“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” -Socrates
The tricky thing about hating kids these days is that, unless you are actually positing some vast change in human nature, you are really just hating standard-pattern-humans(largely identical to the ones that have been in production since before the advent of recorded history) subject to the social conditions that your generation, and maybe the one before that, have most to answer for.
Doesn’t make it any less popular, of course.
Man, this cartoon really hit home for me, although I fall in that weird in-between generation gappy place, having been born in 1979 and thus fitting either with the end of X or the beginning of Millennial, depending on whatever definition you’re using - I call us “Li’l Xies”.
My boyfriend, though, born in 1990*, freshly out of grad school and $60k in student loan debt, searching desparately for a job in NYC and now filling out applications for Trader Joe’s and local bookstores and supermarkets… it’s tough. And he doesn’t even own a smartphone or play video games. His mom can’t work due to cancer and his stepdad is looking for work at 65. He’s one struggling Millennial. (And I am one struggling Li’l Xie, his cohabitator and supporter, lucky as hell to be employed.)
*I prefer the term “puma” to “cougar”, thanks.
I don’t get the hate. I mean - they’re the generation that CREATED US. OK? We didn’t just magically become this way through some giant central hive mind phenomenon. WE WERE RAISED. BY THEM.
It’s kind of obvious from the previous experience of my generation (Gen X) that this is just something older people do. In the case of Gen X, we got “Why Can’t Johnny Read” when our reading scores were improving. What makes the Millenial hate unique is that the haters are completely ignoring the ways the economy and society have changed. Why do so many millenials live with their parents? Because there are few high-paying jobs that would let them afford to move out.
Also: popular music reached its absolute pinnacle around the time my generation was reaching late adolescence, whereas the music of today’s youth is total crap.
Who’s this “we” you’re talking about? I’m an X-er and my kid is 4. Not all that uncommon for those of us who graduated university.
If you’re talking about Boomers, then by all means, disparage. Those a-holes are still ruining everything.
While it’s still a few years away for me I look forward to being old enough to sit around on the porch of a retirement home and punching people my age who complain about “these kids today”.
I am confused by your confusion. What does your kid have to do with… nevermind. Let’s just try this:
I don’t get the boomers’ hate. I mean - the boomers are the generation that CREATED THE MILLENNIALS. OK? The millennials didn’t just magically become this way through some giant central hive mind phenomenon. THEY WERE RAISED. BY THE BOOMERS.
How time flies! It seems like only yesterday that those of us in “Gen X” were being disparaged as stupid (for not having our entire lives totally mapped out while still in high school), lazy (by ex-hippies), and spoiled (by CEOs getting bailed out by Reagan, and folks whose defined-benefit pensions hadn’t yet been pilfered).
Not by me, as I didn’t procreate until last year. So theoretically I’m allowed to bash, aren’t I?
Oh look another young folk mad at an old folk. The circle is complete!
To celebrate, he should find some new way to dress that offends old folks even more than the previous attire did, just so he can impress upon everyone how rebellious he is.
Funny thing, these millennials (well, of course not all of them) will of course whine about all these doubletwenties around 2040 or so.
Anyway, the 2nd panel is a little ambiguous. Agriculture didn’t really give people free time, it forced them to work longer and harder just to get food. It was urbanization that gave people more kind of jobs to choose from.
Hmm, only of you can claim that nothing you’ve done in your whole life has had an impact on the youth around you, whether directly or indirectly. Have you been living in a cave, by chance? Because I think then, you’d have free license to bash away!
Also, very few jobs that try not to demean you as much as possible while you do them.
Actually, my interaction with millennials is indeed nearly zero. Just two journeymen, not more. I don’t think that qualifies as “raising“.
Simple, the boomers were the ones that took a somewhat strong safety net and frittered it away. Yuppies, Reagan voters, me me me!!! The boomers embraced selfishness and neoliberalism. We’re all getting the bitter fruits…
I love how everyone between the ages of 13 and 33 is considered part of the same generation and subject to generalizations regardless of income, race, creed or region. It is downright egalitarian! (well, except for the age part 
).
