Likely Normal

It’s time for another Halloween comic special.  Gen Z has become the doomsday generation, their existential dread laser-focused on climate catastrophe while blithely ignoring more immediate threats. These are kids who will have a full-blown panic attack over a 2-degree temperature rise forecast for 2100, yet somehow remain eerily calm about the fact they’ll be paying off their gender studies degree until the actual heat death of the universe. Their Instagram feeds oscillate between “10 Signs You’re Living Through the Sixth Mass Extinction” memes and hauls of fast fashion from environmentally disastrous brands – the cognitive dissonance almost admirable in its commitment.

While previous generations worried about nuclear annihilation or economic collapse, today’s youth have elevated climate anxiety to an art form. They’ll lecture you about carbon footprints while DoorDashing a single iced coffee across town, their environmental guilt soothed by slapping “#savetheplanet” on a TikTok of them crying about rising sea levels. There’s something darkly humorous about watching someone hyperventilate over melting ice caps while ignoring their $80,000 in student loans – as if Sallie Mae won’t still be repossessing their future even as Florida sinks beneath the waves.

This generation has weaponized climate fear as the ultimate excuse for everything from not having kids (“why bring life into this dying world?”) to not learning to drive (“gas is murder!”), all while maintaining a caffeine addiction that generates enough disposable cups to circle the equator twice. The irony is thick enough to qualify as a new atmospheric layer – these are the same people who will mourn the rainforest while charging their third device of the day on electricity generated by coal plants. Perhaps the real climate disaster is their ability to maintain this performative angst while still managing to curate the perfect aesthetic for their impending eco-apocalypse.