Legacy News Media: We literally have no idea why Gen Z has given up on literally everything, has decided to not save for the future, and instead is trying to live and enjoy their life now.
Real World: Dearth of opportunities to make a life for yourself, every industry has reached is maximum zenith and now makes money by wringing pennies out of consumers, you need money to exist anywhere, there are no more places to just be, and the government is clearly corrupt and about to be taken over by a literal fucking fascist party because the other party is full of pussies who don’t want to “upset the status quo” and keep letting the fucking fascists get away with shit, because “we have to follow the laws, even the ones that clearly benefit the fascists, passed by fascists. It’s the law and if we don’t take it seriously, everything falls apart. Sorry that means the fascists will win.” Oh, and climate change is about to destroy our ability to even have a functional society.
As a millennial, I’m ready for a fucking dirt nap. Things just keep getting worse and fuck nobody is coming to save me or anyone else. Everyone is so caught up in their own lives and problems no one has the time or effort to give anyone else, meaning we’re all suffering alone.
Literally what is even the fucking point of struggling to the natural end of my life? There isn’t one.
It didn’t have to be this way, but a lot of old selfish pieces of shit decided that it was more important to trash the planet and live the high life during their hayday, and then give all their children and grandchildren a swift kick in the ass and says “Children are our future! I just made that up! Now go fix the fucking messes we made for you! We’re not concerned with mass extinction, because we’ll be dead and it won’t be our problem! Good luck, or not!”
Fuckin preach. I’m 33 and have spent the last 8 years in near total isolation because I simply do not have time for anything other than work, chores, feed and bathe myself (if I have time), sleep. That’s it. It’s deepening my depression and sense of total desperation in ways that I’d never imagined. But hey, at least my company is making billions because that’s the truly important part. I’m ready to just say fuck it and go the way of Gen Z. I’ve saved and saved and worked my ass off, played by the rules, got my degree and it’s all been for nothing. I still have nothing. In fact I literally have less than when I was in my 20s. There’s nothing I can do to stop another economic crisis and I’m no where near having enough to survive one so fuck it. I’m ready to just do what I want and if that gets me fired or Im in debt because I finally decided to just take the hit and travel wherever I want then so be it. There’s nothing we can do, we’re on the ride, the clicking of the chains has already started and we are buckled in. Time to just enjoy what we can I guess, even if it sucks the entire time.
40 here. Yep.
I had an existential crisis in my early 20’s based entirely around how futile existence is. We live, and work and make babies, so that the next generation can live and work and make babies… Etc. What’s the point? There’s no long term plot line of humans that I know enough about or care enough about that I’d willingly subject myself, or my offspring to a life of existence in this, just to further.
Nearly decided to off myself right then and there.
Last year, finally purchased a house, with help from the resulting life savings of my father (may he rest in peace) and with my brother and his wife. Four fully grown adults in one house, just to afford to live. The only cherry from the whole thing is that interest rates skyrocketed immediately after we signed our fixed mortgage, so we dodged that bullet and we have two more years (as of now) for them to come down before we need to arrange for renewal or something.
But we all eat, sleep, work, repeat. That’s it. The only nice thing I have going for me in all this is that we now have a definite timeframe for when our housing will be ours and costs will finally taper off. In another 24 years. I’ll be 64. If I manage to get underpaid little enough, who knows, I might have some retirement savings by then. Freedom 75.
The corporations have turned multiple generations of people into wage slaves, jacking up the prices for consumer goods while keeping wages stagnant or even reducing wages. It’s fucking disgusting, on top of that, they’ve not so slowly destroyed the planet with pollution. The entire time acting as though they’re the victims and getting bailed out with our tax dollars for mismanaging their respective organizations, prioritizing CEO pay and dividends and stock prices over employee health (especially mental health), employee pay and livable wages. They get all the benefits from automation, computerization and mechanisation and what did we get? Nothing. This fancy machine does the work of 20 workers and will do so forever, and only needs 2 people to run, and only costs 10 people’s salary for one year to pay for, and one person’s salary to maintain, where did the extra money go? Well, the CEOs third yacht isn’t going to pay for itself.
Eat the rich.
I’m just glad that millennials and Gen Z are educated enough to be killing off organized religion.
A big component of earlier generations accepting how bad things are is expecting them to get better in the afterlife.
“It will be fine as long as I’m forgiven of my sins and go to Heaven! Why would I worry about Earth?”
Thank fucking goodness there’s enough education for people to see through that absolute horseshit, a lie fed to the working populace to keep them compliant until the day they die.
(To be clear, nothing against general spirituality. Mostly issues with organized religion and promising eternal life after death, which not all of them do.)
Honestly, with how loud and nasty organized religion has been in North America this decade, it reminds me of a concept in training I came across recently called Extinction Bursts (https://study.com/learn/lesson/extinction-burst-psychology.html).
Basically tantrums because the thing that used to work, doesn’t work anymore, and testing if just Trying the Same Thing Harder will get them what they want.
You can be positive at end because you have save something with your work. I have your age, never work a single day of my life, I don’t have a bank account, I’m just living with my 70yo parent and keep going with his money that is the wage of essential worker. Where I am going? Enjoy what? What ride? I only see that probably I have to work like a slave in future, and that’s it.
I feel you. Just got my letter what kind of pension I can expect. If it ever happens. Let’s just say it’s not looking good. It does make you wonder why you didn’t just chose a much easier job when the stress and additional hours net you ~100 € more that won’t save you from being meh financially at best anyway.
One friend of mine was lucky enough to get a real good job. He was able to buy property and have a family. The rest of my friend group, we all worked just as hard. But we weren’t lucky so no family or peace of mind for us I guess. It’s demotivating.
Maybe eventually when time marches on and we become the majority (I’m 23) we can make good positive social change. In some ways, while living through it is bad; the hardship and unfairness of the system is preventing the usual trend of people becoming more conservative as they age; so perhaps there is hope for things getting better in the future. We just have to keep trying; we can’t give in to cynicism.
I’m 32 and no way in hell am I turning conservative. Fuck that we need change and we need it now.
The problem is it is not a generational issue. It’s a class issue. Rich millennials, and Gen Z will be no better than the rich Boomers. They will die believing they are just more special than everyone else and that is why they deserve so much more.
Generations won’t change shit about who is in charge, sadly.
I dunno man, I’ve met some of my peers. The vast majority of them are just normal people, right, living their lives, totally nice, but then some of them are really fucking stupid or mean, and I kind of wonder if this narrative that gen Z will save the world is true at all, or if it’s just that same sort of nonsense, that all we’ll have to do is wait and things will somehow get better.
Studies have apparently shown that the trend of people becoming more conservative as they grow older isn’t even true. The data says that the Boomers were just as conservative when they started voting as they are today. If anything, people consistently become more conservative as they get wealthier.
You know all this is worst in America, and I think it’s the systems.
The rest of the British colonies used highly conservative parliaments, where parliament is diverse and consensus is needed
America’s system was different, giving veto rather than encouraging consensus, focusing all power into two parties, removing the diversity
My country gets green policy by the green party gaining enough seats in parliament to makes it worth the bigger parties negotiating with them, that can’t happen in a two party system
You can’t have a bold party on the left because you have no room for a new, different party (that’s why the conservative side changed rather that a brand new party forming)
We are protected by the more stupid ideas the greens have, as the greens must negotiate to get any of their ideas up
Look I was alive and paying attention when carbon dioxide passed a threshold that is impossible to go back to. (Over 400ppm in the atmosphere.)
That was ten years ago.
Every climate scientist on the planet predicts society will collapse in the face of climate change.
But sure, keep your head buried in the sand by calling other people “doomers” because you can’t be fucked to look up publicly available scientific research.
I hope you are young so you get to see exactly how bad it gets and to question if maybe you were a dumb fuck to ignore it.
Because yes. Yes you were.
Alternate viewpoint: We’re forged in the fires of adversity. No longer are things easy or handed to us, we make our own road. We learn, teach ourselves, work our passions and figure things out against all odds. We’re stronger, wiser and ultimately happier for it, despite outward appearances
Yeah thats cool. But I’d rather be a white dude growing up in the 60s. 🤷♂️
Life on easy difficulty.
Good take, but I think it ignores a lot.
We’re stronger, wiser and ultimately happier for it, despite outward appearances
Mainly here. Yes everything people are getting is from their own actions, but it completely ignores the people that haven’t gotten anything from the struggle, which is a growing number of people. It also disregards people that don’t have the opportunity to carve their own way at all.
There is still a bar that needs to be met to get anywhere, and it is just getting higher in may places. Sure once you hit the bar, you’re in a better spot and can see that the struggle paid off, but if you never get to the bar, if you never get to the point of “keeping your head at the water”, there is no payoff. These people just get to struggle. That’s all there is, and there is only so much of that before the struggle isn’t worth the payoff anymore.
Thank you for that speech (sincerely). Tho it feels like the sort of words a commander gives to the troops to rally them & face a battle they will not survive with some dignity and a sense of pride.
Are we not just a buffer for the next gens to get a chance at inheriting any freedom, to get a chance to lead at the right age & change things?
sort of, but we (at least the older millenials) experienced some of the good times before everything went to shit. the younger gens cannot have the experiences we had as children and in some cases young adults. we mourn what we lost, but probably look like “old man yells at clouds” to those who don’t know what they never had
Oh, yeah, I member the times of hope & the promise of a bright future. But that was late 80s & 90s, when I was still native & didn’t understand the global macroeconomics & geopolitics … and human selfishness … and thought that boomers once wealthy would not only stop working (which they did) but also let younger gens make decisions (so like board members, politicians, investors, landlords etc).
But now I despise all that anyways, so much consequences for others just for a yacht & a fancy car, instead of wanting to help build a good world.
I believe that is our destiny as millennials, to turn the tide and act as brakes on the growing insanity in the world. I also believe that we can do it.
Unironicaly fantastic take.
My philosophy is that you can either bitch and whine and moan about how hard and unfair life is, while wallowing in self pitying victim complex forever.
Or you can stop crying yourself a river, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on doing something about it. To make the best of you’ve got and work on improving the parts of life you aren’t satisfied with one step at a time with a relatively clear and focused end goal in mind.
These two approaches are a choice of personal philosophy.
Unironically bullshit take.
8 hours of work, commute, getting ready, etc takes literally half the day. Sleep takes another 8 hours. So what the fuck am I going to do with my free 4 hours to “do something about it”? My sleeves can’t be anymore rolled you sanctimonious piece of shit.
Oh sorry I guess it’s my “choice” that gun violence is so prevalent, or that the government is becoming more fascist, or that my countrymen are rejecting science and spreading disease.
I make a six figure salary and I still need a roommate just to rent. My county is actively supporting a genocide. The second in line to the presidency is a religious freak. The supreme Court is stacked to the regressives.
But go on, please tell me again that this is all because I’m not doing something about it.
Go. Fuck. Yourself.
My recommendation is to pick one problem and focus on it. Don’t feel like you need to fix everything in the world, just make a small part of the world better. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, clean up litter, canvas for a ballot measure you care about. Doing nothing while agonizing over how much is to be done helps nobody.
8 hours of work + commute, six figure salary, still need a roommate? Sounds like somebody didn’t make good life choices and is now stuck in a hole living just below their means while paying off massive debt. Blaming everything but themselves for their financial/living situation while doing little to improve it. but hey you work and commute and sleep so how can you be responsible for building up your own life when your so busy making 6 figures and paying rent, right? It must be the rotten society and world to blame for your failures to be financially stable without working non-stop.
No it isn’t your ‘choice’ that society has ugly aspects that contribute to a lot of individual suffering with no easily fixable solutions. It is your choice to focus on those worst possible aspects of your country while actively ignoring all the good aspects of it and your personal life as a whole. It is your choice to be a pessimistic prick, paint yourself as a shakespearean character living out a tragic existance in a dystopian hellscape, blaming society for everything thats gone wrong in your life while making no efforts to improve anything.
You don’t like the idea you are responsible for the satisfaction or lack there of you get out of your existance? Too bad, its the truth. No amount of blaming corrupt politics or society or human ignorance undermines the control you have over your decisions, your emotional state, your personal interpretations, and your progress towards lifestyle goals. Start focusing on yourself and working towards a better tommorow instead of the news cycle. Live well below your means, pay off your debts even if it means moving into a cheap van and paying yourself ‘rent’ for a while, stop thinking you’re special for working a full time job and commuting for long periods of time with little to show for it. Start learning how to effectively save your money towards things that will actually improve your life. Smell the roses and be happy to just be alive. Stop wanting trinkets and convinences and cool things to impress people who don’t really care.
The parts of life I’m not satisfied with are the facts that my country is rapidly sliding into becoming a fascist ethnostate, our tax code is fucked six ways to Sunday, corporations are unaccountable to the law, I can barely afford food anymore because of corporations being unaccountable to the law and our tax code being fucked, my society is being actively destroyed by religious fanatics and schools can no longer be trusted to educate anyone.
So, yeah. Any ideas? I’m all ears.
There’s a story Mr. Rogers used to tell, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” That’s what you need to do, look for the helpers, which for adults and politics means look for the grass roots organizers. Go ask the people putting in the leg work how you can help. Yeah alone you are powerless but in a group you become powerful, find allies.
I will be geniune with you and put some thought into this reply even if you probably won’t agree with what I say anyway. I have no solutions for the flaws of our society and the world people have made. Societal inequality, corrupt politics, all controlling corporations. tThere aren’t any quick or easy solutions to those aspects of life, if any at all. People are flawed, self interested, sometime cruel and selfish I don’t have a solution to my countries problems, or your countries problems, or the worlds problems, or human nature problems that everything else ultimately stems from.
I decided that it wasn’t worth worry about all the things I have no power over, that obsessing over all the unfair injustices of life would ultimately lead me to becoming a neurotic pessimist. I hold no illusion that I hold any power as an individual over the flow of society, and that whatever happens, happens. Unless you are rich and powerful, there isn’t much you can do with the system as it is. You can be angry with that truth, rage against it, or accept it and move on. I chose the latter and started focusing on the things in my life I do have power over. My own happiness over my own living situation, My flaws as a human being, my negative and hateful interpretations of the world, my passions unfulfilled and frustrations built that lead to my unhappiness and disatisfaction with life. What I might be interested in doing with my life that may bring a sembelance of personal meaning/fufillment to fill that emptyness, what my personal vision of a happy life looks like. I can’t control the world or even begin to know how to, but I can control how I interpret my existence and what I choose to do with it.
How you experience and live has a lot to do with how you interpret yourself and your own life. Do you think you think you are a shakespearean character living out a tragedy full of pain and trauma and regret in an uncaring malevolent universe? That we live in the worst timeline possible and everything is beyond hope? That your country is the worst version of itself to possibly exist? That your living situation is hopeless with no way out no matter how hard you try? Then it is so, from your perspective.
Do you think that even though life, society, and everything inbetween is unfair, and there is so much suffering in the world, even so there is still some beauty and goodness to be found in people and every day life? That while our timeline is subpar and things could be better, that there is still some hope for people as a whole and that things can be better? That you have the means and power to work towards a better, happier future for your self? That reality while unfair and sometimes cruel ultimately it has your best interest in mind? Then it is so, from your perspective.
How we choose to interpret reality is more reflection of our individual psychology than reality itself. A smart person once said something along the lines of "the most important question a person can ask themselves is ‘is the universe malevolent or benevolent’ You have a choice in how you choose to see the world, you can either focus on the bad, rotten and unfair things on the outside that cannot be easily changed or you can focus on the bad, rotten, angry hateful things on the inside eating at your mind which can slowly be changed by contributing to the small acts of good that still happen everyday.
Anticipates massive downvotes
Or you can stop crying yourself a river, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on doing something about it. To make the best of you’ve got and work on improving the parts of life you aren’t satisfied with one step at a time with a relatively clear and focused end goal in mind.
Bold to assume everyone has the capability to do this. Maybe you got lucky with an area, maybe someone else got unlucky, but to pretend like any single person is in complete control of their life is an absolute joke. “Rolling up your sleeves and getting to work” stopped being a viable route a while ago, around the same time people started needing two or more jobs to afford basic necessities.
You can make the best of what you got, but if all you got is 0 left over time, <2% extra money in your pockets after living expenses, and a “give’r your best shot” mentality, all you have is… no extra time to commit that effort, and no money to improve your conditions, which would have helped with the time bit. That also doesn’t even touch on the people with mental/physical disabilities, or mental health issues.
Sometimes even if you try, the only areas you can sacrifice are the only things keeping you afloat. That’s just how it is. You can’t win them all. And some, can’t win the basics. That’s where we’re at now.
Or you can stop crying yourself a river, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on doing something about it. To make the best of you’ve got and work on improving the parts of life you aren’t satisfied with one step at a time with a relatively clear and focused end goal in mind.
The internationale gradually fades in
All of the baby boomers will be dead within 20 years, maybe then we can make some improvements?
(Sorry mom & dad, nothing personal)
How many of us do you think are gonna be around or capable of it, I’m pushing 40 and I’m fucked, the thought of another 30 years sounds exhausting.
Theres still time to fix things for our children before we die, so theres that.
Hmm, I should go plant a tree or something.
You guys are just on 4th?
Jeez you made me think about how much fucked up shit I’ve been through.
- Publicized school shootings on TV 90s
- Watching the second plane crash on live TV on 9/11
- Medical trauma 1: had testicular torsion ,went in 12 hours after it started, they tried to untwist it by hand while I was conscious, morphine ain’t shit
- Medical trauma 2: spontaneous pneumothorax, the ketamine they dosed me with didn’t work so that chest tube insertion fucked me up
- PMTSD related anxiety and depression
- 2 more pneumothorax
- 2008 financial crisis
- college went well, but first job out of college after I got my computer engineering degree payed a fucking grand total of $51k.
- 2016 election
- Hit 250lbs
- 2019 my highschool sweetheart wife cheated on me
- COVID-19
- Hit 280 lbs
- Jan 6 insurrection
- Stagflation
- Lost 70lbs because of cutting back on food spending and weightloss medication
- discovered my wife sexting the guy she cheated on me with after being in marriage therapy for 4 years
- hit 250lbs again
Jesus christ, is this resilience, or are we all so burnt out that we just accept everything getting worse always.
Like I get the joke in Russia is “and then it got worse.” But Jesus christ, it can’t get worse if it’s always bad can it?
Not trying to dismiss your sufferings but I still think our generation had it way better than our grandparents, and probably better than 90% of the people in the world if you live in an advanced economy. For instance my grandfather went through the bloodiest war in human history, a bloody civil war, and a famine that killed millions of people. The problem right now is getting all the negative information that you have no control over from the internet, that’s why I stay away from tuning into any news these days.
2023 is literally better than every year in human history that came before it. People are just negative, it’s part of our nature to not be content and constantly push for improvement for ourselves and others.
Damn, there’s a lot of angry, self-harm promoting people in this thread. Take care of yourself people. Take it one day at a time. The Earth is still here, for now.
well, for a couple billion years anyway until the expanding sum destroys it
