Bret Easton Ellis: My generation wanted to be offended
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
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Is there room for radical art in 2023? UnHerd's Jacob Furedi sat down with Bret Easton Ellis, maverick author of American Psycho, to discuss his latest novel The Shards.
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// TIMECODES //
00:00 - 01:04 - What is Bret Easton Ellis’s new book about?
01:04 - 03:03 - The book was not a defence of Trump
03:03 - 04:51 - Is Kanye West an anti-Semite?
04:51 - 06:34 - Kanye is a moron
06:34 - 08:12 - How difficult is it for each generation to be liked?
08:12 - 12:56 - Bret grew up in a world dominated by adults
#UnHerd #BretEastonEllis #TheShards
Age 46 here - so glad to be a member of a generation of people who weren't obsessed with having other people "like" us. We don't care. This is what makes us cool AF. And we can take a joke, not "be offended", and just MOVE ON if something is just not for us. We don't have public temper tantrums, wallow in our victimhood, and require apologies. We just MOVE ON. It's called maturity. Gen Z and millennials need to grow up.
Being cool is what killed this country, thanks
I was born in 1980 and i am considered a cusp year. Depending on whoever made the scale i am Gen X on some and Millennial on others. Then they tell us just to pick the generation we relate to most lol 😆 And that's hard for me because I have Gen X and Millennial traits. I was in that weird year where i remember signing on computer with a dial up and hearing a screeching modem waiting to connect. 1980 was probably the last year we remember hearing AOL You've Got Mail 🤣
I can assure you, at least half of Gen Z is not the problem…
Age 19 here - writing a paragraph about how cool you are and how much you don’t care doesn’t help your case. You sound insecure and scared of a new world with changed interests.
Respect to your generation, but the boundaries you pushed don’t exist anymore, so being “punk rock” or “not giving a fuck” doesn’t mean anything and it just looks lame to us.
Maybe it’s better to care.
P.S. Bret Easton Ellis has been on the same tirade against young people for years, it seems to me like maybe he’s the offended one.
As a Gen Xer, I can see you guys failed to learn the lesson society taught tried to teach us by getting colder; Buying into the system will not save you.
Also, Bret was born in 1964, making him a boomer. Remember when the boomers were accusing Generation X of destroying everything because they were a bunch of soft slackers? Eat a dick, Bret.
This resonates BIG TIME for me. I just can’t stand censorious, language-policing authoritarians.
My generation, Gen X, was too cynical. But right now, people are suffocating. I don't know if I can survive the conformity.
Is there a full-length video that covers this entire event?
Tough people make prosperous times. Prosperous times make people soft. Soft people make (generate) difficult times. We are at that period right now.
Keep believing that lie. The technocrats have had power since Plato and Aristotle
They speak of Lived Experience, they are trying to erase the Lived Experience of Gen X. Tens of millions of us remember what it was like. We had racism on the ropes.
We were taught by teachers right after Civil Rights movement. We laughed at racist jokes about others and ourselves but regarded racist people as fools stuck in the horrible past we were lucky to be born after.
In the 90s if you were against racism it just meant you were a regular person. Anthrax and Public Enemy onstage together is a great example of the vibe.
The dude making the hardcore racist jokes usually got the hint nobody was laughing with him and occasionally he got knocked out. We had tough conversations without worrying about pissing each other.
Too much togetherness isn't good for those at the top sticking it to us so Division became the game once again. Politicians been playing that game since forever but Telecommunications Act in 96 made it much easier to control the info.
Don't let the TV, tablet, phone, or Teacher make you hate your neighbor. Keep talking and keep thinking, people!!.
Chris Forever Young
Did you live in the 80s? Lol Dallas was a shit hole and we moved out!
I’m a millennial and I absolutely hate that aspect about myself and peers. Bret said “millennials have this shame we didn’t have”, it’s so true. we want to be liked. It’s the toxic nature of the internet and social media, it is debilitating and really terrible. We do have this wanting to be liked, be followed etc. it’s a weird pressure older gen didn’t have, before Instagram took off. To be big online etc. we feel this shame and guilt in real life. it’s really bad. Now everything is so sensitive and careful. I’m always disturbed how now writing books, or publishing and creating art is only see as “worth it” if it makes you a lot of money or a big online following. Making Art should never be about that.
I'm a 28 year old millennial and I love BEE. I own every single one of his books.
What do you think about what he said in this video?
I’m Gen X and I totally agree. We really don’t give AF. We are the generation of the BEST years humanity has ever experienced.
Isn't it Gen X who produced the millenials? The kid is king helicopter parents?
@@gamkal7231 No one I know!
@@mogznwaz Lucky you. I've seen quite a few behave EXACTLY as he describes.
Also age 46 -- Bret Easton Ellis is probably the best voice for Gen X. I was just telling someone yesterday how profoundly I do not care what other people think of me. The other person was a millennial who seemed very concerned about being liked.
Gen X straddles the analogue and digital eras- we remember and entirely coped with life before the internet and experienced a lot of freedom but also embraced it and were instrumental in its early promise which was to democratise information and connect without barriers. Unfortunately the corporates and the governments stepped in to control and monetise it. And millennials love a bit of authoritarian control….
Last generation to come of age before the internet and it shows in our toughness and sense of independence.
b. in 1975 and raised to be wild.
Nobody could tell me what to think, as they never asked me if I wanted to be here in the first place. ;)
I wish UNHERD would allow clips to be taken. I'd share them so often
Two uses of "I" in two sentences! Dull self-absorption!
@@johnsmith1474........needs to get laid. How's that for you John? Written well enough?
Lol, the lady asking "but do you like us? what in particular do you like about us?", adding that she'd read the books etc, in such a way that confirms his observations :)) As if he's talking in absolute terms...
I changed my mind I love this format 👌
Wonderful interview! Thank you! Love BEE!!!
We treat adults like les terrible enfants & children like adults. Public institutions & standards should be geared towards family values. The private sector should be free. Limited government & natural rights.
All teens and 20 year olds think they're smarter than their parents, at least till they start having kids of their own. But they used at least respect their parents, and grandparents. It wasn't until Gen X that you started seeing adults treating kids as if they were smarter than adults - the kind of behavior he describes. And that puts a terrible confusing burden on children, and ultimately makes them very insecure, in fact. Mouthy, but kind of lost.
Loved it, really resonated with me as a Gen X, the thing about or current child-proof world in the west is stop on
Gen x' ers parented the Millennials...this is somehow missing from the conversation. Always great to hear Bret in conversation. Thanks.
For the most part the Boomers parented the Millennials.
@@yamishogun6501 even if that were the case (and it isn't), it would still be GenX's fault
I'm ignorant about Kanye West because I've never heard any of his music and I don't know anything about him. A lot of people I know would say the same. I'm 44 so maybe it's a generational thing but I really don't know.
Ok good to know, thanks for informing us.
It’s not great.
@Kiss the Sky some of his albums are exceptional and he's incredibly unique and creative.
Same, couldn't give a crap about Kanye West, haven't heard any of his music, and wonder why this dude is constantly being shoved in my face in the media. Why do I care what some attention-seeking whack job says and thinks about jews? I'm 46 and I love how our generation doesn't give AF. It's what makes us so cool and Millenials and Z's just NOT.
I and all the boomers that I know had MORE freedom than Bret describes.
But you also didn’t have the social freedom or technology that Gen X grew up to take totally for granted
@@mogznwaz I’m 49 Gen-X, what technology are you referring to? Lol. Boomers didn’t have social freedoms? Boomers were the love and hippy Gen.
Snowflakes 🤷♀️
I was born in 1984 but since I was brought up in a poor environment then I wasn’t spoiled enough to be offended of every single thing.
The more you let them BE and try to give them the stuff you didn’t have growing up, the more spoiled they are.
Haha I can relate to that. Well said.
And unprepared for life.
Spot on.
Context and surroundings is important when it comes to any joke in my opinion
37 years old so I guess I'm a millennial. I feel wayyyy more aligned with gen z. I loved everything he said. Great video and great books.
BEE is always on point. However, something you guys always miss is that Gen X have been lazy parents for the most part - letting the Internet educate your children, people in my generation. Don’t be so quick to praise yourselves.
Both my kids were born Gen Z but raised Gen X! They see though the noise. Lots of them do!
I get this inkling of youth exercising patience with older people... like they're waiting for attrition to clear us out of the way. Because we're in the way of something they need to do. And they're so polite they won't tell us.
so true.
You have to acknowledge them for avocado toast 🥑 😊
Unherd should get Hans Georg Muller of Carefree Wondering on. His point of authenticity and profilicity explains this whole video.
I concur with this fella. Gen x rule 😉
This guy sounds more like generation doomster. Lol
Chuck Palahniuk has entered the chat
The pendulum swings, children being ignored grow up to be parents walking on eggshells around their kids...?
The Notorious BEE, slingin some truth
youngmillenials/genz are different than genx and oldermillenials are in the middle and saw life pre internet
The dirty joke and the off comment were just seen as hilarious!
Man, he is trying sooo hard to make sure he isn't saying anything offensive here. It's sad to see, I want to hear this good author speak his thoughts without fear.
It's amazing that people are generally very average and waste so much of their time caring about everything else except being better, but actually achive the opposite.
Let it go......just ......let it go ...you've enough to think about with yourself.
I mean why are you so fixated on other people too?
@@svenjorgensenn8418 What a smart comment. I would have said that was a rather broad, vague point about people in general. But that's what happens when you type before you think, Sven. 🥴
Society was ruined when millennials came along with their woke ideology. If you're a millennial and you're not woke I applaud you for your common sense. Watch Charlie cheon and his videos on UA-cam as to why he left the far left movement and wokeism behind. He explains it very well. You can have conservative and liberal views without all of the other nonsense such as cancel culture, virtue signaling, and victim blaming.
Ellis is an older member of Gen X or a younger boomer, depending on the timeline, so his perspective is slightly different. Younger Gen X's, however, were raised during the transitional period where things were slowly becoming more kid centered and 'protective'. Unfortunately for us, by the time we reached our 20s in the late 90s and early 00s, the entire cultural landscape had changed, so we only got to experience the tail end of 'Gen X culture', and not from the best vantage point either as we were far too young to really 'get' or meaningfully partake in it.
I do miss those times to some degree, but I don't miss the pointless nihilism that was part of the culture.
One mustn't be a prophet these days to see that materialism, nihilism, dogmatism and censorship turn the whole world into a hopeless, cruel and silly idiocracy.
God is the last to be mocked and laughs to all on the way to him. 🍷📜🦍⏳
You know as much as we want to blame society for making a vocal minority of millennials the way they are, it’s really a result of their childhood and family life. People don’t become a certain way because they can or want to. It’s simply because something happened to them in their childhood or family life that incentives a certain type of behavior or worldview.
Question is (46-year-old here): why have Gen X parents helped create what we are seeing now? I don’t have kids, so I am certainly missing out on that first-hand knowledge/experience. But we were like he is saying, and the youth I see today have parents my age, and in college. Somehow a narcissism has breached the defenses of far too many Americans that came after Gen X. Why?
Because kids do the opposite of their parents? I know us Gen Xers did...
my speculation is GenX was the first generation in history that had a massive drop in marriages and having children, and a massive spike in divorces. as having kids becomes less and less common, and more and more costly, parents tend to become overprotective towards them.
I'm a guy and my boyfriend really likes this clip. Just thought I'd quickly add this comment. Later, seeing my boyfriend (I'm a guy). My boyfriend.
And that's a fact
Bret seems particularly blind to his own wild and out of touch privilege.
Technically he’s a boomer though…1964 are the last boomers
Love BEE
This idea of labeled "generations" is flawed to start with. There are no generations, there is a continuum, and connections that span the continuum. There are monumental events that put a stamp on a time period & the people in it, but these stamps impress on everyone at the time, not just a youth demographic. If you grew up in the US during the Depression, you may never waste food for the rest of your life, and distrust financiers and Wall St.
A serious war, an economic depression, an economic boom, a sea change in technology like electricity or the airplane, these things box in behavior and people's minds conform to that boxing in. That people limit themselves to cliques is not the same as the idea of a generation. Young people do not seem to be aware; they are cowed and herded so that they can be addressed by capitalists more efficiently, this is mistaken for a "generation." What is universal is money and it's pursuit, the selfishness of family, and desire for gain. Everything else is window dressing across the population.
In the opening scene of Sid & Nancy, Sid Viscous kicks the hood ornament off the hood of a Rolls Royce. Believe me, the owner was insured and did not give a shit, in fact he was more able to not give a shit about things than either Sid or Johnny.
Chigurh average
I love they try to pull the antisem1te thing...who cares!
Bret Easton Ellis saying he hates most people is completely Gen X. It was a generation that was defined by what it hated, as opposed to what it liked. For example you couldn't be a "real" punk, unless you hated disco music. And "real" punks hated most other punks, because they were posers. IMO Gen X isn't any better than boomers, millennials, or gen z - in fact they're a disappointment in many (most) ways. BTW I'm Gen X, so of course I'd have this attitude, right?
Punk was long over by the time the Gen X-ers came along. Punk was a late boomer phenomenon, just as the hippies were an early boomer one.
Hahaha how thoroughly Gen X and I totally agree 🤪 It's a bit like being stuck in a teenagers head but having a body of a nearly-old person
He never said he hates most people. If you cannot speak to a point in a video without lying about it, who the hell are you?
I’m just here because of the algorithm and never heard of this guy. Born and raised in Canada, fifty yrs old now.
From the start of his first answer I can relate to what he’s describing about the subculture post punk, pre-‘grunge’ era, and I think the legacy of punk as a counter cultural phenomenon still had a huge amount of influence as my generation was coming of age.
Racism and anti racism was a real part of the political divisions within our community and across the society.
And I mention this aspect of it because it led to real violence and real solidarity, as well as ppl being motivated to learn more about the history of neo-nazism in order to be more effective opponents of it.
We also rallied around causes like nuclear disarmament, animal rights, greenpeace type activism and social tolerance of gays and lesbians.
We were in a sense the socio-agricultural land base of what became political correctness. Best of intentions (for the most part) to live a more responsible set of values in the real world, or create social rules for civil coexistence that were liberal enough to accommodate really diverse politics and lifestyle choices.
Just a few thoughts.
Posted day 34/2023 by not-mardon acct user.
Those old farts are stupid. Children are raised!
Whatever they become is on the lacking parents's account.
Now, before they die, they are subtly trying to shift the blame.
May their deaths come fast. Efff' em!
Amen.
"The problem is that with Kanye, he really is, he wants to live in a world that is completely free..."
Of jews? Lol.
Xi ye gurn cakes
The older generations hating the younger? Is this The View or Unherd?
God he sounds old and grumpy. The classic "good ol days" bs.
Some things were better in the past, some were worse. Society doesn't necessarily 'evolve' for the better.
What on earth is he gibbering about?
Comprehension not a strong point for you, then.
@@kamandi1362 Perhaps. What is there to comprehend? Some old guy going on about his toy boy boyfriend. Rambling on about the mind bending dullness of his youth.
Respect your elders yeah?
@@winstonsmasterplan What are you talking about? I'm the elder here, a baby boomer.
@@heater5979 sounds like your confused dear, let me bring you your jello
Oldish man says obvious things in desperate ploy for relevance. Now with added nostalgia!
Go back and play with your dolls.
And who are you? Ellis is spot-on in so many ways. His novels will stand the test of time because he was true to what he lived through in the 80s and 90s. Tell us who you are and what you have accomplished????
You must be fun at parties. Go back to in your mom’s basement.
Ageist, very offensive.
@@phoenixkirchoff5268 I’ve reached a level of maturity and cognition where I don’t have heroes with exaggerated abilities like children do. It’s a very rare accomplishment, apparently.
this is MAGA defense... and LAZY 😮
Who taught them to be victims? Not their GenX parents?