[0xDEAFBEAD]

Commentators: "America's young are addicted to their phones, hopelessly politically polarized, and socially illiterate. Test scores are dropping and critical thinking skills are at an all-time low. They hate and fear the other gender, mainline conspiracy theory podcasts, struggle with anxiety, were coddled from birth, etc. etc."

Also commentators: "The elderly have to go. We need fresh blood."

(Yes I acknowledge there is a middle position where you elect 45-year-olds who came of age before the internet yet are still reasonably sharp mentally. I just think it's interesting that the two narratives above seem to coexist so easily.)

[Terr_]

But are they the same commentators each time?

[0xDEAFBEAD]

I didn't claim they were. Just claimed that those two narratives have been coexisting for a while and I've never seen them duke it out.

[jandrewrogers]

Honestly, 45 year olds will probably have some of the most objective views across that reality.

[throw-234]

Ah yes, the squeeze in the middle. My default assumption is that people outside ~35-45 range are often impatient to the point that they are, for practical purposes, functionally illiterate

Older side has those who invented and lived by powerpoints / the executive summary, and they are more executive than ever, preferring to leave early or not show up at all because it's time for golf. On the younger side, people who grew up on social media and twitter, very media literate in some respects but also often stuck at high-school level reading / writing at best. They are leaving early too, because it's not like staying will help them get ahead!

You know what these very diverse groups have in common? Shared disinterest in nuance, and the idea that no matter how subtle something is, 280 chars or 2 slides should just about cover it.

[tdb7893]

The first commentators are talking mostly about gen-z and gen-alpha nowadays while the second group of commentators wants gen-x or millennials to have power finally. These aren't really opposite takes at all (and if you're talking about test scores and conspiratorial thinking boomers seem to be worse than gen-x and millennials in my experience so in many ways these commentaries are not only not oppositional but actually compatible).

[jmull]

It's almost like there are different people out there with different ideas about things.