Millennial here. My impression is we're the largest generation on this platform, but I could be wrong.
Perpetual growth in a finite system is impossible, and anything that relies on perpetual growth to function is doomed to eventually fail.
For instance: social services that rely on perpetual population growth (especially youth population; e.g. Japan/South Korea), companies that rely on perpetual increase in users (most publicly-owned companies; e g. basically every social media company ATM), industries that rely on perpetual advancements in technology (e.g. industrialized agriculture, which constantly needs new ways to fight self-induced problems like soil depletion and erosion), housing as wealth generation (to be a wealth generator it has to outpace inflation, but at a certain point no one will be able to afford to purchase houses at their inflated prices no matter how over-leveraged they get; e.g. Canada). [Note that these are merely examples where these issues are currently coming to a head; they are by no means special cases, they're just in a more advanced state of "finding out."]
In other words, a lot of the modern world, in both public and private sectors, is built around a series of ponzi schemes.
I'm digging deep in my memory here so I can't provide any details, but there was one episode from a very early season of Grey's Anatomy where I got to the end of the episode and thought, "wait, did they ever solve this episode's medical mystery?" There was a lot of doctor-plot that episode and the patient plot just kinda got dropped. Well I watched the deleted scenes for that episode, and low and behold there's a line where they explain exactly what was going on with the patient. It wasn't the real highlight/purpose of the scene, but I'm still shocked they would cut it because it left an entire plotline (albeit just for that episode) completely dangling.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican seen as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, tells a story in her new book about shooting and killing her young dog and a goat
Noem, who became governor in 2019, likened murdering her canine to having the ability and willingness in politics to do anything “difficult, messy, and ugly.”
I remember when presidential candidate Mitt Romney sunk his political career by telling what he thought was a humorous tale of creative problem solving that involved strapping the family dog to the roof of an overloaded car. This is like that, but horrifyingly worse.
As any farmer or gardener will tell you, nitrogen is critical for plant growth, and for most plants it's obtained via the soil. Soil nitrogen can be depleted if not replenished (in an agricultural context, by compost or fertilizer), but there's plentiful nitrogen in the atmosphere (which is mostly nitrogen, actually) so any plant that has nitrogen fixing abilities has constant access to this critical nutrient. There currently exist nitrogen-fixing plants (peas and clover for example), but they don't actually do it on their own, they rely on a symbiotic relationship with bacteria.
I'd be furious too, having such incompetent, out-of-touch advisors. This article alludes to it but others have gone more in-depth: Biden's advisors keep telling him the economy is great, the problem is messaging: the American people just haven't heard how great it is. Telling people struggling to pay their bills every month that they're better off than they were four years ago isn't messaging, it's gaslighting. His advisors should be telling him the truth, that the economy is only good on paper, that while the "haves" are living large the "have nots" are not only struggling, their ranks are quickly growing. Don't get me wrong, anyone who votes for Trump because they think he'll do better at economic issues is a moron, but history shows that a lot of people are going to go this route come November at the current pace of things. And Biden's advisors are just as moronic if they don't understand this.
This is in Missouri, for anyone wondering.
Millennials grew up in the 90s, possibly one of the "best" decades in modern history: good economy, closest we've gotten to "world peace," comparative political stability and "quiet" (the biggest scandal in US politics was Monica Lewinsky), and problems existed but generally seemed to be getting better with time not worse. The 90s were an optimistic time, especially considering the snowballing disaster of a 21st century that followed.
Edit: also advancements in science and technology were bright and exciting, without the constant existential dread of "what calamity have we unleashed this time?" The biggest tech/science-advancement ethical debate I remember was about cloning people, which is a genuine sci-fi-esque moral quandary but ended up being generally moot in reality.
Shakespeare's original productions in the Globe Theatre had men playing women. The ancient Greeks had men playing women. Granted that's because of widespread cultural gender inequality, but the argument that people should only play roles that align with their gender assigned at birth because of "traditional values" is nonsense.
Then the years go on, the kid becomes an adult and begins cooking for themselves. The first meal they make for someone else they realize (1) how difficult it is to estimate when a meal will be done (2) how much work goes into cooking, especially for a whole family and (3) how hurtful and disruptive it is when the person you're cooking for decides they'd rather eat your food when it's cold and gross and everyone else has already finished eating and are trying to clean up. And that's not even incorporating the social elements of family dinner time the kid is eschewing. I didn't understand as a kid why my parents were so adamant about family dinner, but as an adult it's something I'm really glad they enforced.
For real though, aggressive wasp species give the chill species a bad name. It's like being mad at bumblebees because Asian giant hornets exist.
Yellow jackets for example are definitely unpleasant: they buzz you when you try to eat outdoors, don't get the message to move on when swatted at, and constantly carry an attitude of "come at me bro." However my local species of paper wasp (I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US) is crazy chill and very conflict avoidant: they don't buzz or chase humans, don't show interest in human food or garbage, and will get out of your way if disturbed (assuming you're not attacking their home)
In fact, we actively attract paper wasps to our garden by planting western yarrow, and even have plans to erect a wasp box for them to safely make a home in (no I'm not joking). Why? Because in addition to being peaceful members of our garden ecosystem--alongside butterflies, ladybugs, frogs, salamanders, birds, and other critters--they are dedicated hunters of garden pests such as cabbage white caterpillars. As someone who grows a lot of kale for its year-round hardiness, I cannot express how much I appreciate wasps' dutiful patrol of our brassicas and other crops. And if you can get a population to establish themselves near your garden they will indeed be dutiful in scouting out pests.
It took me a while to shake off my all-wasps-are-bastards attitude toward them, but I really cannot express how much paper wasps have become garden bros, and it makes me sad to see my bros vilified.
First time I've ever heard the words "inclusive" and "eco-sustainable" used with the intent of condemnation.