My occasional posts on the various generations inhabiting Clown World draw a lot of comment. Somebody always expresses confusion over my tendency to eschew more common generational labels, which shift at the Boomers’ convenience.
Here’s a helpful rundown of my preferred dates and definitions for each generation. Spend some time with that post, and you’ll quickly see the delineations aren’t arbitrary. Nor are they designed to massage anyone’s ego. There’s a strong case that the lines I’ve drawn are real.
Generation Y is a perfect case in point. People over 35 will remember “Gen Y” as the once-standard label for the cohort following Generation X. It was everywhere in the mass media throughout the 80s and early 90s. Then one day, the word came down to retire the term.
Why was the Gen Y label phased out? Simple. The Millennial generation’s defining personality traits started broaching the public consciousness in the late 90s. Their much stronger and more obnoxious group identity gave the Boomers a better foil, so Gen Y was forgotten.
Due to being airbrushed out of the picture, Gen Y is harder for mainstream media-educated folks to grok than any other–Generation Jones comes a close second. But Ys really did have markedly different formative experiences and now have a different outlook than Xers and Millennials.
Allow me to illustrate. Remember: Gen Xers graduated college between 1990 and 2000. Ys graduated between 2001 and 2011. Millennials started graduating in 2012.
Tuition rose from roughly $3000 to $7000 while Gen X was in college. It rose from over $5,000 to almost $13,000 while Ys attended. These are just the state school numbers.
Most members of Gen X graduated during a massive upswing in real median wages. Gen Y entered the workforce during a protracted downward trend.
This graph breaks down age groups almost exactly according to my ranges for each generation. Here we have Millennials, Ys, Xers, Jonesers, and Boomers helpfully represented by color-coded lines indicating changes in home ownership. Ys and Xers both fare poorly, but Ys take the shit cake.
Now, this is not a contest to see which generation got screwed over the worst. The Zoomers win that trophy hands down.
The point is that Gen Y experienced the brunt of America’s collapse into Clown World during adolescence. Gen X was into adulthood and able to snag some Boomer scraps by 1997-2001.
Millennials know only post-America and revel in it.
Gen Y grew up in the golden window of the 80s and early 90s, got fed the same Boomer prosperity gospel as the Xers, but then had the rug pulled out from under them just when they thought they were going to collect.
This generational blueballing has produced some characteristic effects. Most Ys crawled inside the blue pill bottle circa 2005 and are still waiting quietly for a promised future that will never come.
The few Gen Ys that do wake up to their betrayal come in two general types. I’d like to offer a prominent example of each type in the form of online personalities with whom my readers are likely familiar.
The Doom Chronicler
Internet prankster, archivist of forbidden digital lore, and intransigent agent of chaos, the entity best known as Jim belongs to Generation Y based on his dubious doxx and his “Goodbye, Carl” response to Sargon of Akkad.
The little we know of Jim fits with the typical Gen Y experience. He fondly remembers attending Sunday church services with his family before falling away from the faith in adolescence. He cherishes memories of the internet as a wide open free-for-all where anything could happen.
That nostalgia for the internet’s Wild West days defines Jim’s online persona, whereby he chronicles web ephemera which he finds entertaining, retarded, or angering. He’ll showcase underwater hamster objectivism one day, mock an eceleb the next, and follow up by exposing a pedophile.
An air of melancholy hangs over Jim’s impish escapades. He’s painfully aware that the internet he loved is gone forever, and it will only get worse. His work resembles an attempt to create a time capsule of the free internet’s last days.
Don’t turn to Jim for answers. He offers no solutions, holds out no hope, and he is not your friend. Ask him what’s to be done about EU directives 11 and 13, and he’ll laugh and call you a fag, if he responds at all.
This is “One bad day” theory applied to Gen Y. When confronted with the monumental farce of his pillaged life, the redpilled Y may embrace his sheer helplessness, grab a bucket of popcorn, and pick out a good seat to watch the world burn.
Owing to his title and dignity as Internet Aristocrat, Jim has the best seat.
The Augustinian Convert
Roosh V‘s early adult life resembles that of the narrator from Fight Club. A child of divorce, he got a STEM degree, got a well-paying job, and embarked on the search for a woman. “A woman” ended up being “myriad women” in Roosh’s case.
Roosh describes his life’s journey as a progression from the blue pill to the red pill, during which he traveled extensively and authored a series of books offering sex advice to men. It would be accurate to describe Roosh as a cad and a pickup artist during his red pill phase.
Events took a strange turn when Roosh attracted the notice of people in high places. They coined the rhetorically loaded but nonsensical epithet “rape apologist” for him and used it as a pretext to ban him from multiple countries, all because he sought to bring young men together to share ideas.
This unpersoning by the powers that be culminated in several of Roosh’s books getting banned by Amazon.
Like Jim, Roosh came to realize his helplessness in the face of the overwhelming forces seeking to destroy his life. Yet he recognized this black pill stage as a necessary dark night of the soul and embraced the desolation to purify himself.
The result has been a dramatic Augustinian conversion, whereby Roosh has left materialist atheism for his childhood Armenian Orthodox faith. He has renounced hedonism while acknowledging the spiritual lessons imparted by the shallowness and despair of his carnal pursuits.
Roosh is convinced that God has allowed him to suffer privation and desolation to prepare him for a personal calling. His pigeon story, starting around the four-minute mark, is a better homily than any I’ve heard at church this decade.
Here we have a sterling example of the special role members of Generation Y can fill if they reject worldliness and despair. Younger generations, especially Zoomers, can learn from our experiences and mistakes. We can impart knowledge that, and why, the world was better.
The most important lesson of all is that faith in Jesus Christ is indispensable. Lacking faith, the best one can do is build a captivating yet lifeless shrine to a bygone moment.
But faith promises hope, and the expectation of receiving what is hoped for. And it teaches us what is worthy of hope.
Roosh correctly stated that no one can stay blackpilled forever. Constantly raging against Commies, Boomers, and Jews ultimately achieves nothing. One either retreats back to the red pill for ever-higher doses of self-medication, or one finally takes the God pill.
This is the hurdle that dissident atheists cannot surmount. Society is not going back to a late 80s combination of demographics and relative permissiveness where you can indulge your vices hassle-free.
We will burn down the corrupt edifice of Modernism and usher in a new era in line with nature devoted to the good.
Atheists who only want low taxes and freely available porn, i.e. a permanent retreat to the red pill, are going to be faced with a choice. They will either join the Christ or His enemy. Generation Y has one foot in each world. They would do well to choose carefully.
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"One foot in each world" might as well be the motto for our generation. Raised in the churchian morass, smacked in the face by the Clown World, and now trying to reconcile conflicting worldviews into something coherent. Is it any wonder we're pissed off? Our biggest danger comes not from outright joining the Enemy, but from lingering too long on that threshold and becoming eternally lukewarm: neither hot nor cold, to be spewed from the mouth of the Father.
Time to pick a side and RUN.
Fight Club came out in 1999, right when Gen Y was entering adulthood.
Tyler Durden's monologue about an entire generation of men brought up to believe they'd be rock gods and movie stars left pumping gas and waiting tables instead perfectly sums up Gen Y.
We were warned of the current conflict's spiritual nature all the way back then.
One of Jim's earliest monikers was "Jim81Jim" which I think hints at him being prime Gen Y material.
Part of the reason I do enjoy him beyond him being naturally entertaining is that he black pills secular humanists something fierce. As much as I would prefer such people turn to Christ they are too prideful and stubborn to do so. This requires someone like Jim to show them what awaits their play-pretend morality systems and naive rational optimism outside the framework of Christianity. The fact is that there is no hope, you can't go back, and no one is going to help you. Face it and accept the truth. This is why certain types like Sargon and the Individualist horde cannot stand him. His blackpilled viewpoint is the logical conclusion of theirs and they just can't stand it.
While I don't know how much Jim does or doesn't believe, I know he long moved past the fedora stage years ago and if anything is a reluctant atheist stuck at the stage where he just can't make the final leap to belief.
But as someone who was not too dissimilar from his outlook I think his work is more invaluable than he knows in reaching people, and I do suggest praying for the man. He is a lot closer than I think any of us realize.
And I've said it before but as someone who grew up as Gen Y and later met younger ones who fell right into the Millennial framework we are not the same generation. Gen Y is the last generation to grow up without internet, cellphones, or social media, and the last to see the mall at its peak, a somewhat united western culture, and experience local community. Gen Y saw participation trophies and the destruction of free-roaming childhoods as they came in whereas Millennials had it from the get-go.
Saying someone born in 1984 has the same outlook and experience as someone born in 1998 is as silly as saying someone born in 1934 has the same outlook and experience as someone born in 1948. It's an entirely different era which naturally means different types are going to come up in it.
This isn't about not wanting to be identified as a Millennial, but about debunking revisionism and blatant lies. I know how I grew up and I saw how others grew up. It's a distinct identity and group that is being buried and the last thing Gen Y needs are more reasons to put their head in the sand.
Gen Y is the generation that is going to require prayer and only prayer to reach. They have cocooned themselves from the wider world for their own and have learned to create makeshift lives for themselves like some Swiss Family Robinson home. Outside forces could take it down but they will keep rebuilding even if there is no more good wood to choose from and the jungle is ablaze. Their artificial world is all they have and they will fight to keep it alive. They might be the only generation impervious to both dialectic AND rhetoric, and that is dangerous.
Be sure to lend them your prayers. Nothing else will help.
I've long seen Jim as the modern version of the servant who would ride beside every Roman commander who was granted a triumph, all the while whispering, "Remember, you're just a man."
His work is unquestionably useful and entertaining. But in contrast to Roosh, who has grown into an evangelizer, Jim is more like a pagan oracle sent to deliver the fates' inexorable decree that the golden age is over.
I have suspected for about a year now that the Holy Spirit is working on Jim. Cracks started showing in his Gen Y shell during his interview with Nick Fuentes (leave it to a Zoomer). After that, I noticed a change in his videos dealing with Furries who abused kids and animals. His aloof joviality slipped, and he said something like, "This is just plain wrong." I'd never heard him use objective moral terms before. That case seemed to shake him. I join you in praying for his conversion.
Gen Y being impervious to reason and emotional appeals is a phenomenon I can confirm from my apologetic and catechetical work. It's the, "This is fine" generation.
The one thing that has been shown effective at waking Ys from their stupor is coming face to face with real, unquestionable evil. Though not as sheltered as Millennials, we were brought up to think that bad things only happen to other people, it could never happen here, and the good guys will always win before the half hour is up. I think that explains much of the Q phenomenon, but that's a whole other can of worms.
Anyway, I've seen fellow Ys shrug off the Kalam argument, Aquinas' Five Ways, Pascal's Wager, rhetorical dissection of their bumper sticker nu-Atheist cliches, etc.
Then, around 2016 something changed. They started coming to me looking like someone had walked over their grave. Invariably they'd bring up a news report about some Leftist death cult mask slip. "I used to laugh when religious people talked about demons," they'd say, "but there's no other way to describe this stuff than demonic. And if there's a devil, there must be a God."
It's telling that for all the badthink I post on this blog, the times when I openly call out the Left for being in league with demons still gets the biggest rise out of them. The addict rages loudest when you point out his favorite vice.
I'll add Jim to my prayers, as I've prayed for Roosh and Roisy/Heartiste in the past (glad he went Armenian Apostolic…guess I can pray he goes Armenian Catholic now). Other Youtube personalities who are on our side but have not converted should also be prayed for. As the culture goes openly pagan-satanic, prayers for them to receive the grace for conversion will help them to bring others away from the void.
Maybe we should setup a prayer list.
I hope everyone's Lent has been fruitful so far.
Realizing that demons existed is the reason I ever got out of that bubble in the first place. When you learn there is something that wants to destroy you utterly you stop taking a soft view on things. Being lukewarm is impossible.
Funny thing is that once you realize that objective evil exists you soon seek out its opposite and you find Him. You learn that "This is fine" is no longer fine.
Gen Y needs to shake off the I'm Okay, You're Okay they got from the Boomers before that can happen. Rock bottom and the black pill is how most of them will realize it before they can open themselves up to Truth.
At that point whatever weed, sex, or booze, you're obsessed with will fall to the side and will do so pretty quickly.
We're rapidly reach the point where lines will be drawn, and Gen Y is the group that's going to have the hardest time choosing one.
@Durandel: Good idea. Stef, too.
I've prayed for Molyneux and will continue to do so (thank you for remind me). I also pray for major Christian personalities who struggle with the issue of Catholicism.
@JD – the Boomers have never encountered an evil that they didn't think was groovy and cool. That said, yes, encountering real evil is a common reason for some conversions. Vox Day is one who comes to mind.
Gen Y is like being raised between the death of Christ and the fall of the Temple. Your Sin Offering will work, but if we're being honest, you're doing it wrong.
The Civic Religion we were born into said 'just get a Liberal Arts degree, it shows you can learn', but your prepubescent cousin got rich streaming Fortnite.
Brilliant metaphor.
Nick Krauser is another pua turning to Christianity. Not sure if he is technically Gen Y or X, I think he’s right around the dividing line. From his review of Mere Christianity.
“Having followed atheism for a few decades and lived a highly individualist and pleasure-seeking life I became aware of what Christian moral philosophers have warned for hundreds of years: atheism is a dead end. It ends in nihilism. I experienced such nihilism in 2016 and by 2017 I was looking for a better way. So far there’s only been one barrier to my converting to Christianity: my lack of belief in God.”
Also my last barrier.
Wasn't previously aware of Krauser. Thanks for bringing him to my attention.
My advice for folks in your and Nick's position is not to stress. Faith is a grace. It can't be forced or earned. If you're making yourself properly disposed to receive faith, God will bestow it.
That's why I advise atheists on our side to LARP as Christians if they're open to Christianity but just don't believe yet. Living as if one were Christian, including daily prayer and Sunday church attendance, is demonstrably effective at inviting genuine conversion.
Smockman,
Are there any specific barriers? If so can I direct you to Catholic answers (catholic.com) they have several podcast shows covering a wide variety of subjects. They also have a magazine with prior issues free. Finally, they publish reasonably priced books.
I hope these might be of assistance.
xavier
To following up with what Brian said. The year I gave up on atheism and secular humanism, after reading all four Gospels, and some Church history, I called myself a "follower of the philosophy of Christ" wherein I LARPed as a Christian in an Evangelical church until I received faith. And by that, I mean I went to Sunday services, prayed to God for faith (help me Lord in my unbelief), and fasted as an offering for the grace of faith. It was only after receiving faith, that my studies lead me to the Catholic Church.
I can confirm. When I started going I wasn't sure I believed it. But the more I went the more I began to change and eventually it all clicked and I understood. You don't have to wait for belief. Sometimes it comes to you.
As Our Lord said to one of the seven churches in Revelations, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He is not merely willing to make house calls, but is actively attempting to make them.
I believe He hears prayers like, "Help my unbelief," and answers them gladly. The course He may cause or allow our lives to take may be painful, even excruciating, but if we do not refuse to take delivery, He will surely give us the grace of faith.
You have been raised to believe that God is an illogical answer to a question that's not worth asking. While I am …. I strongly hesitate to say Evangelical, given its current connotations… I strongly recommend as the best, and possibly only worthwhile thinker on the subject, the very Catholic Edward Feser.
He demonstrates that good and evil can be shown to at least partially exist as material phenomena. He shows that God is an inherent and necessary, rather than external and absurd, part of a causal universe. He argues well and convincingly that immaterial aspects of thought and consciousness are a strong explanation for several major problems of the reductive neuro-materialist view.
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/
Good call referring Feser. He's solid.
Oddly enough it sounds like common advice Nick gives his audience. Reading and theorizing is avoidance from hitting the streets and putting theory into action.
It is time to hit up the Church and try praying. And fasting, that is interesting. Fits together with my keto diet. Thanks to all.
Also wanted to add Nick is a pulp rev guy. He reviewed a bunch of hard crime/noir stuff on his blog.
Stockman,
If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask we'll all contribute as best we can.
xavier
Outstanding.
And yes, fasting complements dieting well.