Is 'Generation Z' The Most Conservative Since WW2?

mujuro

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Chalk it up to naivety. Not to say that conservatism is synonymous with naivety - I consider myself somewhere between conservative and libertarian. But it seems a little premature to make conclusions about a generation whose oldest subjects are only just reaching the age of 17. What does that 17 year old actually know about marijuana, transgenderism or gay rights? For example: "Digital natives Gen Z were the exception, being the most [I think this is meant to say 'least'] likely to say they “couldn’t live without it” (27%) or describe themselves as a “tech enthusiast” (29%)." This can be explained by their age, not necessarily their attitudes. How many 17 year old kids, let alone <17, depend on technology for work, travelling, family, friends, study, networking, appointments, events, news, etc.?
 

Luann

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They're not, though.
Just look around. How many kids really look like they're saving towards something big? No, it's all about shoes and bags.
 

DaveFoster

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Millennials are more radical than neo-conservatives and neo-liberals in my experience. Either to the right or left. Anti-fa on the left and white nationalism on the right.
 
OP
x-ray peat

x-ray peat

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I agree that the questions about computers and money don’t really mean that much for people under 18 and can be misleading. Of course it would be good to know the age range of these Gen Z kids. I cant see them polling 10 year olds and asking about transgender issues. I assume that they are mostly high school kids who are relatively aware of key issues. What really surprised me was that they are so conservative on transgender rights, gay marriage, and pot.

“On same-sex marriage, transgender rights and marijuana legalisation, 59% of Gen Z respondents described their attitudes as being between “conservative” and “moderate,” while 83% of Millennials and 85% of Gen X respondents were instead ‘quite’ or ‘very liberal’.”

That’s a huge difference which I find very hard to believe. How can we go from trigglypuff and self hating white male to Leave it Beaver morality in such a short time. My 11 and 12 year old nephew and niece are hardcore Bernie fans FWIW. But of course that's my low info Brother to blame.
 
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x-ray peat

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Millennials are more radical than neo-conservatives and neo-liberals in my experience. Either to the right or left. Anti-fa on the left and white nationalism on the right.
completely agree. they are very scary and cant seem to deal with any dissent. Its the next Gen that's the mystery.
 

lvysaur

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I wonder how much of this can be traced to secularism.

A lot of older leftist thought was influenced and rationalized by the universalism in Christianity. "Care for those less fortunate", and all that.

Young people are far less religious, so they're naturally going to try out other "religions". Utilitarianism (modern liberalism), libertarianism (classical liberalism), and then the radical identity politics movements.
 

sladerunner69

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Chalk it up to naivety. Not to say that conservatism is synonymous with naivety - I consider myself somewhere between conservative and libertarian. But it seems a little premature to make conclusions about a generation whose oldest subjects are only just reaching the age of 17. What does that 17 year old actually know about marijuana, transgenderism or gay rights? For example: "Digital natives Gen Z were the exception, being the most [I think this is meant to say 'least'] likely to say they “couldn’t live without it” (27%) or describe themselves as a “tech enthusiast” (29%)." This can be explained by their age, not necessarily their attitudes. How many 17 year old kids, let alone <17, depend on technology for work, travelling, family, friends, study, networking, appointments, events, news, etc.?

Young people are much more likely to be "liberal" or left leaning in their poltiical beleifs because they let emotions control their ideologies. This data was then extrapolated based off former generations transitioning to more conservative views through their life cycle. Because practical real world experience proves the truth of conservatism to resonate with wisdom.

To say that conservatism is based in niavety and to ot provide evidence of that is foolish at best.
 

sladerunner69

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Millennials are more radical than neo-conservatives and neo-liberals in my experience. Either to the right or left. Anti-fa on the left and white nationalism on the right.

Yeah Id say that is my thoughts on the subject. Although the anti-fa dummies seem to be a lto mroe populous then the white nationalists. Most millenials on the right are just libertarians, and the left just groups them in with the more radical "white nationalists" by labelling them all neo-nazis because they don't support welfare and unlimitied immigraton for minorites- without giving so much as a wink to the fact that nazis beleived strongly in welfare and unlimited immigration as well, only for a different race. Anti-fa and legitimate nazis don't so much to disagree about, in reality, maybe they should come together and they can all move to Canada where their white liberal male model Justin Turdeau can spend other people's money until all their problems disappear.
 

mujuro

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Young people are much more likely to be "liberal" or left leaning in their poltiical beleifs because they let emotions control their ideologies. This data was then extrapolated based off former generations transitioning to more conservative views through their life cycle. Because practical real world experience proves the truth of conservatism to resonate with wisdom.

To say that conservatism is based in niavety and to ot provide evidence of that is foolish at best.

You misunderstand. My stance is in defense of conservatism. I'm saying that its ridiculous for the authors to make the assertion that these kids are conservative based on some questions which are absolutely contingent on age and life experience. The marijuana and the dependence on tech is definitely as attributable to ignorance/their age as it is conservatism. I'm absolutely certain that when they're 30 they're gonna have a different answer to both of these. And why does being non-dependent on technology make you any more conservative than a dependent?

The entire article irks me.
 

lvysaur

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The entire article irks me.

I think the entire article can be summed up by saying that teenagers are natural reactionaries. To what, they don't really care.

Also lol @ drawing conclusions from 14 year olds
 

zztr

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Left liberals don't have kids, or if they do they have one. Mormons and the Amish and orthodox jews are some of the fastest growing population groups in the US. Of course the cultural trend is going to be farther right and more traditionalist.

Left liberalism is basically a self eliminating lifestyle. I mean, a third of pregnancies in the USA end in abortion now. These are the children of left leaning people being erased from the future.

Over the next twenty five years these demographic trends are going to be felt in full force.
 
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x-ray peat

x-ray peat

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Left liberals don't have kids, or if they do they have one. Mormons and the Amish and orthodox jews are some of the fastest growing population groups in the US. Of course the cultural trend is going to be farther right and more traditionalist.

Left liberalism is basically a self eliminating lifestyle. I mean, a third of pregnancies in the USA end in abortion now. These are the children of left leaning people being erased from the future.

Over the next twenty five years these demographic trends are going to be felt in full force.
The problem is that increasingly the State is taking over the rearing of our children. Pre-K education, longer school days, longer school years, and endless homework is not designed to help improve educational outcomes but rather limit the ability of the parents to pass along their own morals and ethics to their kids. When the schools ask for greater parental involvement, they want parents to re-enforce what the schools are teaching and not to teach anything conservative to the kids. I think social issues such as gay marriage and transgender rights are just wedge issues used to divide us. I would like to see a poll on Gen Z's belief in individual rights vs social responsibility and would bet that they like those of the millennial's, lean towards the collective.
 

zztr

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You are way overestimating the role indoctrination plays in any of this. A great deal of it is genetic, or at least transmitted a such a deep level 20 years of mere schooling isn't going to sway things much. Look at how little impact the Soviets ultimately had on the Russian psyche despite 70 years of totalitarian control.

Regional social attitudes and traditions in the USA still map to an astounding degree to the differing founding european genetic subgroups from 300 years ago:

The Genetics of the American Nations

A great deal of American politics can be better understood as rivalries between these groups. Modern American left liberalism is deeply tied up with "Yankee-dom" in the map. This group is in the process of committing demographic suicide at the moment.
 
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x-ray peat

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That seems a bit deterministic and close to many of the beliefs of eugenicists. What that paper is finding has nothing to do with genetics and all to do with the differences in cultures that are a product of their countries of origins. There is plenty of evidence from adoptions that show that genetics play a very small part in the success of the baby and a supportive family structure and strong work ethic are much more important.

The Soviet system was held together mainly by fear as it was too horrible for even Soviet brainwashing to keep it going. However during the change over many wanted to go back to communism and many also considered Stalin to be a hero despite having killed 20 million people.

If you look at the embrace of Socialism by the younger generations it clearly shows that something besides genetics is taking place as their parents where not so supportive of Socialism and their Grandparents hated it.
Poll Finds Young Americans More Open to Socialist Ideas
http://mobile.co/millennials-gen-zs-consider-democratic-socialism-over-capitalism
 

zztr

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plenty of evidence from adoptions that show that genetics play a very small part in the success of the baby and a supportive family structure and strong work ethic are much more important.

Lol, the adoption studies show exactly the opposite. IQ and personality are overwhelmingly biological and family environment matters way less than people think.
 
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x-ray peat

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Lol, the adoption studies show exactly the opposite. IQ and personality are overwhelmingly biological and family environment matters way less than people think.
Not true. Obviously inherited IQ plays a large factor but family structure and environment also plays a huge factor. Ray talks about this quite a bit. The belief that only genetics are involved is used to justify the lack of resources provided to poor children.
 

zztr

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Nobody said anything about "only genetics." But with all the major psychometrics you get heritability correlations of, like, 0.7 which is stronger than height. Are you going to tell me that raising children in a loving home is going to make a kid born to 5'4 biological parents 7' tall? That we can take a newborn shetland pony and raise it up into a racing thoroughbred? It takes a special kind of delusion not to see that people are overwhelmingly the sum product of their biological parents.

The role lamarkian forces has to play in all this isn't sussed out, but the essential fact remains that for a whole host of measure by far the most impacts happens at the moment of conception, and probably over the first trimester.
 
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x-ray peat

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Nobody said anything about "only genetics." But with all the major psychometrics you get heritability correlations of, like, 0.7 which is stronger than height. Are you going to tell me that raising children in a loving home is going to make a kid born to 5'4 biological parents 7' tall? That we can take a newborn shetland pony and raise it up into a racing thoroughbred? It takes a special kind of delusion not to see that people are overwhelmingly the sum product of their biological parents.

The role lamarkian forces has to play in all this isn't sussed out, but the essential fact remains that for a whole host of measure by far the most impacts happens at the moment of conception, and probably over the first trimester.
That has to be the worst case of strawmanitis I have seen in a long time. I am not even talking about Lamark. I am speaking of the impact that social environment has on the child's beliefs and values. These are learned constructs. We are getting farther away from the thread which is what are the social/economic beliefs of Gen z. I think that these are learned beliefs whether they come from the parents or the state. My point is that the State is taking a bigger and bigger role in raising the children and they are being indoctrinated with more and more collectivist beliefs. I don't think that this has anything to do with genetics, Lamarkian or otherwise.
 
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Gl;itch.e

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Millennials are more radical than neo-conservatives and neo-liberals in my experience. Either to the right or left. Anti-fa on the left and white nationalism on the right.
WOAH! That's a big call Dave. From what I can see (online from the "safety" of New Zealand) it appears theres 100 times as many leftist radicals as there are any potential white nationalists. But I guess if you subscribe to the media/leftist social media brigades assertions that anyone who doesn't agree with their agenda 100% is a NAZI then you could make that claim
 

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