Curious Hair wrote:
Again, this is more class than generation. This wouldn't be playing out as it has if it had been in Grand Island, Nebraska. These kids were born and raised for this.
I think that's definitely true. These are the sons and daughters of the elite. Beyond the fact that that gets people listening to them, they are on the "right side" of the issue. A kid in West Virginia is less likely to blame the gun when his school gets shot up. Chances are he has been handling firearms his whole life and he would never think of murdering his classmates.
As far as your dismissal of the differences in generations is concerned, I'm kind of surprised. I consider you an astute observer of media and really, the world at large. And I think what defines and separates the generations is advertising. Obviously, television is the defining invention of the mid 20th Century. And what is television programming except for an advertising vehicle. The power of TV is changing now with the rise of the Internet, cord-cutting, social media, etc.
The influence of the Baby Boomers is immense simply because there are so many of them. For guys as old as Reader and I, we've seen the commercials change as the lifestyles of the Boomers have changed.
There are a lot of interesting discussions related to this subject. For example, the "Russian meddling" in the form of purchasing advertisements. Should foreigners be unable to advertise on American platforms? In this era of global corporatism such a thing seems untenable. It sounds like an edict from the Chinese government.
Funny that you ended on that note. You're old enough to well remember when there was bi-partisan uproar when Murdoch was allowed to gain citizenship solely to remove the restrictions on foreigners owning a broadcast network in this country. Maybe the uproar then and now is equally correct.