When hatred is ‘based’
Anti-woke culture, live-streamed violence, racism and antisemitism
War is raging in Iran and throughout the Middle East. A Michigan synagogue, home to a Jewish pre school, was attacked last week. A bomb was thrown outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home on the Upper East Side. There was a shooting at a bar just off campus at The University of Texas at Austin. And just months ago, two American citizens were shot and killed by ICE Agents in Minnesota. Violence is everywhere, and we constantly observe and absorb it on our feeds, in-real-time, every single day.
Meanwhile, the “death of wokeness” amongst Gen Z, as one of our ambassadors put it, is manifesting itself in normalized hate. In a community call this week, students at a range of schools shared that antisemitic jokes are now commonplace, anti-immigrant rhetoric is running rampant, and a complete lack of action to tamper violence —whether that’s gun violence, war, or political violence — has pushed many to “tap out” of political conversations altogether.
“I think people have honestly gotten… kind of numb,” a 21-year-old student at The New School shared.
“When I hear about kids dying, yes, it’s sad. But for a lot of these things, like I think it’s sad, but then I kind of move on because if I got heartbroken over every single thing that happened, I wouldn’t be able to live, right?” said a 19-year student at Binghamton University.
In December, I wrote about Gen Z’s compassion recession — a willingness amongst some young people to condone political violence, along with a sheer numbness to the amount of violence in our political culture today.
Here we are, three months later, and it’s gotten worse.
In our conversation with some of The Up and Up’s ambassadors and community members this week, we focused on hate, antisemitism, and safety in the U.S.
🚨 What we heard is alarming 🚨
There’s a general sense that bigotry is now “based” (Gen Z’s term for “a truth teller” who speaks out against the “woke intelligentsia”).
Jewish students fear being judged (and blamed) for the Israeli government’s actions
And Spanish speaking students have to weigh which neighborhoods are safe to visit amid immigration crackdowns
Earlier this week, I joined The Bulwark’s Sam Stein to break down some of these findings. You can watch our conversation here.
Upgrade your subscription to The Up and Up for a full analysis of what I heard this week ⤵️