I’ve argued time and time again that milllenials are possibly unfairly stereotyped as ‘always’ being liberal when in fact there is evidence that on economic issues they are perhaps more conservative/libertarian than often assumed. After the failed OWS protests, perhaps millenials are realizing it’s more productive to aspire to be like the rich than to fight them. Millenials see the surge in the stock market, the gangbusters Bay Area real estate market, and the stratospheric web 2.0 valuations and are wondering, ‘What can I do to get a piece of this wealth, or am I going to keep being a whiny loser whose protestations fall on deaf ears?’ And then you have post-2008 pop culture and society, in general, that glorifies wealth, intellectualism, and individualism as epitomized by people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Millennials want to create the next Uber or Snapchat. They want to mingle with Wall St. billionaires Carl Icahn, Michael Bloomberg, David Einhorn and Warren Buffet, not picket them.
As further evidence of the millennial ‘shift’ to the right, a viral Imgur joke implying how the rich ‘pit’ the middle class against the poor (when the implication is that the middle class are victimized by the rich) sank like the Titanic, failing to elicit the intended condemnation against the rich that the submitter presumably wanted. Instead, many commenters defended the yacht owner, mentioning how the yacht not only employs people, but that the person who owns the yacht rightfully earned his wealth and that the problem is not the rich but the parasitic class of people who don’t create economic value. This is correct, and with the rise of internet libertarianism, MGTOW, atheist conservatism/libertarianism, dark enlightenment, rationalist/pragmatist/utilitarian movement, Red Pill, and other alt-right ideologies, millennials are better versed in economics and social policy than probably any generation. You have to be have some knowledge of economics to understand why attaching the rich, who tend to be most productive and useful individuals of all, is bad economic policy. Others commenters made hay over the unnecessary comma. Overall, by my guesstimate at least 30% of the comments defended the yacht owner and maybe only a very small percentage were incensed.
This is more evidence the SJWs are losing in the court of public opinion. And it’s not old Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity Republicans who are on Imgur; there are mostly likely millennials, the very demographic who are supposed to be hopelessly brainwashed by liberal establishment. Maybe the both parties can learn a lesson: For the right, don’t be so quick to dismiss this demographic. For the left, you’re ideological grip is weakening, if it hasn’t already been relinquished.