# Are the millennials at risk of being distracted from meaningful issues by culture war issues **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 16, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519 "2015-09-16T23:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/21 "2015-09-18T02:01:13Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > It’s all argument from emotion and derision. A perfect description of your side, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/22 "2015-09-18T02:03:23Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > So abortion rights and civil rights for African-American and LGBT people are meaningless? Depends on what is being meant here. Something like blacks being systematically denied basic civic rights in the 1960s is a major issue indeed, something like gay marriage not so much. Obviously no issues are “meaningless”, but there is the matter of prioritization. > [@](#): > > Only economic issues have any substance? Confucius say: “It’s the economy, stupid” > [@](#): > > Not only does each generation get to choose for itself what issues it finds meaningful, but you can’t separate the social issues from the economic ones. Ending the drug war for example, would have a major impact on the economy. > > But ultimately, the Millenials will have to decide for themselves whether they’d rather fight for reduced income inequality, further healthcare reform and other primarily economic changes, or if they want to make other changes to society. > > I don’t see whole generations being conned, then or now. I see people choosing to make the changes that they feel are necessary. Thank you for pointing out the obvious that I’m not in control of millions of other people in the same age cohort as me. However, I’m perfectly free to deride and criticize the choices of others seeing them as impractical and/or harmful. > [@jayjay](#): > > I’d just like to note that those “trivial distractions” are pretty meaningful issues to those who are actually affected by them. The fact that YOU might be privileged to not be affected by something doesn’t make that thing meaningless. This is where self-interest comes in. If you want me to provide that raw vote total needed to say accomplish police reform or gay marriage, what will you give me in return? **Wesley Clark** is obviously correct here. This generation at least up to now seems incapable of mounting a sustained long-term political movement (as opposed to rallying around a certain rock start election candidate during voting season like Barack Obama, Ron Paul, or Bernie Sanders) except possibly on gay marriage. This is especially true on economic issues where the “Occupy Wall Street” movement turned out to be a massive joke reliant primarily on aging, quasi-professional agitators, student sycophants, and assorted riffraff/lumpenbourgeoisie that proved to be ultimately a movement of the “1%” rather than the “99%” whom it alienated. Ultimately any political movement that’s going to achieve real change is going to be local-based and probably require both a revitalized labour union movement as well as a new form of machine politics to increase voter turnout and combat the concentrated role of money and Super PACs. While a political movement can be either a grand coalition based on socioneconomic or cultural issues (from a centre-left perspective the first coalition would essentially be a renewed New Deal coalition of lower-middle class and working-class people of all races throughout the country while the latter is essentially the current Obama coalition), it seems quite obvious that the latter has proven incapable of winning Congressional and state legislative elections which are necessary to achieve real change. Forming the coalition of the former type would not mean ignoring or wholeheartedly abandoning cultural issues but harnessing them correctly: for example marijuana legalization/ending the War on Drugs should be stridently fought for since its very much a popular position as even last night’s Republican debates showed while at the same time gun control should probably be abandoned since anything beyond a total gun ban via repeal of the Second Amendment doesn’t meaningfully reduce gun violence while wasting tons of political capital. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/23 "2015-09-18T02:46:44Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > A perfect description of your side, yes. A flawless Facebook response. I hope, for your sake, it was a parody. They’re the ones who see everything as “sides,” after all. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/24 "2015-09-18T12:35:41Z")
It’s not useful to expect a group of people who happen to be born about the same time to have similar political goals. Location, religion, race, ethnicity, family background, economic status, political experience, etc are all much better groupings. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/25 "2015-09-18T12:47:04Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The government exists to force bakers to serve at gay weddings and to pay for birth control, and maybe occasionally to block construction of a pipeline. But national defense, foreign policy, economic policy, monetary policy, transportation, infrastructure, labor law, criminal justice, international trade, entitlements, and pensions? That’s all boring stuff that old white guys in suits care about. I mean this is the 20th century LOL Errrr, availability healthcare and access to public spaces and commercial services is a very fundamental rights issue. As for international trade, well that would be a non starter. The only way individuals can have any realistic hope of influencing that is if we have the kind of responsible supra national bodies which I suspect you would not really want. ---
**Author:** ![John\_D\_Adamo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@John\_D\_Adamo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_D_Adamo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/26 "2015-09-18T16:35:16Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Well, if conservatives would STOP trying to defund an organization that advances health care for women, applauding when cops beat up an unarmed suspect for no reason, and condemning homosexuals as sinful abominations under the Lord, and trying to do all that as government officials, I’m sure millennials will happily move on to economic issues. > > And like post 2 above, I’m not quite sure how to take the OP. I’m looking kind of side eyed at the implications, but I’m not quite sure how to react. > > ETA: And arguably, focusing on economic issues is how some of those social issues got so bad, at least from a liberal voters standpoint. (“Why should I care about whether gays can get civil rights when I could vote for someone who’ll cut my taxes?”) Oh, yeah, and to add what I wrote above, why is it the millennials who are being “distracted,” and not the shrill elderly white people whose policies and politics they’re fighting, especially since they’re the only ones left fighting one of the examples in the OP (gay marriage)? Is that more okay for them, because they’re dying anyway and will be covered by the social safety net they’re trying to dismantle? > > Speaking of gay marriage, a lot of activists interested in that are interested in a lot of related causes, such as homelessness among transgender youth. Are ALL those issues meaningless? I mean, it’s kind of hard to care about student loans when you’re out on the streets because your parents booted you out. > > But then, as posts on this very thread show, I guess it’s easy to dismiss as meaningless something you never experience, and thus don’t think is a problem at all. This for me summed up exactly my thoughts as a millennial. I would love to move on to economic issues considering the massive amounts of student loan debt both myself and countless others are subject to just to name one thing, but as long as there is an official political party that legitimizes these views I feel like we have to have a strong defense as at least part of the arsenal. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519/27 "2015-09-18T21:26:51Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Well, if conservatives would STOP trying to defund an organization that advances health care for women, applauding when cops beat up an unarmed suspect for no reason, and condemning homosexuals as sinful abominations under the Lord, and trying to do all that as government officials, I’m sure millennials will happily move on to economic issues. Well if liberals would STOP trying to oppose even overly generous 20-week abortion bans when most European countries restrict it around the first trimaster, obsess themselves over half-assed gun control measures that don’t work and waste political capital, and be utterly contemptutous of the white working class, I’m sure people would be at least somewhat more willing to move on to economic issues. > [@](#): > > And like post 2 above, I’m not quite sure how to take the OP. I’m looking kind of side eyed at the implications, but I’m not quite sure how to react. > > ETA: And arguably, focusing on economic issues is how some of those social issues got so bad, at least from a liberal voters standpoint. (“Why should I care about whether gays can get civil rights when I could vote for someone who’ll cut my taxes?”) Erhm no. The past generation has seen the triumph of social liberalism on everything except guns and possibly abortion even as the New Deal and Great Society welfare state basically stalled from the early 1970s, income inequality massively grew, labour unions were gutted, and so forth. And that’s why liberals need to appeal to everyone’s self-interest-we should be able to get voters to get to say “I might not be sold on the whole gay marriage thing, but I’ll vote Democrat since they are protecting my Social Security and Medicare”. > [@Leaper](#): > > Oh, yeah, and to add what I wrote above, why is it the millennials who are being “distracted,” and not the shrill elderly white people whose policies and politics they’re fighting, especially since they’re the only ones left fighting one of the examples in the OP (gay marriage)? Is that more okay for them, because they’re dying anyway and will be covered by the social safety net they’re trying to dismantle? I would say both of them are distracted, but we need voters in the latter category if meaningful change is to be effected since it is virtually impossible to have a House majority or control of most state houses with the current Obama coalition. > [@](#): > > Speaking of gay marriage, a lot of activists interested in that are interested in a lot of related causes, such as homelessness among transgender youth. Are ALL those issues meaningless? I mean, it’s kind of hard to care about student loans when you’re out on the streets because your parents booted you out. As I’ve said no issues are “meaningless” but there are priorities. Obviously for those youths themselves, their homelessness is a paramount issue but what about for the rest of the population? If you want something to be done about this crisis (which I agree is one), you have to be able to 1) craft a narrative that can appeal to the majority of the population and 2) show that in exchange for their votes alleviating this problem you will in turn give support to other measures that will help said voters. > [@](#): > > But then, as posts on this very thread show, I guess it’s easy to dismiss as meaningless something you never experience, and thus don’t think is a problem at all. Yes, most voters tend to vote for their (perceived) self-interest not out of empathy for some obscure, oppressed minority group. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-millennials-at-risk-of-being-distracted-from-meaningful-issues-by-culture-war-issues/731519.md?page=1)