IMO, and I think reality bears it out, are the logical conclusion of “You are special” being force fed every kid at home/in school since the 90s.
Why WOULDN’T they do the crap they do? They were taught to do and to BE exactly that. Selfish things that care for nothing around them. Only the ‘self’.
Not that I think that’s OK, just that I understand how they ended up the way they did. And since mom and dad created them (in all ways) they will continue to fund their excesses rather than admit their liberalism destroyed their children...and multiple cities across the planet.
They’ve always struck me as frankly narcissistic. In the mid-90s, the proto-hipsters were mostly the ‘arty’ types; artistes. OK, I understand, artistes have the artistic temperment, and they’re flaky and whatnot. But there were a few among that crowd, as I recall, that were genuinely artistic. What I didn’t like was their hypocrisy; they were so into the ‘authenticity’ of the working-class lifestyle and neighborhood, yet none of them had ever worked so much as a day in their life. Quite a few were professional students in college. I come from a working-class background, and when Mommy and Daddy are paying for an extended adolescence, I really don’t consider that ‘authentic working class’ living.
I currently live in what is very much a working-class town, a steel town. The downtown core - several miles away - is trying to get a little more upscale, and I can understand it to an extent; what else are you going to do with a defunct, Communist-era steel mill but tear it down and build something new in its place? There’s still three steel mills going here, with one of them also having branched out into making heavy machinery, and these three mills employ a pretty good sized chunk of the locals.
But times are changing here, too. One of the mills may close sometime later this year or early next year. What that will bring is hard to say, and the city leaders are concerned about the long-term outlook; 20 or 30 years down the road. At least they’re thinking ahead, so hopefully, it won’t be so bad.