I have noticed that when it came to the recent campus unrest, the most aggressive sentiments came from millenials. Boomers might have a more uniform lack of sympathy but nothing compared with millenials, especially liberals. I have a theory something big is happening

If you view politics as a system of rewards and patronage, as modern Democrats(and to a lesser degree Republicans have) then millenials have been waiting in line for 20 years. They were told Bush was the source of their problems and Obama would fix them. Then Trump, then covid

The thing is not only have they not "gotten" the lives and careers they were promised but others have. I have a theory that the reason the NYT has moved rightward on immigration, identity politics and Trans issues is because their audience now views those in terms of line cutting

The Democratic party has not just ensured those groups got paid, but that they were paid in full. Not only that, groups which didn't even exist when millenials gained political awareness are receiving full recognition from the Biden Administration and Democrats.

The Campus protests have consolidated all of these feelings among the elite. Here are 22 year Olds who were given everything - phones at age 11 with access to all human knowledge, no discipline, automatic As, acting entitled to getting what they want now through a tantrum

What makes it particularly infuriating is they are doing so for a cause which not only didn't exist(and the Palestinian cause didn't exist in US politics except on a genuine fringe of 1-2%) but which dumps on the generational trauma of 9/11. It's a perfect target

A perfect target for certain millenial elites. But they are reflecting a wider generational sense of betrayal, and a fear, as they approach 40 that they will be a forgotten generation and that Gen X is about to hand power directly to Zoomers and cut them out of everything

It's not just about campus protests or Palestine. These tactics and this rhetoric has been used within institutions, companies and government by zoomers to in effect cut millenials and young Gen X out of the power structure by extracting concessions directly from managment

When Gen Z employees can direct corporate policy through direct action, dealing directly with senior managment who are half out the door to wfh semi-retirement millenial middle managment are on notice they may become redundant before the future they waited 20 years for arrived

Which is why if not a shift to the GOP there is a massive shift towards reestablishing "order" and the power of existing hierarchies. Because having invested all their hopes in the existing order for 20 years its collapse risks leaving 30-somethings with nothing

Biden's problem is that not only do many other Democrats fail to see the problem, but his own approach to resolving it is half a century out of date. He has tried to throw money at the unhappy group, without realizing their real complaint is the denial of their proper power

Many millenials are upset about debt, but they never would have pursued many of those degrees or roles if money rather than status were the issue. The problem is they lack their proper status and forgiving their debt won't restart stalled careers or social dynamics

Someone who went to a T30 college, then law school and is an associate in their late thirties at a firm where the partners left for Miami/Amelia Island in 2021 and seem set to liquidate it will not be able to figure out what to do in 2030 just because they had $20k forgiven

The wider issue is that a combination of cultural change/technology/covid means an entire category of institutions and career paths many millenials counted on may be shut down rather than incur the costs of adaption. And Gen Z is both blamed and resented for being better adapted

It is easy to blame Biden, but it's unclear how this can be resolved with money alone. PPP loans should have kept these businesses afloat but instead the generosity actually seems to have encouraged older managment to pocket the money, liquidate, and retire ahead of schedule

Which means the only option is restoring some sort of traditional hierarchy which values, if not seniority, the skill sets Americans in their 30s and early 40s possess. Because they have begun to identify the breakdown of institutions and the social order as an existential threat

This by the way is why the violent/non violent distinction dosen't work. Whether protestors who occupied am executive's office at Google or a building a Columbia broke windows, they are engaging in extortion to force the top brass to cede power that rightfully belongs to others

If you are a supervisor at Google who is five years senior to the protestors, their cause does not matter. Whether they destroyed property or not dosen't. What does is that if they get their way, your position is as good as meaningless.

Would add how much worse this is, if, rather than moving to the suburbs when you married(or didn't) you bought a place in a hipster area near student-y bars you thought you'd want to go to at 29, but only serve to taunt you at 35+. Then you are in direct proximity to "this"

Obviously there are a million different experiences with a million different stories, but I have seen this tale time and again among graduates of my northeastern liberal arts college. Most importantly I have seen the political discourse change. And that change accelerate.

I also think "Generations" are awkward turning points for technology 1972- post CW gen 1985 - graduated into a post 2008 world 1989 - started college with Facebook 1993 - started hs with Facebook, college with a smartphone 1999 - started HS with a smartphone/college with covid

The entire nature of how you networked, the shape of your social group, who influenced your decisions for college/careers, all shifted rapidly. If born in 1986, your HS was your world, college was a new one, it's career services and alumni + parents/peers played a key role

If you were born in 1982 this was fine. If you were born in 1986-89 however, you graduated just as all that advice proved worthless. No you couldn't attend a rural school, take summers off camping instead of internships, study philosophy, then get finance spring of senior year

Those born by 1993 had both the foreknowledge they needed to adapt and the technological tools with which to do so. Older compatriots born outside the middle class knew they couldn't count on anything. But that specific cohort, overrepredented in politics and media got hit hard