"Everyone [in the United States] born after 1945 is a boomer. The only difference is that, over time, precarity increases and technological sophistication also increases."
– Matt Christman, Hell of Presidents Ep. 10
This is it. This is the one good take on yankeedom’s generational politics. The generation we traditionally define as “boomer”, people born within the first twenty years after the end of WWII; that generation has far more in common with subsequent generations than any of us do with any generation before. In the broad view of history, we’re the same.
The early boomers were the first to attend a nationally standardized schooling system – what is, by and large, still the same system we have today. The early boomers were the first generation to grow up with television – with audio/visual mass media dominating not just the public consciousness, but also the early developmental phases of children. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they were probably also the first generation of US citizens where the majority reach adulthood without knowing chronic hunger. Hell, the first generation in which the majority have not seen the unadulterated night sky.
We have all these things in common with them. Getting mad at them for being how they are is an understandable response. But, I also think it’s kind of silly. Those first boomers had to navigate all that without the benefit of older adults who had grown up in similar conditions.
“Getting mad at them for being how they are is an understandable response. But, I also think it’s kind of silly. Those first boomers had to navigate all that without the benefit of older adults who had grown up in similar conditions.”
Honestly?
There are a lot of “boomers” out there that aren’t right-wing assholes or silly liberals simply vooting as a response to every crisis. Hell, a lot of out alternative media (for better or for worse) is run by “boomers” or was originally started by them (Black Agenda Report comes to mind).
Don’t be too entranced by the stereotype, is all I’m saying; that stereotype is kinda a myth and not necessarily the rule.
IMHO.
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“I have no common cause with wealthy millennials, and I have a lot of common cause with boomers living in poverty.”
Yeah, I’m the same with Latinos in my community (I’m Latino myself).
I agree!
I didn’t mean to imply all boomers are “one specific way”, that was clumsy phrasing on my part. I’m frustrated with the stereotype. I’ve seen too many people my age dismiss older adults simply because they are older adults. It’s important to remember that we’re not really that different, that we’re all shaped by similar conditions.
Yes, I concur.