Bret Stephens, a Republican climate denier, mendaciously tries to pit Democrats against each other. Don’t fall for this silliness. As for Biden’s list of political failings, his personal ones should gain a larger airing. He’s a plagiarist and serial confabulator. And his unnecessary lies do serious damage to real people’s lives: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/joe-biden-most-disturbing-thing/
4
Your argument would have much more force if you were consistent. Unfortunately, your lockstep reactionary support for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition members who act as if Palestinians have no right to exist undermines your argument that someone needs to stand up to those who perpetrate atrocious acts under the guise of being victims. Call out the Israeli government just once and I will take your otherwise intelligent argument seriously. If not, leave this very legitimate critique of the ostensible left to a messenger who has the good faith to deliver it.
107
Older generations need to get over themselves. We have allowed our planet to be ruled by capitalism to the point of mass extinction. Today's youth may be caught up in their blogs and self-righteousness, but they are well aware of the precipice they sit on when it comes to total Earth annihilation. They don't understand why we have allowed oil and copper/steel to monopolize our energy for so many years. Also, why hold onto this backwards country with rules written by old white slave owners?? Time to change. BIG CHANGE. And it is going to need some humbling from these old people who call their generation "the greatest".
164
I am a 44 year old Gen Xer, and I have been waiting for this fight for 20 years. For my entire adult life I have felt largely alone in pointing out that the Baby Boomers are the single most disgraceful, spoiled, lazy generation in the history of the world. And at last, they are getting old and angry enough to finally begin to attack the younger generations, who thanks to the laws that they passed will also be paying their bills for the next 30 years.
Bring it on, Boomers.
999
@Aaron. I'm a 68-year-old boomer and have known what you know about us boomers since the 1960s. Peace and love during the Vietnam war era was more about avoiding the draft than ending the war. We were spoiled rotten in the aftermath of WWII and never gave much thought to the generations coming up behind us - witness our current President, who gives no thought anyone but himself. I don't fault anyone coming up behind us for feeling we've cheated them. We have. I apologize, but I know it won't help. My best advice is to vote every Republican you can out of office, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you - not as we did ("do unto others and then bug out").
190
@Aaron makes the same mistakes that the author makes, namely, lumping everyone born within a 20-yr (or so) span as being in lockstep on every position and having the same life experiences. I was born near the end of the Baby Boom, graduating high school between two major oil price shocks and the beginning of what would late be called the Reagan Recession. Unemployment in my home town was around 18% at the time. The early-born Baby Boomers faced much better economic circumstances and have benefited much more because they got a foothold before things went south. Let's all quit the generation bashing and begin questioning sweeping generalities.
201
@Aaron We Boomers (I am in the first year of that tribe) have been through struggles you can’t imagine. Every generation has been through struggles the next generation can’t imagine. To paint all of us with a broad brush is dangerous and wrong. We grew up and so will you.
208
Thank you, Mr. Stephens. For years I've been saying that people need thicker skins; so many "microagressions" and their ilk are just that: micro. Save the firepower for major issues. If you're truly that offended, stop beefing about it and take action in ways that matter - like voting in every election and working for candidates who reflect your views, on every level from local to presidential. (And if you don't know who they are, study up on them!)
To those who would unload their venom at Ivy universities, they aren't perfect, but there multiple academic reasons why they are great. It is painful to see them attempting to muzzle opinions. To that end, here's a personal story: when I was an undergraduate at Brown University, the infamous American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell (Brown '47, by the way), was invited to speak on campus. There was significant dissent, of course, but he came, he spoke, backs were turned, voices were raised, he exposed his own nonsensical illogic, and everyone survived that day. (Postscript: a few years later, one of his bodyguards who sat on either side of him on stage assassinated him.)
546
This commentary neatly ignores the fact that the Republican party will not be having that 'Sista Souljah' moment. And Biden is completely guilty of the same 'good people on both sides' thing,though in his case I do believe it comes from a loving place.
Like it or not,I think you are wrong about who understands how the world works now,Mr. Stephens. I am almost 50,and once thought just as you did. That game board is broken,brother. Not saying the millenials know better,but no one has a monopoly any longer. This is uncharted territory thanks to Trump, and they have just as much right as anyone to try to right the ship.
As to 'who really elects presidents'? That comment just makes you a jerk. All votes count,don't they? Geez.
117
Wow. The voice of common sense and encouragement. I’m 60, and I say to the millennials : put up, or shut up. Put down the Facebook, Twitter, avocado toast, “ influencer “ blogs, and VOTE.
Save the snark for your Elders, we have much experience. THIS is the way a democracy works : You Vote, or you don’t get an opinion. It’s not Reality TV, it’s real life.
1700
@Phyliss Dalmatian those avocados clearly are part of the problem here. I am an Xer, dude. It started with us and our guacamole.
71
@Phyliss Dalmatian
I just want to point out that millennials are between the ages of 24-38 approximately. I feel like people use it as a catch all term for young people. The millennials I know are about to be pushing 40 and are buying houses and having kids. Ergo, if someone on campus is doing something you don't like, they're also not millennials. As for getting off the couch, we're more than willing to get off the couch and not only vote but also volunteer, just never for someone like Joe Biden.
105
@Phyliss Dalmatian
This is a caricature of the millennial generation. Go out and smell the roses, meet younger people and talk to them, it would be good for both young and older people to talk.
It seems like the only picture you have of millennials was painted by Bret Stephens and the media, not through actual experience.
145
Tell you what folks, all this bickering and infighting is what trump, fascists, nazis, opposing gang members--anyone from the "Hate Tribe" thrives on. Unfortunately no one seems to be able to put down their personal communication device to talk with one another. They just hurl instantaneous insults at each other. Biden is winning right now because, even when he is not perfect, his ideal stance is civility and respect. None of us are perfect when it comes to exhibiting these social graces but we have to keep trying because that is how society does and will work. Now, Vote.
64
While there is some truth to the lyric “every generation has its own disease”, the categorization of people by their birth year is no different than astrology. But there has been one constant for this smack dab in the middle boomer, and that is a world primarily ruled by men.
97
Get off my lawn!
128
The Democratic Presidential nominee for the 2020 election could be an Acme Boar Bristle Hair Brush and it would still get my vote (and my wife's, AND my two millennial son's) over the presumptive failing Republican nominee.
159
Ease up, Brett. Tbe “call-out” volume by millennials is loud because they don’t feel heard. Validation and basic respect are what’s needed here, not a patronizing lecture.
567
As a former Yale student who was on campus during the Christakis events, you have grossly mischaracterized a situation and the response from students, which only leads me to read your other cited examples as both biased and inaccurate. Perhaps if someone is yelling, they have something important to say. Perhaps if someone is feeling hurt or silenced or marginalized, it is the job of those in positions of power and privilege to listen. Can you imagine a country in which we take the time to listen and respond with empathy and compassion, rather than fear, hatred, stereotyping and general "othering" across lines of race, gender, or generation? I'm a millennial. I can imagine it. And I will vote for politicians who can see it and want it, too.
603
Amen.
31
Get off my lawn!
22
You have an obvious problem with the Ivy League. Why don't you just stuff-it and grow up a little. And my grand children in their 20's and early 30's do not begin to ressemble the people you describe. Not sure what kind of a world you're living in.
62
I think we could really use a dose of Marianne Williamson injected into these political discussions. She would provide a new paradigm of thinking, away from us/them.
13
I'm not a kid. I'm 60. Has it occurred to you that maybe African-Americans are just SICK of it? And social media gives them a tool where they no longer have to put up with racists who call the cops on them for nothing, but they can (FINALLY) do something about it?
The first boatload of Africans was in 1620. That's LONG before my ancestors got here, and probably yours, too. Maybe they're just sick of STILL being treated like 2nd-class citizens, they aren't putting up with it anymore, and they are retaliating against those who do so.
Yes, sometimes people are too thin-skinned. But young people don't have a monopoly on that. Old conservatives get offended when a store clerk wishes them "Happy Holidays" and call for a boycott. That's as thin-skinned as it gets.
Young people are driven into lifelong debt by banking rules and an education system made by us old people. They are in a country that's in a state of endless war caused by us old people. They are looking at global climate change and a mass extinction event that we old people REFUSE to do anything about because we'll be DEAD when the price has to be paid.
Maybe the problem isn't THEM.
1482
While i resonate with the general tenor of Stephens' Op-Ed, I disagree with his characterization of the millenials. I find them to be, by and large, impressively self aware and attuned to gig questions, and savvy in taking advantage of the power of the social media. They are brilliant at smelling the blood in the water, and going for the kill.
The debacles at Harvard, Middlebury, Evergreen, Yale, Dartmouth, Berkeley ... have less to do with students themselves than with craven and incompetent administrators who are been exploited and taken advantage of. Instead of educating and providing an example about how to conduct oneself in civil society, the deans and chancellors fold at the merest hint thatr they may be out of touch. In other words, the manufactured outrages over "microaggressions", "privilege" etc are just a strategy to bully the weaklings (ie, clueless boomers). Let's hope that the universities (and the Democrat party) grow a spine.
35
"Clinton called it out...reverse racism..." Reverse racism? Racism it surely is, but "reverse racism" as a term is not accurate and robs 'racism' of its historical and cruel meaning. "Reverse racism" is a sloppy term--inaccurate, blunt, and counter-productive. It would be similar, but not the same, as the Spartan and Athenian and Macedonian..."Reverse racism" relieves slavery of not just its blood-soaked history, but of its economic, social, and unique unforgivable American sin; its original sin which will forever damn this country.
There are jerks in every generation. I can say that because I'm 72, male, white, and am a wounded Vietnam veteran who has been all over this country, and have seen enough different Americans to conclude that white Americans are my least favorite ethnic group in this country. I can't be as arrogant as most of my generation or yours or whatevers, to draw any conclusions about any generational cohort. We all seem to carry around enough ethno-temperocentrism to conclude consciously or subconsciously that our age cohort is infected with something a little special. You and your "junior totalitarians" of the left (!) are equally ridiculous. Your right-wing totalitarians are far more dangerous and moronic than any self-righteous American leftist has ever been. You should keep columns like this to yourself for at least five working days before submitting it for publication.
'Dog, truth, hard work' or something? I like "Onward, Through the Fog", myself.
38
By definition, Biden has had many Sister Souljah moments. His "act(s) of repudiation designed to signal to centrist voters that the politician is not beholden to traditional" groups in his base include "dissing" civil libertarians with his Patriot Act cheerleading, communities of color by authoring the crime bill and talking about 'predators,' women in his appalling treatment of Hill and decades long refusal to take responsibility, consumers with his backing of regressive bankruptcy reform, veterans in his cheerleading of neocon interventionist boondoggles, the downwardly mobile younger generation drowning in student debt in the gig economy, workers-despite his pr image- with his pushing of trade pacts and treaties that are a gift to multinational corporations but gut middle America.
He has, however, always had a lot of nice things to say about guys like Strom Thurmond and Dick Cheney and Mike Pence. And rich people. And giant corporations. "Can't we all just get along?!" "Compromise! Unity!"
The writer of this opinion piece displays the same insular arrogance. I was a lot more conservative than I am now back when Clinton pulled the very calculated stunt. Even I, knee-jerk conservative naive kid, recognized the grotesque cynicism of the maneuver.
Biden is a bad pick. Horrible. Worse than Clinton. In pursuing 5% of the mythical moderate Republicans he would depress turnout of Dems/Indies 20%. Please, Dems, for once in your damn lives, learn the right lessons.
44
I'd take a millenial over reach to protect human rights, women's dignity, gay acceptance and racial fairness any day over a baby boomers' selfish whining, any day of the week.
83
Oh thanks, Bret Stephens, for throwing yet more gasoline on a most-unnecessary fire.
Are there rhetorical excesses? Yes, and you employ more than a few yourself.
Younger people are voicing the rage of their generation, targeting offenses that have persisted for decades, generations, after they were first called out in the 1960s. You can't blame them for wondering why. And you also can't blame them for being young and for shouting out what they see--it was a child, after all, who stepped out of role and shouted that the Emperor has no clothes on.
Even since America acquiesced to consumption as it's first principle, of course generations saturated in it as children will have trouble breaking through that immense psychic obstacle, yet they are struggling to do just that. Running Weinstein's lawyer out of their dorm? You seem to be equating this to marching through UVa chanting "Jews will not replace us." Perhaps it is you whose perspective is too skewed to think clearly.
Really, the difference between Biden and Bernie is not nearly so wide as you might think (or hope?). Each belongs to the "reality based community" that George W's people openly scorned. What do you get when you scorn reality? Well--do I even need to point it out?
33
Oh dear, the Boomers have emerged from the golf course and deciding on their next river cruise to be mad at these pesky young people. I hate to break it to you but when you pass away and your wealth is passed on, this generation is going to to things their own way (they already are). You do have all of the money for now while on this mortal coil, but you can't buy respect. Get used to it, because you're acting just as "offended" as these young people who are pointing out your flaws and irrelevance.
41
“Icy codes of personal decorum?” “Exuberant human warmth?” These words could only be written by someone who has never, and will never, have to tolerate an unwelcome touch from a person in a position of power over them. A too-long or too-tight hug, a creepy shoulder rub, a joke about how nice you look (wink wink), the press of a male body into your back on the subway...these are all ways men communicate, intentionally or not, that our bodies are not fully our own. Have we decided that’s not ok any more? Oh yes, yes we have. And it’s about time. Biden, Stephens and men like them show disrespect for all women by brushing off our insistence on being in control of who gets to touch us as “coddled and censorious.”
69
Definitely a positive about Biden I admit I hadn't considered. He's not easily intimidated. He's been around long enough and has experienced enough personal tragedy to resist the perpetually offended Twitter mobs.
38
“The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year, but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left. Now is Biden’s chance to make it clear he’s just the man to fulfill that hope.”
Sad, but probably true. The “sensible center”, no doubt exclusively composed of white men and their enablers, will do anything to hold onto power,even vote for Joe, like the Times.
19
What's with all this lumping of people into groups that define who they are? When I was coming of age and into my rage against the machine, I was bound and determined to tear all the houses down, including the one I was ostensibly beholden to - the peace and love generation. We are supposed to hew to our own way at that age, not fall in line with any 'ism' until we find out who we are and what we want to be.
You don't have the right to not be offended. You have the right to be offended about anything you like. Just don't expect a medal or a movement to justify your feelings.
When I came back from my two year walkabout through Europe and God only knows where else in 1974 sporting rolled up blue jeans and knee high silver boots, I offended many delicate sensibilities in Hicktown Alberta. I offended many more with my attitude. So what? I was supposed to stifle my freedom to say, think, wear, whatever I wanted so as not to cause offense? I don't think so.
We all need to show some 'intestinal fortitude' as Bret says and get some perspective. Cover boy, James Charles, an example of sensitivity run amok. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrspugliano/6183156618
Do I think he and the woman he 'offended' represent a generation? Absolutely not. They are a tribe and have every right to that fiefdom. I and millions of others could care less. Go Joe Biden! And come back Al Franken!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrspugliano/6183156618
11
Gen Z here!
According to an article I just researched, in the 2016 election there was a slight majority of Gen X and Millennial voters to baby boomers. My generation, most of which can't even vote, is the most politically passionate and vocal. There is a higher youth demographic of voters than ever before. Maybe there's more youth, or maybe we just actually care. We use our instagram and our snapchat to share our political beliefs and ideas and inform people. I'd also like to mention that baby boomers parented my generation. You cultivated us and our life choices, it's kinda your fault we're all like this. I'll admit, sometimes we put a twisted version of social justice ahead of our morals and respecting opinions, but the cases you mentioned are outliers. Thank you for the article. Have a nice day, and please remember to think before you write.
Here's the article I used for information. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/
36
it sounds like he is describing Republicans...projection.
16
"but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left"
Are you kidding? I'd vote for one of those obnoxious millennials if it would lead to Trump LOSING!
19
Mr. Biden is criticized for commenting that he has “no empathy” for the attitude of certain millennials. Perhaps a poor choice of words for a politician. But ironic given that our President is a sociopath, and by definition has literally no empathy whatever. Trump’s total lack of concern for anyone except himself underlies most of the damage that he has inflicted upon America. Very rarely (Germany 1930 for example) and likely never in our own nation has the mental derangement of a single individual caused such damage.
27
Where could the young people have learned to mount such vicious attacks on people with whom they disagree? From Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr? From the anti-abortion leaders who From Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his attorney Roy Cohn (who taught Donald Trump how to do it)?
21
Bret Stephens has become an inane sniveler. And on top of that he does not understand what free speech means. The government may not censor free speech, but the rest of us can.
His next article will be titled "Get off my lawn or I'll shoot you--Free Speech!!"
His complaining gives complaining a bad name, and worse he uses stereotypes, Gen Z my patootie.
Sistah Soulhah was not Clinton's finest moment, but like most right wing racist conservatives, you didn't look deeper into the comment, because you just liked it and praised Clinton for it.
And hey! What about all those white on white murders over all those years and decades? When will Bret address that? Not a peep.
Free speech does not mean that it's fine to have Charles Murray arguing his racist views over and over. He's had his say, and he can shut up now. Racists are for free speech when it's racist because it reflects their racists views. "Conseratives" are for free speech when it is conservative because it reflects their racists conservative views, but denigrate it if doesn't.
20
I have to lay blame for many of the problems described, not to mention the existential threat posed by Trump and the morality-free GOP, at the feet of inept, greedy media.
11
Maybe Bret is just jealous of the trolling and click-baiting skills of the younger generations--skills he's clearly quite desperate to deploy himself. See, for instance, this piece and almost every other one Bret has ever put out.
(Also, he's a climate-change denier. Excuse me, "climate agnostic." Isn't that as cute as a millennial?)
18
Millennials invented most of the stuff that Bret Stephens and his older buddies use. So, shut up!
9
“Forty percent of Americans under age 35 tell pollsters they think the First Amendment is dangerous because you might use your freedom to say something that hurts somebody else’s feelings.”
— Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), at a Senate hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, April 10, 2018
The real number in other polls with tighter wording is a lot lower, but still substantial. That should be worrisome
15
Each time I glance at one of Bret's columns, I'm frustrated with myself for wasting my time.
25
I can see both sides of this. I'm in my sixties and grew up surrounded by horrendously sexist and racist attitudes and comments. We relentlessly called them out at the time, and I think we laid the groundwork for more enlightened behaviour (although we suspected--and in the Trump era these suspicions are confirmed--that a lot of the misogynists and bigots would come scuttling out of the woodwork when they perceived their time had come round again)--I don't imagine a young office worker today would have to endure the kind of overt body appraisals to which we were subjected or have to talk to her boss in an office papered with Hustler photos.
I would not be able in this space to reproduce the racial and ethnic slurs I routinely heard even in a slightly more enlightened country like Canada, and that's as it should be.
On the other hand, by constantly thought-policing and trying to shut down the public expression of others' opinions, the self-righteous, doctrinaire young are effectively telling the rest of us that we're too stupid to analyse the logical fallacies and dog-whistles spewed by the bigots. Yes, some people are indeed too stupid--the zombified masses at Trump rallies unhappily recall Hitler's dupes at the Nuremberg rallies--but I suspect that most of us aren't. Unfortunately, these tactics (especially when the zealous gloss over the grey areas of inconvenient truths) create further division and give ammunition to the loony right.
24
A fading ex Republican hopes the nation picks a guy who is shadowboxing against a consistently debunked trope of a generation that is furious because HIS generation wrecked the country? Come on, NYT, do better.
We Millennials are the last chance for our civilization. Instead of whining (typical limp-wristed boomer, complain and vote Republican while getting your own generational definitions wrong, the college students you are railing against are the Z's - who I adore) why don't you help us?
Signed - ex military, current educator, primary voter, MILLENNIAL SNOWFLAKE.
10
I’m not sure when it became kosher to stereotype an entire generation and claim doing so is just standard operating procedure when that generation supposedly doesn’t understand how the world works. Wouldn’t the same have been said about kids in anti-Vietnam protests in 1968? To paint all young people in the country as Coachella-going, offensively offended, vacuous idiots is blatantly irresponsible and moreover makes Bret Stephens look like a sad old member of the SDS still upset about youth influence. Violent mobs are bad. A little public shaming when someone has been wronged? Seems more productive than not. But maybe everything I’ve written is invalid, maybe all I am is part of a generational outrage machine! Sorry Bret, but I’m offended!
9
Nice to see some balance re Biden in the Times! I was starting to think the NYT was committed to sabotaging his candidacy.
Twenty somethings have it hard today - as do 30 somethings, 40, somethings, 50 somethings, 60 somethings, 70 somethings, etc. The situation with the high cost of college & college loans is outrageous, unfair, immoral, and stupid in my 76 year old opinion. But so is the situation with the bewildering jungle of private health insurance plans, private healthcare providers - not to mention the absence of accessible human beings in all large corporations, and the forced reliance on robotic voices & stupid "menus" that have always "changed" on the phone. The digital/virtual culture is profoundly alienating for many of us older folks. Oh, and yes I do love the blues, and hate rap music. Wanna make something out of it, kid?
14
Shocking, millennial commenters are expressing indignation.
15
This column reveals more about Bret Stephens than it does about so-called Millennials. The Nazis had a similar tendency, assigning stereotypes to entire groups. So did the KKK. Is that the company Stephens wants to keep?
15
old_man_yells_at_cloud.jpg
20
Ah yes let's cherrypick a handful of incidents which are exceedingly rare and actually just ignore all garbage coming from the right on college campuses. Sure let's give nazi's a platform to speak. Bret Stephens climate denier and buffoon yet still manages to have a column at the NYT.
21
Frankly, I’m just sick of people describing themselves with these “millennial” or “baby boomer” labels.
16
Bret, there is no doubt that there is little shortage of instances of political correctness from the left worthy of being call out. However, we learned all we need to know about you (somehow preposterously placing yourself in the “sensible center” - ha!) when you noted that you will have no problem with the strain of political correctness advanced by Trump, and his collection of Alt-Righters, bible thumpers, and other social warriors. Funny how one man’s political correctness meter only registers half the time. In other words, you are VERY comfortable supporting Trump in most instances and your ridiculous pose of being a Never Trumper is fully exposed by your own words. Look in the mirror, and realize your own fundamental moral failings before you run out on your front porch and yell “you kids better get off of my lawn!”
9
Apparently Stephens can’t say loudly enough that he is NOT talking about every millenial, and NOT every GenXer, but ONLY those “who specialize in histrionic self-pity and moral self-righteousness.”
I’m not sure quite what the prob is there, given that he pretty much just says, “I’m talking about the narcissistic little jerks who don’t seem to have anything productive to do, and like to stand around screaming at anybody they disagree with.” And the most he has to say that’s negative about the stuff they’re upset by boils down to, “Geez, grow a sense of proportion, and let even the idiots talk.”
Yeah, that’s fascism, all right.
I don’t take the PC cops nearly as seriously as many do—I mean, we’re talking maybe five percent of the lunacy that characterizes any given episode of Tucker Carlson’s raree show—but I do think that shutting down speech is a terrible idea no matter how right you think you are, that being a Yale atudent isn’t exactly suffering through the Middle Passage, and that too many people have howling confused with political action.
So maybe read more than the headline and first para? So you don’t end up sounding like what you’re swearing you don’t sound like?
5
This is ripe. As if any had a choice of which generation they were born into.
Essay after essay, pointing fingers.
The russian troll farm just took the weekend off.
Spoiled and stupid. All of us.
1
Well, the problem is, mr. Stephens, that those millennials will be the ones who will be cleaning your generations' drool from your mouth and changing your geriatric diapers. So, if you don't want an elder abuse epidemic, best treat them nicely.
7
So typical for his TV generation; point the finger and hurl invective. I’m going to check in on this one in his nursing home in a few years and see how he’s enjoying his millennial care givers. Then I’ll hand them all a copy of this opinion piece that the NYT was brave enough to publish.
4
Wow Bret Stephens! Probably the worst article I’ve ever read from NYT.
15
People, people, people...
2
Mostly
They are spoiled brats. Period.
8
Boomer: the column
8
When picking on young people to criticize, it might be good to include at least one of the the worst of the lot.
Why does conservative Stephens forget to add for his scorn, the young what's-his-name who drove his car into the protesters in Charlottesville killing a young woman?
10
Another republican kid, hissing into the wind.
6
I, Bret Stephens, a Republican Conservative, endorse and support the most Republican, Conservative Democrat.
There, that's the whole column. It's ridiculous, and why the Times gives a blowhard like Stephens a paycheck mystifies me.
ps. I was alive for Nixon. I don't want Biden. But thanks for reinforcing that belief, Mr. S.
22
Interesting when this lifelong Democrat agrees with every word of a Bret Stephens column.
8
"Maximum snark," Mr Stephens? Ha! Nobody administers that better than you do. And is Rakesh Khurana this week's Ilhan Omar for you?
Your condemnation of "those who recklessly participate in the search-and-destroy missions of the call-out culture" in order "to allege an invisible harm in order to inflict an actual one" is pure unadulterated projection. And you're flattering yourself if you honestly think it's your own "Sister Souljah moment."
7
Atta boy, Brett. Stoke a generational divide among the Democrats. The Russian bots could not have done it better!
15
Nothing says histrionic self-pity, moral self-righteousness, and maximum snark than an op-ed in the New York Times that calls out a handful of students at elite universities and expects them to stand in for an entire generation.
13
Get off my lawn!
3
Thank you, Mr. Stephens, for you are always honest when taking up the gauntlet, and saying it the way you feel is right.
At the beginning of your attempt to bring us to our senses in 'The Feeling is Mutual', it was reminiscent of a recent exchange between a father and son, where the latter is wedging in adolescent angst wishing that he had never been born. His father retorts that if he had known that his progeny was so pathetic, he would have regretted it too.
Irish-Americans are not 'indestructible', as my father once wrote, but rise to the fore and show courage when it counts. My sire went on to write that at the origins of mankind, we had Jewish blood coursing through our veins. He was a great one for nuzzling on occasion, and his warm nature could not make it otherwise, while all hell broke loose, if you made an unfounded derogatory comment on another soul.
Joe Biden has the strength and substance, the seasoned experience and weathered many a storm, to carry our Nation through to 2020, with the support of all Americans, regardless of age, gender or complexion.
He would be our 'Rainbow' President; a true American and believer in his country, who cares for those of us who have less, and laced with his compassion, understanding and love for The People, he might take us far on the wings of a dove, with a gleam of the eagle in his eye.
Taking the liberty of joining Mr. Stephens in saying 'Keep it up, Joe!', and bring back our country to strong and safe shores.
7
I want to outlive most of my fellow baby boomers. I just want to see the world when it isn’t dominated by us aging, prejudiced, selfish fools.
8
#Poorme. The emergence of the " your are bad" movement is a metaphor for our cultural sense of entitlement. Entitled to attack everyone because it is a free country, entitled to reperations because of the sins of forefathers , entitled to a job or someone else's job because of skin color, entitled to a specical rating on the SATs to show your suffering.
Stupid as stupid does and the constant taking offense at other's words,.not on content, but on who said it, has backfired badly. Men steer clear of women in private, people avoid tough sujects so as not to offend. How does silence and intrimidation further dialogue and change?I am as liberal as you an be.I beleive in freedom of speech aad3nd thought and differing opinions. Oops was that the wrong thing to say? s
4
Ew. Gross take.
5
Arg! If Brett doesn’t have the voice of a TV pirate when he speaks in person it would be seriously disappointing.
Arg! Millennials, arg liberals, arg!!
2
Retired Boomer here, Brett.
It seems to me that Millennials (those born between 1981-1996) have much to angry, frustrated, cynical and disillusioned about.
Many started their lives in the dismal - yes dismal - Reagan years when avuncular Ronnie’s feed-the-greed-of-the-rich policies put paid to the “we’ll do better than our parents” notion. “Tear down that wall Mr. Gorbachov, while I build an impenetrable wall around the rich and powerful.”
George Bush the First introduced Millennials to endless war and to the rule-of-law-be-damned pardons and coverup of Reagan’s Iran-Contra treason.
The first internet president, Bill Clinton, gave Millenials a roaring economy, a stained blue dress, and a virulent strain of political polarization that persists.
In the first year of George Bush the Second’s catastrophic presidency (aka the Dick Cheney years), the entire Millennial cohort was broadsided by the 24/7, 9/11 fear and trauma we all live with today. Bush-Cheney preyed on that fear. Mission Accomplished indeed.
Things got so hopeless that America bet on Hope in 2008 and doubled down in 2012. By any real measure President Obama was superior to all his Millennial-era predecessors. Yes, any real measure. There was - briefly - reason for optimism.
But in 2016 optimism vaporized. Hope gave way to chaos.
The oldest of the Millennials are in their late 30s, many still with college debt. The youngest are in their early 20s, many still living at home.
They’ve earned their disillusionment.
19
Trying to shame and blame millenials into voting for Biden will backfire. Bad idea. Try to approach them on their own terms and you might get somewhere. That is, unless you're greatly looking forward to Trump's second term, in which case I advise you to follow the above strategy.
I personally see a generation that is passionate about social justice and our warming planet. There are too many issues that are passed over with the gentleman's-agreement-like polite silence that prevails in 'liberal' circles; I say good for millenials for exposing the hypocrisy.
Also - we have bequeathed them a world that is going to hell in a handbasket. Can we be honest about that at least?
6
I remember when the first picture of George Washington with a crewcut appeared - the reactionary creation of those horrified by men with long hair:
"The world is coming to an end, men are becoming women, blacks are getting the vote" and most frightening of all to the far right corporatists who began the movement that led to Reagan, Gingrich, Limbaugh and Trump, "A whole generation doesn't care about amassing endless material goods."
So what percentage of baby boomers didn't care about devoting a life to the accumulation of stuff? 10%? 5% (more likely .003% or so)
*****
So here I go again, now in defense of millennials:
First, (sorry for shouting) THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS IDENTITY POLITICS OR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS - at least, not as a mass issue.
David Horowitz is among the think tank members from the 1990s who extracted the most obnoxious neo-Marxist statements about false consciousness from a few obscure and unreadable academics and figured out (quite correctly) these words represented a potential goldmine for scamming the gullible public. Tarring a whole generation (as Stephens does here, no doubt being familiar with Horowitz-inspired propaganda, if not Horowitz' writing itself) when actually, about .03% may be the number involved, this is either pure lying or pure delusion.
Don't believe the trite sensationalism you read and see online. More millennials than baby boomers are aware of the desperate straights we are in. Wake up!
www.remember-to-breathe.org
6
"I’ve been saying for a while now that both parties could use a Sister Souljah moment, in which a candidate shows the intestinal fortitude to rebuke some obnoxious person or faction within his political base. "
1. You might take a touch of your own advice and rebuke Donald Trump once in a while, instead of doing so by failure to praise him or Mitch McConnell for his frequent almost unconstitutional actions or any of the other Republicans whose actions are repugnant in their stripping of rights from others.
2. Your damning of over reaching on the other side of the political spectrum is not the same thing, although I give you credit for nicely damniong the other side without it being obvious that you have done so.
2
Baby Boomers legacy is leaving a WORSE America for futures generations, and they know it. So they'll say things like "oh you're just entitled, lazy, always offended and don't know how the world works!" And we should just be SOO lucky to have an 80 year old walking corpse who has nothing new to offer but the same old failed politics? Spoken like a true idiot boomer!
9
Taking down the Puritan wing of the Democratic Party would be a relief.
The neo-Puritans distract from the bread and butter issues that matter most to average folks.
Bread and butter issues also matter most to the economic elite, the political donor/bribery class, who want to keep all the bread and butter for themselves.
“Please, little people,” I hear them say, “squabble about pronouns, wedding cakes, and micro-aggressions while we laugh all the way to the bank.”
Biden might be the guy to take down the neo-Puritan millennials, but he’s not the guy to take down the economic elite. He’s their handmaiden.
If the only way we get some economic equity is to listen to millennial bleating about safe spaces, I’ll suck it up. Biden isn’t getting my vote, regardless.
4
Another "kids these days" bla bla bla peice. Very original! Can we all stop blaming other generations for parts of society that we don't now like? Like my mom told me, suck it up butter cup! Life ain't always fair or fun. Deal with it.
3
Spanish proverb:
"Don't pee in the well; you may be thirsty tomorrow."
5
Today’s hell-bent left-wing millennials will become tomorrow’s Republicans.
That will happen when they discover the real world. My fellow Vietnam-era peaceniks can now be found on Wall Street.
Their coddled homes, coddled campuses, and coddled “offendaphobia” will disappear when they actually have skin in the game.
7
My cousin unearthed a 1940s vinyl recording of his grandfather complaining about the "younger generation." That generation he was complaining about was later dubbed 'the greatest generation." I think a major sign of being an old fart is that you start complaining about the younger generation. Growing up in the 60s I recall many self-righteous, snarky, "don't trust anyone over 30" types. It's part of being young, yet unjaded, and thinking you actually can make things better.
5
Great column - Young people have earned nothing and done nothing but offer their heavily curated FB profiles and call-out culture meme's on Twitter.
The pathetic begging for forgiveness by O'Rourke for being white is one example of the insane pressure politicians face when dealing with clueless young people. White privilege? That's the new guilt trip heaped on white Americans in order to bludgeon them into voting on irrelevant social issues and against their own economic interests.
I give Trump credit. He stands and defends his beliefs and damned to the rest.
And one thing about political correctness before they close the comments section - it's a joke. There is not substitute for good manners, so jettison your fear that you have to be politically correct.
7
Sounds like we’re in for a summer of love—or a long hot summer of hell, depending on your age and your politics... like it’s 1967 all over again. “Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / It starts when you’re always afraid...” so sang the Buffalo Springfield in the winter of 1966. By the summer of 1967, all hell had broken loose. Does history repeat itself?
2
I don’t want any of the Democratic candidates right now, though I will not vote for Trump. I’m tired of people apologizing or not apologizing or discussing identity politics at all, for that matter. I care about affordable health care. I care about jobs that pay a living wage. I care about bolstering the social safety et. I care about national security. I am irritated and a little appalled by whiny Ivy League college kids who shout down speakers and hold protests over the so called cultural appropriation of cafeteria food or demand that instructors be fired over pronoun usage. I fear these overprivileged kids will gain power in the workforce and government, so I am unlikely to vote for anyone who supports their positions.
6
There are many things this country could do without. One is to stop, please stop, labeling the generations. We don't need more sides to stand on, more dividing lines and more ways to distain each other, which I find increasingly in the workplace in particular. We can say the words "be kind" to our little ones, but it means nothing until we actually teach them the fine art of the three D's: discourse, debate and deliberation.
6
Regarding the Sullivan dismissal I am reminded how the general civic sensibility that we are a "nation of laws" continues to lose ground in favor of the "nation of feelings" ethos. Once upon a time a majority of college students' sense of emotional entitlement infecting the value of a dispassionate pursuit of truth and justice was typically, and at times painfully, trained out of them in favor of the bigger picture.
The Sullivan dismissal merely highlights this institutional sea change and the blurring of our institutional lines. A complete legal defense once far outweighed society's feelings concerning reprehensibilities a criminal defendant might have been accused of or otherwise possess, and malice towards a criminal defense attorney was indicative of unworldliness. A functioning system of laws with high standards of ethics, process, and burdens of proof meant that yes, sometimes malfeasors went free, but also ensured the unlikelihood of innocent persons being deprived of life and liberty.
Now it would seem that even the so-called educated class residing within the pantheon of Ivy League-ness, intuiting the big picture and being able to see the larger societal values beneath the surface has given way to "we have the right to not be offended." It is societal narcissism really, and within it true north is not easily discerned, the masses are easily controlled, and our sometimes boring but formerly aspiring to be blindly fair society is falling with no end in sight.
4
As much as I like both Joe Biden and Bernie Saunders and respect their attitudes and politics including Biden's telling off some of the millennials (especially those at the elite schools), realistically speaking there are some problems. First, speaking as a fellow Boomer, they're both too old to be president (it's an energy thing, not a lack of good ideas, we're tiring out). Second, the younger generations are going to see "the chickens come home to roost" in terms of the environment, so have a right to be upset with corporate America and special interest greed (see Jared Diamond and James Hansen for well-written explanations of the details) as well as having a chance to try to prevent it. Both Diamond and Hansen are worried about the world they're leaving their children and grandchildren; so am I. Let the Gen Xers and the Millennials try to stop the train wreck, I'll bet that the ultra PC stuff will fade away once they have to deal with messy reality.
4
The best essay by Stephens in a long time. Calling out the Bernie bros is spot on. Like Sanders, who is a Democrat of convenience, they denounce and reject the party that will actually make their lives better when their faux-socialist opinions are rebuffed by actual voters. Bernie did well in undemocratic caucuses and got crushed in primary sates where Democrats actually got a chance to vote. The voting booth, not selfies on Facebook, is where they could make a contribution to defeating Trump. Stop pouting and step up, Millennials.
4
I certainly agree with the gist of this argument, which is that some (too many) young people are interacting badly with technologies, specifically the smart phone, and social media. They have found a way to power through conformity and a simple-minded adherence to what is for lack of a better word, the "party line." However, two things: If many of these youngsters have what amounts to a zero tolerance policy toward racism and sexism, isn't that an improvement of the zero tolerance policies in the schools and criminal justice system of the recent past, which had terrible consequences for people of color? Second, I have a problem with the generational approach, which in its classifying is bound to miss the mark. Generations X, Y , Z. Go back and have a good look. They were each considered lazy, self-centered, unfocused, unrealistic, etc. In fact, young people are never so different. They're a mash-up of idealism, energy, and simplicity, a combination guaranteed to annoy, but important nevertheless.
2
Thank you, Bret. This needed to be said and you said it well.
7
I have tremendous sympathy for younger Americans and even if we had a decent human being as president, we'd still be in one hell of a mess.
But it's a terrible, fatal mistake to think everybody who sees Trump for what he is, sees the world the way you do. Removing Trump will be diffiicult. All he has to do is peel off a few angry, scared people, telling them they're going to get tired of winning. The Democrat has to have an actual plan and sell it to a cross section of Americans. Even the concept of making America great again is twisted, but it impressed a lot of people.
3
Millennials suck. Now if we could just do something about their music!
6
@DaveD LOL! Some millennial accused me of being old. I told him, "I may be old but I got to see all the good bands!"
8
The point of the anti-Biden sentiment and of surfacing that video is to say this: "You baby boomers screwed up this country for the rest of us." And they're right! Biden is more of the same, and at best, an empty suit. While it's creative to see anti-Biden statements as evidence of a totalitarian movement, your comments reflect how deaf high-status people have been to and are, to the needs of our country, climate, and economy, and to our future.
6
@anonymouse "You baby boomers screwed up this country for the rest of us." Probably many did, but let's not forget who marched against America's adventurist wars, demanded equal rights for women and minorities, and kick-started the environmental movement. And I must regretfully observe that, as a woman in my sixties who learned frugality and conservation from her Depression-era parents, I'm a lot less consumerist and more environmentally aware than most of the young people I know, who think nothing of taking twenty-minute showers, flying everywhere, drinking bottled water, etc.
12
I’m 66 years old and I absolutely support Millennials concerns about where this world is headed. Things are really, really screwed up, and the path to remediation can only begin with anger. Now, let us get to work!
7
Has a Russian troll been given access to the Times' opinion page? This "fight" between generational cohorts is exactly the thing that will cause progressives to lose the general election. Just when I thought the forces of reason were beginning to see that and the generational pokes and jabs were disappearing from public discourse, along comes Mr. Stephens and stokes the generationalist fires once again. What an utterly unproductive (indeed, destructive) waste of time and energy! This only benefits the 1%, the Current Occupant, and his enablers. As the old movie line goes, "Follow the money." The fight isn't about years, it's about dollars. The real fight is an economic one not a generational one, not between those over 50 and those under 50 but between the uber-wealthy and the rest of us. So knock this crap off and start working together for the betterment of everyone.
9
BS knows what the "Souljah moment" was really about; Triangulation. About which constituency the democratic party would answer to.Telling White people its safe to vote for Bill, cause he's not really listening to the uppity blacks. Every commentator says this about the Sista Souljah moment. Except Bret Stephens who says its really about calling out the radicals in your base. Was Souljah apart of the Dem base? When it comes to settling white voters fears on the race issues of the day, Joe Biden is even further along in that regard than Bill Clinton. Some whites were too happy to see him and Clinton pass the 90's crime Bill. He's worked with Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helmes on busing issues and even had nice things to say about them. This article obfuscates the actually policy problems of moderates in the democratic party by focusing on the actions of activists in schools and entertainment. Joe Biden is literally a Sister Souljah moment. Obama was letting the banks know he wasn't really coming for them, and assuaging nervous whites in the country. Partly a pragmatic pick, and an ideological position that its best to govern from the center. Last point, the last ten years proves that one party is unwilling to compromise though. Obama made efforts to work with republicans. He put cuts to entitlements on the table but guys like Bret Stephens will always find some rough spot to focus on in order to maintain the status quo.
3
One note, Bret: There just as many aggrieved students at conservative and evangelical universities - you don't hear about them because those schools don't offer any sort of diversity of views, period.
10
Stephens gives Biden too much credit. He may not have explicitly apologized to Anita Hill, but he did mumble about remorse, and possibly doing it differently this time around.
He has regretted his involvement in tough on crime legislation in the 90s, in conformance with current liberal orthodoxy.
About the only thing he hasn't indirectly apologized for is the Biden Rule, under which Presidents should not nominate Supreme Court Justices in an election year (that's 1992, to be precise. 2018: well, that's different.)
He would garner a lot more cred if he defended heartily what he did (What? you mean accusers seeking to derail a Supreme Court nomination should not be questioned carefully and aggressively? Kamala Harris does quite well in the eyes of the left with her stern "yes or no?" style at Congressional hearings. But those are white men.)
This is precisely what Trump does, and why such a large part of the electorate respects him enough to vote for him, warts notwithstanding. Trump fights back, a quality that Democrats pine for in their dreams, but just wish it were pushed in a contrary policy direction.
Yes, he fights back, even when the attacker is a member of a currently lionized group (female: Harris; gay: Buttigieg; skateboarders: Beto). Amazing, that.
2
Millennials are way too old by now for the way they behave but it's not entirely their fault. They have grown up in the social media culture of pettiness and constant derision--they don't really know any other way.
6
I applaud the trajectory of this piece, in stark contrast to Jill Filopovic's unguided missive here today "Does Anyone Actually Want Joe Biden to be President?, in which she characterized Biden as "an older white man tightly associated with sexual harassment and racism."
A Russian hacker couldn't have put it better.
And, in fact, who needs the Russians to meddle in our elections when we have our own incendiaries to sow doubts with such completely false statements?
4
Wow...Bret! You need to get out more and meet some Millennials! We are the parents of two Millennials, our sons are college graduates, husbands and fathers, work ungodly hours in Tech! We are proud that they are well-read, well informed and care deeply about the future of our planet and our nation!
People are too quick to judge and condemn an entire generation because of a few who are loud and getting attention! Remember, how our parents generation viewed the Baby Boomers protesting Vietnam?! We were right to protest Vietnam.
Millennials are right to fight FOR social justice, a fair LIVABLE wage and the health of the planet...Earth!
11
Biden, of all people, should be empathetic to people who say things that don't age well.
4
Thanks, Brett! Terrific column. I liked it if for no other reason than the phrase 'junior totalitarians'. Perfect.
4
Always good to read this writer, who doesn't denigrate by way of generalization or stereotype according to his "Tut,Tut" political "leanings," even though, like others of his party, he is afraid millennials will hold the privileged that are the Republican Party and "conservatives" in this "for the people" land accountable for the immeasurable damage they have done to American culture and its once noble institutions.
Wouldn't it strike Brett Stephens mute if the winner of the Democratic primary picked Tulsi Gabbard as a running mate? If you want gravitas stacked with progressive enlightenment, that is the ticket.
1
"The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year, but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left. Now is Biden’s chance to make it clear he’s just the man to fulfill that hope"
Please Mr. Right Wing sophist do not confuse your "hope" with sensibility, or with just plain common sense for that matter.
The vast majority of those who will vote democratic in the 2020 election and who are for any of the other 23 are definitely not going to vote for Joe because he will never get the nomination. I think that Joe will finish this brief pause into the shadows of history soon. He may not make it past the first round.
2
We shouldn't define the majority from the acts of a few. There's a great amount of frustration directed at the current presidential administration and the ideologies it empowers, which is reason enough to understand what has happened in Middlebury.
I believe the students assaulting Allison Stanger was wrong, but that does not mean I should disagree with their attempts to shut down Charles Murray. Allowing 'different viewpoints' for the sake of conversation itself, rather than setting limits on the intolerable, only gives incompatible beliefs influence.
Research that has been largely funded by the Pioneer Fund, a non-profit closely ingrained with America's far right, should not be part of political discussions, much less in college campuses.
"The signature move in each of these instances [...] is to allege an invisible harm in order to inflict an actual one."
You do not have to be with "cancel culture" to agree that, in the case of Middlebury, white supremacists should not have an influential platform.
@G
Re you remarks about boomers:
"I’m tired of the OLDER generations’ whining and entitlement. Move aside. You’ve done enough damage."
I'm a boomer and Pre Iraq 2003, while teaching abroad I put a large picture of W up on my front door with his eyes x-ed out and w/ the word terrorist at the bottom in red paint.
Re the recession, it was caused by Congressional deregulation of banks, which was the work of some boomers and pre boomers, but certainly cannot be attributed to me and me with my humble teacher pay and a whole generation.
The author of this article is not "branding" a whole generation:
“In this election cycle, no faction on the Democratic side more richly deserves rebuking than the one Biden singled out — which is not, of course, anywhere close to the entire millennial generation (roughly 80 million strong), or their younger siblings in Gen Z"
We demonstrated against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many boomers have been at the forefront of working to - save the planet.
Note that many of us still have our own student debt that many are still paying on it into their 50's& 60's (I did).
I would appreciate you not lumping all of us into the category of - those that have ruined the US and the world.
Thanks
4
The very same millennials who waste inordinate amounts of time whining on social media about their offensive dejour can't seem to find the time or muster the same hysteria when it comes to actually carrying enough to vote. Unless they find their perfect candidate who rallies to their causes they will not bother themselves. After all Hillary and Trump are exactly alike right? Of course not, but now we have 2 more judges on the SC that care more about controlling a woman's uterus and corporations as people than democracy, for decades to come. Presidents may change every 4 years members of SCOTUS are there long enough to change our countries freedoms. Do you really think Hillary would have put forth Gorsuch and Kavanaugh as nominees? Can your widdle eyes see the difference now?
7
These spineless cave-in's by our great universities are appalling. They should be standing up for free speech and diversity of opinions, instead of playing doormat to a handful of students and internet frenzies. What is going on with these University Deans? Are they really afraid no one will ever apply to Harvard again if the university administration doesn't fall down in submission to the ignorance of students who don't understand civil rights? My political views are progressive, by the way.
4
@christine I taught at a university for a couple of decades and quit when it became apparent that the ONLY issue for administrators is keeping the fee-fodder coming back. To retain those bums on seats, universities shamelessly suck up to the perceived "needs" of these students, whether those be inflated grades for rubbish work, winking at plagiarism, or the provision of "safe spaces" where doctrinaire views can remain unchallenged. Universities around the world have betrayed their responsibility to society in general and indeed to these young people in particular.
4
You decry identity politics while engaging in identity politics, which is all about us vs them and painting with a broad brush.
Your "sensibe center of America" actually sounds pretty easily offended right now. Which it isn't, since I am part of it politically and demographically and I don't paint with a broad brush or assume that the actions of the loud few determine the attitudes of the many.
Look at those "gen Z" Parkland activists. Were we not proud of them? They call for gun controls. The supposedly old-coot-centrist Joe Biden did more to give us the Assault Weapons Ban than any other politician -- and it really wasn't the reasonable centrist position in the 1990s. But by all means let's fit everyone into our pre-conceived boxes.
These endless wars have been fought by a lot of Millennials. They answered the call, and many gave their lives and limbs in the effort. Are they whiny, entitled brats?
What we need in this country is more listening and less self-righteous shouting -- on all sides.
5
I will never understand the logic by which reprimanding behavior you see as rude is "taking offense" — unless that behavior is offense-taking itself, in which case writing an entire article calling out the culprits is a rational and mature response.
Make no mistake, Bret: you are just as offended as the millennials you criticize. The only difference is that you have the bully pulpit of a New York Times Opinion column rather than a Twitter account.
4
Boomers did not call out racial segregation and discrimination, sexual abuse of children and eugenics; forced sterilizations of women continued until 1981.
That was so much better.
4
Interesting editorial, what happens if he said same of baby boomers. As I understand it by the way Ronald Sullivan was removed in part from his deanship because he was terrorizing Winthrop House. If Harvey Weinstein was needed for cover then at least Harvard did the right thing even if for the wrong reasons. Problems at Winthrop house have been reported for a while This could be correct but until we know the facts its best to withhold judgement.
2
Thank you, Bret, for expressing so very well both why I enthusiastically support Biden for president and why I am so fed up with the millennials.
You nailed it so precisely, in fact, that for perhaps the first time ever in regards to my history of commenting here, I find myself not only with nothing to take issue with, but nothing to add. Well done, sir.
7
So a Republican sowing discord in a key demographic for getting out the vote? Anyone else question the underlying motivation of the author. Generational labels are a protected form of prejudice, and should be dropped. Every generation needs to vote or we get what we deserve.
5
I wonder if Mr. Stephens has millennial children himself. If he did, I doubt he'd think or write any of this. I'd like him to sit down across the table from the millennials I know. The transcript of that conversation might be interesting. This piece isn't.
7
The elders will always complain about the young. It's been this way since (at least) the time of the ancient Greeks. With the passion and idealism of youth typically comes a certain amount of silliness. Perhaps the only real difference is that today is that the elders don't control the means of communication, and the young can disseminate both the good and the silly via social media. It's encouraging that millenials are offended by racism, injustice and sexism. I think it's likely that with growing maturity they will learn to pick their fights a bit more judiciously, and use their considerable energy more productively. Protesting against Halloween costumes or ethnic food in the school cafeteria might feel good but it's not likely to change society.
6
To make pointy criticisms based on a whole generation of people is just wrong. I am Generation X, and most of the people I work with are Millennials. They are a hard working, engaged group of people who care about the world around them. I'm sure that we can find bad groups among all generations, it's just not wise to paint them with such a broad brush.
10
Isolating this behavior as a symptom of being born a millennial is just wrong. There have always been vocal minorities within groups (progressive & conservative) that hold outsize power and wield it against those they feel are in opposition. Each generation must grapple with new threats to civil discourse.
However, this opinion piece feels more like I was just yelled at for throwing a frisbee into old man Skaggs yard. Not a reasoned argument for how to elevate the voices of the quite supermajority over the loud fringe in the digital age we now find ourselves in.
5
Boomers love to think of themselves as politically active and savvy. But I'm a boomer and for 85% of my generation, things like protests, civil rights marches, and sit-ins were the social equivalent of seeing how many bodies can fit into a phone booth, or how many goldfish one can swallow. It was a thing to do because it seemed like everyone was doing it.
After all, that same generation also produced the millions and millions of yahoos that voted for Donald Trump, who couldn't wait to get their hands on the first Gulf War, and whose unlimited supply of sappy sentimentality has produced an ever-rightward drift towards totalitarianism.
Despite all our protests, we've mostly continued to embrace the same assumptions about America as the WWI baby boomers. This new generation is challenging those assumptions. All of them. Every last one.
4
It seems that so much of our political discourse is based on ways to slice and dice our society: millennials, baby boomers, LBGT, progressives, etc. So much for shared values. If this tribal thinking persists, we will become more fragmented than before the Civil War.
4
While Mr. Stephens’ characterization certainly doesn’t apply to all millennials, this GenXer has to agree that it does indeed apply to a noisy contingent of them.
I think back to when I was in university, and Phyllis Schlafly was touring the country, yet again, with her anti-feminist rhetoric. She was scheduled to speak at my school and we couldn’t wait for it. We lobbied the administration for a “debate“ format for her visit — she would speak for a certain amount of time, after which student reps would then have the same amount of time to respond, back and forth throughout the evening. We prepped for months getting ready for this; we eagerly awaited the opportunity to pummel her notions in a public forum. And we did. It was highly satisfying and helped to refine and strengthen our ideals, convictions and arguments.
Not once did we ever consider screaming and yelling that the university cancel her visit. Not once. It never crossed our minds. I never heard an inkling of it, and I never heard of anything of the sort happening at other colleges around the country during her tour. Shutting her down completely was unthinkable to us. Refuting her narrative with facts and reality was not. And it was thrilling.
18
I agree with the piece in that recently many times students have succeeded to for example un-invite speakers at universities even at Berkley just because they didn't agree with their views. But life is actually getting tougher for the younger generations in fact exponentially tougher with the advancement of social media. They can be bullied (and can obviously bully others) 24/7 now, no breaks. And by bully I mean, peer pressured, publicly shamed, been the subject of false rumors, the list is ENDLESS! No generation of "grown ups" has ever had to put up with this kind of relentless pressure. And we wonder why our kids are checking their social feeds constantly. Well that's the reason. They have to stay on top of it or they could suffer dire social consequences. I for one am very pessimistic about these trends changing for the better any time soon, or ever!
3
If these millennial's had parents who voted for Reagan and the Bush family and are overwhelmed with college debt. They need to confront their parents. The attacks on the student loan programs and in indifference to Pell grants were the product of the GOP. Reagan changes to the program were draconian. Focus went from serving the students comforting the banks making the loans.
It was also the GOP that has fought vigorously against any increase in the minimum wage over the years. Now they are hellbent of controlling the body of every women not just millennials in the country.
8
I like any Democratic candidate who can beat Trump. Period.
For those still pulling for Bernie, you may want to put your chips in w/ another of the more progressive candidates. Politico ran a piece yesterday about his trip to the USSR in the late 80's (complete w/ documentary footage); that'll go over real well in the general election w/ mainstream voters (which is to say much of the electorate).
As for the millenials: They have a good bit to gripe about given how their predecessors took an abundance of wealth and opportunity and squandered it on war, environmental degradation, a nation w/ too many uninsured people, and deplorable levels of inequality. It's their seeming sense of entitlement to their opinions, at the expense of civility and tolerance for those they disagree with, that makes them seem rather childish and approaching progressive fascism.
8
@Andrew N - We're all dealing with "environmental degradation, a nation w/ too many uninsured people, and deplorable levels of inequality," regardless of what generation we're in.
The millennials have made a conscious choice to respond to these shared crises, which transcend race, age, sex, class, and political orientation, by sowing even more divisiveness and hate. This is far beyond mere "childish" behavior. Their particular brand of "griping" is every bit as toxic and dangerous as Trump's, and they don't get a pass just because they are coming of age in difficult times. (And let's face it, they're hardly the first generation for whom that is true.)
2
Oh I like this column. You hit the nail on the head.
11
Millennials, by definition inion, are relative children. They have little life experience, tend to be very self-absorbed (witness Twitter, FaceBook and other "social media") and feel "entitled".
That is not to say that they may not have some good ideas - after all they are the next generation of adults, but will they be a "great" generation like those past? Signs indicate not unless there is a sea change and they realize that we, their predecessors (at least the learned, intelligent ones) have much that they do not: experience.
The old "respect your elders" phrase has validity in many instances. If Millennials choose to ignore the Joe Bidens of the world and not understand THEIR context, they are doomed to repeat many past mistakes because of their neglect and stupidity.
You should at the very least be aware of the destruction caused by Trump and his cult. Do you want to repeat that or move on to peace, prosperity and civility? This is not another video game!
5
@RealTRUTH
the oldest millenials are in their late 30s now and see a world where climate change is being ignored to dire effect, abortion rights are under fire and health care literally bankrupts thousands of americans each year.
yet biden wants to just smile, coast on his uncle joe glow and offers only wish-washy centrism with NO policies to speak of.
elizabeth warren has a plan for EVERYTHING and is blunt about the elephant in the room: trump.
11
What an insult! I happened to have two millennial sons, who are college graduates and work ungodly hours in tech to provide for their families! They are well read, well informed and care deeply for the future our our nation and planet!
Careful not to judge and condemn an entire generation with stereotypes and platitudes!!!!
5
If you’re going to write a column complaining about young people maybe don’t limit your complaints to those protesting social injustice. There are plenty of Jacob Wohls and other hate mongers out there. But apparently those don’t annoy Mr. Stephens as much as the young people who overreach a bit in their fight against racism and misogyny.
12
Right on Bret Stephens! This is by far the best opinion piece I've seen in the NY Times in years.
Lewis Black addressed this issue in direct response to a complaining millennial at one of his shows back in March. He lands some good pushbacks on this.
Just drop this in Google. It'll come up at the top of the page.
Life is hard and nobody owes you anything.
4
Wow. Where to start with all this whining?
Brett, you had me at first until you dinged Harvard (not my favorite place BTW) for dismissing the House Dean (formerly and more appropriately "Master" until PC doomed that title) for defending Harvey W.
(There were a number of female "Masters" of various Harvard Houses happily ensconced before the anodyne "Dean" title was substituted.)
Brett Stephens why didn't you first read the Harvard students' own newspaper reporting, which was superb, to understand the real reasons this entitled couple were finally given their pink slip? That they were black and willing to defend Weinstein were secondary to a host of years-long problems they'd created.
Then we move to the commenters here. Equally facile for the most part, at least among the long list I could stomach reading before giving up. Whine, whine, whine. I'll say this, though: those who state the obvious--how nuts it is to overgeneralize and characterize people by their generation--deserve nothing but praise for picking up that particular pen.
4
And what WERE those problems they created, exactly? And how exactly do you know about them? And why, if they were so glaring, did you wait to yell about their being on the loathsome Weinstein’s defense team?
Everyone keeps deriding the center without acknowledging that they won, at least as far as votes are concerned. The Russians stole the election by hacking voting machines and knowing where to add just the right amount of votes to take advantage of our ridiculous electoral college.
1
Wow, Bret; you’re showing your age. I’m guessing that you never had a rebellious, idealistic youth, but were a straight, square, clean-cut member of the Young Republicans.
No wonder you like Biden. The Democratic Party has moved beyond Biden. Uncle Joe is the guy who used to sit in the corner at family gatherings, and the young people avoided him because he was, well, strange. He’d bark out crazy statements like “back in my day, we didn’t have a car!”
OK. It’s 2019. We have cars.
2
Some readers have (mistakenly, I think) interpreted Mr. Stephens' meaning to include ALL young people. Not so. There are, however, a significant FEW who feel that they do, in fact, speak for everyone. This is consistent with their grandiosity. Even self-generated acronym-references to their own names subtly evoke similarities with JFK.
Not in my view.
Some have been in Congress for "ten minutes" and already feel entitled to tell Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden what's "wrong" with their views on congressional process, global warming, international policy. Some see sexual aggression without careful discernment of personal meaning. What if we viewed "all whites" or "all blacks" through a comparably narrow projection of our own distortions. We'd be no different than the current occupier of the Oval Office.
Maybe a few years on the couch might help these few, these loud, to realize that their frustrations began a long, long time ago ... in an inner psychological galaxy not so far, far away.
2
Here are the challenges millenials face, many of which were created or facilitated by Biden and his Republican and Clintonite friends:
- crushing student debt
- little permanant employment, they are in the gig economy or temp employees
- no prospect of every buying a house in many areas
- a government that does not care about them or their needs
- they are in jail or have criminal records
- no savings
- astronomical rent in many areas
- no or ripoff medical care plus expensive prescription drugs
- racism and hate on the rise
- exploited by large corporations with the tacit approval of federal and state governments.
Tired Ol' Joe is so out of touch and will get whooped by the Evil One.
6
I’m trying to think: which item on that list is brand new, exactly?
4
@Tibby Elgato Your parents have all the same problems only they're older which makes it even worse.
5
So now Bret is openly defending misogyny, sexual assault, racist nonsense eugenics, and the warped status quo.
The generations that fight against these evils need to be supported not criticized.
As it relates to Biden, Bret's subtle conflation of Weinstein, Murry, and racist costumes, with Biden is misplaced. Biden was comparing the turmoil of the 1960's with current conditions. Biden is mistaken, because current affairs are as bad as the 60's! I was born in 1951, and things have not improved enough!
2
Here for the ratio.
3
"The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year, but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left."
The stench of Stephens' arrogance is overwhelming. It is not just trump who needs to be swept from office into the dustbin of history. The GOP is a radical, broken party. The Tea Party, Know-Nothings, Libertarians, White Supremacists, Intolerant Evangelicals, and Misogynists are a stain on the nation. Our dire situation is not the result of young voters, rightly frightened for the future of the country and planet, but of corrupt Republicans beholden to the donor class.
Trump is a criminal. He will eventually get what he deserves. The GOP is unAmerican. Its contempt for democracy is evident in the voter suppression, gerrymandering, census-rigging, and general corruption it supports. Time for Stephens to stop pointing his finger at the young and instead clean his own house, for it reeks.
5
If Biden gave out campaign stickers in the shape of a gold star it might bring em around. or 67th place trophies.
Stephens is largely correct in his criticism of those on the left who try to destroy those who "offend" them by mob justice, real or virtual.
He glaringly fails to to denounce or even note the same tactics on the right.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/wolf-researcher-gets-300000-to-settle-wsu-lawsuit/
3
@Frank O
The right is endlessly pilloried in this venue, unambiguously and without any nuance. No one demands that opinion writers demonstrate evenhandedness, or even the awareness that there might be another way of looking at things. If there were, Krugman would be back teaching Econ 101 at Princeton.
Moreover, there is no logical reason why criticizing one group requires criticizing all other groups. We are not required to right all the wrongs of the world in one piece, much less one online venue.
1
This angry, combative rhetoric creates more division. I am a 50ish white woman who recently returned to University for my PhD and am so tired of hearing older white men state "everything was fine!" before the current unsettling in our political environment. Donald Trump's election was a symptom of anger, inequality and division within our country that still festers. Listen to what those younger than you are trying to say. They may not be as eloquent or have a large platform as you but they are mad! They are mad that their jobs come with huge college debt attached; that the planet's health is at risk; that marginalized groups continue to be attacked through hateful speech; that healthcare is not treated as a basic human right. No, "everything was NOT fine". The anger that put Trump in office is still present, it is justified, and it needs to be addressed by those in power, not diminished. IMHO, Joe Biden represents a white, male privileged society that we try to return to at our own peril.
4
@Marji, please point out for us where anybody, white male or otherwise, claimed "everything was fine". I can't recall reading or hearing that in my 50 years of adult life.
2
I feel micro-aggressed by this opinion piece and demand this guy's removal.
10
Excellent column in today’s paper. Joe Biden should stick to his guns and not apologize for anything. The example given of Harvard knuckling under to PC outrage reminded me of John Adams, who had the moral courage in 1770 to defend British soldiers participating in the Boston Massacre. Where are today’s grownup?!!
7
Complaints about the younger generation by elders such as Mr. Stephens are certainly nothing new.
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
Attributed to Socrates by Plato
6
You have highlighted several more cases of Cultural Fascism—these are the egregious examples from the Left. On the Right, there are the draconian restrictions on women/abortion rights, etc. The squeakiest wheels are getting the grease and the commonweal is suffering.
2
Agree completely. Its hard to describe how ridiculous the hyper sensitive identity based call-out millennials appear. Yet they're oblivious, coasting through life in their twitter based echo chambers. Appeasing this mob would be a disaster for the democrats and the country. Sad that Biden is the only democratic candidate willing to tell them off (at least, sort of).
4
Bret descends into the his, by now familiar, sewer of finger-pointing and dishonest partisanship once again in service to his Republican Party. Those “...generations that specializes in histrionic self-pity and moral self-righteousness, usually communicated via social media with maximum snark”? Exchange “ignorant, vicious bigotry” for “snark” and you have the Republican base. What of Republicans’ long history of employing the tactic “...to allege an invisible harm in order to inflict an actual one. In place of an eye for an eye, we have professional destruction for emotional upset“? Ever see a Trump rally, Bret? Anti-communist witch hunts? And where did the young people you so hate see examples of “in today’s culture, the quickest way to acquire and exercise power is to take offense”? Trump, Mitch McConnel, Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh, the false story line of a “high tech lynching” deployed cynically to get the still unqualified Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court? Republicans have been using that dishonest tactic for decades. But, of course, Bret’s job, as a loyal member of the Professional Republican Commentariat, is to distort reality, cherry-pick facts and attack whatever or whoever the Party needs to destroy this week. Why not do some good for America and write a column about all of the ways the Republican Party is conspiring with, and being handsomely paid by, Russia to destroy the country from within. That would be a column worth reading.
6
I have perceived Bret for years to do just as you say.
Intellectually very tricky and his work is so insidious that even I, who have a good perception for Conservative hubris only have a sense of “ Whuu -ut?!” after reading his opinion pieces. ( meaning , his columns just leave me thinking/perceiving his points as self righteous spin pieces, clever, but with a hue of nonsense).
The righteous indignation (as in taking offense) of the conservative mind is far more transparent.
A side note : I am SO tired of the masses clapping/applauding/standing ovation for conservative talking point bull, only later to PERHAPS think, “heyyyy wait a minute , that wasn’t right!”
The Conservative mind’d ability to rationalize “their offense” has the power of a black hole. Light absolutely disappears.
I have “lived among them” for years ( in Texas). An astounding show.
4
I’m tired of whining. Period. Doesn’t make a difference to me who is doing the whining, how old they are or their gender identity. Please just Stop Whining. Don’t whine about your life and definitely do not whine about how you feel besieged by other people’s lives. Instead, take action. Work hard. Protest if you believe in it. But please, my fellow Americans: stop whining. Nobody wants to hear it from you. From me. And certainly not from our Whiner-in-Chief, DJT.
6
I encourage you to look at the angry tone of the people that support your argument. Is this the kind of vitriol that you want to foster? Or, would you rather take stance that attempts to compassionately understand the situation?
Cause you sound like your parents, tbh.
More than anything else, it's sad—heartbreaking even. Your tone reveals the baseness of a thoughtless, reactionary rhetoric helplessly couched in the privileges and economic entitlements of your generation.
Unlike your parents, you could be offering council and compassion thoughtfully produced by the questions one must ask to provide that needed mentorship:
What kind of assumptions am I making?
What kind of world are these people responding to?
What do they have at stake in the world?
What might they be angry about?
How can I offer them guidance?
How can we collaborate?
The choice is yours. We need people who have platforms of power to listen and have compassion for people experiencing a crumbling world, a world that you will not live to see perish. What will you pick?
4
Yeah we’re old, we’ve made mistakes, but a good portion of my income still goes to supporting you through this angst filled post adolescence
3
"Does it ever occur to some of our more militant millennials that the pitiless standards they apply to others will someday be applied pitilessly to them?"
I bet you were able to buy that bubble you live in with your first job out of college!
1
I think there might actually be some broad differences between generations that might be of interest, but what Stephens is complaining about here is merely the young far-left, which has probably existed in roughly the same proportion of every generation since the beginnings of the species, and for sure has been prominent at U.S. universities since the boomers. With a tiny bit of editing, Bret can use this article again in 10 years, if he hasn't moved on to that great right-wing kingdom in the sky.
1
I really wish the New York Times writers would take a break from generalizing from undergrads at elitist institutions to an entire generation. Students at Harvard, Middlebury, and Yale represent students at Harvard, Middlebury, and Yale, which together make up about half the students at San Jose State University. Of course, they do represent the population from which all future Supreme Court justices will be drawn, given how small their perceived world is.
606
@John
From the article:
“no faction on the Democratic side more richly deserves rebuking than the one Biden singled out — which is not, of course, anywhere close to the entire millennial generation”
14
@John
How could the NewYork Times writers do that when they too went to Harvard, Middlebury, and Yale.
Not a lot of journos living in a trailer park with a GED.
25
I spend a lot of time in San Francisco (millennial heaven) but I don't recognize the group of people you describe..... at least not by age. also, the instances you proffer of "offense" taking seem to have different motivating factors, some with which, as a boomer, I agree. one of these is the verbal harassing of people that stand up in public spaces and spew racism and propaganda and lie about climate change. a racist, propagandist liar deserves shaming..... as does anyone seeking a leg up in their career by supporting liars and propagandists. beyond all of that I find people my own age, even some of my friends, fit Joe Biden's description better than the millennial I know. in my view the entire country needs to whine less and RESIST more.
1
If Millennials seem to have an unending parade of complaints it's because they're calling the rest of us to rethink virtually everything we've unconsciously believed about the society we've built, one that has clearly grown horribly toxic and in need of complete transformation.
They, above anyone else, recognize the sheer existential danger of continuing to live as we are; and have suspected for some time that the enemy of peace and stability is not in some outside foe but in the unexamined crumbling foundations of our democracy.
Despite the Boomers high-profile rhetoric about war and civil rights it did not take long for them to embrace their parents' easy assumptions about the total rightness of American values; values that this new generation is ruthlessly re-examining.
3
The generation gap seems to be a perpetual part of the human experience. I am not so senile that I do not remember the rebellious sixties when boomers did some now I would consider some very ill considered things i do not mention to my daughter or grand children. Millennials in some ways have a much harder road to hoe than boomers when you consider the uncertainties of our current job market, income inequality and the level of student debt. And on top of that they are the ones who will deal with our failure to take action on climate change. A little respect please all around goes a long way towards fighting common enemies like Donald Trump.
7
No generation has had it easier than Bret’s (and mine). Those of us who grew up from roughly the 1950s through roughly the 1990s benefitted from strong economic growth, increasing prosperity, vast technological improvements, and reasonable cost of living. Those before us and those after have it much worse I’m afraid. We’re the selfish generation living off the sacrifices of our ancestors and leaving our descendants a depleted world.
3
This is so disappointing on so many levels. Why in the world would we chose to war against an entire group of people? I'm old enough to have children who are millennials. I'm proud of both my sons--they are hard working, and they take nothing for granted. And they don't spend a lot of time complaining.
The democratic party, of which I am a proud member, is by nature inclusive. We cannot ignore the opinions of an entire generation.
We have, at last count, 22 candidates for nomination. Joe Biden is popular because he is well known. Those of us who loved Obama think fondly of Joe. He is the home-again candidate. But we can't look backward, we must go forward. The young remind us of this everyday. And it is far too early to determine who the best candidate to lead us into the future will be.
8
I'm a 70-year-old Boomer. My parents' generation said pretty much the same things about us that many of us are now saying about our kids' generation. It seems axiomatic that older people will gripe about younger people. Some things never change.
Every generation has its adversities to address. Mine had a promising economic future but was saddled with the Vietnam War, the strife of the civil rights movement, and the realignment of gender roles. The kids today are facing far more uncertainty in their lives than we did. Our country is going through a shifting economic equilibrium that is going to lower our standard of living while third world countries rise up. Higher education has become nearly unaffordable, housing costs are steep, the environment is at risk, and medical care is prohibitively expensive. My generation is responsible for these problems. I wouldn't want to trade places with my daughter.
My generation started the ball rolling with calling out others whose views weren't "correct." This tendency has gotten out of hand in some situations. The example cited in this piece about the woman incensed by the word "oriental" is a perfect example. "Oriental" means "eastern." It's not a pejorative in any sense, but some feel the need to react to it as though it were the N-word. We need to temper the self-righteous indignation and listen more.
Nevertheless, we'll all survive. In spite of ourselves.
5
I've volunteered for Habitat for Humanity's Collegiate Challenge program every spring break for 10 years. These are students who spend their spring break building houses for families who are economically disadvantaged and from backgrounds very different from their own. I continue to be inspired by their work ethic and understanding of "a hand up, not a hand out" philosophy. Most have done service projects in high school as well. Boomers and millennials have a lot in common and can learn from each other. Take time to listen to them and try not to preach. These kids are our future.
8
I have to admit, I love my generation. Because I love me. But I also love the planet and the people in it.
As far as Joe Biden goes, I don't think it's bad to have a range of candidates and he certainly could be considered at one end of the spectrum.
Let's look at why Joe Biden is a 'electable' candidate. It's because of voter apathy and voter suppression. If millennials could be reliably counted on to vote, the spectrum of candidates would be significantly different, more representative of their viewpoints and priorities.
My suggestion is that Progressives of all stripes look deeply at the tactics of elections. Because that is where we've won or lost. When the Democrats had their stuff together, in 2008 and 2012, they would never have been caught as flatfooted as Hillary's campaign was. That said, it's rare in American politics to have three terms of the same party.
We need to ensure that those with the right to vote get to exercise that right. That is the singularly most important tactic Progressives have to execute.
1
One may only agree with saying gee whiz, folks, get up and vote.
But I think I’ll take a pass on loving myself and my generation, thank you very much. It’s kind of icky.
1
I am an old guy and a liberal thinker, having not changed my views from the days of the Vietnam protests and the impeachment hearings about Richard Nixon. We had decent jobs, higher education was cheap, gas was cheap, and housing was affordable. Unions were also recognized and respected.
Then Ronald Reagan was elected and the nation changed dramatically. Interest rates soared as did fuel prices. Unions were scapegoated, unemployment surged, college was becoming less and less affordable. Corporations were embellished with tax cuts and the defense department was given a blank check. Regan put the countries debt on an escalating climb unequaled in our previous history.
He then sought regime change in Nicaragua even engaging in an illegal arms for hostage trade with Iran. H.W. Bush claimed he was out of the loop and was elected as our next President. His only war was the gulf war in 1991.
Bill Clinton won the Presidential election in 1992 but lost the House in 1994, ending Democratic rule of almost 50 years. He opted for taking the corporate campaign dollar over respecting the rights of American workers. He championed NAFTA and allowed China into the WTO. Corporate American then set sail with their companies and products chasing the low wage production provided by China.
Today's youth faces expensive housing ,health care and college debt, and not guarantee their job will still be here tomorrow. Is it any wonder they are perplexed?
12
You sound offended, Mr Stephens. You bemoan the ruining of careers, yet ask why students weren’t expelled? You attack our youth for their passion and abdicate our role in helping them learn from their mistakes about free speech (which even the Supreme Court still makes). You parallel students who physically and emotionally harass people with anyone who asks that our language and our world be more inclusive. The problem appears to be yours and Biden’s unwillingness to address the complexity of problems we face and the diversity of views we need to solve them. I’m not a millennial, but I value their right to own their experience in this mess, as I do yours. I hope you will begin to understand and use your public voice in understanding the future belongs to more than just the old white male center, and it will be more hopeful for it.
7
As a boomer, I remember how in the sixties and seventies we were certainty going to change the world. We had all the answers. We were in an economy which had jobs waiting for us or the draft. It was only by having those experiences that the maturing process began. Give the young a chance to go through their process. We ended a war, let them save the planet as we failed to do.
10
First of all, it is always the parents' fault, and I count myself in that number. Baby Boomers raised their kids to believe the mythology of the American Dream rather than the reality that family wealth is a bigger determinant to future success than how hard one works or which school one attends. It's very disappointing to find out, after all the spoon feeding, that the playing field is not so level after all, and that trying harder - which we always encourage them to do -- really just means trying forever, often with little reward.
Labeling a generation "junior militants" because of the bad behavior of a few few spoiled kids dismisses the larger truth that the promises of American Democracy are slipping away. Some of us are pretty upset about that.
7
My rap against Joe Biden is not that he doesn't show proper deference to the perpetually-offended, but is too much a part of the shoulder-clapping, comity-above-all-else Senate to show leadership on his own.
If your only hope is Gerald Ford, or someone to proclaim our long national nightmare over while he spends his milquetoast presidency begging to be listened to, Joe is definitely your man. It is not wrong to want a president to lead us to bigger and better things while providing healing after Donald Trump, and Joe just isn't the one to do it.
4
Sometimes I really wonder what it is that you could possibly get out of constantly dunking on a professionally beleaguered, indebted group of young adults who are, after all, your children. Grouse all you like; in the words of that Boomer icon Don Draper, "I don't think about you at all."
3
“The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year, but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left.”
Well then they’re not in fact very sensible, are they. I’ll take some empowered overzealous millennials anytime over a man who is literally destroying our nation’s democracy before our very eyes.
PS Forgive me if, as a Democrat, I give less shrift to the opinions of two Republicans, Stephens and Brooks, about which Democrat I’d be wise to back.
9
Timothy Leary famously quipped, “If you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there.” I must not have been ‘there’, because I do remember the Sixties - and it was our generation of Boomers who invented the “call-out culture”. Reaping what we sowed, I guess.
4
One person's "exuberant human warmth" is another person's "violation of personal space." Nobody, especially not a career politician, should need to be told this more than once.
2
Not all millennials, as Mr. Stephens allows, are censorious, totalitarians aching to have a go at some politically incorrect elder's jugular. Those who are -- or so it seems to this former state school adjunct -- are often disproportionately privileged youngsters who, due to parental permissiveness, have never been told that they are flat-out wrong, and to please listen more and talk a little less -- at least until they've gained the world experience to hold forth with any authority. Then again, perhaps their pitiless social activism is just the latest means of youthful rebellion. Instead of merely booze, sex, and rock and roll, online trolling and social militancy have been added to the mix. Is it ever easy, being young?
4
Get the millennials and Gen Z in a snit and they will either vote Green Party or stay home. They have yet to learn that insistence on perfection is the enemy of the doable good. First, get rid of Trump. Then we can argue. Otherwise, the self-righteous perfectionism of the snowflakes will get us another 4 years of the worst president this country will ever see. And with 4 more years at his disposal, he could be the last president of a nation that ceases to exist.
11
When reading a Stephens column I always look forward to his summaries, where he inevitably lays real nuggets of wisdom. Until he pointed it out I had no idea that it was the “sensible center” that had elected our current President. I thought that the “sensible center” had been outvoted by the angry, disaffected mob whipped up by FOX news and internet trolls, some in the pay of a foreign power. It’s good to know just where Mr. Stephens really believes the “sensible center” to be.
8
What this country needs is an adult for a leader. Someone who will take on the role of a father to young ones who think they know what they're talking about when they don't and complain about how unfair the world is to them. The college students and some junior members of congress and others of their cohort of angry, younger citizens flexing their angry contempt. I'm 75 years old, we have a god daughter that we love like a daughter living in a third world environment. Unless you're doing your daily toilet through a hole in a concrete slab in an outhouse and praying to the gods to cure a family members illness please understand why I have a hard time hearing your complaints. I believe Joe Biden isn't running to enhance his ego or because he needs to. I believe Joe Biden knows the joy of seeing your kids thrive and feels the responsibility of being the adult in the room. We sure need one now.
1
You wanna hear some truly obnoxious ginned-up outrage and umbrage-taking? Watch a few minutes of Sean Hannity or any of his Boomer colleagues on Fox. Or read a few tweets from our man-baby Boomer president. Or listen to any Boomer Republican’s hyperventilating and alarm-bell-ringing over AOC or any policy proposal that benefits someone other than the wealthy. Or listen to the latest self-righteous hypocritical tirade from Boomer Lindsey Graham. Nothing that happens on college campuses today comes close to the damage wrought by the mouth-foaming, always-angry conservatives ruining our country, nearly all of them spoiled, entitled, empathy-deficient, over-privileged Boomers. Millennials are our best hope for salvation from these odious people. (I’m 56. Please, call me a Gen Xer.)
8
To my fellow Boomers : the times, they are a-changin'. And to Joe Biden : if you can't have empathy for millions of Americans because they think things should be different in this country, then you are no different than the current occupant of the White House, just the flip side of that coin with an old guy's head on it.
3
I find that with some folks, if you have to explain why what they’re saying is ridiculous, there’s pretty much no point in trying to explain why what they’re saying is ridiculous.
1
I have a prescription for the election. Just make it all stop: the tweets, the incessant breaking news stories, the effrontery, the vulgarity, the sheer ignorance and the frightening knee-jerk reactions, the bald political calculations and the insensitivity.
Whoever can relieve us from the self-promoting Trump Administration is more than welcome. Just be quiet about it.
3
Why single out millennials Mr. Stephens? Didn't the outrage and appropriated victimhood of old, white men give us Drumpfy and his klepticratic cohorts? That seems a lot worse than a few tarnished careers.
5
What is being described isn’t a particular characteristic of Millennials; it’s a characteristic of youth. My (Boomer) generation was just as sure about how right we were about EVERYTHING as every generation before or since. Some people call it the “arrogance of youth,” but really isn’t arrogance; it’s inexperience. There is simply no way to come to understand that human affairs are complicated, with many shades of grey, than to learn the hard way...live longer.
The appropriate response isn’t to say “we’ve lived longer, we understand, so shut up.” It’s to understand that we need to listen to the impatience and creativity of youth to avoid becoming complacent (or to lose hope), and not to be dismissive because they are doing at a particular age exactly what others did at the same age.
6
Mr. Biden’s attitude towards Anita Hill, and his legacy in the form of Clarence Thomas, is way beyond being “touchy-kissy.” Mr. Biden’s lack of remorse and inability to apologize does have to be called out. It is significant. It deserves scrutiny and it’s a legitimate reason for some voters to point out that Mr. Biden should not be the Democratic Candidate.
358
@Yoandel Trump won the presidency with an even worse and Criminal record. Nobody cared then why would they now.
19
Yoandel: Thank you for an excellent comment.
10
@Yoandel
I agree. Anita Hill and the Thomas hearings are a huge problem, and one that Joe Biden seems to skate over. My preference: younger, female, smarter!
40
Unfortunately, the students at so-called elite universities think they are "superior people" - ubermenchen - because they had been admitted to these schools and, therefore their thoughts (if any) and feelings (which are legion) should be accepted and acted upon immediately. Clearly, anyone who thinks or feels differently is a ... (select an epithet).
Fortunately, these schools and their students, faculties and administrators, are given too much attention, and have way too much influence, in the mainstream media. Americans have been conditioned to view these schools in the same way as the "elite" universities are seen in stratified European countries, e.g., the UK and France. Dos one really have to go to Harvard or Yale Law Schools to sit in the Supreme Court?
The "millennials" today are in somewhat the same position as the "baby boom" generation was in the mid-60s to mid-70s period, when "revolution" was celebrated and everyone over age 30 was considered to be unworthy of attention. At least the boomers grew up and became good bourgeois. Lol.
Millennial voters, at least those who bother to vote, are very good at rejecting people, Joe Biden, for example, who might offer an imperfect version of what they claim they want. They prefer to claim they will settle for nothing less than "perfection" - at least their version of it - because the versions of others must be rejected out of hand. Well, settle for another Trump term, followed by Pence. Then migrate.
4
Agreed. In my limited time with millenials, most look at you with a blank stare if you attempt casual small talk. They seem only interested in themselves. They might learn if they actually took an interest in people other than their generation. Put down the phones and video games, and engage, please. Learn. Enjoy.
5
The "sensible center " has given us 40 years of rightward drift and 40 years of the uninterrupted transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to the 1% with a little left over for the enabling 10% like media pundits.
The Trump/McConnell tax cut was the worst disaster to strike the US since the 2009 Clinton/Bush/Obama great recession or Reagan's 1980's war on unions and the middle class.
Biden wants to be seen as a moderate. He is said to be electable, not because he has any good ideas, but because he is better than Trump. Nixon was better than Trump. So was Hillary and almost anyone else. Another "moderate " like Hillary is a sure fire way to give Trump's reelection chances the shot in the arm it needs.
5
A brave column indeed.
Prepare, sir, for the Twitter onslaught that is sure to come.
We're in the middle of a Cultural Revolution, and we're all combatants.
6
Not really. Some of thse kids may be over-the-top, yes—but what that really means is that they’re behaving as stupidly, hysterically, intolerantly, but far less threateningly, than your basic Trumpist at a rally.
2
If you’re going to generalize across a generation, at least indicate the correct generation. All of the college incidents you’re referring to refer to Gen Z students and not Millennials. Most students entering college after 2013 are Gen Z.
You’ve decided to couple Gen Z together with Millennials but there are substantial differences. Much of the callout culture isn't coming from Millennials at all.
8
I'm in my mid-fifties. Currently, any of the announced Democrats would get my vote for POTUS over any Republican candidate, Trump or otherwise. That said, I had hoped that Biden would run in 2016, even though he seemed a bit old even then for the job.
Unfortunately, at this point in 2019, Biden seems to be living in the 1990s where his response to the climate crisis and Trumpist Republican reality is concerned. Biden doesn't seem to grasp how worried millions of us are about the growing climate crisis, and how complicit the entire GOP has been and remains in creating resistance to taking rational science-based action on that and other important fronts.
5
@Don Blume
Political science is also a science, and fighting climate change is the longest of long games.
Remedies for climate change that end up being exposed as frauds or generating tremendous backlash for the hardship they impose are almost certain to do more harm than good.
Half the country fighting climate change will not get the job done. One of the best ways to fight climate change is restoring faith in government, in science and in our capacity to act as one nation.
2
The millennial wrongs he lists are trivial compared to the destruction wrought by his generation. I wonder who the real snowflakes are. Young people trying to right generations of oppression and environmental catastrophe or columnists complaining about a couple professors losing their jobs?
425
@MX Koch
I disagree with the notion that this generation is attempting to "right generations of oppression and environmental catastrophe..." It's just trying to survive. This generation doesn't care about my generation. It doesn't respect my generation.
This generation thinks that it, more than any other generation is entitled to the lives they envision, whether they are realistic or not. This generation is lost as much as my generation was: instead of crack, this generation has video games.
In my day, I was expected to vote and to participate, like military service. Now, people aren't expected to do anything, partly because this generation has had its entire lives planned and managed for them, overstimulated and over-socialized for the worse.
So, I'm all for saving the planet and making life better for everyone, of all generations. But, believe me, I'm not progressive because of the young, I am because of my morals and beliefs and personal history. In my mind, the people who have lived the longest deserve the most respect and support. Just because something is new, doesn't make it better, in fact, we've seen, it often makes things worse because we haven't had the discipline to use our innovations wisely.
61
If they were actually trying to do that, the screaming might make a tad more sense.
But they’re not out Wendell Berrying on the farm back home. They’re not helping the Forest Service. They’re not sitting in an office gnashing their teeth, trying to get some city council to approve electric charging stations and free bicycles in a ghetto.
They’re coming out of a dorm, usually at a fancy college, and loudly demonstrating. Without dogs, firehoses, gas and guns to worry about. And who’re they yelling at?
Their teachers.
Nice aim, kids.
Or as I usedta say back when I was at a very fancy grad school, “Oh look. It must be spring. The students are demonstrating on the quad.”
46
@MX Koch It is good that millenials use bicycles etc. to get around because they've already used up a lifetime of fossil fuels being driven to and from school, soccer, etc.
32
There is a simple problem with those born and raised after WW2, it started with choices. First there was Neapolitan Ice Cream - wow, you could choose your flavor. Then the movement expanded: 31 flavors, then the choice between soft and hard serve and, finally Ben And Jerry's continuing attempt to mix every possible flavor with every possible ingredient.
Be it ice cream,"participation" trophies or, jeans cut to fit your particular body style. There is one common factor - unique products, ideals and, life styles for each and every person.
Unfortunately, the democratic system of government established in the world leads us to a single choice for leadership.
We don't get to pick what laws we follow, and we are certainly not going to pick a leader that meets the criterion of each and every citizen. Democracy is a team event, and we can not expect to find a candidate that appeals to every want, need, and wish of every single person in the country.
We are as divided today as much as the Morlocks and Eloi in H.G. Wells' time machine. What the younger generation has to realize is that they are the Eloi, and the Morlocks ate the Eloi. So, kids, just look at the alt-right, they have one single objective - to utterly destroy people with your way of thinking. Right now the White House is run by the Morlocks.
Accept the fact that you have to compromise or get eaten!
4
Well said!
2
Women of my baby-boom generation were lectured to accept the sexual harassment of boys just being boys. Drawing louder attention to such harassment might result in "ruining" the lives of these being-boy males. But we did not stop our shouting, and at least some change in culture ensued. Milennials' shouting is akin to ours, albeit directed at a wider range of offenses. Biden's unwillingness to acknowledge and address these offenses directly is precisely what disqualifies him from consideration as a presidential candidate. The idea that the only person in a large field who can challenge 45 is someone who suffers from an excess of what Staples generously (and erroneously) pegs as "exuberance" is apologism. Looks like milennials won't stand for it, and neither will I nor many other generations of women.
6
It seems there are two different debates happening regarding millennials. Biden's comment, I believe, had to do with him not agreeing that millennials have it tough compared to the baby boomers. That lack of empathy struck some of us as thoughtless. Compared to their parents, millennials face extremely high student debt and real estate prices (for both rent and homeownership). And the millennials I work with are wonderful, energetic, hard-working and idealistic. Rather than seeing them as whiners, I see them as the generation that may save us all. (Check out the Sunrise movement, or the young Parkland students fighting for gun control.)
Stephens' comments have to do with certain instances of perhaps unreasonable behavior on some college campuses. To critique the whole millennial generation for this behavior is silly.
8
"The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year[.]"
That sentence doesn't make any sense to me. If the "sensible center" chooses presidents, then didn't they also pick the extremely insensible Donald Trump? Or did they not want Donald, but it turns out that they don't choose presidents here? Not a great way to end an otherwise mediocre piece.
6
Here we go again; another old guy complaining about the character of those pesky young people. If I were young, I'd probably respond to this editorial with soul-searching self-doubt. But at age 61, I am old enough to have heard several new generations characterized as self-righteous, lazy, licentious, or devoid of common sense. The curmudgeons who condemn the Millennials were in turn condemned by their parents' generation, who were in turn condemned by the Millennials' grandparents, and so on back through time.
Don't even get me started on the "super-predators" and conscience-free "crack babies"--who apparently never existed.
Yes, the behavior of self-styled Social Justice Warriors is an affront to Freedom of Speech. Professors shouldn't have to accept student harassment as a working condition, and shouldn't be fired for failing to honor the immature and absolutist politics of screaming students.
But these screamers are a minority among young people. To call their behavior characteristic of their entire generation is sensationalism, pure and simple.
2
@Jim Grossman: Hear, hear! Well spoken. It is inexplicable how entire generations can be stereotyped according to any set of generalizations. I am not aware of any respected social research that confirms the tendencies & faults that characterize these debates structured around year of birth. The temptation to accept general condemnation of one age group by another (older or younger) relies on the same tribal instinct that underlies racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Those of us who have lived long lives working (and some of us, fighting) to end these injustices & reverse some of the damage caused are dismayed to see others submit to the divisive strategies of those seeking to preserve prejudice. Pitting one generation against another is certain to distract many from the insidious opponents of social & political justice. Most of us, regardless of the year of our birth, know better. We can all contribute to progress by refusing to act upon these arbitrary & baseless prejudices.
3
@Jim Grossmann 61 isn't old......65 is old
1
I don't want to be the voice of ageism, having experienced it numerous times in the job market, but it's time for the Baby Boomers to put down the reins of power. They've led this country into crumbling infrastructure, a ridiculous debt-to-GDP ratio, constant wars, given trillions in tax relief to the top 1%, and done little to nothing to rein in health care and education costs, all while the middle class shrinks into the powerless working class as power and wealth concentrates at the top 1%. So says a Gen Xer.
4
>>> "I don't want to be the voice of ageism, having experienced it numerous times in the job market, but it's time for the Baby Boomers to put down the reins of power."
Let me fix that for you: "I'm transparently ageist but I don't want to admit it."
6
"The rap against the former veep is that he’s old, frequently puts his foot in his mouth, and occasionally says nice things about Republicans."
Yes, that might have been laudable back when Republicans still had the word 'compromise' in their lexicon. Tell us Brett, which important Republican is worthy of praise these days?
2
More whining from Bret accompanied by bad political advice.
Retro Bret would vote for Joe Biden, really?
Joe Biden is the ghost of politics past, too old and too out of touch. Democrats didn't support Joe in his two previous presidential runs for all the right reasons, none of those reason have changed. A supporter of the Iraq war among other seriously flawed policy positions, be gone Joe and take Bret with you.
2
The party's indulgent attitude toward the illiberal and unreasonable is a lot like what happened with the Republicans and the Christian right. They called themselves a "moral majority," but their beliefs were out of step with society as a whole and they were a numerical minority. Similarly, young people who want to "burn it all down" and who believe there should be no mercy shown toward those who make a mistake, are not the majority. The trouble is that they are awfully noisy and do a lot of damage to the individuals they single out as worthy of censure.
1
Just what we need: a contrived war between generations of Democratic voters whose views and core values are more alike than unalike.
5
"The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country — wants to see Donald Trump lose next year, but not if it means empowering the junior totalitarians of the left."
Mr. Stephens, you can make this statement based on what? Data or an opinion based on opinion based on mob opinion, just as the overgrown and under-matured children you criticize.
1
You sound very Republican today painting over 100 million young people with the same brush based on anecdotes. I like Biden a lot but not for the reasons you stated. I am 72 years old and these young people give me hope for the future. Sure, some are whiners but that’s nothing compared to the Trump supporters. They understand the real issues such as gun control, income inequality, homelessness, climate change, racism, et. al. I hope I live long enough to see millennials take over.
9
@Robert Antall - very well said.
2
And where is the 'sensible center'? Last time I checked it lost in 2016
2
Another reason to consider Biden is McConnell who will do a replay of his freeze on legislation similar to what he did to Obama, should a far left individual become president. Biden isn't without his flaws, nor is anyone else for that matter, but he
is a sure-fire return to civility, principals, honor, the laws and the constitution. I'd love a woman president, but right now, Biden is the cure for the cancer now in the oval office.
3
The problem is not millennials, it is the spineless boomers who give into them.
1
In each generation you’ll find responsible, hard-working individuals and other lazy deadbeats who care less for others. Just like some millennials waste their time on social media, my grandfather always told me about people in his generation who wasted their time “reading the newspaper”.
I too am tired of the endless rounds of outrage at some trivial micro-aggression. (Forgive the redundancy) I wish some of these crybabies could've been around when I started practicing law in the seventies, and could experience the structural, personal and professional barriers to women in the profession. They would fold up like a cheap suit. I'm tired of safe spaces and demands for apologies for things that are not even mildly offensive. I don't think that all millennials or all genZ's are like this but there certainly is a cadre of them that lives to find offense in the friction of everyday life. It's about time somebody stood up to them.
3
Craig Ferguson says it best when he feels confounded by people who are offended on behalf of groups to which they don’t belong.
6
Only a man could have written this insensitive defense of Joe Biden (not that Biden isn't occasionally wrongly lambasted). You seem to forget the Anita Hill hearings, Bret, where absolutely NO "exuberant human warmth" was demonstrated by one Joe Biden. And since you haven't been on the receiving end of Biden's "touchy-kissy-ness," you not only sound ridiculous speaking for others but also seem to support it. Things change, Bret, and, I too have certain problems with Millennials and Gen. I'ers (my preferred way of referring to this latest generation, who've never known life without the "I"nternet, "I"phones and "I"pads). But if you want to critique that faction of Millennials who you claim are too easily offended and entitled, find a better way to mobilize this important voting bloc than outright denunciation! As for millennial grievances, these younger folks have recognized--consciously or not, rightly or wrongly-- that injustices are often rectified by exaggerated moves to the opposite pole. Your commentary sounds as if it's written by exactly the person who wrote it: an aging, disgruntled, AND privileged white guy. You're also doing, Bret, exactly what you accuse "too-oft-offended" Millennials of doing: making an argument that's neither nuanced nor complex. Only your nostalgic gold standard seeks to move us backward.
4
"...coddled minds and censorious manner..."
Et tu, Mr. Bret?
3
Typical baby boomer anecdote-as-data logic.
1
Hop in your AARP-emblazoned Buick and disappear. Your generation will just get in the way of ours trying to clean up the mess you folks left behind.
We don't need more apologists.
If you like Donald Trump, thank a Millenial.
5
What a childish bit of nonsense. I am 79.
1
Brilliant
"...chortling twenty-somethings, who have figured out that, in today’s culture, the quickest way to acquire and exercise power is to take offense" — ah yes, those chortling youths are having their way with us, dabnabit! (Never mind the looming Big Brother presence of a president who tweets about his victimization daily — )
3
Summary:
Hey kids, get off my lawn!
2
There's only one group that outdoes Millennials in "self-pity and moral self-righeousness"--conservative men. Fueled by Fox News and right-wing radio, they can outdo just about any generation in feeling slighted and playing the victim.
The king of faux victimhood is ... (I don't need to even tell you, do I?) Trump. He's made a presidency out of whining about how people are disrespecting white conservative men.
People, let's keep our eye on the ball. Our first task is to get rid of this cancerous corruption spreading through our government. It's called Trump.
6
AMEN!!!
"refused to beg forgiveness last month for being a tad too touchy-kissy."
NYT should educate their staff on consent and sexual harassment.
Shameful, Bret. I hope you don't have daughters.
2
What is “reverse racism”? Racism is racism. Black people who insult whites people as a group are racists too. Period.
2
"Gawker spawn and HuffPo twerps: This especially means you." Reading the comments here I think you could add New York Timers.
2
I had to double check the date on this column. Couldn't believe someone would be lazy enough to try the 'ole "lazy millennials" thing in 2019. Check the "use by" date on that cutting insight.
4
...and get off my lawn!
4
Spoken like an out of touch baby boomer.
Way to go Bret—your weak attempt to trigger my millennial peers speaks volumes to your lack of insight and empathy.
“Another way of putting all that is that he’s mature, unstudied, and not just another partisan hater.” Come on man, really? You can’t really believe you’re being sincere here.
2
Back to their safe places I guess......
They ain’t vote anyway so Biden’s comment is irrelevant,
4
Your sample pool of Millenials is Middlebury, Harvard and Yale students, and HuffPost readers?
3
Bret is making slow progress in his quest to become a warm hearted human being. Initially he called for the “replacement” of native born Americans with immigrants in his not so clever satire. Now he is hating on a smaller albeit still enormous demographic. If it wasn’t bad enough to provide the American Nazis with their talking points, now he seems to be upping the ante with the largest group of voters in the nation.
1
Boo. What a bum. No complexity to the argument. Black and white worldview. What an easy, cheap, meaningless piece to write. A bit hypocritical too whining about the damage being done by a group he is offended by for whining and being offended. Go to 4chan and write a rant about the PC police.
2
Maybe you should try having a little "intestinal fortitude to rebuke" pretty much anybody within your "faction" Brett. Please stop lecturing us liberals about how we should behave, especially with respect to matters in which you and other conservative have plenty of work of your own to do. Some might think of you as as a hypocrite Brett.
2
Well-said, sir!
My only suggestion for correction is that black folks can think for themselves and the majority of them eschewed Sister Souljah's incredibly stupid, racially twisted nonsense.
Wake up, folks. Biden rarely swears, gives an occasional and encouraging pat on the back, irrespective of gender, and is an all-around good guy.
But, best of all he comes from a generation a generation after the "Greatest." We were the "Luckiest." And diligently worked to make luck happen for more of us.
5
I expect more from NY Times opinion writers than generational generalizations.
6
This columnist complaining about "snark?" Pure, unadulterated hypocrisy!
3
Grow up, lest ye receive.....Donald Trump.
3
How much money did Weinstein offer Sullivan? It's not like he lost his real job.
BTW, I love the Vonnegut definition of 'twerp.'
Another middle aged white man, mad America is changing and he's no longer relevant.
For one of the world's finest news organizations, the NYT has some TIRED editorials.
I love all this generational sniping. I think the Black Prince had it right (under somewhat different circumstances) when he said, “As you are, so once was I. As I am, so ye shall be.” Yesterday’s earnest, youthful voices for change are today’s (a generalization, of course) cranky, backward looking old farts. And well, so it goes. As far as Biden goes, if he puts a young, thoughtful person on the ticket I will be fine. Anything can happen, he could pull a Polk deal and leave that young VP in position to earn the job against a probable Republican Neanderthal (no offense to any Neanderthals out there) and away we go.
Lol...
Oh lordy!
Are these all the same tough talking oldsters who cry that their candidates coronation was ruined because some other old fart called her "not qualified"? That mean people chanted "lock her up"!
Certainly not the same group that gets upset when a comedian makes a fake groping gesture. Right?!
At what point does your tough talk begin to waver? When obnoxious bully boys banter on buses about taking liberties?
Or maybe when you're called out for using up all the resources and being given gov. services that you now deny others of?! Lol...how defensive you all get.
Own it.
Each generation is living in the world we left/made for them. They are a product of what we have done. You don't like their attitudes? Best check the mirror Kettles.
Such a supposedly Big Tent. Yet you all wonder why Dems. keep losing members.
Good luck in 2020 ancients.
You're chasing away those that will save YOUR/OUR bacon from the mess we made.
1
A whole article taking offense at people who take offense.
Yawn.
3
“In place of an eye for an eye, we have professional destruction for emotional upset. Careers and reputations built over decades come to ruin, or nearly so, on account of a personal mistake or a disfavored opinion.”
That sentence is loaded with danger. What kind of personal mistake, Mr. Stephens? Which disfavored opinion? Suppose the personal mistake is sexual harassment — because that surely appears to be what Mr. Stephens means. Suppose the disfavored opinion happens to be homophobic, anti-Semitic, or misogynist — which would apparently be fine with Mr. Stephens because he’s interested only in “actual harm,“ as if hate speech doesn’t cause it. I’ve been in the places where the millennials are, and I’m decades older. I’ve seen professors who are sexual harassers or viciously homophobic and misogynist. Guess what, Mr. Stephens? They keep their jobs. The alleged power of angry millennials, or “liberals,” pales next to the power of a development officer who tells a college or university president, “Be careful or you’ll cost us fifty million.” I’m sorry to tell you, Mr. Stephens, that power belongs to the right, as it always has. Based on a few incidents — a demonstration getting out of hand or a college president making a ridiculous mistake like the one at Harvard — you can argue otherwise. I’m here to tell you, Mr. Stephens, that those are cheap straw horses and the argument is a crock.
1
This 61 year old is calling you Bret Stephens a VERY old man regardless of your actual age. Now that David Brooks is all touchy feely are you going to assume the mantle of NYT's sacrificial conservative anode?
2
Bravo
1
I agree wholeheartedly. I'm a millennial (or Gen-Y, depending on how you're counting), and I am beyond sick of my generation's identity politics and accompanying authoritarian persuasions.
There are a lot of enormous problems facing our country --environmental disaster, government corruption, the exponential advancement in technology that we are woefully ill-prepared for - - and while the right seems to be denying that they are occurring, millennials' rabid insistence on policing speech and behavior is sucking up too much oxygen on the left to actually address the real problems our country is facing.
4
Moral self-righteousness? Hardly owned by Millennials.
The Republicans can IMO claim total ownership of not only moral self-righteousness but also victimhood, sloppy thinking due to rejection of science i.e.. facts, hatred and bigotry all communicated to America with "maximum snark" and total disregard for the rule of law.
I do not doubt that many of these millennials are "confused" when they see their parents and that generation of Baby Boomers now incapable of government by and for ALL people hell bent upon destruction of the earth and lacking the ability to empathize with anyone not in their tribe.
Unfortunately, it is too easy to pick out the 'worst' among each generation.
1
Stephens pulls his pants up to his nipples, shakes his fist and yells “get off of my lawn” in the NYT. Brett, you’re clearly getting old. Do you need a nap? A safe Space?
2
I'm 65 years old, white and live in the Midwest and I'll have nothing to do with Biden. And it's precisely because he has goods things to say about some Republicans. The GOP set the terms of this war some time ago. Let them live with the consequences.
1
Hear hear.
1
The gross age based generalizations being posted here are disturbing. Many friends and neighbors of ours have children in this demographic and I've never seen signs of the behaviors you characterize in them. Perhaps they act differently in groups of their peers, but doesn't everyone? Maybe that's the kind of damaging behaviors we should teach them to push back against. Don't be used by manipulators with shallow self interests. The best way to implement change is to get the offender to feel remorseful for their actions and get them to understand that continued offenses will have consequences. The extreme outcomes of many of these relatively minor offenses is the modern day equivalent of a stake burning. The victims seem to get about as much justice as Joan of Arc.
But what concerns me more is the misdirection of what offends them. Where is the activism against GOP policies that have send so many young people off to fight unjust wars, and abandon them when they returned maimed or mentally scarred? Where is the activism against the intrusion of Religion on personal liberty? Most of all where is the activism against the massive burden of debt passed on to future generations for tax cuts for corporations and the rich combined with massive growth in defense and corporate welfare.
Many of us old folks are on your side, but we don't seem to be in the same fight. Lets work together. Build a fairer society and many of these minor issues will resolve themselves.
5
Are college students today considered to be millennials? Otherwise I agree with the article and hope that Biden stands up to them and the extreme left of the party.
2
Joe Biden is one of the few voices of sanity left in the Democratic party. He should not change his core and I really hope he wins the Party nomination with Tulsi Gabbard as his VP.
1
Thoughtful and well written.
Occasionally I ride Amtrak between Washington and Trenton. And Joe Biden often is on the train. He sits in the dining car and people stop by to chat with him. He is completely open to anyone coming up like that. I am impressed by his warmth and charm. Has our current President been warm and charming ever?
5
@Mark D
Yes, the current president has been warm and charming -whenever he meets with Putin.
4
As a member of the "never trust anyone over 30 generation" I have not not only grown old, but also have matured. In my maturity I recognize that the young are doing what they need to be doing now by exploring how to define themselves. If they do not want to be like the older generations, who could blame them? After all, we really haven't done a very good job of defending the values that would make them proud of our country and leaving a world that is going to survive.
3
This column reads like a bot for Trump. Trump's best hope for two for eight is Joe Biden's appeal to "the sensible center." 2020 will be A Battle for The Rages. I like Joe, have for a long time, am a lifelong Dem age 74 who has always stood with rather than but leans toward The Left. In light of the incontrovertible planetary eco-crisis portending a final crisis, a centered body politic for the U.S. would amount to insufficiency, as the kids under voting age appear to be perceiving. Seems fair to say we elder anti-Trumpists not heeding that are as short on sense as are we long in the tooth. Frankly, we who rest on faux laurels of wisdom said only to come with old age attained, ought pay closer attention to the rage of young age that is surely going to turn the page now that Millenials outnumber Boomers. The looming question is whether the former's voter registration total nationwide shall come to match that outnumbering by next summer. I don't think it shall, but I'd be happy as a toddler tickled to be wrong about that. I got maybe a decade of living left. Therefore, it is sensible to say that the young are correct that their stakes come 2020 are much more weighty than are mine and those whose ages are roundabout to mine. The anti-Trump campaign of 2020 must be made to be more about 2050 than respect for the good ol' men and women of Hillary 2016.
5
Um, that's harsh. But, yes. Although not sure Biden is a better candidate than Harris. But, the sense that the slash and burn culture of the easily offended is antithetical to what the vast majority of grownups in America want. To that, yes.
4
Were older Americans as negatively impacted by the cost of real estate and education as contemporary American youths? Do they stand to lose more from climate change than younger Americans?
Life is hard for everyone, but older Americans project their experiences and outcomes onto younger Americans in a world that is much more competitive due to globalization.
3
Good morning, Bret! I'm not used to being blamed for the problems in the country before I've finished my coffee, but then I did open this column guessing what it said, so I can't get too indignant (see that there--a Millennial exercising her better judgment!).
In all seriousness: I read your columns regularly because I want to know your perspective. They may rankle, but that's ok; I can handle feelings of strong disagreement.
But what is this about? How does your column amount to anything except a guy with a big sturdy NYT platform "calling out" an entire generation he must not interact with very much, and/or who he's characterized by assessing only a few? If you want to judge me and all Millennials by a few thousand protesters and people on Twitter, fine; that's your prerogative, I guess. For my part, I'll try not to judge all conservative columnists by the whiney opining of a few.
24
Except he specifically did NOT call out the whole generation.
1
@Robert I saw that buried ok--not-everyone and I don't buy it. "Millennials" is in the title of the piece; if Stephens really wanted to emphasize a small subset he wouldn't have returned so often to a blanket term.
3
I do not agree that this is only a millennial phenomenon, nor do I agree that it is necessarily a bad thing to take loud umbrage about something in order to change it (recall, for example, the essay by Stéphane Hessel a few years ago called “Indignez-vous !” in which he made a strong case for the opposite). However, I do believe that the principle of publicly stating one's indignation is being abused, and that the most flagrant instances of this are indeed associated with a loud subset of today's youth.
In several of the instances Stephens cites, the pressure of an indignant group caused authorities to take unfair actions against the target of the indignation. This is the real problem, in my view: authorities who violate standards of conduct such as due process are not only violating their positions of power, but are also feeding the hyperindignation phenomenon.
I think there are two things authorities can do to turn this around:
First, have a conversation with core members of the indignant group. Even today, most people are rational and can be convinced by evidence (or the lack thereof) if it is presented to them. For this to work, both the indignant and the authorities must be open to having their minds changed by the weight of evidence.
Second, never back away from important principles such as due process and the right to face one's accuser.
If authorities consistently applied these two ideas, I believe that the issue of hyperindignation would fade away.
3
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room"...Socrates
Yes, the machinations of the extremes of this generation will come back to haunt them. But the issue isn't that the younger generation thinks it has all the answers, every newly minted generation, when they reach their majority, thinks it has superior knowledge to their forebears. The issue is that the adults in the room are no longer pushing back against the younger generations' inanity.
Those who actually have life experiences are indulging these spoiled children. The children are not the problem, it's the fact that the adults have abrogated their responsibilities to keep society on an even keel.
5
don't usually agree with mr stephens, but.....
it is part of the growth of human beings that young adults are morally disgusted by the hypocrisy, flaws and compromises of the elder generations. That moral outrage is necessary for those of us who are older to remember what we believed in before we became cynics, before we were co opted by an unfeeling system. that outrage is valuable and important. But having access to the power of social media gives too much power too quickly . in the past, that outrage lead some to become leaders and vow to fix the system. Now, in an instantaneous world, it leads to destruction of ally and enemy alike. This generation will realize (as all the others have) that good is not the enemy of perfect, and that someday their words will come back to haunt them when a new generation with different values and sensitivities arises.
7
Complaining about a specific generation is such old news. What do you think the Edwardians thought about the youth of the 1920s? They were appalled and critical. Recently we have labeled any person who lived through World World II, “The Greatest Generation”. What about the generation that lived through the American Revolution? Were they not the greatest generation? The best medicine for this age old complaint is to have friendships with people of all ages and to stop labeling.
9
I'm a tired Gen X manager and I love my Millennials - they work much harder than older workers I have managed who I call my 50 year-old teenagers, and harder still then my Retired-at-Work Baby Boomers (like at this point if you haven't found a way to retire when you are still entitled to a civil service pension you're not going to)
I agree that some of these stories of college students getting professors fired for silly offenses is alarming - but once again I blame the adults in the room. Those Harvard students didn't fire those professors - other professors at Harvard did that.
5
Twitter is just text messaging wars meant to be taken out of context by young people and old people pretending they’re neither.
Let's discuss the other group that need not be validated: self-righteous baby boomers.
This article is hard to read: two older white men metaphorically high-fiving each other for being members of the homogenous "we work hard and do things right and are just overall better" generation.
5
All these labels: baby boomers, millennials, Gen X, etc., do no good at all.
6
It will be easy to discern when the "kids" get serious about their futures. Just like the 60's when "social unrest" of the "kids" flipped the Vietnam War, civil rights, women's rights, etc, etc, etc there was BITS (Blood in the Streets). Kinda like breakfast... the chickens are involved but the hogs are committed.
3
I've always hated all of this stereotyping of American youth into generational pigeon holing. Gen this or that. Teenagers, et al. It's shallow and more than often wrong. Young people are systematically categorized into simply mass consumers who do nothing but what they're told or expected to do or purchase or vote by the corporations/gov't. And when they do not the diatribe against them from the powers that be expose the fact that today there are not only more diverse than ever but also too many numbers. We are no longer a three tv network circus ring who adhere to all of the same nostalgic waxed into a false formula of generational bias.
2
Oy. Bret, at the risk of accusations of whataboutism, let me say that this doesn't sit well coming from a Republican.
Young people are by definition black-and-white, self-righteous, and shallow until life experience gives them some shading and depth.
"...a candidate shows the intestinal fortitude to rebuke some obnoxious person or faction within his political base."
What IS a problem is the way full-grown Republicans demand orthodoxy and demonize dissenters, claiming that those who "take a knee" are disrespecting the armed forces, or cozy up to a hostile foreign power rather than tolerate Democrats, or cry that Facebook/the media is mean to them, or smear professionals in intelligence, law and justice who dare to investigate and tell the truth.
These are supposedly adults. We know that Trump is hopeless, but that doesn't explain the behavior of those around him and their willingness to lie, vilify Dems, and play the victim.
Leave the young people alone. They have some growing up to do, but that's entirely normal. What's not normal is that lying, obfuscating, vicious behavior from supposed adults who are old enough to know better.
12
You're getting old Bret. But one huge thing that the Millennials should feel extremely grateful for is that unlike the Boomers, their everyday lives during their teens and twenties have not been impacted/consumed by the real possibility of involuntary/forced military service and up close and personal death and maiming by war.
6
I don’t disagree that there are problems with our current “cancel culture” and that shouting mobs have at times overtaken reasoned discourse. But shouting mobs form when other political avenues of change are closed off from an angry populace. The GOP has calmly, cheerfully taken away the rights of millions who are not straight white men, including those in several states now whose anti-abortion actions are telling young women they aren’t really people. These same people lie, manipulate, gerrymander and disenfranchise wherever necessary to ensure they stay in power, so simply saying “So vote them out” is not always an effective solution (ask Wisconsin how that worked out for them).
Meanwhile, Trump continues to stoke the culture war every day via Twitter rants and dictator-like political rallies, and the GOP has defined political deviancy so far down that the average person doesn’t even recognize blatant corruption, or greets it with a shrug. These liars and grifters are aided and encouraged by a great many pundits and thinkers like Mr. Stephens.
Against this backdrop, a few millennials being snarky is tame compared to what is likely to come. Getting angry and mobilizing that anger is exactly what the left needs, as long as it channels that anger into political power. They’re not going to get off your lawn, Bret, get used to it.
4
Funny how every generation that judges its predecessors becomes a generation judged by its offspring.
Not that this gut-feeling mode of thinking is limited to Millennials. I've seen as evil and deranged hatred expressed by old folks who hated Obama. And I see the same evil and deranged hatred expressed by the 40-somethings and older who believe that their jobs were stolen by immigrants and foreigners overseas. And so on.
It's a lot more satisfying to indulge in self-righteous rage at the other than in humble critique of oneself. And it's a huge rush to get a mob to follow your lead.
These people are riding a tiger, who will "return from the ride with [them] inside, and a smile on the face of the tiger".
How do you feel about people born under the sign Sagittarius? All pretty much alike, aren't they?
4
Thank you, the term “Junior Totalitarians” is now part of my speech. This newish tendency to outlaw offense is not specific to any age group, unfortunately. There are many among all age groups who seem to forget it’s not just freedom of the press, but freedom of speech. Including things knuckleheads say.
3
Focus, People!!! We are all going to go down with our hands around someone's throats and their hands around ours while the supply of clean water and food dwindles and beautiful Planet Earth suffers a fever that may kill her--and us.
And while ANYONE is better than Trump, WE (as in EVERYONE) need a MAJOR paradigm shift at this point in what we eat, how we produce it, how we power everything, how and whether we deal with over-population, and how (all) the Earth's resources are distributed (for which money is the proxy). And frankly, Joe Biden represents the usual kick-the-can-down-the-road, tweak-around-the-edges politician--the corporate-friendly, business-as-usual type favored by Stephens--who would still let us continue toward disaster, only at a slower pace.
If you don't recognize the actual big problems looming right around the corner that we need to face NOW, (or if you blame the immigrants, for example), then you HAVEN'T been paying attention and you are being manipulated for the sake of short-term monetary gains for the already wealthy and the powerful at your expense. Take your blinders off; look up from your screens (Millennials, and Boomers alike); we need all hands on deck working toward solutions to the problems the Earth has not experienced for 6 million years (the last mass extinction, for those not paying attention).
6
"Does it ever occur to some of our more militant millennials that the pitiless standards they apply to others will someday be applied pitilessly to them?"
Exactly.
And that judgement will come at the speed of social media. Today's moralizing certitudes will become next week's shame, shame, shame...
4
Has there ever been a young generation that didn’t drive the older generation crazy?
3
Maybe address some remarks to their parents in your next column, Brett. Remember, this is the generation where there were never any losers. Everyone got an award for something. Now that this group is in the real world, where there are real winners and losers, they are rebelling because that is something they don't like.
1
I'm not voting simply because everyone tells me I should! So there!
It's not that their Millennials, it's that they're young. The hippies who are now Boomers were equally idiotic and self-righteous; they thought they could change the world through protest, LSD and free love. The world of humans doesn't, and never has, worked that way. They did change some things: LSD helped us create technological marvels in Silicone Valley, social change helped us confront sexism and racism (works in progress) and protest impeached Nixon. And the Millennials will change some things: hopefully, they'll save the planet. Both generations could use a little more dialogue and empathy but as a non-young person let's be realistic--a 26-year old doesn't know much about life, human nature, or (usually) suffering. They can't. But we'd better hope they are fearless and righteous because we need their energy and passion right now, too.
3
Millennials need to vote. Vote, vote, vote. If you don't vote then quit complaining. Be the force that helps us return to democracy. You are the generation that will be most affected by the future. There is not just now. Think how the country and world will be when you're 65 if you don't vote. Be a participant and not a complainer.
1
The "your either with us or against us" mentality of so many people today, and not just millennials, is a perfect fit for our "ME" society. And a "ME" society is not really a society which requires all of us to recognize that others just might have just as many good ideas and also grievances and needs as you. And we all need to work together to have a society that can continue and prosper.
2
Bret is responding to an admittedly toxic subculture online of overreacting mobs of keyboard warriors (who actually come form a pretty diverse range of ages but amusingly share very similar attitudes) and conflating it with some recent campus high jinks that got to his news feed.
His silly examples of college "mobs" would hardly rank with college politics of yore. Only major difference is that current college kids actually are quite well behaved, since they spend all their time looking at their phones or typing into the laptops, and rarely take over buildings, riot, chain themselves to fences, break in to offices, or other fun stuff we used to do way back when. Ah, the good old days...
2
As with any generation, there's a sub-population whose behavior is insufferable, and there is indeed a significantly influential minority of millennials, and other age cohorts, that have "weaponized" victimhood.
Check out West Coast cities to get a good picture. Right now, we're plagued by "YIMBYs" who want to cut down "elitist" homeowners who live in single-family neighborhoods because these neighborhoods are "exclusionary" and "racist."
Of course, the facts are that blanket, evidence-free upzoning of these neighborhoods will displace and increase housing costs mostly for lower-income households who live in older, déclassé -- and affordable -- neighborhoods. (Wealthier neighborhoods often have restrictive CC&Rs that upzoning can't supersede.)
But there are many more young people who have more sense (or aren't paying attention) -- just like my cohorts in the "baby-boomer" generation.
Life goes on.
1
I'm a boomer and I have thoughtful wonderful children. Kids in college today are Gen Z though graduate students and some late bloomers may be the tail end of millenials.
Putting parsing of generational divides aside, I am both appalled by and fearful for this college population.
I have this nagging feeling that the current mode of censorship enacted by these students is akin to sexual or religiious repression - both in its lack of understanding of what it is to be human and what life will utimately ask of each and every one of us.
The absence of an internal core of strength and character may be what is driving these young people to attack anyone and everyone who isn't themself. I know they don't see it this way but frankly there is little difference between them and turnip (opps I meant trump) except their age.
Perspective is sorely missing and college administrations are feeding into a subculture whose members need to grow up, not be coddled. We don't need to or can afford to protectively educate those who cannot tolerate anyone except who is looks back at them in the mirror. Instead, our higher educational resources would be better served to prepare the next generation for a future that demands we address serious threats to our wellbeing. This work will be hard and will require much from us.
3
A lot of these comments are awfully defensive. Mr. Stephens is correct in pointing out that the internet, especially social media, has overemphasized the glorification of self-righteous indignation and youthful angst. Hey, everyone likes attention, especially when you are stressed out, lonely and probably not living the instagram perfect life.
Have to say that he is also right about Biden. Not my first choice, but rather like eating fresh fruit over that luscious over-the-top chocolate bar, Biden is the best option for the sane center. Hopefully we're starting to learn that extremes hurt more than they help. That said, I would love to see Biden coupled with a VP who is younger, politically savvy and ready to pursue the serious problems climate change, infrastructure, and economic inequality, and a solid reputation for integrity. Wouldn't that be different?
Oh, and save your souls and mind, lay off instagram and twitter for a while.
1
Millenials, Boomers and any other generation, please just do America and the world a favor - if the candidate of your choice does not win the nomination of their party, do not pick up your toys and go home. Those who chose that path last time share the responsibility of what has happened since right along with Trump voters. I've been voting for forty years now and I like just about everyone else have had to hold my nose and vote for lesser of two evils more than once.
The election of Trump has resulted in a huge number of setbacks for all generations, especially the younger ones. Take stock of what he's done in just two years to the EPA, CFPB, Education, Immigration, etc. Nothing that has happened is pro-consumer and we are getting closer to a government of the corporations and billionaires, by the corporations and billionaires, and for the corporations and billionaires with no place for the individual.
2
I, too, deplore call-out culture, which isn't limited to a particular generation. It does seem to be more prevalent and petty these days, perhaps because it's so easy to pile on somebody on social media.
I'm 68, and have spent a fair amount of time with college students over the past 10 years. My observation is that they are passionately committed to social and environmental justice, caring, creative, and open to new ideas. I see in them hope for the future. I like to help raise them up, rather than putting them, or any other generation, down.
1
Gawker spawn? Really? You just sound out of touch. Gawker doesn't even exist anymore.
2
That’s just.... like.....your opinion, mannn..
1
All this intergenerational finger pointing is so tiresome. I get it from the younger generation, they are kids and have not always come to appreciate the complexity of social transformation. But old farts like this guy ( and I can throw a stone and hit 50 myself) have no place to be taken seriously. It's boring and played out.
2
I read this after listening to an interview on NPR where the author of a book (thank you I forgot the name) called baby boomers malignant. We, the baby boomers, eventually had to pull up our big girl panties. We, the old lady baby boomers, can still effect change. I challenge all millennials to put words into action and go vote for your guy or gal. I’m still trying to decide who will get my vote. It all starts local and Tuesday is primary day in Pennsylvania.
Let the howling begin. #babyboomer #notashamed #ourmusicisbest
3
As a retired educator, this is the thing that makes Joe so endearing to me. I miss the students, but not the WHINE!
6
It's astounding that people of Stephens' and my parents' generation demand constant fealty to their ideas of propriety and ethics while they've made the world into what it is at the moment-- a veritable hell for many except the most privileged. When younger people push back against them and their retrograde ideas, we get sputtering, angry, insulting remarks that have no basis in anything except a fear of their own growing lack of importance and crawl toward mortality.
The only people picking up what you're putting down, Bret, are people who look and think like you. And while you can't seem to accept it, you are not a standard-bearer or a majority in this country.
5
There’s the problem. A veritable hell!?!?
I got a ticket to Syria, Iran, Hungary, China....and America favorite Iraq. That’s one country we did turn into hell.
Look, every generation thinks they have all the answers. Lord knows mine did in the '60s. It would be nice if we would learn from the mistakes of those who came before us. The hissy fit we had with Humphrey gave us Nixon. That lesson wasn't learned last election and I fear it won't be in 2020, either. And in today's Republican Party, Nixon would poll in single digits.
6
The internet has transformed adolescent rebellion into a movement with political impact. Consequently, "experience" has become a code word for "obstacle to the new generation that has THE solution for all social ills that you old guys missed". More than ever, history is being ignored by ideology to assuage the angst of growing up. One can only hope that millennials will grow up in time to save themselves.
6
Keep an open mind. Learn from those who don’t agree with you on a subject. Don’t pile on when someone is hurting.
When someone said or wrote something that Abraham Lincoln found offensive he would write a scalding and shaming note. Then he would slip it into his top desk drawer. The next morning he would reread the letter. If he still felt it needed to be sent and find it’s way into the public record he would send it. More often than not he’d tear it up. We could all learn a lot from our 16th President.
7
I'm a 66 year old boomer. I have a 30 year old millennial daughter whose giving birth in two weeks. Since we've reached the end of the alphabet with generation Z, we'll call the new baby "generation screwed." I believed it was my obligation to leave this world better than I found it and I have failed, both my daughter and my grandchild. Oh I fought the good fight. My daughter was ostracized is her rural conservative school because she had a mom that spoke often and loudly about the climate, clean water, crony capitalism and the separation of church and state. She learned from an early age, up close and personal what intolerance looks like. I failed to improve her world but I taught her what ruined it. I told her to beware of suddenly "woke" conservatives such as yourself Brett. I showed her at age 15 what you're just figuring out now about your party.
9
I love what you said here. I'm 65 and feel just as you do. And frankly 'woke' conservatives probably need to make less noise and spend more time apologizing for the last 30 years of conservative ideas - that made Trump possible. Thirty years of a wink and a nod to fox news, racists, and allowing evangelical cultists to disguise their ideology as family values - has taken its toll.
I have far less to fear from millennials - than woke conservatives - who return to sleep walking when a more palatable frontman for the same bankrupt philosophy appears after the Trump debacle.
Thanks for your comments. I think you have it exactly right.
1
I attended a caucus in my precinct in which the merits of Hillary and Bernie were argued. The usual suspects showed up, and the split in support was a foregone conclusion. The difference? The Bernie supporters seemed to not care that he could and would not win (all millennials and about that age). The same argument by that group is made today without any notice of who can remove Trump from office where he is slowly destroying us. It's still not Bernie. It is Biden. Get a grip, folks, the country is more important than losing talking points.
7
As a Middlebury alum, I’m right there with you, Bret. And, regarding non-gendered pronouns, I just can’t do it. I have absolute respect for anyone’s request that I refrain from using gendered pronouns, but, in that instance, I will simply use the person’s given name. What’s the alternative, “I saw Joanna this morning, and they said that they are going to the concert.”? How is the listener to interpret that?
3
It's sad to read about this purported generational distrust and that some wish that certain generations deserve shame and blame. If we can't unite against our common foe (Trump) we are doomed.
5
I don't like call-out culture either. But we've arrived here for a reason. The "sensible center" in America is passive and intellectually lazy. They made it possible for Trump to be president. How long did it take for the "sensible center" to come around on gay marriage? Most Republicans don't even think racism is a real problem. Most Republicans don't really care about religious liberty unless it's Christian liberty. Don't even get me started on the "sensible center's" almost total ignorance of the never-ending drone wars abroad. Many students in college are learning about this stuff for the first time, and they don't see the "sensible center" caring, much less doing anything about it.
6
@Jess why in heaven’s name do you consider Republicans part of the sensible center? From where I sit they are the Radical Right.
2
What Bret should really be analyzing is the two camps or types of people.
The people who want power completely and totally to dominate and exploit others for their own gain and the people who want to share power and govern fairly and humanly.
These dualism are what has gripped this country.
Right or left, dark and light, good and evil, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. Etc.
If you are a GoT fan you can see the types I talk about in the series.
The Republicans- ie Lannisters and the Democrats - ie Starks.
One family steals power no matter how destructive to its people and the other seeks to share power and hope for compromise to spare its people.
Young people on the left have finally copt on to what young people on the right have always know.... that, to use the words of Cersei Lannister, “power is power” and what Bret refers to as militant millennials or the Danyerys or Unsullied set, feel forced to use it indiscriminately.
They are sick and tired of the entrenched imbalance of power and the deplorable inequality of human beings and they see the world on the precipice and irredeemable.
They want to be the breakers of chains for all humanity and in doing so they feel they need to just burn it all down to ashes and hope it rises up again like the Phoenix. Those in the way get annihilated too.
Start fresh.
Unfortunately, human beings can’t change and ...They are in for a rude awakening.
2
Yeah sure, and will they take their worldview to the voting booth?
I care about having a President who will aggressively address climate change, the existential threat to our civilization.
This entire column and line of argument is irrelevant.
3
You know, Bret, you’re starting to remind me of George Will. I hate George Will.
2
We live at a time where conversation dares not drift beyond the weather.
6
We should care what millennials think, if they voted. Which they don’t.
I would like to take this opportunity to disgorge my contempt for millennials’ a-historic ignorance of my generation, which it seems everyone younger is jealous-haters of. But I won’t. It would take a book. So I’ll just say that I saw this shrill trend starting decades ago when I returned to the SF Bay Area 12 years after my hippie days there. The beauty of our liberality had already curdled into smugness. Where the h. did that come from? That was the mid-80s and it has only curdled further. I love NPR, but I believe it has created a weird distortion loop in the minds of the recent generations naïve youths. You can’t blame postmodernist college professors for everything.
2
You are giving NPR way too much credit...
3
Amen brother & I'm a Democrat!
1
oh get over it
grow up
learn how to take a joke
basic human skills that are apparently no longer practiced =
a generation that is less human
3
You've turned the issue of the character of the President, the actual candidate, into a discussion upon the imaginary character of the under 30 generation.
"Snowflakes"
"Gender policing"
"Triggering"
Oh, geez. Shut up already.
Nobody who is offended by Miss used in place of They for Him is as upset by that pronoun misuse as they are by the spector of the highest level of carbon emissions in human history, the thousands who are sleeping on bus benches in many cities, the continual war on women's rights, the love for war, weapons, militarism, nationalism, money and raw power that the Republicans embody.
They are worried sick about debt, about paying off student loans, affording a house or rent, caring for themselves or sick parents with expensive or non-existent health care. What happened at college when you protested a speech means nothing once you are out in the world.
Where is the US going in the world and whose going to take us there? That's what matters.
Maybe Biden will do better on these issues than Trump. But he seems cast in the same mold as every single one of those men who have gotten into the White House since 1945. They always do the bidding of the most powerful and have sanctioned the rot and deindustrialization of both urban and rural America. They have not built up our country, but have lead it back down the road, time and time again, into foreign adventurism purchased by the trillions with American tax dollars.
6
Well said.
Swallow it, Brett.
We don't need some right-wing, never-Trumper setting up one group of Dem-leaning voters against others.
The house is on fire. We need all the water we can get.
6
Want to see a real entitled child? Get between a boomer and his medicare, a boomer and his ability to make racist/sexist comments, a boomer and his ability to pontificate on "back in my day..." when the cost of living was a fraction of this. As for safe spaces, ever see what happens when Republicans are faced with (choose your own adventure): gays, intellectuals, Muslims, anyone with an opposing viewpoint, or children who have been shot at more times than the average soldier? Lots of whining will ensue, demands for censure, criticisms of PC culture and whatnot.
It just sounds like you're afraid of what we'll find in your closet Brett. That doctor at Ohio had 177 rape victims. I wonder if you're beginning to sweat.
6
Generational warfare... So counterproductive, given the tsunami of problems faced by the country and this world. Per Benjamin Franklin, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Stop fomenting divisiveness!
2
With friends like you, Biden won't need enemies. Kindly take your privileged outlook on all things political and "shine the light" elsewhere. You just sound like Daniel Patrick Moynihan for a new century. Trust me. Biden doesn't need this endorsement from a guy with your worldview.
3
The Sista Souljah moment was Bill Clinton at his worst, indulging in his betrayal compulsion; the shabby part of his personality in which he's given to wondering shy he owes anyone an apology for his history of buying in and selling out; of moral choices that range between questionable and unquestionably bad. I'm sure Bret Stephens empathizes with that Bill Clinton and feels his pain; his heartburn.
This might not be Bret at his worst, but it's certainly his most contemptible pose: the pouty Puer Aeternis Southern Boy, who hated Jimmy Carter for being such an old nag, longed to be an Elvis impersonator with a lounge act, and settled for a life of unearned middle-class respectability in the last generation to be offered that kind of charity.
The Millennials could not possibly despise him as much as his own kind do.
3
I really think typifying any group, whether by race, religion, sex/sexuality, or age is a fool’s errand. Watermelon anyone?
5
No need to ascribe names to the various younger groups. It's all the same--youth is youth. The only thing of consequence is they must vote or shut up.
4
Good lord, what a nasty column. If you respect people, you listen to what they are telling you. If they say something offends them, believe them, then seek understanding. When has "I don't care about your feelings, you wussy" ever been part of constructive conversation or community? I suppose Bret's response to women made uncomfortable by Joe Biden is - put up with it, so that Joe doesn't have to change? Be uncomfortable, so that I don't have to think about whether my own mores should be shifting.
And, yes, Joe Biden should have empathy. The problems young people encounter today might not be like his problems, but that doesn't make them stop existing. Nobody struggling to pay off a loan had it vanish because people are hungry somewhere else in the world.
2
Alright Brett, how about I randomly come up to you at a work event and kiss the back of your head.
Oh, and in this scenario, you work 50 hours a week and make $30K per year.
5
I see that being a millennial is now considered the Whinny selfish generation. As a person who grew up in the sixties I find these young people to very thoughtful and accepting of others in general. On the other hand my generation was racist, they were violently opposed to the war and dropped out. After the war they became the greediest most self centered status seeking hypocrites God every put onto the face of this earth. I trust these young folks to save this country from these Aryans that hold power and to save the earth from greedy corporations
2
clicked without reading the byline and regretted it instantly. just no. hard pass. conservatives can only blame everyone for everything. this is the opposite of thought, it is just entitlement
4
What an obnoxious article. The problem with calling out "social justice warriors," or whatever bullying name you want to get them, is that the examples of people going too far, like at Harvard, don't begin to measure up to all the times that people don't go far enough. The truth is that our country is still replete with disgusting racism, and sexism--just look at the white house!--so people need to be on their guard, to call it out, and to not stand quietly while the GOP, and white men in general, continuing their racist, sexist, bullying ways.
Who are the most offended by social justice warriors? Racists. And by keeping the focus on SJW's who went too far, it gives racists a cover. "Don't look at my racism, look at those fool decrying false racism!" These aren't anywhere near equal.
So if old Joe wants to waste his time decrying people trying to make a positive change (even if those people are too overzealous), rather than target the racists and misogynists who demand our continuing criticism, then he won't get my vote.
Playing cute with the racist GOP isn't funny to me.
3
They are toast. Future fodder for the new Asian masters, who will require body servants and organ transplant growing vessels. We take special hilarity in our daily activities observing these ignoramuses trying to navigate life; they cannot give change for a dollar, they cannot find Ohio on a map of the US, let alone find the largest country in the world on a giant globe. They do not know who Frederick Douglass, Thomas Paine, Oliver Cromwell or Marie Antoinette were, among the thousands of facts they are ignorant of. Half cannot get through the day without their "meds", the other half cannot get through the day without instagram. We delight in mocking them while we live it up as the last generation to enjoy the fruits of world hegemony. Boys and girls, you are about to become the lower rungs on the world ladder. Thank your clueless parents for that. Tee Hee.
2
Good thoughts.
About as well said as anything I’ve read: ...”the coddled minds and censorious manner and inability to understand the way the world works.”
1
Your oversimplification of the millennial justification is just wrong. Your generation handed millennials a dying planet and evil policies, yet you dare to be offended at some pc culture rather than the death of our planet and the corruption of our politics. Bret Stephens, you ought to end your career writing for the new york times
2
So basically you're offended that these Millenials are offended? As Chomsky says “Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”
I think his point is that those millennials who protest to the extent of ruining lives and careers are the ones who do not really espouse free speech.
1
@John
There is a wide gap between free speech and a modern-day Salem witch trial. The latter actually prevents free speech even if it appears to be giving the otherwise-mostly- disenfranchised a greater voice.
3
How to solve the timeless human problem of age groups of humans (typically the young vs. the old) being at political, economic, cultural odds with each other and guarantee a smoother and ideally more intelligently progressive transition of power between generations?
I really wish the masterminds behind computation, since they promise so much with computation, would give us games in which we can design the societies we want and see how they turn out and therefore have all our ideals and theories tested so that generations do not waste so much time, money and indeed souls on bickering and we do not have to go through all the truly horrifying test cases in the world whether right wing disasters such as Nazi Germany or the left wing Soviet Socialist Republic not to mention today with right wing phenomenons such as Islamic states and heartbreaking cases such as Venezuela.
Imagine computer games in which the young today, or any group among the young today (and of course all other age cohorts and groups among such) could construct exactly the society they wish and see how it plays out, so that ideally in having one's theories presented plainly in the face one will honestly accept outcomes and not throw oneself stupidly against fellow citizens in actual life or try to veer off, leave one's country, and try to create a better society 'over there'. I hear we already have something of these types of games on computer, but we certainly need to make them more sophisticated.
Fellow commenters: put down your weapons. Stephens is trolling us. Don’t fall for it.
4
This piece is the equivalent of an old guy yelling “You kids get off my lawn!”. Millennials pay the equivalent of a house to go to college for flat wages. They will grow up with less economic mobility, looming climate change, healthcare costs, lack of access to abortion and crumbling infrastructure. A statistically insignificant group of protesters at college are nothing new - the hot protest of my generation was divestment from South Africa apartheid. Using “political correctness” as a cudgel to swing at the clean up crew of your generation’s insistence on tax cuts, support of unmanaged healthcare, tolerance of bigotry, climate change denial and minority judicial rule is just projection and insufferable self puffery.
4
Gee, who added $20 TRILLION to the national debt since 1980?
The truth hurts Bret. What car do you drive? Is it a $100K Land Rover?
4
The NYT editorial page's house neocon is Ready For Biden, so I suppose we should all just fall in line. Electability! And once again, we have a writer who takes the spare components of a few sanctimonious college students (an ever-renewable resource) to assemble a straw man for his own maximal delivery of grievance.
2
‘Junior totalitarians of the left’? I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for the snots at Harvard etc but really Brett have you taken a look at the mellenial right? I believe they are marching with tiki torches and denying women the right to choice. But then that’s okay Brett, cause their not the left.
So obvious and snotty.
3
Yeah, leading substantially if you only count people with landlines over 50....
Also, you know there are millennials that can’t go to Harvard right? Congratulations you found a loud and spoiled niche at expensive colleges, and now you’re pretending it encompasses an entire generation (one dealing with empending doom from climate change and about a dozen other things that Biden doesn’t give a fark about) which is about as out of touch as the man himself.
1
Ludicrous. This column says a great deal about its author. Not so much about anything else.
5
Social Media is the problem and it will never go away. It got the oaf in the WH elected.
3
Wow! I can read my grandpa scolding me through an op-ed! The nytimes has it all! In all seriousness, I think the author completely undercut his perfect valid criticisms of my generation by engaging in the exact same whining and "snark" he proclaims to despise.
1
So are the Millennials so angry that they vote for Trump? Are the Millennials so angry the vote to keep 'Harvey Weinstein on steroids' in the White House. Are the Millennias so angry they act to keep the worst version of their crazy Uncle in the White House. Time will tell just how angry they are.
4
I see. So it's all right for you to whine and complain from the safe space of the opinion pages of one of the most widely-read newspapers in the world, but the rest of us should stop annoying you with our little economic and social issues.
I feel for you, really, having to live in a representative democracy where people who are still in the flower of youth (unlike me, and, I presume, you) get to have opinions and even cast votes. You call them "spawn" and "twerps;" I call them my children and friends.
Deal with it. [Puts on my shades; floats away.]
4
Like several other commenters, I teach college students, but not those in Ivy League schools or otherwise highly selective bastions of privilege. My students are "ordinary" kids from across the country (and the rest of the world as well). I see none of what is described here. My students have no time or interest in trigger warnings and their ilk. They're too busy with their studies, their sports and their volunteer activities. They do sometimes attend candidate appearances on campus -- this is Iowa -- and engage in respectful dialog. Let's not generalize one small segment of their generation to the whole. My students will grow into respectful leaders and contributors. And to those who think Baby Boomers are evil incarnate: you have no idea what you're talking about. Why do we need generational warfare when we have far more serious things to address as a nation?
8
And they call that noise they listen to music? _Shakes fist angrily_
305
@Nikolai van der Burg, just what your parents and mine said about our music.
10
@Nikolai van der Burg Your grand daddies said the same thing to rock n roll when you were head banging! Show some humility and understanding.
9
Hooray! So well put! The “calling out” culture is about power. Anyone with computer access and a snarky way with words can bring down someone in the public eye. I would argue that it’s not just millennials doing this. But when Trump brags that he’s not P.C., what he is saying is that he won’t be taken down by this stuff, and THAT resonates with many people, even those who find him appalling.
When the history books are written, they will describe the rise of the internet which gave way to social media and internet news sources. Fringe and phony news sources became as influential as mainstream sources. Controlling the narrative became the art of defining a person or issue through negative information (true or false). And this led us to Trump, and other similar political leaders throughout the world.
Where will it end?
4
Look Bret, why don't you just cut to the chase and say what you really want to say: "GET OFF MY LAWN!"
7
(With tongue firmly in cheek) WHAT?? A picture of two young women with bare legs and one with a bare midriff? How sexist!
1
You seem offended Bret. Everything okay?
1
Would any of us want to be 20 again? 25 again? 30 again?
For all those reasons that you wouldn’t want to be that age again, give a little benefit of the doubt to the generation that will have to right all our wrongs.
To start, college students today are not millenials. Besides, they do not think as a single block. It is bigoted to think that way. Harvard students, by definition are not typical anyway. Half of college students are in community colleges and the majority of the others are in state schools.
Millenials. like their parents were, unlike you, born during a baby boom. They face tough competition in the work place. Many have large loans, having paid higher tuition than you would have. I am the parent of two millenials with grad degrees and rents take up a huge portion of their pay. We aren't talking luxury here.
I agree that Harvard made a bad choice in this case. Everyone is entitled to a lawyer. However, those who believe that should also try to ensure that poor people get good representation when they need it.
3
As it happens, ‘college students’ are no longer millennials. Not that it matters all that much, as I certainly experienced much of the same college culture in my time there. But that’s all to say that the activist atmosphere at colleges is not exclusive to a time period—remember, much of the civil rights movement happened on campuses. They may have a miss here and there, but college activists often spell out the next class struggle. And just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t a harbinger of change.
Of course, I wouldn’t expect a climate change denier to understand the difference between critiquing public discourse and buying into the millennial-hit-piece-clickbait-industrial complex.
8
Hey! Millennials are your sons and daughters.. if you are a baby boomer that is. And are you sure you raised such shallow beings? I think not.
154
@Sad Sack pretty sure
5
@Sad Sack Well -- I'm 69 and sick of them. My daughters are 42 and 38, and incredible non-complaining human beings. One teaches medical school and gives free care. The other runs her own business. Considering they come from wealth -- these are beautiful generous girls. I did my part. Unfortunately a few other parents raised spoiled brats.
14
Many decisions are based on incentives. Decision-makers often have near-zero incentive to take a stand against an outrage mob, and most people face little backlash for participating in one.
It may just be that a lot of decision-makers fear the consequences of abstaining from or even being slow to join the ranks of the offended more than they fear the consequences of over-indulging an angry crowd, and the world has noticed. This has led to some calculating politicians - including some presidential candidates - racing to express their outrage over an obviously staged crime or an obnoxious comedian acting too much like an obnoxious comedian.
When so-called leaders act this way, it is harder to blame the easily offended.
2
Spot on! I'm sick of millenials' historical revisionism, cultural appropriation, and other stupid trends. However, I don't think they invented this. For that we have to "thank" their ivory-tower professors.
3
Bret, what a disappointment. You stereotype a whole generation.My son, who is 33 is a father of two. Both he and his wife work hard. They believe in inclusion and free speech. They have a major beef with the mental health of the POTUS and the fiscal health of our debtor nation. They and their friends hate Trump. The right move is to embrace them, not criticize the majority by the acts of a few.
576
He wasn't referring to every single person in that age group but a clear consensus. I'm sorry but what he said, needed to be spoken. I'm a parent myself. There's too much political correctness and I'm a Democrat.
49
@Ira Allen Exactly. Generational stereotyping is an obvious symptom of slovenly thinking, analytical or otherwise.
I'm an old guy, pushing 72. I work with millennials and younger cohorts every day as a mentor, consultant, and hired hand. If I were to generalize, based on my experience, these are a group of passionate, caring, smart and ambitious men and women seeking to earn a decent living in fields many boomers cannot even imagine or understand the prospects for advancement.
I hope their, my young partners, feelings are mutual. I admire them and hold them in esteem.
58
The millenials couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary 'cause they were too disappointed Bernie didn't win the nomination. Now they have to live with someone determined to make their lives more difficult. Tough...for the rest of us.
27
Dear Mr. Stephens:
The college student incidents you cite aren’t millennials. They are Xennials, GenZ, or whatever the latest trendy nickname is this week. They’re a breed unto themselves. Millennials’ social justice will seem moderate by comparison. This new generation is family centered, idealistic to a fault. Just the way their parents and teachers taught them to be.
2
So let me see if I get this right. We millennials have to deal with massive student debt caused in no small part by cuts to education, an economy that got tanked because of unfettered avarice, a world that’s going to become progressively less habitable due to climate change, and in all likelihood cuts to Social Security and Medicare that mean we won’t be able to rely on them as previous generations have - solutions to all of which are being stymied by generations like the Boomers - and we’re the problem because...why?
And while you’re mulling that over, New York Times, I have another question - do you actually WANT me to cancel my subscription? Because if these are the takes I’m paying for, I am happy not to.
4
What Bret Stephens wrote needed to be said. But if I tried to say it in a comment, I would be blocked. The comments column has become fastidious to a fault. Do we really need to be solicitous of the most sensitive among us? Shouldn’t they be expected to adapt to the real world, and toughen up?
4
Ron Cohen - Amen. Pretty sure the "how can I interpret this so that it maximally offends my delicate worldview" meme has infected the NYT comment police too. How are cantankerous old grumps like us ever going to have our voices heard? Maybe we should get all huffy and offended. When hell freezes.
1
To those Millennials that don't understand the stakes here, the absolute necessity of removing the stain that Trump is from office, they will be the ones to suffer the most. This is especially true for millennial women. The Trumpian GOP wants to control your body. If you let that happen, you will have no one but yourself to blame.
3
There are spoiled whining brats in every generation, including many of those unemployed blue collar workers wearing MAGA hats -- you know, those who want their old manufacturing jobs back without getting more education, without moving, without retraining and without realizing that those old jobs will never return because of automation and changes in the global economy.
2
@Christy
Wow, angry? Unlike the liberals who expect that someone will bail them out if they cannot get their lives together?
I'm moderate, adopting neither party as my own. But there are plenty of liberals who expect to live on the dole.
1
Remember the Mueller report? Younger, digital-age minds may have been understandably hyper-influenced by Russian troll fire-branding. The tactic also helped to create a way of intercourse online (and off?)... Sure, the election, but possibly much more if a generation has developed a destroy and conquer mentality rather than solution-driven community interaction. If this has a spark of truth, invite someone from another generation into your world. The world the youth of today will inherit needs solutions, maybe listening would help.
2
Don't buy Stephens' ridiculous generalizing of 80 million young people. There is no generation of "junior totalitarians on the left" and to believe so is to buy a conservative-framed falsehood. Stephens' sample size is drawn entirely from Twitter, some cherry-picked comments sections, and a handful of campus incidents that in no way comes close to representing what goes on at most universities in this country. An incredibly slim number of students who engage in violence to meet their goals are certainly in the wrong, but most of the time the "grown-ups" go along with student movements because the students are in the right. Do you think the culture in that dorm wasn't toxic? People in charge take the fall in these situations every day in workplaces across America. Why should a campus be any different? Why shouldn't students protest speakers who claim inherent intellectual differences between races? Those are false and extremely dangerous claims. And why shouldn't students take ownership of their education, including holding those who provide it accountable for their views and actions? If they didn't, conservatives like Stephens would blast them for being clueless and docile. But again these students captured on videos and making headlines are a tiny fraction of all millennials. If you want upcoming generations to be rational, critical, constructive, thoughtful individuals,try modeling those qualities for them, instead of stupidly lumping them together as uniformly problematic.
1
@J.Tuman Actually, he goes out of his way to avoid demonizing an entire generation:
“which is not, of course, anywhere close to the entire millennial generation (roughly 80 million strong), or their younger siblings in Gen Z. But it is that part of these younger generations that specializes in histrionic self-pity and moral self-righteousness, usually communicated via social media with maximum snark.”
What @Northstar5 said--also from a college professor at an extremely liberal school--. These three things stand out: "They are downright fascistic in their policing of speech. They mistake indignant foot-stomping for ethical enlightenment. They demand strident orthodoxy over rational argument. " Why is this concerning?--because they have gone so far to the left with these arguments that they come out on the far right. The ironies are what are so troubling here--all a product of a lack of truly independent and informed thinking.
3
I've grown tired of headlines that scream: "Do We Want Another Old White Man?" It's not the "white" part, it's the "old" part. Why are we so accepting of ageism?? Age brings wisdom and experience. Ageism is offensive and derogatory. it's not OK.
4
I’ve seen complaints like these in hieroglyphs.
4
I am seldom in agreement with Mr. Stephens but I think he gets this one exactly right. I wonder just when gutlessness became a formal requirement for the academic administrator’s role.
Dean Khurana is learning the hard lesson that being a dean is one of the worst jobs you can take on in the world. All you have to stand on is your reputation for integrity, and the opportunities to destroy that reputation are legion.
I suspect Dean Khurana is regretting his decision to leave the Harvard B-school right now. This is what happens when perfectly respectable academics wake up one morning and decide their careers are a failure unless they are “running something.” Truth be known, most academics make terrible administrators but they don’t have the self-awareness to understand that. I have seen this pattern repeatedly in my life.
1
I'm continually unimpressed by professional commentator's need on the right and "center" to call out college kids as the cause of all the problems currently facing society. It's almost like they refuse to take any personal responsibility for their generation's mistakes and instead find it easier to beat downward at people less experienced and privileged as them. These are young adults and children you are sneering at. Does it make you feel better about yourself Bret Stephens?
As a millennial with 100s of thousands of dollars in student debt, facing a world in ecological crisis, I say ignore these people. Unless they're actively engaged in helping to address the problems my generation is now having to deal with, and bless all of you who are - I know there are many, we don't need your baseless critiques. We don't need your sneering condescension. We don't need your inaction. We will stop global heating, we will reduce income inequality, we will promote health equity and a fair and just society. All without the help of condescending, belittling Bret Stephens. Pieces like this do nothing to address those goals, but only highlight your self--perceived importance. I'm not impressed.
4
I'm so tired of the generational hermeneutic. Either way you turn it, Boomer against X'rs, or X'rs against Boomers, it's ageist, silly, and boring. As a person who would reluctantly have to admit that he's a Boomer (if I were to accept such labels), I've seen plenty of self-indulgence in people of all ages. Conversely, I've seen much altruism and wisdom. Let's get over this generational whining and get on with life together. Why would anyone want to place their identity with a generational tribe? Ridiculous.
3
@Paul Exactly right, Paul. So called”generations research peddles in vast stereotypes that obscure both the individual and the truth.
The proof? All you have to do is substitute the word “black” for Millennial or Boomer, and you will immediately see how specious the entire approach is.
1
Brett is essentially doing what HIS generation of old white men do; he is marganilizing a group of people, thinks kids need to be tougher, and complains ironically about people complaining too much. This is a horrible opinion that lacks basic logic, control, and usefulness. People should react to other people doing morally corrupt things and punish them for it. Maybe Brett should talk about how young people may feel cheated by the system and use public outrage as a de facto justice system, which is working by the way as he points out in the article. Millineals are waiting for this older generation and opinions like this one to die so our society can become more accepting and last hateful.
3
Chill, Bret. Most people, even millennials, aren’t on Twitter, go to Harvard, or read the NYT. They are too busy working, raising their kids, and paying off their student debt.
6
Your team first, Brett. It's the party willing to plunge the nation into chaos.
5
Listen, I went Oberlin college. I am a millennial. The behavior you are describing is obnoxious. I hated it and it drove me to the center for a while. That being said, when I became an adult and interacted with the real world, two things happened. One, I dropped a lot of the PC virtue signaling. Two, I stopped caring about what was happening on college campuses because I had friends and colleagues with real world problems! My superintendent just got deported by ICE, most of my friends are drowning in student debt, I don’t really have the mental capacity to treat millennials on college campuses like a real threat.
The issue with Joe isn’t that he kinda groped some people. As a woman and a feminist I don’t like this, but it really pales in comparison to, I don’t know, a career of drug-war tough on crime legislation that’s ruined lives? A relationship with Strom Thormund? No support for Medicare for all.
You can disagree with me in these issues but please, stop it with this college campus smear schlock, it tabloid level writing and irrelevant. Defend the actual sins of your candidate old man!
6
Dear Joe Biden: Please shut up! If you're the candidate you have my vote but don't turn into another Trump. We've had enough of his insults.
Now I see why Brett left the WSJ. Jason Gay revealed in his ESJ (humor) column a few weeks ago on millennials that the WSJ style manual actually says that writers should go easy on them and avoid negatives - cause this cohort is just too easy to criticize.
2
This nation is already deeply immersed in a culture war, a gender war, a racial war, a religious war and a class war. A generational war will bring it to an even half dozen. Let's go for it!
3
Mr. Stephens, you could take a lesson in “stereotyping without making it obvious” from David Brooks. He manages to find more witty quotes and pseudoscientific sources to bolster his completely unjustified characterizations of entire demographic groups. But keep working on it. You’ll get better at it.
3
Oh wow. A call out piece that trashes call-out culture and simultaneously, an entire generation, written by a middle-aged white man, who wants to see a man who is basically himself in 30 years elected president. How shocking. (Go ahead, call me snarky. But don't call me a millennial, because I'm not.)
4
It seems a bit ironic that Mr. Stephens would so embrace Joe Biden’s presidential aspirations for ostensibly taking “offense at those who specialize in being offended”. Ironic because Joe Biden has been part of the party and mind set that has enabled a minority of millennials to embrace victimhood as the most critical aspect of their resume. Creating and perpetuating victimhood is the keystone of the Democratic party. Perhaps Mr. Stephens has forgotten Biden’s patronizing declaration to a black audience during Obama’s last election campaign that Republicans “want to put you all back in chains”. Where was Biden’s defense of Martin O’Malley who had the temerity to proclaim that “all lives matter” when asked by a “Black lives matter” activist which race has the right to be more offended. Who can forget the faux “war on women” that Biden campaigned against while he presumptuously fondled female shoulders and sniffed hairdos.
If college deans are “weaselly” for catering to the offended than there is no adjective that appropriately describes politicians like Biden who participated in the conception, perfection and ongoing expansion of victimhood status. Nor is there an adjective to adequately describe sanctimonious baby boomer opinion columnists like Mr. Stephens whose generation includes the most coddled, entitled and offended members in the history of the world.
Millenials think Twitter is reality. It's not. Don't get tattoos on your neck and you'll have a happier life. Trust me on this.
2
Dear Bret Stephens, you are on the wrong side of history. What you seem to think is over-sensitivity, most women, most Democrats, and most workers who have been exploited by privileged white men might,call a long suppressed roar of pain and outrage. I don't know what you imagine is "a sensible center " in America. Susan Collins who voted for Kavanaugh on the grounds that he was a suitable person for the Supreme Court?
Please fix the fascism in your corrupt party, before you dare come man-splaining social justice and free speech to citizens whose actual votes would have prevented the last two GOP disasters, Trump and W.
2
You are with him! That’s ok.
But please stop calling parts of the educated younger generations totalitarians. That’s old grandpa talk. The brain reaches maturity typically at time of graduation. Until then expect and accept impulsiveness.
Stephens is a fan of pure aggression from calling out to waging war. He has no time for context.
1
Since Mr. Stephens seems intent on over-simplifying issues and defining a generation by its squeakiest wheels allow me to help him with that just a bit.
Hey, Mr. Stephens, enough old white guys, yeah?
@Lou Torres People of color and women will be equally upset one morning when they wake up and discover that freedom of speech is a thing of the past. This is about the common, civic good, not just narrow group self-interest.
1
I remember growing up in the 60s and being vilified for almost everything I believed in and certainly for the way I looked. The act of vilification on the part of the old against the young is as old as time. I believe it is the duty of young people to irritate their elders and they will always have a sixth sense on how to do it. As academia is now controlled by 60s liberals, what better way to poke a stick in their eye than becoming illiberal. The problem I have with millennials is not what they say but what they don't: that the economic system they are inheriting is corrupt, unfair and dehumanizing. It's up to boomer candidates like Sanders and Warren to point out to millennials that the reason they have so much debt is because of greed and gutless politicians. I wish they would put down their Harry Potter and pick up some Marx...
1
The current president, whom you have defended countless times, is the “King” of search and destroy so why have you been so reticent to call him out? I know why, because just like the hypocritical evangelicals, you are willing to sell your soul for conservative-controlled Supreme Court justices even if one has a “stolen” seat and the other has shown very questionable behavior and judgement and in your case, of course, all things Israel. I’m sorry Mr. Stephens but your extreme condemnation of the Millennials should be applied to your destructive Republican Party and to their fearless, Twitter happy leader.
3
All this rubbish about millennials matters not a jot against the only serious issue of our century: climate change. What’s a candidate’s position on this?
1
Amen, Bret.
1
Marginalization involves finding a few examples of obvious stupidity by a group or individual, and using that to paint the entire group as outside the norm and so worth of shunning.
I have less and less respect for you, Bret Stephens, as this election cycle continues, as you are obviously "in the tank" for a couple of candidates who are historically malleable to the interests of the far right in Israel and won't work for real change. Millennials are a fine group, and to call them coddled is just dumb.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
2
I read your comment aloud to my husband while he was lazy painting the trim in our water damaged home following the epic rains of Hurricane Florence. He got a big laugh out it. We were so lazy before the storm that we, both in our mid-sixties, hauled every lose item in our yard into the garage all by ourselves, and I, poor pathetic worthless, spoiled me, took three empty propane tanks to be filled knowing we would be without power for nigh on a week during and following the storm. My older, but stronger than me, husband ferried bottled water in all forms upstairs just in case the house flooded. Lots of it. We have children about your age. They live far away and were deeply concerned but could only watch helplessly as The Howl approached. My mother aged 88 would not leave so our lazy, worthless, good-for-nothing- selves stayed to care for her and our 90 year old neighbor. That's right, flushing their toilets with rain water, cooking and ferrying food and checking on them twice daily. Spoiled? Disgraceful? Lazy? No son, this is my globally warmed retirement. Get ready. Yours will be worse.
3
I stopped reading at “Gawker spawn and HuffPo twerps”. The author attempts to land an insult but fails to do so (please excuse my millennial-speak) in cringe-worthy fashion. Thinking that millennials identify with or care about either Gawker or HuffPo shows the author’s ignorance of his subject matter.
Just like the members of the media who mistaken Twitter for real life, the author is incredibly out of touch about what actual millennials in the real world think. In today’s society where people are constantly bombarded with news and have access to an endless supply of media, the loudest and most headline-grabbing, controversial voices dominate the discourse. But this does not mean these voices represent the views of the demographic groups that the speaker belongs to.
I urge the author to turn off his computer, step outside his media-centric bubble, and speak with actual millennials. We’re not that bad when you get to know us.
1
Look at you, Bret, participating in "call-out culture".
My son is a millenial at 36.
Get a grip.
1
Agree 100% with both the content and tone of your article.
1
Can we please stop with the generationism?
Stereotyping an entire group of people based on their birth date is as stupid, unfair and reckless as racism or sexism.
Neither vice nor virtue can be ascribed to having been born in 1975.
3
I have mixed opinions about this rant. It’s overall tone of self-righteous aggreivement contradicts its thesis, which has a valid point to make about the most vocal of our self- appointed purity police.
Opiner, moderate thyself.
I am of the considered opinion that a larger number of "the junior totalitarians of the left" than is acknowledged manifest a poisonous antisemitism and that the Democrats' leadership, including Joe Biden, is afraid to repudiate them for that. I have voted for a Democrat presidential candidate every four years except once since 1972. The fact of the antisemitism on the Democrats' Left troubles me so much that I may vote for the Republican candidate next year.
1
The Left is not anti-semitic. Many on the Left are critical of Israeli policy and the extent to which Israel has become politically untouchable in US discourse without accusations of anti-semitism being hurled. One might be more concerned with the polo-wearing, torch-carrying, sneering white men who chant "Jews will not replace us" and vote the likes of Trump and McConnell into office. Critics of Israeli settlements find a home on the Left. People who make jokes about the Holocaust find their home in the GOP base.
2
I like Joe, he may be a bit of a buffoon, but he is a real person with human frailties, he is old, far too old.
I hope Joe gets the nod as I feel he is the weakest candidate of all.
QQ some more, snowflake. The kids aren't going to get off your lawn and your days are numbered. Better make the most of them by taking a long look in the mirror and wondering if this is really the best you can do with a biweekly soapbox at one of the world's most important newspapers. Isn't there an actual problem that needs your attention?
1
This column is spot on, but not in the way Stevens intended. A prime example of this deplatforming phenomenon that he decries is when alt-righters at Stanford, in conjunction with Mr. Stevens's colleague and ideological twin, Bari Weiss tried to deplatform Eli Valley due to his views on Israeli apartheid; I suppose I must've just missed Stevens's column decrying that attempt at free speech policing.
1
Mr. Stephens tells us that millennials are unable to "understand the way the world works." Yet, at the barely-been-born age of 35, on July 1, 2008, Mr. Stephens wrote the following: "Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Much of the science has since been discredited." The utter ignorance of such a statement if it had been made 30 years ago, much less ten, would or should have disqualified the writer from ever being taken seriously again on virtually any subject. Yet this pundit is lecturing 20-year-olds about how stupid they are.
Bret Stephens, in the grand tradition of David Brooks, is a truly shallow thinker who dreams of being considered profound and never fesses up to the false statements he has made and continues to make.
2
Hold on there, cowboy. You’re condemning an entire generation of folks and your only evidence is from Harvard, Yale, and Middlebury. Do you see a pattern here?
Maybe the problem isn’t with the Millennials as much as with traditionally elite - some would say effete - northeastern schools. They graduated the same brand of white, upper-class and disdainful snobs when I was matriculating in the 80s.
When you get occurrences of the same hypersensitivity at the Iowas, Colorados, and Floridas of this country, you may be on to something. But for now all you have is a very narrow demographic displaying obnoxious behavior that I do not for one minute attribute to an entire generation.
1
Excellent article!
1
Couldn’t agree more!! The pathetic, narcissistic self focus of many millennials would be absurd if it weren’t so destructive. If I read one more piece in your employer’s publication about how stressed today’s generation is (there are several today), I think I’ll tear my hair out. Things are stressful and tough for youth today? OMG!! Try landing on Omaha Beach under withering shellfire and machine gun fire. Try fighting your way through Belleau Wood. Try marching in formation through cannon fire at Gettysburg. Try surviving the devastatingly lethal flu pandemic of ‘17 and ‘18. Try surviving The Holocaust. Those events were stressful. Today’s events are annoying.
From the guy who is twists words, reads minds and is overwrought every time Ilhan Omar opens her mouth.
3
Preach, brother Bret! The Gen Xers are part of the Worst. Generation. Ever.
1
Hmm. White men like Trump and Stephens are the most aggrieved group ever.
3
Bring it Joe, just means another 4 years of our MAGA pushing president, if that's the best the DNC can serve up.
I'm willing to let the country crumble to a Flat Earther, Christian theocracy, if that's what it takes to wake it up.
“The rap against the former veep is that he’s old, frequently puts his foot in his mouth, and occasionally says nice things about Republicans.” Not that’s not the “rap” against Biden. He’s a corporatist and he took big money to support a Republican during the mid terms! This article tries to play down Biden’s corproatistim by attacking millennials. I’m disturbed by all of the incidents thatnthe author raised but none of them have anything to do with Biden or the opposition to another corporatist taking over the Democratic Party. Stopp smearing those who oppose corporatists. The Democratic Party must go back to its roots.
Biden, NO!
1
It is not just the youngsters. Grownup progressives are just as intolerant, greeting any dissent from their orthodoxy with outraged anger or, if you are lucky, a dismissive, derisive laugh at your ignorance and stupidity. Watch the progressive pundits on MSNBC sneer at and deride anyone to the right of Tlaib or AOC, or any idea that strays from this week's wokeness. This is the opposite of traditional liberalism; should they ever gain real power, the authoritarian infallibility of modern progressives predicts terrifying conformist totalitarianism antithetical to western democracy.
1
Good job. If I'd written it, I'd have emphasized the tactical stupidity even more than the nasty infantilism, but I can't gainsay a single word.
i am with you on exasperation with the mentality of “wokesterism” but the answer is not Joe Biden.
The person to be writing this is James Howard Kunstler- not Mr Stephens.
The man we the people did NOT elect to the presidency is a self-described sexual assaulter who said that many fine people are neo-Nazis. In the wake of horrific school massacres with military-style weaponry, he has called for more, not less, gun sales. He is now taxing financial aid for college at luxury tax levels, so that high-achieving lower-income students can't afford food and a place to live, while his so-called secretary of education makes their loan payments unsustainable after school ends. With his support, his alt-right party is attacking a woman's right to reproduce when she chooses - leaving them entirely at risk of financial and emotional destruction. And all of this goes on while our world burns from climate change.
We have no right to decry the tactics millennials use to protest the destraction wrought by Mr. Stephens' party. We can only help millennials by showing them the most effective tactic there is to battle injustice, fear, and loss of opportunity:
Vote Blue 2020.
1
It is really very hard to determine Bret Stephens 2nd most favorite country after Israel.
Egypt? Saudi Arabia? Bahrain? U.A.E? Qatar? Oman?
It is not hard to determine that Bret Stephens is always conservatively stuck in a past where black and brown people were grateful, invisible and silently physically identifiable separate and unequal.
Generation Z aka born 1994-2019 represents the biggest, most diverse and youngest cohort of Americans ever. About 27% of Americans. They don't care about nor will they listen to all of the generations who preceded them in misleading American into this currently supermassive partisan political black hole.
Caught between the white supremacist nationalist right-wing myths of the Confederate States of America aka represented by the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Criow era evangelical White Citizens Council and the hacking and meddling of Israel and Russia playing upon America's enduring color aka race bigotry brought America to this time and space.
This is the America that Americans deserve and have earned by their own cowardly delusional deceptive duplicitous callous cruel cynical hypocrisy about their past and present.
1
Mr. Stephens, if as you say, you might lean toward Trump if a Democratic opponent were just too politically correct, millennial style, then either it's snark time, or you simply have not gotten the message. The racist Grifter-in-Chief is a menace to liberal democracy, willing to subvert our constitutional system of government itself in pursuit of his narcissistic power grab. Any one -- ANY ONE -- of the hoard of candidates for the Democratic nomination would make a better president than Trump.
1
Get off my lawn Bret.
1
And quit saying “like” five times in every sentence!!!
2
Don't quite get it. The advice to Biden is alienate 80.000.000 millennials by telling them they are spoiled brats?
3
If this is the first time you've been outraged enough to write an editorial because someone's career was destroyed due to pitiless social norms, congratulations--but you're thousands of years late and picking literally the least egregious cases to get riled up about.
I agree.
Haha, it seems Brett has chosen "the lesser of evils" to vote for in 2020 but still hates to be on the same side of those who will do the same. Yes, intolerance is appalling on both sides of the political spectrum but shouldn't Brett spend some of his ire on those Millennials who ignore income inequality, don't believe in evolution, deny climate change, and try to outlaw abortion?
3
“The sensible center of America — that is, the people who choose presidents in this country.” Are young people supposed to follow the lead of the people who chose this president? Or be deeply offended that we call that the sensible center?
2
As a college professor, I see a lot of milennials with the characteristics you describe, and I also see how fearfully college administrators cede the power to stand up to it. But I take issue with your broad-brush description, because I also see a lot of milennials who aren't coddled, self-pitying, and entitled, but rather are modest, hard-working, and selfless. I also take issue with the idea that Vice-President Biden is the only Democrat capable of calling out what needs to be called out. And compared with the behavior of congressional Republicans, milennials' self-absorption of milennials strikes me as more callow that calculating.
13
I think this confirms that the three major candidates have all decided someone will have to sacrifice for Democrats to win in 2020. Joe Biden and Brett wants it to be my generation, while Sanders and Warren wants it to be multimillionaires and billionaires, aka the donor class. there is no way our party can fuse these two wings like the Mike Pence and Trump did, so it'll be interesting to see which wing is stronger.
2
It's downright alarming to see people make the same mistake on the Democratic side of the spectrum that they made on the Republican side in 2016. Candidates who claim that they are going to soak billionaires and multi-millionaires in order to fix our financial problems know that at the very best they are exaggerating. What they will really do is to take all of that money from a numerically larger class well-off people from the late boomer generation, in order to transfer it to the younger generations. You may still like this idea since it involves soaking people who made their money by being intelligent, going to school, and then working like dogs for decades. I'm not a fan.
3
Dear Baby Boomers +,
Thank you for raising a generation of people who strive so hard for social progress. Whose "inability to understand the way the world works" is actually an unwillingness to accept the way the world is working right now.
Thank you for rebelling, for showing us that the America's future is not written in stone. Your protest songs blast from our speakers as we carry the torch you gave us.
It is apparent that some of you are tired of striving- you are satisfied with your progress and offer us Joe Biden.
Thank you, but you raised us better than that.
Sincerely,
A Millennial
792
@Katherine
Dear Katherine,
You're welcome.
Now take that torch and do something productive with it. Learn what's important and what's not. Look outside yourself and your tender feelings and embrace the wider world to see its beauties, its tragedies, and its possibilities.
Use that torch to shine light on the good as well as the bad; to illuminate major virtues as well as minor vices. Listen to people who don't agree with you, and before you castigate them or have them fired, ask yourself why.
There's much you have learned, but much more you have not.
With hope and affection,
A Boomer
126
You’re welcome! This Boomer looks at your generation and sees hope.
42
For all
Your unwillingness to accept the way the world works, your generation has one of the highest percentages of non voters. That’s a problem. As they said in ‘the good old days’ all hat and no cattle.
61
Yup. Everybody who is a millennial fulfills the imaginary profile of Stephens's fantasy to a T in this article.
It's always nice to know that legitimate concerns will be lumped in with the most entitled and grotesque concerns that some undoubtedly shout from the rooftops. However, beneath the headlines is always some legitimate grievance with the status quo.
As a conservative, I would expect that Stephens understands that each human being is an individual and to assume that generations can and should be generalized is sloppy if not anathema to the tenants of conservative thought.
1
Psychological projection or projection bias: a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people.
It's useful to keep in mind that the newest generation is profoundly influenced by something that did not exist in my youth:
The Internet.
It is boiling with anger and remonstrations and demonstrations and anonymous comment meant to scald and shame someone or something or some other party or some other belief. That kind of influence is pernicious and contagious and destructive.
The Internet was of service in my career and it serves my curious mind when I want to explore, let's say, the origins of lichen.
So I cannot say I do not appreciate it; however, I think it has become a textbook addiction for people of all ages and has been the constant companion since birth of young people of today. Carry fury and outrage in your pocket and you become infected.
I'm glad it was NOT my constant companion when I was young.
10
In terms of life experience as an adult, the millennials are barely 'potty' trained.
Peer influence and the technological advancements now available are certainly big contributors BUT broken homes and/or poor parenting from Gen-X is to blame.
4
Bret Stephen has never taken an iota of responsibility for his long-time support of the political party whose goal then and now is the destruction of representative government. And he still doesn't.
8
Upon reading everyone's comments on whether they empathize with millennials or not. I've found little discussion on the fact that Biden is paid for by special interest groups, he has no intentions to reign in the corruption of money in politics while he reaps the benefits. It is that very corruption that got our country in the state it is in today. Republicans still want to cut SS/Medicare if they need more $, debt is at a record high, people are dying because they can't afford health care, and the planet is dying too which will cause catastrophic consequences with water and other resources. Meanwhile Biden doesn't want to let go of big money interests, and he was just on record saying that the Republicans in office are going to have some sort of epiphany and work with him once elected (which is exactly what Obama said and remember how well they worked for him) he has said it himself: "lobbyists aren't bad people, if you bundle up $250 thousand for me, I'll say sure come on in!" I ask who's interests he will be looking out for. It is the same reason Obama didn't jail any of the bankers that crashed our economy, he was paid for too. Millenials want someone who will protect the people against large special interest groups/corporations that have purchased our politicians for their own benefit, that's all. Oh yeah, and health insurance would be nice, $10,000 deductibles on top of premiums with no prescription coverage is asking a lot when you get paid $15/hour.
5
@Julia-Thank you for illustrating Mr. Stephen's point.
1
I’m a little confused by some responses here. Read the fourth paragraph, which specifies that this is not about all millennials or even a majority. Also, much of this is about what’s happening with students on college campuses, where there have been some truly egregious acts of entitlement. College students are not going to be boomers. Of course, there are also obnoxious boomers, but there’s a certain pattern of behavior showing up among some young people now that is very disturbing. So looking at the actual point of this article rather than the made up version of it showing up in the comments, I completely agree.
10
Just another column complaining about my generation and forgetting that previous generations did the same things to censor people they didn’t like. At least millennials are not wrecking the economy, adding to the national debt, starting wars, forcing student loans onto others, and trying to goad Iran into striking our military.
7
@Brandon-"At least millennials are not wrecking the economy, adding to the national debt, starting wars, forcing student loans onto others, and trying to goad Iran into striking our military."
That all depends, for whom did you vote?
Yes, thank goodness Millennials don't have power. Yet. That means that you all have a decade or so to mature into responsible human beings before you start filling elected offices and boardrooms.
1
@Brandon
Brandon, you are right. And I am 75 and smiling.
My generation shouted down, protested and denigrated those who disagreed with the tone of a certain substrata.
I know because for a time I was part of that group. Life came along and mellowed me and changed me. Youth is customarily extreme and annoying to other generations. What I refuse to do is become a severe, angry old lady.
Consider this by Roger Kimball in "The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America":
“We -- the industrialized, technologized world -- have never been richer. And yet to an extraordinary extent we in the West continue to inhabit a moral and cultural universe shaped by the hedonistic imperatives and radical ideals of the Sixties. Culturally, morally the world we inhabit is increasingly a trash world: addicted to sensation, besieged everywhere by the cacophonous, mind-numbing din of rock music, saturated with pornography, in thrall to the lowest common denominator wherever questions of taste, manners or intellectual delicacy are concerned. Marwick was right: 'The cultural revolution, in short, had continuous, uninterrupted, and lasting consequences'.”
Brandon, have a great life. It is such a blessed journey.
2
It's really misleading and an oversimplification to aggregate groups of people based on a characteristic like age, gender, race etc and then assign a set of attributes to that group. I've met caring Baby Boomers, ambitious Milliennials and GenZ's who read books. Biden made a mistake in implying that there is this group "the younger generation" and their all a bunch of complainers. Stereo typing groups of people and then blaming them for society's misgivings is misleading and dangerous and ignores the more fundamental issue that the political system is not serving the interests of many of us. Hopefully people will vote for candidates who have specific ideas to change the system in a good way and not base their vote on the candidates demographics.
2
Older generations have been dissing the youngsters since time immemorial. Yet, somehow, each generation grows into themselves and figures out how to manage their lives (and diss the next generation). It has always been this way and will always be this way.
5
it's a pretty bold strategy to openly antagonize a large portion of not just the democratic base but a majority of those of us who volunteer on political campaigns. I got 4 people to vote who wouldn't have otherwise in the 2018 election, if the hundreds of thousands like me were insulted out of volunteering we wouldn't have a blue Congress.
3
Of course you could vote for him, Brett. I wouldn’t have expected anything less—less retrograde, that is.
But here’s the thing, polishing the Republican apple won’t get you very far these days unless you eat it, which means swallowing Trump whole. And you seem unwilling to do that, unless you whip up one of those last minute Brettian thought pieces explaining that while you stand by your criticisms of this “deeply flawed man,” for surprising reasons beyond the depth of ordinary men (just men would be mentioned of course) you must urge “all thoughtful Americans” to vote for Trump.
Let’s see how long it takes for you to get there. I’m thinking it’ll be right after the primaries.
1
Imagine that....Trump wins reelection and Democrats , in trying to decide who is at fault, cannot blame angry , racist white men. They will have their children to blame. These young folks need a war or something to rally against. Apparently racism, misogyny, hatred toward immigrants, and corruption isn't enough for them to vote for someone for whom all the boxes can't be checked off. If they are so eager to get their voices heard, perhaps leaving the comfort and safety of the college campus and heading south to help register voters or protest police brutality in NYCity or for womens' reproductive rights not in Washington, but in Selma would give them a better opportunity to make a difference.
3
I’m an old fogey but all my employees are millennials. Like my generation there is the usual distribution - ~20% whining losers, ~20% geniuses and mostly normal people who want to make an honest buck and have a few beers on weekends. I had one especially whining type as a summer intern. Once I started to point out the hypocrisy of showing up wearing Lulu Lemon and buying everything on Amazon Prime while also criticizing the whole ripoff exploitation of everyone by the boomer generation the arrangement soon ended. If you push back with reasoned argument, the whiners move on. Just like they did in the 60s,70s, 80s.... I really haven’t heard a lot of good new political ideas from millennials - just being hard done by (while lounging in a jacuzzi) does qualify as a serous contribution. Many who I have had the pleasure of knowing have plenty to contribute in technology, science, medicine and many other fields - just as the preceding generations did. Basically this is a storm in a teacup.
2
From: Old Retired Guy
To: Gen X,Y,Z
The world is not fair and does not you anything. If you want something and believe in it, go work for it and stop being offended.
3
@Alan
Yes!
Yes. Amen.
I’m a 63 year old man who grew up with the prospect of the draft, the Vietnam War, Jim Crow, Nuclear Armageddon, political assassinations, and industrial scale environmental poisoning. All I feel after reading your article is that if the dithering without principle Middle actually does pick our presidents then the unaccountable Middle are clearly the problem in your calculation, not millennials. Other than my generation’s music, I can’t think of anything that we didn’t fail to accomplish that we wanted to accomplish to make the world a better place. Clearly! I take offense at your attack on my kids’ generation when obviously you lacked the upbringing to first look within yourself for the answers to your personal problems.
3
It's interesting that Bret doesn't mention right leaning groups do the same thing. The Stanford Republican club tried to stop Eli valley, a Jewish satire cartoonist, from speaking on campus. Where is the outrage for this when Bari Weiss did this exact thing you're complaining about. Bret isn't interested in anything but creating smears and controversy when there is none. There is legitimate criticism to have with all candidates. Joe Biden is no exception. The issues are on a lengthy record that ppl can disagree with. Ppl should be critical of the candidates. This is how it should always be. You just had to tie it with the whole attack on free speech shtick bc you honestly have nothing of value to contribute to the times.
2
Gee thanks, Bret, thanks a lot. This is one column that really didn’t need to be written. I mean, what’s the point? Just read the comments so far. Geezers like me smugly agreeing with the premise, and those under 45 snarling and snapping us, claiming it’s we who are guilty for everything that’s wrong with the world today. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you are a Russian troll, out to stir up even more division among us, if that’s even possible.
I have 4 children, all in their 30’s. They no more fit the profile of the “typical” millennial than I do the “typical” boomer. And neither do the vast majority of either age group. Can we all agree that social media has not turned out as intended, and rather than bringing us together, has basically returned many of those, of all ages, who engage in it back to the eighth-grade? Aren’t there infinitely more important things to worry about right now than which generation is the worst of all time? Paraphrasing that West Coast street philosopher, can’t we all just find a way to get along with each other? Our way of life is in real trouble at the moment. Perhaps we should be working on that instead.
2
That's a lot of word to say 'I don't like it that people actually call out members of my generation'
Face it, Baby boomers, the time of consequence-less privilege is -largely- over.
2
Here Stephens is criticizing millennials as being 'intolerant' because factions within their generation have become loudly outspoken against racism and racists, xenophobia and sexual assaulters, (I'm not sure why that's a bad thing). He assumes all millennials feel and behave the same way. Generalizing this way is a mistake. Perhaps some behave in ways we should not condone (ie, with violence). But that seems like a very small minority of people involved in these protests. Quite clear most millennials don't behave with violence. And not all protesters are millennials!
As a boomer in her sixties I find hope in the young generations coming up. I am glad they are not tolerating people like Yiannopoulos. He is an awful man who molests children and spreads malicious propaganda, they were right to chase him off their campus. If my daughter was living in a House headed by a lawyer defending Weinsten, a serial rapist, I would be proud of her if she stood up to him; there is something really creepy about a man who works with young women as a dean to be defending such a scary person.
This next generation is making some really big changes, sea changes the world desperately needs.
Yes we need to find the middle ground. The Republicans have effectively destroyed it with Trump. And the intractability of racism, sexism and xenophobia as embraced by Trump and the Republican party need to be rebuked. The US needs loud voices willing to fight back. Biden should listen as should we all.
4
Let me just state the obvious here: being offended by the words of others is a choice. (Dare I say, a privilege?)
4
Right on, Bret.
Remind me again who was smashing Keurig coffee makers a few months ago? And who was it, again, who tried to destroy the careers of the Dixie Chicks and Kathy Griffin? And who, exactly, is undermining faith in our intelligence agencies for the singular purpose of protecting an incompetent president? You’re worried about a handful of whiny college students when we have an entire political party ready to destroy our democratic norms just to “own the libs.” Whatever, Mr. Stephens.
4
As a young lawyer, John Adams served as counsel for the defense in the Boston Massacre trial of eight British soldiers accused of murder during a riot in Boston on March 5, 1770. Among the victims of these White soldiers was a Black man, Crispus Attucks. Adams’s impassioned speech in defense of the soldiers resulted in their acquittal.
We still have time, before Trump’s refurbished July 4th, to expunge this Adams racist from our histories. For my part, I’m redacting Adams from my CD versions of “1776,” though his peculiar prominence in this story leaves little remaining.
1
Just what we need: another fossil from the "me" generation, once again, taking cheap shots at the generations that has to clean up the mess they've made with their narcissism and selfishness. The Boomers are like bad dinner guests - they run up the bill, trash the restaurant, and then walk out without paying, laughing the whole way. The Boomers can't die off fast enough. BTW: I'm a Gen-Xers and we all think the Boomers are the problem, not the Millennials. Get over yourselves -- the only think your generation has accomplished is destruction and showing that greed is apparently limitless.
1
@Michigan Girl
We don’t all think Baby Boomers are the problem. How many millennials have read this article instead of scrolling on Instagram?
2
Considering how I just finished reading an article on the NYT about a doctor at Ohio State who assaulted 177 students and a whole bunch of baby boomers who looked the other way at his actions, perhaps baby boomers need to stop talking and re-evaluate their actions. We millenials are a blunt generation and a young one, but not a stupid one. So, stop this "Get off my lawn" nonsense and listen when we speak.
Unemployment is high for us, college is both required and expensive, guns are everywhere and gun deaths entirely too common, and climate change is threatening our future and boomers treat us with contempt. Cool, way to model mature behavior, guys.
2
Whenever I meet particularly impressive or particularly loathsome children, my first thought is blame the parents.
2
Yes!
...he isn’t prepared to capitulate to the icy codes of personal decorum written by people who don’t know the difference between exuberant human warmth and unwarranted sexual advances.
2
Personally I find young people more refreshing than bitter old scolds.
2
Bernie brings out the bad in people much the same way Trump does.
5
Let US be clear that Bill Clinton took what Sister Souljah said out of context and dissed her for no good reason. I was offended then, and I did not vote for him in 1992.
The point Sister Souljah was making had to do with how white lives are valued more than black lives. She told the truth then, and it is true now.
Do not hold Clinton's unwarranted attack on a black woman up as an example of a smart or wise political tactic.
2
Uh, the oldest millennials are approaching 40, I think you mean Gen Z or whatever they are calling them these days.
2
This is one of the smartest things I have read in a very long time: "to allege an invisible harm in order to inflict an actual one...., we have professional destruction for emotional upset." I will remember and use it. These self-righteous, purity test bullies combine the worst traits of the middle school playground and a lynch mob.
4
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Brett, you his this one out of the park, buddy.
Besides, the outraged millennials will make their demands and then, if you try to pander to them they will decide you didn't pander quite enough and still take their little toys and go home.
And voting bores them. They can't stand in the voting booth and scream insults.
In other words, they are unreliable voters at best. So don't give then one single inch! It's all downside to do so.
2
Spot on Bret.
1
This column is wrong-headed and mildly offensive in so many ways it is hard to know where to begin criticism.
I too remember Clinton's "Sister Souljah moment" which was little more than a cynical ploy to court white male voters at the expense of African Americans who had nowhere else to go but the Democratic Party. Of course it worked--virtue signaling to racists--stand up to blacks!==often does. Af-Ams surely weren't going to find a welcome in Stephens' party lead by G. H. W. Bush who (like Stephens) thought sending African Americans to Iraq was a job opportunity.
Bill Clinton also used to go home to Arkansas on the day the state was executing a black man to signal he was tough on crime (even though his presence literally served no purpose). Stephens may have admired these actions but others saw them as pandering to white voters' basest fears. If Stephens' reaction is typical, it works beautifully. Clinton was named "Slick Willie" for a reason Bret.
Unlike Stephens this baby-boomer doesn't feel qualified to "sneer and smear" an entire generation for the actions of a few SJW lefties who right=wingers love to pretend are the greatest threat to democracy since fascism. I will say, coming from a member of the party who gave us Donald Trump it is more than hypocritical; it's mildly nauseating.
Finally, should Biden be elected it would be his sworn duty to represent all Americans. Why start off by spitting in the eye of millions? My generation called that bad manners.
3
I am appalled that Mr. Stephens would consider it responsible journalism to blithely incite generational conflict, in a nation that is already tearing itself apart along every conceivable fault line. His column rests upon empty generalities about the broad characteristics of each generation. There is no substance to these generalities. It's nothing new that the old hate the young -- Nestor of Pylos was whining about the inadequacies of young folks back in 1300 BC around the Achaean camp fires at Troy. Pathetic.
2
I’m reading the comments and your audience is older than CBS’s you don’t have a clue what’s coming and I can see why. You know I’ll leave it at that just know we aren’t playing a game.
2
Mr. Stephens, I said a number of stupid things in my early 20's...but did have patient parents and teachers who skillfully worked with my behavior and beliefs. Of course the cure for this developmental stage, is the next developmental stage--the one where you get married, have children, and work a job---all three finally bring you into the real world.
2
Aside from the rightness/wrongness, exceptionally well written article. Kudos
This was interesting until he got to "a tad too touchy-kissy." Really? I am not a millennial (57) and where I grew up (not far from Biden) that would have been seen as creepy forty or fifty years ago. That Stevens is conflating criticism of that behavior with with the other incidents he describes suggests to me that there is a bone being gnawed pretty hard here.
3
It’s so incredibly cringe inducing to read an article dripping with so much hatred for an entire generation. By the way, many “millennials” are veterans, parents, doctors, journalists, and yes, activists.
We should all be grateful to have a generation that holds our leaders to a higher standard. Sure, call out culture can go too far, but why does that culture exist? Have you considered that there might be a whole lot worth calling out. The NYTimes opinion section has always been known for its good-faith columnists, but Brett Stephens is not one of them.
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I hate reading about or listening to these types of accusations about generations. They are the kinds of arguments we are told long ago, at least as I recall, to avoid as "sweeping generalizations." If you didn't learn about that in high school English you certainly learned it in English 101, Mr. Stephens. How is it that the actions in a few elite colleges defines an entire generation of people? According to recent statistics, the "millenial" population will swell to 73 million this year becoming the largest of any generational group. Boomers will shrink to 72 million. I truly believe that such arguments serve no purpose other than to raise a flag of being smug and self-satisfied besides being incredibly childish and immature.
“[J]unior totalitarians of the left...”. Great phrase. Your article, once again, nails the issue. The problem begins in the early school years. At the risk of being classified as an old fogie (approaching 82) I recall the time when I got into trouble in school, I had more trouble waiting for me at home because of my recalcitrant behavior in school. Today if a kid gets in trouble in school, the parent sues the school. That attitude does not engender a sense of responsibility in a young person. Grow up!!
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OK. The maximum snark and histrionic self pity made me chuckle — it was maximally needed after another week of dystopian crazy. Thank you.
There are 3 points to be made here:
1.- Trump must be defeated, so nominate the Democrat with the best chance of doing just that.
2.- Biden has the stuff to be a good President.
3.- Remember 1 & 2
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From this 63-year-old liberal Democrat: Thank you, Bret!
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Bret, you write: "To which one can only say: Keep it up, Joe!"
I must have missed something, because I do not see exactly what "it" stands for in that sentence.
I guess you mean that "it" stands for "stand his ground".
In that case you have to bring me into the present, giving me a situation in which he next can stand his ground.
What I like least of all, every single day here in the Times, is to see a columnist or a comment writer putting a person or group in a box, here Bret Stephens using a millenial box.
I do remember the Middlebury case and I do remember being strongly opposed to each and every student responsible for acts agains Professor Stanger. I do not know what happened to each such student in the longer run.
Aha, since this box is now next to the keep it up line I see that among other things, you want him to keep putting his hands on women who maybe do not want his hands on approach.
And that last line, "empowering the junior totalitarians of the left" is just too much. Where was your editor? Or name a junior totalitarian.
I want to empower Elizabeth Warren, no totalitarian of the left there.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
citizen US SE
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"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
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I hate to break it to all of the oldsters here but guess what: the entire. “Conservative”. “Movement”. Is based purely on being offended at some perceived slight by liberals and Democrats. One difference is that the actual Republicans party manufactures this resentment based on actual made up nonsense, destroying the lives and careers of their political opponents with a well funded outrage machine called Fox News and an entire ecosystem of nonsense generating groups like Veritas, Turning Point USA etc etc. these groups pump out endless streams of garbage that is now beamed directly into the melting brains of Facebook boomers and the the car stereos of wealthy undeserving whites across the Midwest and south with one sole purpose; to get all these cretins to hate liberals and Democrats. Another difference is that unlike millennials and the young, these people have all the power and the entire system is rigged in their favor. A final difference is that the sad tales of professional destruction Bret relates here result from young people taking moral stances against actual injustice while trying to change things for the better - whereas the entire Republican rage machine only serves to distract people from real problems and manufacturers votes for a party whose literal only priority is enriching its donor base. How about you examine that real problem instead of just throwing another fake outrage grenade.
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A dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid
Dear Boomers and Gen-Xers,
The wise rule their generation, the foolish are ruled by it.
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Brilliant column. Well argued!
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Wow. That's some serious stereotyping going on above. In the comments, too. I say to Stephens (and to the writers of the snarkier comments), do some serious research! Do you even know young people? Talk to them. Work with them. Or, admit that your column above is mainly a review of HuffPo. I mean, come on! It's the HuffPo.
I'm female, white, 68. I say you don't know what you're talking about. As an exercise, substitute "women" for "Millenials" in this column. Or "Republican men." Or "Cats." I'm just sayin'.
Poor millennials, they'll miss this misaligned and poorly crafted analysis of their generation because....they don't read you Mr. Stevens. How now do you plan on educating them on their selfish and entitled ways before they make the big mistake of NOT voting for Joe Biden, the guy they will never come to know. But, ah, if they did, here is a another seasoned old white guy yelling at them to grow up after they complain he helped take their abortion rights away (Clarence Hill) made them feel icky by hugging and kissing them unwontedly, help create an unstable Middle East and is not interested in slowing climate change to mention just a few of the messes the millennials will have to clean up long after Joe is gone. Dear Mr. Stevens, we are just not listening to your outdated rhetoric and we know we have a great deal of choice in the coming election, but thanks for the advice.
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When Bret Stephens and Joe Biden are as quick to dismiss ignorant capitalists, undeserving rentiers and .1% arm chair warriors, then maybe we can celebrate for them for daring and moral courage.
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This goes for all generations...
The sad thing about being a know-it-all, judgmental, quick on the trigger, snappish, condescending, scolding, tribal, self-centered, self-pitying, argumentative, moralistic, smug, or "cool" at a young age is that you never grow to see the bigger picture, to understand yourself or others, or gain the necessary knowledge and understanding to govern yourself, your own family, or a community.
Try looking at a city at night, look at all the lights, and imagine all the people you do not know, know nothing about, and who yet exist outside your willful little world.
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Stephens shows his true Republicant stripes here.
The candidate whose only rationale for leading in the way too early polls is “electability” has basically blown off a generation without whose votes he can not ever win.
Stephens is happy, only if Clueless Joe doubles down. Now I wish you would both...just...go...away.
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I don't know. When we were young we were just called crybabies.
Who raised all these so-called "snowflakes". I am wondering how this issue is any different than baby boomers in their youth taking to the streets with cry's of "Power to the People, Stick it to the Man".
Some times, i am not sure that Biden isn't a Republican in disguise, sometimes (not true, always) I think Biden is an opportunist that caught the miraculous opportunity of being a Vice, but now reading this article i know: Biden is the worst candidate of the 20 thousands Democrat candidates....
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Bravos to Bret Stephens. Now can he remember not to get "offended" when some Muslim in Congress utters a phrase he doesnt like??
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Yup, in absolute terms, a concerning demographic segment. Will they turn into productive citizens after giving every lecture to the rest of us about everything?
Democrats think so. Hence, free college, student loans forgiven, free healthcare. I am sure what follows is free rent and food.
But in relative terms, they look golden.
Compare them to the religious right nuts, the MAGA set, the guns and moses lobby, the supremacists (which is clear now comes in a wide spectrum of burbs to trailer park), Vance's Hillbillies, the big-business lobby that wants to feed on the public teat, the nice people in Charlottesville.
These are overlapping sets, some millennials are this way, but we are looking at 80 million very angry people with a gun pointed at their temples in one hand, and a gun pointed at me with the other.
I'll take millennials - because I don't have a choice.
Professors hounded out is a terrible thing; but it pales in comparison to the right's assault of decency, education, environment, justice.
Keep the eye on the ball.
A.B.T.
Anyone but Trump.
This "Millennial Attitude" is what happens when parents only drive to be liked and their child's BFF. Parents must set firm boundaries, must allow their kids to fail (and recover on their own) and most importantly tell your kids NO and do not give in.
Everything and everyone is not out to get them yet they believe they are perpetual victims. The #MeToo (I am not sorry I used offensive and threatening caps) movement driven by Millennials has destroyed women's chances to be treated equally in the workplace as well as being believed when they are really harassed or raped. What they have done is feed the fires of hate and racism.
It's not all on Millennials. Society has infantilized them well into their 30s. We gave them safe spaces and lifetime victim status. We allow them to believe the accidental brushing of a hand on the back in a crowded space is sexual assault. My Boomer generation should be ashamed and sorry for allowing things like these to exist.
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Have a listen to John Sebastian’s ‘Younger Generation’. “Why must every generation think their folks are square....”
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@Jon
"But those dreams [of those bygone generations] have remained and they've turned around," Jon.
I think that Sebastian has also said something along those lines.
I'm white, an "X-er" (according to Neil Howe's widely read 1992 book "Generations"), but I find the "generation" labels that the MSM is obsessed with promoting to be limiting at best, offensive at worse. One thing is clear to me in my 52-year life: Few people in the DC bubble, no matter what their political affiliation, no matter how "populist" or empathic they appear, no matter what their "generation," understand what daily life is like for many of us. I don't care what they say in their Twitter feeds (and why does everyone in DC have so much time to promote themselves on Twitter these days?); I don't care which news programs they appear on; I don't care how many speeches they give telling you they will help you; most of them do not understand what a horrifying, meaningless servitude job leaden, impossible to change, America's billionaire-driven globalized consumption economy has become. How can anyone who spends 90% of their time on airplanes, flying over us only to promote themselves, stopping only to make quick speeches, understand what it's like to survive on a day to day level? When is the last time any of these people (or the millionaires that promote/interview them on television) had to do any kind of conventional work at all? Do they realize the level of chaos that is out here, especially as the country has become more multicultural, with upwards of 75 million first generation immigrants making up the population right now?
"that part of these younger generations that specializes in histrionic self-pity and moral self-righteousness, usually communicated via social media with maximum snark" is far too similar to the cohort of old (and young?) white males who harbor resentments and are equally self-righteousness for my comfort. My discomfort arises less from these self-demeaning flaws of character than from the implicit message of despair and defeatism. America can be the country which it was meant to be only if people can act with hopefulness, an attachment to high social ideals of respect for others and a willingness to work together for common ends, and a certain resilient cheerfulness.
Hey, I am a "Gen X" with a gripe of my own -- this moronic practice of lumping people together by their birth years and attributing characteristics (usually unfavorable) to the whole lot. I work with Millennials that are liberal, conservative, hard working, lazy, narcissistic and humble. It runs the gambit. Back when I was young, I saw the same thing in my peers. Some were jerks, some annoyed the heck out of me by declaring themselves "professional protesters", and some were a model of intelligence, hard work or decency. I am sure members of every previous "young" generation can say the same. Instead of targeting a whole generation, why don't you just talk about this tendancy of a select group of young people directly?
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@NameForgotten
Bret is talking about the radical intersectionalist progressive wing of your generation, not the millions of friendly, intelligent centered individuals who make up the majority of millennials.
The funny thing is, although I’ve been reading about the wingnuts in politics and following them on Twitter for a few years, most of the millennials I’ve met in person are a lot nicer and more respectful than we ever were.
The problem is that while you good ones have been getting along with your lives, the dingalings have been working hard to deplatform and de-employ people with an alternate opinion like James Damore, Ben Shapiro, Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Jordan Peterson and Noah Carl and many, many others.
None of the above are even close to being actual White Supremacists, if you actually take the time to listen to the things they say beyond the sound bites. Heck, half of them are actually Progressives.
What we’re experiencing is the beginning of a new McCarthyism on the far left, and if we’re not careful, it could lead to some very dangerous places.
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@NameForgotten Interesting comment. But it's probably wise to digest the full article before condemning it. In this case, the fourth paragraph: “In this election cycle, no faction on the Democratic side more richly deserves rebuking than the one Biden singled out — which is not, of course, anywhere close to the entire millennial generation (roughly 80 million strong), or their younger siblings in Gen Z. But it is that part of these younger generations that specializes in histrionic self-pity and moral self-righteousness, usually communicated via social media with maximum snark.”
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@Greg Shenaut yes, I agree. The article and Biden were talking about a subset. I guess my ire should be directed to whoever wrote the headline. At the same time, I understand why using shorthand names for whole generations is popular -- it makes good sound bites, headlines, and categories on charts.
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Many of us have the opportunity to work with hard-working people of all ages. I do not believe age is the issue. Instead, I believe you’ve missed a key variable. I find the intolerance, entitlement, and class envy you describe associated with progressives of all ages. Just sayin....
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Agree whole heartedly! I am a mom from the midwest in my early 40s and I love Joe and have little compassion for the college age. While most of them are much nicer than my own cohort were, the internet has done things to their personalities and so have their parents! When these campus incidents happen I know that even if their complaints are valid, they have lost the argument. They should all look up the cultural revolution in China, wherein professors and doctors and bureaucrats were shamed and dragged into the street by zealous students and then killed or re-educated. A mob is a mob is a mob. Joe represents making America normal again- which many of desperately long for. Not regressive, just normal so that we can have debates and pass legislation and not be ashamed of our commander in chief and his behavior in the world. One of the things I love about Joe is his sense of justice and compassion. He is just what our country needs and frankly the demographics that vote know it. The Twitterverse 20 somethings don't vote they just complain.
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This has been a stock narrative from at least the nineteen thirties. Sometimes there are mushy statistics to support this argument, but often there are just anecdotes from which the author generalizes. Always there are professors or elders or someone who condone young people misbehaving in inappropriate ways. Either way, it's important to recognize that this is a stock narrative in response to a stock narrative that elders just don't get it.
As much as I admire Joe Biden for overcoming grief and achieving some things, I'm not sure I'm ready for him to anoint him the Democratic candidate because he calls out the call out culture--for that is what he's doing. There's no end in this cycle until somebody says let's sit down and talk about the real issues involved and somebody says yes in response.
Which Democratic candidate is most likely to ask for this and receive a positive response? That's the biggest question I have and I believe that this is the best answer to Trump and the person most likely to beat him if he doesn't completely self-destruct.
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Millennials have been fighting your messed up wars since 9/11. I’m in my mid-30s. We’ve been in Afghanistan half my life.
Iraq. Katrina. Great Recession. $1 trillion student debt. Sandy Hook. Over 400 ppm CO2. A dying planet.
I’m tired of the OLDER generations’ whining and entitlement. Move aside. You’ve done enough damage.
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Amen. I’m a gen Xer and feel like the elders have let down the youngsters. Seeing the parkland students mobilize has been truly inspiring and hopeful - and devastating in that we have done nothing to protect them and they have to do it themselves.
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@G Point is, stop making it even more difficult by claiming micro-aggressions. There are worse things. Things may be messed up, but we weren't as entitled as you are and didn't whine about little things when the larger picture, as you have elucidated, is more important.
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@G
Amen. I literally haven't seen one cousin since before he left for boot camp. I know he got married. I know he made sergeant. But essentially he's been in Afghanistan since we were both children. And yet here we are getting lectured by a war hawk about our immaturity.
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The three examples he gives all involve college students. As usual, the Times shows its elitism. Many millennials are not in fancy schools. And why does Joe Biden think he is entitled to hold off the younger generations?
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What I like about Joe Biden is that he is not scripted and yea he may put his foot in his mouth but he obviously (al least to me) cares about this country and those who reside in it. We do need confidence that we can work with the other side, wear them down so something can be accomplished for the good. To not cave into hate and separateness is a good trait. Who could actually accomplish something Joe Biden or the Medicare for all people whose policy proposals will end up on the rocks. I do give a pass to young people. They are crackpots just like I was a crackpot in the 1960's. Now I'm just an old liberal who likes Joe and believes he can stand up to Trump's bullying (sleepy Joe?) and can actually win which is the number 1 priority for me.
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Is it really millennials or is it the fact that they are the generation that grew up with "Social Media" and were instructed on "political correctness"?
Plenty of older people (including politicians and mainly Fox news celebrities) seem to be very willing to vent every little perceived problem and display the "moral self-righteousness". As a matter of fact, it seems to be the primary GOP strategy and the main talk at Trump rallies! And these people really love to attack! Merry Christmas, anyone?
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I teach in the liberal arts program at a public two year college with open enrollment (although we have placement testing and advising). Who are are all these coddled millennials you people babble on about? My students all work at least one job, are generally first generation college students, and are mutually supportive and kind. I attended an elite small liberal arts college and have three graduate degrees
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Dear Bret Stephens: As a millennial, I welcome your resentment. Every generation is singled out as listening to the "devil's music," or they're too "indignant," or otherwise question the status quo too much. This is such an inaccurate stereotyping of everyone under a certain age; maybe a hundred people could be accurately grouped under this description. Honestly, it is hysterical to hear what you think of me, and know that I would never blame anyone older than me for belonging to a "bad" generation; we're all individuals that happen to grow and adapt to the world under different circumstances separated not by place but rather by time. Human nature doesn't change, we haven't evolved to be different. If I were to accept your critique, I could blame your generation for making this world so difficult for us: think of all of the CO2 you've put out in your life. But that's rude, and I know how easily offended people like you get. This caricature you paint of my generation will not age well, especially if paranoid conservatives and neo-liberals don't halt our popular ambitions to tackle climate change, end the regime change wars, and fight for a government that belongs to the people.
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I am sympathetic to your argument, but is the general consensus not that most of the examples you provided actually involved GenZ’ers?
Joe Biden is in a tough predicament, trying to satisfy 'moors and christians' at the same time, no matter how different he approaches divewrse groups, given the wide echo chamber in Social Media. But he would do well to keep his shoe out of his mouth by politically incorrect "no empathy" for 'the young''s thrash talk (they ought to remember the saying: "theory went to swim...and drowned for lack of practice"). And Joe has the practice to back up his theories. Still, let's not give up on other choices to defeat misogynous Trump, a woman on the ticket!
"[t]he coddled minds and censorious manner and inability to understand the way the world works."
Young people have always been prone to excessive passion—that's just youth—but Stephens might show more wisdom for his age if he were to try harder to avoid the ossification of one's beliefs that accompanies senescence.
The three examples of excessiveness Stephens' points to are protests against (1) a man who essentially argues that Blacks are genetically inferior, (2) the support of a man who, while not yet convicted, seems to have abused women for decades, using his power over their careers to extort sexual favours, and (3) someone who made fun of a university for asking its students to preserve a more inclusive culture by choosing not to wear racially insensitive or offensive Halloween costumes.
It seems to me that these protesting students do in fact understand how the world works. Unlike Stephens, however, they want to change it.
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This baby boomer is ready for a new generation to take the lead.
We learned almost nothing from the Vietnam. Our generation produced the war mongering Neo-cons and Chicken Hawks. We were so afraid we created and watched Fox News and elected the first President with a dystopian view of the future.
We wrecked the glaciers and oceans, started wars of choice and killed off millions of species with our glutinous behavior.
We deserve all the blowback we're getting.
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On election night in 2016, it was women in particular who went from the highest high to the lowest low in a matter of hours. A woman was surely about to become president for the first time, as most Americans had just decided. Until of course the “founders” stepped in to decide it should be Trump instead, via the electoral college.
Young women and girls must have felt decimated.
Is the Democratic party’s response to women in 2020 really going to be to wait another turn, and then rub it in by asking them to support the man who ran the Anita Hill hearings?? Really? Has anybody at all bothered to watch those again? Everywhere I see or hear Mr. Stephens, it’s Biden Biden Biden, as if he is really a “safe” candidate.
(r)epublicans will blast Biden as a radical liberal just like they would ANY Democratic candidate. So let’s run someone who excites OUR base for once, not someone we think republicans will accept.
If an independent voter “can’t decide” between Trump and someone else, they’re not being honest and probably just like the attention that independent voters get.
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“Exuberant human warmth” I see. The old “I’m just being nice, why are you (w)itches so uptight?” tack. I think the person getting touched without permission gets to decide how they feel about it. Cute rant, though. The millennials are just fine. I’m in my 50’s but it looks like they have more of a clue about some things than the bitter, aging folks lecturing at them nonstop.
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Stephens won’t call out the khaki wearing, tiki torch bearing, white alt-right storm troopers. Sad.
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