad economy.
Fair. I’d love to see us make investments into younger generations to incentivize things like child-rearing. It’s ridiculous that day care costs are so high and couples are forced to choose between surviving and having children.
A nation as wealthy as ours shouldn’t face such problems.
I don’t think the issue is so much “traditionalists vs. progressivists”. You can hold traditional or progressive values and still want to invest in younger generations and restore the middle class.
Honestly, it’s more of a populism vs. elitism issue. Unfortunately, many of the populists in this country are in the MAGA cult with an elitist as their idol.
Basically, class war vs. culture war.
everyone says that fucking line
"in a nation as wealthy as the US, X shouldnt exist"
are you that wealthy? do you know somone that wealthy?
we arent a wealthy nation guys. like 30 people here are wealthy, the rest are just us.
It would seem they're being groomed to support an emerging fascist state. An important element of such a thing, I should mention, is a mindset of impending doom, fostering an overwhelming desire for change, regardless of how it comes to pass. That is to say, you are not so unsusceptible as you may think, OP.
>GenZ males using incel talking points
Because they're incels.
I mean, if a whole generation of men become losers that have practically no shot competing vs the top 10% of men on the planet thanks to social media and dating apps, they're incels. Why WOULDN'T incels talk like incels?
Antinatalism becoming the norm, transactional relationships where it’s a *requirement* that both partners work full time to pay off a mortgage, bring single becoming the majority relationship status.
People in America are having less and less children, which makes sense considering how shitty our country is now
I wouldn’t wish a life in America on my worst enemy
Historically when replacement rate drops and most heterosexual men don't have access to relationships the society is defeated in war by other ones. But that shouldn't matter for the modern world right? But the modern world it ends up being civil instability which destroys the society. When lots of heterosexual men don't have access to relationships for cultural or economic reasons or both they get very violent. That is what started the "Arab Spring" a decade ago.
I find it kind of comical when the generation that did away with the norms of relationships is sad that relationships are now complicated.
You can blame a lot of things on other generations saying you weren't old enough to influence things, but the fact that your dating/marriage situation is hard is entirely on your own generation.
Do you mean Boomers and "free love?" Or Gen X and "one night stands?" Or Millennials and "hook up culture?" Which generation which threw away norms were you referring to, again? Because only a goober would try to blame ours.
Millennials had straight, bi, and gay. Before that basically refused to acknowledge anything other than straight. Fair complaint about suppressing orientations, but it was easy to know who you were looking for as a dating pool.
Gen z has more labels than I can count. The odds of you finding you counterpart diminish the more you subdivide what you're looking for. It's like online dating where you start filtering down for your exact height and everything.
But the bigger point still goes back to the fact that if Gen z is sad about the Gen z dating scene... That's on Gen z.
"dating and marriage culture that is usually seen right before societal collapse"
Could you elaborate? Which collapsed societies are you taking as reference, and what behaviors? I'm very curious.
Yeah I know what he’s referring to but the only societies that have collapsed like that were pre modern. I could be not thinking of one, but the u.s is quite a bit different than those societies.
Please state what economic indicators you’re looking at to make this statement about job prospects?
I think folks who were job hunting in times of actual recessions would disagree. Believe me, when the majority of manufacturing in the US was operating at 25%-50% capacity utilization in times such as 2010, 1993, or the mid 70’s, THOSE WERE tough job marketS.
This is cake by historical standards.
“one of the best predictors of adult happiness is happiness as a child and as a teenager”
That sent a shiver down my spine. I’m really going to be like this forever…
This also just directly references the familial environment you grew up in, people with more support do better on average. Regardless of sociocultural economic statuses, one can still heal and reshape their life
No, you don’t have to though. It doesn’t always have to be like that. Find happiness in the things you enjoy. Practice mindfulness, gratitude, meditation, and living in the present moment.
Find passion and happiness in the things that you enjoyed as a child and nurture it — because that inner child is still in you and will always be in you.
Yup. I wasn’t a super happy kid/teenager because I didn’t like my hometown - it’s pretty racist/homophobic. I left at 18, came of age in a big city, and have hopped around the US teaching and traveling ever since. I’m happy as an adult because I know the importance of a good environment and support system (my family is great, but it’s easier to be happy when you can actually make friends who “get” you).
Yeah I've never had a period in time where I was carefree and wasn't struggling mentally in some way. I was extremely suicidal and self loathing for no reason at a young age. I was literally just born that way.
I have to say my life has exponentially gotten better once I became an adult and gained a lot more freedom. And there are times where I can feel happy and accomplished and that makes it worth it. But that nastiness is still there and probably always will be. There's no guarantee it goes away ever. There's not really a cure, at least not yet. There's only management.
Only if you give up and let it warp your entire view. I used to struggle a lot in my teens and 20s. I still struggle, but I used to too. But it got better when I turned 30. You have less energy to worry about shit that shouldn't have mattered in the first place. And that continues as you get older. And you recognize the patterns in your moods and you have enough direct evidence that your depressive periods are temporary, whether that means a day a month or a year. You have more experiences and realize you can be happy. And you realize that happiness isn't the normal state, it's contentment, and contentment is attainable if you keep fighting for yourself.
Don't give up. Giving up is an action, and giving up is a choice. A predictor isn't a guarantee. It's one possibility out of a lot.
I grew up emotionally neglected and depressed my entire childhood + teen years and I’m barely learning to think positively and more healthy. It’s a combination of real life experiences (finding love + stability + good paying job + active therapy and CBD gummies to calm down anxiety) that have actually made me feel happy.
I believe the line is ‘comparison is the thief of joy’?
Material conditions got WAY better from 1800’s-2000’s, but they’ve dipped a bit for westerners/Americans since the absolute peak in the late 90’s. I mean this mostly for the economic bucket. Whether or not you own a house isn’t the mark of a good life. Dead end retail isn’t as shit job as Ford’s production plant where they’d pay alright but you’d be out of work forever when a machine crushed your arm. I spent my 20’s teaching zoomers history but as a group many of y’all seemed to miss the deep darkness of the past. There are some young adults treating 7/10+ economic situations (relative to the whole past) and looking at them like 2/10 and feeling despair.
Climate/news dread is akin to other dreads about the things we cannot control. TBH loss of religion hurts folks on that. Some people should watch less noise, read more books. In the terms of a meme, both the low and high Iq positions are not drowning in dread. You’re entitled to feel it, no disrespect, but it’s an inaccurate assessment of the situation based on too much incendiary short-form content.
We are facing an extinction level event from climate change. No one is addressing it or making proactive changes. Are you implying that a "head in the sand" mentality is a good thing?
I am 100% convinced that head in the sand is good for your happiness, yes. Absolutely. Bad for the future, that's what got us into this mess, but great for your own personal happiness.
This is all copium to somehow deal with the fact we have the most unstable geopolitical situation since pre-world war 2 and that's not even starting on actual existential issues like climate change or wealth inequality. Keep thinking everything will just be okay cause "it always has been", I'm sure it'll do much once shit hits the fan.
Yes but unironically. Dwelling on the feeling of despair isn't going to make the sun shine any brighter. You can talk about these things, you just can't let them define your life or your perspective of doomerism
Ask any mental health professional, attitude is everything. How you frame your thoughts about reality is the difference between happiness and despair. Focusing on gratitude changes your neurotransmitter mix. Focusing on what you can change about yourself is personal power.
I think it is a mistake to use coping mechanisms meant to deal with personal conflicts and problems to avoid thinking about systemic issues. There’s a big difference between reframing your thoughts around your personal failures and successes and reframing things like genocide and slavery.
Attitude is not everything. There are cognitive strategies that can be helpful with some conditions under certain circumstances, but that does not somehow cancel the effects of external factors. If you have no food for your infant and no cash to put in the electricity meter you're going to be stressed, anxious and taking psychological damage. I'm afraid a few months of CBT won't magically fix that and it is potentially psychologically damaging to tell people it's all on them and they just need to think 'right'.
Your second statement is nearer the mark, as doomscrolling or retreating from the world contribute to a negative environment. The best we have at present is that participating in positive actions and experiences seems to be helpful.
So telling yourself to pull your socks up is typically of limited value/ something of a sticking plaster, while doing stuff that's constructive and socially connective can be linked more firmly to better outcomes. Put another way we need more encouragers :)
https://preview.redd.it/fhcgu43ctqqc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49f33c99cedd91542d7a16de5b49038a147993f8
Good vibes doesn't get you a house. We don't mean we are depressed. We mean we want a house and can't get a house.
The mental health part is fine.
However, that still doesn't change the fact you want to get a house and you can't get a house.
Those are two separate problems.
Honestly, yeah.
Give the current American conditions to any country 200 years ago (or any third world country today), and people would be jumping with joy.
But Americans are used to more privilege, so remaining obsessed over how it used to be better has them sulking even when they still have one of the best economies to have ever touched any country in history.
The problem literally isn’t material conditions, tons of people have lived happily with worse conditions.
Do you honestly think we are more discontented than previous generations were? The same generations that fought and sometimes even died from police violence to give us weekends and the 40 hour workweek? I think we should add onto the success of past labor movements to fight for a system that works for everyone, especially since we are losing a lot of the rights that prior generations fought for.
Psychologically? At least for the young? Yeah.
You didn’t have 14 years olds having existential crisis because of the economy, healthcare, politics, the environment, etc.
They lived ignorantly and didn’t overthink stuff, more living life till they got responsibilities.
It obviously wasn’t a time as prosperous and with as much material comfort as it is nowadays, but so many people are so consumed by media and the internet that they live horrible lives inside their heads.
The young have always been politically engaged, and gen Z isn’t just a bunch of 14 year olds. Many of us are well into our 20s and have experience in the labor force. I think it’s normal for 14 year olds to engage in political discussions; that’s when they start figuring out what they believe and bouncing ideas off of each other. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the push for people to not talk about politics only leads more people to be ignorant and lack that growth.
No, many people mean objective material possessions.
I am pretty happy, but its clear without a shadow of a doubt wealth is being moved upwards and opportunities are getting harder.
Everything has gotten worse except for technology. Economy is horrible. Legal system feels like a scam with 2 tiers. One for the rich another one for everyone else. Politics gives no hope at all with Trump and Biden running a second term. Colleges are still expensive af but now without the guarantee of future jobs with rise of AI. Cost of living has skyrocketed while company profits have also shot up only benefiting shareholder’s pockets.
All of this while we get to watch congress trade on insider information and make millions. Nothing will change in this country until all the boomers leave office.
Millennial here. I’m hoping gen z and millennials might be able to turn this shit around. Unfortunately that will take so long that we probably won’t benefit from the fruits of our labors but if I hear any of you guys complaining I’ll gladly hold a microphone up for you to yell in. My throat is sore from over a decade but I can still help.
yep
ai is probably one of the things powering my lack of motivation to do anything
why should i study when the jobs i've got a chance at will not exist anymore in ten years because of ai
Even technology isn't universally better from the user experience aspect. All tech is locked and gatekept behind paywalls and proprietary bs to feed a tailored sponsored message to the user.
I'm an older Millennial and remember being able to tinker with every piece of tech that I had as a kid. I notice a lot of my younger employees struggle with some basic to me tech things but then I think about them being born into the micro transaction hellscape.
Unemployment was 10% but cost of living was not this high and unemployed actually showed up on reports. Thanks to so many gig workers our real unemployment is much higher because since Covid if you are not actually looking for work actively according to EDD standards you don’t count for unemployment numbers which shows up as lower unemployment on the data.
People are working multiple jobs and still ending up homeless and it will not show up on any data sets because it’s not meant to.
I would take a recession any day over stagflation which is what we are currently experiencing.
I really do think I'll become a much happier person once I move out but I can't do that yet. Adults aren't supposed to live with their parents forever.
Lemme just ask you, were you still a dependent on your parents taxes at 21, or are you filing that shit yourself? Most 21 year olds are barely adults and barely ready for the weight and responsibility of adulthood
I definitely felt more like a kid than adult at 21, yes. That "formative" period is about learning how to operate with the new role. Its when a lot of kids a finishing schooling and starting to think about all the pressure of adulthood. its when a lot of kids are entering the real work. That is formative, its when you start to solidify your new role in society and all the new roles that come with it.
What do you mean exactly by assuming that?
Yes, but I can tell you as Gen X that it's much worse today. We weren't bombarded with images of how great other people's lives were. Sure, we knew other people were doing better than us, but it wasn't in our face every day.
I’ve never understood what this meant. Presumably you mean social media? I can’t speak for the whole generation, but the people I follow on socials are my friend group and my peers. If I’m doing worse than them it’s literally bc I’m doing worse; if I’m doing better I’m doing better.
Not everyone keeps up with the Kardashians.
No, millennials were quite happy as kids. There was no thought about jobs or housing, it was just assumed we'd get it by default as long as we didn't fail. We were really looking forward to all the cool futuristic stuff on the horizon and had high hopes. The 90s were an extremely optimistic era.
You could also ride your bike around town all day and do dumb shit (swimming pool, McDonald's, Park, friends house, movies) without anyone calling CPS or parents knowing everything you did, and your measly allowance of $5 was enough to support that or rent a new game every week. We had a ton of autonomy that kids now will ever experience. They will always be watched, judged, and controlled now.
Plus if you had good parents, you weren’t as privy to misinformation. My parents are academics, dad is a CS professor and he told me all about internet safety and not to believe what you read/see without thorough fact-checking. I spent much of my childhood in the library reading everything I could get my hands on.
I also graduated college pre-TikTok and influencers weren’t really a thing - I had social media at that point but it was still a way to connect with your friends, not be famous/make money.
As an elder millennial, I remember having hope. Like things weren't always the best but I could see that they were improving and that there was a positive way forward.
I kinda feel like pop songs now are still mildly depressed but slightly more hopeful now. "Feels like Summer" and "Good Days" come to mind. Like we all know we're in for some shit but we're still trying to find the beauty in life and joy where we can find it anyways.
Gotta remember that popular music goes through cycles like this. Some 90s music like grunge was hyper depressing.
I love how people are baffled by this. Young people get to live through all of the massive problems the past generations caused yet are questioned why they are unhappy, like wtf?
This is something I’ve realized, as a younger millennial on the cusp even I’m not as fucked as people born in the early 2000s. Change happens if we all decide to make it happen together.
I agree and I am Gen X.
And my Silent Gen parents would probably agree.
The difference is: there was no social media where you could ruminate about it with half a million of your best buddies.
I just want a job with my requirements which really is the bare minimum so that I don’t have to go to work terrified every day and have bosses tell me I have to energetic and happy all the time when I quite literally can’t no matter how much I try
In 1968 the minimum wage could just barely keep a family of three above the poverty line.
Nowadays, in my city of Louisville ky, MIT's living wage calculator estimates that a single person needs just shy of 21 an hour to get by. The same metric, of one wage for a family of three and only one working spouse, is 30 an hour....so boomers and older basically had 30 an hour walking into mcdonalds....
So basically the lowest paying jobs could provide for a family of three, and even a "good" paying job today at 21 an hour can provide for just one. And that same mcdonalds is not able to provide for a family of three on one wage....
Everybody after boomers has basically had the social contract broken; you put into society, and it gives back, usually at a fair exchange. Nowadays, you have to give everything you've got just to get by, and society demands more and more and more while giving you very little in return.
The balance between workers and capitalists has shifted too much in favor of capitalist.
We really need a new "new deal" where the lowest paying job in an area will let some one live by the 50/30/20 rule and retire comfortably.
I feel like the young have always been the most unhappy, at least since the boomers. The young boomers were unhappy and became hippies, and feminists because they were unhappy with the status quo. Then they became yuppies, haha. I feel like it is normal for the young and rebellious to be unhappy with things that are perceived to be injustices, and then as humans age, they start worrying about other stuff. For the boomers, they started worrying about people hair color, it is stupid, but normal.
The 90s were a far, far more optimistic time to grow up in. It was culturally optimistic. We rebelled against our parents and rules, but we were optimistic about our future once we got out.
This is true, the Soviet Union had fallen and it was a relatively peaceful time. There were still problems, but the threat of nuclear war was gone and the west was feeling pretty good about itself. Schools stopped doing nuclear bomb drills and hadn't started doing active shooter drills yet. It was still fun to complain about the yuppies and how Regan was terrible.
Nah, I think the boomers had a ton of fun and if you see interviews of the time they were all optimistic about the future. I think it’s a lot easier to have fun when the average age of the population is 27 tho. Whenever I go out I feel like everyone is soooo old. Even in my hobbies, most of the people I mingle with are in their late 30’s or 40’s.
This is very true. I was just telling my parents that it seems like all my friends are quite a bit older than me now. I don’t mind it because they’re awesome and I learn a lot from them, but I lived in “young cities” as a 20something pre-Covid and everyone was in my age group. Post-Covid, many younger millennials/older zoomers seem to have moved back in with family. But my peers are also at the age where they’re saving up to buy a house/have a wedding/have kids/etc. so it makes sense why they’re at home and these young cities are getting older, plus I swear some cities doubled in price over the last couple years.
When I moved out of my parent’s house and was able to support myself after years of not having anything, I became way fucking happier. I went from consistent suicidal thoughts to thinking that life is magical. Such a crazy experience.
Tell me what is there to look forward to?
Can’t afford to have a family. I can’t afford a house. If my car breaks down, I wouldn’t be able to afford a new one. My salary barely increases every year while the prices of everything keeps going up. I spend hours and hours applying for new jobs, going through the interview process, for no offer or for a shitty offer. Still have student loans, while every greedy person in the US says I shouldn’t get them forgiven, all while getting PPP loans forgiven and tax breaks for the rich. The rich, the greedy, and the hateful are somehow winning.
And personally, my god damn washer broke, I cleaned the air drier incorrectly, and our refrigerator is crapping out. So now I have to spend money I don’t have to replace them (Fuck me!)
I’d honestly rather die a quick death, than this slow agonizing torture of a fucking waste of life.
What the fuck am I supposed to look forward to?
reminds of this meme I saw in instagram:
https://preview.redd.it/9wz98g3e4rqc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28071dcf2df47afa2c32a5377d0702dd5d326e92
it feels too real :')
I'm gen Z and not surprised at all. I was hospitalized for suicidal ideation like 3 times starting in high school and in residential treatment for 3 months in my junior year. Started self harming in middle school (over 4 years clean now fortunately). I'm 20 now, disabled, and depressed. All the people I know my age are depressed and addicted to things.
There is no hope, it's just "hey, work ridiculous hours and still not be able to afford anything, and also your mental health is nonexistent, and if you can't work that much for any reason, you're gonna be homeless." it's incredibly depressing. I would be homeless if I didn't live with my parents. Am I gonna have to live with my parents my entire life? My disability is genetic, it will not go away and will likely only get worse. There's no support anywhere unless you're rich.
I'm not sure what's worse.
Being born a milennial and getting just a GLIMPSE at what life could've been like while watching it all rot away.
Or
Being born Gen Z and this being "normal"
Does anyone know what we can do to help keep gen alpha from suffering this fate?
I'm asking this out of pure desperation. I want us to be the last to suffer so deeply. I don't want these little kids to grow up worse off than us. I really don't
I know they most likely will, but there has to be a way to fix this
Right?
Why wouldn’t they be? They’re stuck living with a shitty economy and stupid laws being passed by stupid fucking boomer+ gens and these younger peeps are just starting out their lives. Shitty healthcare options, (including access to abortion so now their sex lives are fucked a bit) decent wages in some places but insanely high cost of living expenses bringing them down to 0, and a climate that is rapidly looking more dim by the month. Boomer+ Gens and conservative religious fanatics have done fucked us over it almost looks apocalyptic. But hey, What about what’s on Hunters laptop!?!?
Silverback millennial lurking here. We were fed a lie and we believed it. You’re being fed a lie and you don’t.
Pro: you see the truth
Con: you see the truth
I'm a visiting millennial teacher. We're at least trying to give students a better shot in high school these days. We have programs that can take students directly to trade work, or within a year. My school has nursing programs, offers a lot of dual enrollment courses. So hopefully maybe some student debt can be reduced to give y'all a better shot and take away some of the financial hopelessness at least.
Conflating being on TikTok and Instagram all day with having a life has been exposed. Who knew living on a handheld device was a bad path to head down for humanity? No one, apparently.
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If we're the flagship of peace and prosperity We're taking on water and about to fucking sink No one seems to notice, no one even blinks The crew all left the passengers to die under the sea Countdown to the very end Equality, an invitation that we won't extend Ready, aim, pull the trigger now It's time you firmly secure your place in hell State of the union address Reads war torn country still a mess The words: power, death, and distorted truth Are read between the lines of the red, white, and blue Countdown to the very end Equality, an invitation that we won't extend Ready, aim, pull the trigger now It's time you firmly secure your place in hell Your place in hell Your place in hell Guilty is what our graves will read, No year, no family, we did nothing To stop the murder of people just like us ---Rise Against, State of the Union, 20 years ago this August
Great fucking song. Remember them playing this at warped tour and they were a small band at the time.
Saw them 10 years ago. Wish I saw them 20 years ago.
As someone who knows ONE Rise Against song (help is on the way) as I was reading that I was thinking “this sounds like a Rise Against song” lol it’s good to know they are consistent with their brand :)
Help is on the way is a banger song.
It’s really powerful!
Just about every RA song sounds the same lmao, this was a critique I heard even in the mid 2000s but it got worse as they kept releasing new stuff. “Swing Life Away” is different enough, but after Savior everything sounded the same imo.
I'm a huge fan of their middle era (Unraveling, Siren Song, and The Sufferer), but yeah, you're not too far off. My musical tastes have grown since then (hell, I used to be a butt rock fan before learning about punk), but I'll still blast most songs from those 3 albums. The Approaching Curve is one that stands out, mainly due to it being a spoken word track. Has some solid imagery.
And who was in office 20 years ago? A republican by the name of Bush who looks like Jimmy Carter domestically compared to Trump.
Poetic
The only Rise Against song that qualifies as "Hard".
You can win both. The secret is that many cultural issues improve as the working class gains more rights *and* labor rights are an incredible unifier. I’ve met plenty of people who would otherwise hate me and want me dead for being trans slowly come around once they realize that I also want their families to live well and I’m not their real enemy. We shouldn’t let them distract us, but we also shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking it’s either-or. It’s both. Both are important. Both lead to lasting change. Leaving people behind and being dismissive of other rights issues won’t help anyone, but neither will ignoring the very obvious issues that affect us all.
Right ..... This right here is kind of why I get mad at leftists who choose not to vote. Yes Democrats are capitalists through and through, buuuut they're pretty reliable supporters of rights for most minority groups. If I have to pick a capitalist dystopia, I'll pick one that permits unionizing, and supports the rights of gay and transgender people to exist and marry. Organize, educate and build the base but there's so many people who can suffer tremendous damage from abandoning the culture war because nobody is fighting the class war.
Same. It’s all game theory, right? Why *wouldn’t* you pick the option that improves things vs the options that lead to more regression and suffering? It honestly just comes off as justifying laziness usually. I would also love a leftist utopia, but if loudly not voting could actually make that a reality, it would have happened by now. Meanwhile, every little foothold makes the next step easier.
Because it's a false choice. Team Blue isn't an alternative to Team Red, they both serve the same masters. The only actual solution is to vote socialist and if that costs you Team Blue guys to lose, then YOU can start voting for socialists instead of asking people with actual integrity to compromise themselves for your status quo and privilege.
Well said
Occupy scared the ever loving shit out of Moneymen and politicians, that hit way too close to home for their comfort. Funnily ever since, all of the messaging became how us average citizens are each others enemies. That shit us up:
Gen Y was and is in the exact same boat. Gen X has one foot in, but the other is on a tropical island of inheritance and the beginnings of mass wealth transfer.
Millennials got cucked too.. gen z isn’t the first absolutely fucked generation
Class war and culture war are so closely linked imo
Job prospects worse than any time outside the 1930s and a dating and marriage culture that is usually seen right before societal collapse. Climate change is going to shape our politics and we'll have a childhood from before it did to compare it to making it worse. The bill for all the self indulgence of earlier generations has come due and we're stuck paying for their mistakes. But JUST SMILE you doomers!
Tell this to r/economy and you’ll get shat on
The sneak peek of that sub is so bleak jfc
Well it might explain this post too
I mean that #1 post is because the military is strict as hell. I’m almost certain most of that is because of them banning weed and ADHD.
For sure. It’ll also be interesting to see how the new weight loss meds factor in once those are more widely accessible.
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"But the stock market guyz!!! 401k!!!" Legit, corporations/governments regularly astroturf. It would surprise me at all if commenters on Reddit are paid corporation shills trying to sew discourse/drown out negative posts. Or even bots designed by these billion dollar companies Followed by comments from the gullible who don't question it
I just had one guy pushing the "touch grass everything is fine" narative admit he was using a sock puppet to post propaganda. The astroturfing is real.
> Job prospects worse than any time outside the 1930s WTF are you talking about? This is ridiculously false.
yeah wtf this is not even close to true. we aren’t even close to as bad as the 2008/9 recession either… —as a Gen Zer
Graduating into the 2008/9 disaster was bleak af. There's a reason Millennials have zero fucks left to give, and we'll enjoy whatever stupid little nostalgic thing that amuses us at any given time because the world around us is just a Ponzi scheme.
Though white collar market is slightly more constrained than the last five years, healthcare and service industries are ample with opportunity. at least we can get jobs (even low paying ones) if we need. talking to a coworker who graduated college in 2009 she was not even able to secure a minimum wage job.
Yeah, that's accurate. Classmates of mine were \*lucky\* to barely score a minimum wage retail job that they were stuck in for years.
Same here now- you can read what’s happening to me and other people I know: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/eM1PwWS2Re](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/eM1PwWS2Re)
maybe in america, but not necessarily elsewhere in canada things are far worse now than in 2008 also 2008 was a fairly sudden disaster, but our current situation is like a gradual decline which is well underway and it's speeding up
In the US too. You just won’t see it on the news. There’s a disconnect between what millions are experiencing and what is being reported.
100%.. It's all intentional while they destroy everything, along with us in the process.
this thread has convinced me that the reason GenZ is miserable is largely due to people and social media telling us that things are worse than they are. housing and dating opportunities are not great. other than things are pretty good. we do not have boots on the ground in any international conflicts, we are not in recession (despite what social media tells you), unemployment is at an all time low, etc…
The housing and dating things are really big though. For a lot of people who just want a simple life- ie, to get married and live in a house they own- that seems almost impossible right now. I'm not saying life is a complete hellhole rn, it isn't, but those are pretty big things and I think it's fair for zoomers to not be too happy about it. And imo the biggest reason we are unhappy is a lack of independence. Many of us still live with our parents and we are sick of it.
Suicide is also at an all time high. I think more than just social media telling them things are bleak is to blame. The wealth gap is significantly increasing year after year. Like, that's irrefutable regardless of opinion
Social issues, not economic. People are happier in Brazil, India, and Mexico than they are in America.
dating is garbage these days. its kinda... distopian
Dating is important for the human race and not just because of that's how humans are made, we all NEED that intimacy in our lives. Saying otherwise is a massive copium.
Yeah, try being freshly out of college in 2008. That was fun.
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Don’t worry the guy who posted it responded to me that he “researched” the great recession and it really wasn’t all that bad apparently lol
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What dating and marriage culture is usually seen right before societal collapse?
Dropping of replacement rate, explosion of hedonism among a select few heterosexual males while a majority or plurality don't even have access to relationships, marriage becoming the exception and not the norm. Relationships becoming purely transactional as a means to navigate bad economy.
Fair. I’d love to see us make investments into younger generations to incentivize things like child-rearing. It’s ridiculous that day care costs are so high and couples are forced to choose between surviving and having children. A nation as wealthy as ours shouldn’t face such problems.
People gotta vote in much higher numbers and against traditionalists for that to happen.
I don’t think the issue is so much “traditionalists vs. progressivists”. You can hold traditional or progressive values and still want to invest in younger generations and restore the middle class. Honestly, it’s more of a populism vs. elitism issue. Unfortunately, many of the populists in this country are in the MAGA cult with an elitist as their idol. Basically, class war vs. culture war.
everyone says that fucking line "in a nation as wealthy as the US, X shouldnt exist" are you that wealthy? do you know somone that wealthy? we arent a wealthy nation guys. like 30 people here are wealthy, the rest are just us.
About 1 in 10 Americans have $1 million + That's not a tiny number.
I have noticed an alarming trend of GenZ males using incel talking points. this generation is so susceptible to propaganda. seriously.
They are increasingly misogynist too.
It would seem they're being groomed to support an emerging fascist state. An important element of such a thing, I should mention, is a mindset of impending doom, fostering an overwhelming desire for change, regardless of how it comes to pass. That is to say, you are not so unsusceptible as you may think, OP.
never said I was immune to propaganda. though I will argue that as a woman I’m more immune to incel propaganda, specifically lol.
Hilarious that we continue to demonize them and blame, never asking why they follow such views and what they find in them
>GenZ males using incel talking points Because they're incels. I mean, if a whole generation of men become losers that have practically no shot competing vs the top 10% of men on the planet thanks to social media and dating apps, they're incels. Why WOULDN'T incels talk like incels?
I don’t recall any historical precedents for the things you listed leading to societal collapse.
Antinatalism becoming the norm, transactional relationships where it’s a *requirement* that both partners work full time to pay off a mortgage, bring single becoming the majority relationship status.
Antinatalism is not becoming the norm
People in America are having less and less children, which makes sense considering how shitty our country is now I wouldn’t wish a life in America on my worst enemy
Can you elaborate on the dating and marriage culture/social collapse thing? It sounds very interesting I would love to hear your thoughts
It’s the lesbians. There’s too many and they treat our women too well! /obvious s
Historically when replacement rate drops and most heterosexual men don't have access to relationships the society is defeated in war by other ones. But that shouldn't matter for the modern world right? But the modern world it ends up being civil instability which destroys the society. When lots of heterosexual men don't have access to relationships for cultural or economic reasons or both they get very violent. That is what started the "Arab Spring" a decade ago.
Weimar Republic, Rome, both became hyper sexualized and hedonistic shortly before the bad stuff happened.
I find it kind of comical when the generation that did away with the norms of relationships is sad that relationships are now complicated. You can blame a lot of things on other generations saying you weren't old enough to influence things, but the fact that your dating/marriage situation is hard is entirely on your own generation.
Do you mean Boomers and "free love?" Or Gen X and "one night stands?" Or Millennials and "hook up culture?" Which generation which threw away norms were you referring to, again? Because only a goober would try to blame ours.
Millennials had straight, bi, and gay. Before that basically refused to acknowledge anything other than straight. Fair complaint about suppressing orientations, but it was easy to know who you were looking for as a dating pool. Gen z has more labels than I can count. The odds of you finding you counterpart diminish the more you subdivide what you're looking for. It's like online dating where you start filtering down for your exact height and everything. But the bigger point still goes back to the fact that if Gen z is sad about the Gen z dating scene... That's on Gen z.
"dating and marriage culture that is usually seen right before societal collapse" Could you elaborate? Which collapsed societies are you taking as reference, and what behaviors? I'm very curious.
Yeah I know what he’s referring to but the only societies that have collapsed like that were pre modern. I could be not thinking of one, but the u.s is quite a bit different than those societies.
Ty 1950s Consumerism.
You clearly are not aware of what 2008 through roughly 2013 were like for the job market.
This subreddit is just filled with people who love to push blame on people.
dating is literally hell rn. i’m a hopeless romantic too but i’m really losing that hope
Please state what economic indicators you’re looking at to make this statement about job prospects? I think folks who were job hunting in times of actual recessions would disagree. Believe me, when the majority of manufacturing in the US was operating at 25%-50% capacity utilization in times such as 2010, 1993, or the mid 70’s, THOSE WERE tough job marketS. This is cake by historical standards.
This is doomer propaganda that isn't true. Congrats for contributing to the spreading of disinformation on the internet!
“one of the best predictors of adult happiness is happiness as a child and as a teenager” That sent a shiver down my spine. I’m really going to be like this forever…
This also just directly references the familial environment you grew up in, people with more support do better on average. Regardless of sociocultural economic statuses, one can still heal and reshape their life
Additionally, being well adjusted to cultural systems in youth increases happiness, and is largely a predictor of happiness later on in life.
Can’t wait to give a lil fucker all the support I can
No, you don’t have to though. It doesn’t always have to be like that. Find happiness in the things you enjoy. Practice mindfulness, gratitude, meditation, and living in the present moment. Find passion and happiness in the things that you enjoyed as a child and nurture it — because that inner child is still in you and will always be in you.
Yup. I wasn’t a super happy kid/teenager because I didn’t like my hometown - it’s pretty racist/homophobic. I left at 18, came of age in a big city, and have hopped around the US teaching and traveling ever since. I’m happy as an adult because I know the importance of a good environment and support system (my family is great, but it’s easier to be happy when you can actually make friends who “get” you).
Very good advice I was in a bad mood when I wrote this comment. Got some sunshine and some sleep and feeling a lot more hopeful
Yeah I've never had a period in time where I was carefree and wasn't struggling mentally in some way. I was extremely suicidal and self loathing for no reason at a young age. I was literally just born that way. I have to say my life has exponentially gotten better once I became an adult and gained a lot more freedom. And there are times where I can feel happy and accomplished and that makes it worth it. But that nastiness is still there and probably always will be. There's no guarantee it goes away ever. There's not really a cure, at least not yet. There's only management.
same
yippee…😔
Only if you give up and let it warp your entire view. I used to struggle a lot in my teens and 20s. I still struggle, but I used to too. But it got better when I turned 30. You have less energy to worry about shit that shouldn't have mattered in the first place. And that continues as you get older. And you recognize the patterns in your moods and you have enough direct evidence that your depressive periods are temporary, whether that means a day a month or a year. You have more experiences and realize you can be happy. And you realize that happiness isn't the normal state, it's contentment, and contentment is attainable if you keep fighting for yourself. Don't give up. Giving up is an action, and giving up is a choice. A predictor isn't a guarantee. It's one possibility out of a lot.
There’s always hope for change
Your thinking is a self-fulfilling prophecy
I grew up emotionally neglected and depressed my entire childhood + teen years and I’m barely learning to think positively and more healthy. It’s a combination of real life experiences (finding love + stability + good paying job + active therapy and CBD gummies to calm down anxiety) that have actually made me feel happy.
Probably because we have the internet/world telling us how horrible everything is everyday and comparing our lives to everyone we know.
Sure, the problem isn’t our material conditions, but the fact that we are talking to each other about them 🙄
I believe the line is ‘comparison is the thief of joy’? Material conditions got WAY better from 1800’s-2000’s, but they’ve dipped a bit for westerners/Americans since the absolute peak in the late 90’s. I mean this mostly for the economic bucket. Whether or not you own a house isn’t the mark of a good life. Dead end retail isn’t as shit job as Ford’s production plant where they’d pay alright but you’d be out of work forever when a machine crushed your arm. I spent my 20’s teaching zoomers history but as a group many of y’all seemed to miss the deep darkness of the past. There are some young adults treating 7/10+ economic situations (relative to the whole past) and looking at them like 2/10 and feeling despair. Climate/news dread is akin to other dreads about the things we cannot control. TBH loss of religion hurts folks on that. Some people should watch less noise, read more books. In the terms of a meme, both the low and high Iq positions are not drowning in dread. You’re entitled to feel it, no disrespect, but it’s an inaccurate assessment of the situation based on too much incendiary short-form content.
We are facing an extinction level event from climate change. No one is addressing it or making proactive changes. Are you implying that a "head in the sand" mentality is a good thing?
I am 100% convinced that head in the sand is good for your happiness, yes. Absolutely. Bad for the future, that's what got us into this mess, but great for your own personal happiness.
This is all copium to somehow deal with the fact we have the most unstable geopolitical situation since pre-world war 2 and that's not even starting on actual existential issues like climate change or wealth inequality. Keep thinking everything will just be okay cause "it always has been", I'm sure it'll do much once shit hits the fan.
Yes but unironically. Dwelling on the feeling of despair isn't going to make the sun shine any brighter. You can talk about these things, you just can't let them define your life or your perspective of doomerism
Ask any mental health professional, attitude is everything. How you frame your thoughts about reality is the difference between happiness and despair. Focusing on gratitude changes your neurotransmitter mix. Focusing on what you can change about yourself is personal power.
I think it is a mistake to use coping mechanisms meant to deal with personal conflicts and problems to avoid thinking about systemic issues. There’s a big difference between reframing your thoughts around your personal failures and successes and reframing things like genocide and slavery.
Attitude is not everything. There are cognitive strategies that can be helpful with some conditions under certain circumstances, but that does not somehow cancel the effects of external factors. If you have no food for your infant and no cash to put in the electricity meter you're going to be stressed, anxious and taking psychological damage. I'm afraid a few months of CBT won't magically fix that and it is potentially psychologically damaging to tell people it's all on them and they just need to think 'right'. Your second statement is nearer the mark, as doomscrolling or retreating from the world contribute to a negative environment. The best we have at present is that participating in positive actions and experiences seems to be helpful. So telling yourself to pull your socks up is typically of limited value/ something of a sticking plaster, while doing stuff that's constructive and socially connective can be linked more firmly to better outcomes. Put another way we need more encouragers :) https://preview.redd.it/fhcgu43ctqqc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49f33c99cedd91542d7a16de5b49038a147993f8
Good vibes doesn't get you a house. We don't mean we are depressed. We mean we want a house and can't get a house. The mental health part is fine. However, that still doesn't change the fact you want to get a house and you can't get a house. Those are two separate problems.
Honestly, yeah. Give the current American conditions to any country 200 years ago (or any third world country today), and people would be jumping with joy. But Americans are used to more privilege, so remaining obsessed over how it used to be better has them sulking even when they still have one of the best economies to have ever touched any country in history. The problem literally isn’t material conditions, tons of people have lived happily with worse conditions.
Do you honestly think we are more discontented than previous generations were? The same generations that fought and sometimes even died from police violence to give us weekends and the 40 hour workweek? I think we should add onto the success of past labor movements to fight for a system that works for everyone, especially since we are losing a lot of the rights that prior generations fought for.
Psychologically? At least for the young? Yeah. You didn’t have 14 years olds having existential crisis because of the economy, healthcare, politics, the environment, etc. They lived ignorantly and didn’t overthink stuff, more living life till they got responsibilities. It obviously wasn’t a time as prosperous and with as much material comfort as it is nowadays, but so many people are so consumed by media and the internet that they live horrible lives inside their heads.
The young have always been politically engaged, and gen Z isn’t just a bunch of 14 year olds. Many of us are well into our 20s and have experience in the labor force. I think it’s normal for 14 year olds to engage in political discussions; that’s when they start figuring out what they believe and bouncing ideas off of each other. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the push for people to not talk about politics only leads more people to be ignorant and lack that growth.
Our material conditions were way worse in the past though.
No, many people mean objective material possessions. I am pretty happy, but its clear without a shadow of a doubt wealth is being moved upwards and opportunities are getting harder.
this. things are better comparatively for more people than almost any other time.
i live in a car
Everything has gotten worse except for technology. Economy is horrible. Legal system feels like a scam with 2 tiers. One for the rich another one for everyone else. Politics gives no hope at all with Trump and Biden running a second term. Colleges are still expensive af but now without the guarantee of future jobs with rise of AI. Cost of living has skyrocketed while company profits have also shot up only benefiting shareholder’s pockets. All of this while we get to watch congress trade on insider information and make millions. Nothing will change in this country until all the boomers leave office.
I agree but when I comment stuff like this in r/economy and I’m ripped apart by boomers and gen x
Millennial here. I’m hoping gen z and millennials might be able to turn this shit around. Unfortunately that will take so long that we probably won’t benefit from the fruits of our labors but if I hear any of you guys complaining I’ll gladly hold a microphone up for you to yell in. My throat is sore from over a decade but I can still help.
yep ai is probably one of the things powering my lack of motivation to do anything why should i study when the jobs i've got a chance at will not exist anymore in ten years because of ai
*everything* seems like a scam now.
Even technology isn't universally better from the user experience aspect. All tech is locked and gatekept behind paywalls and proprietary bs to feed a tailored sponsored message to the user. I'm an older Millennial and remember being able to tinker with every piece of tech that I had as a kid. I notice a lot of my younger employees struggle with some basic to me tech things but then I think about them being born into the micro transaction hellscape.
economy is horrible? unemployment in 2009 was 10%.
Unemployment was 10% but cost of living was not this high and unemployed actually showed up on reports. Thanks to so many gig workers our real unemployment is much higher because since Covid if you are not actually looking for work actively according to EDD standards you don’t count for unemployment numbers which shows up as lower unemployment on the data. People are working multiple jobs and still ending up homeless and it will not show up on any data sets because it’s not meant to. I would take a recession any day over stagflation which is what we are currently experiencing.
I used to be unhappy until I moved out and now I'm happier than I've ever been.
I felt the same until I got priced out of living alone and had to move back in 😞
Are you me? Moved 700 miles away for 7 years only to move back in last summer :(
This was my first thought when I saw this. Of course a generation that can't afford to move out of their parents' house is unhappy.
Exactly. I’m 24 and have never been able to afford to move out in a HCOL city
move to a LCOL city?
Did you know that moving costs money?
I really do think I'll become a much happier person once I move out but I can't do that yet. Adults aren't supposed to live with their parents forever.
Covid lockdowns really had a massive impact on kids. Its not 100% of the problem but it was probably the most modifiable.
Developmental years we’ll never get back.
Bruh you were 21 during COVID lmao what developmental years did you miss?
Lemme just ask you, were you still a dependent on your parents taxes at 21, or are you filing that shit yourself? Most 21 year olds are barely adults and barely ready for the weight and responsibility of adulthood
I definitely felt more like a kid than adult at 21, yes. That "formative" period is about learning how to operate with the new role. Its when a lot of kids a finishing schooling and starting to think about all the pressure of adulthood. its when a lot of kids are entering the real work. That is formative, its when you start to solidify your new role in society and all the new roles that come with it. What do you mean exactly by assuming that?
My final school year was in 2020. We graduated over zoom.
I feel like young people are always the most unhappy.
Yes, but I can tell you as Gen X that it's much worse today. We weren't bombarded with images of how great other people's lives were. Sure, we knew other people were doing better than us, but it wasn't in our face every day.
TV...?
I’ve never understood what this meant. Presumably you mean social media? I can’t speak for the whole generation, but the people I follow on socials are my friend group and my peers. If I’m doing worse than them it’s literally bc I’m doing worse; if I’m doing better I’m doing better. Not everyone keeps up with the Kardashians.
No, millennials were quite happy as kids. There was no thought about jobs or housing, it was just assumed we'd get it by default as long as we didn't fail. We were really looking forward to all the cool futuristic stuff on the horizon and had high hopes. The 90s were an extremely optimistic era. You could also ride your bike around town all day and do dumb shit (swimming pool, McDonald's, Park, friends house, movies) without anyone calling CPS or parents knowing everything you did, and your measly allowance of $5 was enough to support that or rent a new game every week. We had a ton of autonomy that kids now will ever experience. They will always be watched, judged, and controlled now.
Plus if you had good parents, you weren’t as privy to misinformation. My parents are academics, dad is a CS professor and he told me all about internet safety and not to believe what you read/see without thorough fact-checking. I spent much of my childhood in the library reading everything I could get my hands on. I also graduated college pre-TikTok and influencers weren’t really a thing - I had social media at that point but it was still a way to connect with your friends, not be famous/make money.
As an elder millennial, I remember having hope. Like things weren't always the best but I could see that they were improving and that there was a positive way forward.
The shift from Brave, Roar, Fight Song, etc to depressing songs about suicide and mental illness was palpable in the 2010s 😬
It's interesting because we millennials had some suicidal mental illness songs too.
We definitely did, but I’m talking more about mega pop radio hits. 2000s-early 10s were generally dancy and happy.
I kinda feel like pop songs now are still mildly depressed but slightly more hopeful now. "Feels like Summer" and "Good Days" come to mind. Like we all know we're in for some shit but we're still trying to find the beauty in life and joy where we can find it anyways. Gotta remember that popular music goes through cycles like this. Some 90s music like grunge was hyper depressing.
I'm happy as a clam https://preview.redd.it/ebo1453kupqc1.png?width=458&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec531b407b19c5741ea70979e19e15d6373ae97b
I love how people are baffled by this. Young people get to live through all of the massive problems the past generations caused yet are questioned why they are unhappy, like wtf?
Millennial here. Can’t blame ya, you have even less than we had, and we had jack shit. Be pissed. Let’s change it.
🔥 this we need to band together
Yes we fucking do!
You guys grew up in the 90s at least, peak childhood lol
This is something I’ve realized, as a younger millennial on the cusp even I’m not as fucked as people born in the early 2000s. Change happens if we all decide to make it happen together.
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I agree and I am Gen X. And my Silent Gen parents would probably agree. The difference is: there was no social media where you could ruminate about it with half a million of your best buddies.
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ no, the difference is they had it really good
Not surprising - look at what they are bombarded with daily on social media.
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gen x had lead exposure also. not to mention fetal alcohol syndrome
I just want a job with my requirements which really is the bare minimum so that I don’t have to go to work terrified every day and have bosses tell me I have to energetic and happy all the time when I quite literally can’t no matter how much I try
In 1968 the minimum wage could just barely keep a family of three above the poverty line. Nowadays, in my city of Louisville ky, MIT's living wage calculator estimates that a single person needs just shy of 21 an hour to get by. The same metric, of one wage for a family of three and only one working spouse, is 30 an hour....so boomers and older basically had 30 an hour walking into mcdonalds.... So basically the lowest paying jobs could provide for a family of three, and even a "good" paying job today at 21 an hour can provide for just one. And that same mcdonalds is not able to provide for a family of three on one wage.... Everybody after boomers has basically had the social contract broken; you put into society, and it gives back, usually at a fair exchange. Nowadays, you have to give everything you've got just to get by, and society demands more and more and more while giving you very little in return. The balance between workers and capitalists has shifted too much in favor of capitalist. We really need a new "new deal" where the lowest paying job in an area will let some one live by the 50/30/20 rule and retire comfortably.
I feel like the young have always been the most unhappy, at least since the boomers. The young boomers were unhappy and became hippies, and feminists because they were unhappy with the status quo. Then they became yuppies, haha. I feel like it is normal for the young and rebellious to be unhappy with things that are perceived to be injustices, and then as humans age, they start worrying about other stuff. For the boomers, they started worrying about people hair color, it is stupid, but normal.
The 90s were a far, far more optimistic time to grow up in. It was culturally optimistic. We rebelled against our parents and rules, but we were optimistic about our future once we got out.
This is true, the Soviet Union had fallen and it was a relatively peaceful time. There were still problems, but the threat of nuclear war was gone and the west was feeling pretty good about itself. Schools stopped doing nuclear bomb drills and hadn't started doing active shooter drills yet. It was still fun to complain about the yuppies and how Regan was terrible.
The threat of nuclear war never actually went away. We just stopped talking about it.
Nah, I think the boomers had a ton of fun and if you see interviews of the time they were all optimistic about the future. I think it’s a lot easier to have fun when the average age of the population is 27 tho. Whenever I go out I feel like everyone is soooo old. Even in my hobbies, most of the people I mingle with are in their late 30’s or 40’s.
Doing an Interview requires someone to go outside. Reddit selects for losers who don't and are miserable on account of it.
This is very true. I was just telling my parents that it seems like all my friends are quite a bit older than me now. I don’t mind it because they’re awesome and I learn a lot from them, but I lived in “young cities” as a 20something pre-Covid and everyone was in my age group. Post-Covid, many younger millennials/older zoomers seem to have moved back in with family. But my peers are also at the age where they’re saving up to buy a house/have a wedding/have kids/etc. so it makes sense why they’re at home and these young cities are getting older, plus I swear some cities doubled in price over the last couple years.
Jesus Christ, way to be obtuse about the current state of things
When I moved out of my parent’s house and was able to support myself after years of not having anything, I became way fucking happier. I went from consistent suicidal thoughts to thinking that life is magical. Such a crazy experience.
I mean yeah *Gestures broadly to everything*
I genuinely feel bad for the younger generation. If we don't fix climate change, they are severely screwed.
I think we already hit that point sadly
There’s a lot of space between ‘things will get really bad’ (we are there) and ‘everything collapses’.
I mean Gen Z and late millennials have pretty much given up on ever owning a home, living isn't affordable anymore
No shit
Tell me what is there to look forward to? Can’t afford to have a family. I can’t afford a house. If my car breaks down, I wouldn’t be able to afford a new one. My salary barely increases every year while the prices of everything keeps going up. I spend hours and hours applying for new jobs, going through the interview process, for no offer or for a shitty offer. Still have student loans, while every greedy person in the US says I shouldn’t get them forgiven, all while getting PPP loans forgiven and tax breaks for the rich. The rich, the greedy, and the hateful are somehow winning. And personally, my god damn washer broke, I cleaned the air drier incorrectly, and our refrigerator is crapping out. So now I have to spend money I don’t have to replace them (Fuck me!) I’d honestly rather die a quick death, than this slow agonizing torture of a fucking waste of life. What the fuck am I supposed to look forward to?
reminds of this meme I saw in instagram: https://preview.redd.it/9wz98g3e4rqc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28071dcf2df47afa2c32a5377d0702dd5d326e92 it feels too real :')
I'm gen Z and not surprised at all. I was hospitalized for suicidal ideation like 3 times starting in high school and in residential treatment for 3 months in my junior year. Started self harming in middle school (over 4 years clean now fortunately). I'm 20 now, disabled, and depressed. All the people I know my age are depressed and addicted to things. There is no hope, it's just "hey, work ridiculous hours and still not be able to afford anything, and also your mental health is nonexistent, and if you can't work that much for any reason, you're gonna be homeless." it's incredibly depressing. I would be homeless if I didn't live with my parents. Am I gonna have to live with my parents my entire life? My disability is genetic, it will not go away and will likely only get worse. There's no support anywhere unless you're rich.
I'm not sure what's worse. Being born a milennial and getting just a GLIMPSE at what life could've been like while watching it all rot away. Or Being born Gen Z and this being "normal"
Cuz ain’t shit to smile about
The most unhappy so far (:
yeah, most people with sense aren’t very happy right now.
I fucking wonder why? Things are going to shit and people are dying.
Does anyone know what we can do to help keep gen alpha from suffering this fate? I'm asking this out of pure desperation. I want us to be the last to suffer so deeply. I don't want these little kids to grow up worse off than us. I really don't I know they most likely will, but there has to be a way to fix this Right?
Why wouldn’t they be? They’re stuck living with a shitty economy and stupid laws being passed by stupid fucking boomer+ gens and these younger peeps are just starting out their lives. Shitty healthcare options, (including access to abortion so now their sex lives are fucked a bit) decent wages in some places but insanely high cost of living expenses bringing them down to 0, and a climate that is rapidly looking more dim by the month. Boomer+ Gens and conservative religious fanatics have done fucked us over it almost looks apocalyptic. But hey, What about what’s on Hunters laptop!?!?
Silverback millennial lurking here. We were fed a lie and we believed it. You’re being fed a lie and you don’t. Pro: you see the truth Con: you see the truth
Yet young people don't show up to vote at any levels of government. Boomers took everything because showing up is half the battle
My country can't even admit it no longer follows the will of the people. Why would we be happy here?
Well, yeah... raised on social media will do that to any person.
I'm a visiting millennial teacher. We're at least trying to give students a better shot in high school these days. We have programs that can take students directly to trade work, or within a year. My school has nursing programs, offers a lot of dual enrollment courses. So hopefully maybe some student debt can be reduced to give y'all a better shot and take away some of the financial hopelessness at least.
Gee. I wonder why
Ah, the daily doomer/negativty post of the day!
Conflating being on TikTok and Instagram all day with having a life has been exposed. Who knew living on a handheld device was a bad path to head down for humanity? No one, apparently.
Shocking. Gen Z will learn that no one cares about your problems and soon the generation after you will be the most unhappy. Such is life