Many define the border between “Zoomer” and “Millenial” to be the age at which you are capable of remembering the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I’d be a millenial on the grounds that I definitely do, and can attest to the fact that I remember exactly where I was and what I did the rest of the day.
The next generation does not, by this definition, remember this. Even if they were born, they were not sentient to the point of recalling it. On 9/11, the propaganda machines got pushed into overdrive, the stupid flags got put onto every damn flagpole, the bumper stickers were put on the cars that said, “Never forget”. Travelling got a lot more obnoxious, a ton of civil liberties went out the window, and basically the world just got a bit shittier.
This means that there are other things the newer generation, through no fault of their own, remembers. In this thread, I’ll try to outline some of the important stuff that I recall from this period that they might not. I’ll assume just for the sake of simplicity that someone was born in the year 2000.
If someone was born in the year 2000, they don’t remember that there was a massive push in the US to ensure that people didn’t take out their frustration over the 9/11 attacks on anyone somewhat brown-ish in the US. Lots of people at the time were only vaguely aware of what a muslim even was, and a lot of innocent people had their homes or places of work vandalized by people who decided that someone being born in India meant that they were complicit in the 9/11 terror attacks. People were stupid back then, just as they are now.
Someone born in the year 2000 might think that the behavior of democrats during the Trump administration is unprecedented, they might not remember that democrats did the same shit to Bush. They also might not remember that Obama did basically the same shit as Bush in almost all respects, but that democrats demanded a tone of reverence and respect toward Obama, and not to Bush. If you think TDS is new, you’re wrong, this is just how democrats behave when a republican is in the oval office.
If you were born in the year 2000, you might not remember how much of a big deal the gay rights movement was, and the actual arguments that took place on the subject if you were a christian conservative. One of the arguments against gay marriage from back then was that the term “Marriage” was sacred, and that the word belonged to the church to describe a type of covenant with God. A lot of people weren’t concerned with gay people living together and doing gay things together, they were worried about it being called a “Marriage”. They even suggested substitute terms in order to compromise, such as “Civil unions” or other such things. The libertarians, at the time, were largely pushing the opinion that the government should have no role in marriage whatsoever and that only the church would. Proponents for gay marriage were very different, socially, than modern proponents of trans rights, and “woke culture” was very different and often mocked back then as “politically correct’ culture.
If you were born in the year 2000, you might not remember how utterly evil Christian Conservatives were back then, or how pervasive Neoconservatives were. You probably don’t remember this stupid fucking music video:
You probably don’t remember how closely the church and the state were allied. You probably don’t remember this sort of thing:
Republicans have chilled out on this sort of thing in recent years as christian conservatism has been replaced with science worship (it never ceases to amaze me how people will simply switch which side of the stupid they’re on rather than abandon the stupid altogether), but some libertarians probably don’t remember it existing in the first place at all.
There are many things that those in Generation X likely remember that we in the Millenial and Zoomer generations do not. I get the feeling that the ‘Rona will be the litmus test for separating Zoomers from Gen Alpha, if we stick with that name. That means that Zoomers have a responsibility to try and remember the bullshit they’ve seen in the last several years, and to remember whatever it is they can about the events that happened in their lifetime.
I can see how someone might think, if they don’t remember pre-Obama USA, that the Republicans are friends of freedom, or the lesser of two evils, or that they aren’t “all that bad” altogether. However, I would encourage people to apply a critical eye to conservative values. They are rarely libertarian values for libertarian reasons.
Just like how those on the left and those in libertarian circles agreed on marijuana legalization (minus of course the “tax it” element), we aren’t in it for the same reasons conservatives are. Their collectivist ideas in regards to the “American Nation”, or the us-vs-them mentality they harbor in regards to foreigners, is cancerous and if you start taking it seriously you can quickly become an opponent of liberty. The enemy of your enemy is not your friend. Our enemy is the state, but republicans and conservatives are generally friends of the state. They will defend their friend, just as the left will defend their friend.