Interesting.
Up until I retired in May 2021 I was a college professor. My experience with GenZ was that they are extremely low in self-esteem, terribly undereducated, and psychologically dependent on their social networks which insist on strict adherence to subcultural "norms" regardless of how absurd they may be.
I was a known conservative/libertarian in my university, and until 2020 or so I was respected and listened to by students, even if most of them did not agree with me. Then there was a seismic shift, and some students started complaining that my point of view was "toxic" and they were "threatened" whenever they were in my presence. This was what I saw as the dangerous, passive-aggressive political nature of this generation. They are like Bolsheviks.
Fortunately, it was time to retire anyway. I am glad not to be having to deal with them anymore. They are for the most part incapable of rigorous academic work. They know no math or basic grammar to speak of. The universities have dumbed down the curriculum to accommodate them and keep the dollars flowing.
I know I sound like a dinosaur and I probably am.
You may be experiencing that from within a bubble that is different from mine... My sister is a whacko-liberal, married to a college dean, and her opinion of this generation mirrors yours - Albeit that she and hers are as liberal as they come, which is different from you... but the environs are probably similar to yours...
I have avoided the modern education system like a plague. Likewise cities... The kids I am running into have discovered that perspective. Mostly blue collar, some with a bit of college, but having dropped out, all of them utterly ignorant of country life, but what of it they've watched on yootoob.
Imagine cutting loose from the hamster wheel and attempting to enter into an environment entirely alien to all you know, and attempt to enter into a society built on the opposite of what you were taught, a highly introverted society, closed tight against the outside... Well, that's what these kids are up against. It is no small thing for them. It takes stones and hair... something they likely don't possess.
Some don't succeed... their broken dreams lie scattered on the forest floor. But them that do... they become evangelists. They KNOW which way is right.
It is quite a pastime for me, or at least it was. As a teacher, I am sure you will understand me when I speak of a moment when a student's lights click on... That moment of awareness, when understanding dawns. Of course I met that moment many times in my own kids... But it is different with someone outside one's clan. I have come to find that a most enjoyable moment to look for. It is very rewarding.
And the struggle - not over books, but over life and death in real time. The moment a kid from the city has to kill his first chicken, as it were... It is so profound. And there are many chickens to kill.
I admire it in those that prevail, I really do. It is one thing to be raised up in it... Another to come to it on purpose... Because it is a hard, hard way. Those that do have truly overcome much.
