Does Gen Z have a more "French" view of political philosophy?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think something like the reverse -- the state as an inherently immoral undertaking -- is one of those base assumptions of the libertarian right that has been bleeding into other kinds of worldviews.

This also strikes me as being a much better basis for understanding Gen Z's view of political philosophy.  The idea of the state as a moral undertaking (or of working towards moral ends) is very much anathema to most members of Gen Z by virtue of the relativism that frankly permeates almost all Gen Z discourse and understanding. Really, I doubt there are many (if any) institutions in general that the bulk of Gen Z consider moral undertakings or as properly turned towards moral ends, which is concerning to me. They tend to bristle at the notion that institutions should have any role in shaping individuals morally.

That's not to say that there are not elements within Gen Z that believe in restricting or regulating behavior out of a concern for justice, a sizeable group does, but the conception of justice there is not really rooted in any classical moral version of justice.

I've noticed among a lot of younger people an intense and (I think) bizarre intuitivism about moral questions; you have the Right views or you Don't, on some core presocialization level. It conflicts with what people like to say about "educating oneself", but it is pretty clearly part of the underlying thought process, one that leaves very little room for moral education in any of the umpteen more traditional senses.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I had long been under the impression, after being told so for years by Europeans mostly not on Atlas, that most of the Western countries hold a much more libertine view of sex, as well as public nudity, compared to "the prudish Americans." I'm not sure if I'm qualified to comment on that, but if anything I've felt that Antonio was more outside the mainstream for his country with regard to morality views.

Well yes, but we're talking about general outlook instead of the specifics. The truth is Antonio's view on the age of consent would be considered utterly batsh!t insane pretty much everywhere, but the one group who seems to agree with it are extremely online Gen Zers. I'm not saying it's a majority of them by any means but also look at Ferguson and Scarlet.

Of all the people who participated in that argument with Antonio, Antonio himself is probably the least committed to his original position (which he walked back almost immediately). Scarlet is a strong candidate for the most-improved poster of the past decade. So two of the three people you're citing here really don't actually hold the sorts of views you're attributing to them except by comparison to your own political approach.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think the main thing to consider about "Generation Z" is that for the most part they are teenagers or early 20s. And teenagers going through a rebellious phase, trying to stake out an identity and being very earnest about this is something that basically every generation of teenagers goes through.

Of course there are details that are passed on by the very politicised and social media centric era that they grow up in. But on the whole, they're young people being young people like young people always have been. And getting grouchy and cynical about the things that young activists believe in isn't an interesting or new or original outlook. It's just being the same out of touch, grouchy, small c conservative that every previous generation has also always ended up being.

But the thing is they're not being rebellious. They seem to be significantly more prudish than we Millennials are and certainly were at their age. Look at how much we drank and partied and rebelled in comparison to them. Also is still wearing masks in public and refusing to go to parties or concerts or public gatherings rebellious? I guess maybe in a sense but it's a completely different sense than we're use to.

Being prudish and moralising about things like sex would be a way of rebelling against the social norms of their parents, no?

In a sense I guess but look what the Boomers did in their youth. And yet we did basically the exact same thing.

Did we? I'm not sure about substance use, but average age of first sexual contact bottomed out sometime in, iirc, the early 90s and has been drifting slowly upward ever since. There's also a strong subjective argument to be made for a characteristically Millennial terror of divorce that influences our low marriage rates.