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Watching a respected conservative like Andrew Klavan sit across from a pile of Gen Z slang and call it out is more than comedy — it’s a cultural weather report. His reaction videos, where a boomer voice tries to decrypt the latest online gibberish, are funny because they’re honest: a generation raised on screens has replaced coherent speech with market-tested catchphrases and performative shorthand. This isn’t just a linguistic oddity; it’s a symptom of a civilization that prizes viral attention over character.
Language shapes thought, and when words become childish slogans rather than tools of truth, the consequences are real. We’re watching an infantilization of public discourse that mirrors the collapse of responsibility in other institutions, from schools to workplaces. Parents and grandparents shouldn’t shrug and chalk it up to “kids being kids”; cultural rot spreads by imitation, and sloppy speech makes sloppy thinking normal.
Social media is the factory where this new vocabulary is mass-produced, polished, and shipped to every screen in the country within hours. Platforms that monetize outrage and brevity incentivize noises over nuance, and TikTok trends mutate into cultural norms before anyone with sense can respond. That’s why conservative commentators react — not to mock young people personally, but to shine a light on how tech platforms actively shape a generation’s inner life.
The proper conservative response is not censorship but reclamation: parents must insist on real conversation, schools should teach grammar and logic as the foundations of liberty, and communities must reward maturity instead of idolizing performative victimhood. A free society depends on citizens who can think clearly and speak plainly; those virtues don’t survive when language is hollowed out by memes and corporate algorithms. Conservatives need to offer better stories and better habits, not just louder complaints.
Klavan’s amused disgust is useful because it opens a larger dialogue about civic renewal rather than mere mockery of youth. When conservative voices bring attention to the absurd — and then pivot to solutions — they perform the vital work of cultural stewardship. We can laugh at the latest slang while simultaneously teaching the next generation why clarity and decency matter more than clout.
Let’s be honest: the left’s cultural project has often prized identity and spectacle over competence and tradition, and the result shows in classrooms and online. The elites who pushed relativism and rewarded performative outrage bear responsibility for a youth culture that confuses attention with meaning. Conservatives must therefore fight on two fronts: politically to restore institutions that cultivate virtue, and culturally to restore habits of mind that make self-government possible.
This fight begins at the kitchen table and extends to the ballot box; it requires discipline, patience, and unapologetic pride in American institutions that once taught young people how to be adults. Mockery has its place, but the higher duty is to rebuild a culture where words mean something and where children grow into citizens who can read, reason, and repent when they’re wrong. Stand up, teach well, vote wisely, and refuse to let our language — and therefore our liberty — be trivialized by whatever viral trend the left decides to normalize next.
