Good stack. Understanding generations is important. What events and people shape the generations we’ve been arbitrarily pigeon holed in? A lot of overlap. As Gen X I've been able to observe my older Boom friend/families as well as younger MIL/ZOOMS. While rarely encountering THE GREATS. They're very old, and have(except maybe Eastwood)punched themselves out.
After much thought and reflection, I’ve concluded all generations in one way or another take a giant shit on the following generations. We just do! Its literally in our DNA.
Our species evolves by pursuing the interests that effect our group the most. Its not vindictive, or narcissistic. Its just the way we are. I could go through the recent histrionics starting with The Great generation, but I won't insult the intelligence of my fellow substackers. We’re all well aware of assets and liabilities we’ve collectively added or subtracted to and from our societies spread sheet. My advice? Stop worrying about what others say. Concentrate on what they do, and how much real impact they have.
Just my two or three or four words. I could be wrong. Often am🤷♂️
I’m a boomer raised by parents who experienced the Great Depression. My parents taught me to save something from every paycheck. This is how many of us lived, frugally, and bought started homes as our first house, not a mini mansion. The younger generation is used to instant gratification through social media and expects a huge salary to start rather than a starting salary. We boomers generally don’t waste our money on Starbucks coffee and drink a cup at home. I think the old hippie boomers give our generation a bad name, just like they did during the 70s when they were out protesting. This is all just my opinion and I don’t mean to clump all old hippies together, but the old white ladies (and few men) at the current protests look ridiculous.
Collette, you are the Boomer that they’re talking about when they say, “OK, Boomer.” Smug, misinformed, bears responsibility for nothing, but not in doubt about anything.
All I can say is THANK YOU and SUBSCRIBED. Keeping this article as the most comprehensive rebuttal to the little weenie heads and whiny babies i have seen yet
Most of my cohort binge watch MSM. They think if it is on CNN and CBC it is likely very true. They are doctor groupies. They believe in modern medicine. Most too aren’t very wealthy. Some are. Most hate Trump. Most vote Green/lib/NDP here in Canada. A lot of atheists.
That was a great essay, and I always think it's silly when people stereotype entire generations. Very lazy passive-aggressive behavior. Obvs the generation gap is a Hobbesian war of all against all; it's pretty common for my fellow Gen Xers to bellyache about both older and younger cohorts.
But I think you made a more accurate point that the animosity is really a partisan schism more than a generational one. I learned today, unsurprisingly, that conservatives report greater mental health:
I'm 56, and a lifelong Democrat-ish person until COVID quarantine, during which I started reading econ and policy studies voraciously and became libertarian, like a lot of other shut-ins. But last year I decided to vote for Trump, after not voting in the previous two presidential elections because I was nonplussed about both options. The libertarians lost me over two key issues: Immigration and isolationism. I will say that their views on the proper role of govt are generally on point, because most of them [like me] are Asperger types who don't mind studying such things in our free time. But immigration and isolationism are two glaring blind spots for many people on the spectrum. Every political tribe tends to assume that most people are sorta like themselves, and will respond to similar incentives. Libertarians should really know better, but many don't. Then again, we are a bit better about one thing that normal people struggle with: When we change our minds about major issues or candidates, we don't automatically edit our memories to sanitize their history in our favor. I didn't suddenly gain a higher opinion of Trump because I decided to vote for him; I just couldn't stomach the cackling communist.
As of now it's a mixed bag, as any politician is. But I'm still glad I voted the way I did. Communism is creeping in again because--who could have predicted?--public school indoctrinates kids to favor the incumbent bureaucracy, just as pharma-sponsored medical education tends to produce docs who focus more on expensive treatments than healthy lifestyle habits. It took me a long time to realize the moral depravity of the left, which seems like a different animal to the boomer lefties I grew up with; or else I was too young to notice. One thing that has remained consistent, but is an unfortunate artifact of human nature broadly, is that most people want to be judged by their good intentions, despite whatever disastrous detritus they actually left behind. Nowadays I do a lot of thinking about the respective insights and delusions of liberals, libertarians, and conservatives. As with the generation gap, we could learn so many useful lessons from each other [because we're different personality types] if we could get past the self-righteous myopia. For instance, here's a candid mea culpa from a member of your generation about his progressive tribe:
I think you did a good job identifying some of the sources of resentment, other than mindless envy, which seems to be the foundation of the Democrats nowadays. Here are some other contributors:
1. Social Security was tolerable as a Ponzi scheme until birthrates started dropping precipitously, hilariously causing the same people who until recently were panicking about overpopulation to pivot in the other direction like Greta Thunberg going from climate justice warrior to Hamasnik. As I like to say to anyone who will listen, there's a reason speed bumps are shaped different than curbs. Curbs will break your axles at 5mph. Sudden population changes wreak havoc on the economy and social stability. I'd say that might be the predominant cause of young folks hating older folks, but it was really FDR [the most Trumpian former president] who decided to institute SS as a Ponzi scheme for political glory. Another major problem, which any fool with political experience could predict, is that the SS trust fund was too tempting a nest egg for Congress to keep their greedy hands off of, as I'm sure you're aware. As Milton Friedman said, nobody spends other people's money quite as carefully as their own; the understatement of the century.
2. You're right that the unwashed masses get their opinions of your generation from the leftists, but that's a fact of life because they captured the narrative in media and popular culture. Now that they are losing mainstream market share, the mask is slipping, and we can see Palpatine underneath [a reference from my generation]. But who cares what these people think anyway? They're all mouth, beer muscles, and vandalism, just like in the 1970s. When the conservative normies start to feel like they have to stop what they're doing to deal with these angry kids, it's not going to end well. And to support my argument that it's more a partisan issue than generational, the older leftists are not disciplining the younger ones; they're just encouraging them, like Jimmy Kimmel joking about the people who were destroying Teslas awhile ago, while his audience applauded. Get this: They're all fired up about criminals burning cars whose owners are likely people of their liberal cohort, which costs innocent citizens a lot and Elon Musk nothing. And why were they so mad at Elon? Oh yeah, for investigating govt malfeasance, which used to be a crusade of the old left. Times have changed, but the libs are dumb as ever. I guess spending six figures on an ivy league education, and owning a pocket computer connected to the internet, are insufficient for determining the meaning of "From the river to the sea," or even where the respective river and sea are located geographically. That's a post-grad degree program; it won't be on the midterms.
3. It's also a fact of life that easy times inevitably lead to hard times, because the collective memory is eager to put unpleasant days behind them, and not so eager to plumb the depths of history for disturbing truths about human nature. If Machiavelli was wrong, he would have been consigned to the dustbin centuries ago. Perhaps the greatest obligation of any generation is to instill in their own children an abiding appreciation of history, and a respect for the sacrifices of their predecessors. It can be difficult to impart such knowledge to young people, but it's the only way to avoid repeating past mistakes sooner rather than later. Sounds like you did a good job with your own kid, but many parents do not. Or they're competing against the peer pressure of their kids' friends' parents, who don't want to be Debbie Downers. Like FDR's Ponzi scheme, the desire for short-term admiration by authority figures leads to long-term suffering for the ignorant. And it's probly not an accident that financial literacy is omitted from public education, because fiscally disciplined youth will grow into hawkish adults who demand accountability from profligate politicians. And FYI, Biden has the rare distinction of both working to make student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy [1995], which raised tuition and lowered the bar for loan eligibility, and also trying to overcorrect by cancelling them as president, which would also raise tuition if successful [duh]. If colleges are so confident in the quality of their offerings, let them subsidize loans from their own endowments, I say.
I’m with you and especially irksome is the ageism of Colbert and Seth Meyers jokes. I don’t watch Colbert now partly because he threw Biden under the bus on age at a time of national emergency with the last election. That wasn’t funny and Trump isn’t funny.
Another fact: Boomers have been running on WWII money and are housing their adult children or raising their grands. We didn’t start the fire. We’re still fighting for equal rights and the lost ideals that made America a place to be proud of compared to post-Reagan America, with a few exceptional elections.
I sure miss Colbert when he was a fake Republican! He was very funny back then. Now he's come out as a humorless progressive, and I wish he'd go back in the closet.
Greatest generation was born between 1901-1927. They were the generation that fought in WWII. 1928-1945 is known as the Silent generation. As a baby boomer it’s surprising you don’t know that. That being said I agree with your post. I guess you have to blame someone, or a whole generation for your lot in life. I think they believe that all BBs have a lot of money and they resent that. As a late BB (born 1960) I know what they say isn’t true but as the saying goes you can’t put a 65 year old head on a 30 year old body. If they want to blame someone else rather being the change they want to see that’s on them, I couldn’t care less.
I like the article, but in some spots it’s hard to tell what is sarcasm (abolish the Department of Education? Vote Republican?). I read a recent article blaming Boomers for hoarding houses - instead of blaming the billionaires hoarding the wealth and the failure of Reagan era trickle-down economics. I voted to raise taxes for schools, for fire safety, and paid more into SSA than I’ll ever collect. I saved and scrimped during 32 years of working in tech, underpaid, under promoted, and under recognized. I’ve voted for Democratic candidates who wanted to help everyone, not lining their own pockets or favoring the wealthy. Making student loans affordable was a great idea - it was the institutions who decided to raise tuition and gouge the public. Greed was always the issue and it is still today.
As in so many other areas, the open rejection of the 10 commandments as in the Bible .Exodus 20. Can be explained. We already think , theft, adultery, lying, murder, idol worship is ok so why not also reject “ honour your father and your mother” which basically commands you to respect your elders. It needs to be seen as a larger collapse of those basic 10 guiding principles of the Christian Judeo civilisation that delivered to civilisation prosperity and security unparalleled in history. It’s the same slippery slope to societal collapse
Yes. There's lots of boomers bashing , and it's unwarranted, as you say. There are many boomers who divorced in the "new" rules they didn't cause and lost much. And those who were disabled by the new science and bad medicine from the later rules that never got to earn the amounts the should've. And yet, they are assumed to have the big bucks but don't. Millions of boomers live quietly doing the right thing and didn't make the big bucks they would've.
Replied to a similar comment below. That wasn’t a saying in my life, yet it gets attributed to all Boomers….“Don’t trust anyone over 30” is very different from “15 reasons why people hate Boomers so much” (pulled from the graphic in my piece showing the search results from “3 reasons xxxx are hated“) and other hateful things that get said. Don’t trust and Boomer hate are very different things. As I covered in my writing, there’s been disdain, jealousy, envy between generations forever, but never this level of hate. Does Gen X have a blanket statement that gets attributed to everyone of that generation? If no, wouldn’t it be annoying?
Well written young man.
Good stack. Understanding generations is important. What events and people shape the generations we’ve been arbitrarily pigeon holed in? A lot of overlap. As Gen X I've been able to observe my older Boom friend/families as well as younger MIL/ZOOMS. While rarely encountering THE GREATS. They're very old, and have(except maybe Eastwood)punched themselves out.
After much thought and reflection, I’ve concluded all generations in one way or another take a giant shit on the following generations. We just do! Its literally in our DNA.
Our species evolves by pursuing the interests that effect our group the most. Its not vindictive, or narcissistic. Its just the way we are. I could go through the recent histrionics starting with The Great generation, but I won't insult the intelligence of my fellow substackers. We’re all well aware of assets and liabilities we’ve collectively added or subtracted to and from our societies spread sheet. My advice? Stop worrying about what others say. Concentrate on what they do, and how much real impact they have.
Just my two or three or four words. I could be wrong. Often am🤷♂️
I’m a boomer raised by parents who experienced the Great Depression. My parents taught me to save something from every paycheck. This is how many of us lived, frugally, and bought started homes as our first house, not a mini mansion. The younger generation is used to instant gratification through social media and expects a huge salary to start rather than a starting salary. We boomers generally don’t waste our money on Starbucks coffee and drink a cup at home. I think the old hippie boomers give our generation a bad name, just like they did during the 70s when they were out protesting. This is all just my opinion and I don’t mean to clump all old hippies together, but the old white ladies (and few men) at the current protests look ridiculous.
Thank you. I’m a conservative Boomer and have always enjoyed your writing and opinions.
Collette, you are the Boomer that they’re talking about when they say, “OK, Boomer.” Smug, misinformed, bears responsibility for nothing, but not in doubt about anything.
All I can say is THANK YOU and SUBSCRIBED. Keeping this article as the most comprehensive rebuttal to the little weenie heads and whiny babies i have seen yet
Boomer here. Born in 1951.
Most of my cohort binge watch MSM. They think if it is on CNN and CBC it is likely very true. They are doctor groupies. They believe in modern medicine. Most too aren’t very wealthy. Some are. Most hate Trump. Most vote Green/lib/NDP here in Canada. A lot of atheists.
What can I say? They elected Mark Carney.
OK, Boomer! [Just kidding, relax.]
That was a great essay, and I always think it's silly when people stereotype entire generations. Very lazy passive-aggressive behavior. Obvs the generation gap is a Hobbesian war of all against all; it's pretty common for my fellow Gen Xers to bellyache about both older and younger cohorts.
But I think you made a more accurate point that the animosity is really a partisan schism more than a generational one. I learned today, unsurprisingly, that conservatives report greater mental health:
https://www.natesilver.net/p/what-explains-the-liberal-conservative
I'm 56, and a lifelong Democrat-ish person until COVID quarantine, during which I started reading econ and policy studies voraciously and became libertarian, like a lot of other shut-ins. But last year I decided to vote for Trump, after not voting in the previous two presidential elections because I was nonplussed about both options. The libertarians lost me over two key issues: Immigration and isolationism. I will say that their views on the proper role of govt are generally on point, because most of them [like me] are Asperger types who don't mind studying such things in our free time. But immigration and isolationism are two glaring blind spots for many people on the spectrum. Every political tribe tends to assume that most people are sorta like themselves, and will respond to similar incentives. Libertarians should really know better, but many don't. Then again, we are a bit better about one thing that normal people struggle with: When we change our minds about major issues or candidates, we don't automatically edit our memories to sanitize their history in our favor. I didn't suddenly gain a higher opinion of Trump because I decided to vote for him; I just couldn't stomach the cackling communist.
As of now it's a mixed bag, as any politician is. But I'm still glad I voted the way I did. Communism is creeping in again because--who could have predicted?--public school indoctrinates kids to favor the incumbent bureaucracy, just as pharma-sponsored medical education tends to produce docs who focus more on expensive treatments than healthy lifestyle habits. It took me a long time to realize the moral depravity of the left, which seems like a different animal to the boomer lefties I grew up with; or else I was too young to notice. One thing that has remained consistent, but is an unfortunate artifact of human nature broadly, is that most people want to be judged by their good intentions, despite whatever disastrous detritus they actually left behind. Nowadays I do a lot of thinking about the respective insights and delusions of liberals, libertarians, and conservatives. As with the generation gap, we could learn so many useful lessons from each other [because we're different personality types] if we could get past the self-righteous myopia. For instance, here's a candid mea culpa from a member of your generation about his progressive tribe:
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/quit-dsa-gaza-israel/
I think you did a good job identifying some of the sources of resentment, other than mindless envy, which seems to be the foundation of the Democrats nowadays. Here are some other contributors:
1. Social Security was tolerable as a Ponzi scheme until birthrates started dropping precipitously, hilariously causing the same people who until recently were panicking about overpopulation to pivot in the other direction like Greta Thunberg going from climate justice warrior to Hamasnik. As I like to say to anyone who will listen, there's a reason speed bumps are shaped different than curbs. Curbs will break your axles at 5mph. Sudden population changes wreak havoc on the economy and social stability. I'd say that might be the predominant cause of young folks hating older folks, but it was really FDR [the most Trumpian former president] who decided to institute SS as a Ponzi scheme for political glory. Another major problem, which any fool with political experience could predict, is that the SS trust fund was too tempting a nest egg for Congress to keep their greedy hands off of, as I'm sure you're aware. As Milton Friedman said, nobody spends other people's money quite as carefully as their own; the understatement of the century.
2. You're right that the unwashed masses get their opinions of your generation from the leftists, but that's a fact of life because they captured the narrative in media and popular culture. Now that they are losing mainstream market share, the mask is slipping, and we can see Palpatine underneath [a reference from my generation]. But who cares what these people think anyway? They're all mouth, beer muscles, and vandalism, just like in the 1970s. When the conservative normies start to feel like they have to stop what they're doing to deal with these angry kids, it's not going to end well. And to support my argument that it's more a partisan issue than generational, the older leftists are not disciplining the younger ones; they're just encouraging them, like Jimmy Kimmel joking about the people who were destroying Teslas awhile ago, while his audience applauded. Get this: They're all fired up about criminals burning cars whose owners are likely people of their liberal cohort, which costs innocent citizens a lot and Elon Musk nothing. And why were they so mad at Elon? Oh yeah, for investigating govt malfeasance, which used to be a crusade of the old left. Times have changed, but the libs are dumb as ever. I guess spending six figures on an ivy league education, and owning a pocket computer connected to the internet, are insufficient for determining the meaning of "From the river to the sea," or even where the respective river and sea are located geographically. That's a post-grad degree program; it won't be on the midterms.
3. It's also a fact of life that easy times inevitably lead to hard times, because the collective memory is eager to put unpleasant days behind them, and not so eager to plumb the depths of history for disturbing truths about human nature. If Machiavelli was wrong, he would have been consigned to the dustbin centuries ago. Perhaps the greatest obligation of any generation is to instill in their own children an abiding appreciation of history, and a respect for the sacrifices of their predecessors. It can be difficult to impart such knowledge to young people, but it's the only way to avoid repeating past mistakes sooner rather than later. Sounds like you did a good job with your own kid, but many parents do not. Or they're competing against the peer pressure of their kids' friends' parents, who don't want to be Debbie Downers. Like FDR's Ponzi scheme, the desire for short-term admiration by authority figures leads to long-term suffering for the ignorant. And it's probly not an accident that financial literacy is omitted from public education, because fiscally disciplined youth will grow into hawkish adults who demand accountability from profligate politicians. And FYI, Biden has the rare distinction of both working to make student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy [1995], which raised tuition and lowered the bar for loan eligibility, and also trying to overcorrect by cancelling them as president, which would also raise tuition if successful [duh]. If colleges are so confident in the quality of their offerings, let them subsidize loans from their own endowments, I say.
I’m with you and especially irksome is the ageism of Colbert and Seth Meyers jokes. I don’t watch Colbert now partly because he threw Biden under the bus on age at a time of national emergency with the last election. That wasn’t funny and Trump isn’t funny.
Another fact: Boomers have been running on WWII money and are housing their adult children or raising their grands. We didn’t start the fire. We’re still fighting for equal rights and the lost ideals that made America a place to be proud of compared to post-Reagan America, with a few exceptional elections.
I sure miss Colbert when he was a fake Republican! He was very funny back then. Now he's come out as a humorless progressive, and I wish he'd go back in the closet.
Greatest generation was born between 1901-1927. They were the generation that fought in WWII. 1928-1945 is known as the Silent generation. As a baby boomer it’s surprising you don’t know that. That being said I agree with your post. I guess you have to blame someone, or a whole generation for your lot in life. I think they believe that all BBs have a lot of money and they resent that. As a late BB (born 1960) I know what they say isn’t true but as the saying goes you can’t put a 65 year old head on a 30 year old body. If they want to blame someone else rather being the change they want to see that’s on them, I couldn’t care less.
I like the article, but in some spots it’s hard to tell what is sarcasm (abolish the Department of Education? Vote Republican?). I read a recent article blaming Boomers for hoarding houses - instead of blaming the billionaires hoarding the wealth and the failure of Reagan era trickle-down economics. I voted to raise taxes for schools, for fire safety, and paid more into SSA than I’ll ever collect. I saved and scrimped during 32 years of working in tech, underpaid, under promoted, and under recognized. I’ve voted for Democratic candidates who wanted to help everyone, not lining their own pockets or favoring the wealthy. Making student loans affordable was a great idea - it was the institutions who decided to raise tuition and gouge the public. Greed was always the issue and it is still today.
Greed is what other people want. What I want is called justice! As it should be.
As in so many other areas, the open rejection of the 10 commandments as in the Bible .Exodus 20. Can be explained. We already think , theft, adultery, lying, murder, idol worship is ok so why not also reject “ honour your father and your mother” which basically commands you to respect your elders. It needs to be seen as a larger collapse of those basic 10 guiding principles of the Christian Judeo civilisation that delivered to civilisation prosperity and security unparalleled in history. It’s the same slippery slope to societal collapse
Yes. There's lots of boomers bashing , and it's unwarranted, as you say. There are many boomers who divorced in the "new" rules they didn't cause and lost much. And those who were disabled by the new science and bad medicine from the later rules that never got to earn the amounts the should've. And yet, they are assumed to have the big bucks but don't. Millions of boomers live quietly doing the right thing and didn't make the big bucks they would've.
Don’t trust anyone under 30.
“What’s “OK, Boomer”?
It is a derogatory retort used by the younger generations to dismiss or mock the attitudes of older people, particularly Baby Boomers.
It’s new with us. We didn’t do this with our parents or grandparents.”
Gen X here, um…”Don’t trust anyone over 30”? 🥸
Replied to a similar comment below. That wasn’t a saying in my life, yet it gets attributed to all Boomers….“Don’t trust anyone over 30” is very different from “15 reasons why people hate Boomers so much” (pulled from the graphic in my piece showing the search results from “3 reasons xxxx are hated“) and other hateful things that get said. Don’t trust and Boomer hate are very different things. As I covered in my writing, there’s been disdain, jealousy, envy between generations forever, but never this level of hate. Does Gen X have a blanket statement that gets attributed to everyone of that generation? If no, wouldn’t it be annoying?
Nothing gets attributed to Gen X. We’re the Nikolai Yezhov of generations. 😆
The Bloody Dwarf? If nothing else, love him or hate him, you guys got Elon Musk in your ranks. Some of his tangible things have been pretty amazing.
He’s proof that drugs aren’t for everyone.
Fiscally responsible conservatives? You really are a humorist. LOL