I think its misguided to not recognize generations. It's also naive to think all years for generations are arbitrary.
That Millienials grew up pretty much after the fall of Communist power and had no Soviet Power in their lifetime matters, as does terrorism born from the middle east being a defining tragedy and issue. Socialist leanings without a threat from one plus the psychological impact of terrorism equals Social Studies Warrior.
So decade-based years of birth may not matter, but the historical events and atmosphere of their development do.
(along with social media and computer tech being abundant)
When so many young voters went for Donald Trump I wasn't surprised because.
- Everyone born after 1997 has lived through 9/11 knowingly and had to check the Threat level alert-o-meter daily
- They probably all watched one or more seasons of The Apprentice or The Celebrity Apprentice
- They watched Donald Trump comment on anything ever, like hours after 9/11 happened or what he thought about North Korea
So they grew up with:
2001 : 9/11
2002 : Mass surveillance / Afghanistan, let's bomb the towel heads, yeehaw
2004 : Iraq is FREE after SHOCK & AWE, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
2005 : Oops we just incited a civil war, don't worry kids
2008 : Financial crash, none of the bankers jailed, just pats on the back and bail-outs for everyone. Parents poor and bitching about foreigners stealing their jobs
2011 : Let's bomb Libya because we still have some left-over cruise missiles
2012 : Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi / Syrian Civil War breaks out
2013 : ISIS roars it's ugly head
2014 : ISIS establishes caliphate / War in Ukraine
2015 : Beheadings on YouTube, women drowned in cages, pilots set on fire - or for ISIS: Tuesday
2016 : Donald Trump strolls down escalator and says everyone in power fucked it up bigly
How did we think the kids would turn out?
For me 9/11 happened like on the first day of high-school. I don't even live in the US and it a big impact on everything.
Now you have to tell kids that have watched towel heads being bombed since 2002 (that's 16 years, basically their entire youth) that they should be tolerant to other faiths and embrace the diversity.
How fucking stupid are those dumbfucks