Generational Warfare is bunk because "generations" are just another of our social constructs to make meaning of the world, but there is truth to the idea that there are commonalities in behavior and thought across an age group because of their shared experiences; and there can certainly be conflicts based on these perceived differences in thought and behavior.
Boomers are a real demographic phenomenon, in that there was a baby boom. But otherwise, everything is as you describe.
Yeah but it's mainly bullshit because it blames older people for stuff we should be blaming on capitalism
Absolutely. A lot of boomers has been fucked over by capitalism as well. When my dad enrolled in university students were told that they could get a nice job in academia or teaching just by having a chat with their professor once they had finished their PhDs but when his time came here was next to nothing to find. The times he found some teaching jobs that wasn't just temporary positions the schools he worked at were shut down or were downsized by neoliberal austerity.
All that fuckery has made him bitter and cartoonishly reactionary. Although he is smart enough to blame capitalists, politicians and bureaucrats are to blame he is also furious at Muslims, feminists, socialists, progressive liberals, LGBT people, doctors, rhythmic music, China, vaccines, 1968, computers, BLM, political correctness, etc. etc. — Basically everything that has changed since he was a kid in the 1950's.
Yeah... A lot of hippie stuff happened that year that changed cultural norms. And that's bad. Despite him being part of it!
Noted pick a year and hate it for the remainder of my life, ideally at random
It was the year a lot of countries gained independence from their colonists, a turning point for the hippies, there was a revolution in france, MLK and JFK were assassinated.
If any year can be used to explain the modern day, it's 1968
This point is predicated on debunking the concept of generations though, isn't it?
Like if the foundational step isn't removing the generational perspective, then I could just follow your statement up with "Yeah, but old people are responsible for capitalism so I SHOULD be directly blaming them."
You make a good point about that shifting of the blame, but I don't think it's correct to say that is the "main" source of the bullshit.
Definitely have an irrational anger for feeling like I'm not being listened to. Or when my arguments get steamrolled over with fallacy. It's how I realized that I'm not great with social skills because I disengage much earlier than I'd ever try to correct someone
Same dude. I'm pretty much checked out at work because I always bring up valid criticism and then get steamrolled, so i just sit and watch my seniors make the dumb mistakes i just pointed out.
It's an easy reason to dislike heirarchy - if you're on a forum, even if you were on 4chan, and you tried to bullshit your way through someone else, you'd get called out and rightly told to shut the fuck up. But because you got a promotion and you make more money, what you say goes. If I don't like it I can leave because there's absolutely no recourse by design.
And for my money, it's worse in casual conversation and friendships. I have the worst time expressing distaste for small issues.
can relate hugely; for me, the weirdest is the Gen Xers. they pretty much get it, but they're still established and comfortable and just a bit out of touch
the weirdest is the Gen Xers. they pretty much get it, but they’re still established and comfortable and just a bit out of touch
Except those of us who've spent half our 30s battling depression and living on disability.
My parents are genX and they decided to lean hard into the evangelical cult even though their parents were just regular once a month christians. Weird shit happened to people growing up right at the beginning of the collapse.
Post 60's was when it started going visibly downhill. Nixon/Reagan eras basically.
I mean specifically US collapse. For a while people were sure that the Soviets would outlast Amerikkka, but then neoliberalism/neocolonialism got a second wind and saved the empire just long enough to finish the siege against them and create the world we have today.
My Gen X brother not only had no tuition costs, he got fucking non-means tested grants from the government to go to university.
He is against tuition free college as too many people have “useless degrees”. An opinion he shares as someone that works as a software engineer, while oddly having a PhD in physics.
I agree, far too many people have degrees in law, management, marketing, communications, and administration.
Millennial here, and the Gen X person I most strongly remember in my own life is a guy who had a pathological, cartoonish hatred for younger generations. Got all his news from CNN and NPR, told me I was too young to understand the world when I was 30, blamed younger generations for ruining music, "damn millennials are always on their phones," etc.
He also had a huge number of galaxy-brain takes, including but not limited to
-The Great Depression was more devastating than Operation Barbarossa.
-The US lost the Vietnam War because it used 5.56mm while the communists used the bigger 7.62mm (and "5.56 was only adopted because new recruits couldn't handle the recoil from the older guns."). When I asked him why the USSR went on to adopt the 5.45mm after the war, he said "that's a loaded question" and refused to elaborate further.
-Capitalism and communism are both bad, and the solution is for world leaders to get together and create a new system
-The eventual collapse of the USSR means that Lenin was a failure and therefore he had nothing of value to say
-Poor people are at least as complicit as rich people in environmental destruction, because poor people litter more
-The fact that humans don't kill infants that aren't theirs is proof of a higher power, because that's what evolution dictates we do
-Being currently unemployed means he's worse off than people in the global south who live on $2 a day
-Cigarette addiction isn't real because he was able to quit them without issue
I don't know how representative that guy is of his generation, but on the whole, I definitely relate more to zoomers than Xers.
When I asked him why the USSR went on to adopt the 5.45mm after the war, he said “that’s a loaded question” and refused to elaborate further.
The sound you make when you have been completely and thoroughly owned.
The US lost the Vietnam War because it used 5.56mm while the communists used the bigger 7.62mm
Large bullet > small bullet — does sound like a flawless theory though. Size matters. 🤔
the freshly graduated sobbing 22-year-old next to you [...] just woke up and doesn't know where she is
Did covid give her Alzheimer's?
I was literally in high school yesterday, this isn't 2021, it's 2013 how dare you claim otherwise! Trump who? Bernie what? This is all an elaborate gaslighting campaign, I have a Spanish test tomorrow I will wake up and none of this will be real
I never got Covid and I never graduated (I'll finish one day I think) but yeah it's an accurate description lol
Might be the brain fog a lot of people are reporting as a persisting symptom?
I haven't gotten COVID (yet), but I've had brain fog for a while thanks to Lhyme. It's not fun.
Writing things down or carrying something in my hand related to my task/destination helps me stay present.
i mean sure I guess I have a "real job" in the sense that I'm paid to do what essentially is hand-holding boomers through reading the pre-existing documentation we have that answers their dumbass questions, but lol I'm not even paid enough to feasibly rent a studio apartment what are savings i don't look at my 401k because it just depresses me when I reflexively go 'haha you think i'll be able to retire if I'm still around in forty years' upon seeing that "target retirement 206x" date.
lol I’m not even paid enough to feasibly rent a studio apartment
aka all jobs now
me: solution
boomers: wait let me check something that's obviously wrong.
me: solution
boomers: wait let me check another thing that's obviously wrong.
me: solution
boomers: wait let me check 4 more things that are obviously wrong.
me: solution
boomers: hmmm ok maybe we check that tomorrow
*4 weeks later*
boomers: hmmm ok it looks like tabitha was right
This was definitely me five years ago.
I want to say "It gets better" because now I'm making six figures in a cush office job with a decent vacation schedule and a retirement account that can no longer fit in my wallet.
But... I feel like I'm gripping the last rung of the ladder that's slowly rising into space, and my grip isn't terribly firm. I'm 38 and looking to the future with the fervent hope that things don't get much worse (and the persistent realization that they absolutely will).
I feel like you'll probably be okay, especially w a salary & retirement like that. Just remember to wake up every morning and yell "I AM A CLASS TRAITOR" 10 times in a row.
We threw our stimulus checks to a local organization that fights foreclosures while singing the Internationale a few weeks back. Then I cooked up some of Chairman Mao's favorite Braised Pork Belly to celebrate.
Calling me out for everything about my life is one thing, but I will not stand for comparing my cooking to boomer boxed shit
the Beecher's stuff (can get it from Costco and more grocery stores) is solid
Way too optimistic. "Real job" "retirement"
I work a part time job plus gigs for 40+ hours per week, so I get no benefits lol
Edit: guess I don't have to deal with arrogant older coworkers much at least
