Photo on Unsplash by Clay Banks
From contested ideals of sloth to their alleged inability to harbor even a shred of solemnity towards matters of any capacity, Gen-Z, or more informally known as “Zoomers,” has been depicted in lights short of optimal, even going so far as to be deemed the world’s alleged ‘Laziest Generation.’ There come notions of sustained delinquency, and perhaps there’s nothing more to such gestures. Then again, come forth notions of individualistic sentiments pertaining to that of environmental determinism— we’re nothing if not shaped by our predations— which thus grants us further insight into the predetermining contexts of such indolent-veering contentions.
Memetic Warfare serves in its own right a debilitating notion when faced with our perceptive grasp of the ‘happennings’ of the outside world. Through various archives of memes and instances of ‘dark humor,’ it stands to negate severity through guises of humor and relatability;
“Epstein was a horrible person! ‘“Just say you weren’t invited bro… 😭’”
The Epstein Files are nothing to laugh at. The suffering and exploitation of innocent civilians is nothing to laugh at. They don’t exist only to justify your perpetuated narrative of ignorance and complicity; they don’t exist to humor such notions period.
Faced with our previously enforced notions of captivity and containment (given the outbreak of COVID-19), there simply wasn’t anything left to do but humor such morbidly debilitating takes.
“When I was your age, we didn’t even have toilet paper!”
“When I was your age, I contracted a disease so deadly, it wiped out over half a million people!” These humoristic ideals (serving as a proxy for intended optimism) have been seen to have infiltrated our current onset of catastrophe.
Through usage of such tactics, however, the perpetuation of comedic takes on these preposterously vile ideals diminish the reality of these notions, undermining the very foundation responsible for the upholding of the sheer concept of criminal justice itself: empathy.
Another day, another slay; but in this case, such usages of these outdated ideologies serve to be more literal than not. Hooray!
Playing into these trivial dilemmas means playing into the clutches of those supplementing these morbid claims. To be ignorant is to be complicit, but to be condoning is far worse a misdeed. These comedic notions have gone on long enough to desensitize the majority of our populations into acknowledging these accounts as ‘fair,’ conditioning our populations, backing us into a corner, and forcing us to accept these newfound ideals as simply ‘normal.’
“I guess this is just the way things are now.”
“Hold on a minute, we aren’t angry enough!” Except it’s quite literally impossible to be ‘angry enough’ without acknowledging the gravity of these situations (which can’t be done until the glorification and memification of such works may cease to be perceived). People are being killed. People are being exploited in ways indescribable, starkly unimaginable; yet worst of all, people are being abused within parameters of scenarios and situations yet to be brought to light, even, redacted, withheld from our perceptive grasp by those in power.
Social media has taken its toll, yet so have the rigid parameters set in place by our ‘governing’ social norms.
“Oh, but I don’t want to speak out! What if they judge me..?”
Which is exactly the point. Perhaps Gen-Z (well at least a good majority of such demographics) truly isn’t lazy. Perhaps they’re ignorant. Or perhaps they’re afraid. Afraid to speak out, afraid to contest the debilitating, ignorant notions presented at the whim of our alleged democracy. Contentions and construes of independence were never meant to be implemented as a notion towards abject individuality. Compliance is cute until they also turn on you.
Nobody is free until we are all free.
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