I remember once reading a Frank Miller rant in one of the Sin City comics, where he was describing boomers as being overly liberal, like “social justice warriors”, referencing what boomers represented in American universities. I was reading it some 20 years after the comic was released, and it was quite funny because by then boomers were associated with being overly conservative and greedy real estate hoarders and short-term-profit CEOs, with complete disregard for everything else (not that this was anything new, it just felt like they had doubled down on the worst features of the previous generation).
I always viewed Gen X as a mix of cynicism and pop culture, and in those battles that arose online, mainly between Boomers and Millennials, Gen X was the “chill” gen. However, now that the majority of CEOs are Gen X, we are seeing an unprecedented mass surveillance and data-collection economy, like fucking Gen Xers want complete control over everyone. And yeah, I hope Gen X is remembered for that, just as Boomers are being remembered as completely out-of-touch greedy conservatives with consolidate wealth instead of for the cultural changes they led in the 60s and 70s.
It seems that in early Web 2.0, Millennials were associated with “social justice warriors”. Inclusivity and visibility seemed like very Millennial concerns, but when I see places like 4chan and 9gag, I realize it’s not kids there, it’s a bunch o resented people in their 30s and 40s, the Culture War is a very Millennial thing, it was industrialized, became a performance, and when in power, that generation will probably be remembered for hate.
It seems like we are not remembered for when our generation was the opposition, but for what it did when it became the establishment. What do you think?
What about Gen X?
Humans are greedy, selfish, and shitty regardless of which generational-cohort they’re associated with. What the boomers had was raw numbers… enough money and a voting bloc big enough to force self serving legislation for most of their adult lives. Gen-X will never be able to do that because Millennials have already surpassed them in voter numbers. So Gen-X won’t enact a heap of shitty self-serving policy, but only because they couldn’t. Not that they won’t want to.
Flawed premise imo. All those things you listed about Boomers were really Hippie things and Hippies despite their media prominence today were not that large a subset of boomer teens.
It’s like looking at Punks in the 80s and saying why didn’t the world change if everyone was anti-authority.
The disconnect is one of class, not generation. Generation draws a lot of attention, both in solidarity and in backlash, but if you’re expecting the world to suddenly become better when boomers die off, or for X/millennials/Z/etc to swoop in and save the day, you’re in for disappointment.
The ruling class will continue to make our existence as dystopian as possible until we break out the guillotines.
Let’s learn everything did a great episode on how stupid and arbitary the generation naming is.
It’s almost like all the hand wringing about generations, immigration, race, sexuality is a distraction from rich people fucking everyone else over
You forgot nationality, gender, IQ and skin colour.
But you’d have to have a very high IQ to think of those 🙃🤥
However, now that the majority of CEOs are Gen X, we are seeing an unprecedented mass surveillance and data-collection economy, like fucking Gen Xers want complete control over everyone.
Increasing mass surveillance and data collection aren’t a gen-x thing; they’re a continuation of what was already happening due to late-stage, neoliberal capitalism and the process of technology development.
Every Big Tech CEO for the last 10 years or so are Gen X, this massive surveillance and data collection is totally their thing, previous tech CEOs weren’t such scumbags :P (or just weren’t creative enough to be such scumbags)
Generational proclivities are a red herring. At best they’re useful to marketing firms and at worst they’re pumped out by PR firms to distract us from the class war. The changes that are happening would have happened regardless, because they benefit the bourgeoisie. These are specifically oligarch-driven changes, not gen-x vibes-driven.
GenX here. I was alive and remember the older folks the millennials and later didn’t get to meet. Boomers were, and still are, much more liberal than their parents and grandparents were. It’s hard to imagine but it’s true. Example: god forbid you were a girl - you could be one of three acceptable things 1) a baby factory/cook/maid for your husband 2) a nurse 3) a nun. And 2 and 3 were sketchy - those were just for the ugly girls….I’m serious… They shouldn’t vote, they didn’t have credit cards, and they certainly didn’t need to “think” - just do what your father said until your husband took that job over. GenX girls literally could be whatever they wanted - we were the first generation where that was possible (even if it came with disapproving side eyes - it was still possible).
The generational hate is misplaced IMO. It’s hard for my kids to understand what life was like after ww2 and the fifties. Boomers really did think and act quite liberally compared to the world they grew up in. We gen Xers saw a glimpse of that world and for all the boomer’s faults, we appreciated what our parents tried to make for us. I’m not saying they were perfect, there tends to be a lot of selfishness in that generation as well as pulling up the ladder behind them. GenX ain’t like that generally speaking. I don’t think you’ll see that type of behavior from us. If you want to criticize us, you’d have to point at our apathy and “fuck it” attitude. We’ve seen some shit yo, and we were tired of it all by high school. Some of it is the same rage boomers rebelled against, some of it directed at all the fucked-up-ness that was new (the economy, the environment, drugs alcoholism and physical abuse, the rich’s exploitation of the working class, having to care for both kids and our parents on a pauper’s salary, etc.). We ain’t perfect, and some older GenX might as well be boomers - but in the end I’m not sure any of it matters. There just ain’t enough of us compared to the rest of you. Boomers croak, and millennials, genz, and alpha have like 75%+ of the vote (someone should fact check me on that but I think I’m in the ballpark). And I would HOPE my generational cohorts would vote more in line with the younger folks - because otherwise they are posers who sold out (they should listen more closely to their Rage Against the Machine lyrics).
Remember, it’s class warfare, not generational warfare.
The last thing corporate media want us to consider is class, which is why they promote minor—and even fictional—wedge issues to distract us from it.
That being said there have been progressive folks going way back. My folks were kinda amazing for silent generation and the ones fighting for civil rights go way back before boomers. I mean. Jane Adams.
Think of it this way.
2.7 million Boomers went to Vietnam. About 500,000 went to Woodstock.
The hippies and Far Left were always a minority; most of the Boomers wanted the three car garage. And a lot of the most radical suddenly stepped back after the killings at Kent state.
Are you forgetting that the draft existed or just leaving that out on purpose?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_evasion_in_the_Vietnam_War
According to the Wiki, about 570,000 actively resisted.
Most Boomers didn’t question the War.
It always kinda amazes me how little interaction there is across generations.
The hippies and such that were part of the pre-eighties boomer counterculture movements are still there. Most of those don’t look the part, but still hold the same beliefs.
Some just grew the fuck up, had families, and no longer had the energy to sustain a life of protest. A lot of what drove that era’s visible counterculture was youthful energy. Young idealists eventually hit a wall where no matter what their beliefs are, they’re limited by reality in how much time, effort, and resources they can put towards their cause.
But there’s also the fact that every generation is diverse. You’ll have the edges, where you find the most vehement people, but the majority are going to just not give a fuck as long as they can live with acceptable levels of hassle. In that laundry majority, you’ll find the folks that agree with a given principle, but can’t/won’t do anything about it. They will, however, give lip service.
That’s boomers, Xers, millennials, Z, Alpha, whatever age range you want to point at. You’ll still have the vehement and loud, but as they age up, there’s less of their age peers jumping on the bandwagon.
Then, the next age group comes along and wants an enemy. That enemy is going to be the establishment because establishment is the thing we all are forced to live in. It’s the default, the status quo. And that means the previous generations that are in that majority that are just trying to live and survive are part of that establishment. So you get the bullshit generational warfare. Which, once you live long enough, and/or look back at history enough, you discover happens every generation. There’s always a struggle of some kind because there’s always some degree of power imbalance created just by surviving long enough to accrue knowledge/resources.
This is phenomenon relied on by power brokers. The 1%, if you want to look at it that way. The folks that have control of enough resources that they essentially control everyone’s lives.
Some just grew the fuck up, had families, and no longer had the energy to sustain a life of protest. A lot of what drove that era’s visible counterculture was youthful energy. Young idealists eventually hit a wall where no matter what their beliefs are, they’re limited by reality in how much time, effort, and resources they can put towards their cause.
As a Millennial, I lost all faith in protest after millions and millions across the globe rose up to protest the WoT and inequality and were brushed aside.
I only have middle-age rage now.
Don’t worry, by the time you hit fifty-ish, you won’t have energy for rage any more lol.
Were they or just a small fraction of them while the majority of Americans remained brainwashed imperialists?
Well I mean not every gen Xer is a ceo. As an Xer myself my main thing is that the feeling was everything is bullshit but maybe over time (view from high school) we will get better. We just need to not put up with bullshit and over time technology and politics will improve to the point that there is less bs. So one of those things did progress. For awhile anyway. Whelp its pretty clear improvements have pretty much stopped or more like any we get are along with many more detriments. I don’t know what to do but one thing was the boomers in good jobs did not retire so for my own part I have responded to promotions (to be clear kinda bullshit promotions) by saying hey go to the younger guy who is like a millenial but maybe they have enough time in their career to make something of the position. Heck millenials should try and push down further. People need to be doing things before they hit 40 to have time to keep getting experience and rising. Just to be clear this is not all nicey nice on my part. We are talking about. Hey how about you become the manager but as part of that you do all the work you did before and likely be asked to reduce headcount and all for no extra money but you know you will be able to not be part of the group that gets the ax for now.
A lot of good people fought hard to change the system, but the system still brought bad people to high places.
Workers and protesters do the best they can with their limited power. Politicians and financiers are overwhelmingly villainous. If you study the scientists and singers of any generation, you will find heroes.
Your epitaph is carved by those you leave behind.
