How disappointed we will all be when all the boomers are dead and it doesn’t solve any of our problems.
We’ll just have to see, won’t we?
Plus, it’s not like the climate will just snap back into place when the boomers are finally too old for their skeleton talons to cling to power. That shit is going to take generations of sacrifice to roll back, if it doesn’t topple civilization first.
The whole ethos of the majority of baby boomers seems to have been to raze the forest they got to enjoy behind them (as opposed to planting trees whose shade they’d never sit in like most generations aspire to), and they seem to be having remarkable success in that.
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The wealthy are savvy but with the boomers gone they lose a lot of their support. Of course they will try to maintain the status quo, but the people will be affected by the material conditions and see the truth. The only thing we have to fear is hate, but MTG, Boebart and Desantis were all elected by Boomers. Young people don’t vote for those idiots. I’m more concerned about Andrew Tate.
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This isn’t new though, many boomers were the hippies at one point, they had the photocopier, fairness doctrine TV & Radio and liberal attitudes for sex, gender, and civil rights.
But the same tactics were used to stop and convert many of them, plus around half of them were the same sort of assholes that give them a bad name now.
thats the ethos you project onto boomers, not the ethos boomers live by.
The results speak for themselves. The majority of their generation’s attitudes about the results indicate satisfaction with the results.
Not true. You dont know what they think or feel
Ok boomer
The issues they left behind will last for generations. Funny that anyone could believe this goes away in our lifetime.
Or that we won’t make new problems that we get to blame on new generations. It will never end
Many of the issues they leave behind are ones that existed when they were born.
It’s not about a magic cure that’ll fix everything over night.
It’s about repairing decades of harm done by a generational mindset that valued wealth acquisition and material possession above every other facet of society. We won’t fix that trauma in one, two, or three generations but it will get better and better with time and distance to boomerism.
The values of wealth accumulation and materialism are not at all limited to or even expressed mostly strongly by the Baby Boomer generation.
The line of thinking that capitalism dies with boomers or that Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, or whatever comes next will not fully embrace capitalism and will move towards socialism or some other non-competitive society seems pretty naive.
Humans are a competitive species. Most people want to win. I doubt this mindset dies with boomers.
Humans are a co-operative species, same goes for our ape and monkey cousins.
It is this instinctual nature of working together that enabled us to take down bigger prey, settle new lands, and become the dominant species on the planet.
I don’t disagree. That said, would suggest that externally we are cooperative, but internally we are competitive. Even in ape families, there exists a hierarchy generally ruled by the biggest, strongest male.
Which brings us back to the point at hand. Will humans come together to solve climate change? Or will humans continue to try to win at all costs?
I can see either as a possibility. But I don’t see boomers dying as a catalyst.
The rich are very concerned about the fact that all statistical evidence pointing to younger generations being starkly more socially minded than boomers. Don’t forget that Millennials have lived through a major economic crisis. Just like the Great Depression, that generally makes people realize that Capitalism is bullshit.
The wealthy are funding massive propaganda campaigns as a result. They are unfortunately making some in roads with young men. But overall I don’t think it will be enough.
Don’t forget that Millennials have lived through a major economic crisis.
Yes, yes we have.
I’ll be very interested to see how the younger generations age. Anecdotally, I’ve witnessed numerous people go from progressive socialists, to centrist capitalists as they age. Not saying that will continue, only saying this as I’ve seen similar studies that show younger people are more progressive than older folks every 5 years for the past 3 decades. It’s not a terribly new concept, and I’m hopeful that it remains true.
I agree! A change of the mindset is generational change at best. In many cases flawed ideologies and poor educational standards are just beeing continued. Yet I want to be one of the naive and think that there will be a new way of thinking and noticeable political change. For the better or the worse…, who knows?!
The next most conservative generation is Gen X. All few dozen of us. Expect those with power to retain it with massive use of wealth to constrain the rules of democracy, rather than numbers of voters.
It will solve the problem of their voting habits. They have lead us down this insane path because they are a narcissistic generation. Things won’t be perfect, but we might, just might, start turning things around. If we still can.
Boomer is a state of mind. They are never going extinct.
Because that’s how it works, right? When your house is flooded because of a burst pipe, when you replace the pipe then your house is magically unflooded right? I mean of course no reasonable person thinks that, but that seems to be the understanding you’re suggesting. Meanwhile you’re trying to say that if we do repair the pipe and the house is still flooded, rightly acknowledging that the pipe is 100% the cause of the flood is somehow… wrong?
The facts are that boomers fucked the world up, heavily, and did everything they could to hold onto power and rob the next generation (at least) of their deserved place in the driver’s seat of society, and cleaning up the messes and lessons left over by the boomers will take generations to clean up. The fact that boomer built long-term systemic problem without simple solutions does not mean that the boomers are not entirely at fault or that we aren’t entirely better off without them.
They’re smart to balance their checkbooks on the way out. They never let any opportunity to consume go to waste.
I dunno, I feel like if I lived through the Black Death and I was there when—at the end of the suffering, surrounded by death—the last plague rat died, I’d take it as a win…
But then you have to blame the job creators!?
most boomers where lost generation per them
i said what i said
They were called the Me Generation but they got offended and changed it to Boomer
Shame the damage they did won’t go with them.
And they’re not done yet! It’s also a shame they’ll probably waste the money they’ve accumulated on the worst possible things and people on the way out (fueling the dumpster fire).
Keanu reeves is so close to and so engrained in gen x culture that I think it’s unfair to label him a boomer
Honorary Xner
Popular comments like this remind me how mature the user base is here. Such a contrast to other social media
Gentle reminder that the whole generations thing is made up.
But true that many of these folks and older hold high positions of power, which is probably the cause for the clock.
Crazy that you’re the only person I’ve found in the thread that realizes this. Generational theory largely accepts that the concept of monolithic generations is reductive. Yes, people born in and around the same time can have shared cultural experiences, but the idea that those are what purely shape you ideologically or that you behave as a component of a monolith are ludicrous. And then there’s subgenerations, microgenerations, etc. Just look at the sociological research of Karl Mannheim for a very complex discussion on the topic.
Them’s a whole bunch of fancy words for saying “don’t generalize.”
Generalizing is fine and a useful tool in certain situations. In others, it’s not, and can in fact be very harmful. It’s also sometimes good to explain why you support one versus the other in a particular scenario. Y’know…because that’s how conversations work.
I found two more! Get em, boys.
I agree that battle of generations is silly, but there is still shared experience and trait in each generation. I used to think that the stereotype on boomers are greedy because they grew up in relative wealth is stupid, because my parents grew up poor in a third world country and did not benefit from Western wealth. However, they emigrated and travelled across the world and earning more than they would have in our home country.
Eventually, I realised that not all boomers are greedy, but some are materialistic. My parents are willing to share but they still have scarcity and hoarding mindset; even refusing to throw 20 year old clothes that are tattered.
Western boomers benefited from post-war economic boom and peace. Non-Westerners did not (post-colonial states in the mid to late 20th century suffered from constant sociopolitical strife) but the economic mobility afforded the third world citizens to migrate and move up the social ladder thanks to globalisation. However, the globalisation has, unfortunately, become not beneficial to younger generations because of outsourcing of traditional jobs and automation. And, unfortunately, this is leading to nativism and xenophobia.
Interesting to look at, numbers wise… but it makes me think of the time I have left with my parents. I’m calling them tomorrow!
now*
The problem isnt going to end with them. My right wing friends are completely indoctrinated by their boomer parents. And getting louder and louder about it.
They’ll be outnumbered after the boomers are gone. They’ll either have to adapt, hide back in the shadows, or go full extremist.
Here’s to hoping. It’s exhausting. I can’t have a single conversation without them slyly trying to slip in some earworm or go off on a tirade unexpectedly because I inadvertently trigger them.
Here’s to hoping. It’s exhausting. I can’t have a single conversation without them slyly trying to slip in some earworm or go off on a tirade unexpectedly because I inadvertently trigger them.
It’s worth the effort though. Thank you, citizen, for taking the time to do so.
I would just kindly tell them to shut the fuck up
WTF are Keanu Reeves and Madonna doing there 😃
Madonna - Born 1958
Keanu - Born 1964 so boomer of the cutoff year.
It’s not my countdown clock, but all the images they chose are of the baby boomer generation, chronologically.
False.
I concede the point, the argument, and my very life.
May Keanu have mercy on my soul.
I get that I just thought its supposed to be dead by boomers up there
Patience, grasshopper.
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Thanks Lemmy. I just had to wiki to double-verify that Keanu Reeves is not dead.
Thank God.
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Just How stupid does one have to be to think all their woes exist with only one generation? There are far bigger monsters alive today in current younger generations (many in millennial) that are far more destructive to our lives and the earth. They’ve seen more $$$ than any boomer and will laugh at you while you live out of a garbage can.
And you’d still probably be posting stupid memes like this acting completely oblivious to the burning hell around you.
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You’re framing your indignation from a place of generality. No one thinks that boomers are the sole source of the World’s woes. However, they are the largest generation and tend to dominate discussions surrounding housing and the economy. They also make up a huge portion of the elected officials in North America, and younger generations have had it much harder than boomers ever did. It’s a lie that millennials and gen z have had more money than our parents and grandparents ever did. We don’t have nearly the purchasing power people did in the 50s and 60s.
millenials and gen z have far more purchasing power than anyone in human history. The problem is that purchasing power for specific things, like housing, has not experienced the same general trend. But the average person can buy more, say, tvs than people even in the 90s could.
And everyone magically has an iPhone. Those poor privileged genz
Ok boomer
K incel.
Incel? Oh no! My husband is going to be devastated by this news
K.
OK, person I just blocked.
Who even are you? Are you 12?
At 12 they can start blaming you genz for literally everything. That makes you the boomer.
They don’t vote. Boomers always vote.
So stop whining and vote! Remember: You will ALWAYS be voting for the lesser of two evils.
Why settle for a lesser evil?
You will ALWAYS be voting for the lesser of two evils.
Unless you run for office yourself.
Then you’ll be the one getting called the lesser of two evils
Then you’ll be the one getting called the leader of two evils
It’s the violence inherited in the system. (And yes, that’s a Gen-X timeframe related quote (in a deep meta ironic sort of way)).
AKA, what goes around, comes around.
But still, it’s worth doing. Better to solve your own problems, versus waiting for somebody else to solve them for you.
Or write in someone you believe would actually be good at the job. Then you don’t have to vote for someone you believe to be unqualified.
…as long as choice #3 isn’t apocalyptically bad, right?
Right?
Well if you write in someone who is “apocalyptically bad” that one is definitely on you.
Choice 1: third party you prefer Choice 2: mainstream party you prefer Choice 3: mainstream party you don’t prefer that gives off apocalyptic vibes
This is what I was trying to describe. It’s the same old US third party voting trap as always.
…as long as choice #3 isn’t apocalyptically bad, right?
Right?
That’s only true if everyone believes that, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Would really be fantastic to see just once, one time, everyone interconnects on social media and agrees to vote on a third party, as an experiment if nothing else, to finally prove/disprove that theory.
Funny enough these newer generations have this communicative interconnectivity of the Internet available to them, that previous generations didn’t have, but they don’t seem to use it, instead they just share mene pics/vids, etc.
Could you imagine the political earthquake though if a third party actually won? Would be glorious to see.
The problem there isn’t that we (assuming the US) don’t want third parties, it’s that our voting system encourages party consolidation rather than cooperation. That only gets more true the higher in the government you go.
The problem there isn’t that we (assuming the US) don’t want third parties,
That’s not true. People don’t vote for third party because of the self-fulfilling prophecy, but it doesn’t mean they don’t want it. They also want ranked-choice voting.
I would advocate to put that self-fulfilling prophecy to the test, even if just as an experiment one time.
It’s Lemmy. The hive mind demands sacrifices. And reason is one of the most valuable.
Click on the site so that your dumbass can see there is a clock for literally every generarion up until the Greatest
Who the fuck put keeanu in there?
Just checked, wow he’s technically a Boomer! Born in 1964, so just made it.
No, as long as he stays below 50 he’ll be fine.
Yeah, but he’s not dead yet like the picture implies
Neither is Madonna. Those aren’t pictures of dead boomers, just famous ones.
Just checked, wow he’s technically a Boomer! Born in 1964, so just made it.
The identifier should be started at the age you entered society, and not the age you came out of your mother’s womb.
You can infer the age you entered society from the age you left the womb.
You can infer the age you entered society from the age you left the womb.
That doesn’t work. Technically I’m a Boomer, but I act and think completely like a Gen-Xer.
In fact growing up I used to give Boomers crap myself, until I got more wise. They acted completely different from me, based on the times they grew up in.
I didn’t come up with the age range, but it’s been well established for a while now. Someone else told me about “Generation Jones”, which is basically just the younger half of the Boomer generation I guess. I feel like that’s splitting hairs, but who knows, maybe it makes some sort of sense to you?
That’s…not even close to a Boomer. WW2 ended 20 years earlier lol.
I don’t understand, are you confused at the age range for Boomers? It literally says it in the image…
Yes. Didn’t notice those dates. Still makes no sense if you take the name literally though…
Yes. Didn’t notice those dates. Still makes no sense if you take the name literally though…
You’re wrong chronologically, but you’re right based on how those labels are used to judge people’s social values.
So it takes 20 years for a sexed up WW2 vet to hop in the sack after returning from the war?
So it takes 20 years for a sexed up WW2 vet to hop in the sack after returning from the war?
Fuck if I know, that’s not what I’m speaking about.
You don’t pop out of your mother’s womb already programmed to have an understanding of the socieity that you live in. You learn as you go from external sources (parents, family, society) and you act a certain way at each milestone of your life (child, young teenager, older teenager, young adult, adult, middle aged, senior).
When we all judge someone by applying a generation label its done based on how they act/opine, and not the chronological date that they entered the World. There’s a lag/delay from when a person starts to exist on this Earth to the time they form a personality and express said personality.
I don’t understand, are you confused at the age range for Boomers? It literally says it in the image…
I get where they’re coming from.
The starting point is normally defined at the time you came out of your mother’s womb, but it really shouldn’t be.
It should be started at the point where you first enter society as a child, and start learning your generation’s societal values.
Basically, when you started kindergarten, or Elementary School.
They did that for Gen Z, where it’s essentially the dividing line between people who were more or less cognizant when 9/11 happened, and those who weren’t.
The generally accepted window for Baby Boomers, despite horny soldiers being home from WW2 for many years after 1945, is the window written in the post.
Well that is some serious foreplay, my god.
I guess technically he’s a boomer, but he’s 1000% gen x. He doesn’t make moves like a boomer would.
Some real ‘elven king of the dwarves’ energy!
I guess technically he’s a boomer, but he’s 1000% gen x.
The identifier should be started at the age you entered society, and not the age you came out of your mother’s womb.
Keanu is eternal.
He didn’t leave the matrix yet?
Someone who can’t count. Meaning this list is completely useless.
My mother is pre-Boomer (born soon after the U.S. entered the war) and has been incredibly progressive her entire life. She has never voted for a Republican. She marched for civil rights. She wanted me to know that women and men are equal and that color and religion and ethnicity should not make you dislike someone. She taught me about sex (appropriately) when I asked about it at 3 or 4 years old rather than shielding me from it. My brother and I both have (had in my case, but that’s another story) gay best friends who were also best man at both of our weddings. She always welcomed them even though my brother and his friend became friends in the mid-1980s. I remember asking my mother what she would do if I was gay and she said she would love me no matter what I was. I don’t specifically know her politics, but my dad, born even earlier (1931) was mostly the same way. He definitely had his prejudices- although he would deny it- and he was a lot more sexist than he thought he was, but he was also an outspoken socialist until the dementia got too bad for him to be outspoken about it. One of the last things I was able to tell him before he was too far gone to understand was that Bernie was running for president.
I have certainly had a lot of issues with Boomers and people older than them, but it is far from universal, but I am really proud of my parents for always being progressive.
I am really proud of my parents for always being progressive.
I hate the burst your bubble, but they weren’t being progressive, they were being 80’s liberals. Today’s progressives are a different thing.
(BTW, your comment was a good read.)
Again, my father was a socialist. He wrote a his dissertation on Shaw and the socialist aspects of one of his plays. He was British and said he was never more proud of his homeland then when he helped it usher in the National Health Service with his vote. When I moved here to Terre Haute, Indiana, he made sure to get me to take him to the Eugene V. Debs museum because of how much he admired debs. How does that make him an 80s liberal? Do please explain.
Again, my father was a socialist. He wrote a his dissertation on Shaw and the socialist aspects of one of his plays. He was British and said he was never more proud of his homeland then when he helped it usher in the National Health Service with his vote. When I moved here to Terre Haute, Indiana, he made sure to get me to take him to the Eugene V. Debs museum because of how much he admired debs. How does that make him an 80s liberal? Do please explain.
I was speaking of the word used as an identifier/label, ‘progressive’, vs ‘liberal’, and not the content of what was being said, at all. No disrespect was meant towards the comment, just a tongue-and-cheeck attempt at discussing the labels. As I mentioned before, concerning the content of your comment …
(BTW, your comment was a good read.)
When it comes to my comment discussing labels, today’s ‘liberal’ is considered a ‘centrist’ by today’s younger generations (which pisses me off to no end, but that’s another discussion for another time), and what they think of as liberal they call progressive, hence my comment.
And for the record (not trying to measure dicks here, but only because you quoted your dads history) I’m a Gen-Xer who was born/raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in the 70’s/80’s, a perverbial “Valley Dude”, and lived ‘in the capital of Liberalism’ the vast majority of my life. Liberalism of that day is not what Progressivism is today. I feel that I could be considered a ‘subject expert’ in a court case when it came to Liberals and Liberalism of that time.
I’m what world is this kind of pedantry useful?
I’m what world is this kind of pedantry useful?
In what world is this kind of verbal policing useful?
No need to be hostile.
Concerning your question, at the very least, my world. But I suspect most people can recognize a conversation comment about how different generations see things and identify them, for its own sake. You know, Lemmy is about conversations about subjects.
I love how many people are going on about how one generation isn’t the cause of all our problems. I agree. Neither the post nor the website say anything good nor bad about any generation, just that it’s -mildly interesting- that boomers just hit 1/3 dead.
The young hate the old for having more than them.
The old hate the young for having more time left.
No, Boomers are hated for putting our civilization on the path to collapse.
mildly interesting- that boomers just hit 1/3 dead.
I do wonder about the accuracy of that though. It’s not like the website owner went through every death certificate ASAIK.
That’s how statistics work. You take a sample and abstract it to the population. If you required every one to be checked, then no numbers of any sort would be made up because that’s too much work.
That’s how statistics work. You take a sample and abstract it to the population. If you required every one to be checked, then no numbers of any sort would be made up because that’s too much work.
Yeah sure, I’m aware of how statistics work. I’m just not confident that they are interpreting the statistics correctly.
No other arbitrary age cohort has been so unjustly hated in American history
No other age cohort has been responsible for caring for the earth for the time they were adults and done such a horrific job. In the US, the cherry on top is also that this generation kicked everything their parents generation fought for into the dirt, including most of the social safety net, because of a bunch of dumb conservative rhetoric.
I think it is pretty fair as far as generalizations go, though of course it is a generalization. Boomers get all defensive with the “but you shouldn’t just blame a whole generation!” even though blaming millennials seems to be a major policy point for a lot of boomers… but they just don’t get it. The boomer generation will be remembered for literally thousands of years for being the generation that was adults in power when climate change was pushed into an unstoppable momentum, biodiversity catastrophically crashed, and the priceless gift of earth that has been handed down to every generation was dealt a massive amount of damage that will reverberate for again, literally thousands of years at the minimum.
Boomers think I am attacking them in an us vs. them mentality, it is unfortunately so much bigger than a petty fight between generations though. Boomers aren’t just another generation that will be largely forgotten a century or two from now, and it is a massive understatement to say the time they were stewards of the earth will not be remembered kindly by future generations.
This is precisely the thing I’ve noticed recently. You make a statement like yours and suddenly people start crying about not generalizing or how there’s really no such thing as generations and whatever other nonsense. Frankly, I don’t think that too many people over the age of 50 are on Lemmy yet so I think that there are some people who just want to be contrary taking the chance to.
It must be weird judging a whole generation based only on what you know from learning about via social media.
Wait, why do you consider learning about things initially through social media a bad thing?
Sure there is a ton of nonsense and outright lies out there, but social media is also unarguably a massive source of education for people on a dizzying array of topics. Look at how silly but genuine ADHD tiktok or instagram accounts have massively raised awareness about ADHD for the better as only one example. Look at /r/ADHD as a huge source of good information and discussion for people with ADHD as another. The existence of social media has irrevocably raised the voices of the oppressed in a way TV and newspapers aren’t really interested in doing except for the odd anomaly that gets through the filter of the rich.
sigh whatever…
Wait, why do you consider learning about things initially through social media a bad thing?
Sure there is a ton of nonsense and outright lies out there
You answered your own question.
For the record, I’m distinguishing between “Social Media” and “the Internet”. The former is for entertainment, and the latter is for learning/knowledge.
No other arbitrary age cohort has been so unjustly hated in American history
You talking about Boomers, or Gen-Xers?
Millenials would chime in on some hate I think.
Ok, boomer.
OK, person I just blocked.
Ok boomer. I hope being petty makes you feel better.
Not a boomer, but thanks for letting me know you are also a hateful bigot. Went ahead and blocked you too.
Salty boomer.
It is a very boomer thing to proudly announce when you block somebody, isn’t it?
I find this insanely interesting. I hope someone does this for us Xers but I have a feeling that everyone will forget about us.
And with this, I’m also interested in the rate of change here. Are boomers dying faster, slower, steady rate?
https://incendar.com/generation_x_deathclock.php
They got you!
Fuck that website, it lists abortions as deaths LMAO
Oof, does it a least list miscarriages too? Not that we’d know the actual number
It would be very surprising if the rate was steady. Boomers are ages 59 to 77 today. The ones who have died have been on the younger side, but it won’t be long until most are within a standard deviation for average lifespan.
Also, there weren’t the same number of boomers born every year. In fact, 1946 had a spike of them, and the rate started falling off each of the last seven years or so of the range. So we started with more older boomers than younger boomers.
As an interesting side note: I have heard multiple times that Gen X is the Trumpiest and most conservative leaning generation, even more than Boomers or Silver. I find it plausible. The silver generation has old progressive labor movement diehards, and boomers have hippies. But Gen X never really had a progressive culture movement. They came of age during Reagan and Clinton.
The good news is, there isn’t many of us. Boomers and Millennials are the two biggest groups.
But yeah I already hear BS like, back in my days we roam the streets blah blah blah from folks my age.
I’d bet this site just uses something like a census base percentage, apredicted end date and a countdown clock that creates the percentage/rate.
Boomers were hated by their elders for being too liberal and hated by their youngers for being to conservative.
They got more conservative as they got older. All those hippie kids who protested Vietnam and experimented with drugs and sex ended up voting for Reagan.
People seem to have this view that everyone in the '60s was a hippie but that’s just not true. Time Magazine put the number around 300,000. In a country of 200 million, that’s only 0.15% of the population. They were a counterculture not mainstream culture. The vast majority of kids did not become hippies, and many actively hated the hippies.
A hell of a lot more than 300,000 people experimented with drugs and protested Vietnam.
A hell of a lot more than 300,000 people experimented with drugs and protested Vietnam.
True, but not all of them were hippies.
A lot of regular people, especially the younger generation, were doing drugs and protesting Vietnam.
Those two things are not what makes a hippie a hippie. It’s their life view that does.
People seem to have this view that everyone in the '60s was a hippie but that’s just not true.
'60s, maybe not, but 70s? There was a lot more of them then.
But yeah, not everyone was.
I’m a Boomer. Born in 1964. I’ve gotten a lot more liberal as I’ve gotten older. Went from Libertarian to Bernie supporter.
Don’t write us all off.
Are you saying they took what they wanted, then pulled the ladder up after them?
It sure seems like they feel that way about social security.
It sure seems like they feel that way about social security.
We paid into it, we should be able to get the benefits from it, just like any other American in any other generation.
Most didn’t actually do these things, most just graduated high school, pooped out some children, and got a job.
All those hippie kids who protested Vietnam and experimented with drugs and sex ended up voting for Reagan.
No, we didn’t. Also, inflation and Iranian hostage situation.
Boomers were hated by their elders for being too liberal and hated by their youngers for being to conservative.
BoomersPeople were hated by their elders for being too liberal and hated by their youngers for being to conservative. Since, like, forever.Fixed this for you.
not true, this only started being the case in the early 2000s
Uh huh. Here’s some historical views of the ‘yoot’.
“[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances… They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” Rhetoric, Aristotle - 4th Century BC
“The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.” Horace - 1st Century BC
Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt. Book III of Odes, Horace - circa 20 BC
In all things I yearn for the past. Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased. I find that even among the splendid pieces of furniture built by our master cabinetmakers, those in the old forms are the most pleasing. And as for writing letters, surviving scraps from the past reveal how superb the phrasing used to be. The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say “raise the carriage shafts” or “trim the lamp wick,” but people today say “raise it” or “trim it.” When they should say, “Let the men of the palace staff stand forth!” they say, “Torches! Let’s have some light!” Instead of calling the place where the lectures on the Sutra of the Golden Light are delivered before the emperor “the Hall of the Imperial Lecture,” they shorten it to “the Lecture Hall,” a deplorable corruption, an old gentleman complained. Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), Yoshida Kenkō - 1330 - 1332
Youth were never more sawcie, yea never more savagely saucie . . . the ancient are scorned, the honourable are contemned, the magistrate is not dreaded. The Wise-Man’s Forecast against the Evill Time, Thomas Barnes - 1624
… I find by sad Experience how the Towns and Streets are filled with lewd wicked Children, and many Children as they have played about the Streets have been heard to curse and swear and call one another Nick-names, and it would grieve ones Heart to hear what bawdy and filthy Communications proceeds from the Mouths of such… A Little Book for Children and Youth, Robert Russel - 1695
“Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt…” Letter in Town and Country magazine republished in Paris Fashion: A Cultural History - 1771
The total neglect of this art [speaking] has been productive of the worst consequences…in the conduct of all affairs ecclesiastical and civil, in church, in parliament, courts of justice…the wretched state of elocution is apparent to persons of any discernment and taste… if something is not done to stop this growing evil …English is likely to become a mere jargon, which every one may pronounce as he pleases. A General Dictionary of the English Language, Thomas Sheridan - 1780
The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison? Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, Reverend Enos Hitchcock - 1790
We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced (we believe for the first time) at the English court on Friday last … it is quite sufficient to cast one’s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs and close compressor on the bodies in their dance, to see that it is indeed far removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is attempted to be forced on the respectable classes of society by the civil examples of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion. The Times of London - Summer, 1816
…a fearful multitude of untutored savages… [boys] with dogs at their heels and other evidence of dissolute habits…[girls who] drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody…the morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly. Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Speech to the House of Commons - February 28, 1843
… see the simpering little beau of ten gallanting home the little coquette of eight, each so full of self-conceit and admiration of their own dear self, as to have but little to spare for any one else… and confess that the sight is both ridiculous and distressing… the sweet simplicity and artlessness of childhood, which renders a true child so interesting, are gone (like the bloom of the peach rudely nipped off) never to return. “Children And Children’s Parties”, published in The Mothers’ Journal and Family Visitant, S.B.S. - 1853
Household luxuries, school-room steam-press systems, and, above all, the mad spirit of the times, have not come to us without a loss more than proportionate…[a young man] rushes headlong, with an impetuosity which strikes fire from the sharp flints under his tread…Occasionally, one of this class…amasses an estate, but at the expense of his peace, and often of his health. The lunatic asylum or the premature grave too frequently winds up his career…We expect each succeeding generation will grow “beautifully less.” “Degeneracy of Stature”, The National Era, Thrace Talmon - December 18, 1856
A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages…chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while it affords no benefit whatever to the body. Chess has acquired a high reputation as being a means to discipline the mind, but persons engaged in sedentary occupations should never practice this cheerless game; they require out-door exercises–not this sort of mental gladiatorship. Scientific American - July, 1858
Old rich people complaining about young people is a tale as old as time.
A detailed rebuttle made entirely of quotes is my favorite to read. Thank ye.
You have 4 people, 3 liberals and 1 conservative, graduating from high school at 18, 75% are liberal. When they are in their late 30s, one of the liberals dies, so 66% are liberals. Then at age 50 another liberal dies, so the group is 50% liberal. One year after retirement (65) the last liberal dies and now the entire cohort is conservative. Without looking at the size of the population, one would think that the group of 4 slowly became more conservative over time.
Death, not persuasion, causes the political leaning of the population to shift as they get older. It is the very concerns of those that are liberal which also lead to their earlier deaths. If you are less likely to die from something that can be fixed with politics, you are more likely to be conservative and not want to rock the boat.
It turns out that the media jumped all over things like Hippies and anti-war protests. In reality, the average person was just as conservative then as they were 10 - 20 years ago.
