American Weirdo

Is it just me, or are the current crop of college students/early twentysomethings actually getting more stupid? I know that the bar was set ridiculously low for my generation, but it seems like de-evolution continues into the new decade. Yesterday, I was walking the streets of Brooklyn (sans iPod) and I past a hipster undergrad with her mom. They were having a normal conversation about whatever it is hipster girls find important (Pitchfork, Bright Eyes, and Perez Hilton). The mom turns in the wrong direction to cross the street and her daughter utters the autoreply "We're going this way, bitch." and indicated the opposite direction. I had to do a double-take. Yup, she just called her mom "bitch", as if it were a term of endearment, like "Mommy" or "Ryan Adams". Myself and the mom were left utterly bewildered. The hipster undergrad, on the other hand, explained that she meant no offense, whatsoever, and encouraged her mom to have a laugh at how funny that moment was.

My jaw is literally on the floor. American youth genuinely seem to be dumber as each year passes. I blame The Hills. That, and whatever other cultural succubus is warping the young minds of today. But, to be fair, we do live in the Age of Post-Irony. Meaning that whatever was once offensive, we're now supposed to find funny, and vice versa. If that sounds at all confusing, it's because I don't think anyone over the age of twenty-four is supposed to understand it. I used to read about movements like this all the time in my history classes: people becoming more disillusioned and detached as life continued to disappoint them. Actually, to be fair, it makes a good amount of sense. The last ten years have been insane to live through: Columbine, 9/11, the 2000 Election, the 2004 Election, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and whatever fall-out continues to happen for that. When things tend to get too big for people to accept, we all retreat towards anything that seems like an escape. Be it crazy reality TV shows we know are fake, or at least trying to play it all off like a big joke. The trade-off being that our national standard for intelligence always seems to plummet with it. Of course, this girl in question couldn't have been any older than twenty; maybe twenty-one. While I was watching American history eat itself alive, she may have been barely old enough to appreciate the early work of Kelly Clarkson. Meaning that anything that I - at twenty-five - may view as staunchly important or of value in our culture, could be only an afterthought to her. The difference-maker being only four years.

Four years separates hilariously funny from utterly inappropriate. To be honest, I'm a bit frightened that I'm no longer in on the joke.