the whole “i used to be a teen who hated authority only to grow up to become the authority that hates teens” is a bad bad thing that practically every other generation has fallen into and we all need to make an extremely conscious effort not to repeat the fucking pattern
Studies have shown that the shift starts to happen around age 30. If you’re close to that, make a conscious effort to be open to and accepting of younger people. I’m 31 and paying close attention to how I react to young people and new trends and shit and trying to keep myself from developing those thought patterns.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of people are starting to find some financial stability once they get past 30. You’re likely to have a stable job, a stable home, a stable relationship, etc. etc., at 30+ and you’re going to be pretty content with everything. The system works for you and you start to forget what it was like when it didn’t.
If you ask people who are 30+ and marginalised - people who are poor or queer or disabled or non-white - they still hate authority and may even have grown to hate it more than they did as a teen for the total lack of insulation they have from systemic injustices, and with systemic injustice only growing more blatant in recent years with the rise of modern fascism, those of us who have been locked out of that comfy place we were promised we’d have in our 30s are pissed.