
The Teens Will Save Us - kposehn
https://medium.com/@dinachka82/the-teens-will-save-us-af5448b4ddfd
======
adamrezich
Young people are more willing to "rise up and fight The Man" than ever before,
to be sure. The problem is, now that information is easier to spread
instantaneously across the entire globe--and we carry devices that let us
access this global information network in our pockets at all times--people are
more prone to groupthink than ever before, and one's political beliefs are
more directly shaped by social circumstances than ever before. Many young
people express desire to fight for various causes and will make all the social
media posts in the world in support, but once they get the dopamine hit from
feedback to said posts (likes, retweets, replies, etc.), they feel that
they've done Something Good, and call it a day, instead of actively engaging
more directly with whatever causes they're supporting. Critical thinking is
becoming more and more discouraged, especially in educational settings, as
outward expression of such is increasingly drowned out by overemotional
responses. I'm not sure what to make of all of this, but it seems overly
simple to say "the teens will save us" just because they're more likely to
"resist."

~~~
orbitur
Your assertion of "slacktivism" seems in contradiction to the fact that more
Americans are marching in the streets for various reasons in the last 10 years
than in the preceding years of my life.

~~~
adamrezich
Yes, and what does this marching in the streets really accomplish? What does
having a "March for Women" really get done in the greater scheme of things,
aside from making everyone participating it and supporting it feel good about
themselves? Same goes for the "March for Science" and other such "marches."

"Political protest" has become normalized to the point where the general
populace is becoming increasingly numb to it, making the concept lose whatever
effectiveness it once had, and it's gotten to the point where at least for me
personally, I can't keep up with the "marches" anymore. What are we marching
for this week? Anti-racism? Anti-sexism? Anti-homophobia? Anti-transphobia?
Anti-2A? Anti-fascism? Anti-Nazi?

All this marching just seems very evocative of Two Minutes Hate at this point.
Let the public get it out of their system and move on to some other issue next
month. Rinse and repeat, keep the hysteria and fear up, keep the population
subdued and angry and afraid and emotionally vulnerable. It's been working out
well so far.

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wemdyjreichert
First they came for the guns. An unarmed populace is powerless against an
abusive government. America was founded because we wanted more liberty. And
for many years, we understood that increased liberty came with increased
responsability and risk. People now seem to have forgotten that. If you want
to remain free, it will be hard. Sometimes there will even be bloodshed. I
mourn for the students killed, as I mourn for all who have died, advertently
or inadvertently, to protect our rights and freedoms. pulp

~~~
aalleavitch
Your AR-15 is not going to defend you against a drone strike. The idea you
could fight the government with privately owned weapons is completely
laughable, and the entire notion comes from an era long before tanks and
missiles and nuclear bombs made the entire concept ridiculous. If you want to
fight an abusive government you do it through the power of an organized
populace. You can’t force an entire nation to live at the barrel of a gun.

~~~
Zpalmtree
"The point is not that you can win pitched battles against a professional army
with all its ordinance as a ragtag citizens’ militia with small arms. The
point is that you can fight. You can bleed them. When they come patrolling
through your neighborhood, you may be able to take a couple of the fuckers
with you. You might even be able to run away and do it again. Theoretically,
you wouldn’t be alone and they couldn’t engage in endless “manhunts” for
everyone who resisted them. And they’d never feel safe; there could be a
shooter behind any window. Of course, they could call in artillery and air
support and level your neighborhood; sure. What would this get them? It would
anger a lot of people when innocents died and play right into the hands of the
rebels. It would also make a lot of the soldiers in that professional military
seriously consider whether they were doing the right thing. Finally, it would
simply kill people. No one wants to rule a nation of corpses.

The aim of a tyrant is to control, not to kill. What they want is to be able
to have militarized police/gestapo point guns at people and cow them into
submission to whatever dictates they might want to impose. If those people are
instead waiting behind their doors and ready to shoot first when the
jackbooted thugs come around, they’ve already failed. So the point is to
fight. If you resist, you’re not being controlled, and you’re also undermining
attempts to control others who can’t or won’t fight. You might die, of course.
That’s why Patrick Henry said what he famously said, more or less. As long as
people can resist, they can be free, and tyrants can never succeed. But when
you’re talking about using swords and knives and clubs against modem military
weapons, it actually becomes pointless, because you can’t bleed them at all.
They’ll just shoot you with beanbags and rubber and water cannons and
microwave guns. That’s why having guns is so important."

~~~
rocmcd
Not sure if this was your point, but your first paragraph is an accurate
depiction of the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan (and I'm sure plenty of
other war-torn countries in the region). Despite the USA having military
supremacy in nearly every way, there will probably be no end to the bloodshed
for decades to come.

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raverbashing
Ok, thought experiment time

What if instead of Senioritis this was a disease (a deadly one) and the action
needed was vaccination/washing your hands/"magic incantation" before doing
something?

On the other hand, what if this "totalitaran state" is pushing for something
"cool and fun", I don't know, using Emacs (example). Because Of Course Emacs
is the best editor, etc, etc (and since it's obvious _this is not questioned_
\- whoever questions this is shunned/alienated).

While the dangers of totalitarism are known (and see, we even have a name for
this concept), the opposite, which might be anarchy(?), while it is
individually an advantage collectively can be a disaster

I think people have been burned by one extreme and are maybe not aware of what
lies on the other side (me included).

------
rvo
This sounds similar to a real experiment:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_\(experiment\))

There is an amazing movie based on it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(2008_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_\(2008_film\))

> While the adults are complacent, jaded, and disparaged, teenagers are
> ignited, spirited, and take no prisoners. ... Do not get in their way: they
> will crush you.

This is scary. Do we expect violence?

Also, aren't millennials more pro gun than others?

[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/12/are-
mille...](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/12/are-millennials-
moving-right-on-guns-215703)

 _According to Gallup’s version of the question in 2004, the notion that
concealed guns made for safer spaces polled at 25 percent; 11 years later, it
registered at 55 percent nationally. The greatest support came from those ages
18-29, at 66 percent, a full 10 points greater than the next highest scoring
demographic._

~~~
maxerickson
Most current teenagers aren't Millenials.

~~~
rvo
Ah, good point. So this will be a generational clash...

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humanrebar
They'll save us from contrived and meaningless object lessons?

The real test will be if they oppose fascism and bullying that is on their
side about something important.

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grecy
I am _staggered_ \- and I repeat - _staggered_ teens in the US are not doing
more on this issue, especially now they have this platform.

If every single 14-17 year old across the entire country banded together they
could fix this once and for all by the next election. With social and the
internet it's not even hard.

Step 1: All those teens vow to vote the day they turn 18 and forever after -
that's tens of millions of votes per election, easily enough to change the
outcome.

Step 2: It doesn't matter if the candidate is Republican or Democrat (this
issue is more important) - if gun reform is not their number 1 issue they will
be voted against.

Step 3: Make a positive change for their country, forever.

~~~
helthanatos
That's a horrible and dishonest plan

~~~
grecy
What's dishonest about it?

It's extremely up-front and transparent, the opposite of dishonest.

