Traditionally, the young are not interested in politics. Though the media constantly encourages the youth to participate in politics, we should all be happy that typically they are more interested in bad pop music and worse Hollywood movies than in voting or political activism. When they do get involved, their political ideas reliably tilt heavily toward the vapid and the idealistic, and too often toward the revolutionary.
Political scientist Melissa Deckman, who previously authored a book on the role of women in the Tea Party movement, has now written a book full of helpful insight into just how politically out there today’s youth are. Of course, it was not Deckman’s intention to criticize Generation Z’s role in politics. In fact, she comes off as sympathetic to the most extreme among the so-called Zoomer generation’s political activists. But her evidence speaks for itself.
The book is based on 87 interviews with Gen Z activists, 15 focus groups with college students, and two national surveys of young people in this generation. Deckman gives us lots of activists’ accounts of how they see the world and what they want to do to that world. Marvel at this small sample of wisdom from these youngsters, to whom the media are encouraging us to give the keys to the culture:
“Our planet is dying…If we don’t have a planet in ten years, there’s no point in fighting for all these other issues.”
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