In November 2020, the nation saw young adults and teenagers make their beliefs known for the world to hear. Now, Generation Z has gone quiet.
If you know me personally, follow my social media or have heard me going on a loud tangent in the Student Center, you probably can tell I am extremely opinionated. I will argue with high school freshmen in my debate class or full-grown adults on Facebook, it does not matter.
With that being said, I cannot say the same for some of my peers who seem to have abandoned their political beliefs and now choose to not pay attention.
I understand their choice, to a degree. Politics can be frustrating, defeating and a battle to participate in. However, we don’t care about politics because it is convenient for us. We participate in politics because people’s lives depend on it.
Life is hard, ruthless and draining. That doesn’t mean we can give up on the people who need us.
I often engage in political conversations, and by that, I mean I talk for 20 minutes on end and the other person nods in agreement. However, I see very little passion from others my age. This doesn’t apply to every teenager, but it’s quite a lot more than it was during the last presidential election.
I believe people no longer felt like it was “trendy” to be politically active and post about social justice awareness. People who once had the chance to prove they care about something other than themselves have given up after caring went out of style.
One could argue that they no longer pay attention because President Joe Biden is in office and they believe he is going to fix all of our problems. However, we are seeing things like the Texas abortion ban eliminating women’s reproductive rights and healthcare still being inaccessible for everyone.
It has been a year of the Biden administration and we still have our rights, safety, health and lives being threatened. If people have stopped caring by now, they never cared at all.
Everyone wanted to jump on the train of activism and social justice, but if they remained true to what they said, they would’ve never leaped off.
Maybe people pretended to care to save themselves from scrutiny online or they wanted to seem cool and edgy. Frankly, either way, it disgusts me.
Why with a different old white man in charge means every issue of the past is immediately resolved is beyond me, but apparently, that’s what the general consensus is.
If people genuinely cared, their morals would not fade away at the first sign of progress. Progress is made by a continuation of victories that fix many problems, not the very first step.
You don’t take the parts out of the IKEA box and say you have a bed. You have to keep assembling it or you’re going to end up sleeping on a pile of rods and wood planks. Technically, it could be a bed, but it’s not a good one.
Let’s keep building that racecar bed so that we can have a soft and plushy place to sleep peacefully at night. A weird analogy, but I think it works.
We still have a lot of work to do to fix America, especially right now. There’s been a rise of hate and prejudice not just in our country but in our own government, and we can’t let these people continue to be lawmakers.
Take action, stand up for your beliefs and find ways to make life in America a little less miserable.
If you want to make the world a better place, please consider spreading awareness on social media platforms, donating your money, voice or vote to causes like the Black Lives Matter movement or anti-Asian violence awareness.
