Once again someone has said it far better than I. Cal Thomas has hit the nail on the head. He describes in eloquent and persuasive terms what I have been saying, often sub-optimally, about the deterioration of traditional values, especially in today’s twenty-somethings…
In his piece entitled “Lost Generation abandoning traditional values” Thomas accurately describes the problem our nation faces from the attitudes of Generation Z. He cites a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll as lending credence to this assertion and then goes on to summarize, beautifully, everything I’ve been trying to say. Some excerpts from the Cal Thomas article:
“There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country.
The founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.
How can this be? What has happened between the World War II generation, which gave so much so their children and grandchildren might enjoy the blessings of liberty, and the current generation, which seems cool to what once seemed to matter most?”
Generalizations are always problematic, but I have lived long enough and witnessed the general decline to make some.
Prosperity is one explanation. People who make more money than previous generations and possess a lot of stuff seem less inclined to participate in community (how many of us know our neighbors, who are here today and move tomorrow?). Stuff and the personal satisfaction of achievement lead to a decline in one’s need for God — too much money, too little purpose.
Politicians become a god-substitute and politics their religion. Creeping secularism has affected theological truth to the point where people can believe whatever they want — or nothing at all — and escape correction. Heresy, even apostasy, has infiltrated many churches.
Then there is culture. Younger people are exposed to what we collectively call “media” more than any previous generation. Most of what constitutes culture proceeds from a singular worldview that denigrates, or does not promote, patriotism, belief in God and values previous generations not only took for granted, but instilled in their children.
Unrestricted abortion has cheapened how many young people view the value of human life. For growing numbers of the young, marriage has become passé as children witness the pain of their parents’ divorce and decide that living together without a formal, legal or spiritual commitment is better than risking the cost and pain of ending a marriage. For some, children are viewed as a financial burden and an intrusion on adult lifestyles.
Sociologists and historians will tell us these things are cyclical, like weather. That has been true in the past when spiritual revivals often followed a fallow period of faithlessness and a focus on self. I’m not sure that cycle will repeat with younger people, given what they are taught at public schools and in liberal universities.
The values that shaped and sustained America through economic downturns and wars had to be taught and instilled in the next generation. Today’s younger people, as reflected in the poll, seem intent on making their own rules (if they can be called rules) and creating their own gods.
They will eventually learn the impossibility of it all as their substitutions will fail them. The question is can America survive when our moral, spiritual and patriotic foundations are destroyed? If you don’t love your country, what’s the point of having one?”
To illustrate precisely what Thomas is talking about, following is a sample of the comments to his article on the comment blog Reddit. THIS is what we’re up against. Profanity has been edited by me.
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aethsyn • 13h
F*** traditional values.
58
pegothejerk • 13h
They mean conservative values, traditional American values include genocide, cheating, broken treaties, protesting, rampant immigration, wars, poverty for most, etc.
I’d say those things are still here. The youth just isn’t into their bull***t religious dogma, rhetoric, and manipulation.
43
teyhan_bevafer • 12h
Same author, earlier column:
God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms—such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex—we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God’s standards, which were made for our benefit. — Cal Thomas, “Immutable Morals”
What a f***ing sicko. Perfect for FOX
26
MSgtJohnCWoods • 12h
Now I’m curious what insane, kinky s**t he’s into.
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Kkooopp • 9h
Haha. Pedophile priests shaming us regular sinners.
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casualphilosopher1 • 12h
I wonder how his fellow Fox News columnists feel about that. I don’t think many of them follow his standards.
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VioletBeauregard:flag-va: Virginia • 13h
Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z are “rejecting traditional values?”
More accurate headline is “Every generation younger than Baby Boomers is sick of patriarchal bulls**t.”
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BilltheCatisBack • 12h
I take offense. I am a Baby boomer hippie flower child and my generation really started the rejection of the traditional values. “ The times they are a changing. “
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gringostroh • 13h
F**k Cal Thomas.
35
TedCruzsAnalFissure • 13h
In his flabby face
9
Taman_Should • 12h
“But muh traditional values!” they said, when slavery was abolished.
“But muh traditional values!” they said, when women got suffrage.
“But muh traditional values!” they said, when schools desegregated.
“But muh traditional values!” they said, when Martin Luther nailed on the church door.
12
1991560SEC • 12h
I wonder why people are turning away from Christianity? Maybe because their “God” is a disgusting hateful p**k and so are his followers? Jesus and his kind ways and teachings about the poor and decent are dead to these a**holes. Look in the mirror Cal, YOU are the f**king problem.
17
__Parallax__ • 11h
Modern “christians” have more in common with the pharisees and money changers than they do with the disciples of christ
8
heyhey922 • 13h
This article is basically just Fox News crying over that millennials are entirely lost for the GOP and Gen Z currently look exactly like millennials.
15
jratcliff63367 • 13h
Traditional values of hate against people of color and the LGBT community? Yeah…let’s hope so…
24
Tylorw09:flag-mo: Missouri • 12h
Where my country hatred gone?
2
Cobrawine66 • 12h
I’m happily abandoning “traditional values”.
7
archerjenn:flag-tx: Texas • 13h
F**k Fox News.
None of these things sound bad to me.
21
Boleen • 13h
Traditional American values such as Trump’s cheating on all three wives?
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segvcore • 13h
Cal Thomas! I’d forgotten about that sick f**k. Surprised he’s still around, not surprised that Fox pulled him up out of their gimp box.
13
Ill_Try_To_Be_Civil • 13h
Yeah, I thought he was dead. He was exhausting and odious 20 years ago.
5
poloniumpanda:flag-us: America • 10h
Says the party that sacrifced all they claimed to stand for to fellate trump and the Russians.
5
AthaanShadar • 13h
Enlightened generation abandoning traditional american racist values
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grandtheftdragon:flag-id: Idaho • 12h
The fruits of traditional values abandoned us. What incentive is there for people under 35 to view “traditional values,” (whatever that is codeword for) to hold up in the same light as our forebears?
4
StopTheAltWhite • 12h
Yeah, it’s called “crony capitalism eating up all income in America for the 1%.”
5
NormP • 12h
A Fox News pundit talking about having values.
4
milqi:flag-ny: New York • 11h
Wow. This entire piece reads like an angry grandpa on too much hooch.
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prodigalpariah • 11h
Racism misogyny and xenophobia?
3
mclumber1 • 13h
Cal, don’t you support a guy who likes to “grab em by the p***y”?
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Tylorw09:flag-mo: Missouri • 12h
And who has been divorced 2 times!
Let’s read about Cal’s views on divorce…
God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms—such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex—we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God’s standards, which were made for our benefit. — Cal Thomas, “Immutable Morals”
3
tehmlem • 12h
If there’s a lost generation it’s the boomers who took the values they were taught and warped them into a hateful, bigoted parody. Who abandoned freedom of expression, equal rights, and the highest standard of living in the world in favor of tradition, exclusion, and deprivation.
4
Ssider69 • 10h
News flash….every generation changes their values. I’m not yet an old guy…but hardly young. I don’t think my peers would have shown up in large numbers to face off against neo Nazis (I often wonder exactly what it is those “boys” are so “proud” of). For that matter a HS student standing up to the jeers of very powerful adults in order to speak out against mass shootings in schools (btw, the grown ups that insulted this kid must be real proud of themselves…way better than popping a toddlers balloon!)
And that is patriotism. It is the act of trying to make your nation a better place.
2
schoocher • 9h
GOP traditional “values”:
Patriotism: We all work together for the benefits of multi-nat corporations and the super-wealthy.
Religion: There is no god but my God and not other way to worship him then with my ingrained belief system of hate, intolerance, and greed.
2
GhostBalloons19:flag-us: America • 9h
Traditional = Conservative which is a world view based on hate, fear and the status quo. So yeah.
2
Amartist19 • 13h
What values? Racism? Bigotry? This country doesn’t seem to have any.
2
shelbys_foot • 13h
The founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.
Seems to me they’re rejecting the New Gilded Age and the horrors of Trumpism.
3
hotbrownrain • 13h
Props for choosing greed as the primary cause but beyond that Cal Thomas is a f**king chump.
2
deviltrombone • 13h
“Cal” is Nadsat for “s**t.”
2
dogswontsniff • 9h
Ah yes the hack from the newspaper. Smug, ignorant, intolerant ass.
1
LucidCharade • 3h
[…]traditional American values like slavery, segregation, and internment camps. Those Ni****s and Japs should have known their place beneath us white men!
I finished that thought for you Cal, no worries. This one is free of charge.
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ComradeGibbon • 2h
TIL: Cal Thomas is still alive.
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ViskerRatio • 13h
Note that the ‘traditional American values’ they’re really talking about is valuing other people by participating in a community rather than merely pursuing self-absorption and narcissism.
And that should be worrisome for anyone. Not just from a “keep off my lawn” standpoint of old fogies, but from the younger generations who are going to fritter away their youth on pointless pursuits while not establishing the relationships they need to sustain themselves in old age.
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MSgtJohnCWoods • 13h
valuing other people
By caging children, blocking health care access, institutionalizing racism, demeaning women and stripping their autonomy….
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ME24601:flag-pa: Pennsylvania • 11h
valuing other people by participating in a community rather than merely pursuing self-absorption and narcissism.
*As long as said people fit one’s preconceived notion of who belongs to said community
The younger generation, meanwhile, wants to bring more people into the tent rather than force them to stay apart.”
While there are those who argue, “It’s their world, let them have it,” I choose to at least speak up, like Cal Thomas, and warn of the potential collapse of our country and our civilization. It’s spitting in the wind, perhaps, but I’d rather go down fighting in the hope that in some small way a remnant of the time-honored, proven principles I call traditional values will be preserved in my children and grandchildren.
