Progressive podcasters’ escalating vilifications against young White men following Charlie Kirk’s shooting are as factless and deranged as MAGA rantings. The shocking counter-realties are below.
All that said, I would be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge that there is unfortunately a "there", there in regards to the alt-right, the manosphere, and the (self-proclaimed) "incel" community, which often overlap. Misogyny, racism, and just about every other sort of hatred are rampant in these circles. Fortunately, they are a tiny sliver of the population, but they still seem to have a relatively outsized influence these days. The solution, however, is NOT censorship or otherwise abridging free speech, but rather education and persuasion against such hate.
Gen Z is both more racially and culturally diverse and behaving far better than previous generations on almost every measure we can invoke. Their trends help my advocacy a lot. It is so weird that progressives persist in spreading irrational fear about Gen Z and demanding that young people be banned from social media when they should be celebrating younger generations and defending their freedoms.
Indeed, as a member of that Elder Millennial generation myself at 41 (despite not being a parent myself), I truly feel ashamed for my generation knowing this. We were also notably too chickenshit to stand up to Trump, which is not surprising given how we were the first generation in recorded history to be raised NOT to stand up to bullies, and let "the authorities" handle it. Pfffft. We are Generation Epic Fail, and are on track to become perhaps the worst generation in all of recorded history. We can blame our Boomer parents all we like, but there comes a point where we need to realize that while the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, we still need to take personal (and social!) responsibility ourselves nonetheless.
I loved my growing up in the 1950s and Sixties, with intense outdoors and public life. But I think it would have been even better with internet and cell phones. I'm for maximum options, and those who make unhealthy choices need to rethink their own behaviors, not demand mass restrictions on everyone. I'm constantly surprised by how many of the postings on anti-social-media sites like After Babel are cries for helping the poster control his/her own destructive online life. Look, I'm sorry. We all have our nemeses. You can raise my taxes to fund remedial programs. But government/corporate repression of all young people because a small number of teens and adults can't control their social media excesses is dictatorship.
Thank you for saying this! I really appreciate how you have exposed the juvenoia/fearmongering for what it is.
You lost me at "Krystal Ball, normally sane", these leftist commentators routinely lie and not just about young White men.
I'm open. Name a few things Krystal Ball has lied about.
All that said, I would be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge that there is unfortunately a "there", there in regards to the alt-right, the manosphere, and the (self-proclaimed) "incel" community, which often overlap. Misogyny, racism, and just about every other sort of hatred are rampant in these circles. Fortunately, they are a tiny sliver of the population, but they still seem to have a relatively outsized influence these days. The solution, however, is NOT censorship or otherwise abridging free speech, but rather education and persuasion against such hate.
Demagogues of all kinds seem to think they are demigods as well, lol.
Well said overall, Mike. You really have a knack for gleaning the truth from sorting out the bullshit.
Gen Z is both more racially and culturally diverse and behaving far better than previous generations on almost every measure we can invoke. Their trends help my advocacy a lot. It is so weird that progressives persist in spreading irrational fear about Gen Z and demanding that young people be banned from social media when they should be celebrating younger generations and defending their freedoms.
Amen
Indeed, as a member of that Elder Millennial generation myself at 41 (despite not being a parent myself), I truly feel ashamed for my generation knowing this. We were also notably too chickenshit to stand up to Trump, which is not surprising given how we were the first generation in recorded history to be raised NOT to stand up to bullies, and let "the authorities" handle it. Pfffft. We are Generation Epic Fail, and are on track to become perhaps the worst generation in all of recorded history. We can blame our Boomer parents all we like, but there comes a point where we need to realize that while the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, we still need to take personal (and social!) responsibility ourselves nonetheless.
We sure did. It wasn't all bad 😉
I loved my growing up in the 1950s and Sixties, with intense outdoors and public life. But I think it would have been even better with internet and cell phones. I'm for maximum options, and those who make unhealthy choices need to rethink their own behaviors, not demand mass restrictions on everyone. I'm constantly surprised by how many of the postings on anti-social-media sites like After Babel are cries for helping the poster control his/her own destructive online life. Look, I'm sorry. We all have our nemeses. You can raise my taxes to fund remedial programs. But government/corporate repression of all young people because a small number of teens and adults can't control their social media excesses is dictatorship.
Indeed