Ditto. Occupy was a shining moment and credit is deserved.
Yeah, I was. Still confused about this new system. Was giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to your sentiment against the fâing boomers.
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As an early '70s Gen X-er, Reagan, Chernobyl, AIDS = yes indeed. The other stuff no. Too young. Only the very earliest born of Gen X-ers would have been old enough to remember that other stuff at all. Even if you go buy the very earliest year of '65 theyâd still be really young children.
Hating millenials seems like the latest iteration of the clash between the realities of aging and the unavoidable fact that âYouth is wasted on the young.â
We elder folk look at our limited time between kids, work, mortgages and the rest. We finally have an idea of what we want to do with ourselves, and no time to do it. Then we look at the youngsters, who have time, energy and freedom. And we see them squander it (just like we did) on beer, fraught agonizing over the opposite sex and random acts of non-constructive fun.
We see the kids âsquanderingâ their youth and we get crusty about it. Just like our parents and elders did in our day, and just like the kids will in theirs.
Or maybe itâs all in my head and those damn kids really are just useless. Or maybe it was us.
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Yes, how dare we expect society to reflect the values we are taught.
How dare we hold our own values above that which we know to be untrue.
How dare we respect ourselves more than society falsely expects us to?
The old ways are no longer viable.
Some of us are disgusted with profit-chasing, and yes we are indeed entitled to feel however we want, about anything we want.
Your only recourse is to complain about it.
Actually, Iâd say the boomers had a hell of a lot of stuff handed to them- like say, the ability to get a decent college education without going up to their eyeballs in debt. And that was provided by the taxpayer, but now that theyâre the taxpayers, they suddenly have decided itâs every man for himself.
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The whole concept of cultural generations is daft. There is no way someone born in 2000 is going to consider someone born in 1980 to be of the same generation; they could be their parents.
But obviously, Gen X is the best generation.
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I imagine youâre right. I was raised to have pretty negative attitudes about Nixon and Vietnam, but that was the influence of conversations between my parents and (much) older siblings, for whom they were very recent memories. I donât have any actual firsthand memories dating before Nixonâs resignation or the evacuation of Saigon. My earliest political memory is of advising my Mom to re-elect President Ford. (First and last time I ever dreamed of voting Republican.) Still, the aftermath of those defining events of the 70s did a hell of a lot to influence the lives of me and my cohort. Vietnam and Watergate cast very long shadows indeed.
As they say on the Internet, âThis!â
A broad-spectrum misanthropy is the only solution. Youâre not me? I hate you. Shape up.
Not to split hairs, but that is an opportunity that was available to them, not something anyone âhandedâ them. Itâs also an opportunity that is available to millenials, tbh, for varying degrees of âup to their eyeballsâ and âdecent educationâ.
But donât forget generational transfers, especially from white children of returning GI vets, who handed down financial advantages and cultural and educational capital to their boomer kids, thanks to the largest affirmative action program in U.S. history, the GI Bill. âPrivilegeâ of that sort actually is a handout.
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Once more, Iâm not saying everything is roses for millennials. I just really think the blame all our problems on the boomers attitude is missing perspective. Of course everythingâs not perfect. But for all the problems we inherit, we also inherited a lot of good situations and opportunities. Maybe just be glad that instead of being drafted to fight in WWII or Korea or Vietnam, you get to grouse on the internet about how hard life is.
i just donât even know how to unpack this. If weâre talking about white privilege now, thatâs a whole new unrelated conversation. If weâre talking about whether or not itâs a good idea to repay those who fought and died representing our country by helping their kids be educated, still an unrelated conversation and frankly pretty scummy to even question. If weâre talking about the idea of inheritance as a privilege, itâs true and arguably related, but it doesnât really change the playing field re: millennials vs any other generation; thatâs always been there, so i find it hard to see how it represents some unique hardship the younger generation today is facing.
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I was born in March of '67, so I was eight by '75. My uncle, a one-eyed man with numerous deep-tissue wounds and skin grafts, was a vivid example to me of what Vietnam was.
I remember the big topics for me as a child were civil rights, due to the fact that I lived right in the middle of the Midwest, where those things werenât popular â the neutron bomb, when I was seriously beginning to watch the news â and the Cold War. Oh, and streaking.
I pretty sure massive education subsidies count as âhanded to themâ. Thereâs a big difference between when the UC system was founded, for example- it canât charge âtuitionâ, it was supposed to be free to Californian students graduating in the top 10% of the state- to even ten years ago, when it was 4k a year , to today, when itâs 14k. Thatâs a huge difference. It was once accessible to bright kids in general; itâs not accessible only to the richest or the least debt-adverse. I was able to go to a UC; my cousins canât even consider it.
Yet complaining about tuition hikes and the fact that governmentâs solution is âmore loansâ, and the boomers cry âyou entitled kids, we paid our own damn tuition and we liked it, no one gave us any help.â And itâs that attitude Iâm calling BS on. THey had lots of help. It just was through state funding.
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We also inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, which has disproportionately hit the young, who never even have a chance to get on the ladder. So basically, if a 90 year old grandmother wants to complain about how easy kids have it these days, yeah, iâll give her that one, but anyone who grew up in the 50s, 60s, or even the relatively shitty 70s should probably rethink that one.
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This sort of blame game crap is only possible for those who are somehow blind to the obvious fact that no man is an island.
Itâs plain as day that any actual general trends (as opposed to varieties of timeless refrain) are the product of previous generations. Young people can hardly be held responsible for the systemic influences theyâre subject to.
Itâs passing the buck; blaming the victim.
'74 here, BTW
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So, basically the outlets printing these âGroup X thinks this about Group Y, What do you think about that Group Y?â have been successful in generalizing and polarizing more non-extant combatant âsides.â mmmmm divisive âjournalismâ for Homerâs soul⌠One doesnât have to attack âBoomersâ as some kind of disembodied other in order to call BS on an idea posited (by lazy columnists or what-have-you). Letâs just agree not to put up with these silly, historically inaccurate, unscientific, too-vague-to-be-useful labels. Itâs giving the young and vulnerable sociology a bad name.
Your comment doesnât track. Inequality, wages, debt, etc. fâin etc. are much worse now than then, and mostly because of selfish, misguided policies embraced by boomers.
