We all know why the French — which I use in the most catholic sense possible so as to include the American media — insist on calling the rioters “youths.” And while I think we should complain about this convenient euphemism for all the obvious reasons, there is an upside. As I’ve written 17 kabillion times, I hate youth politics in all its forms. The attempt to make young people into an identity-politics category alongside female, homosexual, black, etc drives me batty. So do notice how quickly the media has rallied to this label to describe the rioters in France. And notice how the “youth of the world” aren’t complaining. If the media simply said “Muslim,” “Arab,” or “black” to describe the rioters, there would be all sorts of complaints that this is too broad a brush. “They aren’t all Arabs!” Or black, or Muslim, or whatever, would come the shouts.

But no one is whining, “The rioters aren’t all young! There are old rioters too!” This is partly because the PC crowd which normally whines about such labelling considers “youth” the safest harbor available, much more preferable than the alternatives. But it’s also because in their heart of hearts almost all young people don’t take “youth politics” seriously the way they do about race or religion — and for good reason.