The whine of the millennials | THE COLLINE GATE—Thoughtful Political Discussion

robeiae
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On a down bound train

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The whine of the millennials Dec 4, 2020 7:25:46 GMT -5

Post by robeiae on Dec 4, 2020 7:25:46 GMT -5

www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21473579/millennials-great-recession-burnout-anne-helen-petersen

That’s how Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, describes the plight of most millennials in America. We’re a generation that has never quite been able to find any stability, economic or otherwise. And it’s not just because we’ve endured two financial crises (the Great Recession and now the coronavirus), though that’s obviously part of it. It’s because the world we’ve inherited set us up for burnout.

The sort of burnout Petersen describes goes beyond mere exhaustion, which is at least fleeting. If you’re truly burned out, there’s no escape. It’s what happens when you live without any margin for error, when you’re always one accident or illness away from bankruptcy or eviction. Living so close to ruin saps the joy from nearly everything because there’s no security, no peace of mind.

Riiiiiight, because no other generational groups had to endure both the Great Recession and the pandemic, there are no members of other groups living close to the edge of poverty, living paycheck to paycheck.

Look at this shit:

A lot of it has to do with timing. One of the things that people have said about millennials is that we’re unlucky. I don’t like that because it suggests that there weren’t decisions made that made us unlucky, and that we’re just unfortunate to have been born at the wrong time. It’s true that millennials graduated from high school or college into the 2008 recession and its aftermath, and that delayed any sort of adult stability for a significant amount of time. It also limited our ability to pay off student loans or start saving money for the future. There are cumulative effects to these things that stack up and create more instability.

But the recession didn’t come out of nowhere. We intersected with it right out of school, and it was decisions made by people — most of whom weren’t millennials — that brought us to that precipice.

Wah, wah, wah!

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Optimus
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The whine of the millennials Dec 7, 2020 10:58:49 GMT -5

Post by Optimus on Dec 7, 2020 10:58:49 GMT -5

Yeah, I've seen several of these bullshit hot takes from Millenials. It's been going on since the Great Recession because those writers seemed to think that not being able to get a high-paying job right out of college was much rougher and more "oppressive" than losing your entire retirement savings, your job, and getting your house foreclosed on all while trying to support a family (e.g., "Boomers" and Gen X).

Everything is always sooooo much tougher for Millenials than everyone else. Such a head-up-own-ass perspective just drips with narcissism.

Cry me a fucking river, kids. All of this shit has been rough for everyone, and generally rougher for people older than these brats.

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michaelw
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Posts: 1,196

The whine of the millennials Dec 7, 2020 20:07:40 GMT -5

Post by michaelw on Dec 7, 2020 20:07:40 GMT -5

Kids these days. *Shakes fist angrily like Abe Simpson*

Anyway, I think my perspective on this might be a bit more sympathetic, maybe because so much of the "commentary" on Millennials that comes from older generations comes across as kind of brain-dead.

I think my favorite is the one that goes something like, "I don't understand why Millennials have all these problems with student debt. Why can't they just work their way through college, like I did?"

LOL.

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robeiae
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The whine of the millennials Dec 7, 2020 20:19:28 GMT -5 Optimus likes this

Post by robeiae on Dec 7, 2020 20:19:28 GMT -5

Sure, but most Millennials don't have a problem with student debt, because they don't have any.

And my commentary on Millennials begins and ends with "stop identifying yourself with this label and making stupid generalizations about everyone under it." I'd say the same to the Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers who love to imagine that those labels mean something significant. But it's Millennial group that seems to have the most members prone to navel-gazing, that are certain they're "special," that their experiences are just oh-so-unique, that they've had to deal with challenges that go above and beyond what anyone else has faced.

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michaelw
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The whine of the millennials Dec 7, 2020 22:07:26 GMT -5

Post by michaelw on Dec 7, 2020 22:07:26 GMT -5

Dec 7, 2020 20:19:28 GMT -5 robeiae said:

Sure, but most Millennials don't have a problem with student debt, because they don't have any.

Exactly. Another reason why it's a dumb statement. (Of course, as I meant to imply, it would still be dumb even if more Millennials did have student debt.)

But it's Millennial group that seems to have the most members prone to navel-gazing, that are certain they're "special," that their experiences are just oh-so-unique, that they've had to deal with challenges that go above and beyond what anyone else has faced.

They might have the most members prone to all kinds of things, since there are more of them than other groups.

As far as the "special" argument goes, I dunno. Economically speaking, there probably are some unique challenges that Millennials (and Zoomers as well, to be fair) have had to deal with, to greater degrees than previous generations. Of course, one could probably counter that all generations have had certain unique challenges, which kind of undercuts the specialness angle, to be sure. Whether Millennials are more prone to navel-gazing? Not sure. In general, I dunno if Millennials are even all that keen on labeling themselves as Millennials. According to this, Boomers are more likely than other groups to actually identify as such.

And that does seem logical (well, sort of). The term at least refers to an actual demographic trend. The other ones not so much.

Last Edit: Dec 7, 2020 22:12:28 GMT -5 by michaelw

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robeiae
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On a down bound train

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The whine of the millennials Dec 8, 2020 8:45:58 GMT -5

Post by robeiae on Dec 8, 2020 8:45:58 GMT -5

Fair point on Boomers: there is something more to that particular label.

But I think I'm spot on about the navel-gazing, at least when it comes to publicly sharing the insights of that gazing. That may be a consequence of growing up in an online world, though I have noted that my younger two children--firmly in the Gen Z range--really aren't into sharing with the world. My son and his friends, in fact, seem to have a great deal of contempt for the navel-gazers, including those in their own generation, though they're still very active online, but maybe not in the "look at me" way that characterizes the people a bit older than them (but younger than me).

And still, I'd argue that the groupings are mostly meaningless, and that people who hold fact to them are doing so usually as a cheap defense mechanism, like the person who wrote the article above (and the book author, as well). "It's all these other generations' fault, this mess in the world! We didn't do anything wrong! Wah, wah, wah!"

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michaelw
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The whine of the millennials Dec 8, 2020 9:08:33 GMT -5

Post by michaelw on Dec 8, 2020 9:08:33 GMT -5

Right, I agree that the groupings are (mostly) meaningless--that's why I thought it was notable that Millennials are less likely to embrace the label. (And in my personal experience, that seems correct, FWIW.)

I'm still not sold though on the whole "It's everyone else's fault" bit. I guess the author--Petersen--might be an exception, but I don't really see that as a common sentiment among Millennials. Although I do think Millennials love mocking Boomers, to be fair ("OK Boomer", et cetera).

Last Edit: Dec 8, 2020 9:09:15 GMT -5 by michaelw

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