Folks keep saying this, but it’s not really true. “Baby Boom” is a nebulous term, but most take it to be someone born between 1946 and 1964. So anyone between 53 and 71 years of age is in that cohort.
So let’s generalize and say that a Boomer is about 62 years of age right now (born in 1955). A lot of them are still working and trying to make money. They are not as huge a consumer force any more, but they will continue to be a major demographic for advertising for the next decade. Catheter and erectile dysfunction drug manufacturers are going to want to show their commercials SOMEWHERE.
Fox’s demographics have been shown to be exceptionally old… and while they are watching TV, they are an inherently less valuable demographic to advertisers, for the reasons you just said… they don’t buy nearly as much stuff as folks in their 30’s.
The median age of Fox viewers is over 60, and HALF of them are over 68.
They are literally going to be dying in the next decade.
I love the irony that in these sexual harassment cases they’re citing the use of sockpuppet Twitter accounts and fake news dissemination as part of the Fox News strategy to discredit and dissuade the victims. Hmmm…where have we seen such tactics used before to influence major events? Karma, what a bitch!
[quote=“Timex, post:1044, topic:58716, full:true”]Fox’s demographics have been shown to be exceptionally old… and while they are watching TV, they are an inherently less valuable demographic to advertisers, for the reasons you just said… they don’t buy nearly as much stuff as folks in their 30’s.
The median age of Fox viewers is over 60, and HALF of them are over 68.
They are literally going to be dying in the next decade.
[/quote]
I don’t really understand this argument. Everyone in the population ages at a constant rate (unfortunately), and the oldies dying will be replaced by middlies becoming oldies and learning how to be more close-minded and racist along the way. In fact, demographic trends will help companies who primarily serve old people as the population is aging (those over 65+ are projected to be a larger % of the population in future).
You’d need the oldies of tomorrow to be significantly different than the oldies of today, at least in terms of stupidity. Is there anything to support such an argument? You can’t use comparisons between 47-64 and 65+ now as the brains of those in the 47-64 group will decay as will the rest of their bodies over time.
For the Baby Boomers, the idea of a black man and a white woman being married and no one saying anything is likely a minority. For their parents it was unthinkable. For my generation it’s practically nothing. For Millennials it likely seems barbaric that anyone would ever have thought otherwise.
Just because I turn 65 doesn’t mean my world view magically changes to “crazy old bigot,” I might be less accepting of some new thing, but the shit I grew up with isn’t likely to be changed without reason. I wont suddenly think black people are lazy once I get my AARP stuff in the mail.
Fox is selling people false childhoods and blaming a boogeyman, like people have since the dawn of time. Now they could shift to accommodate a newer generation… but that means they’re the ones changing, not the people they’re trying to pander to. If they suddenly stop dog whistling racist shit and complaining about gay people, then they’re not the Fox News we’re talking about. They’ve become a more liberal organization. Their audience stayed as liberal as it ever was, even if the definition shifted over time.
Yesterday’s radical liberal is today’s moderate conservative. Yesterday’s moderate conservative is today’s borderline radical regressive.
Worse yet for them is when generations used to the internet hit their demographic. Our parents were easily fooled because the news told you the truth. Kronkite came out and that’s the way it was. Not so much for the upcoming folks used to the internet and it’s lies.
Some people will regress over time, hell I know a few, but most people don’t barring some traumatic incident. Others will finally come out of their previously hidden shells, but they didn’t “become” bigots, they always were one.
It’s certainly true that people don’t magically turn evil and stupid when they hit 65. But these generalizations about generations are problematic too. The people sitting quietly in their seats at Trump rallies are older. The people stomping protesters are young. There are plenty of young racists out there who have the idea that interracial marriage is some kind of genetic treason.
Sure, but look at the 50’s and 60’s. There aren’t many Klan marches these days.
Disaffected youths are always targets of cults and organizations. And there isn’t much hope for a lot of kids these days. If you aren’t going into computers or becoming a doctor, your propositions are pretty shit. If someone comes along and tells you it’s someone else’s fault and they’ll fix it, you’ll probably listen. That you’re special and important. It’s as old as time itself.
As a whole though, kids aren’t more racist than they were previously, quite the opposite.