"Blade Runner (1982): Tears In The Rain" (opens in separate window)

saving gen z to save america

friday, october 10th, 2024

Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, stands as a profoundly damaged cohort, scarred by ideological indoctrination, social media’s corrosive grip, marginalization of morality anchors like religion and families, and a narcissistic culture that breeds entitlement. Gen Z’s alarming psychological fragility – hypersensitivity to “microaggressions,” equating words with violence, and an obsession with censoring “misinformation” – amplifies their vulnerability to a perverse rationale for violence. This was starkly illustrated by the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University, while he engaged in civil debate, essential to a free, peaceful society.

[FULL TITLE: "Understanding and saving Gen Z to save America"]

Gen Z’s fragility is shocking to those of us who grew up with brave parents who fought in world wars and who immigrated with nothing but a strong will to live free. Gen Z focuses on perceived harms from words, demanding censorship for protection, with 72% endorsing shouting down speakers and 34% justifying violence to suppress speech. Their cancel culture thrives, with 97% engaging in unfollowing or blocking, the online version of intolerant mob behavior. This betrays a psychological frailty that undermines resilience and prevents discourse necessary for peaceful coexistence.

Those born between 1997 and 2012 stand as a profoundly damaged cohort, scarred by ideological indoctrination and a narcissistic culture that breeds entitlement

Gen Z’s dysfunction is undeniable. They average nine hours daily on screens, over three hours on social media, eroding real-world connections. This fuels asocial behavior, surging loneliness, and poor mental health; only half favor personal over virtual interactions. Financially, they falter: 55% find homeownership harder, 44% struggle to secure jobs, and 55% see promotions as elusive, fostering underachievement. Employers note that 65% of recent college graduates feel entitled, 63% are easily offended, and 55% lack professionalism and work ethic. Mental health crises are rampant, with depression, anxiety, and hopelessness spiking, especially among liberal-leaning youth, driven by a victimhood culture amplified by social media.

Gen Z’s psychological frailty sets the stage for unique vulnerability to social contagion, suggested by the explosion of gender confusion. Transgender identification among young adults surged from 0.59% in 2014 to 3.08% in 2023 – a 422% increase – with non-binary identities up 1260% and transgender men quadrupling (309%), driven by social media echo chambers and peer pressure. Gallup’s 2025 poll shows LGBTQ+ identification at 9.3% overall, nearly triple 3.5% in 2012, doubling in five years, with over 23% of Gen Z (born 1997-2006) identifying as such. The Williams Institute’s 2025 poll estimates over 724,000 transgender youth. This confusion pushes youth toward drastic measures like mutilative surgeries and fuels mental health crises. Rising detransition rates underscore the error; tragically, only 13% of detransitioners receive support from LGBT organizations versus 51% during transition, a shameful abandonment of distressed young people.

To understand the remedy, we must first acknowledge the causes. Never forget that the COVID-19 pandemic mismanagement inflicted catastrophic damage on Gen Z, an epic loss of society’s moral compass that left Gen Z adrift. Professors, teachers, and doctors backed isolation, disregarding known lockdown harms even though Gen Z was at exceptionally low risk from COVID. Mental health crises exploded: self-harm in teens doubled to tripled vs. 2019, overdoses surged 40-120%, and anxiety skyrocketed. One in four college-aged kids contemplated suicide by June 2020. Few discuss that Sweden kept schools open and reported low damage to youth mental health.

Inflammatory rhetoric from America’s left has influenced this weakened generation and likely inspired violence. Is it only a coincidence that members of Gen Z assassinated Charlie Kirk, attempted to kill President Trump, shot up schools, and murdered United Healthcare’s CEO? Media bias is stark and quantifiable: from 2016 to 2025, “extreme right” or “far right” mentions outnumbered “extreme left” or “far left” 5:1 (~12,000, with ~6 billion views, vs. ~2,500 with ~1.25 billion views); some, like MSNBC at 18:1 and PBS at 42:1, were far worse. Extreme demonization of Trump or MAGA conservatives as “fascists” or “threat to democracy” – MSNBC’s ~10,500 segments (~5.2 billion views), The New York Times’ ~620 mentions (~310 million views), and President Joe Biden’s 2022 Philadelphia speech, where he declared that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” a message reiterated in over 15 major addresses from 2020–2025 – has legitimized violent action.

Gen Z is naturally influenced by professors, but today’s professors are steeped in extremism rather than a force for free debate. We should be alarmed at statistics like 95% of Stanford faculty voted Democrat in 2020 per Rabushka; 63% of students accept shouting down speakers, 34% deem violence acceptable to suppress speech (up from 20% in 2020), and 48% justify political violence.

Elite university leadership continues to abrogate its responsibility by ignoring Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Not a single Top 20 school offered any mental health support despite obvious on-campus impact, in contrast with extensive wellness outreach for their left-favored crises, including George Floyd’s death and both of President Trump’s elections.

Some call for legal, top-down interventions, but ultimately, it is individuals, not institutions, who will save freedom. Despite their damaged psyches, the durable solution is present in Gen Z itself. Charlie Kirk knew that and devoted his life to fearlessly engaging Gen Z in debate. That empowered his audience to think critically about liberty, morality, and truth. Charlie’s death sparked 50,000+ TPUSA chapter requests in six days – their thirst for dialogue is evident.

In that spirit, we must continue to challenge inquisitive students with ideas they may never have heard. And we should identify and mentor Gen Z’s bold, rising leaders in early careers who’ve shown a commitment to critical thinking and free speech, to accelerate their rise into leadership across business, government, media, and beyond. Efforts like these demand courage – from us and from them – an attribute in short supply today. But as C.S. Lewis noted, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

© 9.28.2025 by Scott W. Atlas, "Real Clear Wire". (H/T Padre Tom))

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8:15a on Friday, a nippy 51°F, blue sky, no rain in sight, morning, I made coffee, tried to shake the 'cobwebs' from my brain, scanned the weather and news, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", scanned the news headlines and weather forecast. Coffee was great, and I got ready for the day. For the 2nd day, I had the heat on for a while, at 73°, to take the chill off the condo. Summer's coming back over the weekend and into next week, and we're in a drought, again. I watered my 3 Phalenopsis Orchids, and repotted one of them. So much 'shit' in the news, I'm almost gobsmacked. Heh.

Everything newsworthy is the 'govt shutdown', and it probably will be, for a while. By 11:30, I'd had some breakfast, got ready for the day, and set out on a couple errands. Traffic wasn't bad for a Friday, so I was back by mid-afternoon, unloaded, and did a couple condo chores. No nap today, even though I was tired. Sherry would be here after she gets off work at her Daughter Hollie's shop, Virtue Local Art Market, in nearby Hallam. She arrived, we had a nice 90mins together, and she left as it was getting dark.

I had dinner, watched the 6p evening news, and switched to History's new season of "Ancient Aliens" and TWC's "Weather Gone Viral", until 1a. Lights out.

I slept-in until 9a on Saturday -- nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with -- so some extra sleep was good. A bright, sunny, warmer 62° morning, forest to get into the low-80s until mid-week, so Indian Summer -- OH, (did I offend you, leftist morons? -- is back for a short while. I had breakfast, scanned the weather and news. News? Somehow, I just can't feel any empathy or sympathy for Portland, Seattle. SF, LA or New York. Those leftist hellholes are dystopian nightmares, keep re-electing the same leftist/communist/socialist/Marxist/anarchist filth to office, and tourists are staying away in droves. Commie Mamdani has never run any kind of business, and is supported by his rich mommy and daddy. He's a punk POS. I will revel in seeing NYC crash and burn, after electing a subhuman POS muzzie(SPIT!), as mayor. Go NYC, go; destroy yourself!

I listened to the local WSBA's replay of a "CP Show Podcast", went thru a small pile of mail on my desk, skipped a nap, and watched the 6p news on NEWSMAX -- FNC is crap on the weekend --, then switched to Discovery's "Expedition X" and History's "Mysteries Unearthed", until 12 midnight, and unplugged.

Up at 8:30a on Sunday, a blue sky, sunny, 61°, breezy morning. I made coffee, fired-up the desktop, checked the weather and news, and realized that I could have slept another 2-3hrs. I watched the end of the 2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix (night race), and caught the full race highlights on YT, started 2 loads of laundry, and did a slew of little condo chores.

With laundry and chores done by 4p, I grabbed a short 90min nap, watched the news and switched to Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" thru the evening -- weekends heave a dearth of news and good TV -- until 11:30p, and bagged it for the day.

Awake from the garbage truck noise at 6a on Monday, I made coffee, turned on the heat for a short while, fired-up the desktop and scanned the weather and news. A nice, blue sky, sunny, nippy 52° morning, forecast to reach the mid-80s, as is tomorrow, the 60s & 70s return, as does rain, midweek. We're not yet in a drought period, again, as many counties in PA are. I tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" and listened until 12, got ready for the day and left for my usual Monday run for points south of York. 3 errands, and I was back by 2p, in VERY heavy traffic.

I unloaded the Jeep, had a late lunch, took a 90min nap, and watched the evening news on NEWSMAX. I switched to MotorTrend's "Iron Resurrection" and History's "Ancient Aliens" for the rest of the evening, and unplugged around 1a.

The lawnmower noise finally woke me just before 9a on Tuesday, a high cloud, windy, partly sunny, 62°, with t-storms forecast for later today and thru the night. I made coffee, had a couple smokes in the garage, tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" and scanned the news headlines. So much leftist, commie BS going on against ICE, by our American legislators in states and cities, that it makes my head spin and my BP boil. The demonKKKrats should be stood against a stone wall, and shot.

I rechecked the radar weather maps, and the t-storm was just moving into WVa, but headed for us in York, later today. Good; we need the rain. I made Buttered Grits & Poached Eggs for lunch, got ready for the day. I did a couple small condo chores, opened-up the condo get some cool, fresh air thru, and laid down on the LR couch for a all-too-quick 2hr nap.

As the afternoon went by, it got very dark earlier than usual, as the t-storm front approached, but no rain; just a few light showers. The region sure needs rain, and if we don't get it overnight, as forecast, then we'll get some over the weekend. I had dinner, watched the evening news, and switched to Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" until 11p. Lights out.

Up at 9a on Wednesday, an overcast, rainy, cool 57° morning. I made coffee, turned on the heat for 15-20mins, had a couple smokes in the garage, and tuned into the usual "CP Show LIVE", from 9-12. I also listened to the Rob Carson Show, from 12-3p. The annoying, unsolicited Medicare calls are coming-in to my cell, by the dozens each week, as the "enrollment period for Medicare Parts A & B" begin (I've had both for many years), and I've tried to block them , but they keep using different numbers on each call. PMO (Pisses Me Off).

The cold front went thru late morning, and temps were noticeably low all day, in the mid-60s, and the sun and blue sky returned. Very nice, and humidity was very low. Feels like Fall. Leaves are falling from the next door Pin Oak, Maples, Honeylocusts and Zelkovas on my street and, although it's a nice time of year, it's a freaking mess without almost daily clean-up. Sherry has it 5x worse, with all the old trees, their debris and leaves, around her home.

After a couple errands, I grabbed a 90min snooze on the LR couch, had dinner, watched the evening news, and switched to Discovery's "Expedition X", and then to a 2hr "Ghost Adventures: Invasion of The Skinwalkers". I bagged it for the day at 12:30a.

Up at 7:30a on Thursday, a very nippy 46°, sunny, breezy morning, forecast to reach on 63°, with frost warnings for tonight. I fired-up the furnace and warmed-up the condo to 74°. The new Kenya AA Coffee was very good, I had a couple smokes in the garage and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE". My Medicare (Advantage) Insurance Broker called at 1p, for a recap conference of 2025, a preview of 2026, and I decided to stay with Geisinger Gold PPO coverage, which I've had since 2014, and with which I'm very pleased.

My friend and former employee, Dave, also called to schedule my front/back gardens' Fall Maintenance, for tomorrow at 9a. After a late lunch, I spent an hour tryingf to get my "Offline" Canon PIXMA TS200 Printer to get back Online, but to no avail. I gave-up, had a 90min nap, had the rest of the morning's Kenya AA Coffee, replugged the printer, and it worked. No power from the surge strip outlet yo the printer? Gotta be the power cord, but then suddenly it works. Damn. I'll get to the Canon Forum Website tomorrow, and try to find another power cord in the basement's tech shelves.

A ***Frost Advisory*** was posted for tonight, but I didn't disconnect the Drip Irrigation System, as Dave and his crew will do that tomorrow, beginning at 9a. I checked the freocast temps, and 41° at 5a was not enough to do any damage. It was very nice to sit on the back patio, enjoying an occassional smoke, in the cool, dry air, considering what July and much of August was like. By 3p, I was tired enough to grab a 90min snooze on the LR couch, and finished-off the morning's coffee after getting back up. After dinner, I watched the news, then switched to History's "Mysteries From Above" and to MotorTrend's "Roadworthy Rescues" until 12 midnight. Lights out. I'll be getting up at 6am for the landscpe maintenance work, and Sherry's here at 1p.

Tomorro3 starts a new week, here in the "Journal", and I have a midweek Dr's app't; otherwise it's another clear one.

Climate Solutions For The Perpetually Stupid.

Across vast stretches of farmland in southern Brazil, researchers at a carbon removal company are attempting to accelerate a natural process that normally unfolds over thousands or millions of years.

The company, Terradot, is spreading tons of volcanic rock crushed into a fine dust over land where soybeans, sugar cane and other crops are grown. As rain percolates through the soil, chemical reactions pull carbon from the air and convert it into bicarbonate ions that eventually wash into the ocean, where the carbon remains stored.

[REAL TITLE: "Scientists seek to turbocharge a natural process that cools the Earth"]

The technique, known as “enhanced rock weathering,” is emerging as a promising approach to lock away carbon on a massive scale. Some researchers estimate the method has the potential to sequester billions of tons of carbon, helping slow global climate trends. Other major projects are underway across the globe and have collectively raised over a quarter-billion dollars.

As governments around the world fall woefully short of their emissions reduction targets, there is a growing consensus that large-scale carbon removal will be necessary to avoid some of the worst effects of climate change. An analysis conducted by an international team of researchers estimated that the world may need to remove up to 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide a year by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — an amount greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions of the United States.

Shawn Benner, a hydrogeologist and geochemist who left Boise State University after more than two decades to join Terradot, said he made the decision by asking himself what his grandchildren would want him to do. “Not too many people have the opportunity to change the temperature of the planet,” he said.

Yet significant challenges remain for enhanced rock weathering to meaningfully contribute to reducing global emissions. A key question is whether companies like Terradot can accurately and cost-effectively measure how much carbon they remove. And scaling the process globally poses major logistical hurdles.

“It’s at an exciting juncture,” said David Beerling, director of the University of Sheffield’s Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation. “But there’s a need for caution in ensuring that we have rigorous, cost-effective [tracking and verification] so that people don’t make claims for carbon credits that aren’t substantiated.”

Geologic to human timescales

Terradot was founded in 2022 at Stanford, growing out of an independent study between James Kanoff, an undergraduate seeking large-scale carbon removal solutions, and Scott Fendorf, an Earth science professor. Terradot ran a pilot project across 250 hectares in Mexico and began operations in Brazil in late 2023.

Since then, the company has spread about 100,000 tons of rock over 4,500 hectares. It has signed contracts to remove about 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide and is backed by a who’s who of Silicon Valley. It expects to deliver its first carbon removal credit — representing one metric ton of verified carbon dioxide removed — by the end of this year and then scale up from there.

Rock weathering is well-studied by scientists. The process acts like a global thermostat. When temperatures are higher, weathering speeds up, pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping cool the planet.

Terradot is working to accelerate this process, bringing it from a geological timescale to a human one. It does so by taking basalt, a rock that weathers easily, and grinding it to the texture of baby powder to increase its surface area. The rock is then placed in regions with hot, humid climates for rapid weathering.

Brazil offers an additional benefit: widespread agriculture and plenty of quarries.

Brazil’s Cerrado, a savanna region, has naturally acidic soil. In the 1960s, agronomists discovered that adding lime to the soil could reduce its acidity, making the land suitable for crops. The innovation helped Brazil become a net food exporter rather than importer. Terradot partners with farmers to replace lime with basalt, which also balances soil acidity and has the added benefit of boosting crop yields in some areas. The company covers the cost of shipping and spreading the rock.

Brazil is also home to hundreds of quarries, many located near farmland. Basalt is abundant and widely used for construction. The process of grinding and crushing the rock for these projects produces small rock fragments that are difficult to sell. Terradot buys them.

In late August, a spreader truck emblazoned with a Brazilian flag rumbled across the fields of a farm in São Paulo state. Dark plumes of basalt shot from its rear and settled over the red earth. Though the truck was spreading 25 tons of rock per hectare, on the ground it looked like a dusting of gray. Farm fields stretched as far as the eye could see.

Carlos Vecchi, the owner, pulled out his phone and tapped in the numbers. He estimated that working with Terradot will save him about $700,000 for each year that he would have instead applied lime. But he said he’s not doing it for the money. The past two years have brought bad weather, and he remembers a time when it didn’t rain for 100 days. Was climate change to blame?

“It’s a question that we ask almost every day,” Vecchi said in Portuguese. By working with Terradot, he said, he hopes to be a “vanguard” of the future.

‘Good data or no data’

Elsewhere on Vecchi’s farm, a team of scientists tramped through dense fields of millet, golden and ready for harvest. They clipped seed heads at random points across experimental plots testing different soil treatments and farming methods. The samples would be analyzed in a lab to see if the basalt boosted the yield and nutrient content of the grain.

They returned to the dirt road, where Carolina Trentin, an agronomist, tried to weigh a bag of millet on a hanging scale. A gust of wind tilted the bag, and the group agreed it would be more accurate to weigh the grain at the lab. “Good data or no data,” said Jenny Mills, a geochemist with two notebooks tucked into the front of her overalls.

Thousands of measurements are taken across the farm to quantify the effects of the basalt application, including analysis of deep sediment cores and monitoring the water chemistry of the watershed the farm drains into. The main focus is understanding how carbon moves through the land and water.

“Right now, to give people the highest confidence, we’re spending nearly half the cost on measuring the removal,” said Kanoff, the co-founder. “You want to basically measure everything under the sun.”

But the goal is to reduce these costs by identifying the most important measurements. Eventually, Terradot aims to develop a predictive model that can estimate how much carbon a given field can capture.

The claims made by enhanced rock weathering start-ups have drawn some skepticism from researchers who say they want to see data and peer-reviewed research supporting them. Terradot said it will publish its data as part of the carbon-crediting process after the credits are delivered.

Benjamin Houlton, the dean of Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said “I’ve yet to see a study that can adequately scale measurement to anything greater than an acre with a great degree of confidence.”

He cautioned against moving too quickly and cited what happened with credits issued for preserving or restoring forests as a cautionary tale. Studies found that many of these credits were tied to projects that failed to provide real or lasting benefits, including by protecting land that was unlikely to be cleared and claiming credits for forests that were still destroyed.

Others were more positive. Noah Planavsky, a Yale professor who has studied enhanced rock weathering, said companies like Terradot are operating at a scale beyond what is possible in academic trials. That scale, he said, could allow for more robust estimates of carbon removal.

“The basic idea that you can remove carbon from this process is incontrovertible,” he said. “We will know as these datasets start emerging of how certain we can be about the extent of carbon removed.” Fendorf, the Stanford professor, said the instinct for scientific caution is understandable, but the urgency of climate change requires a different mindset, one that he’s needed to adopt after several decades in academia.

“We are trained to be so critical as academics, but right now, we need speed and scale,” he said. “We need to think about how we take our solutions to the world and how we do that fast.”

After a day working on the farm, the Terradot team, many wearing pants streaked with red dirt, gathered around a table for a barbecue. One slowly roasted large skewers of meat over an open fire, carving thick slices that people picked up by hand.

Connor Sendel, the head of operations, stood up and announced that the company’s first project had its design validated by a carbon removal registry — moving them a step closer to delivering their first carbon credit. The room erupted in cheers.

© 10.08.2025 by Kate Selig, "archive.today.com".