It's entertaining to mock young zealots, but the bottom line is that the adults in this Boomer experiment have done a terrible disservice to huge swaths of young people.
A few years ago I witnessed an eighteen-year-old lecturing a seventy-five-year-old who had been a professional accountant for half a century about economics. When this educated, experienced grownup expressed amusement at the naivete of the narrative the spoiled child was parroting, she came close to having a meltdown and left the room to sulk. In my youth I was every bit as insufferable as most young punks, but I never would have been so presumptuous and clueless as to believe my elders needed to look to me for education. The world has most certainly changed.
Exactly!! I too was full of notions when I was young. The abdication of adults, who were too afraid or thought they were being cool by not assuming their adult responsibilities to guide young people, have done enormous damage.
when u talk to the young and woke, hear their brittle voices cracking registers as they anxiously regurgitate approved dogma and get ready to cry or threaten to report you (or both), it reminds me of watching interviews with cult members...the denunciations of close family members "who will never get it", the binary thinking for every occasion, the anxious clinging to dogma like it's a baby's blanket, the willingness to denounce every past aspect of existence if it keeps the cognitive dissonance at bay...
by turning an entire generation or 2 over to the miserable zealots of Crit Theory we have allowed them to be programmed in a rigid, bitter antiliberal anti-beauty anti-joy cult ideology that more or less claims we will achieve a utopia of love if only first we spread as much hatred as poss between races, sexes, between family members, between lovers and friends etc...
the cult members have been programmed to denounce, deconstruct and dismantle every aspect of Western Civ and liberal democracy, including our values and traditions and cultural inheritance. my bet is that they will succeed, even if many of them destroy their own lives and families in the process.
It really is like a cult!! Honestly that's the best comparison. The repeating of the mantras, the punishing of dissent or free thought. People will sacrifice literally everything to maintain their delusions. That's an important truth.
Just watching it now. It is so bloody scary!! You don't know whether to laugh or cry! I don't know how Peter Boghossian kept a straight face, and kept his cool. I don't think you'd see this kind of behaviour where I live (Hungary) There is still respect for teachers and lecturers at schools and colleges here (in fact, elders, in general) My 21 year old daughter studies Political Science in Budapest, and has never seen or experienced this kind of lunacy, even though her class are a real mix of left/liberals, and right-leaning/conservative.
Hi Jenny. No, I'm English, but moved to Hungary years ago (came here backpacking then married a Hungarian man!) It's a lovely place to live and despite what the media say, it is NOT a dictatorship! (Not the most liberal country in the world, but definitely not the way it's portrayed in the media) You should definitely visit!
Agreed. It is not ok. I am leaving Manhattan in just a few days after 29 years of building my life, home and business here. I have pulled my daughter out of a very fancy private school that we worked so hard to get into (my husband and I always referred to ourselves as "the thoroughly unconnected") and more importantly, she worked so hard to get herself into (lots of tests when she applied years ago). She will finish high school abroad. My husband and I are working on getting "digital nomad" visas for ourselves so we can remain in Europe as much as possible while she is in school there. I love the school we found for her- we went to the ends of the earth to find a globally diverse but very traditional (i.e strict) non-political school for her. We were fortunate that we could do it and I am not fooling around. This is all so foreign to me but we are doing it. I don't even know what our address is going to be in the next year and for once in my life, I don't really care.
Through it all, however, I can say the number one most difficult thing I have faced, has been coming to terms with "Crazy how most people just accept this -- or even encourage it!". Yes, that is the one thing that almost took me down. There have been many, many dark days that I have had in the past year that have made me feel like I am the crazy one because I feel so alone-especially in NYC. But so be it. Even if I am the last sane person on earth, so be it.
Yes! Good for you! And your whole family. That's brave but very exciting. I lived like that when I was growing up and it has huge advantages. Keep us posted on your travels!
About 40 years ago, I had an acquaintance who had been raised this way before it became so fashionable. She had basically been told all of her life that she was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and she believed it to the point of insufferability, Annoying as it was at the time to those who had to deal with her, looking back I can see how insecure all of that conditioning must have made her feel inside. And the old ways of raising kids often had their own problems. By contrast, Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Brilliant way to explain this. I was looking at some excerpts from Gender Queer, which I now feel I need to read, and it just illustrates how lost kids are.
Years ago while teaching four year-olds at a Catholic Charities daycare centre in Brooklyn, I had to insist that little Peruvian Mario destroy the big, beautiful Inca city he'd made in wooden blocks. His mother worked in a nearby factory so he was always the first one there. He often painstakingly built his little cities but this one was particularly sprawling; however, other children were arriving so it had to be cleared. This time he refused to take it down, raised his little fist up high and flashed daggers at me with his onyx eyes. I fell over laughing. As much as I loved this little boy, I had to be the boss. I swept him up in my arms, and said, "Mario, can't you see how much bigger I am than you? You can't win this." Nature makes adults bigger & stronger for a reason.
A few years ago I witnessed an eighteen-year-old lecturing a seventy-five-year-old who had been a professional accountant for half a century about economics. When this educated, experienced grownup expressed amusement at the naivete of the narrative the spoiled child was parroting, she came close to having a meltdown and left the room to sulk. In my youth I was every bit as insufferable as most young punks, but I never would have been so presumptuous and clueless as to believe my elders needed to look to me for education. The world has most certainly changed.
Exactly!! I too was full of notions when I was young. The abdication of adults, who were too afraid or thought they were being cool by not assuming their adult responsibilities to guide young people, have done enormous damage.
when u talk to the young and woke, hear their brittle voices cracking registers as they anxiously regurgitate approved dogma and get ready to cry or threaten to report you (or both), it reminds me of watching interviews with cult members...the denunciations of close family members "who will never get it", the binary thinking for every occasion, the anxious clinging to dogma like it's a baby's blanket, the willingness to denounce every past aspect of existence if it keeps the cognitive dissonance at bay...
by turning an entire generation or 2 over to the miserable zealots of Crit Theory we have allowed them to be programmed in a rigid, bitter antiliberal anti-beauty anti-joy cult ideology that more or less claims we will achieve a utopia of love if only first we spread as much hatred as poss between races, sexes, between family members, between lovers and friends etc...
the cult members have been programmed to denounce, deconstruct and dismantle every aspect of Western Civ and liberal democracy, including our values and traditions and cultural inheritance. my bet is that they will succeed, even if many of them destroy their own lives and families in the process.
It really is like a cult!! Honestly that's the best comparison. The repeating of the mantras, the punishing of dissent or free thought. People will sacrifice literally everything to maintain their delusions. That's an important truth.
We have allowed it. And we must try to claw back some common sense and tradition, literally one person, one Tweet, one blog post at a time.
Just watching it now. It is so bloody scary!! You don't know whether to laugh or cry! I don't know how Peter Boghossian kept a straight face, and kept his cool. I don't think you'd see this kind of behaviour where I live (Hungary) There is still respect for teachers and lecturers at schools and colleges here (in fact, elders, in general) My 21 year old daughter studies Political Science in Budapest, and has never seen or experienced this kind of lunacy, even though her class are a real mix of left/liberals, and right-leaning/conservative.
That is very interesting! I am very curious about Hungary and would love to visit. Are you Hungarian?
Hi Jenny. No, I'm English, but moved to Hungary years ago (came here backpacking then married a Hungarian man!) It's a lovely place to live and despite what the media say, it is NOT a dictatorship! (Not the most liberal country in the world, but definitely not the way it's portrayed in the media) You should definitely visit!
I will and when I do, I will let you know. 🙏🏻
Please do! A nice spicy Hungarian dish will be waiting for you!
They are mad, Jenny. Completely mad.
It's really not ok. Crazy how most people just accept this -- or encourage it!
Agreed. It is not ok. I am leaving Manhattan in just a few days after 29 years of building my life, home and business here. I have pulled my daughter out of a very fancy private school that we worked so hard to get into (my husband and I always referred to ourselves as "the thoroughly unconnected") and more importantly, she worked so hard to get herself into (lots of tests when she applied years ago). She will finish high school abroad. My husband and I are working on getting "digital nomad" visas for ourselves so we can remain in Europe as much as possible while she is in school there. I love the school we found for her- we went to the ends of the earth to find a globally diverse but very traditional (i.e strict) non-political school for her. We were fortunate that we could do it and I am not fooling around. This is all so foreign to me but we are doing it. I don't even know what our address is going to be in the next year and for once in my life, I don't really care.
Through it all, however, I can say the number one most difficult thing I have faced, has been coming to terms with "Crazy how most people just accept this -- or even encourage it!". Yes, that is the one thing that almost took me down. There have been many, many dark days that I have had in the past year that have made me feel like I am the crazy one because I feel so alone-especially in NYC. But so be it. Even if I am the last sane person on earth, so be it.
Yes! Good for you! And your whole family. That's brave but very exciting. I lived like that when I was growing up and it has huge advantages. Keep us posted on your travels!
About 40 years ago, I had an acquaintance who had been raised this way before it became so fashionable. She had basically been told all of her life that she was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and she believed it to the point of insufferability, Annoying as it was at the time to those who had to deal with her, looking back I can see how insecure all of that conditioning must have made her feel inside. And the old ways of raising kids often had their own problems. By contrast, Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Brilliant way to explain this. I was looking at some excerpts from Gender Queer, which I now feel I need to read, and it just illustrates how lost kids are.
https://images.app.goo.gl/A75Z83c8MTTYNNkH8
Excellent piece, Jenny.
Years ago while teaching four year-olds at a Catholic Charities daycare centre in Brooklyn, I had to insist that little Peruvian Mario destroy the big, beautiful Inca city he'd made in wooden blocks. His mother worked in a nearby factory so he was always the first one there. He often painstakingly built his little cities but this one was particularly sprawling; however, other children were arriving so it had to be cleared. This time he refused to take it down, raised his little fist up high and flashed daggers at me with his onyx eyes. I fell over laughing. As much as I loved this little boy, I had to be the boss. I swept him up in my arms, and said, "Mario, can't you see how much bigger I am than you? You can't win this." Nature makes adults bigger & stronger for a reason.