To the Editor:
Re “Where Are the Young People in the Fight for Democracy?,” by Brendan Nyhan (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 30):
Professor Nyhan was correct to point out the generational factor in the No Kings movement. I attended two “No Kings” rallies where my own boomer generation was dominant.
I would suggest a reason for the age disparity not mentioned by Professor Nyhan. He noted that young people protested more vigorously against the war in Gaza, for Black Lives Matter and, earlier, against the war in Vietnam. Those were protests against specific wrongs, while No Kings was about something more general — the degradation of our democracy and the loss of our moral standing under President Trump.
I don’t think younger people feel this degradation as keenly as boomers. We grew up proud of our country and what it stood for. Many of our fathers had served in World War II. We thought of the U.S. as the country that freed Europe from Nazi despotism and cruelty. When I say “we,” I mean largely white middle-class kids like me, and, of course, as children we were naïve about many things, including the country’s shortcomings.
Vietnam and Watergate disabused us of some of that naïve faith, but most of us never lost the idea that there was something special about the U.S. in a moral sense. I don’t think succeeding generations were brought up that way, and perhaps they have a more realistic view that the U.S. is no better or worse than other countries.
What Mr. Trump has done and what he represents seem to many boomers like a repudiation of everything we grew up believing in.
Peter Samson Orange, Va.
To the Editor:
I was one of the young people who attended the No Kings protest in October. I was dragged there by one of my more politically motivated friends. It’s not that I don’t despise President Trump and what he’s doing to our country. It just feels hopeless.
I am too young to remember a time when protests spurred action and have grown up watching and participating in protests that have done nothing. I was 18 years old when March for Our Lives happened in 2018. My own high school had a gun scare only a couple of months earlier. Children have been dying every day since then and there has been no change.
So a part of me asks, Why protest if we’re going to be ignored anyway?
Katie Xue New York
To the Editor:
Brendan Nyhan highlights the generational differences I also experienced as a boomer attending demonstrations expressing concerns with the policies of President Trump.
I appreciate Mr. Nyhan’s proposed explanations for the phenomenon, but I have a different perspective on how social media might account for the varied generational reactions to our current political climate: The visual perception of an issue can result in an emotional response and subsequent action.
Most Gen Z-ers have grown up with a steady diet of social media that focus on short visual clips. The visions of carnage in Gaza during the war — children and families torn to pieces, their cities pummeled into rubble — or the brutality displayed in the killing of George Floyd are more likely to trigger an emotional response and subsequent action from the generation who grew up on TikTok and Instagram.
Events like the abandonment of world alliances, the use of the Justice Department for personal vendettas or attacks on diversity programs, the sciences and institutions of higher learning do not have the same visual impact. Many boomers, like me, see the threat to democracy and react by protesting not just for our generation but, more important, for the Gen Z-ers and generations to follow.
Paul Dolinsky Eastham, Mass.
To the Editor:
Brendan Nyhan’s description of the limited participation of students at anti-Trump No Kings protests is both undeniable and concerning. But the experience in on-campus chapters of Democracy Matters tells a different story.
An upsurge of students, especially this fall’s freshman class, has embraced pro-democracy activism. While not yet joining off-campus protests in large numbers, they are quickly developing their own brand of activism in meetings, discussions and outreach to their peers.
Joan D. Mandle New Paltz, N.Y. The writer is executive director of Democracy Matters and an emerita associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at Colgate University.
To the Editor:
Brendan Nyhan omitted one of the most important factors responsible for the absence of Gen Z in current anti-Trump protests: As the beneficiaries of a dramatically underfunded and overpoliticized educational system, they are the least knowledgeable of any existing generation in American civics, history and politics.
Starved of a critical knowledge base, they lack a critical context that many of them appear to require for actionable outrage at today’s events.
For Gen Z, Donald Trump’s outrageous conduct and that of his Republican enablers are the only political behavior they’ve ever known.
T.G. Krontiris Pasadena, Calif.
To the Editor:
I was incredibly gratified that Brendan Nyhan’s guest essay did not devolve into the usual condemnation of young people. I found myself largely in agreement with his conclusions. However, I did feel one key aspect of young people’s experience was missed: In addition to the fear of arrest or harassment that he cites, young people also bear disproportionate risk to their livelihoods by being at these protests.
The modern workplace expects an enormous degree of political camouflage for any young person who wants to stay employed. I have experienced this repeatedly. I have been asked to explain my presence in a picture of a protest that I attended in 2017. For many of us, being present at one of these protests would mean sacrificing our only income in a hostile economy.
Older generations are largely insulated from this reality, as years of experience and clout in the workplace make them more difficult to replace. Is it any wonder that young people are finding forms of resistance that allow them to operate in anonymity?
Robert Marshall St. Louis
The post At Protests, Lots of Boomers, Few Young People. Why? appeared first on New York Times.
