Millennials/Generation Y discussion

If I recall correctly the Silent Generation was the one that lived during The Great Depression

Look, I'm supposedly Gen-X. And, you know what? We were accused of being politically lethargic, tech-spoiled, overly cynical babies who wouldn't know hard work if it bit us.

The Slacker was supposedly us, when we were not the too-scary, Grunge-listening, Eurotrash-watching The Cracker threatening to destabilize governments or markets for the lulz and not understanding the big picture. :/

So, don't take it personally — but, my lot got there, first. But, we were pipped earlier by them what were the flappers.

edited 11th Dec '16 2:00:54 PM by Euodiachloris

It goes the Lost Generation (WW 1), the Greatest Generation (WW 2/Great Depression), Silent Generation (Korea and Vietnam largely), Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z. Remember generations aren't exact and aren't a full lifetime, so one generation may have kids that part of not the next generation but the one after.

This is a question that has been on my mind: Are Safe Spaces inherently bad? I know they are guys who say that it is and they call other people out for being 'thin skinned' but is a wrong to have a safe space? What exactly is wrong with them?

No. There is a problem with echo chambers, which are a different thing, but a "safe space" is one of those things that some people deliberately misinterpret to attack particular groups. A safe space is just a "I'm dealing with so much shit I need a place to calm down and relax, or to vent my frustrations and anger", and some places have designated safe spaces for people who deal with stuff for belonging to a particular category (for example, a safe space for LGBTQ+ people so they don't have to deal with harrasment over their orientation).

A lot of people (including people from the generations that give this thread its title) seem to misunderstand the meaning of safe spaces (and this is true for both left-wingers and right-wingers, even if for different reasons).

If you consider safe spaces as a place to allow people who suffer or suffered from PTSD, rape, violent crimes and/or others, then it can be considered to be a protective measure which allows said people to slowly recover and go on with their lives (amongst other things). It's essentially a good measure which allows for members of society to readapt to its level of functioning (which is not easy, and, in some cases, not fully achievable).

But there are people who interpret it as 'places where dissenting opinions are not tolerated', for the sake of maintaining an illusion of consensus (again, this is true for both the left, the center and the right). This is particularly noticeable across a lot of places on the internet (certain subreddits on both the left and the right, Facebook groups, some threads on TVT itself are subject or potentially subject to this).

Also, this.

edited 27th Jan '17 3:40:03 AM by Quag15

Doesn't help that the insane right constantly whinges about safe spaces and then unironically demands them for themselves.

The insane left, on the other hand, has a very gulag mentality about them (even if said "gulags" only exist in online space and are done in both ironic and unironic ways, so, it's a smaller problem compared to how the insane right is doing at the moment).

But yeah, a lot of people end up simultaneously complaining about developing "safe spaces". That also includes people who are not automatically categorized as part of the more extreme parts of an ideology.

edited 27th Jan '17 5:52:02 AM by Quag15

I've always taken the view that it is events, not years / time which dictate generations. Specifically, it is the two events which define the time period you were a teenager / early 20's in.

Major events, going back in time for the UK would be the following. 2019(?) Brexit 2008 - Financial Crash 2001 - 9 / 11 1989 - Fall of Berlin Wall 1979ish - Winter of Discontent / Thatcher Election

So, with my theory, Baby boomers came of age during the Winter of Discontent + Thatcher. Gen-X came of age after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but before 9/11 Gen-Y came of age after 9/11, around the financial crash. So Gen Z is grew up in a post financial crash world, and is coming of age in the world of Trump / Brexit.

Personally therefore, that is what will mark the difference between Gen-Y and Gen-Z. Gen-Y grew up in the boom times between 9/11 and the financial crash. It honestly felt like as long as you did everything asked of you, there was a growing economy that would accommodate you in whatever you wanted to do. Then, just as we were about to set off into independent living (university, first jobs etc.) the rug gets pulled out from under us due to no fault of our own. Hence the special snowflake attitude.

Gen-Z in comparison has grown up under 2 years of panic and 6 years of subsequent austerity. They have grown up being hammered from an early age that there were no more opportunities, life is hard, suck it up. That's quite a shift in environment to grow up in, so I think that should be considered when evaluating exactly what Gen-Z will be like. It's too simplistic to say Gen-Z will be Gen-Y but more so.

Formative political experiences are generally taken to be what's going on when you come of voting age. For millennials, it's the Iraq war and the Great Recession, which is probably why the millenials lean so far to the left, and the Trump era is only going to reinforce that.

On the other hand, there's also a pervasive cynicism bordering on nilhism among generation Y, not unlike the attitude that pervades modern day Russia; the politicians are all evil, nothing you do can change the system, so why bother with all of it? That's probably the most worrying part of the millennial generation in America.

edited 27th Jan '17 6:54:04 AM by CaptainCapsase

Perhaps it's time to finally finish what Guy Fawkes started.

Not in the mood for Catholic-aligned absolute monarchy. Thanks, but no thanks.

edited 27th Jan '17 8:16:41 AM by CrimsonZephyr

So what do you guys think of us Millenials in our thirties and the future that lies ahead for us?

Edited by GAP on Jul 19th 2018 at 3:10:25 AM

To give you an idea of how screwed we Millenials are ...

Yesterday I went to a three hour class about home buying.^note The military does optional courses like this to try and stop servicemembers from being ripped off. It's a source of a lot of good information, though also kind of boring.

My takeaway from the class is that despite being eligible for a 0% down VA loan at a lower interest rate than anything else on the market ... I will have to land a civilian job that pays $100k+/yr; or win the lottery; or move to some shithole or rural area an hour or more away from my job, to be able to afford to buy a house that I can pay off before I die.

Home ownership is pretty much one of the defining indicators of whether someone is middle class. My parents were, their parents were, their parents were ... I probably won't be. Neither will my little brother.

Stupid work internet settings making double posts ...

Edited by BlueNinja0 on Jul 19th 2018 at 7:47:14 AM

That's considered upper middle class in my country.

As long as rightwing politics and economic idiocy holds center stage, people who don't already have a lot are in for a rough ride. The rich get richer, and the rest...don't.

Hmm... I am highly skeptical that this has any special connection to the youth.

It's not like non-youth collectively have any special concern for policies instead of soundbites, and are not slogans like "yes we can" or "make America great again" just as insipid and content-less as any online meme?

Fundamentally the idea of a rational voter is a myth, individual exceptions exist but they're just that. Exceptions.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jul 23rd 2018 at 3:11:44 PM

Why do people perceive millienials to be 'weak'? Is it a geenrational thing or is it just meme perpetuated by the people who hate our generation?

It always happens. The "Greatest Generation" folks viewed Baby Boomers as lazy and irresponsible libertines back in the day as well.

It's a generational thing, and because Millennial tend to be progressive and tolerant and those are weak traits to a certain type of person.

The Baby Boomers, at least in developed liberal democracies, enjoyed growing up during an era of unprecedented shared prosperity and advancements in emancipation and social justice; then they rebelled against all that, calling their parents “Fascists” and idolising Mao and Che Guevara (both of whom, mind you, resented the Soviets for dissing Stalin).
So the Greatesters’ views about them weren’t entirely baseless.
Then after they had their fun, Boomers forsook Peace&Love and voted for the likes of Thatcher and Reagan, further vindicating their forebears.
And now they’re pining for the Ghosts of Greatnesses Past, frustrated as they are with the outcomes of the policies they supported thirty years earlier.

As Generation-X came of age around the late Eighties and early Nineties, they were disenchanted by default, so happy they were to find a friend in their head and losing their religion.
They learned to camouflage themselves though, Ninja-style, so while they were the talk of the town some twentysomething years ago, they get little to no attention right about now, the smooth slithering bastards.
Gen-Xers are a textbook example of laisser-faire not merely in the economics sense (the triumphal march backwards in the way of the Robber Barons continuing unabated) but also in the sense of apathetically coasting and sliding, believing in a deterministic universe that couldn’t care less so why bother.

While Gen-Xers had to contend with not expecting a better life than their parents’ or grandparents’, Millennials can only expect to have it worse, while their forebears rant about how at that age they were on their own, awesomely kicking arse and having a life.
Judged as irredeemable slackers by their predecessors, Millennials and probably their descendants too, will have to pick up the slack and clean up the mess left by their judgies.

Looking back at the fleeting moment of cautious hope after WWII, one notes that the Greatesters and the Silent-Types may have had something to do with all that progress that was achieved.

Now get off my lawn!

Edited by AlityrosThePhilosopher on Aug 4th 2018 at 10:54:03 AM

Seems like many of the problems currently plaguing us can be traced back to the baby boomers.

Basically the Baby Boomers have their heads so far up their asses that they don't see the hypocrisy in saying that the millenials are soft, weak, and spoiled when they were the generation that came right after two global wars and the Great Depression and abused the benefits of that.

We have suffered through the economic regression and are still paying the price for it but we are ''spoiled'' cause we have shinier gadgets and advocate for people to actually be better to each other.

Edited by Wispy on Aug 4th 2018 at 5:29:22 AM

Although it seems like the baby boomer's population is rapidly shrinking.