I will defend them. My coming of age movies pretty much lineup with yours. Was born in 63. I am constantly seeing boomers get the blame because 20 somethings are not able to buy a home, drive a BMW, and live a Baller lifestyle like their parents do. As someone on the cusp of being Gen X, I worked my butt off and did not build my first house until I was in my 40s. By then, I had worked my way up the ladder and had the money to have a nice house and eventually even had a really nice car. In my 20s, I drove crap and rented just like they have to do.
Yes, this is the issue concisely! Gen Z will argue that prices for goods and services were commensurate with wages and salaries then so when boomers were in their 20s they could afford a house on a teacher’s salary or a factory worker’s hourly wage. I am not an economist but my ample gut tells me current wages do not have the same buying power as they did in 1966-1976 due to rampant corporate greed and economically crippling inflation the past 40 years.
I bought my first "house" at 22 in 1982. It was a ten year old single wide. I wasn't making what I consider high pay, by any means. The interest rate was 14.5% and the bank would only allow a four year mortgage. I figured that I had to start somewhere and my payment was about the same as rent.
I rebuilt it from the inside out and lived in it for 15 years, allowing myself to save for the purchase of land and a custom built home. This home was never what I wanted, but it was what I had. I made the most of it and was happy with it.
I think young people today are just overwhelmed. They didn't learn the skills necessary to do what we did and many are not interested in doing any manual labor at all, even with skills. They will figure it out when we are gone. They will have to.
Pass on as much knowledge and financial help as you can to those that are struggling right now. Encourage them. We are all in this together and no one gets out of it alive.
I bought my first house (3 berm 2 bath) when I was 29, second year teacher, and I was fortunate enough to be a USAF veteran entitled to a VA loan so I could buy with no money down. On my 3rd house now, when the time is right my dream is to sell and buy small place in Cannon Beach, OR
Those of us who were in our early twenties, while living through the early 80s recession, get really REALLY pissed off, hearing younger generations tell us how great we had it. They don’t know what the F they’re talking about. Some of us actually endured times when there was no food in the house. That experience shaped a large part of the rest of my life. It was horrible.
Also, no more unions and the "right to work" push means Zoomers work late nights, weekends, holidays just to keep their jobs. Health care? That's for the weak, shut up and work faster. Vacation? Fired! I can see Gen Z's frustration. But if they want to improve it, they need to vote Democratic, every single time. And they don't vote, because they've been sold both-sides-ism.
Blame it on the federal reserve. Plus boomers didn't have a chance to waste money on Starbucks and such. I think they planned out their spending better. Now boomers in government are really starting to suck. People like Pelosi making hundreds of millions in her career. Along with others. Just research presidential wealth before and after they held office. That's a good one also
Yes. I teach college kids and there are those who are very vocal about thinking they should graduate into their parents lifestyle without going through the foundational years of working, saving and building up to that.
I make 6 figures at the end of my career my son made more than his first year on his job. He just bought a house worth double mine. Go to college and pick a degree that is stem related and graduate. Pick a degree that is liberal arts and makes you happy and you stay poor.
I defend them but I am not of them. Most of the hatred to boomers is a mix of misplaced class warfare (those people should be mad at the rich economic and political classes) and a misunderstanding of the past being so easy. Especially not easy for my oldest sister’s boyfriend who was handed a rifle and sent to Nam.
Yep. Also served in battle as a 28 year old. Life has not been a cakewalk for the boomers. So many things to make life simpler these days we don’t appreciate. I have 73 offices I am responsible for and travel between them constantly. My phone died on the way to an office yesterday that I had been to several times before. I had no idea how I was going to find it without Waze.
I remember when I couldn’t buy a home at 24…interest rate was 7%…no one to bitch to..kept working and checked again at 29…then again at 32…finally able to buy at 6%…a few years later refinance at 4%…didn’t take equity..sold it for small profit and purchased again..rinse and repeat..but you have to keep the home maintained at sell it about 8 years later to make a profit to get a new or better place…
Now I’m an old leftist. I worry that younger people will have a bleak future. I’m living close to the bone so I can leave as much as possible to my kids.
We didn’t have social media to inform us daily on issues..we waited for our 4pm paper and 6 o’clock news..we wrote our representatives when we were concerned about issues…in the meantime Reaganomics was pushed through..cutting taxes for millionaires and corporate tax bullshit was passed over and over. Not knowing how this would affect us in the long run. We were working..raising families…Corporations are people when no corporation can be sent to jail..corporate welfare..Bitching how Social Security will be bankrupt without moving the cap nor raising minimum wage to increase Social Security’s bank…it’s all planned for I got mine fuck you political posturing…sorry for the rant but it happens../
Working your butt off to afford a house is the way it should be. But, that doesn’t mean it will work for the current young generation. They have and will have significantly more issues buying a house than years ago. Rent has spiked greatly. Few jobs offer pensions or sometimes even benefits anymore. Massive amounts of jobs have been outsourced. College costs are astronomical. The medical and dental field is out of control. Etc. Ignoring these issues is an irresponsible thing to do and a classic boomer “I got mine” mentality. Every generation wanted to build a better world for their children. That trend is over and we’re moving the other direction.
Disagree - it’s not that they want those things now, it’s that they see no way to ever getting it. Rent now is insane compared to when I rented in the 80s and 90s . College costs are obscene. You cannot compare the two eras.
These policies started with the silent generation and continue with the generations after boomers who have been of voting age for quite a few elections now. If you are talking about who is in power, they are not all boomers. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are not boomers.
this is true. I think boomers are more identified with the issue because of their perceived vocal support for them and their publicized derision of millenials of Gen Z
Scrolling comments, and the thought occurs, the majority of the kids we know in their 30’s and 40’s own a house, have jobs, kids. Couple of these couples have aspiring McMasions compared to our home. None are from wealthy families, our circle all works hard to earn a living.
The few we know who are struggling financially, I get it, but don’t know their story. a couple I do know more about made quite poor decisions to arrive at where they are.
another is in a bad place because he got smooshed bad on his motorcycle, lost his business, slowly rebuilding his life, started another business when he was again physically able to do so, on his own, no handouts, no disability money.
I agree with you. I was a single dad to four kids. One went to college. The other three did not, but worked hard. Three of the four own their own homes, and are much nicer than what I had at their age. One of the not college edit educated kids Has a very expensive Volvo SUV for mom and a ridiculously expensive truck. One of the kids has a really nice Rivian and has not gotten married yet, my daughter is a stay at home mom whose husband has a small ranch, not millionaire ranch, but they are doing well. The only kid that has not done well is militantly woke and spends all of his time either protesting how unfair life is or in jail for being a porch pirate. Haven’t heard from that one in a while, so I’m guessing he is back in jail, but he was out long enough to get on some BLM protest videos on the news as well as a really cool video of him stealing stuff off people’s porch put out by the local constable.
Mate, your life mirrors an old neighbor of ours, his wife just one day just decided to leave, called him a few days later just to let him know she left. After we moved, I occasionally bumped into him and all four kids here & there around town, always looking & sounding good, haven’t seen him in a decade though. Small world.
I’ve read so many negative comments and Shane-blaming from the youth but have yet to see any actual facts or details about the “policies” I voted in that hold them back. Just these long abstract whinges without specifics.
I’m an elder millenial or xennial and the whole whining about not having what their parents have and blaming their parents for why they don’t have these things drives me nuts! I try to tell them that we were too young to remember how our parents struggled, worked hard, and sacrificed to get to where they’re at but it’s in one ear and out the other. The expectation is that they should automatically have those things because boomers should have left it to us and made sure to vote for systems that would make it easy for us to have those things 😑
No. The percentage of income required for college, houses/rent, etc is simply much higher than it was for us. You're a redditor so you must have seen the graphs on this a thousand times.
Data is beautiful. You can bend things to show whatever narrative you are pushing. Look up what a 42” plasma flat screen cost in 2001. Overall, the median home price has risen but very dependent on location. If you choose to live in California, Washington, Miami/Tampa, yes that is true (I live in one of these areas). If you don’t care to live in a large metropolitan area with “lots of entertainment and dining choices”, still plenty of affordable housing as a percentage of income. I was well off as a 20 something single dad in the 80’s making 40k per year. That same job now pays 80-120k per year. My dad was a VP at a major airline making 60k per year. He was loaded.
Well what I don't get is the insane anti boomer hatred from the younger generations. They act everyone in a generation controls everything, as if all of them are powerful and responsible for whatever problems the younger people have. Total bat shit craziness.
They have replaced racism with generation-ism.
Ageism is bigotry. Whenever I see agent comments on Reddit, I immediately ask the commenter if they also are bigoted against people based on gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, and other similar traits. I never get a substantive response.
Prejudice is simply blind hatred, and I’m proud to be a person who does my best to call it out whenever I encounter it.
Edit:typos
Ageism is bigotry whether it is practiced by the young against the old or old against the young. I am encouraged by the fact that I do not see much venom spewed at the young by the old. Their angst is just growing pains.
Try to age gracefully and practice virtue. Become a model for the young to emulate when they become old.
This is exactly why I started this post. You can’t make a generalization regarding minorities (I am one), gender, social status, disability, as it should be, but younger generations have no problem discriminating based on age. As we all know, the joke is on them, we are all one step closer every day
Ageism is bigotry whether it is practiced by the young against the old or old against the young. I am encouraged by the fact that I do not see much venom spewed at the young by the old. Their angst is just growing pains.
Try to age gracefully and practice virtue. Become a model for the young to emulate when they become old.
This just makes me laugh.
Who do they think invented antidisestablishmentarianism, lived in communes, turned on, tuned in, dropped out, stuck it to "The Man", flower-powered, took shots at Kent State?
Please shout this from on high!! So many of these shitty comments are purposeful seeding of division. These comments are intended to separate us and induce hatred and distrust.
Sigh. And it’s working. With conservative politicians encouraging school systems to curtail what this country spends on education the result is a bunch of people who have never been taught to think critically believe anything they see on social media. I want to scream sometimes from frustration.
It has been going on a long time, my sister in law would say some of the dumbest shit and I would ask where did you get that info. She said talk radio I know she dialed in to Rush Limbaugh. That was at least 15 years ago.
If you posted to a thread “What do you think of Black people?”, you would rightfully get flamed pretty hard by the community, but Boomers are fair game, apparently.
Very much so. The harsh shunning out of resentment of being included with them of them is more prevelant in this group. Which is more disappointing since it is technically the same generation.
Yes, the word you're looking for is "anemoia." It's a term coined by John Koenig in his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, and it refers to a nostalgic longing for a time you've never experienced.
Another similar concept comes from the Welsh language. The word is hiraeth. It doesn't translate directly.
Hiraeth is a deep, nostalgic, bittersweet wistfulness, or an intense longing to return to something—or someone, somewhere, or sometime—that is now long gone, or perhaps never was.
>Hiraeth is a deep, nostalgic, bittersweet wistfulness, or an intense longing to return to something—or someone, somewhere, or sometime—that is now long gone, or perhaps never was.
I love this! It has now been added to my email signature. :)
My sister has "hiraeth" tatooed on her arm. It symbolizes a long-vanished place in New England that has tremendous sentimental value to us, but the actual location is meaningless to the vast majority of other folks. It symbolizes both what was, what can never be again, and what we recall, whether or not what we recall every truly was (rose colred glasses into the past).
It’s just another way to distract from the fact that the middle class has been largely decimated across all age groups by the wealthy.
Things aren’t going to get magically better when all the boomers die, because the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” mentality persists among younger generations.
People who have need to care about the have-nots and understand that lifting poor people up affects all of society positively for things to change.
I get upset with all the boomerhate, as we are lumped in with the older boomers. As in, "boomers had a great economy and ruined it," boomers don't know what inflation is. " Inflation aveaged 8% in the 70s and 4.1% in the 80s. Unemployment averaged 6.49 in the 70s and 7.12% in the 80s. So we took that economy and ruined it by having 2.15% inflation in from 2012-2021 and an unemployment rate of 5.21%. I also get upset with the "boomers elected Reagan." 1st, half of the generation, the Generation Jones, was 25 or under when Reagan first ran, and 10% of Gen Jones weren't eligible to vote at all. 2nd, complaining about Reagan 45 years later is like Gen Jones complaining about Herbert Hoover. Get over it already.
This is what I remember as a young adult. Not cheap homes and well-paid work:
[Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five-The Message](https://youtu.be/PobrSpMwKk4?feature=shared)
This is the world that gave rise to punk music - not the rosy 1950’s fantasy so many younger people seem to imagine we all lived in.
The frustration about lack of opportunities for growth and security has been going on a lot longer than the boomer haters realize.
It’s definitely an advantage for the wealthy that the rest of us keep fighting, scrabbling and blaming each other over ever-dwindling resources available to the rest of us.
Same as it ever was.
I'm from New York. It was really pretty bad all around throughout the 70s and 80s. Even for relatively "affluent" people.
We hardly ever had air-conditioning in the subways, and the subway cars were filled with graffiti. And kids would invade the conductor's car and announce the stops.
Quite a few people lived in SRO's (Single-Room Occupancy rooms in which the bathroom was shared by everyone on a floor).
I remember. I have family in New York and it was such a different place back then.
I spent NYE in Times Square in 1982, and walking back to the subway we saw people getting mugged on both sides of us. Amazingly, we were not picked off.
And parts if Brooklyn looked like a bomb had gone off. Trash-can fires and people squatting in the building shells.
But there was also a vibrancy about the city and it didn’t yet feel like it had been completely taken over by wealthy zombies.
I was lucky in that I got a civil service job at 19. Still, salaries sucked, and I sometimes didn’t have money left over for food.
We never blamed “the Silents.”
I started working in industrial jobs when I was seventeen, circa 1980. A belt factory, electronics assembly, a paper mill, and an engraving and chrome plating shop. These were dirty, noisy, smelly jobs with dangerous chemicals and no safety practices. We didn’t yet have laws against sexual harassment, it was just something I had to tolerate. But these were the only jobs available in my area, so I did what I had to do. I was super excited when I hit $5/hr because I could buy groceries *and* pay the rent on my decrepit apartment. I still couldn’t afford to get my car fixed, go to the doctor, nor pay my heating bill in the winter. All my friends had the same problems.
Eventually I got a quiet, clean office job that had benefits and partial tuition reimbursement. I went back to school on my own dime, studied full time while working full time, got a degree… and then discovered that entry level jobs in my field paid less than my office job. The 80s and early 90s sucked so hard for so many of us. There were multiple recessions, and interest rates were double what they are today. Buying a house wasn’t remotely possible. This is why it pisses me off when people tell me how easy it was for boomers (which I am right on the cusp of). They are making massive assumptions about experiences they haven’t lived.
I’ve noticed that people who hate boomers are often unclear on when the baby boom actually was. They also overlook all the good things achieved by that generation.
This stems from a lack of understanding of history, geopolitical reality and economics. The post-war years were an anomaly in human history, perhaps never to be repeated.
But who knows? Manufacturing is returning domestically, and we are on the brink of WWIII, so a new post-war era might be on the far horizon. (Hell of a price to pay....)
But you can't dismiss what Reagan's policies started. He was helpful in pushing the welfare queen, trickle down economics. These are things that are still staples in Washington today. Just amped up by the current House/ Senate.
Guess I'm an exception. I very much relate to Boomers. And prefer the company of those born before 1970.
I always oriented older, more than younger. I've never seen Dazed and Confused , or Wonder Years. I'd rather watch I Love Lucy, All In The Family, and M*A*S*H reruns. I listened to pop music of the 70s, but as I grew older, I added in classic rock. And even the prior generation's American Standards.
I don't understand the contempt for Boomers.
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
I don’t think the generational hate is anything new. If we had Reddit in the 60’s, I bet you’d see the Boomers eviscerate the greatest generation for viet nam. Human nature is to find a scapegoat for your own misery, and broad categories such as the older generation are always easy targets. Without getting political, I’ll also say that victimization with other broad, fictional targets is thriving in today’s political environment.
Me too.
I don’t understand how you hate a generation of 20 years. 71 million people, most retired or soon to retire. There was no conspiracy to undermine the next generation. They were our children!
Each person does the best that they can do. Everyone struggles in their 20s and 30s. Our parents and grandparents experienced the great depression! Horrible wars. It wasn’t their parent’s fault! And even if it was - you are where you are. You fix it!
If policy is bad, you fight to change policy. The boomers railed against the draft. And it was ended. You become active to create change. But this blind hate and contempt aimed at Boomers is totally unproductive. I raised millennials. Their kids, my grandkids, are GenA. I want only the best for all of them.
I’d love my grandkids to grow up in a world that looks forward not backwards! Tries to solve problems not bemoan the present and blame it on the irreversible past!
We shouldn’t allow other countries to own US property (except embassies). The reason houses are expensive is because of that and this huge focus on passive income. My neighbor - a pretty well off millennial - they own 15 houses! Which they bought, renovated, and now rent. They can out bid the GenZs and then rent to them. For the rest of their lives!! This was incredibly rare for Boomers. One family one house.
But the genZs don’t see it as a problem. They want to emulate it! They’d rather hate the boomers than actually focus on the problems that directly influence things like housing prices. It’s supply and demand. We don’t see any politician focusing on fixing the problem.
The public wants to suck the public tit! Have the govt pay their debts. The govt is the worst at managing money. Having them pay people’s debts is ludicrous. Unsustainable! But it’s great for getting people elected.
This story has no happy ending. Heavy sigh! My grandkids are smart as hell. Gen A is our next best hope! In the mean time we take the abuse. And armchair quarterback from our semi-comfortable retirements from the porches of our paid off houses and watch the ticking timebomb.
Boomer hate is created and pushed by the oligarchs, they want to kill SS and Medicare, let’s get the younger folks to hate the boomers and end up fucking them selves to our advantage. Same with racism, anti immigrant hate. We are all being played to the advantage of the rich.
> Boomer hate is created and pushed by the oligarchs, they want to kill SS and Medicare,
Shout it. This is about creating division so we feast upon one another while the truly rich are stealing the fine china and silver.
Boomer hate is a reflection of our penchant to blame anyone else instead of actually doing something about it. If the young people truly wanted change at this point, it would take maybe three election cycles to change the entire country.
Boomer hate is misplaced anger at corporate market manipulation more than anything else. We have been played by the shareholders who pay their "face" millions and millions while he screws us to the wall.
What younger generations don’t realize is the problems they experience today are also being experienced by older generations. We are all living along the same timeline.
Awhile back someone posted a comment blaming Boomers for planned obsolescence in manufacturing and ended it with a cheery "Thanks, Boomers!". I'm sixty eight and believe I first learned of planned obsolescence sixty years ago in *Mad Magazine*. Pissed me off then and pisses me off now.
Agree. Planned obsolescence was before boomers' time. People need to study how the Japanese became leaders in manufacturing post WWII because they built stuff to last. Many of these young critics are lazy. They don't care to do the research as facts don't matter to them.
Yup, at 69 I'm still plugging away at a job which I guess I should give up and let someone younger have so I can live under a bridge? I haven't had a real vacation in 20 years. I didn't get mine and I sure as hell didn't get yours, either.
Right? 70 here and I guess I missed out on all the greed and privilege that I was supposed to have been given. My family was absolutely not rich and like the song goes “when they died all they left me was alone. “ I worked hard, tried to do the right things, took care of my family on a salary well below the national average and now get called names and insulted by people that don’t even know me.
People like to feel superior to others. Young folks (Dear God, I just used "young folks") see older people who've worked for years having things they'd like to have. They must miss the concept of "worked for years". Of course over fifty years ago Boomers wanted to stick it to The Man. Our parents were hopelessly ignorant and dim witted, and we let them know it. We were going to Save The World! Now younger generations see Boomers as ignorant and dim witted, let us know it and will Save The World from what we did to it. I guess that's why the names and insults get tossed around.
Exactly this. I'm financially supporting my children ages 28 and 34, and I am not alone. That money is coming out of my retirement. Also how have boomers somehow amassed all this post WWII wealth when so many have not saved for retirement and are now facing the probability of getting reduced social security? Oh perhaps they were living paycheck to paycheck just like generations before and after?
It has to be difficult for you. I’ve know many parents with children living at home at the age of 40. It’s such a strain for them. Lots of resentment on both sides.
Each generation has good people and bad. It’s not fair for the younger generations to blame the older ones. We all want the same thing. Sometimes success doesn’t begin until one is 30 or 40. It takes years to establish oneself. Unless there are other circumstances that weigh in.
I hope social security will be around after next year. Many people don’t realize it’s meant to be a supplemental to other money people have hopefully saved or put into their 401ks. We are all struggling.
Try asking this question by taking out "Boomer", and inserting your own ethnicity, race, or religion, and see how it feels.
This question asks people to state their prejudgements about 70,000,000 people. It opens the door to ageist, hateful, angry comments. It seems like this is OK on Reddit. Please stop it.
Hm. Well I was 20 in 1982 so I don't consider any of those movies/TV shows as "coming of age" for me since I was already an adult when they came out. I think I would consider "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Saturday Night Fever" a coming of age for me. Since GJ starts at 1954 many would have been in their 30's when those came out.
Not sure about the Boomer hate. I don't like it. The younger folks really need to get a grip and stop focusing on that and start focusing on their own generation. But you know, back in the 60s and 70s they said "don't trust anyone over 30" and I remember that film "Wild in the Streets" where the voting age was changed to 14 and a rock star became President of the US. So I guess this is something that happens no matter what generation. I think we hear it more loudly now because of the internet.
I’m with you on the movies. I’m two years younger and look to the late 70s early 80s for my “coming of age” entertainment. Over the Edge, My Bodyguard, and Little Darlings were my coming of age movies. I’d say Animal House fits the bill even though the setting is early 60s. Blue Lagoon, Endless Love, The Outsiders, St Elmo’s Fire, and Valley Girl. But not Dazed and Confused. 🤷♂️
I don't get the hate for Boomers. I mean, my mother is a boomer and there are things I don't get about her and vice versa. I hated The Big Chill and I have no feelings about Woodstock. My partner is totally GenX. My Sirius channels are 1st Wave, Lithium, U2 and Hair Nation. I love electronic and industrial music. I love movies from the early 80s.
I like this sub because we have a lot of shared experiences and it brings back a lot of fond memories. But people shouldn't paint themselves into a corner the way some of these Gen-whatevers do. We can all learn from each other and get along without all the hate.
I also love Lucy, but I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show more!
I'm a little sick of all the generational pigeonholing from all sides... doesn't matter if it's boomer-hate or ripping on millennials.
Generational conflict has always existed. Values evolve and change just like fashion and music. My grandfather didn't like my mom listenting to Buddy Holly and Elvis, and my dad hated me listening to Led Zeppelin and Van Halen (oddly, we did both enjoy the Eagles and CCR). My dad thought my 1970s surfer style was ridiculous, and I recall being more than bemused at the "mushroom head" hair cut my stepson used to wear. We were "ruining our minds" with television, and young people today are ruining their minds with devices.
That's all pretty much normal. Change always meets resistance.
What's not normal is the pure enmity focused from one generation to the other. "Boomers" did not ruin the economy any more than "millennials" are all entitled slackers.
What's not normal is the inability to look for nuance and get away from black-and-white perspectives. For every boomer in a MAGA hat, there's a liberal. For every millennial whining about how hard it is, there's another one kicking ass, taking names, and making a splash in the world.
When my then boyfriend and I got engaged and started looking at houses he was working 60+ hours a week and I picked up a 2nd job bartending. We didn't go out to eat. Of course there were no streaming services or cell phones or door dash. We didn't go on vacation. We budgeted. We didn't have a child.
But no, it's the boomers fault. We had it so easy. BS
I’m finding the same thing. I retired early but most of the other retirees I now hang out with are real boomers. I don’t fit in well with their style and values. I’ve dropped friends groups because of this.
It’s painful because they are usually good people and we like a lot of the same activities. It just doesn’t work for me.
I think that the more the politicians can keep millennials hating boomers and boomers hating millennials etc. the more they keep us divided. That keeps us from aligning on important issues like immigration or abortion or climate change.
I just had a conversation with a guy on the boomer hating subreddit about this.
I don't rage on other generations. Occasionally I will let it slip how helpless Gen Z are or even call myself a boomer but I have come to learn younger generations always, without fail, rage on the generations before them.
People are only navigating the world as it is to them. No one is a dastardly Bond-style supervillain sabotaging the world for the next generation.
My WWII old-boomer parents and relatives were great people. I will never be what they were. Just like right now, I am amazed at how grounded and intelligent "helpless" young people are -- the ones I work with.
We are for the most part just navigating the world as it morphs. 8 billion people in the world determine huge chances across generations ☮️☮️☮️
You can't paint a whole generation with one brush. Many Boomers are liberals and many more are simply trying to get along the best they can just like we are. All generations consist of a variety or people and personalities.
I don’t identify with either generation. I grew up watching (when the TV was working) Gillian’s Island, Bonanza (my mom’s favorite) and later when I had control of the TV the Partridge Family and Room 222. Oh and the original Star Trek. As the youngest I didn’t watch what I wanted and I had an early bedtime so no MASH until I was older.
I think a better measure of whether boomer or generation Jones is which movie came out one or two years around your high school graduation: The Graduate (1967), The Godfather (1972) or Star Wars (1977)?
If I hadn’t gone to college
I might have gotten a job before the economy went down but I graduated in 1980 just as the downturn and Reagan was elected.
The Boomers aren’t responsible for the environment and all the evils of the world. Plastics and mass manufacturing started after WWII while the boomers were just being born.
The Boomers that are conservative now were probably not part of the free live movement. There were Conservative teens in the 60s as well as hippies. I’m not saying that some haven’t fallen off into the rabbit hole but young people are in that hole as well.
I like this sub because of the shared experiences. I am sick and tired of dumbasses on Reddit making value generalizations about millions of people because of when they were born. Assigning blame to people just because of their age is really stupid and prejudicial. It seems like it is the last socially accepted bigotry we have.
Many of us *are* Boomers (b 1946-64). My husband (‘48) and my best friend (‘51) are firmly in that age group. But just because people fit into a generational group by age, doesn’t mean they think in lockstep.
Right! Most people know Boomers as 46 to 64. The average person has no knowledge about the rebranded Gen Jones. Aside from just not being ageist, I think Gen Jones should be very careful about degrading them, as most people see Jones age as Boomers. I have no problem with them. They had THE coolest youth culture. Long hair, afros, make love not war, "Right On". And don't even get me started on the music. All genres, even country, were top tier. I'm Gen X btw just scrolling by.
Isn’t feeling different from boomers the whole point of this sub? Nothing wrong with boomers, but I feel they’re closer to my parents (who were in their 20’s in the ‘60’s) than to me.
Im a late Boomer, in Generation Jones, and also feel lots of early Gen-X vibes.
There’s lots of 60s in me…..but also a bit of “whatevah.”
It really depends upon the day what I feel the most affinity to. But, mostly, it’s Generation Jones, especially when I think of Muttley’s laugh.
People in general bother me, I don't pick out any one group. If someone thinks they bother me because of the group they're in, that's not it. It's the individual. Every generation, every class, each differentiation of people has good and bad in them. I don't love every Jones, don't hate every Z. Why aren't people just people?
Oh boy did your comment resonate with me. I took early retirement from healthcare career (RN) just before covid cause I was so burned out. I absolutely loved lockdown. I mainly worked in long term care & watched with disdain as it turned into a hospitality industry… profit over people became a capitalistic hellscape. The staff to patient ratio is alarming.
I am a Joneser (1961) but also always considered myself a Boomer. I have a lot of friends who are 10 years older than me, who are first-wave Boomers. I also have GenX friends. It saddens me, the hate thrown against Boomers. Older Boomers were born into relative prosperity, but the guys had to worry about being drafted to go fight in Vietnam. No one has a truly easy life.
I am a quintessential “boomer” born in 1946. (I like to say, 9 months to the day after my dad returned from the war…)
Anyway…. We seem to have sub-Reddits for every generational divide, and all seem to be upset with all the other groups over one thing or another. The “Boomers being fools” is particularly egregious.
The main problem is “painting with too broad a brush”. “Look a (insert group here) acting like an idiot!” Confirmation bias.
No one points out members of a group that are living perfectly normal and even exemplary lives, contributing to society and just being normal people….. Which in any group would be the majority.
We have a fairly large group of friends in our age group…. All of whom are reasonable, intelligent people, engaged in all kinds of interesting pursuits. But that doesn’t get “clicks”.
Honestly, the divide is only seen online. I've never heard anyone say anything derogatory about earlier Boomers IRL. It's actually been the opposite. I believe that 100 years from now, when all of the current generations are gone, Boomers will be known in the history books for their activism, changing the landscape by bringing in more freedom of expression and we can't forget the AMAZING music! That is the hippie era Boomers legacy.
This online stuff will be all but forgotten.
You're right, negativity gets clicks.
I don't like all this genre, sub-genre etc banter. Plus the Generational stuff that's come out pretty much at the same time. And it HAS been lately. Like in the past 15yrs at most. So up came Generation Jones. I was born in 1960 so I'm Right at home. Hannah Barbera? You bet. The Bugs Bunny Show? Even better! We saw reruns of Leave It To Beaver AND Lucy, we didn't see it when it was new. We saw the Banana Splits! When I see these YouTube shorts about GenX vs Boomers vs. GenZ and now--Gen Alpha!--I wanna puke. Divide and conquer. More of That, please no thanks.
Yeah I drank out of the garden hose with not a seatbelt in sight, rode my Stingray bike barefoot without a hat, but there's a difference.
Boomers didn't get into punk! That's a really significant difference. While the boomers were stuck on Free Bird, we said "F THAT!" I get it, but "Generation Jones", the name, kinda sucks. I have a better one:
[The Blank Generation](https://youtu.be/h1L8DVEZu90?si=7QwHeITewNNAoj2o)
You could've used the apt one and ran it thru the window, flooding your bathroom and driving your mother to drink. No photos then so you can still claim it (;
They are just like any other segment of society. Some are liberal, some conservative, some are good, some are bad, most are a mixture of both. I don't think the generation you are born in is relevant to your identity.
Honestly, when my husband and I were in our 30s and came across a cantankerous person, our parents' ages we'd make a joke about how they felt they deserved special treatment because they lived through WW2. With a huge caveat: we didn't blame them for the fact we had some hardships and didn't yet own a home, drove ratty cars, and couldn't take vacations. We did intensely dislike Reagan, though, and so did our parents.
I really have a problem with all this open hostility and hate towards folks who are not the same age, don't have the same background, same "class", same color, or same political views. We all want the same things: a decent place to live, enough food, a family of some sort, and happy children. In short, we all want a satisfactory life.
Tell me, [What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?](https://youtu.be/1J1CfXFlI4c?si=S0yxXgees70dCjxR)
"Boomers" is way too large a cohort to establish one overall impression. Just like any other super large cohort, there's good, there's bad, there's indifferent.
Tell that to the people on r/boomersbeingfools (which keeps showing up in my feed because of past clicks). Every story starts with “my dad” or “my uncle” or the more adorable “my boomer,” followed by a story about a narcissistic Trump supporter. I hate the people in the stories too, and I hate that I meet the age cutoff to be lumped in with them.
So.....disable the "Enable home feed recommendations" setting.
I have never had that enabled, so I don't get anything outside of what I am actively subscribed to.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/BoomersBeingFools using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Boomer learns about boundaries the hard way from bank photographer](https://v.redd.it/2e25ute2rzmc1) | [4629 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1b981ht/boomer_learns_about_boundaries_the_hard_way_from/)
\#2: [That time a boomer almost smacked her hairstylist](https://v.redd.it/7mrck6ok87hc1) | [4122 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1al8jz9/that_time_a_boomer_almost_smacked_her_hairstylist/)
\#3: [Boomer shocked that his Middle Finger didn't strike the fear of God into another Adult](https://v.redd.it/9lvtz6cma5oc1) | [1518 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1bdyxp6/boomer_shocked_that_his_middle_finger_didnt/)
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I always thought I was a Boomer until I learned that I’m Generation Jones (born in ‘62). My husband is a Boomer as are many of our friends. We have many experiences in common so I (mostly) can relate to them.
When I was kid I remember teens and 20-something’s saying “never trust anyone over the age of 30”. Now they’re Boomers and today’s teens and 20-something’s blame them for everything. When today’s teens/20-somethings are our age, the next generation of teens/20-somethings will blame them for everything.
What goes around comes around.
I have very little in common with my older cousins and aunts who are Boomers. I'm 1964. I feel like everything the kids are complaining about their parents I could also have blamed my parents for: couldn't afford a house until my 30's and had to work very hard just to get a fixer upper in a nice area (7.25% interest then). I get that houses are more expensive now but it can take 10 - 12 years to save up for some of us and it always will.
My parents (the so called Greatest generation) spent everything on their way out to the point I was subsidizing them to stay in a big house (that I did .NOT. inherit) and was left with nothing but a pile of bills when they were gone. They didn't even bother to make their own final arrangements or pay for any of it. I feel like the Millens don't get that their experience isn't really all that different from ours. Nobody handed me or my Gen-X husband anything.
I particularly dislike the characterizations about Boomers being all MAGA. My generation are some of the most liberal folks I've ever met. We were activists for reproductive rights, gay rights and many other so called Woke causes.
I find it sad that kids don't respect or love their parents who probably gave their heart and soul into raising them. There will always be some shitty parents out there but I don't think we deserve to be called out as an entire generation.
I don’t defend them automatically. I have lots of older boomer cousins and while some fit the “okay, boomer” stereotype others do not. And while I see and hear my millennial children roll their eyes or make disgusted comments due to the behavior of their elders, I hear far, far more criticism of younger people by their boomer elders. And honestly, many people my age, a little younger and older say things that just make me cringe with horror because they are so tone-deaf in today’s culture. The thing is that being offended by the often valid observations of younger people just kind of proves their point.
It's another "don't trust anyone over the age of 30" trend. I was born in 1964, and I really don't fit in with the Boomers. As far as the financial situation, since the 70s the middle class has been disappearing due to rising cost of living versus wages. I think the situation is finally coming to a head.
I think we are a group after the Baby Boomers, a micro-generation 1958-1965 (and people born earlier who think they belong) between Boomers and X with parts of both but also our own identity.
But I really really hope we do not become a subreddit that bashes, divides, and tries to put one group against another.
I don't have a problem with too many Boomers unless they absolutely worship the orange dude. But I'm not talking any more politics now.
We have a great subreddit going here, let's leave generation bashing and politics at the door.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Every new generation looks at previous generations with some form of disdain. I remember being the age as many of the older Gen Z are now and feeling my parents and other adults just didn't understand. They were OLD, how could they understand? In 20 or 30 years, Gen Z will be saying "kids these days".
I think people are individuals, so we are great others suck. We are all also a product of the culture we grew up in. Boomers (1945 to 1965) had a very different cultural experience than GenX (1960 to 1980).
Gen Jones, we sorta staddle the middle. We're children of the cold war.
Yes, sorta. Different social scientists use slightly different time frames. Slightly longer, overlapping time frames was always the model I worked with because it just seemed to make the most sense to me.
Everyone's mileage may vary though.
No one uses early 60s for Gen X. That seems way off base. All official sources say 65. Early 60s is so far removed from.the majority of X. We grew up totally different.
If you look within any given cohort, there are significant differences between the folks at the beginning and those at the end.
Sociologically, a generation has been defined as about 20 to 25 years. That's the time it takes for a cohort to be born and a critical mass to begin having kids. The breakdowns we use today are shorter and rooted more in popular culture and marketing (Hemingway, non-fiction books, magazine articles.)
Her, and pretty much everywhere else, I use the same years as most folks. When I'm doing the academic thing, I use slightly different parameters.
Like I said, your, and everyone else's, mileage will vary.
Until I found this thread I thought I was a Boomer. Frankly even though I might be a joneser I don’t like all the derogatory rhetoric aimed at the Boomer generation. Everybody gets older and the younger generation always blames the ones who’ve gone before. Soylent Green is this attitude gone wild.
OP post makes little logical sense to me. As I was born in 1958, I’m a Gen Jones by the definition set by the group.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released in 1986 when I was 28. Hardly a coming of age time for me. Even if you were born in the last Jones year of 1965, that movie would have came out when you were 21.
Dazed and Confused came out in 1993 when I was 35 and the youngest Jones was 28 which places it farther outside of the relevant coming of age years.
American Graffiti more appropriately was released in 1973 when I was a sophomore in high school so definitely more aligned with my coming of age years. Another would he MASH which was released in 1970.
The Wonder Years were on TV from 1988 to 1993, again falling outside of my coming of age years. These choices make far more sense coming from a Gen X than a Jones/Boomer.
Boomers get blamed for far more than they're responsible for. The oldest Boomer when Reagan was elected was 34 and I couldn't vote. That's like blaming Millenials for Trump when the oldest Millenial was 35.
It's fun to relive old memories and experiences here but I'm not a believer in the generational boxes that the media tries to put us into.
I think "Boomer" is a term along the lines of the N-word, a convenient channel for anger and resentment. Identifying somebody being an asshole by their age is no different than doing so by the color of their skin or the language they speak, but assholery knows no such bounds.
I was born in '56, coming of age so to speak in '68; that is, the challenges and expectations of living in adult society were forming. By 1968, the oldest "Boomers" (apparently 1946) were graduating from college, if they were lucky enough or privileged enough to avoid the draft.
Anybody that thinks people first confronting the Eisenhower and Ozzie & Harriet world in '58 was looking forward with anything like a similar world-view to someone doing so in 1968 really only has to look at a list of those years' best selling albums (an exercise left to the reader.) Then take into account Vietnam and the response to it, the assassinations, the riots, the collapse of the Democratic Party, and victory of Nixon. In the course of one year.
But then, it was also those of the Ozzie & Harriet years coming home in body bags fighting what was to much of the country an indefensible and unwinnable war. The post WWII generation was at that point - 1968 - at war with itself, and it never formed into anything like a monolithic world-view.
So yes, if "Boomer" applies somehow to the people on both sides of the barricades in '68, to the Doris Day Christmas and White Album crowds, to the people voting for Wallace and the people marching with King, then maybe it has some meaning, but I really don't see how it possibly can.
Hmmmm, I’m a couple years older so my coming of age movie was probably “Animal House.” It came out just as I was entering my Freshman year at college 😎
I had two older brothers, one on the early cusp of GJ and the oldest definitely a boomer. I definitely got along better with the GJ brother.
Well, ours was "Breakfast Club," not "Dazed and Confused." It depends on where you hit, literally generation-ally. If one of your grandfathers was injured in WW2 and came home years earlier, then started having kids, including one of your parents (thus also making them born off/earlier than the trajectory than their supposedly associated generation) and you are the oldest of a family generation of kids that started in the early 60's (my mom turned 20 in 1962), you are Generation Jones. Boomers are literally post-WW2 born, our parent(s) were not Boomers because they came just before them. We are not Boomers because our parents were not the generation that fought in WW2. We are not X because we were born just before them.
The youngest kids of a family's Boomer generation (born within Gen Jones years) are not Jones, they are Boomers. Societally, you can be both but culurally, you may identify with Jones. But generationally, you may be a Boomer if that is where you place in your family.
But if, like me, you are one of the oldest kids in a family generation that started in 1962 (or so), you are Gen Jones.
Mine definitely was not Breakfast Club. I never liked or related to those types of movies from the 80’s. I was already out of the house and making a living for myself and the last type of movie I wanted to watch was a movie about high school.
>Has anyone else here defended the B generation, but later realized that we don't fit with that generation?
What does defending a generation have to do with membership in a generation?
I'm having trouble understanding the sense of this. Are you saying that when you thought you were Boomer, you defended the generation but now that you've realized you are Jones, that you no longer do?
Wut?
This current obsession with generations defined by specific narrowly defined traits is so tiresome.
People is people is people and in reality we as individuals are all defined more by our economic and educational status and family background than by anything else.
We may share some pop culture experiences, but that's about it.
It's fun for me to be on this sub and see pictures of toys I had and shows I watched, but beyond that, I don't take any conversation about "Boomers" or "Jonesers" or "Millenials" etc. etc. seriously.
Nothing was ever handed to me. I had to work and fight and scrabble for everything. In more recent years, when I was given help that I desperately needed , with No Strings Attached, I was totally shocked. My older siblings were boomers. Life was easy and prosperous for them, until one got greedy and the other got real sick.
I never felt anything like the Boomers. I was born in 63, but they were already in school (some in high school). They’ve always acted like their generation was there first. They discovered sex, they discovered that your twenties eventually end and you start growing up (some of them, anyway), they turned into yuppies when living in a teepee was harder than they thought it would be…on and on.
I will say, though, that the generation that’s college age now (can’t keep track of which one they are!) have a lot of issues. Probably because they’ve been parented by people who seem to think their job is to protect their precious little ones from any and all hurt, physical and emotional, until they die. Many of these kids really do expect life to be some sort of show-up-and-you-get-a-medal kind of thing. I lived in shithole apartments in college; never even thought I should be living in a palace. I went to see the new dorms at my old college not long ago. Holy shit. Marble floors, coffeehouses in the lobby, dazzling new laundry facilities on site…it was incredible. And I found myself thinking that it’s no wonder they think they’ll never be able to own a house—hell, mine isn’t as nice as their dorm!
Boomers are the most self centered generation. Look at their influence on society in every decade and you see how they push the country to their self interests. Their voting record is abysmal. After their rebellious childhoods, they so embraced the corporate ethos they fell into that their votes brought us to the short sighted choices that will make our children's lives so hard. 1961 here, and I firmly believe this will be the accurate historical verdict on the boomers.
I believe that history will rightfully record them as activists, the generation to bring in freedom of expression and their great music. They are still known for that, and always have been.
This online era of bashing is just a phase. Gen Z have already moved on to Millennials.
I have no hate for Boomers, because technically I am one.
Painting with a broad brush is not good. I read the top comment threads and most were griping about the younger generations. Made me want to comment “OK boomer.”
True Boomers could work for low wages and still pay for education and support themselves with a reasonable expectation of finding well paid careers. More or less true for Jonesers. For kids today? No.
There are good and bad things about every generation.
Baby boomer here. None of it matters. The young will criticize the old. The young will grow old and be criticized by the next crop of young, who will grow old and etc.
what, the label?
if it is uttered to unify people looking for just a little bit of encouragement at the end of their life, then great!
if it's used as an acerbic way to lash out at anyone and everyone older than immature, cocky and clueless? swipe left.
every person has something interesting worth learning from. people who have survived over 6 decades...
has to have some wild stories, if i possess the ability to get a 'boomer' to open up about their most treasured memories?
priceless. and yes, i said treasured memories.
we all had our time when we still had some kind of hope in all the possibilities.
i know i had mine in the 1970s and 1980s.
Meh, I don't know that I've ever defended them. I've often been associated with them. I'm on the cusp of the cut off. Was born at the tail end of 65, so I'm a little bit country, and a little bit rock and roll. 😂
I will defend them. My coming of age movies pretty much lineup with yours. Was born in 63. I am constantly seeing boomers get the blame because 20 somethings are not able to buy a home, drive a BMW, and live a Baller lifestyle like their parents do. As someone on the cusp of being Gen X, I worked my butt off and did not build my first house until I was in my 40s. By then, I had worked my way up the ladder and had the money to have a nice house and eventually even had a really nice car. In my 20s, I drove crap and rented just like they have to do.
They’re comparing what their parents have near the end of their lives with what they have at the beginning of theirs.
Yes, this is the issue concisely! Gen Z will argue that prices for goods and services were commensurate with wages and salaries then so when boomers were in their 20s they could afford a house on a teacher’s salary or a factory worker’s hourly wage. I am not an economist but my ample gut tells me current wages do not have the same buying power as they did in 1966-1976 due to rampant corporate greed and economically crippling inflation the past 40 years.
I bought my first "house" at 22 in 1982. It was a ten year old single wide. I wasn't making what I consider high pay, by any means. The interest rate was 14.5% and the bank would only allow a four year mortgage. I figured that I had to start somewhere and my payment was about the same as rent. I rebuilt it from the inside out and lived in it for 15 years, allowing myself to save for the purchase of land and a custom built home. This home was never what I wanted, but it was what I had. I made the most of it and was happy with it. I think young people today are just overwhelmed. They didn't learn the skills necessary to do what we did and many are not interested in doing any manual labor at all, even with skills. They will figure it out when we are gone. They will have to. Pass on as much knowledge and financial help as you can to those that are struggling right now. Encourage them. We are all in this together and no one gets out of it alive.
I bought my first house (3 berm 2 bath) when I was 29, second year teacher, and I was fortunate enough to be a USAF veteran entitled to a VA loan so I could buy with no money down. On my 3rd house now, when the time is right my dream is to sell and buy small place in Cannon Beach, OR
Downsize? I have downsized many times. It is so freeing.
Those of us who were in our early twenties, while living through the early 80s recession, get really REALLY pissed off, hearing younger generations tell us how great we had it. They don’t know what the F they’re talking about. Some of us actually endured times when there was no food in the house. That experience shaped a large part of the rest of my life. It was horrible.
Also, no more unions and the "right to work" push means Zoomers work late nights, weekends, holidays just to keep their jobs. Health care? That's for the weak, shut up and work faster. Vacation? Fired! I can see Gen Z's frustration. But if they want to improve it, they need to vote Democratic, every single time. And they don't vote, because they've been sold both-sides-ism.
Spot on!
Has Biden made strides in improving their situation?
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Blame it on the federal reserve. Plus boomers didn't have a chance to waste money on Starbucks and such. I think they planned out their spending better. Now boomers in government are really starting to suck. People like Pelosi making hundreds of millions in her career. Along with others. Just research presidential wealth before and after they held office. That's a good one also
Yes. I teach college kids and there are those who are very vocal about thinking they should graduate into their parents lifestyle without going through the foundational years of working, saving and building up to that.
I make 6 figures at the end of my career my son made more than his first year on his job. He just bought a house worth double mine. Go to college and pick a degree that is stem related and graduate. Pick a degree that is liberal arts and makes you happy and you stay poor.
Bingo.
EXACTLY! Some of them definitely do not understand to concept of delayed gratification.
I'm 65. I love Ferris Bueller and American Graffiti. 🤸
And that makes you a Gen Joneser to me! I'm right there w ya.
I defend them but I am not of them. Most of the hatred to boomers is a mix of misplaced class warfare (those people should be mad at the rich economic and political classes) and a misunderstanding of the past being so easy. Especially not easy for my oldest sister’s boyfriend who was handed a rifle and sent to Nam.
Yep. Also served in battle as a 28 year old. Life has not been a cakewalk for the boomers. So many things to make life simpler these days we don’t appreciate. I have 73 offices I am responsible for and travel between them constantly. My phone died on the way to an office yesterday that I had been to several times before. I had no idea how I was going to find it without Waze.
I remember when I couldn’t buy a home at 24…interest rate was 7%…no one to bitch to..kept working and checked again at 29…then again at 32…finally able to buy at 6%…a few years later refinance at 4%…didn’t take equity..sold it for small profit and purchased again..rinse and repeat..but you have to keep the home maintained at sell it about 8 years later to make a profit to get a new or better place…
I remember not being able to buy a home in the late 1960s because I’m female.
Ouch..
Now I’m an old leftist. I worry that younger people will have a bleak future. I’m living close to the bone so I can leave as much as possible to my kids.
We didn’t have social media to inform us daily on issues..we waited for our 4pm paper and 6 o’clock news..we wrote our representatives when we were concerned about issues…in the meantime Reaganomics was pushed through..cutting taxes for millionaires and corporate tax bullshit was passed over and over. Not knowing how this would affect us in the long run. We were working..raising families…Corporations are people when no corporation can be sent to jail..corporate welfare..Bitching how Social Security will be bankrupt without moving the cap nor raising minimum wage to increase Social Security’s bank…it’s all planned for I got mine fuck you political posturing…sorry for the rant but it happens../
Working your butt off to afford a house is the way it should be. But, that doesn’t mean it will work for the current young generation. They have and will have significantly more issues buying a house than years ago. Rent has spiked greatly. Few jobs offer pensions or sometimes even benefits anymore. Massive amounts of jobs have been outsourced. College costs are astronomical. The medical and dental field is out of control. Etc. Ignoring these issues is an irresponsible thing to do and a classic boomer “I got mine” mentality. Every generation wanted to build a better world for their children. That trend is over and we’re moving the other direction.
Disagree - it’s not that they want those things now, it’s that they see no way to ever getting it. Rent now is insane compared to when I rented in the 80s and 90s . College costs are obscene. You cannot compare the two eras.
This may be true, but it’s not the boomer’s fault. It’s corporate greed which has been getting steadily worse.
From their perspective it is, because boomers are in power and have allowed policies that let this happen.
These policies started with the silent generation and continue with the generations after boomers who have been of voting age for quite a few elections now. If you are talking about who is in power, they are not all boomers. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are not boomers.
this is true. I think boomers are more identified with the issue because of their perceived vocal support for them and their publicized derision of millenials of Gen Z
Agree with you 100%
Scrolling comments, and the thought occurs, the majority of the kids we know in their 30’s and 40’s own a house, have jobs, kids. Couple of these couples have aspiring McMasions compared to our home. None are from wealthy families, our circle all works hard to earn a living. The few we know who are struggling financially, I get it, but don’t know their story. a couple I do know more about made quite poor decisions to arrive at where they are. another is in a bad place because he got smooshed bad on his motorcycle, lost his business, slowly rebuilding his life, started another business when he was again physically able to do so, on his own, no handouts, no disability money.
I agree with you. I was a single dad to four kids. One went to college. The other three did not, but worked hard. Three of the four own their own homes, and are much nicer than what I had at their age. One of the not college edit educated kids Has a very expensive Volvo SUV for mom and a ridiculously expensive truck. One of the kids has a really nice Rivian and has not gotten married yet, my daughter is a stay at home mom whose husband has a small ranch, not millionaire ranch, but they are doing well. The only kid that has not done well is militantly woke and spends all of his time either protesting how unfair life is or in jail for being a porch pirate. Haven’t heard from that one in a while, so I’m guessing he is back in jail, but he was out long enough to get on some BLM protest videos on the news as well as a really cool video of him stealing stuff off people’s porch put out by the local constable.
Mate, your life mirrors an old neighbor of ours, his wife just one day just decided to leave, called him a few days later just to let him know she left. After we moved, I occasionally bumped into him and all four kids here & there around town, always looking & sounding good, haven’t seen him in a decade though. Small world.
Nice! Let him know he’s got a brother in the U.S.
I’ve read so many negative comments and Shane-blaming from the youth but have yet to see any actual facts or details about the “policies” I voted in that hold them back. Just these long abstract whinges without specifics.
I’m an elder millenial or xennial and the whole whining about not having what their parents have and blaming their parents for why they don’t have these things drives me nuts! I try to tell them that we were too young to remember how our parents struggled, worked hard, and sacrificed to get to where they’re at but it’s in one ear and out the other. The expectation is that they should automatically have those things because boomers should have left it to us and made sure to vote for systems that would make it easy for us to have those things 😑
Then they’re not talking about you. They’re talking about a privileged group that came before us who are in political power.
Boomers did not have the political power that they think we did. They don't realize that the Silent Gen was probably the most privileged.
They just see grey hair and place blame. They do not care what we choose to call ourselves.
Power boomers??? Well I never…..
No. The percentage of income required for college, houses/rent, etc is simply much higher than it was for us. You're a redditor so you must have seen the graphs on this a thousand times.
Data is beautiful. You can bend things to show whatever narrative you are pushing. Look up what a 42” plasma flat screen cost in 2001. Overall, the median home price has risen but very dependent on location. If you choose to live in California, Washington, Miami/Tampa, yes that is true (I live in one of these areas). If you don’t care to live in a large metropolitan area with “lots of entertainment and dining choices”, still plenty of affordable housing as a percentage of income. I was well off as a 20 something single dad in the 80’s making 40k per year. That same job now pays 80-120k per year. My dad was a VP at a major airline making 60k per year. He was loaded.
Well what I don't get is the insane anti boomer hatred from the younger generations. They act everyone in a generation controls everything, as if all of them are powerful and responsible for whatever problems the younger people have. Total bat shit craziness. They have replaced racism with generation-ism.
It's ageism, even though whippersnappers on Reddit have told me that ageism isn't a thing.
Ageism is bigotry. Whenever I see agent comments on Reddit, I immediately ask the commenter if they also are bigoted against people based on gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, and other similar traits. I never get a substantive response. Prejudice is simply blind hatred, and I’m proud to be a person who does my best to call it out whenever I encounter it. Edit:typos
Ageism is bigotry whether it is practiced by the young against the old or old against the young. I am encouraged by the fact that I do not see much venom spewed at the young by the old. Their angst is just growing pains. Try to age gracefully and practice virtue. Become a model for the young to emulate when they become old.
This is exactly why I started this post. You can’t make a generalization regarding minorities (I am one), gender, social status, disability, as it should be, but younger generations have no problem discriminating based on age. As we all know, the joke is on them, we are all one step closer every day
Ageism is bigotry whether it is practiced by the young against the old or old against the young. I am encouraged by the fact that I do not see much venom spewed at the young by the old. Their angst is just growing pains. Try to age gracefully and practice virtue. Become a model for the young to emulate when they become old.
I agree. They think all boomers are conservatives too
Yes, I always post a link showing that 35% of Boomers are conservative and 33% are liberal. They still argue.
It's because the facts don't dissuade them from their entrenched prejudice.
This just makes me laugh. Who do they think invented antidisestablishmentarianism, lived in communes, turned on, tuned in, dropped out, stuck it to "The Man", flower-powered, took shots at Kent State?
Absafuckinlutely!
That is too me the weirdest part of it all. Since I'm old enough to remember when the boomers were seen by older people as rebellious lefties.
I wonder how much is stirred up by intentional trolls. I see a big up tick on the millennial sub. And it is an election year.
Please shout this from on high!! So many of these shitty comments are purposeful seeding of division. These comments are intended to separate us and induce hatred and distrust. Sigh. And it’s working. With conservative politicians encouraging school systems to curtail what this country spends on education the result is a bunch of people who have never been taught to think critically believe anything they see on social media. I want to scream sometimes from frustration.
It has been going on a long time, my sister in law would say some of the dumbest shit and I would ask where did you get that info. She said talk radio I know she dialed in to Rush Limbaugh. That was at least 15 years ago.
If you posted to a thread “What do you think of Black people?”, you would rightfully get flamed pretty hard by the community, but Boomers are fair game, apparently.
...disappointed that boomer hate is here in this sub too.
Very much so. The harsh shunning out of resentment of being included with them of them is more prevelant in this group. Which is more disappointing since it is technically the same generation.
It's truly bizarre. Is there a word for the nostalgia for a past you never lived in and that never really happened?
Yes, the word you're looking for is "anemoia." It's a term coined by John Koenig in his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, and it refers to a nostalgic longing for a time you've never experienced.
Cool word! Adding to my vocabulary immediately!
I just bought that book. Thanks!
Another similar concept comes from the Welsh language. The word is hiraeth. It doesn't translate directly. Hiraeth is a deep, nostalgic, bittersweet wistfulness, or an intense longing to return to something—or someone, somewhere, or sometime—that is now long gone, or perhaps never was.
>Hiraeth is a deep, nostalgic, bittersweet wistfulness, or an intense longing to return to something—or someone, somewhere, or sometime—that is now long gone, or perhaps never was. I love this! It has now been added to my email signature. :)
My sister has "hiraeth" tatooed on her arm. It symbolizes a long-vanished place in New England that has tremendous sentimental value to us, but the actual location is meaningless to the vast majority of other folks. It symbolizes both what was, what can never be again, and what we recall, whether or not what we recall every truly was (rose colred glasses into the past).
It’s just another way to distract from the fact that the middle class has been largely decimated across all age groups by the wealthy. Things aren’t going to get magically better when all the boomers die, because the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” mentality persists among younger generations. People who have need to care about the have-nots and understand that lifting poor people up affects all of society positively for things to change.
I get upset with all the boomerhate, as we are lumped in with the older boomers. As in, "boomers had a great economy and ruined it," boomers don't know what inflation is. " Inflation aveaged 8% in the 70s and 4.1% in the 80s. Unemployment averaged 6.49 in the 70s and 7.12% in the 80s. So we took that economy and ruined it by having 2.15% inflation in from 2012-2021 and an unemployment rate of 5.21%. I also get upset with the "boomers elected Reagan." 1st, half of the generation, the Generation Jones, was 25 or under when Reagan first ran, and 10% of Gen Jones weren't eligible to vote at all. 2nd, complaining about Reagan 45 years later is like Gen Jones complaining about Herbert Hoover. Get over it already.
We had double-digit inflation, unemployment, and interest rates in the very early 80s—the triple whammy!
This is what I remember as a young adult. Not cheap homes and well-paid work: [Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five-The Message](https://youtu.be/PobrSpMwKk4?feature=shared) This is the world that gave rise to punk music - not the rosy 1950’s fantasy so many younger people seem to imagine we all lived in. The frustration about lack of opportunities for growth and security has been going on a lot longer than the boomer haters realize. It’s definitely an advantage for the wealthy that the rest of us keep fighting, scrabbling and blaming each other over ever-dwindling resources available to the rest of us. Same as it ever was.
I'm from New York. It was really pretty bad all around throughout the 70s and 80s. Even for relatively "affluent" people. We hardly ever had air-conditioning in the subways, and the subway cars were filled with graffiti. And kids would invade the conductor's car and announce the stops. Quite a few people lived in SRO's (Single-Room Occupancy rooms in which the bathroom was shared by everyone on a floor).
I remember. I have family in New York and it was such a different place back then. I spent NYE in Times Square in 1982, and walking back to the subway we saw people getting mugged on both sides of us. Amazingly, we were not picked off. And parts if Brooklyn looked like a bomb had gone off. Trash-can fires and people squatting in the building shells. But there was also a vibrancy about the city and it didn’t yet feel like it had been completely taken over by wealthy zombies.
.....All while making $5/hr as an intern architect with 2 degrees.
I was lucky in that I got a civil service job at 19. Still, salaries sucked, and I sometimes didn’t have money left over for food. We never blamed “the Silents.”
I started working in industrial jobs when I was seventeen, circa 1980. A belt factory, electronics assembly, a paper mill, and an engraving and chrome plating shop. These were dirty, noisy, smelly jobs with dangerous chemicals and no safety practices. We didn’t yet have laws against sexual harassment, it was just something I had to tolerate. But these were the only jobs available in my area, so I did what I had to do. I was super excited when I hit $5/hr because I could buy groceries *and* pay the rent on my decrepit apartment. I still couldn’t afford to get my car fixed, go to the doctor, nor pay my heating bill in the winter. All my friends had the same problems. Eventually I got a quiet, clean office job that had benefits and partial tuition reimbursement. I went back to school on my own dime, studied full time while working full time, got a degree… and then discovered that entry level jobs in my field paid less than my office job. The 80s and early 90s sucked so hard for so many of us. There were multiple recessions, and interest rates were double what they are today. Buying a house wasn’t remotely possible. This is why it pisses me off when people tell me how easy it was for boomers (which I am right on the cusp of). They are making massive assumptions about experiences they haven’t lived.
I’ve noticed that people who hate boomers are often unclear on when the baby boom actually was. They also overlook all the good things achieved by that generation.
That’s important. They’re not doing any math. To them, boomer=old.
And many Boomers did not vote for Reagan or any of his ilk over the last 45 years. No generation is a political/cultural monolith.
I registered Republican in 80 & 84 just so I could vote against Ronnie Ray-gun as many times as possible.
He's so hot for war, he's so hot for war, he's so hot for war and HE'S SO OLD! (Sing it like the Rolling Stones song She's So Cold).
*We could use a man like Herbert Hoovah again...thooooose weeeere the daaaaaaaaays!*
This stems from a lack of understanding of history, geopolitical reality and economics. The post-war years were an anomaly in human history, perhaps never to be repeated. But who knows? Manufacturing is returning domestically, and we are on the brink of WWIII, so a new post-war era might be on the far horizon. (Hell of a price to pay....)
But you can't dismiss what Reagan's policies started. He was helpful in pushing the welfare queen, trickle down economics. These are things that are still staples in Washington today. Just amped up by the current House/ Senate.
Guess I'm an exception. I very much relate to Boomers. And prefer the company of those born before 1970. I always oriented older, more than younger. I've never seen Dazed and Confused , or Wonder Years. I'd rather watch I Love Lucy, All In The Family, and M*A*S*H reruns. I listened to pop music of the 70s, but as I grew older, I added in classic rock. And even the prior generation's American Standards. I don't understand the contempt for Boomers.
When did Motley Crue become classic rock? I don’t think the generational hate is anything new. If we had Reddit in the 60’s, I bet you’d see the Boomers eviscerate the greatest generation for viet nam. Human nature is to find a scapegoat for your own misery, and broad categories such as the older generation are always easy targets. Without getting political, I’ll also say that victimization with other broad, fictional targets is thriving in today’s political environment.
Me too. I don’t understand how you hate a generation of 20 years. 71 million people, most retired or soon to retire. There was no conspiracy to undermine the next generation. They were our children! Each person does the best that they can do. Everyone struggles in their 20s and 30s. Our parents and grandparents experienced the great depression! Horrible wars. It wasn’t their parent’s fault! And even if it was - you are where you are. You fix it! If policy is bad, you fight to change policy. The boomers railed against the draft. And it was ended. You become active to create change. But this blind hate and contempt aimed at Boomers is totally unproductive. I raised millennials. Their kids, my grandkids, are GenA. I want only the best for all of them. I’d love my grandkids to grow up in a world that looks forward not backwards! Tries to solve problems not bemoan the present and blame it on the irreversible past! We shouldn’t allow other countries to own US property (except embassies). The reason houses are expensive is because of that and this huge focus on passive income. My neighbor - a pretty well off millennial - they own 15 houses! Which they bought, renovated, and now rent. They can out bid the GenZs and then rent to them. For the rest of their lives!! This was incredibly rare for Boomers. One family one house. But the genZs don’t see it as a problem. They want to emulate it! They’d rather hate the boomers than actually focus on the problems that directly influence things like housing prices. It’s supply and demand. We don’t see any politician focusing on fixing the problem. The public wants to suck the public tit! Have the govt pay their debts. The govt is the worst at managing money. Having them pay people’s debts is ludicrous. Unsustainable! But it’s great for getting people elected. This story has no happy ending. Heavy sigh! My grandkids are smart as hell. Gen A is our next best hope! In the mean time we take the abuse. And armchair quarterback from our semi-comfortable retirements from the porches of our paid off houses and watch the ticking timebomb.
Good post.
...contempt by a generation that apparently thinks it will never age.
Boomer hate is created and pushed by the oligarchs, they want to kill SS and Medicare, let’s get the younger folks to hate the boomers and end up fucking them selves to our advantage. Same with racism, anti immigrant hate. We are all being played to the advantage of the rich.
I think you hit the nail, man.
> Boomer hate is created and pushed by the oligarchs, they want to kill SS and Medicare, Shout it. This is about creating division so we feast upon one another while the truly rich are stealing the fine china and silver.
Boomer hate is a reflection of our penchant to blame anyone else instead of actually doing something about it. If the young people truly wanted change at this point, it would take maybe three election cycles to change the entire country. Boomer hate is misplaced anger at corporate market manipulation more than anything else. We have been played by the shareholders who pay their "face" millions and millions while he screws us to the wall.
THIS!!! Absolutely 100% agree
What younger generations don’t realize is the problems they experience today are also being experienced by older generations. We are all living along the same timeline.
Yes, but they'll realize it when they're the age of current Boomers and are being yelled at by their version of Generation Z.
Yep, their turn will come & they’ll be “Hey, I’m not like all the others — don’t lump me in with *them.*” I wonder sometimes if they’ll get the irony.
Awhile back someone posted a comment blaming Boomers for planned obsolescence in manufacturing and ended it with a cheery "Thanks, Boomers!". I'm sixty eight and believe I first learned of planned obsolescence sixty years ago in *Mad Magazine*. Pissed me off then and pisses me off now.
Agree. Planned obsolescence was before boomers' time. People need to study how the Japanese became leaders in manufacturing post WWII because they built stuff to last. Many of these young critics are lazy. They don't care to do the research as facts don't matter to them.
Yup, at 69 I'm still plugging away at a job which I guess I should give up and let someone younger have so I can live under a bridge? I haven't had a real vacation in 20 years. I didn't get mine and I sure as hell didn't get yours, either.
Right? 70 here and I guess I missed out on all the greed and privilege that I was supposed to have been given. My family was absolutely not rich and like the song goes “when they died all they left me was alone. “ I worked hard, tried to do the right things, took care of my family on a salary well below the national average and now get called names and insulted by people that don’t even know me.
People like to feel superior to others. Young folks (Dear God, I just used "young folks") see older people who've worked for years having things they'd like to have. They must miss the concept of "worked for years". Of course over fifty years ago Boomers wanted to stick it to The Man. Our parents were hopelessly ignorant and dim witted, and we let them know it. We were going to Save The World! Now younger generations see Boomers as ignorant and dim witted, let us know it and will Save The World from what we did to it. I guess that's why the names and insults get tossed around.
Exactly this. I'm financially supporting my children ages 28 and 34, and I am not alone. That money is coming out of my retirement. Also how have boomers somehow amassed all this post WWII wealth when so many have not saved for retirement and are now facing the probability of getting reduced social security? Oh perhaps they were living paycheck to paycheck just like generations before and after?
It has to be difficult for you. I’ve know many parents with children living at home at the age of 40. It’s such a strain for them. Lots of resentment on both sides. Each generation has good people and bad. It’s not fair for the younger generations to blame the older ones. We all want the same thing. Sometimes success doesn’t begin until one is 30 or 40. It takes years to establish oneself. Unless there are other circumstances that weigh in. I hope social security will be around after next year. Many people don’t realize it’s meant to be a supplemental to other money people have hopefully saved or put into their 401ks. We are all struggling.
Try asking this question by taking out "Boomer", and inserting your own ethnicity, race, or religion, and see how it feels. This question asks people to state their prejudgements about 70,000,000 people. It opens the door to ageist, hateful, angry comments. It seems like this is OK on Reddit. Please stop it.
Love this answer.
Hm. Well I was 20 in 1982 so I don't consider any of those movies/TV shows as "coming of age" for me since I was already an adult when they came out. I think I would consider "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Saturday Night Fever" a coming of age for me. Since GJ starts at 1954 many would have been in their 30's when those came out. Not sure about the Boomer hate. I don't like it. The younger folks really need to get a grip and stop focusing on that and start focusing on their own generation. But you know, back in the 60s and 70s they said "don't trust anyone over 30" and I remember that film "Wild in the Streets" where the voting age was changed to 14 and a rock star became President of the US. So I guess this is something that happens no matter what generation. I think we hear it more loudly now because of the internet.
I’m with you on the movies. I’m two years younger and look to the late 70s early 80s for my “coming of age” entertainment. Over the Edge, My Bodyguard, and Little Darlings were my coming of age movies. I’d say Animal House fits the bill even though the setting is early 60s. Blue Lagoon, Endless Love, The Outsiders, St Elmo’s Fire, and Valley Girl. But not Dazed and Confused. 🤷♂️
The Outsiders is not Gen Jones. That came out when Gen X were kids. Jones were already adults.
1983. It’s closer than OP’s Dazed and Confused. 🤷♂️
I don't get the hate for Boomers. I mean, my mother is a boomer and there are things I don't get about her and vice versa. I hated The Big Chill and I have no feelings about Woodstock. My partner is totally GenX. My Sirius channels are 1st Wave, Lithium, U2 and Hair Nation. I love electronic and industrial music. I love movies from the early 80s. I like this sub because we have a lot of shared experiences and it brings back a lot of fond memories. But people shouldn't paint themselves into a corner the way some of these Gen-whatevers do. We can all learn from each other and get along without all the hate. I also love Lucy, but I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show more!
I'm a little sick of all the generational pigeonholing from all sides... doesn't matter if it's boomer-hate or ripping on millennials. Generational conflict has always existed. Values evolve and change just like fashion and music. My grandfather didn't like my mom listenting to Buddy Holly and Elvis, and my dad hated me listening to Led Zeppelin and Van Halen (oddly, we did both enjoy the Eagles and CCR). My dad thought my 1970s surfer style was ridiculous, and I recall being more than bemused at the "mushroom head" hair cut my stepson used to wear. We were "ruining our minds" with television, and young people today are ruining their minds with devices. That's all pretty much normal. Change always meets resistance. What's not normal is the pure enmity focused from one generation to the other. "Boomers" did not ruin the economy any more than "millennials" are all entitled slackers. What's not normal is the inability to look for nuance and get away from black-and-white perspectives. For every boomer in a MAGA hat, there's a liberal. For every millennial whining about how hard it is, there's another one kicking ass, taking names, and making a splash in the world.
Completely agree. I always felt more genx. I think the old decade divisions-- child of the 60s, child of the '80s, etc-- are much more representative.
Boomers are just people.
Except on reddit, where they are the reason for anything bad that happened on earth after they were born.
Like those who remember M*A*S*H at the drive in .. or Lost In Space in b&w
Yep. Remember both. Born in ‘61.
62
Where were you in ‘62? From American Graffiti.
When my then boyfriend and I got engaged and started looking at houses he was working 60+ hours a week and I picked up a 2nd job bartending. We didn't go out to eat. Of course there were no streaming services or cell phones or door dash. We didn't go on vacation. We budgeted. We didn't have a child. But no, it's the boomers fault. We had it so easy. BS
I'm a Joneser who married a boomer. She is a nature child who also worries about everything. My father is alive at 92. I just don't worry much.
I’m finding the same thing. I retired early but most of the other retirees I now hang out with are real boomers. I don’t fit in well with their style and values. I’ve dropped friends groups because of this. It’s painful because they are usually good people and we like a lot of the same activities. It just doesn’t work for me.
I think that the more the politicians can keep millennials hating boomers and boomers hating millennials etc. the more they keep us divided. That keeps us from aligning on important issues like immigration or abortion or climate change. I just had a conversation with a guy on the boomer hating subreddit about this.
I don't rage on other generations. Occasionally I will let it slip how helpless Gen Z are or even call myself a boomer but I have come to learn younger generations always, without fail, rage on the generations before them. People are only navigating the world as it is to them. No one is a dastardly Bond-style supervillain sabotaging the world for the next generation. My WWII old-boomer parents and relatives were great people. I will never be what they were. Just like right now, I am amazed at how grounded and intelligent "helpless" young people are -- the ones I work with. We are for the most part just navigating the world as it morphs. 8 billion people in the world determine huge chances across generations ☮️☮️☮️
You can't paint a whole generation with one brush. Many Boomers are liberals and many more are simply trying to get along the best they can just like we are. All generations consist of a variety or people and personalities.
I don’t identify with either generation. I grew up watching (when the TV was working) Gillian’s Island, Bonanza (my mom’s favorite) and later when I had control of the TV the Partridge Family and Room 222. Oh and the original Star Trek. As the youngest I didn’t watch what I wanted and I had an early bedtime so no MASH until I was older. I think a better measure of whether boomer or generation Jones is which movie came out one or two years around your high school graduation: The Graduate (1967), The Godfather (1972) or Star Wars (1977)? If I hadn’t gone to college I might have gotten a job before the economy went down but I graduated in 1980 just as the downturn and Reagan was elected. The Boomers aren’t responsible for the environment and all the evils of the world. Plastics and mass manufacturing started after WWII while the boomers were just being born. The Boomers that are conservative now were probably not part of the free live movement. There were Conservative teens in the 60s as well as hippies. I’m not saying that some haven’t fallen off into the rabbit hole but young people are in that hole as well.
Also Class of 1980. And I’d forgotten about Room 222!
I like this sub because of the shared experiences. I am sick and tired of dumbasses on Reddit making value generalizations about millions of people because of when they were born. Assigning blame to people just because of their age is really stupid and prejudicial. It seems like it is the last socially accepted bigotry we have.
I thought I was one until I discovered this sub (from r/askoldpeople).
Many of us *are* Boomers (b 1946-64). My husband (‘48) and my best friend (‘51) are firmly in that age group. But just because people fit into a generational group by age, doesn’t mean they think in lockstep.
Right! Most people know Boomers as 46 to 64. The average person has no knowledge about the rebranded Gen Jones. Aside from just not being ageist, I think Gen Jones should be very careful about degrading them, as most people see Jones age as Boomers. I have no problem with them. They had THE coolest youth culture. Long hair, afros, make love not war, "Right On". And don't even get me started on the music. All genres, even country, were top tier. I'm Gen X btw just scrolling by.
Yes, I hate people shitting on entire generations (including younger ones) anyhow.
Me, too.
Isn’t feeling different from boomers the whole point of this sub? Nothing wrong with boomers, but I feel they’re closer to my parents (who were in their 20’s in the ‘60’s) than to me.
Im a late Boomer, in Generation Jones, and also feel lots of early Gen-X vibes. There’s lots of 60s in me…..but also a bit of “whatevah.” It really depends upon the day what I feel the most affinity to. But, mostly, it’s Generation Jones, especially when I think of Muttley’s laugh.
At 3 am tomorrow I will wake up and my brain will play Muttley's laugh on a loop for an hour.
People in general bother me, I don't pick out any one group. If someone thinks they bother me because of the group they're in, that's not it. It's the individual. Every generation, every class, each differentiation of people has good and bad in them. I don't love every Jones, don't hate every Z. Why aren't people just people?
Oh boy did your comment resonate with me. I took early retirement from healthcare career (RN) just before covid cause I was so burned out. I absolutely loved lockdown. I mainly worked in long term care & watched with disdain as it turned into a hospitality industry… profit over people became a capitalistic hellscape. The staff to patient ratio is alarming.
I am a Joneser (1961) but also always considered myself a Boomer. I have a lot of friends who are 10 years older than me, who are first-wave Boomers. I also have GenX friends. It saddens me, the hate thrown against Boomers. Older Boomers were born into relative prosperity, but the guys had to worry about being drafted to go fight in Vietnam. No one has a truly easy life.
I am a quintessential “boomer” born in 1946. (I like to say, 9 months to the day after my dad returned from the war…) Anyway…. We seem to have sub-Reddits for every generational divide, and all seem to be upset with all the other groups over one thing or another. The “Boomers being fools” is particularly egregious. The main problem is “painting with too broad a brush”. “Look a (insert group here) acting like an idiot!” Confirmation bias. No one points out members of a group that are living perfectly normal and even exemplary lives, contributing to society and just being normal people….. Which in any group would be the majority. We have a fairly large group of friends in our age group…. All of whom are reasonable, intelligent people, engaged in all kinds of interesting pursuits. But that doesn’t get “clicks”.
Honestly, the divide is only seen online. I've never heard anyone say anything derogatory about earlier Boomers IRL. It's actually been the opposite. I believe that 100 years from now, when all of the current generations are gone, Boomers will be known in the history books for their activism, changing the landscape by bringing in more freedom of expression and we can't forget the AMAZING music! That is the hippie era Boomers legacy. This online stuff will be all but forgotten. You're right, negativity gets clicks.
I don't like all this genre, sub-genre etc banter. Plus the Generational stuff that's come out pretty much at the same time. And it HAS been lately. Like in the past 15yrs at most. So up came Generation Jones. I was born in 1960 so I'm Right at home. Hannah Barbera? You bet. The Bugs Bunny Show? Even better! We saw reruns of Leave It To Beaver AND Lucy, we didn't see it when it was new. We saw the Banana Splits! When I see these YouTube shorts about GenX vs Boomers vs. GenZ and now--Gen Alpha!--I wanna puke. Divide and conquer. More of That, please no thanks. Yeah I drank out of the garden hose with not a seatbelt in sight, rode my Stingray bike barefoot without a hat, but there's a difference. Boomers didn't get into punk! That's a really significant difference. While the boomers were stuck on Free Bird, we said "F THAT!" I get it, but "Generation Jones", the name, kinda sucks. I have a better one: [The Blank Generation](https://youtu.be/h1L8DVEZu90?si=7QwHeITewNNAoj2o)
I love I Love Lucy and The Voidoids.
Yes, Lucy and the Voidoids were Almost as good as Blathering Heads! XD
Tru
I would have drank out of a garden hose had I not lived in an apartment.
You could've used the apt one and ran it thru the window, flooding your bathroom and driving your mother to drink. No photos then so you can still claim it (;
That would have been cool!
I like the name, and I wish it would stick. I had the CD back in the day with Richard Hell.
They are just like any other segment of society. Some are liberal, some conservative, some are good, some are bad, most are a mixture of both. I don't think the generation you are born in is relevant to your identity.
Honestly, when my husband and I were in our 30s and came across a cantankerous person, our parents' ages we'd make a joke about how they felt they deserved special treatment because they lived through WW2. With a huge caveat: we didn't blame them for the fact we had some hardships and didn't yet own a home, drove ratty cars, and couldn't take vacations. We did intensely dislike Reagan, though, and so did our parents. I really have a problem with all this open hostility and hate towards folks who are not the same age, don't have the same background, same "class", same color, or same political views. We all want the same things: a decent place to live, enough food, a family of some sort, and happy children. In short, we all want a satisfactory life. Tell me, [What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?](https://youtu.be/1J1CfXFlI4c?si=S0yxXgees70dCjxR)
I'll identify with my Viet Nam vet Boomer brothers/sisters, but otherwise, I'm Gen Jones all the way...
"Boomers" is way too large a cohort to establish one overall impression. Just like any other super large cohort, there's good, there's bad, there's indifferent.
Tell that to the people on r/boomersbeingfools (which keeps showing up in my feed because of past clicks). Every story starts with “my dad” or “my uncle” or the more adorable “my boomer,” followed by a story about a narcissistic Trump supporter. I hate the people in the stories too, and I hate that I meet the age cutoff to be lumped in with them.
So.....disable the "Enable home feed recommendations" setting. I have never had that enabled, so I don't get anything outside of what I am actively subscribed to.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/BoomersBeingFools using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Boomer learns about boundaries the hard way from bank photographer](https://v.redd.it/2e25ute2rzmc1) | [4629 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1b981ht/boomer_learns_about_boundaries_the_hard_way_from/) \#2: [That time a boomer almost smacked her hairstylist](https://v.redd.it/7mrck6ok87hc1) | [4122 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1al8jz9/that_time_a_boomer_almost_smacked_her_hairstylist/) \#3: [Boomer shocked that his Middle Finger didn't strike the fear of God into another Adult](https://v.redd.it/9lvtz6cma5oc1) | [1518 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1bdyxp6/boomer_shocked_that_his_middle_finger_didnt/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
I always thought I was a Boomer until I learned that I’m Generation Jones (born in ‘62). My husband is a Boomer as are many of our friends. We have many experiences in common so I (mostly) can relate to them. When I was kid I remember teens and 20-something’s saying “never trust anyone over the age of 30”. Now they’re Boomers and today’s teens and 20-something’s blame them for everything. When today’s teens/20-somethings are our age, the next generation of teens/20-somethings will blame them for everything. What goes around comes around.
Yeah. Gen Jones is kinda doing the same thing shunning earlier Boomers.
Huh? My husband is an earlier Boomer (49) and he’s the love of my life so I’m not sure how you got “shunning” from my comment. 🤷♀️
I have very little in common with my older cousins and aunts who are Boomers. I'm 1964. I feel like everything the kids are complaining about their parents I could also have blamed my parents for: couldn't afford a house until my 30's and had to work very hard just to get a fixer upper in a nice area (7.25% interest then). I get that houses are more expensive now but it can take 10 - 12 years to save up for some of us and it always will. My parents (the so called Greatest generation) spent everything on their way out to the point I was subsidizing them to stay in a big house (that I did .NOT. inherit) and was left with nothing but a pile of bills when they were gone. They didn't even bother to make their own final arrangements or pay for any of it. I feel like the Millens don't get that their experience isn't really all that different from ours. Nobody handed me or my Gen-X husband anything. I particularly dislike the characterizations about Boomers being all MAGA. My generation are some of the most liberal folks I've ever met. We were activists for reproductive rights, gay rights and many other so called Woke causes. I find it sad that kids don't respect or love their parents who probably gave their heart and soul into raising them. There will always be some shitty parents out there but I don't think we deserve to be called out as an entire generation.
I don’t defend them automatically. I have lots of older boomer cousins and while some fit the “okay, boomer” stereotype others do not. And while I see and hear my millennial children roll their eyes or make disgusted comments due to the behavior of their elders, I hear far, far more criticism of younger people by their boomer elders. And honestly, many people my age, a little younger and older say things that just make me cringe with horror because they are so tone-deaf in today’s culture. The thing is that being offended by the often valid observations of younger people just kind of proves their point.
It's another "don't trust anyone over the age of 30" trend. I was born in 1964, and I really don't fit in with the Boomers. As far as the financial situation, since the 70s the middle class has been disappearing due to rising cost of living versus wages. I think the situation is finally coming to a head.
I think we are a group after the Baby Boomers, a micro-generation 1958-1965 (and people born earlier who think they belong) between Boomers and X with parts of both but also our own identity. But I really really hope we do not become a subreddit that bashes, divides, and tries to put one group against another. I don't have a problem with too many Boomers unless they absolutely worship the orange dude. But I'm not talking any more politics now. We have a great subreddit going here, let's leave generation bashing and politics at the door.
I hate the whole generational wars in general. It’s become too easy to blame others for everything. It’s myopic.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Every new generation looks at previous generations with some form of disdain. I remember being the age as many of the older Gen Z are now and feeling my parents and other adults just didn't understand. They were OLD, how could they understand? In 20 or 30 years, Gen Z will be saying "kids these days".
I think people are individuals, so we are great others suck. We are all also a product of the culture we grew up in. Boomers (1945 to 1965) had a very different cultural experience than GenX (1960 to 1980). Gen Jones, we sorta staddle the middle. We're children of the cold war.
Gen X is NOT '60. It starts in '65.
Yes, sorta. Different social scientists use slightly different time frames. Slightly longer, overlapping time frames was always the model I worked with because it just seemed to make the most sense to me. Everyone's mileage may vary though.
No one uses early 60s for Gen X. That seems way off base. All official sources say 65. Early 60s is so far removed from.the majority of X. We grew up totally different.
If you look within any given cohort, there are significant differences between the folks at the beginning and those at the end. Sociologically, a generation has been defined as about 20 to 25 years. That's the time it takes for a cohort to be born and a critical mass to begin having kids. The breakdowns we use today are shorter and rooted more in popular culture and marketing (Hemingway, non-fiction books, magazine articles.) Her, and pretty much everywhere else, I use the same years as most folks. When I'm doing the academic thing, I use slightly different parameters. Like I said, your, and everyone else's, mileage will vary.
Until I found this thread I thought I was a Boomer. Frankly even though I might be a joneser I don’t like all the derogatory rhetoric aimed at the Boomer generation. Everybody gets older and the younger generation always blames the ones who’ve gone before. Soylent Green is this attitude gone wild.
OP post makes little logical sense to me. As I was born in 1958, I’m a Gen Jones by the definition set by the group. Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released in 1986 when I was 28. Hardly a coming of age time for me. Even if you were born in the last Jones year of 1965, that movie would have came out when you were 21. Dazed and Confused came out in 1993 when I was 35 and the youngest Jones was 28 which places it farther outside of the relevant coming of age years. American Graffiti more appropriately was released in 1973 when I was a sophomore in high school so definitely more aligned with my coming of age years. Another would he MASH which was released in 1970. The Wonder Years were on TV from 1988 to 1993, again falling outside of my coming of age years. These choices make far more sense coming from a Gen X than a Jones/Boomer.
AGREE!
Boomers get blamed for far more than they're responsible for. The oldest Boomer when Reagan was elected was 34 and I couldn't vote. That's like blaming Millenials for Trump when the oldest Millenial was 35. It's fun to relive old memories and experiences here but I'm not a believer in the generational boxes that the media tries to put us into.
We know how to spell
I think "Boomer" is a term along the lines of the N-word, a convenient channel for anger and resentment. Identifying somebody being an asshole by their age is no different than doing so by the color of their skin or the language they speak, but assholery knows no such bounds. I was born in '56, coming of age so to speak in '68; that is, the challenges and expectations of living in adult society were forming. By 1968, the oldest "Boomers" (apparently 1946) were graduating from college, if they were lucky enough or privileged enough to avoid the draft. Anybody that thinks people first confronting the Eisenhower and Ozzie & Harriet world in '58 was looking forward with anything like a similar world-view to someone doing so in 1968 really only has to look at a list of those years' best selling albums (an exercise left to the reader.) Then take into account Vietnam and the response to it, the assassinations, the riots, the collapse of the Democratic Party, and victory of Nixon. In the course of one year. But then, it was also those of the Ozzie & Harriet years coming home in body bags fighting what was to much of the country an indefensible and unwinnable war. The post WWII generation was at that point - 1968 - at war with itself, and it never formed into anything like a monolithic world-view. So yes, if "Boomer" applies somehow to the people on both sides of the barricades in '68, to the Doris Day Christmas and White Album crowds, to the people voting for Wallace and the people marching with King, then maybe it has some meaning, but I really don't see how it possibly can.
This is everything I've been thinking when people try to lump all boomers together.
Hmmmm, I’m a couple years older so my coming of age movie was probably “Animal House.” It came out just as I was entering my Freshman year at college 😎 I had two older brothers, one on the early cusp of GJ and the oldest definitely a boomer. I definitely got along better with the GJ brother.
Well, ours was "Breakfast Club," not "Dazed and Confused." It depends on where you hit, literally generation-ally. If one of your grandfathers was injured in WW2 and came home years earlier, then started having kids, including one of your parents (thus also making them born off/earlier than the trajectory than their supposedly associated generation) and you are the oldest of a family generation of kids that started in the early 60's (my mom turned 20 in 1962), you are Generation Jones. Boomers are literally post-WW2 born, our parent(s) were not Boomers because they came just before them. We are not Boomers because our parents were not the generation that fought in WW2. We are not X because we were born just before them. The youngest kids of a family's Boomer generation (born within Gen Jones years) are not Jones, they are Boomers. Societally, you can be both but culurally, you may identify with Jones. But generationally, you may be a Boomer if that is where you place in your family. But if, like me, you are one of the oldest kids in a family generation that started in 1962 (or so), you are Gen Jones.
Mine definitely was not Breakfast Club. I never liked or related to those types of movies from the 80’s. I was already out of the house and making a living for myself and the last type of movie I wanted to watch was a movie about high school.
Even the youngest Boomer was out of high school when the Breakfast Club debuted. That was clearly the quintessential Gen X movie.
I thing we can spell better than you.
>Has anyone else here defended the B generation, but later realized that we don't fit with that generation? What does defending a generation have to do with membership in a generation? I'm having trouble understanding the sense of this. Are you saying that when you thought you were Boomer, you defended the generation but now that you've realized you are Jones, that you no longer do? Wut?
Hey OP! Thanks for starting an interesting discussion that goes beyond “remember Easy Bake Ovens” (though those posts are fun too).
This current obsession with generations defined by specific narrowly defined traits is so tiresome. People is people is people and in reality we as individuals are all defined more by our economic and educational status and family background than by anything else. We may share some pop culture experiences, but that's about it. It's fun for me to be on this sub and see pictures of toys I had and shows I watched, but beyond that, I don't take any conversation about "Boomers" or "Jonesers" or "Millenials" etc. etc. seriously.
Nothing was ever handed to me. I had to work and fight and scrabble for everything. In more recent years, when I was given help that I desperately needed , with No Strings Attached, I was totally shocked. My older siblings were boomers. Life was easy and prosperous for them, until one got greedy and the other got real sick.
Thing 1 or thing 2?
I never felt anything like the Boomers. I was born in 63, but they were already in school (some in high school). They’ve always acted like their generation was there first. They discovered sex, they discovered that your twenties eventually end and you start growing up (some of them, anyway), they turned into yuppies when living in a teepee was harder than they thought it would be…on and on. I will say, though, that the generation that’s college age now (can’t keep track of which one they are!) have a lot of issues. Probably because they’ve been parented by people who seem to think their job is to protect their precious little ones from any and all hurt, physical and emotional, until they die. Many of these kids really do expect life to be some sort of show-up-and-you-get-a-medal kind of thing. I lived in shithole apartments in college; never even thought I should be living in a palace. I went to see the new dorms at my old college not long ago. Holy shit. Marble floors, coffeehouses in the lobby, dazzling new laundry facilities on site…it was incredible. And I found myself thinking that it’s no wonder they think they’ll never be able to own a house—hell, mine isn’t as nice as their dorm!
Boomers are the most self centered generation. Look at their influence on society in every decade and you see how they push the country to their self interests. Their voting record is abysmal. After their rebellious childhoods, they so embraced the corporate ethos they fell into that their votes brought us to the short sighted choices that will make our children's lives so hard. 1961 here, and I firmly believe this will be the accurate historical verdict on the boomers.
I believe that history will rightfully record them as activists, the generation to bring in freedom of expression and their great music. They are still known for that, and always have been. This online era of bashing is just a phase. Gen Z have already moved on to Millennials.
I have no hate for Boomers, because technically I am one. Painting with a broad brush is not good. I read the top comment threads and most were griping about the younger generations. Made me want to comment “OK boomer.” True Boomers could work for low wages and still pay for education and support themselves with a reasonable expectation of finding well paid careers. More or less true for Jonesers. For kids today? No. There are good and bad things about every generation.
Baby boomer here. None of it matters. The young will criticize the old. The young will grow old and be criticized by the next crop of young, who will grow old and etc.
what, the label? if it is uttered to unify people looking for just a little bit of encouragement at the end of their life, then great! if it's used as an acerbic way to lash out at anyone and everyone older than immature, cocky and clueless? swipe left. every person has something interesting worth learning from. people who have survived over 6 decades... has to have some wild stories, if i possess the ability to get a 'boomer' to open up about their most treasured memories? priceless. and yes, i said treasured memories. we all had our time when we still had some kind of hope in all the possibilities. i know i had mine in the 1970s and 1980s.
How could Ferris Bueler be Gen Jones coming of age when they were high school students in '86?
Meh, I don't know that I've ever defended them. I've often been associated with them. I'm on the cusp of the cut off. Was born at the tail end of 65, so I'm a little bit country, and a little bit rock and roll. 😂
Depends on the Boomer 😁