theintercept | In the face of protests composed largely of young people, the presence of America’s military on the streets of major cities has been a controversial development. But this isn’t the first time that Generation Z — those born after 1996 — has popped up on the Pentagon’s radar.
Documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information
Act reveal that a Pentagon war game, called the 2018 Joint Land, Air and
Sea Strategic Special Program, or JLASS, offered a scenario in which
members of Generation Z, driven by malaise and discontent, launch a
“Zbellion” in America in the mid-2020s.
The Zbellion plot was a small part of JLASS 2018, which also featured
scenarios involving Islamist militants in Africa, anti-capitalist
extremists, and ISIS successors. The war game was conducted by students
and faculty from the U.S. military’s war colleges, the training grounds
for prospective generals and admirals. While it is explicitly not a
national intelligence estimate, the war game, which covers the future
through early 2028, is “intended to reflect a plausible depiction of
major trends and influences in the world regions,” according to the more
than 200 pages of documents.
According to the scenario, many members of Gen Z — psychologically
scarred in their youth by 9/11 and the Great Recession, crushed by
college debt, and disenchanted with their employment options — have
given up on their hopes for a good life and believe the system is rigged
against them. Here’s how the origins of the uprising are described:
Both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Great Recession greatly influenced the attitudes of this generation in the United states, and resulted in a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity among Gen Z. Although Millennials experienced these events during their coming of age, Gen Z lived through them as part of their childhood, affecting their realism and world view … many found themselves stuck with excessive college debt when they discovered employment options did not meet their expectations. Gen Z are often described as seeking independence and opportunity but are also among the least likely to believe there is such a thing as the “American Dream,” and that the “system is rigged” against them. Frequently seeing themselves as agents for social change, they crave fulfillment and excitement in their job to help “move the world forward.” Despite the technological proficiency they possess, Gen Z actually prefer person-to-person contact as opposed to online interaction. They describe themselves as being involved in their virtual and physical communities, and as having rejected excessive consumerism.
In early 2025, a cadre of these disaffected Zoomers launch a protest
movement. Beginning in “parks, rallies, protests, and coffee shops” —
first in Seattle; then New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Las
Vegas; and Austin — a group known as Zbellion begins a “global cyber
campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it
deem[s] beneficial.”
