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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think younger adults are too compliant.

150 replies

antelopevalley · 09/10/2022 16:54

We all know things have been hard for lots of people over the last three years, but so many younger adults have been shafted. From high house prices, to very high rents for substandard accommodation, cuts to schools, high student debt for poorly taught courses, closure of so many public services that supports young people struggling into adulthood, and increasing homelessness.

But the only pushback I really see is on social media where "boomers" get blamed. While in life they are getting jobs, working hard and trying often against the odds to make their life better.

Why are they so compliant? Why are they not rioting? Or at least organising against the rich? Why so little evidence of any kind of fightback?

OP posts:
Sciurus83 · 09/10/2022 16:57

Why aren't you?

Original poster
antelopevalley · 09/10/2022 16:58

I do organise and campaign around mental illness. I am a carer for a relative with a mental illness. I can't fight for everything.

OP posts:
YomAsalYomBasal · 09/10/2022 17:00

Well that's the thing isn't it, we are all spinning other plates. Working multiple jobs just so we can pay the rent keeps us compliant as we are too exhausted to fight.

Brieeeeeeeee · 09/10/2022 17:01

There’s been loads of very high profile protests?

MadMadMadamMim · 09/10/2022 17:07

They are generally apathetic and not as politically minded as we were (in the early 80s)?

I don't know. I find most young adults - if you are talking roughly 18-25 show little interest in current affairs and have been wrapped in cotton wool by their parents.
I was a stroppy marcher against poll tax, for the Miners and against Apartheid amongst other things in Thatcher's Britain.

Dreamwhisper · 09/10/2022 17:10

They key is probably difference in perception in what taking action means. You have (not saying this in an accusatory way! tone is hard to read in text) sort of brushed aside social media as a method of taking action whereas the younger generation probably feels different.

I'm on the younger side of the millennial era and definitely see people who rightly or wrongly see social media influence as quite a powerful tool in this day and age

PeekAtYou · 09/10/2022 17:10

Maybe they are worried about an arrest ruining their chosen job?
Maybe they are working long hours to afford their rent and are too hungry and tired to protest?
Maybe the laws around protesting have changed?
Maybe they are worried about being disciplined in their job for protesting ? With camera phones everywhere it's not as anonymous as in the past.

lickenchugget · 09/10/2022 17:11

What would rioting do?

Dreamwhisper · 09/10/2022 17:12

Also I'm certainly not apathetic but I am disillusioned, and yes I am quite wrapped up in my own life as I have DC to provide for and am attempting to better myself and realistically that takes up a lot of mental energy, though I understand you are talking more about Gen Zers by the sound of it

Ragwort · 09/10/2022 17:13

I agree MadMad ... I was at those marches and rallies too ... yet I rarely see that much passion amongst younger people these days ... I hope I haven't wrapped my own DS in cotton wool but his political views and interests are very different to mine.

KILM · 09/10/2022 17:15

When you see pictures of marches etc there's always loads of young people at them - are you referring to a specific cause?

toastedcat · 09/10/2022 17:17

I wonder if people just think a Change.org petition will do something, instead of actually making effort to get out there and physically fight for a cause...

IncompleteSenten · 09/10/2022 17:20

You said exactly why.

They're busy on social media.

That's what they're choosing. Yelling on twitter, twerking on tiktok, being stupid on YouTube. 🤷

IncompleteSenten · 09/10/2022 17:21

Posted too soon.
They think that's real life. That screaming on twitter is taking action. That they can change the world with their Instagram shite.

Mymoneydontjigglejiggle · 09/10/2022 17:26

I remember a teacher moaning at us for our apathy going on 20 years ago now, during sixth form - that we weren't rioting, protesting, fighting back, doing more. No social media then to blame. I think older people just like to blame younger people for how shit they perceive life to be, even though they've had longer to change things.

ThisShipIsSinking · 09/10/2022 17:28

Because they are heavily conditioned to be complient right from day one, and we as parents encourage that. Days of free thinkers have long gone.

Dreamwhisper · 09/10/2022 17:29

Mymoneydontjigglejiggle · 09/10/2022 17:26

I remember a teacher moaning at us for our apathy going on 20 years ago now, during sixth form - that we weren't rioting, protesting, fighting back, doing more. No social media then to blame. I think older people just like to blame younger people for how shit they perceive life to be, even though they've had longer to change things.

This is a very big factor. And then when people do take civil action, the whole of mumsnet complain about how disrespectful and misguided and ignorant the young people are!

Plus I agree with other posters saying that actually, much action is taken by young people. The entire beacon of the war against climate change is Greta Thunberg who is so young. And Just Stop Oil and all those things, all made up of very young people. So what exactly do you mean by compliant?

Can't win really.

HighlandPony · 09/10/2022 17:31

Hard to find the time to fight back when you’re scrabbling to keep afloat.

Slicedpeaches · 09/10/2022 18:23

Personally its sort of a case of what more could they possibly want from us?
I, and most other people my age that I know are just trying to live.
Like fine, we got shafted, all the systems are crap, the government has been awful for our entire lives, we will never own homes, nothing is safe and all the hard work we can do will never be worth as much as it was to the generations before us.
So yeah, I am gonna sit over here and work my three part time jobs and study in my mouldy little bedroom in a seven roomed HMO that costs me more than my parents mortgage and roll with it.
I don't have the time, the energy or the security to go and march around and scream at people who don't care and who ignore or belittle anyone who tries.
It's not even that I'm uniformed, or that I'm fine with this or that I would rather be off pissing about on tiktok than fighting back. We're just trying to live here.

quitelikelyto · 09/10/2022 18:56

MadMadMadamMim · 09/10/2022 17:07

They are generally apathetic and not as politically minded as we were (in the early 80s)?

I don't know. I find most young adults - if you are talking roughly 18-25 show little interest in current affairs and have been wrapped in cotton wool by their parents.
I was a stroppy marcher against poll tax, for the Miners and against Apartheid amongst other things in Thatcher's Britain.

Wow. Sounds like their parents generation did a shit job then. What generation might that be?

Original poster
antelopevalley · 09/10/2022 19:50

Young people do not even vote as much as older people.
I welcome the climate activists. But apart from Greta it is mainly older people.

OP posts:
dancinfeet · 09/10/2022 19:52

well my DD in her early 20s is busy working 58 hrs a week just to make ends meet. maybe that’s why.

midgetastic · 09/10/2022 19:56

I don't believe it's young vs older generations

It's just people are different and not everyone can get directly involved in ways you might approve of

I mean you can't blame them about voting - because most know it won't matter the voting system in this country isn't fair - my DD made an effort when out seat was marginal but she's less motivated when there is no chance

lookslikeabombhitit · 09/10/2022 20:07

We were recently balloted for strike action in my work. With no exceptions my younger colleagues voted against strike action. I was honestly pretty surprised. There's 15 years between me and the youngest yet they seem far less furious at the shit being heaped on us than I/ colleagues my age am/are. Lots of them are in a better financial position than I am though (own their own homes/ more disposable income etc) so perhaps that's why?

Flapjacker48 · 09/10/2022 20:16

I really hate this MN thing of "people should riot" - usually said by people whose actual idea of a riot is to moan a bit on social media

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