# The "Millennials are leftists, Zoomers are conersvative" narrative needs to die



## CaboBayCaptain1297 (Mar 19, 2016)

*The "Millennials are leftists, Zoomers are conersvative" narrative needs to die*

I'm sure you've heard it before, this whole bullshit narrative that Millennials, or Gen Y, are a generation of leftists Bernie supporting SJW snowflakes, and that "Zoomers", or Gen Z, are a generation of right-wing Trump bros. ("Zoomer" is an abysmal name for a generation, btw, sounds like something a 3-year old would call a toy car)

Regarding the timespans of each generation, I'm going to use Pews definitions, so 1981-1996 for Y, and 1997-2012 for Z. I don't necessarily agree with these labels, but I'll use them for the sake of argument on this thread. 

First problem with this narrative, is that roughly 65% of Gen Z would be in high school or below, meaning they would have very little knowledge in the grand scheme of things regarding political science. I can guarantee you, for the majority of Trump supporters within that 65%, they're only supporting him because it seems like the "cool" and "edgy" thing to do, because Trump seems like such a "cool" and "edgy" person for them to like, and they follow specific echo-chambers on certain social media sites to reaffirm their political beliefs. Keep in mind kids at that age are still easily impressionable, and their opinions regarding politics could potentially change once they're older if they go deep into the field of political science and listen to solid points from all sides of the political spectrum to question their beliefs, rather than listening to points from the same side all the time to reaffirm their beliefs. 

Second problem, is this narrative doesn't take race into consideration. 

Did you know that Trump actually won white Millennials in 2016? It's true!
According to Edison Exit polling, Trump won white 18-29 year olds by 47%, with 43% going to Clinton, and 10% going to a Third Party Candidate. With white 30-44 year olds, Trump won a majority, not just a plurality, of that demographic, at 54%, with 37% voting for Clinton, and 9% going to a Third Party Candidate, sure most of that 30-44 demographic would consist of Xers, but Millennials still make up a large chunk of that block, especially when you take birthrates in the early-mid '80s into consideration. 
Furthermore, the majority of that Third Party vote would be right-wing, as nearly all of the Third Party vote would've gone to Johnson, Stein, McMullin, and Castle, and only one of those candidates, Stein, is left-wing, with the other three being right-wing. When you add Trump's vote with the Johnson, McMullin, and Castle vote, those four candidates win white Millennials by a clear majority. So the majority of white Millennials are conservative, not liberal, just like with whites of previous generations, and white "Zoomers" are just a continuation of this trend.

Furthermore, Gen Z has more racial minorities than Gen Y does, the vast majority of racial minorities within all demographics are more liberal, and racial minorities within Gen Z are most definitely going to continue that trend. If anything, Gen Z may actually swing more left than the Millennials do, because that generation will have a larger amount of racial minorities to push the entire demographic to swing to the left. 

So overall, the narrative of Millennials being so leftist and "Zoomers" being so right-wing is just bullshit, and nothing but a wishful talking point that the conspiratorial right-wing media hopes will rally more white first time voters on their side. Just because a bunch of edgy teens think that liking Trump makes them cool and non-conformist, and just because your favorite right-wing talk show host likes to focus specifically on city-dwelling SJWs when talking about Millennials, doesn't mean shit.
If anything, like I said before, Gen Z may actually be more left-wing than the Millennials are, due to the larger number of racial minorities in that generation. Sure, whites in Gen Z may swing more right, so did white Millennials, so what's your point there?

What are your thoughts regarding this piece? Let me know down below.


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## oreocheesecake (Nov 15, 2014)

What I find funny is that certain right-wing commentators still call college students Millennials and bemoan how college campuses are full of snowflakes, then also claim that Gen Z is conservative, not realising those ‘snowflake’ college students _are_ Gen Z.


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## q543frodomar (May 15, 2018)

Gen Z is mostly liberal, almost 100% sure of it. Especially when you have people like Greta Thunburg.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

:laughing:

You guys as a generation are liberal as fuck
Holy crap there is a politically correct way to say and do everything according to you guys


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## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

The generations are an overrated factor here. What matters is that populist politicians like Trump, BoJo, Orban, etc. attract less educated voters than liberal globalists. Urban dwelling educated millennials hate Trump, but so do urban dwelling educated boomers.


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## LadyO.W.BernieBro (Sep 4, 2010)

I suspected most who support Trump or lean alt right were doing so because it's "cool and edgy", as you commented. What else is to be expected when the tables have turned and rebelling against the left is the way to defy your parents these days?

As a generation, still too young to be pigeonholed. Half the time news sources just lump Gen Z with Millennials anyway so at least there is some vague recognition of the differences.

Not sure that l agree with the last point or have any thoughts regarding race, it's not my impression that Gen Y "swung right" ten years ago. We elected Obama, a number of voters who elected him did go on to vote for Trump but when talking about previous Obama voters, they were likely a subset of Bernie supporters.

l voted Hilary in 2016 and Bernie in the last primaries, we're splitting in all directions with a lot of people throwing the election in spite (or planning to do so).

Being a leftist today is the only option you have when you don't want to hate-vote for Trump, a lot of us saw ourselves as more centrist at one point but that term is currently hijacked by lowkey Trump supporters or apathetic types.


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## Cephalonimbus (Dec 6, 2010)

IME, generations don't make that much of a difference in basic political affiliation as much as social-economical class, but regardless I don't think it's true that people vote for Trump (and similar right-wing reactionary types) because it's "cool and edgy". In fact, the 1990s desperately tried to be the coolest and edgiest decade of all time, but someone like Trump wouldn't have stood a chance back then even if his entire campaign was about wearing two leather jackets at once while winking over his sunglasses on a skateboard and giving Hillary the finger as he spray-painted his slogan "SHUT UP, MOM!".

What seems to be going on instead is an increasing disillusionment with the status quo, which is by and large globalist (neo)liberalism. I think that people vote for these nutjobs more as a sort of desperate attempt to shake up the system from within. This also explains Bernie's popularity: I wouldn't exactly describe him as cool or edgy – he's certainly not as vulgar or pompous as Trump – but he's still a comparatively radical alternative.

What might make a difference in this regard is that younger people perhaps aren't as ingrained in the system to the same extent. I don't know if that's true, but I certainly have friends and family who consistently vote for dusty old parties that keep playing the neoliberal game, seemingly out of habit. I don't really blame them either... almost any alternative is either right wing populism or a tiny party that won't stand a chance of making any significant impact. Personally, I'd rather vote for that latter because I feel more confortable voting for something I believe in, but I kind of get why people vote for these idiots even if I think it's a bad idea.


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## Highway Nights (Nov 26, 2014)

I remember seeing that idea a few years ago, but I haven't heard it as much since Gen Z started voting, and turned out to be extremely liberal. If anything, I think they're to our left.

It reminds me of 2009-2010, when conservative writers assumed that because there were a lot of vocal Ron Paul supporters online, Millennials were going to be overwhelmingly right-libertarian. Whoops.



Blazkovitz said:


> The generations are an overrated factor here. What matters is that populist politicians like Trump, BoJo, Orban, etc. attract less educated voters than liberal globalists. Urban dwelling educated millennials hate Trump, but so do urban dwelling educated boomers.


I think of it as people who are more assimilated into our global information society vs. people who aren't, either by choice, or because they've been left behind economically. I have some sympathy for the latter because they really are between a rock and a hard place, but they're lashing out at the wrong people.


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

Riddle me this. If it's purely a matter of socioeconomic class, then why are there so many rich (or even ultra-rich) socialists and also so many working-class nationalists? Also, if it's purely a matter of socioeconomic class, then what about issues like gun control and abortion? Those are social issues, but not economic. Only predators and parasites are anti-gun and/or anti-life.



Blazkovitz said:


> attract less educated voters than liberal globalists.


Only a knuckle-dragging, degenerate, sycophantish, and blatantly anti-intellectual imbecile would support any move toward an oppressive global police state. Nationalism is Resistance!


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## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

Judson Joist said:


> Riddle me this. If it's purely a matter of socioeconomic class, then why are there so many rich (or even ultra-rich) socialists and also so many working-class nationalists? Also, if it's purely a matter of socioeconomic class, then what about issues like gun control and abortion? Those are social issues, but not economic. Only predators and parasites are anti-gun and/or anti-life.


Socioeconomic class is not the only factor, personality is always a factor in all human affairs. But support for Trump is more correlated with level of education than with age.



> Only a knuckle-dragging, degenerate, sycophantish, and blatantly anti-intellectual imbecile would support any move toward an oppressive global police state. Nationalism is Resistance


What about something like Star Trek's Federation?


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

Blazkovitz said:


> Socioeconomic class is not the only factor, personality is always a factor in all human affairs.


Fact.



> But support for Trump is more correlated with level of education than with age.


I'm GLaD he did what he did to expose the dastardly deeds of the deep state, but I still don't regard him as a true nationalist. He lacks the personal character of a true nationalist. And just so you know (and you probably know this already, but I still feel the need to mention it), we who defined ourselves as nationalists don't expect "perfection." All we want is "understanding." By that, I mean that the individual should learn to comprehend how their actions or inaction affect others and the world around them. In other words, we seek to promote conscientiousness. Conscientiousness doesn't mean "conformity." It has more to do with respect between persons. It can't exist in a collectivist system because collectivism tears everyone down instead of building them up.



> What about something like Star Trek's Federation?


Still too oppressive by my standards. Rottenberry was a socialist. I identity more with Princess Leia's revolutionary nationalist Populist faction. Nationalism is Resistance!


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## The Dude (May 20, 2010)

Young people tend to be more liberal, old people tend to be more conservative. That's how it has always been and will always be.


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## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

Judson Joist said:


> Still too oppressive by my standards. Rottenberry was a socialist. I identity more with Princess Leia's revolutionary nationalist Populist faction. Nationalism is Resistance!


What freedoms would you miss in the Federation?


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

The Dude said:


> Young people tend to be more liberal, old people tend to be more conservative. That's how it has always been and will always be.


Then how do you explain hardline Soviet remnants like Bernie (now defunct, but that's beside the point)? How do you explain young upstarts like Hunter Avalone? Or how about me for that matter? I was a major dittohead as a teenager in the '90s. Since the status quo was liberal and internationalist, conservatism and nationalism became expressions of rebellion. Later, in 2008, I became one of Rush Limbaugh's CHAOS agents during Operation CHAOS.

*"I can do anything!"*



Blazkovitz said:


> What freedoms would you miss in the Federation?


I forget exactly when it occurred. I think it was in First Contact. But Picard makes a statement that was blatantly socialist and hypocritical since they were fighting the Borg who represent all forms of collectivism all rolled into one. He mentions something about how people in the future work but don't get paid money. I forget the verbatim quote, but I always knew it revealed the hypocrisy of socialism. Shouldn't socialists be pro-Borg since the goal of socialism is communism?


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## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

Judson Joist said:


> He mentions something about how people in the future work but don't get paid money. I forget the verbatim quote, but I always knew it revealed the hypocrisy of socialism.


Looks as if Rottenberry never heard of post-scarcity. People in the future don't have to work, robots work for them.



> Shouldn't socialists be pro-Borg since the goal of socialism is communism?


The Nazis and the Soviets fought each other despite both being socialists.


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

Blazkovitz said:


> The Nazis and the Soviets fought each other despite both being socialists.


Fact. Even various sub-factions of socialism and communism fight against each other to prove whose form of oppression is more better (case in point: the Khmer Rouge). The Nazis opposed communism because they thought it was too oppressive even by their standards.

Collectivism is order and order is oppression.


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## Aluminum Frost (Oct 1, 2017)

The anti-SJW community thinks they're making more of a difference then they are


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

Aluminum Frost said:


> The anti-SJW community thinks they're making more of a difference *then* they are


*than*


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## Grandmaster Yoda (Jan 18, 2014)

Most people don't care about politics at this age. There are people who are complaining about SJW-ism or general sentiments of having a Homer Simpson president, but that doesn't really get into the policy issues that nobody cares about.


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## Aluminum Frost (Oct 1, 2017)

Judson Joist said:


> *than*


go away you


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## Judson Joist (Oct 25, 2013)

Aluminum Frost said:


> go away you


Missing comma. It should be, "Go away, you." Strong Bad _*and*_ the Soul of Perseverance would back me up on that. Btw, I don't know what it is, but my typographer/proofreader instincts have been amped up lately.


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## Sman12 (Apr 17, 2020)

I initially thought of this myself around 2017 when the "Gen Z was the most conservative generation since WWII" article hype came. As an Independent that leans right on most issues, I thought that I would have more of my peers around the country being on my political side. Personally, most of my Gen Z friends are liberal, and a lot of them are racially and culturally diverse, so that's probably one of the reasons why.

Then 2018 arrived, and one of the most defining moments for Gen Z happened in a form of a tragic school shooting: Parkland. We were already on an uptick of high-profile mass shootings with Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, but Parkland changed how Z saw the world and school safety. We had heightened fear of shootings happening in our own schools, more security measures being implemented, re-ignition of gun control debates, school walkouts were had, and the worldwide March for Our Lives event happened.

Oh, and the Climate marches in late 2019 was also a defining Z event, thanks to a Swedish 16-year-old girl being in the forefront of it all.

Some of my high school friends were conservative, but we were in the minority when it came to political affiliations around our school.


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## RJDG14 (Feb 19, 2017)

Shootings aren't really a thing where I live thanks to strong gun control legislation - America's lax weapon regulations being seen as many Republicans' definition of "freedom" is just kinda weird, especially since most of them are also against civil liberties in other areas such as the right to marry a person of the gender you choose. From what I'm aware the US Constitution only explicitly states that you can bear arms in a serious situation, so they could potentially introduce more restrictive federal legislation similar to that of the UK without needing to hold a federal referendum.

I enjoy analysing the data on YouGov opinion polls, and assuming Z is considered 18-24 and Y is considered 25-40 or so, I would have said that Y is slightly to the right of Z economically while at the same time also being slightly more socially liberal, though in reality the two seem pretty similar, at least in the UK where I live.

I see more difference between the Boomers and X than what I see between X, Y and Z, both culturally and politically. Most of the Boomers I'm aware of in the UK (at least those born during the 1940s) such as my grandparents on my mum's side seem to have always had pretty right wing views compared to those of the younger generations, and even those of previous generations, and in the UK members of the Boomers and X generations have always kinda looked facially different too (compared to X, Y and Z which have always generally looked quite similar, fashion put aside). I think British nutrition improved significantly during the 1960s and 1970s compared to the postwar period of the 1940s and 1950s, which may explain why this is.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

oreocheesecake said:


> What I find funny is that certain right-wing commentators still call college students Millennials and bemoan how college campuses are full of snowflakes, then also claim that Gen Z is conservative, not realising those ‘snowflake’ college students _are_ Gen Z.


Certain right-wing commentators think that they are Stable Geniuses so their comments about Snowflake Millennials fits right in with being the afore mentioned Stable Genius.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

Judson Joist said:


> Then how do you explain hardline Soviet remnants like Bernie (now defunct, but that's beside the point)? How do you explain young upstarts like Hunter Avalone? Or how about me for that matter? I was a major dittohead as a teenager in the '90s. Since the status quo was liberal and internationalist, conservatism and nationalism became expressions of rebellion. Later, in 2008, I became one of Rush Limbaugh's CHAOS agents during Operation CHAOS.
> 
> *"I can do anything!"*
> 
> ...


No. The borg turns everyone into drones, loyal only to the borg queen. That's not socialism. It's more like monarchy gone out of control, with an added dose of the excessive conformity found on the planet Camozotz in Madeleine L'Engle's book, "A Wrinkle in Time."


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## strawberryLola (Sep 19, 2010)

I think it's smart to be careful about what we hear, read, and see from mainstream media, and just in general.

I'm always wary of think-tanks trying to infiltrate the general public via covert mechanisms. I'm sure they hang out here too, spreading their B.S. The Koch Brothers are notorious for this.

They'll attack from all angles and pretend to create all sorts of narratives. So, it's best to be wise and use your instincts. Your intuition can spot out lies. People just doubt themselves too much and listen to what the masses think, and that's dangerous. It's part of manipulating people's perceptions through massive gaslighting, even if done passive-aggressively on a smaller scale, more interpersonally (you just know). _Grain of salt._


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## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

RJDG14 said:


> I see more difference between the Boomers and X than what I see between X, Y and Z, both culturally and politically. Most of the Boomers I'm aware of in the UK (at least those born during the 1940s) such as my grandparents on my mum's side seem to have always had pretty right wing views compared to those of the younger generations, and even those of previous generations, and in the UK members of the Boomers and X generations have always kinda looked facially different too (compared to X, Y and Z which have always generally looked quite similar, fashion put aside). I think British nutrition improved significantly during the 1960s and 1970s compared to the postwar period of the 1940s and 1950s, which may explain why this is.


Mind that many people born in the 40s were hippies and radical students in the 60s, which means they stood for anarcho-leftism or anarcho-inclusivism in terms of my political typology. Ageing makes people more conservative. In the 2050s millennials might be stereotyped as conservative as well.


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