What went wrong with the Boomers?

[Hugo Stiglitz 23355]

Seriously, why are they so fucking stupid and somehow fairly wealthy? 

 

 

[David Dennison 18485]

No idea, but I would love to know how much of Boomer wealth is inherited from their parents.

[Hawndoh 2378]

That fried their brains with drugs in the 70s and 80s

[JimmyJames 12271]

They grew up believing everything they saw on tv then fox cable news came along and fucked them all right up. My dad being a good example of that. It’s insidious. 

[Bojack 2073]

I've always thought that Rush hate radio bullshit was especially appealing to boomers because it co-opts some of the language of '60s rebelliousness.  We Gen Xers had faith in them too long because we figured they were all about peace and love and they had cool music.  

[SimonBolivar 10890]

The boomers that I meet had two 50s and moved right on into the 70s.

[Yuk 1489]

3 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

The boomers that I meet had two 50s and moved right on into the 70s.

Haven't you heard?--80 is the new 70!!

Edited January 25, 2019 by Yuk

[Yuk 1489]

double

Edited January 25, 2019 by Yuk

[Aqua Buddha 14464]

15 minutes ago, Bojack said:

I've always thought that Rush hate radio bullshit was especially appealing to boomers because it co-opts some of the language of '60s rebelliousness.  We Gen Xers had faith in them too long because we figured they were all about peace and love and they had cool music.  

There's some truth to this.

Also, they came of age when the "news" was only 3 stations.  If you heard it on TV, it was generally considered fact.  That slowly became talk radio and cable TV and in their mind, it still remained fact.  If they heard it on TV, must be true, right?  Now they're on the Internet and old so they believe whatever they read.

The didn't come of age with the cynicism that younger generations did.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

9 minutes ago, Bojack said:

I've always thought that Rush hate radio bullshit was especially appealing to boomers because it co-opts some of the language of '60s rebelliousness.  We Gen Xers had faith in them too long because we figured they were all about peace and love and they had cool music.  

I think something similar in that it is right wing radio, but the opposite.  The hippie group was a small percent of them and were deemed by the media as the cool, the representatives of the era, and the ones in the right.  All the rest of the boomers (which is a huge percentage of the population) nursed grudges based on being the outsiders, the uncool, the unenlightened.  So they turn to hate filled folks looking to name other Americans as the ones that were in the wrong the whole time. 

[TwiceHorn 31084]

From Michael Lewis' Boomerang:

Quote

The richest society the world has ever seen has grown rich by devising better and better ways to give people what they want. The effect on the brain of lots of instant gratification is something like the effect on the right hand of cutting off the left: the more the lizard core is used the more dominant it becomes. “What we’re doing is minimizing the use of the part of the brain that lizards don’t have,” says Whybrow. “We’ve created physiological dysfunction. We have lost the ability to self-regulate, at all levels of the society. The $5 million you get paid at Goldman Sachs if you do whatever they ask you to do—that is the chocolate cake upgraded.”

Referring to UCLA neuroscientist Peter Whybrow's thesis that continued prosperity unleashes "the id" and suppresses "the super-ego."  More here.

[Anastasis 23328]

Wait till you see what the millennials morph on to. 

[Hank Kingsley 20592]

#BothGens

[F250 28623]

5 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Wait till you see what the millennials morph on to. 

They are pretty similar from a Gen X perspective.

Fuck em, fuck em all.

[David Dennison 18485]

Gen X just sitting above it all watching the idiots.

[SaucyJack 3475]

31 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

There's some truth to this.

Also, they came of age when the "news" was only 3 stations.  If you heard it on TV, it was generally considered fact.  That slowly became talk radio and cable TV and in their mind, it still remained fact.  If they heard it on TV, must be true, right?  Now they're on the Internet and old so they believe whatever they read.

The didn't come of age with the cynicism that younger generations did.

Fairness Doctrine repealed in late 80s did not help.

[TwiceHorn 31084]

A pedestrian explanation may be that it seems that parents who have experienced deprivation often spoil their children to a greater or lesser degree, especially if the parents have attained sufficient success to indulge their children (I have observed this personally, but it doesn't always hold true).

Between the Depression and WWII, the Greatest Generation was the last generation, broadly speaking, that suffered that level of deprivation and hardship.  Their progeny, the Boomers, may simply be spoiled.

Doesn't contradict the Whybrow thesis above.

[Anastasis 23328]

11 minutes ago, F250 said:

They are pretty similar from a Gen X perspective.

Fuck em, fuck em all.

I report. You decide.

 

 

 

 

[Chuckie Finster 22571]

2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

A pedestrian explanation may be that it seems that parents who have experienced deprivation often spoil their children to a greater or lesser degree, especially if the parents have attained sufficient success to indulge their children (I have observed this personally, but it doesn't always hold true).

Between the Depression and WWII, the Greatest Generation was the last generation, broadly speaking, that suffered that level of deprivation and hardship.  Their progeny, the Boomers, may simply be spoiled.

Doesn't contradict the Whybrow thesis above.

As a new millennial parent with new millennial parent friends, it's been really interesting to watch the dynamic when our parents are also present.  I know grandparents will be grandparents, but their level of fear and worry about every little thing regarding our kids is something to behold, and it becomes VERY easy to see why our generation got the label that it did.  

[workswithseed 2028]

5 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I report. You decide.

 

 

 

 

That first picture embarrasses me that we are about the same age.

Edited January 25, 2019 by workswithseed

[Aqua Buddha 14464]

17 minutes ago, SaucyJack said:

Fairness Doctrine repealed in late 80s did not help.

That was thing, too.  They never got past their formative years when everything you saw or heard was considered fact.  

[Celery Man 20832]

Millennials experienced getting everything they wanted throughout their lives and then got smacked in the face with reality in their 20s.  Boomers experienced getting everything they wanted throughout their entire lives and then smacked reality in the face in their 60s.

[Tom 2959]

15 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Gen X just sitting above it all watching the idiots.

 

21 minutes ago, F250 said:

They are pretty similar from a Gen X perspective.

Fuck em, fuck em all.

 

Oh, cool.  Gen X is apparently above it all like a Gary Johnson libertarian voter.  Remind me exactly what it is Gen X has done with multiple decades of voting under their belts.  Oh, nothing?  Exactly the same as Boomers? 

Sweet.

[Anastasis 23328]

Just now, Aqua Buddha said:

That was thing, too.  They never got past their formative years when everything you saw or heard was considered fact.  

I am not sure that this is right.  Widespread skepticism of government and media messaging on most fronts was pretty common to the Boomer generation during the 60-70s. 

[SaucyJack 3475]

2 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

That was thing, too.  They never got past their formative years when everything you saw or heard was considered fact.  

Exactly, don't understand the difference between opinion and hard news. 

[Anastasis 23328]

3 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Millennials experienced getting everything they wanted throughout their lives and then got smacked in the face with reality in their 20s.  Boomers experienced getting everything they wanted throughout their entire lives and then smacked reality in the face in their 60s.

They've never really been smacked in the face imo. They have been coddled cradle to grave. 

[Anastasis 23328]

5 minutes ago, Tom said:

Oh, cool.  Gen X is apparently above it all like a Gary Johnson libertarian voter.  Remind me exactly what it is Gen X has done with multiple decades of voting under their belts.  Oh, nothing?  Exactly the same as Boomers?

Sorry bro. We were preoccupied trying to avoid the AIDS and Hep C and shit that the Boomers left behind for us when they put the front door key on our keyrings and tuned out. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Anastasis

[F250 28623]

2 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Sorry bro. We were preoccupied trying to avoid the AIDS and Hep C and shit that the Boomers left behind for us when they put the front door key on our keyrings and tuned out. 

Every time I see one of those Baby Boomer Hep C commercials, I just think "let them die off already."

 

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23355]

Pretty sure Gen X is responsible for weaponizing the boomers with enough military grade retardation technology to destroy western civilization.

At least we got some decent porn out of it.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Hugo Stiglitz

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

No idea, but I would love to know how much of Boomer wealth is inherited from their parents.

The vast minority. 

[GSU&UT 1798]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

Wait till you see what the millennials morph on to. 

Maybe we'll get our comeuppance, but we're trying to fix the problems our parents selfishly created while our parents previously destroyed all the solutions to the problems their parents fixed during the great depression and thereafter.

[Celery Man 20832]

32 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

They've never really been smacked in the face imo. They have been coddled cradle to grave. 

yeah, reality doesn't smack them, they smack reality.  can't wait for the process to complete.

[David Dennison 18485]

They got tagged with losing the Vietnam War. That can't be fun. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

26 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Pretty sure Gen X is responsible for weaponizing the boomers with enough military grade retardation technology to destroy western civilization.

At least we got some decent porn out of it.

Yeah maybe so but what are you gonna do. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

51 minutes ago, Tom said:

 

 

Oh, cool.  Gen X is apparently above it all like a Gary Johnson libertarian voter.  Remind me exactly what it is Gen X has done with multiple decades of voting under their belts.  Oh, nothing?  Exactly the same as Boomers? 

Sweet.

Due to birth rates and demographics in comparison to the number of boomers our vote never mattered. And due to birth rate and demographics in comparison to the millennials it never will. 

Oh well. Fuck it. 

[Anastasis 23328]

42 minutes ago, F250 said:

Every time I see one of those Baby Boomer Hep C commercials, I just think "let them die off already."

 

 

No no no. They expect their small group plan to drop 150k to eradicate their viral infection with no longer term ability to recoup the cost offset and no premium impact. Cause boomer math. 

[happyfunball 481]

It is because we didn’t institute death panels 

[JimmyJames 12271]

Just now, happyfunball said:

It is because we didn’t institute death panels 

It’s not too late. Let’s do it!

[Chuckie Finster 22571]

11 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Millennials are betas whose kids will look back and think what a bunch of weirdos who created elaborate systems to connect online and take pictures of themselves just to create mental illnesses within each other and invented cyberbullying. Have y’all met some of these generation Z or whatever? Oh my gosh they are whip smart. And cut throat. I’ve seen 24 year olds handle Wall Street internships, Big 4 20 hour days, and have more money than most millennials who traded in their upward mobility so they could wear chuck Taylor’s to work and drink beer in the break room between moving some sticky notes from one part of the whiteboard to another.

 just saying, my kids will need to step it up.

How is everything you say so wrong?

[hobbes2702 12769]

11 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Millennials are betas whose kids will look back and think what a bunch of weirdos who created elaborate systems to connect online and take pictures of themselves just to create mental illnesses within each other and invented cyberbullying. Have y’all met some of these generation Z or whatever? Oh my gosh they are whip smart. And cut throat. I’ve seen 24 year olds handle Wall Street internships, Big 4 20 hour days, and have more money than most millennials who traded in their upward mobility so they could wear chuck Taylor’s to work and drink beer in the break room between moving some sticky notes from one part of the whiteboard to another.

just saying, my kids will need to step it up.

Someone who is 24 right now would be a millenial so I think you’re lying.

[F250 28623]

1 minute ago, Skinny Tie said:

Scumbag Gen X coworkers still dropping “technologically challenged” as if Microsoft Office was invented a year ago.

How bout you Google your question instead of getting paid to play with your tits and talking bout your children.

Are you hanging out at the strip club during the day shift?

 

 

[Larry T. Spider 1740]

Some of my boomer teachers are good at their jobs and still find ways to connect with kids. But I could hide a million dollars in our google drive that I shared with them at the beginning of the year and they would never find it. Maybe 25% could with extremely step by step directions.

[David Dennison 18485]

7 minutes ago, Skinny Tie said:

Scumbag Gen X coworkers still dropping “technologically challenged” as if Microsoft Office was invented a year ago.

How bout you Google your question instead of getting paid to play with your tits and talking bout your children.

That's Gen X just trying to dominate you.

[elfenix 34161]

3 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Seriously, why are they so fucking stupid and somehow fairly wealthy? 

 

got to spend nothing on college, bent the economy to their wills as they were bigger than prior and later generations in the 80s and 90s, and really got a lot out of people deciding their homes were investments rather than places to live. 

also, when you're old you've just had more time for compound interest to work. people in their 60s are wealthier than people in their 50s are wealthier than people in their 40s etc.

[Michael Knight 12852]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

A pedestrian explanation may be that it seems that parents who have experienced deprivation often spoil their children to a greater or lesser degree, especially if the parents have attained sufficient success to indulge their children (I have observed this personally, but it doesn't always hold true).

Between the Depression and WWII, the Greatest Generation was the last generation, broadly speaking, that suffered that level of deprivation and hardship.  Their progeny, the Boomers, may simply be spoiled.

Doesn't contradict the Whybrow thesis above.

Boomers didn't get spoiled, their fathers all had PTSD and were deprived of affection. The only love they received was in the form of money so they equated that with happiness

[Post Oak 20174]

 

[troph 24498]

The Fourth Turning theory has some interesting applicability. It’s a cycle of 4 generations with a high, an awakening, an unraveling and a crisis that then starts all over after resolution. The boomers are the awakening (following WWII aftermath which was the high) when communal and institutional values are questioned, then the unraveling was after that with GenX and the culture wars and now we are in the crisis. The generation in the crisis is called to save the wreckage created and the beginning of that is arguably the first generation after the high - so lots of blame on the boomers. But interestingly it’s their kids - who the heck were GenX parents?? - that will save the day so do they get credit? And before you scoff - most of us in politics who are not Fox News consumers are waiting for the day millennials have more political power. Their views and beliefs are more inline with what we want and we know when they arrive things will be radically different.

 

 

I don’t know if I ascribe to this theory but it’s interesting for sure.

[TwiceHorn 31084]

13 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Boomers didn't get spoiled, their fathers all had PTSD and were deprived of affection. The only love they received was in the form of money so they equated that with happiness

What you said and what I said aren't really inconsistent.

[bolverk 29261]

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

A pedestrian explanation may be that it seems that parents who have experienced deprivation often spoil their children to a greater or lesser degree, especially if the parents have attained sufficient success to indulge their children (I have observed this personally, but it doesn't always hold true).

Between the Depression and WWII, the Greatest Generation was the last generation, broadly speaking, that suffered that level of deprivation and hardship.  Their progeny, the Boomers, may simply be spoiled.

Doesn't contradict the Whybrow thesis above.

 

29 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Boomers didn't get spoiled, their fathers all had PTSD and were deprived of affection. The only love they received was in the form of money so they equated that with happiness

This isn't the first time I've read that the kids of WW2 dads were neglected due to fathers wanting to just come home after work and have a drink (maybe related to PTSD).

My own personal theory about the Boomers is that, by definition, they were born after WW2 and were therefore raised in an environment in which the US was #1 in all things, and they've been stuck on that nostalgic note ever since and haven't been able to let it go.

I think it was touched on up thread, but the Hippies were actually only just a subset of that generation and were never really the majority. Therefore, those of us who were Gen Xers were sadly misinformed/mistaken about what the Baby Boomer Generation really was.

When Bill Clinton took the presidency, I was glad to see a new generation come to power. Yes, I honestly think that played a big role in his appeal at the time. But, I also felt the same way about Obama who is at that weird no man's land between Boomers and Gen X.

I think what separates Gen X and the Boomers is the type and degree of fear that was instilled within us during our formative years. For the Boomers, it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, Blacks getting their rights, and being drafted for a stupid war. For Gen X, it was "The Day After", AIDS, and poisoned Tylenol.

But, as much as Boomers could say their dads were neglectful drunks coming home from the office, it was Gen X who were the actual "latchkey kids" coming home to an empty house without a mom to bake us cookies or whatever.

As for Millennials, they're the offspring of the Boomers. So, if any anyone wants to criticize them, they need to look at the parents who raised them.

[Helobious 9465]

1 hour ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Millennials are betas whose kids will look back and think what a bunch of weirdos who created elaborate systems to connect online and take pictures of themselves just to create mental illnesses within each other and invented cyberbullying. Have y’all met some of these generation Z or whatever? Oh my gosh they are whip smart. And cut throat. I’ve seen 24 year olds handle Wall Street internships, Big 4 20 hour days, and have more money than most millennials who traded in their upward mobility so they could wear chuck Taylor’s to work and drink beer in the break room between moving some sticky notes from one part of the whiteboard to another.

just saying, my kids will need to step it up.

A 24 year old is a millennial.