The US has been at war for half of all Millennials’ lives, and almost all of Gen Z’s

“Millennials” and “Zoomers” are regularly ridiculed for things that are rarely their fault — or even based in reality. Boomers mock millennials’ alleged preference for avocado toast over homes, griping that the Kids These Days™ have “killed” American pastimes like department stores, cable TV, and — gasp — American cheese.

But even the two youngest generations (with access to the internet) don’t see eye to eye. Gen Z finds millennials to be cringe-worthy, awkwardly optimistic with aspirational #GirlBoss dreams, while Gen Z is notoriously nihilistic — and pretty much “over it.” As a millennial elder sibling to a zoomer, the difference between us, while only six and a half years, is incredibly apparent: I am indeed humiliatingly hopeful, while she couldn’t care less.

Why? Well, climate change is clearly cause for cynicism, but recent data shared by Public Citizen might further clarify the age group’s acrimony.

According to data compiled by The Washington Post, the United States has been at war for at least half of all millennials’ lives — except those in born in 1981, for whom it was 49 percent. The number steadily increases as millennials decrease in age, with the last millennials, born in 1996, having experienced the U.S. at war for 77 percent of their lives. And this is small potatoes compared to Gen Z.

Zoomers, or “Gen Z,” who are defined as having been born from 1997 to 2012, have pretty much only known a world wherein the United States was at a war. For the earliest zoomers, born in 1997, the U.S. has been at war for 81 percent of their lives — over three fourths of their realities.

And for those born in 2001 and on — meaning modern day 18, 19 and 20 years olds — the U.S. has been at war for the entirety of their existence.

That might explain a whole generation of nihilists, don’t you think?