As a millennial, I always used to roll my eyes when my older brother’s generation would judge people like me for our “backward” thought processes. We were the generation that pushed the idea of “work-life balance.” We helped dissolve many of the societal norms of the past in favor of technological advances.
However, now that a new generation has taken the reins from the millennials on cultural shifts, I am now the crusty older generation griping at the foolishness of the upcoming crew. The difference is this new generation is literally ruining everything.
From gentle parenting, ruining Santa, and the return of low-rise jeans, Generation Z keeps destroying our country one social media post at a time.
But it’s not just annoyance. Rather, the views of these Zoomers on classic American values have now surpassed annoyance into the realm of actual danger.
“The steady erosion of free speech values is generational. Today’s young people are far more censorious than those of 1980 or even 2000, and they won’t grow out of it. While Zoomers are scared of being cancelled, they accept this risk as part of their political ideology.” pic.twitter.com/Psj6TwThBu
— Jake (@omni_american) May 3, 2023
Just Keep Your Mouth Shut
The Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology found that over 50% of 18 to 25-year-olds agree with the below statement:
“My fear of losing my job or reputation due to something I said or posted online is a justified price to pay to protect historically disadvantaged groups.”
Compare that alarming number to the below age groups:
over 40% of those aged 26 – 30 years old agree
over 30% of those aged 31 – 50 years old agree
over 20% of those aged 51 – 60 years old agree
over 10% of those over the age of 61 agree
I was just fired from a $400,000 a year job for standing up for women and white people. My full story will be coming out soon…
— Derek Imig (@ImigDerek) May 3, 2023
As the wheel of time ticks along, each generation has become increasingly more accepting of self-censorship in the name of making others “comfortable.” It’s amazing how just about every demographic is protected from adverse actions taken against them with their employment. Still, you’re fair game if you differ from the left-wing progressives.
While we may exist in the brave new world of the 2020s, our society has adopted the same themes from George Orwell’s 1984.
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Taught To Comply
Like most plagues upon society, this approval of “thought crimes” is spawned from the institutions that teach our future leaders. For example, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently published a study that one in four higher education faculty members self-censor.
That’s 25% of professors who hold back on what they teach, research, say, and write. Compare that to 9% of faculty who reported the same during the Second Red Scare.
For those who went to public school, the Second Red Scare was the time during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for communists (which he was right about.) The same study found that 42% of conservative students also self-censor.
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Universities and the college experience used to be a haven for radical ideas, vibrant debate, and the acceptance of open expression. Those times have long passed; now, these institutions are meant for molding compliance and snuffing dissent.
It’s no wonder these same graduates enter the workforce and see no real issue with being forced to silence their views in favor of making the ruling class comfortable. You have no reason to think differently when you are taught that control by fear is better than a free, independent society.
2/ Are you a student journalist facing censorship? FIRE has your back. Our Student Press Freedom Initiative advocates for the rights of student journalists at colleges and universities across the country.
Call 717-734-7734 for resources and answers to your legal questions.
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) May 3, 2023
Student Tyrants
Thanks to the backing of progressive administrators and the mob culture surrounding social media, progressive students now rule the campus. In 2020 FIRE found that eight in ten undergraduates at 150 leading colleges believe guest speakers who say Black Lives Matter is a hate group or transgenderism is a mental disorder should be barred from speaking on campus.
And when the little commies speak, even University President’s jump. Take a look at this email from no less a glitzy institution than Northwesterns’ President, after conservative James Lindsay was supposed to give a speech on campus:
There’s no other way to put it. @NorthwesternU should be ashamed of itself, expect a lawsuit, and should sanction or disband the NU ASG for this egregious bias. They’re likely to be complicit, however, and deserve to be sued. Their graduates will suffer from their failures, tho. pic.twitter.com/DUxZmqURSm
— James Lindsay, Darth Lindsay (@ConceptualJames) May 4, 2023
Additionally, seven in ten students believe professors who say something that offends the delicate sensibilities of a student should be reported to administrators. These dictatorial little Zoomers have managed to drape academics in a cloak of fear, silencing those who would push them to think outside the box and critically think about the world they live in.
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FIRE found that 72% of conservative professors are concerned about losing their jobs or suffering some sort of cancellation over their views. Even more chilling, 30% reported being pressured to avoid controversial topics in their lectures and research.
This sort of action doesn’t just rob students of valuable debate. It also stifles essential research that is often used to better society at large.
.@StanfordLaw students reframing a preplanned shout down of a speaking engagement by a visiting judge as just their free speech are shaming our entire institution. You were acting as mob censors & you would immediately understand this if students shouted down a speaker you wanted…
— Greg Lukianoff (@glukianoff) March 14, 2023
La la la, I Can’t Hear You…
When faced with alternative views, which predominantly come from the right, students and even administrators resort to the same tactic my four and 6-year-old use: yell loud enough to drown out anything they disagree with. FIRE found that 63% of liberal faculty members think it’s acceptable to shout down speakers.
In comparison, only 12% of conservative faculty feel the same.
Nobody should think that shouting down someone they disagree with is acceptable. It makes you look imbecilic and juvenile. But Generation Z and those who elevate their concept of self-import spin this action as almost heroic.
We’ve seen this nationwide, most notably recently, the heckling of a conservative judge at Stanford University. In that instance, it wasn’t just the students acting like spoiled children, but one of their administrators, a dean of diversity – whatever that means.
And we can’t forget the hysterics at the University of Wisconsin when students ripped up pages of the Bible and ate them in protest over conservative podcaster Matt Walsh’s event. I suppose it’s good they are getting some fiber; many of these progressive Gen Z’rs look like they have a few vitamin deficiencies.
…Professor Overdyke has now presented the University of Albany with a clear choice. It can confirm that faculty members are accountable to free speech rules or it can confirm that these rules are a mere pretense of principle.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 4, 2023
The Tolerant Intolerant
Congratulations, Generation Z, you’ve single-handedly removed my generation from the top of the pedestal regarding terrible trends. In your quest for diversity, equity, inclusion, and my favorite idiotic term – allyship – you’ve proved that you are more intolerant than perhaps any modern generation before you.
You tout understanding and open-mindedness while applauding the muzzling of opposing views. You are the monster you claim to fight against.
How do we fight this movement? By not allowing them to censor us for thinking differently.
I get messages all the time from friends and followers who say they agree with what I write about but refrain from expressing that agreement for fear they will be fired from their jobs, lose other friends, or be shunned by liberal family members. I understand entirely, and as someone who has lost friends and been shunned by family for her beliefs, I get it – it feels terrible.
But unless we stand tall and speak the truth to the tyrants who wish to silence us, we will perpetually live in fear of the thought police. The choice is ours; I hope it’s not too late.
Generation Z needs to stop trying to re-write the Constitution and start trying to re-read the Constitution.
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) May 1, 2023
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