The heaping of blame on Millennials for the plethora of issues supposedly stemming from their choices and willed behavior is an attempt at deflection from the institutional problems plaguing America. We're considered lazy and entitled, yet there are also complaints that "
Millennials are driving the rise of the work martyr, employees so driven that vacation days go unused in order to impress the boss — or simply to avoid being replaced." So, we're lazy because we work too hard? And we were always told to go to college and get a degree, which has now become almost the only gateway to a decent career, yet that comes with enormous student loan debt, dwindling employment opportunities (employers expect prospective entry-level employees to take on the responsibility of training themselves and accept low wages for greater work burdens and less benefits and job security), and
stagnant wages for colleges grads that haven't risen since 2000 despite rising cost of living (especially in places where most jobs are located). What happens now is that when we have demands for a better life than what is realistically obtainable, we're labeled entitled and lazy. We all just want a participation trophy.
Contrary to claims that we aren't doing anything about our situation, Millennials have been engaged in the fight for $15, organizing student unions, protesting for Black Lives Matter, organizing to fight deportations, walked out of High Schools across the country in protest of Trump, organizing to get their campuses declared sanctuaries (where one event in Ohio led to 70 arrests), have turned out for Bernie rallies in massive numbers, and have caused a surge in registration with the DSA. Measuring Millennial engagement solely by electoral participation is absurd, largely because many of us recognize the limited potential of electoral politics compared to protests and organizing.
But the Millennial generation isn't some massive, homogenous group of Progressives and Socialists. We were raised during a period of intense preparation for life in a stratified economy, subjected to entertainment from a deregulated industry that produced hyper-capitalist shows like 'Wild and Crazy Kids,' played video games which President Reagan said were preparing "
the soldiers of tomorrow," watched films like 'Top Gun' which was
given access to sets and equipment by the Pentagon in exchange for creative control over how the armed forces were portrayed, and licensed cartoons portrayed hyper-gendered stereotypes like G. I. Joe. Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech mass murderer), Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook killer), Martin Shkreli, Darren Wilson (cop who killed Michael Brown), and most of the soldiers who willingly enlisted in the military after President Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, were Millennials. We have good and bad, progressive and reactionary, elements in our generation just like all others.
The real problem is class warfare, which manifests as intergenerational only because of the wealth inequality between the generations - particularly Baby Boomers and Millennials. But there is wealth inequality within generations as well. Working class and poor Baby Boomers are in similarly precarious situations as most Millennials, just like wealthy Millennials enjoy exceptional advantages and security like many Baby Boomers. Many of the issues faced by Millennials are ones shared by all the working classes, regardless of age. We're simply an easier target since Millennials have a higher percentage of its members as working class than older generations, have more liberal cultural values, are more diverse, vote in opposition to older generations, and are forced into behaviors that conflict with the disproportionately older upper class that combines classism with nostalgia.
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