#do i think tiktok perpetuating the millennial vs gen z thing was a conspiracy?

[starsarebleeding]

HELLO I want to say something about age gap relationships, because the amount of sanctimonious vitriol they get (often irrespective of how old the younger party is) is, I think, a concerning symptom of something else that's JUST as sinister as purity culture.

Now look: there is & always will be conflict between generations. It's the way of growth and evolution, fine. What's different in current society is that how we conceive of generations is based on marketing tactics.

That is: the grouping of ages helps to create a clearer target audience that corporations can sell to. The more you stay in your generational box, the easier you are to pigeonhole in a boardroom, and the more your consumerism perpetuates the actual hell of capitalism we're in.

This would just be another way to take advantage of you EXCEPT: remember a few years ago when Gen Z waged absolute war on Millennials for virtually no reason? Like yeah fine Millennials are earnest, and goofy and less ironic than Gen Z in their humour, but at the core, we're actually quite similar (or were, at the time, before the alt-right radicalization of Gen Z men -- which is part of my point) in our beliefs and core values of progressiveness. We're also the generations most harmed by capitalism, and most at risk as a result of all the bad decisions made by those that come before us.

Man -- sure would suck if Millennials and Gen Z, both extremely online and therefore globally connected, teamed up to start a real revolution, wouldn't it?

Man, what's this new TikTok thing taking off?

I'm not saying the Millennial-Gen Z war was a conspiracy (okay secretly I am lol) -- what I AM saying is that: the further away we get from interacting with other generations for stupid dumbass reasons like style choices and bad memes, two things happen:

1) we fit more and more neatly into the boxes the ruling class wants us to (this is where the altrightification of Gen Z men fits in: the question to always ask yourself is -- who makes money off of your online presence & content consumption, and what are their motives?)

and

2) we isolate ourselves from learning about the (much deeper) similarities we have with previous generations, and we lose the opportunity to learn from them

So.

When I hear someone saying that "an age gap of 10 years is creepy no matter what" or whatever -- what does that actually mean? Take that to the logical conclusion. Does that mean the younger person cannot be expected to be an adult and hold their own boundaries, regardless of their age? Friendships can be intense and manipulative too, sometimes -- so does that mean friendships that cross generations are also creepy? Wait, does that mean any interaction across generations is suspect and weird?

No, it doesn't, like I'm not dumb I get that the antis are just stressing about grooming or whatever and don't understand the definition. But, for any antis that come across this: no one is saying pedophilia in real life is acceptable. But if you keep raising the age of actual adulthood, not only do you infantilize actual adults -- you are effectively arguing that actual adults should not learn from, connect with, or mobilize with previous generations. You would prefer to force adults into the boxes that corporations have put them in. And that lack of intergenerational learning and exploration is nothing but bad for us.

Only power can be found in generations working together against the ruling class my bros, please don't ruin this for us by creating a culture where younger people feel so weird about connecting with older people that they just don't do it.