ALL THUMBS, NO SENSE

While young people are dying on the streets of Teheran and Ukraine at the hands of sociopathic dictators, what are their Western counterparts up in arms about these days? Behold:

What you or I would likely take to mean "OK" or "Good idea" is, according to self-appointed spokespersons for Generation Z "rude", "hurtful", "hostile", and should "never be used in any situation". 

Rude? Hurtful? What would they consider missiles from Russia or gunshots from the Iranian army? There's a good reason why Vladmir Putin and the late Osama bin-Laden decided the West was weak and decadent. Take a look at that emoji again and ponder: other than being shoved into an orifice against your will, is there anything remotely hostile about it? 

How Gen Z reacts to the
grimace emoji.

But this is the generation that's going to save the world. Just like mine was supposed to. The generation that instead brought us Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Sara Palin, and every baby-boomer who wasn't busy dropping acid or getting laid in the mud at Woodstock. 

At least I understand the kids' irritation at emojis used by "old people" -- meaning 40 -- at work. The grimace, the crying face, smiling piece of shit. Those do smack of desperation of trying to look cool. But more worrying is why are professionals using the smiling piece of shit at work? They're supposed to be, er, professional.

No, Frank. Just... no.

I get that each generation resents when the previous tries to glom onto their stuff. In the '60s, the only thing worse than, say, Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason playing hippies in a sketch was their peers actually adapting our style in an attempt to be cool, with-it, and maybe catch a little of that groovy magic.

But we never found this stuff hostile. Stupid, sure. But, to use a phrase that gets way too much play these days, the only thing it triggered was gales of laughter, followed by the feeling that we were the cool ones.

While I'm no ageist -- hey, I collect Social Security! -- there's something terribly depressing about seeing elderly politicians clinging to power as if they're holding onto a Titanic lifeboat. Every time Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, or, yes, Joe Biden steps before a microphone, I wonder Is this the time they start babbling incoherently as blood starts to pour from their eyes? And yet whenever there's a story about younger people fleeing the room because of a half-inch cartoon image, I feel like responding only one way:

                                                   

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