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Generation that just does not care
news.com.au ^ | May 18, 2005 | Kate Legge

Posted on 06/02/2005 8:32:02 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

"IT'S not that I don't care on purpose," says 17-year-old Tom Siklic, "it's just that I don't care." Tom, a Melbourne Year 12 student, typifies his generation's shoulder-shrugging attitude to global warming and logging of old-growth forests.

"Ignorance is bliss," he says.

Apathy and scepticism among Australian teenagers has identified them as part of a global backlash generation labelled the South Park Conservatives.

According to the author of South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias, Brian C. Anderson, teenagers are more attuned to the bad attitudes of the animated characters created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker than to those of their liberal parents.

They are more likely to ridicule social guidelines for politeness towards women, minorities, the disabled and disadvantaged and less likely to enroll to vote.

New research released yesterday on Australian attitudes across all generations supports the theory that adolescents are not as green as their parents.

Only 41 per cent of 14- to 17-year-olds call themselves environmentalists, compared with 75 per cent of baby boomers in the 60 to 64 age group, who were at the forefront of political activism. Advertisement:

The new report blames youth's fading idealism on John Howard's environmental scepticism.

Drawing on a poll of 56,344 people, the Australia Institute's report on this generational divide says "Howard's Children are characterised by apathy and scepticism", despite the focus given to environmental threats by schools and the media.

The youngest teenagers and the over-65s are weakest in their environmental activism, countering a national awareness that intensifies as people move through life.

Despite his own apathy, Tom Siklic says his family recycles glass and plastic, but like 27 per cent of the 14- to 17-year-olds interviewed by Roy Morgan Research, he believes threats to the environment are exaggerated.

Fellow skateboarder Stuart Morton, 19, is more passionate, in line with the poll's finding that 54 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds demonstrate more environmental concern than younger Australians.

"I don't think the threats are overdone," he said. "I care about the environment, about pollution and forests."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: generationy; genx; southpark
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I think my generation should be called SOUTH PARK GENERATION
1 posted on 06/02/2005 8:32:02 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Is South Park even that popular in Australia?


2 posted on 06/02/2005 8:34:53 PM PDT by TFine80
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To: MinorityRepublican
I think my generation should be called SOUTH PARK GENERATION

Just out of curiousity, what age range would that be? Wondering if I make the cut. :-)

3 posted on 06/02/2005 8:35:23 PM PDT by Bluegrass Conservative
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To: Bluegrass Conservative
Just out of curiousity, what age range would that be? Wondering if I make the cut. :-)

My guess it would be around 1982 or so, after Generation X. I was born in 1983.

4 posted on 06/02/2005 8:36:17 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican
Well you filled up my head,
With so many lies.
Twisted my heart
Til something snapped inside.
I'd like to give it one more try
but my give a damn's busted.

You can crawl back home
say you were wrong,
stand out in the yard
cry all night long.
Well go ahead and water my lawn.
My give a damn's busted.

I really wanna care,
I wanna feel somethin'
Let me dig a little deeper...
Nope...
Sorry...
Nothin'

You can say you've got issues.
You can say you're a victim.
It's all your parents fault,
After all you didn't pick em
Well maybe Oprah's got time to listen.
My give a damn's busted.

(*Well let me get this straight now)
Your therapist said
It was all just a phase
A product of the prozac
And your co-dependent ways
So uhh ... who's your enabler these days
My give a damn's busted.

I really wanna care,
I wanna feel somethin'
Let me dig a little deeper...
Eeh-Eeh

(*Oh you're tellin' me)
It's a desperate situation,
No tellin' what you'll do.
If I don't forgive you,
You say your life is through.
Well honey... give me somethin' I can use.
(My give a damn's busted.)
(*Ahh you knew I was gonna say that, didn't ya.)

My give a damn's busted (*ha ha)
My give a damn's busted
Honey trust me
My give a damn's busted yeahhh ...
OOOH
My give a damn's busted yeahhh
(*You wanna do what?)(*ha ha ha ha ha)
My give a damn's busted
(*Get the party started thats what we'll do)
My give a damn's busted
(*I'm not done honey, trust me)
My give a damn's busted
(*Been there, done that)
My give a damn's busted
My give a damn's busted

- Jo Dee Messina

5 posted on 06/02/2005 8:40:58 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: TFine80
Is South Park even that popular in Australia?

I don't know sure. But I think so.

6 posted on 06/02/2005 8:41:13 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Gotta love the spin on this article. Environmentalism and recycling and all the greenie weenie garbage, by default = good. Conservative = rude to women and your elders.

Every time I think our media is the worst, I look at some of the media in other countries, and I feel a little better. Briefly.

}:-)4


7 posted on 06/02/2005 8:41:21 PM PDT by Moose4 (Richmond, Virginia--commemorating 140 years of Yankee occupation.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
My guess it would be around 1982 or so, after Generation X. I was born in 1983.

Damn, missed it by a bit. I was born in 1977. But, trust me, the people my age enjoy South Park and are pretty conservative too. Heck, we were freshmen in college when it first came out on Comedy Central, I think.

8 posted on 06/02/2005 8:45:01 PM PDT by Bluegrass Conservative
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To: JasonC
a link, for those who (don't) care
9 posted on 06/02/2005 8:49:40 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: Bluegrass Conservative
Damn, missed it by a bit. I was born in 1977. But, trust me, the people my age enjoy South Park and are pretty conservative too. Heck, we were freshmen in college when it first came out on Comedy Central, I think.

Heh, well I don't agree that the cut-off for Generation X should be 1981, or so. Students from the late '70s appear to be much more conservative than those from early '70s. I dunno why.

10 posted on 06/02/2005 8:50:27 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican
Nihilism and apathy are very great problems. Hopefully soon the youth of the world will be galvanized to action when true righteous leadership is installed at the helm of world affairs.
11 posted on 06/02/2005 8:52:15 PM PDT by Red Sea Swimmer (Tisha5765Bav)
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To: MinorityRepublican

South Park Conservatism is best defined by a cyncism for "feel good", ineffective liberalism.

Issues like the environment are not the major issues anymore. Not because they aren't important, but because we've solved the urgency of the problem, made new advances in science, and implemented environment friendly policies for industry and commerce.

So shouting that the sky is falling isn't going to work anymore. Time for the liberals to find a new rallying cry and to climb out of the 60's and 70's, where they apparently lived their greatest moments.


12 posted on 06/02/2005 8:53:25 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: Red Sea Swimmer
Nihilism and apathy are very great problems. Hopefully soon the youth of the world will be galvanized to action when true righteous leadership is installed at the helm of world affairs.

LOL, that was me when I was a student at a public high school. Can't exactly blame me for being that way! :-P

13 posted on 06/02/2005 8:54:42 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

The writer of the article simply misunderstands the proper expression of apathy. Apathy in regard to BS is no vice.


14 posted on 06/02/2005 8:59:54 PM PDT by HKMk23 (Ladies, "No" should not mean "No"; it should mean "Don't even THINK it or I'll for real KILL you!")
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To: MinorityRepublican
"Its not that I'm lazy, its that I just don't care."

-Peter Gibbons, Office Space

15 posted on 06/02/2005 9:00:00 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

Bliss ... Tom Siklic, left, and Stuart Morton are part of the South Park Conservative generation. Picture: David Geraghty

16 posted on 06/02/2005 9:06:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican
Generation that just does not care...

...for liberal bullshit.

17 posted on 06/02/2005 9:13:31 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (All it takes for evil to triumph is for Republicans to befriend, act like, and give in to, Democrats)
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To: HKMk23
The writer of the article simply misunderstands the proper expression of apathy. Apathy in regard to BS is no vice.

Also, another interesting thing about South Park Generation is that we refuse to be indoctrinated. So we're like f*ck it in dealing with liberal ideology.

18 posted on 06/02/2005 9:14:25 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

"'Ignorance is bliss,' he says..."

That ain't how the quote goes, Junior.

"Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise."

Thomas Gray


19 posted on 06/02/2005 9:14:42 PM PDT by decal (Where were YOU when AndyScam broke?)
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To: coconutt2000

You know, I think I've learned something here today.

Issues like the environment are not the major issues anymore. Not because they aren't important, but because we've solved the urgency of the problem, made new advances in science, and implemented environment friendly policies for industry and commerce.

So shouting that the sky is falling isn't going to work anymore. Time for the liberals to find a new rallying cry and to climb out of the 60's and 70's, where they apparently lived their greatest moments.

[Well said coconutt2000.]

20 posted on 06/02/2005 9:26:23 PM PDT by faq
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