Pew has an excellent report on changing attitudes of generations. In that regard, Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues.
No longer the new kids on the block, Millennials have moved firmly into their 20s and 30s, and a new generation is coming into focus. Generation Z – diverse and on track to be the most well-educated generation yet – is moving toward adulthood with a liberal set of attitudes and an openness to emerging social trends.
On a range of issues, from Donald Trump’s presidency to the role of government to racial equality and climate change, the views of Gen Z – those ages 13 to 21 in 2018 – mirror those of Millennials. In each of these realms, the two younger generations hold views that differ significantly from those of their older counterparts. In most cases, members of the Silent Generation are at the opposite end, and Baby Boomers and Gen Xers fall in between.
It’s too early to say with certainty how the views of this new generation will evolve. Most have yet to reach voting age, and their outlook could be altered considerably by changing national conditions, world events or technological innovations. Even so, two new Pew Research Center surveys, one of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 and one of adults ages 18 and older, provide some compelling clues about where they may be headed and how their views could impact the nation’s political landscape.
Only about three-in-ten Gen Zers and Millennials (30% and 29%, respectively) approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president. This compares with 38% of Gen Xers, 43% of Boomers and 54% of Silents. Similarly, while majorities in Gen Z and the Millennial generation say government should do more to solve problems, rather than that government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals, Gen Xers and Boomers are more evenly divided on this issue. For their part, most Silents would like to see a less activist government.
Climate Change and Gender Use Pronouns
Gen Zers are more likely than Millennials to say they know someone who prefers that others use gender-neutral pronouns to refer to them: 35% say this is the case, compared with a quarter of Millennials. Among each older generation, the share saying this drops: 16% of Gen Xers, 12% of Boomers and just 7% of Silents say this.
Gen Zers’ views about climate change are virtually identical to those of Millennials and not markedly different from Gen Xers. About half in all three generations say the earth is getting warmer due to human activity. Boomers are somewhat more skeptical of this than Gen Zers or Millennials. Members of the Silent Generation are least likely to say this (38%) and are more likely to say the earth is warming mainly due to natural patterns (28%) than are Gen Zers, Millennials and Gen Xers.
View of the US
Younger generations also have a different view of the U.S. relative to other countries in the world. While pluralities of nearly all generations (with the exception of the Silent Generation) say the U.S. is one of the best countries in the world along with some others, Gen Zers and Millennials are the least likely to say the U.S. is better than all other countries. Only 14% and 13%, respectively, hold this view, compared with one-in-five Gen Xers, 30% of Boomers and 45% of Silents. Roughly three-in-ten Gen Zers and Millennials say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.
Brainwashing by Educators or a Function of Youth?
There are still more charts and ideas in the article. But here is the question at hand.
Are these views a function of youth and naivety or a function of programmed bias introduced by academia?
I am inclined to believe quite a bit of both.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
double post
Freedom and population density are inversely proportional. If we keep adding people, we’ll keep losing freedom, and things trend toward socialism.
RETIRED NYU PROFESSOR EXPLAINS WHY COLLEGE STUDENTS PREFER SOCIALISM
Nick Givas
Media And Politics Reporter
Retired NYU professor Dr. Michael Rectenwald explained how educators are encouraging the spread of socialism throughout college campuses, on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
“You had professors going over to the Soviet Union from America, going over to the Soviet Union, learning about the Soviet system of education and being convinced that they should bring it to the U.S. and re-engineer the entire education system after it,” he said.
“And this was a professor, particularly George Counts who came back, taught at Columbia teacher’s college. And he’s teaching teachers who are going to then propagate the same ideology that he’s teaching them. This is how it spreads.”
Rectenwald claimed almost half of all professors in academia identify as socialist and said nearly all of them are “leftist.” (RELATED: Campus Reform Editor-In-Chief Blames College Culture For Current Mob Mentality)
“The [professors] are 40 percent socialist. And that’s a large number,” he continued. “We have about 90 percent are leftist and 40 percent of the total are socialists in the humanities and social sciences.”
Rectenwald also said he’s seen people dismissed from Ph.D. programs simply because they were conservative.
“There’s a bubble and they don’t want to hire anyone,” he said. “And I’ve seen people actually thrown out of degree programs, Ph.D. programs, for being conservative.”
“This is a huge indoctrination process that’s going on. And it’s not just called socialism now. They’re calling it social justice as well,” Rectenwald added. “It leads to the kind of forced egalitarianism that you saw in the Soviet Union, where you have to squash people down so that everyone’s ‘equal.’ And it led to 94 million people being murdered, combined in all the communist regimes in the 20th century.”
The bigger story they are happy to not consume and not create more consumption. Their views on the world arent necessarily wrong. These are people that saw their parents get the short end of the stick as they got older. Time will tell. Time does not lie.
I think its common for the youth to be far more liberal and idealistic on average. When we get older and see how the world really works most of us shift the other direction.
Maybe They’re too young, but maybe I’m too old. I vividly recall nuclear attack training as a school kid in the 1950s. How you positioned yourself just so under that thin wooden desk made all the difference if a million ton bomb suddenly exploded next door. I remember parents dreading summer in the South when polio crippled a number of the kids I grew up with before Jonas Salk arrived in the 1950s and killed it for us. And I remember Kennedy’s first Federal budget, in 1960, being 50 percent on defense as the cold war raged on. The current crop of societal boogeymen seem somehow tame to me by comparison.
Those nukes are still pointed at us, by many more crazies.
They are the best educated ever because they have the most expensive degrees. Too bad they cannnot spell or do arithmetic. Of course they are naïve and brain-washed, but the older generations have been equally brain-washed about how America is the greatest, everything is about freedom, etc. The youth correctly perceives that America is a rigged game where the serfs are engaged in hyper-competition for rewards accruing to a small sliver of society that basically has tenure as “the wealthy”, all rationalized with disingenuous crap about “free markets”. If only there was free competition and cooperation (as the case may be) among equals.
Not really. Part of it is also a sense of entitlement. They go to college, rack up debt, but don’t approach school with the attitude “i’m here to learn, and it’s costing me a ton, so I better study hard, and learn some useful job skills”. Instead it is more like “Professors need to grade on the curve, and then I don’t have to study too hard, and I can party”. Not that our generation was any different, mind you, but it was cheaper.
Millennials are understandably disenchanted with free market capitalism and militarism as practiced by the USA. Economic policy has been engineered to provide them with exorbitant housing, medical and educational costs. The Federal tax system transfers vast sums from workers to old people: Social Security, Medicare, federal and military pensions, Medicaid for nursing care. The military takes over half of discretionary spending. They may not know the differences between socialism, mercantilism, communism or capitalism, but they know they’re getting the very short end of the stick.
You use the words “Free Market Capitalism” then immediately talk about how it is “ENGINEERED” (the opposite of free). You can’t have it both ways. Your first statement was incorrect, there are very few free markets in the US…the important ones are all heavily engineered to the detriment of younger people.
And, an unfortunate truth is that once the government messes with a market, it becomes less efficient, and the only solution anyone can ever think of is more government. That is part of why Republics and Democracies always end badly. The US is no different. Socialism and collapse are the inevitable future, and they aren’t far off.
I totally agree. The quest for equality of outcome was a mission for me in my 20s. Little did I know where that actually leads, and there is no shortage of historical experiments to illustrate it.
What the heck did I know when I was 21? I certainly hadn’t learned enough.
The Millennial movement toward socialism while misguided has another side. The Power Generation bears some responsibility. How many times have you heard the saying? “We’re mortgaging our kid’s future.” We’ve saddled youthful generations with a $21 trillion national debt; forced them to buy healthcare insurance to spread the risk; left them with sky-rocketing tuition resulting in enormous student debt (the proceeds from which are used to compensate top-heavy administrators and their generous retirement packages); left ballooning and nearly incalculable unfunded pension obligations for Federal, State, local governments and public safety officials; and they can’t afford a home. Is it any wonder, with all of these obligations unwillingly foisted upon them that they might feel as though something in our current government structure is amiss? One could argue that their current situation is a form of socialism forced upon them by their predecessors. The foregoing doesn’t justify a movement from capitalism to socialism by any means, but, it does deserve inclusion in the debate and solution.
There are two types of people who vote conservative
The people who profit most from low wages and taxes (and globalism, oil and perhaps even war)
And the people who think immigrants, blacks, gays, feminists, environmentalists and liberals are causing all the problems
That is quite probably the most bigoted, uninformed post I have ever seen on this site. Both liberal and conservative opinions have merit at times. Try considering the merit of the opinions of other people, rather than simply insulting them because they disagree with you.
There is only one kind of person that makes a post like yours HLG.
A person that believes that the world is simple, and that people can be put into simple buckets that appropriately describe an incredibly complicated world that is full of phenomenon that they can not control, observe or understand from their relatively narrow vantage point.
It may be time to start to presume that people with opposing ideas have something worth saying. If you do that, you might learn something, as opposed to sitting in your bucket thinking that all the people in the other buckets are evil, stupid, or out to get you. Maybe. Then you might have a vantage point where you can see things outside of your bucket.
That reminds me of an old saying: “You can’t learn anything with your mouth open, and your ears closed.”
Just have to add this because it’s the same topic.
I remember that 1st youguv poll about millenials embracing socialism. (from 2min to 12min in the link) Z claims the methodology was so flawed that the younger half didn’t even know what the difference between communism and capitalism was. They couldn’t point out the difference between socialist, communist, mixed, or etc countries on a map. They never even met someone who lived under its rule, etc, etc, etc. Probably no one in either poll ever suffered under Dalrymple’s propaganda quote.
Interesting. It didn’t attach link. Let’s try again:
I added spaces to the link and it just greyed out “deleted”. Check out The Z Blog, podcast “The Dark Episode”‘, Nov 10, 2017.
I have two kids, one in grade school still and the other in middle school. The crap that gets thrown at them is unbelievable. Don’t bother teaching them to communicate well, writing and spelling doesn’t matter anymore, since we can just rely on computers. Same for math. Teachers are required to teach simple math in a complicated roundabout way. It is required. Social studies is a joke. Worst yet, the disruptive kids are tolerated and waste a good portion of time; Instead of teaching, the educators spend too much time dealing with bad mannered and undisciplined little idiots who think it’s not fair to be stuck in school to learn, so they make sure no one else learns much either. I’ve heard from good teachers who have since retired from the system, mostly because they got sick of being required to teach useless information and, finally, couldn’t deal with these little cretins, both in the classroom and in the higher held positions above teachers who change the curriculum to suit the liberal leanings. Sadly, if I hadn’t supplemented my kids with workbooks outside of school, they’d be woefully lacking in English and math skills.
Don’t forget the parents that raise “little cretins”, but aren’t concerned because that’s not their job. It’s the job of school to teach them to behave, and teach them manners, and about life, in addition to the subjects. There is plenty of blame to go around.
Nothing is by accident. All is proceeding according to plan.
John Taylor Gatto, Underground history.
Ayn Rand, The Comprachicos (20pgs, free)
StillCJ: “Excellent comments, Carl. Someone told me years ago “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you’ve got no heart; if you’re not a conservative by 40 you’ve got no brain”.
I think that something like this attrbuted to Winston Churchill: “If you aren’t a liberal at age 20, you haven’t got a heart, if you aren’t a conservative at age 40, you haven’t got a brain.”
Naivety or education? Yes, both. As Lenin said “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”. Communist terrorist bomber Bill Ayers took that advice and switched from bomb making to being a university professor and writing books on education. He also BTW got his friend Obama’s political career started.
All generations start out idealistic, and that normally means liberal. As they age, their views are tempered by real world experiences, and they become more pragmatic, which normally means more conservative. Some people tend to be insulated from the real world, and they tend to stay idealistic, and that group includes teachers and the wealthy. Thus, learning that the older people are, the more conservative they are, tells us nothing new, as it’s always been that way.
Now, if someone wants to do some serious, and useful research, the question to be answered is how the above graph compares to similar data from 50 years ago. How liberal is Generation Z today, compared to how liberal baby boomers were 50 years ago? How conservative is the silent generation, compared to those that were 70 fifty years ago? Only when you know the answer to these questions can you form a sound opinion on how much attitudes have shifted over the last fifty years ago, i.e., how much “brain washing” has occurred.
Excellent comments, Carl. Someone told me years ago “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you’ve got no heart; if you’re not a conservative by 40 you’ve got no brain”.
Similar to immigrants in the US. When they first get here, they’re mostly democrats. Over time as they prosper, they tend to switch to republicans.
Easy answer, the first wave of boomers started Earth Day. Silent Spring, The Population Bomb, Diet For A Small Planet; those were all big in the mid-sixties to mid-seventies. A decade of stagflation knocked the idealism right out of them. And it sure looks like history could rhyme.
No, I know that Baby Boomers are far more conservative now than they were 50 years ago. What I don’t know is how Baby boomers of 50 years ago compare to Generation Z today, nor how Baby boomers of today compare to people who were 60 fifty years ago.
The mental laundry? Jeans or towels cycle? Extra rinse or fabric softener cycle? Jumbo load?
Or will their naivety end with their first IRS encounter?
As a result of forced public schooling, I probably answered the same idealistic way they did at that time of my life, in the late 60’s. Then I discovered with my first paycheck that I had to pay for the agenda-setters unfulfilled / unfulfillable dreams. And that the ones behind the scenes that set the agenda for the dream knew it was a lie? And that idealism was merely wishful thinking. Like the dark side of it is to me right now.
This quote begs a definitional question:
… the most well-educated generation yet …
What if “education” is RW Hard Knocks?
What if it’s the opposite of propaganducation?
… their outlook could be altered considerably by …
Perhaps their first paycheck? Or especially their first “self-employment”?
… the earth is getting warmer due to human activity.
On one hand, trusting toddlers believe what those giant parents tell them. On the other, will the “terrible twos” get beaten if they disobey and express their own opinions?
… prefers that others use gender-neutral pronouns …
If gender and fertility issues are birth defects? Caused by end-of-empire tax-cattle feed? If anything other than straight or “gay” are mental health issues? Or, instead, perhaps what we used to call conformity issues?
… increased diversity good for society …
Well, they’ve had more experience with it than I and my peers. I really enjoy the cultural enrichment of giving away my community to invading tribalist 3rd worlders who I can’t really trust to not vote to – or actually – steal my stuff.
watch the whole thing to see what the plan is and how will they pay for the $trillions proposed ?
I think this has more to do with age than their generation. As people get older, they get smarter. They know there are no panaceas.
Which generation has bankrupted America? Which generation has given us worthless leaders one after another? Which generation has national healthcare but whines like bitches whenever it is suggested anyone else get the same benefit? Which generation is the recipient of social security dollars far in excess of any taxes they paid?
The most worthless generation in US history: the Baby Boomers. If everyone born before 1970 was taken out and shot, the entire world would be better off.
Somebody’s Stuck on Stoopid. Who?
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2019/01/facts-are-stubborn-things.html
Check out the comments: Depression? No, not that one.
Most of the baby boomers haven’t collected any social security. Nor are they old enough for medicaid. I know math is difficult for some, but if you were born in 1970, you would be turning 49 this year.
If you are born in 1970 you’re GenX not a Boomer. Get a clue.
Sarcasm, i presume.
Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard after Johnson started the guns and butter spending era. Johnson and Nixon were not baby boomers. The national debt tripled under Reagan, who was not a baby boomer. The speaker of the House was not a baby boomer, either.
When people first received a social security check in the 1930’s, they had not paid much into the system.
Have you ever tried to run a successful business in the USA? So many gov’ment hands looking to feed their existence it makes your head spin. The only people that complain like you do are the lazy ones that want “free” stuff off the backs of the people doing most of the work. I will start with the 50%+ of Americans that pay zero income tax. If you started out your rant with a proposal to replace our tax system with a flat tax of say, 17% for everyone, and remove all subsidies, credits, etc (including home interest/property tax deductions), I could listen and start a dialog with you. But instead, you blame out of the gate; a trait of the Millennials ….. all about the victim.
It’s totally pointless to try to blame any certain generation. It’s a human problem. Humans are greedy and they suck at math. When you grow up Escierto, your generation will do just as much, or more, to screw things up for the generations that come after you.
This is neither “youth and naivety” nor due to “bias introduced by academia.” This is due to several generations raised not doing anything for themselves by helicopter parents, winning “participation trophies,” and becoming adults who look to others to solve problems and take care of them.
Gen X are suckers while gen Y and z total Hook Line and Sinker minions 🙂 🙂 Trust me the 2 to take each one of them are out there too.
There have been liberal policies in place since the 30’s. What has changed is the move away from patriotism to globalism and the great push to silence and destroy anyone against their agenda, like 1930’s Germany. Also, the push by the left to have open boarders is really anti-American.
The bar-graph shows very clear left trend. It looks like Marx was right in one of his views:
This would not be the case if we had left suffrage in place where only land owners or tax payers could vote. Allowing people to vote who are on the dole is a huge mistake.
Big Govt can start by instituting compulsory military service.
Funny, I don’t recall Boomers objecting to big government back in the day. The draft, yeah. And Boomers certainly protested for whatever teachers taught them to.
Live and learn, eh?
Again, as the US population bump goes through their 30’s, the next decade should be a change of pace.
Naivete that is exploited by Big Schools