Based on your other comments containing "I'm old enough", I'm assuming you are close to over three of my lifetimes years old. It's not about being disillusioned, or consuming media ironically or unironically. It's just about frame of reference. It's kind of like how it's functionally impossible to watch "Birth of a Nation" (which is apparently one of the best films of all time) and actually to SEE it as one of the best films for a multitude of technical and cultural reasons. Sure you can watch a film and deliberately try to have a certain perspective or "gaze" but isn't that just a form of ironic watching with extra steps?
The sibling comment was 100% accurate until "unironic and good" and then I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about with Joss Whedon and how AI somehow got shoehorned into the conversation. I watched The Graduate before ChatGPT came out.
You shouldn't take this n=1 anecdote as an authoritative view on my generation either, lots of people in my generation have more empathy and imagination than I do. Have a good night :)
Birth of a Nation is not considered best film of all time. It is considered one of the most racist films tho
From a technical perspective it really was considered a great movie for decades, It is, as you mention, extremely racist, and that eventually outweighed any merits of the film itself after the techniques it developed had long become routine.
Great movie from technical perspective and "greatest movie of all times" are two different claims tho. It is the same with Triumph of Will btw.
Being racist is part of that movie itself. It is not some kinf of separate thing. It is also part of its appeal and reason why some praise or recommend it.