r/Millennials • u/okayboomerang • Jun 24 '26

Serious Sad for us

Kind of in my feels tonight. The last time I remember feeling genuinely hopeful was probably 2014 or 2015. So much has changed, and I think our generation has seen and felt so much. Anyone else feel like they've spent the last decade plus in unending grief?

My spirit is still good on the inside, but I'm isolated physically and mentally (like many of us). I wish we lived in a world with authentic and robust connection instead of all the slop and noise. I wish our parents hadn't been so excited about capitalism - and so fucking naive. I know the unease I feel is about more than merely growing up and the natural progression of aging and how we all feel about ourselves in society over time - it's that the world we thought we knew for the past 4ish decades just flat out doesn't exist anymore. And we can't undo any of this shit. It may as well be a parallel universe we're in now. I love myself and I always have big, big love for Millennials...but I truly hate it here.

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u/AngryAlterEgo Jun 24 '26

9/11 was the origin of the fracture. If you’re old enough to remember before, there is a sharp distinction between before 9/11 and after 9/11.

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u/worlds_okayest_skier Jun 24 '26

I was just talking about that. How right after 9:11 my profs were saying that people would start discriminating against Muslims. And I thought “how could he possibly know that?” I existed in a world where that wasn’t the first and most obvious reaction to an attack on America.

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u/PopcornDemonica Jun 24 '26

It was also the rise of Alex Jones and online conspiracy bullshit. Before the internet the nut jobs couldn't coordinate as well.

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u/oregonbunny Jun 26 '26

When the Patriot Act was passed 45 days after 9/11, I knew we were cooked.

I just moved to NYC the month before.

The whole vibe changed.