My Generation—Gen Z—Is Being Taught to Hate America. We Have to Resist

A recent poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NORC at The University of Chicago sent shudders through America. The poll showed collapsing support for the foundational ideals that once bound Americans together. According to the study, ideals such as love of country, religion, the desire to start and grow a family, and even hard work have lost favor with the American people.

In 1998, 70 percent of Americans described patriotism as very important to them. Today, just 38 percent do. Similarly, the number of Americans who said faith was very important to them dropped from 62 percent to 39 percent, and the inclination to start a family slid from 59 percent to a measly 39 percent as well. Even the perceived importance of tolerance took a hit, dropping from 80 percent who described it as “very important” just four years ago to just a slight majority today.

And the younger the respondents in the survey were, the bleaker the results became. According to the survey, only 23 percent of Americans under the age of 30 described patriotism as very important to them, compared to 59 percent of respondents 65 and older. And less than 25 percent of those under 30 described having children as very important.

As a young person, I can’t say that I’m surprised. My generation, Gen Z, is in a state of crisis, like America overall. It’s an identity crisis. We don’t know who we are or what we want—because nefarious actors have put in a lot of work to make sure of this confusion.

The identity crisis fueling Gen Z has been cultivated by the Left-wing indoctrination into which we are inculcated at every educational and cultural institution in America. Researchers have found that it’s not only public schools kids in blue states who are being fed a steady diet of critical race theory; across America, in public and private schools, in red and blue states, kids are being exposed to ideas about oppression and marginalization, about the powerlessness of minorities and the singular value of being the underdog.

We have been groomed to be disgusted by tradition and ashamed of our identity as Americans, and to embrace the thralls of victimhood.

This is a crisis made not by mistake but by design—because the Left knows that if they can cause an entire generation of young Americans to forget or resent the values that make America great, they can recreate our country into whatever godforsaken amoral dystopia they wish it to be.

In their America, affirmative action has supplanted the need for hard work and ingenuity. It’s one in which free speech and tolerance have been displaced by cancel culture, where wokeness is treated not just as dogma but damn near religion.

It’s an America that’s unrecognizable to me.

The America I know is a nation where a young, Black kid like me, raised by his grandparents in the Deep South, can achieve anything as long as he works hard. The America that I cherish is a nation where free speech isn’t just tolerated but actively encouraged. The America that I respect is a nation guided not by the dogma of woke but by the virtue of morality.

We have to insist on the real America, and we have to insist that young people are made familiar with it. We can’t allow the woke view to prevail. To do so will mean that we have lost America as we know it. It will mean robbing future generations of the promises and dreams of the country we love so much.

I implore my generation to embrace rebellion—against the resistance. Be a rebel and start a family. Be a rebel and love America.

Young people need to stand up and reject the mistruths of today and embrace the truths of yesterday. That’s how we pave the way for a tomorrow.

C.J. Pearson is a PragerU personality.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.