Archetypal conservatism: condemn the effect, ignore the cause. Why are we losing a whole generation of young men to video games? Because they occupy a sphere devoid of accomplishment. Why do they occupy a sphere devoid of accomplishment? Because the remuneration and achievement of entry-level employment has been value-engineered away. Why has the remuneration and achievement of entry-level employment been value-engineered away? Because shareholder value has replaced economic and social stability as the dominant goal of stakeholders. Why has shareholder value replaced economic and social stability as the dominant goal of stakeholders? Because your parents fought WWII and then gave you everything so you never had to work for it, you selfish fucks, which means you don't understand what you're taking from everyone else. Got picked up by a Lyft the other day. Infiniti Q50, dealer sticker still on. Young, attractive, distracted 20-year-old girl driving it. Now, it's possible that she staked that thing on her own and is entrepreneurealing her way up the ladder to... exactly where she is now. But it's also possible that Daddy helped her with a loan so she could get on her feet and earn a little nest-egg while she spends 2 years living at home sending out resumes waiting for an entry-level unpaid internship in whatever her degree is in. When I was a kid, I substituted on a paper route. It was good for $20-$30 a day. But I haven't seen kids delivering newspapers in 20 years. For one thing, nobody reads newspapers. For another, there are grown-ass men who need that money. If there's a long line of grown-ass men competing for a job that got handed to me when I was 11, I'm not going to begin to throw shade at a dude who plays Modern Warfare while he hopelessly throws resumes down the nowhere hole. Especially since he's competing against my girl in Daddy's Brand New Q50.
I'm always impressed at how effective it is to keep asking why to get to the heart of the matter.