Poll: Gen Z Most Opposed to Cancel Culture

Good news.  A new poll by the Morning Consult shows that Gen Z is the most opposed to cancel culture.  

Bad news: Millennials are most in favor of cancel culture.  

Ziad Jilani has the story:

Perhaps surprisingly, given its progressive leanings and similar social and political beliefs to the millennial generation, Gen Z was the cohort most opposed to cancel culture: 55 percent said they had a negative view of cancel culture, 8 percent were supportive of it, 18 percent were neutral, and 19 percent had no opinion. Moreover, it’s the youngest cohort within Gen Z—currently ages 13 to 16—who are most opposed to cancel culture, with 59 percent having a negative view of it. That number falls to 48 percent for the oldest cohort within Gen Z—ages 21 through 24.

Also: the poll again showed that Gen Z has higher approval of socialism that capitalism.  Not surprising given that they have grown up in an era of never ending bailouts, rampant cronyism, and Federal Reserve policy that favors asset owners who are generally older over asset buyers who are generally younger.  

Financial Repression Coming

Peter Schiff lays out the case for financial repression--interest rates below inflation rates--in a blog post at SchiffGold.  

The fact is that given all of the debt the US economy can’t handle the high interest rate environment necessary to tame rising prices. The Federal Reserve boosted interest rates modestly to 2.5% in 2018 and all hell broke loose. The stock market crashed, and the Fed was forced back to loose monetary policy even before the coronavirus pandemic. As Schiff noted in a podcast, if the economy couldn’t handle higher rates in 2018, it certainly can’t handle them today.

The level of debt is so much greater than it was then. And so, the more debt you have, the lower interest rate is required to be able to service that debt. So, if two-and-a-half percent was too much when the national debt was significantly lower than it is today, then that threshold is much lower. I don’t even think we could survive a move to one percent from the Fed.”

It seems almost certain the massive budget deficits will continue into the foreseeable future. That means the government will need to continue borrowing and it will need the central bank to keep its thumb on the bond market to make that possible. That means no tightening.

Financial repression is bad news for young people trying to save and accumulate assets.  Millenials and GenZers wealth is far below that of the Boomers and older generations at the same age.  Financial repression is going to make it even harder for young people to build nest eggs as inflation eats up their savings.    

Bidenomics Explained

 It's really not that complex.  Just substitute Biden for Corbyn and it all makes sense.

Losing the Trust of the People You Need Most

For a long time I have been blogging about how the loss of faith in our institutions is the biggest threat to the American nation.  This is a problem for young people in part because it is only people that believe in America that are going to invest in America.  I use "invest" not in terms of $$$s but investing their lives for the betterment of the country--police, military, firefighters, dedicated public servants, entrepreneurs, volunteers, etc.  If none of us invest ourselves, American becomes hollowed out.

A brilliant essay by Darryl Cooper (a/k/a) lays out how the FBI and the corporate media have abused the trust of Trump supporters.  This is a dagger at the heart of our country because these are precisely the same  people that are the ones that invest their lives in America.  As Cooper puts it:

It's hard to describe to people on the left (who are used to thinking of gov't as a conspiracy... Watergate, COINTELPRO, WMD, etc) how shocking & disillusioning this was for people who encourage their sons to enlist in the Army, and hate ppl who don't stand for the Anthem. 13/x 
They could have managed the shock if it only involved the government. But the behavior of the corporate press is really what radicalized them. They hate journalists more than they hate any politician or gov't official, because they feel most betrayed by them. 14/x 
The idea that the press is driven by ratings/sensationalism became untenable. If that were true, they'd be all over the Epstein story. The corporate press is the propaganda arm of the Regime they now see in outline. Nothing anyone says will ever make them unsee that, period. 15/x 
This is profoundly disorienting. Many of them don't know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if there was. They have every reason to believe that, and it's probably true. 16/x 

Millions are and will continue to ask whether this is the types of country that they will invest themselves in or encourage their children to do so.  Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Corporate Media, Big Tech etc. have done tremendous harm to this country by sowing distrust and outright lies.  The losers of course are young people who will increasingly live in a country that fewer and fewer are are willing to invest themselves in.   

America's Slide Towards Socialism

 New poll by Axios (here and here) finds that Americans are more accepting of socialism than ever.  

But, young adults’ perceptions of capitalism have been the real driver of topline change in the past two years. Today, 18-34 year-olds are almost evenly split between those who view capitalism positively and those who view it negatively (49% vs. 46%). Two years ago, that margin was a gaping 20 points (58% vs. 38%). By contrast, views among adults ages 35 and older haven’t budged, with wide margins of 35-64 year-olds and 65+ saying they view capitalism in a positive light. 

Among adults in Gen Z (ages 18-24), perceptions of capitalism are truly underwater: 42% have a positive view and 54% have a negative view. 

 Approval of capitalism is falling even among young people that identify as Republicans.  

And more specifically, young Republicans have seen real movement in the past two years: in 2019, 81% of Republicans and GOP leaners age 18-34 had a positive view of capitalism; today, that number has fallen to 66%. Among Republicans 35 and older, views haven’t shifted as substantially.

More at Jonathan Turley's blog who makes the very insightful comment about the role of the education system in turning young people against capitalism:

The shift in favor of socialism is no surprise for some of us. My kids were often given material and lessons in their public high schools that criticized capitalism while rarely pointing out the failures of socialist countries like Venezuela.

Indeed, Venezuela continues to receive support despite a blood-soaked regime that has destroyed free press and free speech rights as well as reducing the country into an economic basket case. Recently, the Democratic Socialists of America (which claims supporters in Congress) visited Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro.  Previously, we discussed the delegation of Chicago Teachers visiting the country and showering it with praise as political prisoners languished in the jails of Maduro.

The pandemic has led to a massive increase in government spending which is also likely to shape the views of many on the benefits of government controls and centralized programs.  These polls show a generation coming to age that is ready to embrace aspects of Marx’s Das Kapital over Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

 

 

Just 36% of Young People are Proud to Be American

 Disheartening but not unexpected news from a new Issues and Insights poll of Americans.  Just over a third of 18-24 year-olds say that they are very or extremely proud to be American.  That compares to 68 percent for the country as a whole.   

So, which is the one – and only one – demographic group in the I&I/TIPP poll that is not proud to be American? It’s young people age 18 to 24.

The poll found that only 36% of this group say they are very or extremely proud, making it the sole demographic group tracked among whom pride falls below 50%. The poll found an almost identical share of the 18-24 crowd (35%) say that they are only slightly or not proud at all to be an American.

Is this youthful rebellion? The result of years of indoctrination by a leftist education system? Is it due to the young’s susceptibility to the siren song of socialism?  Whatever the case, this strong anti-American sentiment appears to dissipate with age.

Pride in America rises to 59% for those 25-44; 75% for those 45-64; and 86% for those 65 and over.  

Still, the findings are worrisome, and they are a reminder of Ronald Reagan’s observation that: 

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

An upside is that 25-44 year olds are much more proud of this country than 18-24 year olds.  Perhaps this reflects that the further one gets from the left-wing indoctrination of the American education system the better one feels about our country.   

Liberals too are less proud of this country than conservatives.  That's a shame as liberals are the ones in charge of most American institutions--academia, K-12 education, administrative government, Hollywood and the culture.  As a result, our country is being run by people who really don't like it very much.  That's a problem.