Episode 38: The Media's Bogus Generation Obsession
\u201cBaby Boomers are bloating the social safety net!\u201d \u201cGenXers are changing the nature of work!\u201d \u201cMillennials are killing the housing market!". The media endlessly feeds us stories about how one generation or another is engaging in some collective act of moral failing that, either explicitly or by implication, harms another generation. It\u2019s a widely-mocked clich\xe9 at this point, namely the near-constant analyses detailing what Millennials have \u201ckilled\u201d or \u201cruined\u201d lately - everything from Applebee's to diamonds to top sheets to beer to napkins.
The first rule of drama\u2013\u2013and by implication, the media\u2013\u2013is to create tension. But what if tensions that actually exist in our society, like white supremacy and class conflict, are too unpleasant and dicey to touch\u2013\u2013upsetting advertisers and media owners who benefit from these systems? To replace these real tensions in society, the media repeatedly relies on dubious and entirely safe points of conflict, like those between two arbitrary generations. It\u2019s not the rich or racism that\u2019s holding me back--it\u2019s old people running up entitlement spending or lazy youth who don\u2019t want to work!
In this episode we talk about why this media trope isn\u2019t just hacky and cliche, but also subtly racist and reactionary.
We are joined by Adam Conover, host of Adam Ruins Everything on truTV.