Los Angeles Times

Jean Guerrero: Gen Z has good reason to be angry. Will they burn it all down?

Generation Z seems like a paradox: far more open to diverse viewpoints and compromise than older Americans, but also in some ways more dogmatic. Will young people extinguish the flames of political polarization or fan them? As their values clash with those of the oldest generations hoarding power, the fires of extremism crackle louder and expand. It’s impossible to predict what 69 million Gen ...
Students from Alliance Leichtman Levine Family Foundation Environmental Science High School as part of the global strikes to demand climate action rally at Pershing Square on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, in Los Angeles, California.

Generation Z seems like a paradox: far more open to diverse viewpoints and compromise than older Americans, but also in some ways more dogmatic.

Will young people extinguish the flames of political polarization or fan them? As their values clash with those of the oldest generations hoarding power, the fires of extremism crackle louder and expand.

It’s impossible to predict what 69 million Gen Zers will do. But it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that as the arsonist GOP elders double down, young people will be more inclined to burn things, too.

Still, there’s hope. Gen Zers can negotiate differences better than perhaps any prior generation; some call them Plurals because of their pluralist nature. They’re the most racially and ethnically diverse voters. They’re more likely to identify as LGBTQ: 20% of them, compared with 11% of millennials and only 3% among older people. They’re averse to binaries, be it man-vs.-woman or citizen-vs.-illegal. A quarter

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