The Greatest generation, or G.I. generation, is generally defined as people born from 1901 to 1927; many of our parents populated that generation. The Baby Boomer generation was born between 1946 and 1964, after WWII and at the beginning of Vietnam. Both generations are being accosted, sometimes physically in blue check cities, but certainly psychologically and spiritually, by the Gen Z generation born between 1996 and 2013 and the late Millennial generation born from 1990-1996. New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz has identifies this group as America’s most socialist and misanthropic generation—dystopian socialists.
One only has to review the sickening recordings of the recent “peaceful protesters” around our nation-- Atlanta, Saint Louis, Seattle, New York City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Oakland, Denver, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Trenton, Atlantic City, Boston, Louisville, Bakersfield, Columbus, Dallas, Des Moines, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Jose and Portland to confirm the “peaceful” perps were almost exclusively young adults born between 1990 and 2002—people who have been brainwashed into progressivism by their education and lack of ambition or work for a living. Reading between the lines, CNN’s Don Lemon said as much about the rioters, “I don’t think the rioters are listening, and I don’t think they care what Joe Biden says.” He was correct, the rioters were caught in a matrix of their own making.
In an August 3, 2016 Esquire interview, renaissance man Clint Eastwood referred to this target age cohort as the “pu*** generation.” In college classrooms they have a penchant for whining about… everything. While no one has enjoyed the Covid lockdown, GenZers have taken it worse that older adults, despite being less prone to the virus. They were also the happiest, aside from the Democrat Party, to be given free money during the pandemic and also least likely to return to work after the lockdown.
Esquire magazine interviewer Michael Hainey asks Eastwood about Gen Zers’ predilections and he responds: “All these people that say, ‘Oh, you can't do that, and you can't do this, and you can't say that’...I guess it's just the times…and that’s the pu*** generation…no one wants to work…We're really in a pu*** generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist.” The interviewer then asks Eastwood if he’s the “anti-pu*** party” and he responds, “I'm anti–pu*** generation.” His son Scott is an older Millennial, born 1986, also participated in the interview. Hainey asks what Clint says about him and Eastwood replies that he works hard and is apolitical. Hainey ends the interview by asking Eastwood about President Trump and the possibility Trump is channeling Eastwood’s characters with his tough talk and scowl. Eastwood responds, “Maybe. But he's onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pu*** generation.”
As a university professor I have seen a remarkable student body generational transformation over the 38 years I spent in the classroom and working with students. During my first 15 years the vast majority of students were at my university to learn, improve themselves, and get a good job. Over the second 15 years, more radical ideologies by faculty and teacher unions with the beginning of left-leaning online technology, I saw students becoming less serious about competing for good jobs and more socially distracted and political. In the last eight years the majority of my students were hopelessly distracted from their educational endeavor, had disdain for capitalism, and were disassociated by their addiction to social media. They were also in the throes of social activism that was emancipated by the teachings of my Marxist colleagues. I was known in my department and elsewhere around the university as their token capitalist.
It should be of no surprise to us that the leftist brainwashing our K-12 and higher education schooling has given this generation. The months of anomie during lock-down restrictions on social gathering, and the fact that the federal government paid people more money to not work than to go back to work when they could and should, rioting and vandalism was an amoral but compelling social opportunity that Clint Eastwood’s pu*** generation couldn’t pass up….and they didn’t, no matter what harm befell our fellow human beings, our nation, and its sterling character.
Loyd Pettegrew is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing Communication at the University of South Florida.
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