Basically a repost pf things I said in the mega, but anecdotally I'm hearing that sales of fiction read by men are dropping precipitously, and English and literature classes in colleges are now dominated by women. It seems like young men are not being exposed to literature in the same way that they used to. Like, when I was in high school and college, you could be a "bro" kind of guy and read Chuck Palahniuk, or Hunter S. Thompson, or David Foster Wallace. For decades, authors like Hemmingway and Bukowski found receptive audiences in young men, not to mention all the crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy that men have traditionally consumed. The "guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace" was a stereotype for a reason. I read in another thread that music is less culturally important to young men than it used to be. It seems like younger men just straight up see no value in reading literature or fiction, or exposing themselves or critically engaging with art and music, because the algorithms just railroad them into Alpha Gridset world.
Am I wrong about this? Am I being condescending and out of touch, or is this a real thing that's happening, where the whole "male" culture is turning into grindset podcasts and streamers?
Edit: Okay, so the impression I'm getting is that everything is worse but also kind of the same as it ever was, which sounds right.
The good thing about generationalism is that, outside of superficial differences, it's all made the fuck up.
It being a product of the generations simply being younger is made up, but the actual conditions that give rise to all these problems is objective. You can't deny that younger generations are way more individualistic, cynical and even find it "cringe" when someone actually gives a shit about the world to sit down and learn about something that isn't just an investement to their fucking career.
Yeah; I'd say X's take the cake for that bullshit. At least a good chunk of Z is interested in politics; either it be subtly or just general grassroots activism. X was a bunch of apathetic, depressive assholes who completely caved in the second they got any power or money. is this the case for all X? No. I don't believe in clear generational differences.
Millenials get a lot of shit; but in my opinion, they have gotten that power and money and there's been a good few of them who maintain their humanity/morality in a fucked up system. X came after the boomers and wanted a piece no matter what they had to sacrifice to get it. I'm a Z.
X literally grew up in one of the most hedonistic, individualistic eras of American history. Drugs, rock n roll and women were being commercialized and commodified in some excessive ways for the first time.
Boomers and X-ers absolutely do this at least as much as younger generations.
Maybe I have an overly negative opinion on the new generations, because being part of it, they are the ones that I hope will wake up and get organized the most, so when they act like wage zombies unable to think critically I get really disappointed in the world as a whole
No generation is magically more class conscious than others. We need to educate people and in order to do that we need to read theory.
I have a guarded hope in the young people of today to at least stand a chance of not being as cynical, selfish, and nihilistic as the boomers and Gen-X junior boomers that I knew around me for so long.
We are all basically boomers. Our lives are more or less the same as theirs, except for cellphones and blatantly obvious American decline.
Except I couldn't buy a house on my single income from the factory that gave me a job with full benefits and pension the moment I walked in the door.