Gallup publishes a new poll that purportedly shows nearly “one in four” people of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ. Fad? Real? Or the result of ideological capture of the culture?

The new freedom to be one’s authentic self … loud and proud … also seems to be accompanied by higher rates of dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression, even suicide and homicide. So, here we are with Gen Z, where searching for meaning in life is reduced to a divergent sexual identity in order to have friends and be fulfilled. Not exactly working out as promised.

Redefining oneself through sexual or gender labels becomes a quick fix — a way to feel part of something, stand out in a crowd or escape the overwhelming sense of hopelessness. (snip)

Ironically, what was once a form of rebellion has become mainstream. In some social circles, being straight or traditionally gendered is now the “boring” option — the new conformity. It’s less about who someone truly is and more about not wanting to be left out. When everyone around you is changing their label or announcing a new identity, staying the same can feel like you’re missing the party.

No doubt that some of this is the usual self-sorting among the young of every generation because it is part of human nature that the young go through a period of separating from the parents. A necessary function of testing the world and themselves outside of the home and culture they were raised in. To a larger or lesser extent, this includes reaction to contemporary events they find they cannot influence, let alone control, right at the time they are feeling a measure of power over their own lives. The Lost Generation of the 1920s trying to find meaning after WWI, The Greatest Generation enduring the Great Depression, WWII, and the realignment of the world stage in the new Atomic Age.

The identity frenzy is a perfect storm of cultural, economic and existential upheaval. When every traditional structure that once provided meaning has seemingly crumbled, young people are left to grasp at whatever semblance of identity they can find.

However, is it a real perfect storm born of uncontrollable circumstance? When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell, most people were giddy about a future in which, after having proved its worth, Western liberalism would be permanently ascendent. There was even a book arguing that this marked End of History.

However, the groundwork had already been laid for the end of Western liberalism in the 1960s as many far-Left Boomers decided that taking to the streets to create Revolution wasn’t going to give them the lasting results they sought. By the 1990s the pivot to marching through liberal Western institutions and turning them on their head was well into its third decade of metastasizing. Meanwhile the normie Boomers were busy raising kids, taking care of their parents, and … what? worry about the culture? US?

The drivers of culture, from education to the arts, were firmly in the illiberal Left’s hands. Even as student spending in public schools reached record highs, test scores cratered, and colleges found themselves having to offer remedial classes to incoming students who couldn’t read or write at college freshman level regardless of a high school diploma. The personal computer revolution created an ease to accessing knowledge unknown in the past, but Gen Z is uninterested, indeed, unconcerned about its own lack of knowledge.

You have to admit, having a vaguest idea about the when, where, how, why of World War II is ironic considering how fast so many reach for the Facist!Nazi! card to slap down on people they disgree with.

But this isn’t some fog of ennui that rolled in with the turn of the century. This is by design — manufactured, enforced top-down, as the Left’s ideology took power over academia, education, government, media, and even, science. If the 90s saw Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs on high school classes dedicated to preventing the bullying of gay students, the last 10 years saw that give way to Gender-Sexuality Alliance Clubs dedicated to promoting a cult belief that sex is a myth, gender is fluid and “niceness” is to never ever give any offense to the Golden Ones. Offense Lists to be updated daily.

Was this student-driven? Hardly, when k-12 teachers and their unions are openly “queering” the next generation, from Pride Months and Transflags in classrooms to school policies to cut parents out of the loop while they groom kids into a “queer” identity.

Media gets into the act, too. Take the NYTimes coverage of the Gen Z “one in four” report

Young people have come of age during a period of unusually rapid social change in this area since the 2010s. It’s been driven by the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, and by pop culture and social media.

It’s now common for middle and high schools to have L.G.B.T.Q. affinity groups, which researchers have said are important for adolescent mental health at a time when they are exploring their identity. Schools have been especially welcoming in the West and Northeast, according to GLSEN, a nonprofit that researches L.G.B.T.Q. students.

Yet even as acceptance has been growing, so has stigma. Many states, particularly ones led by Republicans, have proposed or enacted restrictions aimed at L.G.B.T.Q. young people in recent years, particularly young transgender people. This has probably contributed to the poor mental health of young people who are gay or transgender, researchers said.

Of course, grooming kids into Queering their lives isn’t a problem, it’s those pouncing Republicans who don’t want 16-year-old girls having their healthy breasts hacked off or 9-year-old boys chemically castrated with puberty-blockers who are causing the issue.

Based on an executive order declaring that there are only two sexes and that they cannot be changed, the Trump administration has threatened to end federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-transition health care to people under 19; ban transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams; and ban transgender people from serving in the military.

And, NYSlimes? What’s the problem here? 10-15 years ago no one sane would have seriously claimed there were more than two sexes and that boys should be allowed on girls’ sports teams or in their locker rooms.

NO one.

The insane, illiberal Left has declared that the Earth is flat, black is white, up is down and Freedom is Slavery.

And Gen Z is paying a hefty price.

featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license