I'm not that young anymore, but I think for most people there are two worlds. Online, most people either keep their head down or go hard at conforming with the/a mainstream (which usually ends up as a very unsubtle polarized view).

In real life though, most people still do have more subtle views, including nonconformist ones with respect to the online caricature of their peer group. You just have to be friends with them to hear their actual views, because they are too afraid (or simply disinterested) to express them publically. The bigger problem is that we (especially politicians and media) equate the digital world with real life.

This kind of conformist, authoritarian culture will end in full blown fascism. Any deviation from the preset, socially accepted norm will result in cancellation. It’s already very apparent on social media. Sadly many people are tugged along because they are told it will result in a better, fairer, world. In reality, all the deviants who help us evolve will be quashed.

There is no "punk generation" -- there were conformists in every generation, and most mass movements, whether "protest" or reactionary build on the fact that humans are tribal.

I am about the age of the people this article is talking about. This is laughably out of touch. Take a look at the right communities on TikTok or Instagram or Discord (they’re not small) with people aged around 13-20 and you’ll see that Marx to Mao to Deleuze to Fisher are alive and well in the minds of today’s young people. There are people my age who are reactionaries, but there are more who want out of the late-capitalist hellscape that’s been foisted on us.