I see similar writings and various comments in this vein. As in all things, there's a side here, a side there, and the vast middle that has a broad spectrum of variants with a range of objective accuracy.
Students get insulted over student loan debt and/or poor choices for their academic path. Young people are insulted because they can't drive a manual transmission, change a tire, or even know where to pop the hood, much less find the oil disptick. Forget about asking them to check it because that's asking for the world!
They're harangued by older generations for not knowing that postage has to be applied to parcels to be carried from mailboxes by mail service carriers - pht, they don't even know where a post office is located or what its purpose serves. Doing laundry is its own mystery, mainly because they're too busy dying from snacking onTide Pods. They wait for a participation trophy for showing up, and they all get the same treatment, whether they excelled at the goal or not because they can't have their little delicate feefees hurt. They're lazy, have no sense of work ethic and are content to sit at home all day to play video games.
What's worst is that they have this utter disdain for their parents' and grandparents' generations! How dare they?!
And on and on with the lists of everything else that draws ire from more mature members of this society.
What I find, curiously, in every one of these conversations is that there's no mention of where they didn't learn anything skillful, didn't learn to make good choices, didn't learn a sense of integrity for a hard day's work.
Who was responsible for teaching those skills? Who was responsible for helping them wisely choose a career or academic path?
Whose responsibility was it to instill a sense of pride in work?
That seems to be forgotten, or more accurately, completely dismissed from any point in the conversation.
Sure there are some things that can't be taught, can't be forced. Things that are intrinsic with one's unique personality and perspectives. That's not the case with most of these basic complaints.
Why are these generations not owning their lack of interaction with these young people? Why aren't they questioning themselves as to why they invented, then continue to award, participation trophies? One doesn't learn to drive a stick without someone who first, has a stick, and second is willing to teach others. One doesn't know jack about a stamp or post office when one has never had to use one because all of his correspondence is digital. One isn't going to be eyeball deep in debt for school had one's parents been responsible enough plan for one's education, at least in part enough to knock a dent in it. One isn't going to eat Tide Pods in an effort to intentionally try to impress peers if one has been taught by one's parents that friends like that aren't "friends" and sure as heck don't deserve indulgence to their level of so-called impression when it means something as stupid that will kill you in a horribly painful death.
Where have they been the past 20-30 years? And why did they leave those gaps wide open?
There's a middle here that includes those considerations.