I think its about having the confidence and resolve to think for yourself.
When you are young, you are perhaps more likely to get swept away with collective movements and feel less able to speak out against things you are uncomfortable with, because the importance of what others think of you is more important when you are young. You feel you have something to loose socially.
That is certainly not true of everyone though.
That also doesn't mean that you agree with things going on around you. It simply means you feel less able to challenge them.
When you grow older the epiphany isn't necessarily that your views change, its more that you feel less compelled to simply agree with friends and see more value in standing up for your true opinions with more and greater conviction. Its about how your priorities have changed and what you value most.
When life comes at you, you do one of two things - you either curl up into total self preservation or you come out fighting and no longer are as insecure in what you believe and feel that defending your corner is more important. Being critical of the world is a form of cynicism, which we all acquire with age.
This means that older people who might have been more critical when they were younger, may not speak out, because they have responsibilities and interests which make them feel they are unable to challenge. Or they simply lack the time to be able to rally around a cause in the same way they did when they were younger. They might bury their head in the sand with the attitude that they can't do anything to change things, even though they have tried in the past.
Conversely though, they might pick and choose battles they do become involved in more selectively though and their experience and confidence that springs from that, adds wait to their conviction. They may place more importance on it, because its no longer about themselves, but now about the impact on their children and they feel they have a responsibility to speak which outweighs the importance of what friends might think.
So no I don't think that young people believe this shit more than younger people. I think its about how young people and older people have different pressures on them which might affect what they are critical about and what their priorities at that moment in time are.
I think the balance between young and old and which forces are more powerful are ever changing. It depends on whether the tide is going in or out as to which seems more powerful. It doesn't mean it necessarily is. Unspoken fears and concerns can suddenly seemingly appear from 'nowhere'. They exist and are there - they just are silent.
Do not ignore the silences.