Neuerotica began with the idea of bringing together a congress of young, marginalized, and unconventional creatives under our umbrella, where their unique talents could be amplified and broadcast. However, discussions among members of Gen Z, on and off social media, about the environment, the political climate in the United States, and their expressed interest in a socialist society made me realize that I might be able to inject politics and social issues into Neuerotica’s structure.  One of my best friends is a member of Generation Z, and she was the spark that reignited my radicalism. Both of us are autistic and queer, and our conversations revealed to me that Neuerotica needed to feel more inclusive. 

Finding wisdom in a younger generation isn’t something I expected, and I can only guess why it’s happening. Gen Z is the generation I wish I had grown up in. Their openness about socialism, neurodivergence, and being queer has inspired me. The ideals they believe in are precious, and I want to protect them. There’s no such thing as a perfect generation, but the gulf between War Babies (boomers) and Gen Z couldn’t be greater. There’s been a long-standing feud between war babies and millennials, and now Gen Z. Generation Alpha is upon us, and the red carpet being rolled out for them is actually a tattered rug soaked in blood.

I hesitate to condemn any one generation for the ills of society, but I am keenly aware of the people who voted for the devil in the house in Washington, D.C., and still support the fiend to this day. Boomers (the great majority of whom are white) are the most contemptible people I’ve ever known. People like to defend that generation, saying that white boomers marched side-by-side with Martin Luther King and black people during the civil rights era. That is undeniably true, but it’s only a fraction of the truth. Dr. King’s daughter, Bernice King, on the Threads social media platform, had this to say about white America’s perception of her father : 

“Don’t act like everyone loved my father. He was assassinated. A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most hated. Many who quote him now and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate, the authentic King.”

White boomers may have been a part of the civil rights movement and supported it, but those individuals were in the minority. One need only look at the millions of white boomers who have been supportive of both of Donald Trump’s presidencies to realize that any commentary on a “noble” boomer generation is (unsurprisingly) hyperbolic. Ignorance and fanaticism are a recipe for disaster, and Donald Trump’s boomer base has plenty of both. These are people who know nothing about history, the United States Constitution, economics, the three branches of government (and how this system was designed to prevent the kind of tyranny Trump is clearly guilty of), and they sure as hell don’t know how the system works (though, to be fair, the same can be said of liberals, and any generation. The difference between them is that the liberals don’t brag about or bask in their ignorance). Millennials weren’t being unfair in their “okay boomer” social media comments and memes; they were right.

Boomers made the boots of oppression fashionable and marketable, then sold them to our kids. Organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation are funded by oligarchs, and their goal is to annihilate the aspirations of young Americans while persuading them to join their ranks.

Donald J. Trump is a tyrant, and his presidency brings clarity to the destructive nature of unfettered capitalism. Rather than the creeping fascism one would expect before a nation becomes a dictatorship, it was born fully formed the day Trump began his second term. When tyranny consumes a nation, the young are always the first casualties. They are burdened with the twin tasks of having to endure their oppression and fight against it.

I want to make it clear that I am not being ageist; this is about the mentality that stems from the generation, rather than the people in the generation. My disdain for the boomer mentality (their outdated, toxic ideals) is epic. The racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, and lack of empathy disgust me. When I look back at the boomer generation and compare it to Generation Z today, I am amazed by the polarity; that’s why I wanted Neuerotica to echo the culture and ideals of Gen Z. I’m not solely targeting that demographic; anyone who shares the progressive ideals of that generation is welcome, regardless of age. It just so happens that Gen Z became the jumping-off point for Neuerotica, and I couldn’t have done it with any other generation.

In the 2010s, I wrote articles, conducted interviews, and promoted heavy metal bands on social media. In another chapter, I mentioned that my taste for music spans genres, decades, languages, and countries; heavy metal is one of those genres. However, I quit for two reasons, one of which was the culture in the metal scene at the time. Generation X has been venerated as smarter and more compassionate than the previous generation. While that may be true, they still bear boomer traits. Metal, for me at the time, still had way too many testosterone vibes going on for me to fully enjoy the scene. My way of thinking and looking at the world was changing, and I started noticing thoughts and behaviors that reflected boomer thinking and behavior. The “new” me was no longer interested in being a part of that. 

Not long after that, I worked with a millennial magazine until I learned that the owners (a mother and daughter who were former friends of mine) were not just conservative republicans, but friends with people close to our current president. The media company they ran before the magazine did an interview with that reprobate Steve Bannon. Millennials themselves had nothing to do with that situation, but they were difficult to write about, and the few in my circle were uninspiring. I had heard of Gen Z but knew nothing about them until 2020, when I started listening to hyperpop during the pandemic. They made me realize I had an obligation to them and to future generations, and that passion has carried over into everything I intend to do with Neuerotica. Boomers are on the cusp of extinction, but getting rid of that mentality is going to take some time, because it is as tenacious as it is contagious. The lionization of the conquest and colonization of the lands now known as the United States of America, its institutional bigotry, cultural hegemony, and imperialism, has been celebrated and upheld for decades by the generation known as Baby Boomers.

If there’s going to be any future worth living in, young people are going to have to ignore and/or reject a lot of what they’ve been fed about people, history, and the world. Boomer values, for the most part, are worthless. Worse, they’re toxic. When I came up with the idea for Neuerotica, I wanted it to be the middle finger for every young person who knew that what they were being told by their parents and schools was bullshit. What boomers are attempting to do now is deny the young their futures because they wish to live in an idealized past and want young people to live in that space with them. This means that any ideas or dreams young people have about how they want their lives to be won’t have the chance to flourish. It will be a War Baby world until one generation has the intestinal fortitude to say, "Enough."

background photography by Photo by Zoe Graham