rant · moment 20 of 22

Crack Houses on New Year's Eve and the Blandness of Young People

from No Friends of Anyone · #29

Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.

5 min

Tim nostalgically recounts spending New Year's Eve 1999 in a crack house among people with AIDS, contrasting it with today's calculated, careful, parent-friendly youth culture with no countercultural edge.

In this bit10 moments
  • 51:02Tim argues that 19-year-olds stand for nothing and exist in an amorphous world with no sense of history.
  • 51:30He's never seen a generation closer with their parents, contrasting it with his own youth—stealing money and threatening arson.
  • 52:19Young people have become cogs in viral noise and new media with no real culture, just pop culture everywhere.
  • 52:39There's no illusion of being anti-establishment anymore because young people ARE the establishment.
  • 53:08Tim describes a wealthy young friend's blandness and how everyone under a certain age is incredibly calculated and careful with what they say.
  • 53:36He and his friends were wild and subversive as kids, always trying to piss somebody off.
  • 54:00Tim got kicked out of high school and was constantly in the Dean's office for inappropriate jokes and smoking.
  • 54:18A teacher would send him to her car to retrieve cigarettes so she wouldn't have to walk during break.
  • 54:59He admits he might be out of touch with youth culture and may be quoting something wrong.
  • 55:33Tim recalls a friend's mother who was a prostitute and invested her earnings—a type of person he questions if young people ever meet today.

All 22 moments in this episode →