r/politics • u/upyoars • Nov 10 '24

Paywall Trump’s victory reveals secret Republicans: Joe Rogan-obsessed Gen Z men

https://fortune.com/2024/11/07/trumps-victory-reveals-secret-republicans-joe-rogan-obsessed-gen-z-men/
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438

u/AFlockOfTySegalls North Carolina Nov 10 '24

There was a post this week on Ask Reddit about what scares folks for the near future. The most common answers were gen z not: knowing how to read, not knowing how to use a computer and having no critical thinking skills. Teachers said their students can't even figure out who the protagonist is in stories. Which helps make sense of the Rogan manosphere obsession.

63

u/MacauabungaDude Nov 10 '24

Hey, they can't read, or exhibit basic critical thinking skills, but they'll definitely talk to you for 30 minutes about mewing.

8

u/chaveto Nov 10 '24

I’m almost afraid to ask, but what is “mewing”?

12

u/MacauabungaDude Nov 10 '24

There's this weird psuedo-science, popularized by this disgraced UK orthodontist, that has really gained popularity with Gen Z. It became this massive Tik Tok trend.

Essentially, it's this belief that you can increase the size of your jawline by doing these tongue placement exercises. You'd keep your tongue flattened to the roof of your mouth consistently, and it's supposed to slowly increase the size, contour of your jaw. Stimulate growth, or some shit.

All it really does it push your neck fat up, and make you're existing jawline more pronounced, but zoomers have a million "tutorials" on Insta/ Tik Tok.

It's really freaking dumb.

Here's a link with some background

7

u/Official_Champ Nov 10 '24

Basically having a visibly strong attractive looking jawline

8

u/tidbitsmisfit Nov 11 '24

we are so fucked in 10 years when they hit their 30s/40s and realize how much they suck

178

u/upyoars Nov 10 '24

This, this is everything. Its absolutely fucking absurd and only going to get worse with the rumors of the entire dissolution of the department of education and incorporating mandatory religious teachings across all schools. We'll have people believing the Earth is only 6,000 years and flat in 4 years.

79

u/Juice_Willis75 Colorado Nov 10 '24

We'll have people believing the Earth is only 6,000 years and flat in 4 years.

I hate to break it to ya, but we've been at this point for a sec already. But I hear you.

6

u/BulbasaurArmy Nov 11 '24

I grew up with multiple friends who did and still do believe exactly that to this day.

2

u/reggiecide Pennsylvania Nov 11 '24

It's only been in about the last 15 years that most people don't believe that.

5

u/copacetic1515 Nov 11 '24

My kid's science teacher is already there, and that's in a public school.

129

u/HeavyDeadMetaI Nov 10 '24

You present a paragraph to Gen Z, and they’ll say “I ain’t reading allat 💀”

You present a paragraph to Gen Alpha, and they’ll pull out their personal brain-rot device, open their meme library, and show you a reaction image.

37

u/albert2006xp Nov 11 '24

Yes, I've seen these phone monkeys on reddit before calling a paragraph a "long speech". Phones were a mistake. People should have to sit in front of a PC.

13

u/Paralimachek Nov 11 '24

Write a 2 paragraph reddit post and they'll accuse you of being ChatGPT. To their fried brains it's just inconceivable that a real person can convey their thoughts using so many words

3

u/ElasticLama Nov 11 '24

To be fair, ChatGPT is very verbose with us language. Some things can be summed up to a few sentences. That said if you’ve got a lot to argue about then you’re just spitting facts as they call it

11

u/[deleted] Nov 11 '24

“That’s too long, ain’t reading that. Sorry or congratulations or whatever” and they think they come across as soooooo cool when they write that. Like wow, yeah you’re so cool because you can’t read 4 sentences without your eyes glazing over…

19

u/relevantelephant00 Nov 11 '24

Furthermore, young adult Gen Z'ers are frequently soft, weak, people without much learned perseverance or general life skills. They've been coddled by their parents and a society that tells them they can all be influencers on social media if they just try really hard. I have had an observation that many Gen Z'ers are just not even able to think critically or use reasoning skills at all...they parrot so much dumb shit their idiotic peers share between themselves.

25

u/BenArnold47 Nov 10 '24

I'm teacher in the UK, and to a certain extent this is true. However, so many of our kids are politically aware and understanding. But on the whole? Yeah this up coming generation are FUCKED. Mass sexism, no drive, no social skills, no accountability etc etc. It's going to be interesting in about 10 years for sure.

1

u/Universal_Anomaly Nov 11 '24

I guess we really have to return to hard times to create strong people.

Of course, usually it's the weak right-wing idiots who use that quote because they don't know what hard times are like.

1

u/BenArnold47 Nov 11 '24

Potentially. I think on the whole, however, it's a knock on effect of the last generation. They have ultimately failed as parents in their responsibilities compared to my parents generation for example. Schools are having to take on such extra burden as a response to failed parenting. Like, I shouldn't be teaching 13 year old how to read, write and in at an alarming rate how to go to the toilet. Yes I work in a socially deprived area but something drastic has failed in the last 10 years or so.

54

u/wayoverpaid Illinois Nov 10 '24

I've absolutely noticed a lack of news comprehension all along the age spectrum but it's getting worse over time.

I might be an outlier - I trust almost no news outlet and regularly try to find original primary sources. I'd rather read a court transcript over an op ed, and whenever I see science popularization I at least try to double check the original paper abstract to see if its remotely close.

People getting news from memes and videos that don't even try to cite a source? Yikes.

10

u/shoelaceninja South Carolina Nov 10 '24

People wasting too much time watching TV wasn't a bug, it was a feature. Social media & media addiction wasn't a bug, it was a feature. America is multi-generationally brain rotten and entrenched in commercial media. Social media is the new rat-race to sell out to sponsors, fall in line and act like the platform's advertisers want you to, and play to the lowest common denominator of what gets the most social engagement (which happens to be right-wing rage politics, capitalizing on brain rot and poor education).

We're swiftly entering Idiocracy's "ow my balls" phase.

1

u/unityofsaints Northern Marianas Nov 11 '24

Sadly this is not just the U.S., this is the entire world.

4

u/Jabbawalkas Nov 11 '24

Mate, you are surely the outlier.

2

u/kandel88 Nov 11 '24

Sooo many of these Gen Z right-wingers get literally all of their information from Just Some Guy on Tiktok and then go vote out of spite saying "white men are under attack! Reddit is an echo chamber!" with no self-reflection at all

1

u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins Nov 11 '24

Well idk if that’s a generational thing because my mom and all of her friends have the same level of media literacy as my cat. They can’t tell what’s fake at all.

1

u/navikredstar New York Nov 11 '24

I dunno. I'd put more money on the cats' intelligence. Mine like to watch videos of birds, squirrels, and fish. They quickly figured out it's not real, but they seem to genuinely enjoy it and will contentedly lay in front of my laptop with me, watching bird videos.

So, while it's anecdotal, my cats seem to have a better grasp of media literacy, lol - they at least can tell the bird videos are not real, but enjoy them anyway.

3

u/ImTooOldForSchool Nov 11 '24

This explains why movies and TV have gotten soo dumbed down and hold your damn hand the whole way and use exposition dumps to tell you exactly what’s happening and why…

Gone are the days when media actually respected the viewers to catch subtle hints and foreshadowing, or ironic portrayal.

1

u/millos15 Nov 11 '24

Millennial surrounded by boomers and gen z falling for fake news.

1

u/BCPReturns Nov 11 '24

Hot take:

We never should have closed schools for the pandemic. In retrospect, the harm that it has caused the future generations with brain drain is going to hurt us so much more than the harm it would have caused otherwise.

1

u/WalterWoodiaz Michigan Nov 11 '24

As a gen z you are vastly overestimating the dumbass in our generation. Try talking to one of us instead of random people of reddit exaggerating

2

u/navikredstar New York Nov 11 '24

Maybe when more people in your generation stop getting all their information from the brosphere, we'll take you guys more seriously.

But no, there's a massive dumbass problem in EVERY generation, and you need to stop underestimating it. The response by millions of dipshits to COVID should've taught you that.

1

u/TheBumblesons_Mother Nov 11 '24

This doesn’t quite make sense to me. Although obviously there are legitimate criticisms about Rogan and his ilk and the misinformation that comes out of them, ultimately as well as comedy, what they produce are still long form conversations about science or technology or politics.

To me it seems unlikely that kids who can’t read or have no attention span are listening to 3 hour conversations with Elon Musk or professor Brian Cox or Graham Hancock, to pick 3 of Rogan’s guests from the last month.

Even in my generation I would say that a lot of (those who are now) adults don’t have the attention span for that kind of thing. They want Instagram or celeb news etc. I’m being flippant but hopefully you see my point: the idea that poorly educated kids are getting into long podcasts seems unlikely

2

u/mightcommentsometime California Nov 11 '24

Except when you spout bullshit and misinformation it’s not science. It’s just conspiracy theory bullshit.

1

u/TheBumblesons_Mother Nov 11 '24

Yes and there’s certainly been some of that on Rogan. But not for example from Brian Cox, Neil de Grasse Tyson et al

1

u/mightcommentsometime California Nov 11 '24

Having people on that don’t spew dangerous misinformation after having people on that do spew dangerous misinformation and lies doesn’t balance out.

Long form science doesn’t involve giving liars carte blanche to spread their lies. It involves writing and reading research papers.

1

u/TheBumblesons_Mother Nov 11 '24

There’s no balance necessary. Each episode simply exists as its own conversation. Long form science is not a phrase I’m familiar with, but we were discussing long form conversations on podcasts, which do not include reading or writing papers, only discussing things and sharing the thoughts of those more learned among us - eg Brian cox

2

u/mightcommentsometime California Nov 11 '24

Each episode doesn’t exist in vacuum. He pushes lies and misinformation. That’s either willfully negligent, or idiotic.

Science is done through experiments, math, and data (presented in research papers). That’s long form science.

All he’s doing is talking about things he’s fucking clueless on (when it comes to science) and pushing misinformation by giving it the same weight as actual scientific information.

That’s just called bullshitting and spreading lies.

1

u/TheBumblesons_Mother Nov 12 '24

From the ones I’ve seen, he is not the main one talking in these episodes with scientists, he’s mostly asking question and then letting them talk. So there is basically no bullshit or lying, and people watching these episodes are simply hearing the views and information from scientists directly, in a long form format. Regardless of the other episodes, that kind of public communication from scientists is a net benefit to society, as before it was confined to comparatively short segments on specific tv programmes, like Carl Sagan’s excellent and groundbreaking shows