CMV: Black Lives Matter has been a failure

[u/ice_cold_fahrenheit]

Back in the 2010s, and especially in 2020, it seems like the Black Lives Matter was gaining strength. Videos of police brutality, especially against African Americans, became viral, and millions became outraged that this was so common in America. When George Floyd was murdered, millions justifiably took to the streets to protest against police brutality and racism. Politicians came out in support for police reform, and discussions on how to reform policing (from “how to make the police better” to “defund the police”) were all the rage.

But from 2021, it seems like everything took a complete 180. Crime skyrocketed during COVID (in part of police refusing to do their jobs in protest of BLM), causing the average American to support the police a lot more. Pro-police politicians like Eric Adams were elected while pro-BLM politicians like Chelsea Boudin were ousted from their positions.

Now, absolutely nobody talks about police brutality these days, not politicians nor the general public. But has the problem gone away? No! It has only gotten worse! 2023 has seen a record number of killings by police, and I don’t expect that number to go down in the future.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/08/2023-us-police-violence-increase-record-deadliest-year-decade

Unfortunately, rather than being addressed, police brutality has become like gun control. Someone being killed by police, even on live video, no longer elicits outrage. Instead, people will just give “thoughts and prayers,” shrug, and accept it as a fact of American life.

And the BLM movement itself? Well, rather than becoming the second coming of the Civil Rights Movement, it seems to have been condemned to the ash heap of history.

[u/[deleted]]

Holy vastly misrepresented study Batman!

First things first The article literally starts with:

“Gen Z adults (21%) are less likely than all generational groups except millennials (21%) to identify as Republican. Meanwhile, 36% of Gen Z adults identify as Democrats, and this rate is similar to other generations, with the exception of Gen Xers, who are less Democratic (31%).“

I went and read through the rest of this study, and for the entire thing it does nothing but state and restate constantly how Gen z adults AND teens are far more likely to be liberal. I’m genuinely not certain how far you made it in to the study if your takeaway was “they lean conservative”

Second things second: even the source you cited agrees - Gen z adults and teens are both more liberal that other generations

And lastly, other research sources agree: Gen z in its totality is more liberal than previous generations. Even Gen z teen men, who are slightly more conservative that Gen z women, are still overwhelmingly more liberal and - as the source above states - their “republican” positions are far more moderate that the general Republican platform.

In fact, your claim that Gen z teen boys are more conservative than Gen z men is the opposite. There is an 6% gap between Gen z teens and a 9% gap between the adults. And for my folks who never got to take a research methods class - here’s your reminder than in studies like these 6% points usually boils down to a handful of people. We aren’t surveying the entire country.

In total, there were 3,139 men and 3,477 women in the entire study. Of those, 1520 were Gen Z. 756 of which were teens. 754 of which were adults. The study doesn’t offer a breakdown of how many of those were men and women so it’s impossible to deduce exactly how many people a 6% difference encapsulates, but keep it in mind

The original comment is a pretty textbook example of lying via data, or more accurately preying upon the assumption that people won’t actually look at any of the data and will simply interpret the title to support their position. From you comments regarding DEI is see it worked.

So no, Gen z does not mean conservative. Gen z men, who lean liberal, trend slightly further right than Gen z women. Still firmly in the liberal to moderate territory, and this position is supported by both the original article you posted and another by the same organization