Few generations throughout human history have been inundated by so many issues and points of frustration as Generation Z. Despite living in the shadow of the most prosperous era in human history, the young people that make up Gen Z are increasingly becoming the loneliest, most depressed, most unstable generation in recent times.
So what is actually going on? In this video we seek to analyse some of the many problems facing Gen Z, and by extension, issues that will face Generation Alpha once they grow up. While many seek to downplay these issues, the true nature of these problems cannot be overrated, and indeed many plunge the world into chaos in the coming decades.
PART 1: PROBLEM
For many of the younger generation, the world is not what they have been told it to be. Their reality does not seem to agree with the vision presented by former generations. Something is clearly out of place. So what, may we ask, is actually going on?
CHILDHOOD
I could be argued, that from a young age, many Gen Z and Alphas have been presented with an increasingly meaningless and disconnected meaning of life. Previous generations would progress through various periods of development, complimented by films, videos, toys, and education relevant to their stages of childhood. Today, it seems that entertainment is no longer carefully created and curated along the maturing trajectory of the child, for the child. Rather, children are exposed to an endless stream – particularly on YouTube – of novel sounds and images intended to elicit a hit of dopamine over truly enhancing the child’s development. It seems the educational system too, is failing the younger generation to become literate, wise, and discerning.
There is an abundance of information, yet only a portion of it is applied knowledge and for the nurturing of wisdom. There is a lot of data, but for the most part is meaningless static for the developing child.
The majority of Gen Z exist in a ‘hyperreal’ state - neither fully present in reality nor fully immersed in the synthetic world. They exist somewhere in-between. Drawing from the online world they attempt to apply the abstract to their own lives. They live a detached existence – living through screens and the portrayal of an unreal world.
For many young people there are a set of prevailing issues, including loneliness, a lack of community, a misunderstanding of culture and relationships, and immersion in relentless propaganda from every side. This has led to the rise of what is commonly called ‘blackpill’ culture; oriented around exposing the failings of the current social situation. There are those who would deny that there is any such failing of society. But there are signs to suggest otherwise.
It does seem that statistically Gen Z are indeed more lonely when it comes to personnel relationships and community. A majority saying they are lonely, that they have no friends, and feel isolated or alienated. Not surprisingly there is a rise in depression, mental illness, and suicide. Indeed it seems to be epidemic.
What we find in this milieu of depression and separation is a lower percentages of men and women in relationships, marriages, and indeed raising families than in previous generations. Gen Z men are less likely to be either in a relationship or married than previous generations. Startling statistics suggest that between 50 to 70 percent of men between 18 and 29 years of age are single, with US marriage rates at an all-time low.
On the economic front, the standard of living may have increased, but problems stemming from centralised control of markets has resulted in the skyrocketing of real estate prices. There is also a centralisation of real estate under large entities, forcing individuals to rent rather than buy. Disparity between meager increments in income and the diminishing purchasing power of that income, has also left many feeling disenfranchised.
Gen Z have also gone through a propagandised educational system, designed, not for educating autonomous individuals, but to shape a class of ideological servants. In the past, the formative years of schooling taught children to read, write, and mathematical problem solving. Today, children are years behind previous generations on these basic elements of their education. Children in Grade 4 - or roughly age 9 – show on average significant difficulty or inability to read compared to past generations. In fact, in America, there are an astounding number of children in grades 6 and 7 who cannot write anywhere near the competence of their parents or grandparents at the same age. If these children are being educated, they are not being sufficiently educated in the basic tools for life.
For the younger generation, this is the generation of the ‘influencers’. These influencers can have an enormous impact on masses of young people, often as young, ignorant and unwise as the one’s they influence. Historically entertainers were generally of the lower classes and did not have the influence they do since the advent of 20th Century mass communication. And today, the world of Tic Tok and YouTube, without gatekeepers, has propelled the individual entertainer into the stratosphere with unparalleled influence.
For generations past, those who received admiration, (and for whom young people strove to emulate), included war heroes, adventurers, great statesmen, and those who pioneered in the sciences. These heroes had real world impacts on society. Thus, the youth who strove to follow in their footsteps strove also to make a difference to the community, and indeed the world. Today, however, admiration goes to thirty second distractions on small screens. Entertainers and influencers sell abstractions, more often than not, oriented around the self, offering little to improve society. The common aspiration generated by these interactions is to be adored for no other reason than the fact that one exists. The unsurprising result is a depressed and empty individuals who adds nothing of value to the world, existing as an isolated members of an abstract nation. And living in an abstraction does nothing to improve real human relationships, thus exacerbating the decline in marriage, family, and general population decline.
Perhaps most pressing for Generation Z is this issue of population collapse. A demographic winter, if you will, that seems inevitable. It is a fact that a nations population must at least be sustainable for the economy (and society at large) to continue onward and upward. To do this, in developed countries, a woman must produce at least 2.1 children on average to maintain the population. However, in the West, many nations fail to reach this replacement number, with the birth rate as low as 0.8 children per family in some regions. Such decline in birth rates, within a relatively short period of time, will shrink society to the point of economic, cultural, and societal collapse. Primarily due to the situation of a very large ageing population relying on a very small younger generation for all the practicalities of a thriving economy.
The oft cited reason as to why such a thing is happening, is that it’s just an aberration, a modern, post-war Western abnormality. And in fact, a result of abnormally prosperous times - and that sooner or later, we will return to the way it always was. With technological progress allowing for the mass production of high-quality housing, goods, basic medicines, and so on, it indeed could be seen as abnormally good times.
REALITY
However, abnormally good times is not the reality for many young people today. There is an obvious disconnect between the world presented digitally and the lived experience. A world seen through a curated and algorithmically enhanced lens may appear as a great Utopia. But it is a world unfettered from reality, fanciful, impossible to attain, and thus the source of great frustration and pain. There is an unfortunate circular and self-destructive lifestyle among this generation being promised the world but given nothing but abstractions.
And what of mental health? In the world of social media, mental health issues are acknowledged amongst influencers, artists, and celebrities, in overwhelming numbers. Hysterical and manic episodes are increasingly common, and mental conditions normalised, that in the past, would suggest the need for serious psychiatric care. In 2020, just over 30% of Americans aged between 18 to 25 experienced mental health concerns. There is also an increase in unnatural, unhealthy, and in many cases highly dangerous chemical and medication abuse that is leading to increased health issues.
The role of feminism, and the breakdown of the traditional model of male-female relationships, is another important social upheaval that shapes the Gen Z world. Traditionally, men and women enjoyed different social spheres, and in these different spheres they thrived. Women would traditionally spend a good deal of their social time among other women, and men with other men. This cultivated the natural impulses of masculinity and femininity to flourish. During the second half of the 20th century, however, this was inverted. From schools, to work, to everything in-between, inter-gender spaces were created. No longer would there be a space for the respective genders to connect and relate. It could be argued that the goal is the suppression of the masculine impulse, which could, if left unfettered, result in strong independent movements. Not the sort of thing a ruling class would want to have to deal with.
For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the promotion of feminist ideas has never been so broad and amplified, widening the gap between the genders. In 2024, the divergence between men and women in terms of political leaning is significant, with most young school age men considering themselves conservative, while the overwhelming majority of young women call themselves liberal.
This political gulf is yet another hinderance for young men and women to interact properly in regular social settings, and in romantic relationships. Furthermore, women are taught from a young age to reject the concepts of motherhood and family, and embrace a liberal lifestyle of hookups, flings and same-sex relationships. Social media broadcasts unrealistic and idealised lifestyles as the normal state of affairs. Ideals to be propagated with the passion of a revolutionary.
The result is a generation of young women who are unwilling to settle for marriage, or even relationships beyond hookups. The inability for many young men to move into marriage - as has historically been the case - must be seen, not as merely the closing of one door, but the inability to progress into the next stage of life. This both de-incentivises and radicalises young men, while also creating an entire demographic of childless women without direction or foundation.
PART 4: REAL WORLD EFFECTS
With lowered birth rates comes a weakened economy, and an unstable future – what has been termed a ‘demographic winter’. Less babies today means less people to fill essential occupations in the future. A lack of labour means that an economy must either adapt or collapse. Governments look to mass immigration from the third world to fill the low-income jobs at the foundation of society. However, there are conflicting claims about immigrants filling these jobs. In fact, in the UK, third-world migrants held the highest level of unemployment, at almost 30%, compared with UK natives at 24%, with European immigrants only 16% unemployed.
The mass immigration of individuals from widely differing cultures has played into a long running issue; that of social trust and cohesion. In the past it would be common for towns and cities across the West to be ideologically and culturally uniform. That is, everyone integrated into the same culture. This led to what is often referred to as a ‘high trust society’. In high trust societies, crime is lower, conversation with strangers is more likely, and there is a strong sense of belonging. Children in high trust societies have less fear socialising in public and generally have more avenues of socialisation open to them.
In contrast, low trust societies experience breakdowns on all strata of society. A lack of cultural and social cohesion creates low trust between all individuals, leading to an unwillingness to talk to strangers, or at least an extremely high level of suspicion. This is amplified to the extreme with Gen Z, who have been taught not to speak to others in public. Children are taught to stay inside, often leading to a terminally online lifestyle, interrupted only by work, the gym, or trip to the local store. No society can function like this for more than a few decades and retain some semblance of prosperity.
Interestingly, low trust societies are not correlated with population size. In fact, the largest city on earth - Tokyo - is also considered the safest. How is this achieved? In Japan, a heavy emphasis is put on cultural unity and ideological moderacy. People who have immigrated to Japan are also required to either integrate into Japanese culture or leave. In the past, this was indeed the sentiment in Western nations, but no longer - Such ideas are not tolerated in the West today. The political rhetoric today in the West discourages immigrants from culturally integrating into their new home, but rather push for a type of ‘radical cultural diversity’, which does nothing for social cohesion and a ‘low trust society’.
Encouraging a multipolar society has its roots in neo-Marxism, with the goal of destabilisation for revolution.
Many of these social issues today have played into what has become known as self-improvement culture, or the ‘redpill’. Initially a motivational movement, aimed at - as the name suggests - awaking to the reality of today’s social situation as if it were ‘the matrix’, it has since become nothing more than a by-product of the culture. Today, the leaders of these movements give advice to young men such as; ‘maximise wealth through lucrative high intensity projects’, ‘do not marry’, ‘maximise the number of hookups’, ‘maximise ones looks through artificial methods’, and so on. Such belief systems take for granted the fact that the ideological foundations of the country is corrupted, and redirects people’s attention to circular processes in the hope of achieving some token of success. The rhetoric, as well-intentioned as it may be, does not translate to reality. Little of this advice will help young men. They are self-serving coping mechanisms, side-stepping the prevailing corrupted ideologies which direct society. Self-improvement is no doubt of benefit, but any hope of a normal life in a broader societal sense, comes when individuals unite against the ideologies which have destabilised their culture.
In the past it has often been the case that the advice of previous generations is of much benefit to the younger generation. However, when it comes to advice from the Boomer generation (that is, the generation born between 1946 and 1964), there seems to be a great disconnect with Gen Z, who see the boomers as profoundly out of touch with the current situation. Thus, some time ago, the popularisation of boomer memes, criticising that generation about economic advice and belief systems. In recent times there has been an increasing number of Gen Z men who have begun to lean toward the belief system of National Socialist Germany. Why would this be the case? Not because there is any proof that National Socialist ideology would pay off in the long run, but because it is seen as the antithesis to the beliefs espoused by the Boomers. For example, the previous generation’s belief that England and America were the heroes of World War 2. The common Zoomer response to this vision of history is that, since the Boomers advice has been wrong thus far, such things as World War 2 history are actually inverted, and that - as many of them would say - ‘we fought the wrong enemy’.
The same holds true for many Gen Z women, who have a proclivity to lean the other way - towards radical socialism. The motivation coming from the perception of the previous generation’s greed - particularly that of the Boomers - leading to the inheritance of a cursed world. This criticism of the Boomers does oftentimes cut surprisingly close to truth; for example, increasing numbers of young people rightly call out the 1960s counter culture and the Boomer justification for it, as nothing more than selfish, egotistic degeneracy.
There is, however, what appears to be a growing sense of self-awareness among many young people, not the least of which being the realisation of hypocritical sentiment from older generations which they feel must be uprooted, and the bad habits which have been promulgated. A common example observed online, is the rise in Gen Z teenagers rejecting any perceived degeneracy of millennials. There is a certain counter-response to millennial parents for such things as abdicating education responsibilities to technology or engaging in political social justice messaging or attempting to instil such ideology into their children at the cost of traditional values and moral conscience.
This growing ideological gap between Gen Z and both their millennial and boomer elders may have many long-term outcomes. Firstly, what is considered ‘truth’, moving forward, may be radically different to the previous two generations. In the past, the truth of the boomer generation emerged from post-war ideals. Pre-war ideas were largely rejected in favour of the individualistic ideas promoted by the likes of thinkers such as Karl Popper, who emphasised a focus on the self, and deemphasised the need of cultural and societal unity and responsibility. This appears to have had a profound effect on how boomers not only perceived their society, but how they perceived the past. Such visions of reality dominated the second half of the 20th Century. However as noted earlier, Gen Z’s rejection of boomer concepts (due to their apparent failure to deliver the goods) may yet lead the current generation to completely deconstruct the concepts which have been held by the boomers for many decades.
This rejection of prevailing ideologies, traditionally an aspiration of the revolutionary left, has now become the battle cry of some of the young conservative right. For the first time in recent decades, increasing numbers of young people are beginning to reject what is often referred to as ‘mainstream’ or ‘boomer conservatism’. This mainstream conservatism - which often seeks to return to an idealised memory of 1950s America - is seen by many younger people as worthless pipe dream founded on faulty liberal ideas. These young people reject mainstream conservative political figures in favour of what they consider a deeper, truer conservatism, built on older, traditional values, (as opposed to those derived from 20th century liberalism).
THE FUTURE
Will Gen-Z rise as a counter-revolutionary force against the ideological powers established over the last 60 years?
Will they reject the Marxian revolution driven by Critical Theory and the balkanisation of all they hold dear?
Will they expose the depopulation and nihilistic agendas sponsored by globalists?
Or curtail the hypercapitalism of big pharma, big tech, and the military industrial complex?
As much as these things are driven by established and powerful forces, the future does belong to the Gen Z and the Alphas. They have been born for a time such as this. By learning from the past, understanding the ideologies and beliefs being promoted today, understanding what they truly represent and their failed histories, will be key to overcoming tyranny. With knowledge, wisdom, tenacity and vision – Gen Z can indeed unite around common values and build a very bright future for themselves and those who follow.