AOC slammed for saying millennials are ‘more informed’ and willing to protest than older generations

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sparked fierce backlash with ‘tone-deaf’ comments about young Americans being more ‘informed’ and ‘willing to go to the streets’ to protest than older generations 

The 29-year-old New York Democrat boldly praised ‘badass’ millennials and Gen Z-ers in an Instagram Live video on Tuesday after a viewer asked her if the ‘new generation’ is ‘too delicate’. 

As clips from her lengthy response made the rounds on social media, critics accused her of insulting older Americans and senselessly crediting her generation with inventing political protest.  

Ocasio-Cortez was slammed for overlooking some of the most influential movements in American history, such as the Vietnam War protests and push for racial equality in the 1960s. 

During the livestream Ocasio-Cortez stated that she didn’t ‘want to paint everybody with a broad brush’ before making a number of statements that did just that.  

‘I think young people are more informed and dynamic than their predecessors,’ she said of her peers. 

‘I think they’re profoundly courageous, because they’re willing to puncture more taboos and have conversations that, frankly, older generations sometimes struggle to have.’  

She continued: ‘I think this new generation is very profound and very strong and very brave, because they’re actually willing to go to the streets. How ’bout that?

‘Previous generations have just assumed that [the] government’s got it. Let me tell you something: You are the government. As a democracy, we the people means you.’

 Ocasio-Cortez told viewers: ‘I think this new generation is very profound and very strong and very brave, because they’re actually willing to go to the streets. Previous generations have just assumed that [the] government’s got it.’ She leaned in toward the camera as she added: ‘Let me tell you something: You are the government. As a democracy, we the people means you’

Ocasio-Cortez also asserted that younger generations have a better understanding of history than previous ones.  

‘They actually take time to read and understand our history, the history of the labor movement, history of civil rights, history of economics, history of the United States, history of colonialism, and they’re not afraid to have those conversations,’ she said. 

Many people are calling the diatribe tone-deaf and offensive toward older Americans, who during their youth instigated some of the most profound change the nation has ever seen. 

Political activism in America is older than the country itself, given that the nation’s founding was in large part instigated by the Boston Tea Party.  

Another landmark campaign woefully overlooked by Ocasio-Cortez, the Suffragette Movement, gave her and every woman in America the most basic form of political engagement: the right to vote.  

World War II efforts by those born in the first two decades of the 19th century won earned them the nickname ‘The Greatest Generation’. 

And just a few decades ago America saw one of its most turbulent political periods, the 1960s, when the nation was rocked by the fight against McCarthyism, desegregation and Vietnam War protests.   

Ocasio-Cortez, whose frequent controversial comments have cemented her as one of the country’s most divisive politicians, has yet to respond to the backlash.  

Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman representative from the Bronx, is known for being unapologetic when sharing controversial opinions about political issues. She is pictured on August 5