I think the social network was the most emotionally resonant movie for a certain cohort of young ambitious millennial males.
Whereas wolf of Wall Street was the most resonant for the same category of zoomers.
The message you got watching social network was basically this… the boomers are old and stupid and clueless and we can take over from them. Their empires are houses of cards and all we have to do is start pulling the cards out. We’ll build our own digital empires in their place. Will they be better than the boomers? Don’t know, don’t care. But we’re going to get rich and powerful doing it.
The message of Wolf of Wall Street is fuck everyone and everything. Nothing matters. The world is fucked. The only way to get ahead is to lie, cheat and steal. It doesn’t matter anyway. The only thing that matters is what you can get away with. Penny stocks, shitcoins, meme tokens, monkey pics whatever… let’s get our hands on it and find the next sucker dumb enough to buy it. We live in the moment. Fuck tomorrow.
pessimism vs nihilism
As a Zoomer, I feel you’re right. Nihilism is a big part of our generation.
It’s your defining characteristic. Wheras millennials defining characteristic is pessimism and boomers have naive optimism.
Yup, pessimistic millennial here! I try really hard to balance it with being idealistic but the pessimist part keeps me in check.
Sorry sorry. My fault. I’m actually gen-x. I got confused. I thought zoomers was gen-x. As an Xer I feel also very nihilistic. I’ve lost faith in all systems and governments. I’m not an anarchist but I just think government as a concept is incentivised to become corrupt and I just want an off-ramp which is where Bitcoin comes in. I’m just going to sit down earn fiat and put it into bitcoin and watch everything come crumbling down around me. If someone steps up and sort things out I’ll appreciate it but I’m not getting involved.
What’s even more terrifying is that there’s a growing movement of tradfi-wanna-be, HighSchool kids out there that say Wolf Of Wall Street is their favorite movie.
heartbreaking.
Very true. And both pessimism & nihilism breed dependence on substances, at least they do for me. Getting high on hope is the way.
Pessimism & nihilism also breed soy boys with man boobs and no testosterone. Optimism breeds discipline which society severely lacks.
None of those Movies matter to me. But i find myself rewatching several times „The Big Short“. It resonates much more with me and my world view.
Small reminder, many of us late Boomers and Genx have been fighting the system. We didn't have bitcoin or any freedom Tech. Stop blaming or labeling us. The game has been broken for decades. We saw it before your birth. XOXO
ps my personal story involves 1971 and how early I got raped by the banks. Punk and DIY way before you were born.
Who do you think built this?
Taking what I said personally is peak boomer. It’s ok to admit your generation was trash even if you weren’t. True of my generation as well. True of most generations.
Didn't take it personally. Also not a Boomer. And yet you needed to use peak boomer as a label, that's weak and divisive. I expect more from you. I thought we were on the same team and still hope we are. Hope we can all be agents of change. Love and respect. XOXO NadaFux
Interesting analysis. Almost zapped.
What would you pick as the X’er movie?
Oddbean new post about login | logout