If your point is that so, so much has changed, then I agree. In terms of material wealth, entertainment, and freedom from religious pressure, I had it much tougher. On the other hand, for many reasons, every time I came to a stage of life, things got really good for people at that stage of life. Childhood diseases were controlled, teenagers got more freedom, state colleges got good while remaining inexpensive, the sexual revolution made single life reasonably good for socially awkward people like me, teaching jobs started to pay well, excellent retirement plans, strong unions…
If all the generations of human beings at all points in human history were lined up from most to least fortunate, I suspect that mine would be a good candidate for head of the line. At least if you were a white American. (On the other hand, I suspect that the following generations would not be as far back in that line as they sometimes think. But I did not walk in those shoes, so I don’t really know.)
My wife calls anyone younger than her that she doesn’t like a millennial.
Oh god, if the right wing collapses to infighting AND all of Trump’s fans abandon him…
chefkiss
By all metrics that I disagree with, I am a Millennial ('83). Some still group that in with GenX’ers, most don’t. And Millennial carries far more baggage than Boomer does, if only because everyone older than a millennial thinks a 37 year old that is married and owns their home is a teenager to be dismissed.
Have you heard of our lord and savior Xennial?
Thrag
6097
Based on the arrests so far Boomers are not an overrepresented age group among the insurrectionists.
https://extremism.gwu.edu/Capitol-Hill-Cases
Teiman
6098
Stupity is universal. But probably wealth to travel to DC is not
Actual boomers are in their 60s now at the youngest. Those types aren’t flying to DC and participating in a riot. They’re sitting at home complaining on Facebook and calling the cashier at Family Dollar the n-word when they think he can’t hear them.
Have you heard of our lord and savior Xennial
That’s the volcano guy the celebrities all worship, right?
Timex
6101
I feel like this particular violent protest likely attracted more violent boomers than other protests, though.
I mean, the idea of folks in their 60’s and 70’s getting arrested for seditious acts is weird to me. Protest is supposed to be a young man’s game.
Once you defeat the volcano, you become the volcano.
meeper
6104
Maybe that’s just me though :)
Baby Boomers: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.
raises hand
Born in '64.
I have you know I don’t even have a Facebook account, never go to Family Dollar, rant pretty much exclusively on this forum and I’m farther left than most posters here.
So neener. #notallboomers
I think Grumpy and I are brothers separated at birth…well, after an extra 4 years of incubation. 60 here, do NOT identify as a Boomer. Have never set foot in Dollar General, have no social media accounts other than QT3, and am WAY left. Fuck Boomers.
CraigM
6108
Being, technically, a Millenial by the recently broadened definition this is probably true. If you were to line all of human history it would be hard to argue anyone today has it worse than anyone born pre modern medicine, straight up. The advent of virology, antibiotics, and proper medical and scientific learning is not some trivial change. At least as important, day to day, as the industrial revolution.
However if you were to stack all the generations alive today it probably has the Millenials only ahead of the remaining survivors of the Great Depression, at least in terms of US persons. There are a lot of reasons, but in terms of opportunity, economics, and demands on life it is inarguable that my parents generation had it much better in a lot of ways. Sure they didn’t have iPhones, but they didn’t have the student debt, the obscene healthcare costs, absence of any decent job opportunity without college degrees, college degrees paying less today than many non college jobs did for them starting, etc etc etc. There was also a healthier separation of work and home that we lack. I am never really off duty, the phone is as much a tether as a lifeline. Work creeps into our home and personal life in ways that older generations did not have to deal with before (I know this knocks everyone today, but that will be our entire work life rather than a late game change for the Boomer gen.)
The ability to have financial control of your lives is greatly diminished for my generation. The climate issues we will have to deal with were abdicated by older generations who profited from it. In a very real sense my parents generations politics were directly designed to enrich themselves at my generations expense.
So when people my age use Ok Boomer as an epitaph, I want people to realize there is a reason for it. My generation got fucked over, several ways, by the politics of the Boomers, and we know it. Ours is the first generation in living memory whose long term prospects are worse than their parents, and the economic numbers bear this out. And that is a part of our lived experience that the 2007 crash made us acutely aware of, and everything in the following decade + has reinforced.
Just because we have it better than 18th century subsistence farmers doesn’t mean we lack the right to be angry about things.
I’m sure we’ve run the numbers here before, and the boomers weren’t the largest voting block that produced those politics. It’s probably right to say they got the best deal of all the still-extent generations, but probably wrong to say they made everyone else’s deal worse.
Yup, the concept of “they” is always slippery.
Turn it around. Some years down the road, someone says of all of us “They elected Donald Trump.” Well, some people voting in 2016 did, and some did everything they could to prevent it. And a whole lot of people made errors that they could not possibly known would lead to Trump, since people are definitely not all-wise.
Some people, including some boomers, were directly responsible for these things. Some simply lacked wisdom. Some did all they could to prevent this, and failed.
But none of that changes the fact that you have every right to be angry.
