To your readers from X, your thesis on Boomers has been a long gestating gnawing that has finally taken bite. My parents were at the end of what you call the Silent Generation, what we called here in America, the greatest generation. They were the children of Italian immigrant, my grandfather from Catanzaro Calabria and my mother primarily Sicilian. They worked hard, had few educational opportunities, and while my mother is alive, will leave nothing of monetary value when she's gone.
I am at the beginning of Gen X, a few years removed from the Baby Boomers, and I am circa 1966. I joined the military after school, worked incessantly (what you might call grind culture), took every assignment I could get to move up until one day I was CEO. I worked exceptionally hard and no one gave me anything. I most assuredly will do better financially in life than my own son, a chiropractor, who barely makes more in 2025 than I did in 1990, yet he has a US dollar eroded by inflation, that for every $1 I earned then, he needs to earn $2.45 now. Home prices alone, and the idea of a 50 Year Mortgage, this is another unsustainable brick on the road to demise of Western Civilization.
All of this said, and the Boomers were more lucky than incessantly evil. They played the game that was before them to be played. They rode a wave of prosperity that was born on the backs of the deaths of 70-85 Million worldwide deaths in World War 2 and the explosion of goods, services and technologies that the war machine developed (shout out plastics, shout out PFAS, , microwaves, TVs and advanced manufacturing). I don't begrudge the Boomers for the wealth, I begrudge them for the attitudes that are tearing about the fabric of society that matter to me: faith, family, respect for all life, decency. They took what was good and replaced with abortion, destruction of the family and pervasive drug use (shoutout Boomers, yeah!)
My favorite part of being CEO is working with the younger generations and getting to know them as people. Conditions are harder for them when i left the military and started my family, but many of them embrace the ideals of faith and family again. I hope my anecdotal views aren't wrong.
The world is different than it was half a century ago. The conditions are not the same, the playing field is not level, the headwinds stronger. The next generations will adapt, perhaps AI will give young families a chance to work less and earn enough to not scrape by. My faith requires me to pray and hope for the best.
Although I agree with some of these things, as a member of gen-z who despises his generation I completely disagree with you: I am mortified that I am going to have to live my life in whatever system people of my age or millennials and younger are going to create. I too am disgusted by the hypocrisy of the hippies from the sixties, but it is also far too premature to believe that future generations will not similarly mock our proclivities to life online. We still have the rest of our lives to make our own mistakes, so we should be less quick to judge.
Although economic reasons for a dramatic decline in birth-rates could be one possible explanation, I am not convinced that this is the case, or at least the main reason. There have been far more brutal economic conditions in history and human beings still spawned offspring to continue the species after they shuffled off their mortal coil. It would not explain why gen-z is statistically even having far less sex than any other generation on record long before they have to worry about paying bills, and that this is seemingly only ever-increasing. There must be some other reason that is not properly understood. As for 'gen-z works and studies harder' you should not fall into generalities on both ends, especially given how rare it is to find members of gen-z who do something as simple as reading and writing. I find this to be a very strange judgment indeed given that all sorts of professors or TAs in departments across the board are openly saying that they are drastically lowering the standards for academic excellence.
I took particular issue with this casual remark: 'The recent interview between Piers Morgan and Nick Fuentes pointed to a deeper, psychological fracture: Younger generations are responding with mockery to the Boomers’ hypocrisy of moral superiority. They’re no longer engaging with measured, reasonable responses, but with a form of defiance rooted in contempt. There is a reason for this sentiment, however disagreeable it may appear.' Although I am not a particular fan of Piers Morgan, you neglected to say what Nick Fuentes and his 'appearance of disagreeability' is: a disgusting holocaust denying little brat with no respect at all to the victims of the Shoah or the Second World War. There are many, many of these youths that truly are this radical on both the left and the right without having a clue what they are talking about, that anyone with common sense can see is profoundly concerning. If people like Mr. Fuentes is even in the slightest representative of our generation, or those who trivialize human rights abuses in the Eastern bloc countries, I will take the boomers any day.
What I am by far the most envious of boomers - or even older generations for that matter - is life without the internet rather than the affordability to own a house, where people actually did things in-person. What I resent the most from boomers is the tendency to create a perpetual childhood for their offspring with or without their consent.
I appreciate the article, but the vitriolic, vociferous demonization of all boomers and to make gen-z completely free from blame I found unfair. It is also important to distinguish boomers from the West with their generation worldwide, which I am sure that not all of this applies.
They lie about economic factors re: birth rates because they don't want us to look at feminism and sexual liberation. Poor people have always had more kids than rich people. This is a trend that has persisted throughout history and is especially clear today. Weird.
Very well said, and very well summarized. 100% agree with "What I resent the most from boomers is the tendency to create a perpetual childhood for their offspring with or without their consent." I have seen it countless times.
I did not reference immigrant’s in anything other than this is the place to make it. I do not agree with generational arguments. A country has borders to allow a fabric to develop that benefits the most citizens- no matter at what age we find ourselves born into. When your dad goes
Out and kicks the worlds ass many of his podgy are beneficiaries . Not all but many. If i missed placed your meaning its my bad. I liked reading your post
Hippies were the children of the wealthy out having fun in the sun romp ala the birth control pill. World turns and we must adjust- blaming your problems on another person/ group is for victims- boo hoo people are coming to this country for the opportunities it offers. Poor victim of the accident of time- parts of this are fair- this system is rolling over be ready to take advantage that will be given to your generation to become its own boomer generation- this is in the process of rolling over/ all will feel the pain. Some more than others- stop with being a victim okay?🦬 you actually have some talent make the most of it.
I do not understand what you are saying. Did you mean to respond to my comment specifically? I am mostly agreeing with you and disagreeing with much of the article's claims that millennials and gen-z are free from blame. I also described how I do not personally believe much of their problems, such as starting a family, are for the reasons that are commonly given - that is, economic explanations due to the boomers. I specifically said in the first paragraph that us as a generation have to be wary of judging the boomers because gen-z and millennials may end up being mocked in turn, restating this in the conclusion. I also never said anything about immigrants.
This I would say is an inherently complicated and difficult subject. I have an aversion to generational stereotyping and letting conspicuous exceptions stand as a substitute for actual experience. Probably because I have been prone to it myself and once indulged in a very similar rant against the narcissistic and selfish greed of the Boomers. Then I have seen all the older people in the food line, talked to elderly neighbors who are struggling and seen my own Boomer parents divorce and go in very different directions: one the way of the selfish narcissist and the other the way of the caring, responsible parent.
I suppose, like any generalization—and I don’t mean “generalization” in the pejorative sense—your summary of the Boomers is impossible to reconcile with the individuals I encounter in real life. Obviously, a few Boomers do epitomize the characteristics you point out, and have become the generation’s figureheads. But how can these few conspicuous individuals represent an entire generation? The truth of the matter is that Boomers are all kinds of people. Some oligarchs and gerontocrats, some living in genteel poverty, some victims of the narcissism and greed of a few assholes, some very creative and enlightened individuals who contribute greatly to society. Also, remember that there is no deficit of selfish, covetous assholes among the Millennials. Indeed, there may be more of these narcissists among your own generation. You should consider freeing yourself from your prejudices before freeing yourself from the Boomers.
Thank you Jan for reaching beyond stereotypes and expressing that there is much greater diversity inside a generation than what is generally discussed. I think it's also insanely untherapeutic to look for general patterns of behavior when so many different circumstances create their own specific categories that deny an umbrella like approach to understanding ourselves as people growing up inside of family groups. The dynamics of what we inherit as an individual and how we fit into the group, though seemingly, the good people and the bad people, it's so much more complicated than that as soon as the individual's soul life comes into play. We know and we don't know what and where we came from and it is it's own dance throughout our lives. How many really dig into their histories? The ones that don't want to be doomed to repeat the failures of humanity from the recent past. The knowledge of our fathers and grandfathers living through world wars deeply affected many boomers(I am one too). My grandfather wouldn't talk about the wars until he was much older and it broke my heart to see how deeply it broke his. That carried me, his hurt carried me to not ever wanting that to happen again. In my lifetime I protested every war because of my grandfather because he was honest when he could finally speak. That is something eternal, this link represents people alive today, and I'm sure it exists all the way back to at least what we call the dawn of civilization, more than 10,000 years ago. We have tremendous history at work upon all of us and I'd like to acknowledge that we have a greater strength as builders of generations when we really understand the past. So much has been obliterated, rewritten, and undermined by the people that have stolen wealth from others and our dear mother earth. In this regard, the moment we live in now calls out to take down the lies we are witness to. No more bullshit, uncovering the evil and seeing it collapse as it tries to lodge itself deeper and deeper into itself. I dare say we finally have space to create living in peace and trust with nature, ourselves and each other. It can't be built on lies, it seems we are at that realization now. There's a whole lot of facing the bullshit we were raised on and it takes time, it takes living through mistakes and watching the truth accumulate, working to build something you realize has clay feet as you move along and it takes courage and grit to stand up to face the barbaric truth of how we corrupt ourselves in the process of wanting to make a better world. We don't learn that in our first 50 years of living. Crazy how our biology is behind our learning curve. Maybe that's the really interesting part of being a human. We are a trainwreck until we deal with history.
Our evolution is slow...our life span measured in heartbeats, our need to know now measured in nanoseconds. We have a lot of work to do and we're doing it. The one's that aren't, they are in their own world and they can't claim us anymore. We can change everything that is wrong with our systems. We have that power. Evil destroys the evil ones who have it. We are being worried as we free ourselves of fear.
I do it everyday, let go, rebuild, reroute and reimagine myself without fear. Is it because that's what's happening? I would say it's part of the cleansing, this particular round of societal shit has been going on 120 years. If I were native to the Americas, 500 years, maybe more. Evil knows no nation state or economic boundary, part of why we have a lot of confusion in identifying it. It's older than civilization and I hope we can continue to look most carefully at it's present incarnation and how it winds back. We have begun and amnesia won't plague the greater numbers of us anymore.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Yes, we can generalize about generations all we like, but what we experience in real life is, as you put it, the "soul of the individual." Just this morning I talked to a "Boomer." She is a Cambodian refugee in her mid-seventies who owns and works in the local donut shop. She told me that she has never been back to Cambodia because her whole family--father, mother, brothers, sisters--were all killed by the Khmer Rouge. Why? Because her father was a teacher. This lady is one of the kindest, most unpretentious people I have ever met. So there--there is one of these dreaded Boomers from whom we must free ourselves.
I don't blame the Boomers for their old ways or the bootstrap mentality, that thinking was baked into American DNA long before them going back to how this country was colonized and settled.
One thing I think about is just how different our world is from theirs on a fundamental level. The technology gap alone means we're basically living in a different reality. Their version of hard times and our version aren't really comparable, and a lot of them just don't have the frame of reference to see that. Maybe it's malice, maybe it's just ignorance.
And honestly, would we have been any different if we were dealt the same hand? If buying a home was easy, if the economy rewarded you, it's hard to say we wouldn't have made the same choices.
Boomers may very well be the worst generation in our eyes, and maybe that's valid, they didn't set the generations behind them up for success. But in their eyes, they did their part. They were left to figure it out themselves, the conditions they were given worked out for them, and they didn't have handouts or help. So naturally they believe we can do the same. Do they understand that our conditions aren't the same as theirs? No, and that gap in understanding shows. But for me the bigger problem is the political and corporate machinery that created these conditions in the first place.
Well written and solid points throughout, I agree boomers have been a big part of the problem, but in my eyes that problem starts with the government and the systems that shaped them and that they continued to feed.
Boomers actually had hard times. We have hard times with iPhones and Door Dash and a consumerist economy in which people think not having a three bedroom home is poverty.
Just found this interesting article kinda late.. once again my generation X is completely ignored. Talk about a "silent generation"! Gen X always lived in the shadow of the boomers. We were blessed with coming of age in the Reagan years and cursed with having Boomer values saturated in most of our culture. What did we do? We kept our heads down, raised ourselves (very lax parenting), went to work and took care of our families. And doing it still. I guess my point is- there is a small Gen X cohort out there that may be older, humble and quiet- but also having a little bit of wisdom 😉
Such a well written piece that any university professor would love. Being a 1963 tail end boomer I do shake my head. So many valid points were wiped from my mind due the obvious contempt and simmering hate that seems to be lingering just below the surface. Believe it or not many boomers struggled and still struggle to make their way in this rather F***ed up existence. I believe the world is messed up but “Multi” generational issues that can’t solely be dumped at my generations miserable feet.
Regardless a well written and thought provoking piece.
While this article made excellent points, its dichotomous approach only weakened the arguments. Very little in life can be fairly put into two distinct boxes, as this author has done. And the oozing hatred and vitriol made it difficult to get through the whole thing. Life is way more complex than what this article offers. With that said, there were some well made and substantial points that I definitely will chew on. I just hope that our future young leaders don’t build their platforms on hatred of those who came before them. This country has had enough of that bullshit.
As a 63er you can consider yourself Generation Jones, if that helps.
The article is just hate mongering and possibly paid disinformation as it focuses vitriol on a specific generation but ignores the actual problem which is the Ruling Class are the people with power. These are the Rothschild Family and all those who serve them of every generation. Regarding the obviously wealthy not a single mention of the generations of Elon Musk; Gen X or for example that Facebook bros Mark Zuckerberg (May 14, 1984) and Eduardo Saverin (March 19, 1982) who are not Boomers but Millennials.
It’s not the average Boomer who is the issue but the billionaire class and the Zionists who want to keep you enslaved and fighting their wars.
Thanks for the reminder. I wondered if we did. And this Gen Xer plans on helping her Gen Z kids buy that house and if they want it, help care for the kids. I don't need the government to tell me to be a good parent.
As a Gen Jones just know that people such as the OP view you as a Boomer too. You are not off the hook. There a great many more generational factions than people acknowledge but the Boomer hate seems to lump everyone from mid Millennial and older into “Boomer”
Generational framing is reductive and exists primarily so we can indulge in the othering process. People are born every minute of every day of every year in a continuous stream that desperate minds want to erect random walls between where a person given one dumbass label could be far closer in age to someone with a different dumbass label then to a person with the same dumbass label as themselves. The more you age the more you realize that nobody at any period feels in control, that people throughout time feel constant struggle while watching others have it seemingly better than themselves. While there are some very real issues like having people at great risk of dementia holding office, that isn’t generational. When you finally have a Gen Z 80 year old, they won’t belong in office either. These divisive labels are of no service. I’ve worked with the elderly and so many have struggled all there lives and are now struggling even harder in their final years, but essays like this give the impression that they’re all hoarding wealth. I know people decades older than me who dedicated their lives to union organizing or to running meal programs for at risk youth. How are they represented here?
All told, the boomers at the "helm" of government are in fact a minority. Moreover, they have already groomed what they believe to be a critical mass of zoomer (etc.) proxy politicos to carry on their bullshit which badly needs interdiction.
There is a big difference between Boomers and the generations that followed. First of all, Boomers worked their way through college paying as they went. It took sometimes 10 years to get their degree but when they did they didn’t have school loans. A lot of big companies offer tuition assistance. Take advantage of that. Fix meals at home. There was a time I lived on Ramen noodles and sandwiches I never went out to eat cause I didn’t have the money. Second. If boomers could not afford something they didn’t buy it. I didn’t have cable TV until I was out of college cause I couldn’t afford it. People forgot the difference between wants and needs. Nobody needs a cellphone. If you think you need it. Make it last stop getting a new phone every 2 years. Stop paying for everything on credit. All that does is make the bank rich. Watch what you are spending money on. Nobody needs a new car every 3 years. My last car was 20 years old. Stop criticizing Boomers until you have walked in their shoes.
Thank you for noticing this. We didn't live high off the hog as people insist they are entitled to today. Despite having reasonably well-off parents, I had to engage in the sorts of cost-saving measures you mention here when I was in my twenties. Younger people now have extremely high material expectations.
Thank you! I was starting to seethe there for a minute. Boomers, Millennials, and GenZ. Boomers, Millennials, and GenZ. Ad nauseum. The only thing I’m sick of more than Boomer hate is GenX erasure.
This article so well and truly misses the mark that I wonder if the author is sponsored by the Rothschild family? Wealth, power and arrogance is not about someone’s year of birth, it’s about the wealth and connections of the family they were born into.
It’s about the ongoing ages old Class War.
It’s the Ruling Classes and the billionaires and the Epstein Class against the rest of us.
There’s plenty of 60 and 70 somethings who are flat broke and can’t afford to heat their homes while plenty of arrogant 20 somethings have money to burn.
I call BS on this article and suspect it’s really just disinformation from the billionaire class.
To your readers from X, your thesis on Boomers has been a long gestating gnawing that has finally taken bite. My parents were at the end of what you call the Silent Generation, what we called here in America, the greatest generation. They were the children of Italian immigrant, my grandfather from Catanzaro Calabria and my mother primarily Sicilian. They worked hard, had few educational opportunities, and while my mother is alive, will leave nothing of monetary value when she's gone.
I am at the beginning of Gen X, a few years removed from the Baby Boomers, and I am circa 1966. I joined the military after school, worked incessantly (what you might call grind culture), took every assignment I could get to move up until one day I was CEO. I worked exceptionally hard and no one gave me anything. I most assuredly will do better financially in life than my own son, a chiropractor, who barely makes more in 2025 than I did in 1990, yet he has a US dollar eroded by inflation, that for every $1 I earned then, he needs to earn $2.45 now. Home prices alone, and the idea of a 50 Year Mortgage, this is another unsustainable brick on the road to demise of Western Civilization.
All of this said, and the Boomers were more lucky than incessantly evil. They played the game that was before them to be played. They rode a wave of prosperity that was born on the backs of the deaths of 70-85 Million worldwide deaths in World War 2 and the explosion of goods, services and technologies that the war machine developed (shout out plastics, shout out PFAS, , microwaves, TVs and advanced manufacturing). I don't begrudge the Boomers for the wealth, I begrudge them for the attitudes that are tearing about the fabric of society that matter to me: faith, family, respect for all life, decency. They took what was good and replaced with abortion, destruction of the family and pervasive drug use (shoutout Boomers, yeah!)
My favorite part of being CEO is working with the younger generations and getting to know them as people. Conditions are harder for them when i left the military and started my family, but many of them embrace the ideals of faith and family again. I hope my anecdotal views aren't wrong.
The world is different than it was half a century ago. The conditions are not the same, the playing field is not level, the headwinds stronger. The next generations will adapt, perhaps AI will give young families a chance to work less and earn enough to not scrape by. My faith requires me to pray and hope for the best.
Although I agree with some of these things, as a member of gen-z who despises his generation I completely disagree with you: I am mortified that I am going to have to live my life in whatever system people of my age or millennials and younger are going to create. I too am disgusted by the hypocrisy of the hippies from the sixties, but it is also far too premature to believe that future generations will not similarly mock our proclivities to life online. We still have the rest of our lives to make our own mistakes, so we should be less quick to judge.
Although economic reasons for a dramatic decline in birth-rates could be one possible explanation, I am not convinced that this is the case, or at least the main reason. There have been far more brutal economic conditions in history and human beings still spawned offspring to continue the species after they shuffled off their mortal coil. It would not explain why gen-z is statistically even having far less sex than any other generation on record long before they have to worry about paying bills, and that this is seemingly only ever-increasing. There must be some other reason that is not properly understood. As for 'gen-z works and studies harder' you should not fall into generalities on both ends, especially given how rare it is to find members of gen-z who do something as simple as reading and writing. I find this to be a very strange judgment indeed given that all sorts of professors or TAs in departments across the board are openly saying that they are drastically lowering the standards for academic excellence.
I took particular issue with this casual remark: 'The recent interview between Piers Morgan and Nick Fuentes pointed to a deeper, psychological fracture: Younger generations are responding with mockery to the Boomers’ hypocrisy of moral superiority. They’re no longer engaging with measured, reasonable responses, but with a form of defiance rooted in contempt. There is a reason for this sentiment, however disagreeable it may appear.' Although I am not a particular fan of Piers Morgan, you neglected to say what Nick Fuentes and his 'appearance of disagreeability' is: a disgusting holocaust denying little brat with no respect at all to the victims of the Shoah or the Second World War. There are many, many of these youths that truly are this radical on both the left and the right without having a clue what they are talking about, that anyone with common sense can see is profoundly concerning. If people like Mr. Fuentes is even in the slightest representative of our generation, or those who trivialize human rights abuses in the Eastern bloc countries, I will take the boomers any day.
What I am by far the most envious of boomers - or even older generations for that matter - is life without the internet rather than the affordability to own a house, where people actually did things in-person. What I resent the most from boomers is the tendency to create a perpetual childhood for their offspring with or without their consent.
I appreciate the article, but the vitriolic, vociferous demonization of all boomers and to make gen-z completely free from blame I found unfair. It is also important to distinguish boomers from the West with their generation worldwide, which I am sure that not all of this applies.
They lie about economic factors re: birth rates because they don't want us to look at feminism and sexual liberation. Poor people have always had more kids than rich people. This is a trend that has persisted throughout history and is especially clear today. Weird.
Very well said, and very well summarized. 100% agree with "What I resent the most from boomers is the tendency to create a perpetual childhood for their offspring with or without their consent." I have seen it countless times.
I did not reference immigrant’s in anything other than this is the place to make it. I do not agree with generational arguments. A country has borders to allow a fabric to develop that benefits the most citizens- no matter at what age we find ourselves born into. When your dad goes
Out and kicks the worlds ass many of his podgy are beneficiaries . Not all but many. If i missed placed your meaning its my bad. I liked reading your post
Hippies were the children of the wealthy out having fun in the sun romp ala the birth control pill. World turns and we must adjust- blaming your problems on another person/ group is for victims- boo hoo people are coming to this country for the opportunities it offers. Poor victim of the accident of time- parts of this are fair- this system is rolling over be ready to take advantage that will be given to your generation to become its own boomer generation- this is in the process of rolling over/ all will feel the pain. Some more than others- stop with being a victim okay?🦬 you actually have some talent make the most of it.
I do not understand what you are saying. Did you mean to respond to my comment specifically? I am mostly agreeing with you and disagreeing with much of the article's claims that millennials and gen-z are free from blame. I also described how I do not personally believe much of their problems, such as starting a family, are for the reasons that are commonly given - that is, economic explanations due to the boomers. I specifically said in the first paragraph that us as a generation have to be wary of judging the boomers because gen-z and millennials may end up being mocked in turn, restating this in the conclusion. I also never said anything about immigrants.
This I would say is an inherently complicated and difficult subject. I have an aversion to generational stereotyping and letting conspicuous exceptions stand as a substitute for actual experience. Probably because I have been prone to it myself and once indulged in a very similar rant against the narcissistic and selfish greed of the Boomers. Then I have seen all the older people in the food line, talked to elderly neighbors who are struggling and seen my own Boomer parents divorce and go in very different directions: one the way of the selfish narcissist and the other the way of the caring, responsible parent.
I suppose, like any generalization—and I don’t mean “generalization” in the pejorative sense—your summary of the Boomers is impossible to reconcile with the individuals I encounter in real life. Obviously, a few Boomers do epitomize the characteristics you point out, and have become the generation’s figureheads. But how can these few conspicuous individuals represent an entire generation? The truth of the matter is that Boomers are all kinds of people. Some oligarchs and gerontocrats, some living in genteel poverty, some victims of the narcissism and greed of a few assholes, some very creative and enlightened individuals who contribute greatly to society. Also, remember that there is no deficit of selfish, covetous assholes among the Millennials. Indeed, there may be more of these narcissists among your own generation. You should consider freeing yourself from your prejudices before freeing yourself from the Boomers.
Thank you Jan for reaching beyond stereotypes and expressing that there is much greater diversity inside a generation than what is generally discussed. I think it's also insanely untherapeutic to look for general patterns of behavior when so many different circumstances create their own specific categories that deny an umbrella like approach to understanding ourselves as people growing up inside of family groups. The dynamics of what we inherit as an individual and how we fit into the group, though seemingly, the good people and the bad people, it's so much more complicated than that as soon as the individual's soul life comes into play. We know and we don't know what and where we came from and it is it's own dance throughout our lives. How many really dig into their histories? The ones that don't want to be doomed to repeat the failures of humanity from the recent past. The knowledge of our fathers and grandfathers living through world wars deeply affected many boomers(I am one too). My grandfather wouldn't talk about the wars until he was much older and it broke my heart to see how deeply it broke his. That carried me, his hurt carried me to not ever wanting that to happen again. In my lifetime I protested every war because of my grandfather because he was honest when he could finally speak. That is something eternal, this link represents people alive today, and I'm sure it exists all the way back to at least what we call the dawn of civilization, more than 10,000 years ago. We have tremendous history at work upon all of us and I'd like to acknowledge that we have a greater strength as builders of generations when we really understand the past. So much has been obliterated, rewritten, and undermined by the people that have stolen wealth from others and our dear mother earth. In this regard, the moment we live in now calls out to take down the lies we are witness to. No more bullshit, uncovering the evil and seeing it collapse as it tries to lodge itself deeper and deeper into itself. I dare say we finally have space to create living in peace and trust with nature, ourselves and each other. It can't be built on lies, it seems we are at that realization now. There's a whole lot of facing the bullshit we were raised on and it takes time, it takes living through mistakes and watching the truth accumulate, working to build something you realize has clay feet as you move along and it takes courage and grit to stand up to face the barbaric truth of how we corrupt ourselves in the process of wanting to make a better world. We don't learn that in our first 50 years of living. Crazy how our biology is behind our learning curve. Maybe that's the really interesting part of being a human. We are a trainwreck until we deal with history.
Our evolution is slow...our life span measured in heartbeats, our need to know now measured in nanoseconds. We have a lot of work to do and we're doing it. The one's that aren't, they are in their own world and they can't claim us anymore. We can change everything that is wrong with our systems. We have that power. Evil destroys the evil ones who have it. We are being worried as we free ourselves of fear.
I do it everyday, let go, rebuild, reroute and reimagine myself without fear. Is it because that's what's happening? I would say it's part of the cleansing, this particular round of societal shit has been going on 120 years. If I were native to the Americas, 500 years, maybe more. Evil knows no nation state or economic boundary, part of why we have a lot of confusion in identifying it. It's older than civilization and I hope we can continue to look most carefully at it's present incarnation and how it winds back. We have begun and amnesia won't plague the greater numbers of us anymore.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Yes, we can generalize about generations all we like, but what we experience in real life is, as you put it, the "soul of the individual." Just this morning I talked to a "Boomer." She is a Cambodian refugee in her mid-seventies who owns and works in the local donut shop. She told me that she has never been back to Cambodia because her whole family--father, mother, brothers, sisters--were all killed by the Khmer Rouge. Why? Because her father was a teacher. This lady is one of the kindest, most unpretentious people I have ever met. So there--there is one of these dreaded Boomers from whom we must free ourselves.
I's disgusted by generalizations. And pseudo wisdom of these "enlightened" children
Cambodians are not Americans
This…”your summary of the Boomers is impossible to reconcile with the individuals I encounter in real life.”
Really enjoyed this piece, a lot of valid points.
I don't blame the Boomers for their old ways or the bootstrap mentality, that thinking was baked into American DNA long before them going back to how this country was colonized and settled.
One thing I think about is just how different our world is from theirs on a fundamental level. The technology gap alone means we're basically living in a different reality. Their version of hard times and our version aren't really comparable, and a lot of them just don't have the frame of reference to see that. Maybe it's malice, maybe it's just ignorance.
And honestly, would we have been any different if we were dealt the same hand? If buying a home was easy, if the economy rewarded you, it's hard to say we wouldn't have made the same choices.
Boomers may very well be the worst generation in our eyes, and maybe that's valid, they didn't set the generations behind them up for success. But in their eyes, they did their part. They were left to figure it out themselves, the conditions they were given worked out for them, and they didn't have handouts or help. So naturally they believe we can do the same. Do they understand that our conditions aren't the same as theirs? No, and that gap in understanding shows. But for me the bigger problem is the political and corporate machinery that created these conditions in the first place.
Well written and solid points throughout, I agree boomers have been a big part of the problem, but in my eyes that problem starts with the government and the systems that shaped them and that they continued to feed.
Just the thoughts of a Millennial.
Boomers actually had hard times. We have hard times with iPhones and Door Dash and a consumerist economy in which people think not having a three bedroom home is poverty.
When they were kids nearly every American city was White. Stfu
Just found this interesting article kinda late.. once again my generation X is completely ignored. Talk about a "silent generation"! Gen X always lived in the shadow of the boomers. We were blessed with coming of age in the Reagan years and cursed with having Boomer values saturated in most of our culture. What did we do? We kept our heads down, raised ourselves (very lax parenting), went to work and took care of our families. And doing it still. I guess my point is- there is a small Gen X cohort out there that may be older, humble and quiet- but also having a little bit of wisdom 😉
Such a well written piece that any university professor would love. Being a 1963 tail end boomer I do shake my head. So many valid points were wiped from my mind due the obvious contempt and simmering hate that seems to be lingering just below the surface. Believe it or not many boomers struggled and still struggle to make their way in this rather F***ed up existence. I believe the world is messed up but “Multi” generational issues that can’t solely be dumped at my generations miserable feet.
Regardless a well written and thought provoking piece.
While this article made excellent points, its dichotomous approach only weakened the arguments. Very little in life can be fairly put into two distinct boxes, as this author has done. And the oozing hatred and vitriol made it difficult to get through the whole thing. Life is way more complex than what this article offers. With that said, there were some well made and substantial points that I definitely will chew on. I just hope that our future young leaders don’t build their platforms on hatred of those who came before them. This country has had enough of that bullshit.
I think you touch on exactly what I was trying to but with different wording……
There’s plenty of shite things my generation has done but in the end the world is F***ed due to a multi generational team effort………
As a 63er you can consider yourself Generation Jones, if that helps.
The article is just hate mongering and possibly paid disinformation as it focuses vitriol on a specific generation but ignores the actual problem which is the Ruling Class are the people with power. These are the Rothschild Family and all those who serve them of every generation. Regarding the obviously wealthy not a single mention of the generations of Elon Musk; Gen X or for example that Facebook bros Mark Zuckerberg (May 14, 1984) and Eduardo Saverin (March 19, 1982) who are not Boomers but Millennials.
It’s not the average Boomer who is the issue but the billionaire class and the Zionists who want to keep you enslaved and fighting their wars.
No matter how you see Alessandra’s post it is extremely well written and gives me pause………. Thank you Alassandra & thank you G is E.
Time to ride my bike and forget the world…………🌻
Gen X exists
Thanks for the reminder. I wondered if we did. And this Gen Xer plans on helping her Gen Z kids buy that house and if they want it, help care for the kids. I don't need the government to tell me to be a good parent.
Same here, just squirreling away money so my kids and grandkids have some kind of chance
Hey! Author! Xers exist and have insufferable Boomer parents too
I came to say the same. As a Gen X I’ve tried to help as many younger people as possible turn into badasses who can metabolize lack of closure.
As a Gen Jones just know that people such as the OP view you as a Boomer too. You are not off the hook. There a great many more generational factions than people acknowledge but the Boomer hate seems to lump everyone from mid Millennial and older into “Boomer”
We’re the middle child of the generations. ☺️
Absolutely an astonishing sketch by the way! I did not realize it was one you drew. Amazing and beautiful.
Loved the article as well! It is frustrating to try to put this into words myself, but you did a phenomenal job. Thank you for the wonderful read!
Thank you for writing on this. You are putting well to words what I’ve struggled to articulate for years.
Generational framing is reductive and exists primarily so we can indulge in the othering process. People are born every minute of every day of every year in a continuous stream that desperate minds want to erect random walls between where a person given one dumbass label could be far closer in age to someone with a different dumbass label then to a person with the same dumbass label as themselves. The more you age the more you realize that nobody at any period feels in control, that people throughout time feel constant struggle while watching others have it seemingly better than themselves. While there are some very real issues like having people at great risk of dementia holding office, that isn’t generational. When you finally have a Gen Z 80 year old, they won’t belong in office either. These divisive labels are of no service. I’ve worked with the elderly and so many have struggled all there lives and are now struggling even harder in their final years, but essays like this give the impression that they’re all hoarding wealth. I know people decades older than me who dedicated their lives to union organizing or to running meal programs for at risk youth. How are they represented here?
Thank you, a good and nuanced comment in reply to this incitement to hate.
All told, the boomers at the "helm" of government are in fact a minority. Moreover, they have already groomed what they believe to be a critical mass of zoomer (etc.) proxy politicos to carry on their bullshit which badly needs interdiction.
Enlightening, edifying, and entertaining essay. I'm with you, Young Lady. Godspeed
Great article!
There is a big difference between Boomers and the generations that followed. First of all, Boomers worked their way through college paying as they went. It took sometimes 10 years to get their degree but when they did they didn’t have school loans. A lot of big companies offer tuition assistance. Take advantage of that. Fix meals at home. There was a time I lived on Ramen noodles and sandwiches I never went out to eat cause I didn’t have the money. Second. If boomers could not afford something they didn’t buy it. I didn’t have cable TV until I was out of college cause I couldn’t afford it. People forgot the difference between wants and needs. Nobody needs a cellphone. If you think you need it. Make it last stop getting a new phone every 2 years. Stop paying for everything on credit. All that does is make the bank rich. Watch what you are spending money on. Nobody needs a new car every 3 years. My last car was 20 years old. Stop criticizing Boomers until you have walked in their shoes.
Thank you for noticing this. We didn't live high off the hog as people insist they are entitled to today. Despite having reasonably well-off parents, I had to engage in the sorts of cost-saving measures you mention here when I was in my twenties. Younger people now have extremely high material expectations.
Thank you! I was starting to seethe there for a minute. Boomers, Millennials, and GenZ. Boomers, Millennials, and GenZ. Ad nauseum. The only thing I’m sick of more than Boomer hate is GenX erasure.
This article so well and truly misses the mark that I wonder if the author is sponsored by the Rothschild family? Wealth, power and arrogance is not about someone’s year of birth, it’s about the wealth and connections of the family they were born into.
It’s about the ongoing ages old Class War.
It’s the Ruling Classes and the billionaires and the Epstein Class against the rest of us.
There’s plenty of 60 and 70 somethings who are flat broke and can’t afford to heat their homes while plenty of arrogant 20 somethings have money to burn.
I call BS on this article and suspect it’s really just disinformation from the billionaire class.