Originally a comment by Mostly Cloudy on It’s more than just a habit, it’s an aesthetic.
It does make me laugh that the article says today’s teenagers and twentysomethings are taking up smoking to “rebel”.
This is a generation that panics when someone uses the term “adult human female”.
This is a generation that bullies a writer (Elizabeth Gilbert) into withdrawing a book that’s set in Russia in the 1900s, because they think that the book is somehow pro-Putin.
This is a generation that has “challenging” books removed from their university courses because the rich little snowflakes are so easily triggered.
“Rebel?” The majority of today’s youth are conformist, philistine and easily offended. Somehow, we’ve raised a generation of Mary Whitehouses.
Laura Nyro and Joe Strummer wouldn’t recognise today’s pampered identarians, who love cigarettes but fear thought and action.
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2 responses to “Guest post: Conformist, philistine and easily offended”
This article from is interesting, and expands on the argument that today’s young people in the West are more politically and culturally conformist than any of their post-WWII predecessors :
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2022/01/youth-culture-today-modern-day-conformity-rules
Well said.