The data is clear. Age is one of today’s biggest political dividing lines.
In the UK, while 73 percent of 18-24-year-olds voted to stay in the European Union, 60 percent of those over the age of 65 voted to leave. In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 56 percent of the 18-24 year old vote as compared to Trump’s 35 percent, while Trump won 53-45 among those over age 65. In a Focus poll last year, 38.2 percent of Slovaks over the age of 65 supported Smer, as compared to just 2.4 percent of 18-24-year-olds.
These sharp differences come from a variety of factors, but one almost certainly has to be the manner in which various age groups consume news. While it remains common for older people to point to the supposed short attention span or self-centered nature of millennials as a problem, recent studies raise some serious questions about their parents and grandparents instead.
