Tonight in DC, 6-8PM: Why Millennials Aren't Listening to You (Yeah, You!)

If you're in the D.C. area, come out to this event tonight at Reason's DC HQ, from 6 to 8pm.

Drinks and light snacks will be served. Event is free and open to the public, but you must RSVP.

Born between 1980 and 2000, the millennial generation dwarfs even the baby-boom generation in numbers and is already fundamentally remaking American politics, culture, and business.

Millennials are widely credited with handing Barack Obama a second term as president, with being socially tolerant and skeptical of government invasions of privacy and personal freedoms, and creating world-changing companies such as Facebook.

Millennials also display an admirable independent streak, with fully one-third refusing to identify as either Democrat or Republican. They are the politically unclaimed generation and how they define their relationship to power will define the next 50 years or more of American life.

The October issue of Reason is devoted to millennials and features articles discussing the rise of "the Hipster Capitalist," the increasingly desperate scramble among parties for the youth vote, the millennial fondness for dystopian fiction and movies such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, and the new language of politics spoken by today's post-partisan youth. This special issue of Reason follows the release of this summer's Reason-Rupe Poll of millennials that was widely discussed in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and elsewhere.

You're invited to join Reason.com's Nick Gillespie and Reason Foundation Polling Director Emily Ekins for a fast-paced, wide-ranging discussion about millennials, what they believe, and how libertarians interested in promoting "free minds and free markets" might best with today's younger generation.

Light snacks, beer, wine, and soft drinks will be served.

Tuesday, August 26
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Reason DC HQ
1747 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007

RSVP HERE

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Xt0Fc

Questions? Contact Cynthia Bell at [e-mail] or 202-986-0916

Comments

[DJF]

Do you know what Reason Magazine needs, a article about Millennials.

Plus a status update on Lou Reed's health and who have the Cleveland Browns let down lately.

[Mike M.]

Also, something about what's going on in Ferguson, Missouri.

[Cdr Lytton]

Something about how Bea Arthur got police officers to enlist in the military.

[SusanM]

OT: Another intertubez win for Cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/blog/th.....mtroopers/

Americans have no trust for the police force, for reasons which should be obvious to anyone who's paying attention to the news right now. And while the authors of this article can't pretend to understand what it's like to be targeted by the police, or to be a police officer, we do understand how hype works. And myth. And our shitty fucking mass media. And we think that the myth of the police officer -- the the things we, as citizens, immediately assume upon seeing someone in uniform -- has gotten pretty rotten.

[sarcasmic]

The younger generation doesn't respect their elders? Wow. That's new.

*yawn*

[alan_s]

Please tell me more about these millennials you speak of. I feel like we don't get enough insight into their thoughts and feelings.

[Heroic Mulatto]

If you're in the D.C. area, come out to this event tonight at Reason's DC HQ, from 6 to 8pm.

No.

[John]

Ekins will be there. So there is that.

[Cdr Lytton]

Cuteness only goes so far.

[MegaloMonocle]

Well, yeah. Pretty damn far.

[John]

Disconnected is great, provided you are smart enough to reconnect to the right things. I am pretty sure the second part is going to be a problem. It is all well and good to hate both the major parties, except when the reason you hate them is because neither is socialist enough or gives you enough magical free shit.

[Pro Libertate]

What we really need is for people--young and old--to simply begin distrusting government in a serious way. You know, like used to be the status quo in the U.S. It's both rational and moral to do so.

[John]

That will be good only if they also have self reliance and lose their desire to have government solve their problems. Without that, you end up with a bunch of disconnected, angry people looking for in the words of Hayak "someone who can make a plan work".

My fear is not that the mellenials will become brain dead progs. It is that, since they seem to lack reasoning skills and virtually any knowledge of history, they will have no way to interpret what is happening to them and will go full fascist for the first strong man who comes along and gives them a place to belong and an easy answer to their problems.

[Palin's Buttplug]

And Baby Boomers are the epitome of reason?

[John]

No, they have created a generation of people nearly as ignorant as you are. That fact scares a lot of us.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yet you have the track record of Dick Morris.

Always wrong and comically so.

[John]

Sure Srkeek tell us more about how Obama care doesn't matter and the Democrats are going to hold the Senate.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I never said that Dems would hold the Senate. Silver has the GOP at 60%.

I said Obamacare would not be a measurable factor in the midterms.

[John]

You were saying they would for months. Thanks to Obama you will never see another Democratic Congress again in your lifetime.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Liar.

[MegaloMonocle]

I said Obamacare would not be a measurable factor in the midterms.

When its importance is reduced because Dear Leader has buried it under a pile of other epic fuckups, well, that's nothing to be proud of.

[The Last American Hero]

But why not? The stock market is at record highs and people either love or don't hate Obamacare according to you. By your logic, Team Blue should be coasting to the trifecta in November.

[The Last American Hero]

And take back the House.

[Jeff R.]

Yeah, my concern is that rather than traditional authorities telling young people what to think, it's basically the Reddit hivemind. If you've ever spent any time on Reddit, you should know that this is no cause for optimism.

[Palin's Buttplug]

"Hipster Capitalists" are overwhelmingly Democrat these days. Even the likes of Robert Reich are trying to lure them with ideas like abolishing the corporate income tax.

http://writingcapital.tumblr.c.....income-tax

[Cytotoxic]

Lying by omission.

[Mike M.]

Looks like Weigel has stopped taking his manic depression medications again.

[Agile Cyborg]

Rip some Liberty on those democultured waves, yo.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Millennials are widely credited with handing Barack Obama a second term as president, with being socially tolerant and skeptical of government invasions of privacy and personal freedoms...

Good job.

[John]

They are skeptical of government invasions of privacy but they handed President NSA a second term. So JD is telling us they are shreek level retarded?

I am sorry, if you voted for Obama twice, you no longer get to claim that you care about government invasions of your privacy.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yet a GOP POTUS sought and signed the three bills that neutered the 4th Amendment.

The big problem for you Team Red types is that millennials associate the GOP with only the Bushpigs.

[John]

And Obama made it all worse and continues to make it worse. The Democratic party is about domestic surveillance, criminalizing politics, and endless war. It is who you are. You need to get used to it and start defending it rather than just screaming Bush. Jesus, they send you the talking points on how great the NSA is and how the IRS needs to be used to suppress dissent and how illegal wars are now necessary, use the damn things.

[The Last American Hero]

Hope and Change, bitch. We were promised a new direction after the BOOSH years and got more of the same, except we also got a compliant media because he's got a better tan than his predecessor.

[John]

And poll after poll shows the country regrets that decision. So maybe they learned something?