We Who Love to Judge Millennials Should Look in the Mirror

Would you describe Millennials as weak, liberal snowflakes who are born with a sense of entitlement?

Oklahoma State head football coach, Mike Gundy, would. Gundy raised eyebrows this week when he went on a rant at a press conference after one of his football players transferred from his football program.

Some of the gems from his press conference included, “We allow liberalism to say, ‘Hey, I can really just do what I want and I don’t have to be really tough and fight through it.’ You see that with young people because it’s an option they’re given. We weren’t given that option when we were growing up. We were told what to do, we did it the right way, or you go figure it out on your own. In the world today, there’s a lot of entitlement.

"I’m not talking about every millennial, young person. Generation Z, I think is what they call ’em. It’s the world we live in because if they say, ‘Well, it’s a little bit hard,’ then we say, ‘Okay, well, let’s go try something else’ versus ‘Hey, let’s bear down and let’s fight and do this.’ So you see a lot of that nowadays.

"Your boss gets after you and tells you that you’re not doing a good job, you may go home and cry and tell your mom, and your mom may say its okay. That’s just kind of the facts of life, the world we live in today.”

I, too, have to admit I sometimes have my doubts about the next generation and get a bit terrified when I see the hateful, narrow-minded conduct routinely coming from students in places like Berkeley. But I part from Gundy in that I don't believe the average Millennial is as bad as we make them out to be, and the Millennials at places like Berkeley, for example, no more represent their generation than their professors represent mine.

But if the younger generation is screwed up, it is fair to ask who taught them the crazy notions we ascribe to them? And for that, we older Americans who love to judge Millennials should look in the mirror and take some of the heat. For Millennials were born into a world where both the culture and the American education process from colleges and universities right on down to kindergarten are dominated by hard left ideologues.

Outside of the home, where would young people learn any conservative values anymore?

For every Ben Shapiro who dares take on the left regarding its cultural narcissism and depravity on college campuses and elsewhere, I see 10,000 conservatives look away, not wanting to wade into the cultural war. As long as this is the case, conservatives might as well write off the next generation as well and the one after that and so on. If you don't stand up for what you believe in, you will get trampled.

Despite all this I do have faith that as Millennials age and are slapped in the face with the rigors of the real world they will moderate their political views, once they experience firsthand that the Marxist fantasies they have been taught are, in reality, horrible nightmares.

Certainly, the idea that we get more conservative as we age isn't a new one, and if we look at election data, we see evidence to back that up.

According to the Voter News Service exit poll, in the 1996 Presidential election, young people 18-29 years old backed Bill Clinton over Bob Dole 53 percent to 34 percent. Twenty years later Edison Research found in 2016 that same group, now 20 years older at age 40-49 years old backed Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton 50 percent to 46 percent, so much for young people retaining their enthusiasm for liberalism forever.

As a head college football coach, Mike Gundy has the opportunity to teach, motivate, and inspire the next generation of young men. If the younger generation he deals with is lacking, instead of hearing him complain about them, I would be interested in knowing what he is doing to improve them.

Matthew Kastel is a 25-year veteran of working as an executive in the world of sports, including professional teams, organizations, and some of the largest vendors in the industry. Matt has also written two novels and teaches and lectures at universities on the business of sports. For more information you can visit his website at thirdstrikeproductions.com. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.