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For a while there, we thought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dropped off the face of the earth. But alas, our socialist darling comes out of her cave for some pure comedic gold.
AOC took to Instagram to pat her fellow millennials on the back by calling them “badass” and “willing to go to the streets”.
Is the new generation too delicate? No! I don’t think they’re too delicate at all. I think that they’re badass. I think that young people are more informed and dynamic than their predecessors. I think this new generation is very profound and very strong and very brave because they are actually willing to go to the streets. How about that?”-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
How about that? The generation who cannot figure out how to use a freaking rotary phone is “more informed than their predecessors?”
No @AOC, they're not. Every generation has its ups and downs. #Millennials have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips thanks to their predecessors, but how many really make effective use of it?
"Youth is wasted on the young" rings true far too often. 🤨#ThursdayThoughts https://t.co/8Rr5Zl7PNd
— Darth Visible (@DarthVisible) August 29, 2019
And so, our unintentional comedienne lectures us on Instagram. She does not think the new generation is delicate at all. No, they’re badass because some of them are triggered and offended about just about everything. In the delusional world of AOC, this qualifies as a badge of courage, apparently. They are “more informed”, she says. Because they Tweet and use Instagram, I suppose? Because they are constantly glued to their social media? Because they think, magically, there is a perfect world where rainforests will not burn and college is free because people like AOC tell them it can be so? They’re tough. They get good and angry and they “take to the streets” to fight fascism (with more fascism but this concept is lost in the sauce).
While I’d like to say there is hope and promise in the latest generation, that some millennials are capable of rational thought, compassion, even changing the world, AOC’s Instagram reel is the perfect depiction of the self-absorbed mentality that impacts most millennials of today. I have personally been sickened by Instagram. I’ve even taken barf bags off my husband’s planes before for this purpose. Most of these young people do not live in reality. They live in a world of little video snippets that run across their social media feeds. Their self-importance trumps any good deeds and any “badass” act they desire to perform in the way of justice for others. By this, I’m not talking just liberal college students. I’m calling out the kids who are on a bit of the Conservative side who are “living for Jesus”, too. It’s ALL a show. Imagine teenagers storming a deadly beach on Snapchat minutes before getting shot at? Imagine a young man in his Nikes filming himself to tell his mother that he is going off to war? Imagine a 20-something “hitting the streets” and doing rescue missions with the homeless? Imagine fighting for less segregation instead of isolating groups and calling them out? Can’t imagine it? Right. Because we don’t see it. We won’t see it.
What we will see? Millennials on a train with their poster boards on the way to a women’s march in ridiculous hats. Millennials in ridiculously expensive shoes and Gucci on a stage in suburban churches talking about “sacrificing for God” (Starbucks mug in hand). Millennials making mac and cheese in their expensive apartments talking about the environment and how other generations have wrecked it. Millennials on their latest vacation in Belize (so much for banning air travel) because they “need another” (they work sooooo hard). We’ll see perfect fashion pairings (Starbucks mug in hand), sleek interiors that reek of no crazy children or other obligations, maybe some crap about how they want to “be more intentional” with a perfectly filtered picture of a $7-dollar latte, and more perfectly staged, “candid” shots of them in their pristine little bubble.
It’s all so comedic and tragic at the same time. But, millennials, rock on. You live your truth and do you. No history lessons needed. Why? Because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks you’re badass. How about that?
Photo Credit: FlickR/Creative Commons/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)/Cropped
GWB says: They are “more informed”, she says.
It’s not so much the things they don’t know, as the things they do know that are wrong.
/some guy who ran a state and a country
they are actually willing to go to the streets
They are looking for THEIR crusade. That’s why. Since they grew up with the ‘Boomers’ telling them about all they did (ha!) by “standing up to the man” they feel the only way to validate their existence is to have their own crusade – standing up to The Man!
Sadly, they’re wrong about this, as they’re wrong about so many other things. They are so desperate for a crusade to win, they avert their eyes from the lack of substance in their campaign.
I’ll concur that there are “millennials” who give me hope. But way too many are the dumbest sort of illiterate peasant, waiting to hear the pronouncement of their priest-kings. That bodes ill for our republic.
Charles N. Steele says: It’s a mistake to characterize generations, IMO. It’s another form of identity that lends itself to identity politics, and should be avoided. It’s collectivism and cannot lead to anything good. I’ve heard libertarians and conservatives engage in it, warning young people that older generations are enslaving them with debt to pay for social security and Medicare — as if boomers set up these systems, or have any control over how govt mismanages them. Or the “Greatest Generation” stuff –“they conquered the Depression and Hitler!” — except many of them voted for FDR, whose New Deal policies made the depression worse — but of course a number also opposed FDR’s socialism but couldn’t stop it. And they are the generation that watched Hitler’s rise and persecution of Jews and did nothing. And raised the self-absorbed boomers who started the destruction of traditional values. This stuff ignores individual responsibility and is conducive to class warfare, and not much else.
As for “millennials,” I know some who indeed qualify as “badasses,” including a few with Purple Hearts. And who counts as a millennial anyway? A few years back I took an online quiz by Pew Research and scored 80% millennial — yet I use normal pronouns (and those appropriate to males, since I *am* male and couldn’t change that if I wanted to) plus I know how to change a lightbulb.
Characterizing entire generations as this or that is an error. Identity politics — just say no.
GWB says: I think that as long as you keep in mind you’re speaking in categories, and those categories are based on actual differences, it’s ok to speak of “generations”.
We are seeing massive cultural shifts across the generations. And I think it’s primarily because of the worship of youth that was never quelled in the “Boomer” generation. As our latest batches of youngsters grow up, they learn less and less from their elders, and so they stay mired in immaturity that life and older generations (and an actual education) would have beaten out of them by the time they reached post-college ages. Instead, they’re now encouraged to wallow in it. It ultimately has an effect on all of us.
BTW, when I speak of “generations” I’m often not speaking of people within a certain age group, so much as people who all demonstrate certain traits and beliefs. So, I’m a “boomer” in some ways, even though I technically fall outside the (redefined sometime in the 90s) appropriate years. I have the attitudes and beliefs delivered from a generation born of WW2 and before.
But, I will also say that your point is something we always need to keep in mind, lest we devolve into a “generationalism” to rival sexism, racism, and classism.
Let’s always be cognizant of our shorthand, so we don’t end up saying what we don’t intend to say.
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