Gen Z Are Sick And Tired Of People Normalizing These 30 Things

Since Trump’s election in 2016, research has found that people have used the word “normalize” twice as much online. However, they’re using it differently than they used to. According to Merriam-Webster, it now refers to the "redefinition of modern discourse to allow extreme views to be considered normal.”

While standardizing new things can be powerful, freeing, and positive, it also has the potential to be damaging to society. We’ve rejected and created a lot of “normal” ideas over the years, mainly because creating societal norms helps us navigate interactions with others and allows us to thrive together as a collective. 

Even though a lot of these “normalize” posts we see online are jokes, there are also a lot of them that aren’t. This blurred line between sarcasm and genuine beliefs about societal norms creates a way to lure people into accepting concerning standards.

Another danger that follows normalization is complacency, a sort of calm satisfaction with the situation we’re in. Once something becomes standard, we are no longer opposed to it, no matter what the thing is.

Let’s use Trump as an example again. Many people didn’t like that he became president, and some even threatened to move if he got elected. Those who said that obviously didn't, and the rest got used to the idea of such a person running the US, subsidizing their resistance and protests.

Journalist Evan Hecht warns that if we agree to normalize everything, it desensitizes people to real problems around a certain topic. He urges us to think about words like “gaslight” and "trigger,” which both describe bad things that happen to people. Their overuse or misuse takes away the importance of what they communicate. Throwing this word around can hurt people in the long run, as they might not realize they’re in a situation where these things are happening.

He proposes that we should learn to embrace how to destigmatize things over normalizing. When you stigmatize something, you remove the association of shame or guilt from certain actions or behaviors. He further explains, “To destigmatize taboo things, such as sex work, creates an environment that can still acknowledge the benefits and consequences of the action while making it something widely accepted. Normalization simply removes the idea of consequences, as the act is now considered “normal.”

But the question is: why is it so easy for us to normalize even the worst kinds of behavior and events? Well, the rationalization of morally bad things usually aligns with whatever society deems acceptable at the time. A good example is greenwashing, where a company makes its product seem as environmentally friendly as possible without making any changes to it. They do so because they’re aware that people care about the earth they live on, or at least pretend to.