If you are a parent of young children, you’ve probably been asking yourself, “Why do they keep standing up, screaming, ‘six-sevenn!’?”
It’s a nonsensical meme that has taken hold of this generation, but adults should shrug and let Gen Alpha scream “six-sevenn!” at the top of their lungs without trying to ban it, shame it, or turn it into a moral panic.
It’s harmless, organic folk culture, not much different than Gen Z’s “Yeet,” which was literally yelled while throwing things, Millennials’ “That’s what she said” and “YOLO,” or Gen X’s “Psych!,” “Wassuuuuup?!,” and “NOT!,” said after anything to negate it.
The chant was spread purely by imitation and laughter, and it now lives in schoolyards and Little League fields across the country. That kind of unscripted, peer-to-peer tradition is precisely the sort of “little platoon” spontaneity Edmund Burke celebrated, and modern conservatives should want to protect.
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Today’s kids have fewer empty lots, fewer hours of unsupervised play, and more adults hovering with clipboards and feelings-check-ins than any generation in American history. Letting them scream a ridiculous phrase with their friends is one of the last remaining ways they can be loud, crude, and a little rebellious without actually breaking anything or hurting anyone.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t admonish them for joining in their cultural hysteria in inappropriate places. Vice President JD Vance complained on Monday that his 5-year-old son, Vivek, couldn’t contain himself at Mass after the readings prompted a “six-sevenn!” fit.
“Yesterday at church the Bible readings started on page 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old went absolutely nuts repeating ‘six seven’ like 10 times. And now I think we need to make this narrow exception to the first amendment and ban these numbers forever,” Vance posted, adding that he “didn’t understand it.
As parents, it’s our responsibility to teach our children how to behave in different situations and inform them that there are levels of acceptable behavior depending on the event or company present. Still, adults cannot become the HR department that scolds something they don’t understand. Let the market of ridicule sort it out.
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