I think anti-woke peaked in 2024 and there was always gonna be a backlash to it but Jesus it feels almost like a different era because of how quickly things have changed.
I am very fascinated by the visceral hate Gen Z has for this AAA nostalgia bait video game “mixtape” that has been released. As I understand it the game is white teenagers skateboarding in their suburbia while you listen to punk rock soundtracks and it is set in the 90’s. At the end of the game you have a confrontation with the police and they stand down because “they’re not such bad guys”! I am seeing dozens of comments discuss how irrelevant coming of age nostalgia stories feel now because the actual youth has been robbed of a future and is staring down food scarcity and energy shortages. So instead they are being marketed the youths of people who comparatively made it. More fascinating is the level of antagonism I am seeing for the first time in my life towards that Gen X white slacker “rebellious” attitude in movies like clerks or the breakfast club. Nothing these characters ever do in media is actually dangerous to the status quo, it’s simply listening to nirvana and cosplaying rebellion. For the longest time I never saw people comment on how every cool Gen x hipster is now a frothing reactionary. All those guys who loved Sonic youth now complain about wokeness and love cops.
American society has become so overtly nihilistic to the point where you can be an infamous pedophile and be tolerated and beloved. We’ve exhausted any social contract. I do not want my kids to grow up in this world.