On September 8th, 2025, protests erupted in the capital of Nepal. Kathmandu because of a widespread social media ban that was set in place on September 4th with the intent to subdue critique of the government. Shortly after the protests began, they turned violent. Government officials fled as their houses were burnt and set on fire. The Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down as public unrest had risen over the deaths of 19 anti-corruption protestors, adding fuel to the fire, literally. The protesters set the parliament ablaze shortly after this.
The Straw Hat Jolly Roger( the One Piece flag) is a symbol for freedom, anti-government, and liberation. This flag has shown up around the world in recent revolutions, but most notably in front of the Singha Drubar in Kathmandu. WMC Senior, Marcellus Brown, finds, “It reflects everything we’ve been talking about. We balance seriousness and creativity. Like, even with pop culture symbols, say, the One Piece flag, it’s used as a symbol of freedom. We [Gen-Z] use the media to express our rights and organize movements.”
Marcellus Brown continued to cite how the government, after the revolution, was set up in Discord, and he notes how Gen-Z can balance creativity and seriousness. This reflects the creativity of Gen-Z by taking an unserious symbol and adding a very strong and heavy real-life meaning to it.
Senior Marc Carames states that “Gen Z is probably more against government overreach since again with the Internet everyone is so accustomed to having their own personal lifestyle and just way of living.” Marc Carames notes that Gen Z, while being against government overreach, tends to be more accepting of safety nets, such as Social Security.
Gen-Z oftentimes is disheartened towards the conventional systems that our parents and grandparents had and are more open-minded to new systems. Marcellus states, “We grew up being told about the ‘American Dream’ that you could go to college, get a decent job, and build a good life. But because of what certain governments have done, policies that make that dream harder to reach for people in our generation are frustrated.”
These points are some of what the young revolutionaries had been feeling in Nepal, although they had endured considerably more from their government.
