>“I don’t play colleges.” Seinfeld says teens and college-aged kids don’t understand what it means to throw around certain politically-correct terms. “They just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice,'” he said. “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about”
I think maybe the teens and college age kids DO understand what they're talking about, and the Seinfeld generation doesn't.
The difference is that many in the Seinfeld generation (and other generations) think of "Racism" or "Sexism" as terrible evils that they must never commit.
While likely the "teens and college-aged kids" he's complaining about recognize that we all engage in some level of racism or sexism in our daily internal or external lives.
So, if someone accused Seinfeld of racism or sexism, his reaction might be to defend himself, and say, "No! How dare you!"
But if someone told one of the "woke kids" they were racist or sexist, their reaction would more likely be, "yeah, probably."
To Jerry, being "a racist" is synonymous with being a bad person. The "woke kids" recognize that we're all racist and sexist and prejudiced to some degree, and (hopefully) trying to be better about it.
Having talked to trans and bi youth, they're cynical, well-read, yet simultaneously naive and emotional, use slurs copiously and ironically, and like any generation, are politically all over the map, including fashy. I would not dare to try and paint these people a certain way.
I would at least like to see real quantifiable evidence that comedy shows on college campuses are less frequent now than they used to be, as opposed to individual comedians who are two generations removed from current college students saying they personally don't feel welcome there any more.
Most of the people on a college campus will not even know who Seinfeld is or identify with his jokes at all - he's probably older than their parents. I'm sure there are plenty of younger comedians killing it on campus
The difference is now they’re not worth the trouble.
Seinfeld (not even who you think of as “anti-woke”) has a good take on it you could search for. https://ew.com/article/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-politically...
>“I don’t play colleges.” Seinfeld says teens and college-aged kids don’t understand what it means to throw around certain politically-correct terms. “They just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice,'” he said. “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about”