Kerby Anderson

More than a decade ago, I did an interview with Mark Bauerlein about his book, The Dumbest Generation. Last week we focused our attention on his new book, The Dumbest Generation Grows Up. The ignorance and faulty logic of young people in college has now made its way into the young adult culture.

He reminds us that social commentators predicted that the millennial generation would make a significant impact on society because they were coming of age in the Digital Age. Back then, professor Bauerlein was warning that smartphones and computers were having a negative impact on his students and young adults.

He explains the millennials “grew up in a world of their own” and “it didn’t provide them with the tools to handle the ordinary pains of life once they had to leave that world. Most of them had no religion to give shape and direction to their mortal careers, no doctrine to explain suffering when it came.” On one side you had the “nones” who rejected religion. On the other side you had Christians who adopted the Christian Smith description of “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

We also talked about the cancel culture. They may have protested Charles Murray and Heather MacDonald, but they may never have a read a word written by them. They just knew they were supposed to protest these people when they showed up on campus.

A majority (51%) in one survey said they were justified in shouting down a speaker if the speaker utters “offensive and hurtful statements.” And the university faculty and administrators also failed them because many of them could not even explain why certain college courses were necessary.

The dumbest generation has grown up, but it doesn’t appear that too many of them have grown up emotionally or intellectually.