So much for the Boomer bashing

[Cirsium]

Harris under-performed Biden with every age group except one, the 65+ bracket. Young people, on the other hand, went more for Trump this time than last.

Are we done with stereotyping people based on the supposed "generation" they belong to? X, Y Z, Boomer, Millennial, whatever.

[JI7]

1. I always hate the generational wars.

[Cirsium]

2. The states, too

"The people in Texas are idiots!" for example. There are more Democrats in Texas than in almost every one of the "blue" states. The state boundaries are arbitrary. Only right wingers think that states have any rights, or that acres vote.

[Blue_Roses]

3. Nope, not true

Republicans hold every statewide office.

[Cirsium]

33. You missed the point

Republicans holding every statewide office doesn't warrant bashing all Texans. There are more Democratic voters in Texas than there are in every "blue" state other than New York and California. Illinois, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey - none of those states have as many Democratic voters as Texas does.

[LisaM]

4. I hate the generational wars too. But....

ever since Biden was pushed out, people here were gushing about how Gen Z was suddenly excited! Their kids and their kids friends were all texting each other about Kamala! Gen Z is going to save us all!

Well, they didn't, and I think we can lay to rest any notion that they care enough about the environment, for example, to really that understand that this vote mattered. I've railed against the generational wars before, but I guess each generation has to realize in its turn that we are fighting larger global economic forces, not the people who happened to be born 20 years before or after us.

[jfz9580m]

14. This

I guess each generation has to realize in its turn that we are fighting larger global economic forces, not the people who happened to be born 20 years before or after us.

Hi LisaM, I find myself in agreement with many of your posts.

[LisaM]

17. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I highly recommend a book called "Strange Rebels" which talks about the year 1979, Margaret Thatcher, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and the forces that combined or conspired (take your pick) to get us where we are today. In the estimation of the author, Reagan was basically a stooge who they manipulated to do their bidding.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/25/strange-rebels-christian-caryl-review?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17310636890117&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2013%2Fjul%2F25%2Fstrange-rebels-christian-caryl-review

[jfz9580m]

18. Thank you

Looks interesting. I must check it out. That is a fair amount to digest.

Sounds pretty interesting from these reviews I found in addition to the Guardian one you posted:

https://newrepublic.com/article/113152/christian-caryl-strange-rebels-reviewed-michael-kimmage

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/books/review/strange-rebels-by-christian-caryl.html

[Wicked Blue]

56. Of course Ray-gun was a stooge

He was the smiling mouthpiece for publicly starting the repuke war on the New Deal.

[Sympthsical]

46. I am beginning to suspect

That Taylor Swift may not be as influential as we have been led to believe.

(One of my friends who has as wry a sense of humor as I do sneakily left a “Red” cd in my kitchen yesterday. I friggin howled)

[LisaM]

47. Or as evil. I like Taylor Swift.

I particularly like that she remembers Clara Bow and the Bolter. She (Taylor) is a really good person.

[multigraincracker]

5. Screw that label. Tfg is a boomer.

[valleyrogue]

24. Try again. He has one vote.

This is on younger people, especially the young white males who are now proclaiming, "your body, my choice."

[multigraincracker]

25. My point is about the failure of labels.

I’m not a “White Male”. I’m a pinkish gray male. According to science race is is an invalid concept. Genetically there are more differences within the so called races than between them. That is a fact. Then people make the mistake of generalizing about individuals that have a physical trait. It is called bigotry.

[Walleye]

26. That's good, I've always said I'm not white, I'm pink

[multigraincracker]

28. There is no Black and White. There is only gray.

Where you fall on the curve, there will always be another future down or up on the curve.

[Walleye]

30. I do think Elon Musk uses white make up

[Ysabel]

44. he DOES look like that / hahaha...

EW I don't like looking at him it hurts my head...

[Walleye]

49. Really I don't know why the majority of right wing men have to be so damn ugly, are the two things related?

[LisaM]

48. Barely.

He edges in at the cusp.

[BigDemVoter]

6. Every generation owns this one....

I’m a boomer, and right or wrong, some blamed us for Reagan…

But this time, we ALL own this ugliness, and I wake up every morning feeling sick.

I am unable to understand how such a vile pig could win an election. It isn’t that he is just crazy; he is colossally stupid. He has no policy, nothing. I have never hated anyone this much in my entire life.

[valleyrogue]

23. We were not responsible for Reagan.

Only ignorant people and those bad at math claim that. In 1980, the oldest boomers were 34, the youngest 16. Two cohorts were too young to vote. Meanwhile, over five million people born in the nineteenth century were still alive then. It was the baby boomers' parents and grandparents who were responsible for Reagan.

[BigDemVoter]

64. No we weren't.

I always resented blame we sometimes got.

My nephews & niece made some snarky comments about Boomers being responsible for Reagan.

I finally got my response this time. « You want to blame us for Reagan? YOUR generation didn’t show up for Kamala. »

While I don’t really believe in generational blame, I wanted to point out how ridiculous these blanket claims are. SOME young people didn’t show up, but MANY did….

[valleyrogue]

65. When people who were too young or not alive trying to tell a falsehood

that is as brazen as saying the "baby boomers elected Reagan," it can't go unchallenged because it is false.

It is hard to believe that when I was 25 when Reagan was elected, there were literally millions of people still alive who lived in the 19th century.

None of those people are alive today. Almost none of the baby boomers' parents are alive today. Those preceding the baby boomers obviously did elect Reagan. They were close to Reagan's own age.

[Cirsium]

36. Boomers have always been blamed

Boomers - God I hate that word - have been blamed for everything for 50 years. That is because they posed a very real threat to those in power back in the 60's. There were protests against US militarism and imperialism, against racial discrimination - redlining, voter suppression, police brutality, job discrimination - protests against corporate greed, against union busting and complicit Union leadership, There was increasing awareness about and opposition to the destruction of the environment. The collapse of public transportation was an issue, as were harmful agricultural practices, suburban sprawl, deforestation, wasteful packaging, planned obsolescence in products, and on and on. Opposition to the historical and ongoing brutality against the peoples of pre-Colombian North America was forming.

Those protests were not just street theater, there was serious organizing happening, something which is often lacking today. Moreover, significant headway was being made in gaining widespread popular support for those "radical" ideas. That was a threat to those in power.

Ever since then the Republicans have been leading a reactionary counter movement, quite successfully. We have had 50 years of an orchestrated propaganda campaign to destroy the credibility of those protest movements, which were led mostly by people born 1940-1950.

Organizers in the 60's respected and learned from the anti-fascist, anti-racism and organized Labor leaders from the 30's, and the veterans of those movements. Those leaders in turn had picked up the torch from the leaders of the progressive movement in the 1890s as organized Labor leaders, who had respected and learned from the people in the early movement for Women's Suffrage and the Abolition movement.

There was a thin but important cross-generational line of solidarity. The conservatives have worked tirelessly to break that connection, that enduring and potent line of solidarity. All of the chatter about this generation or that generation from corporate media is an important component of that reactionary effort to isolate us from one another and to alienate us from our own history of resistance.

We have gone backward over the last 50 years. Civil Rights? Over 40% of the population of Mississippi is African American, yet somehow the state can only elect the most reactionary right wingers. Workers' rights? The billionaire class controls more wealth and power than the Robber Barons ever dreamed of having. While productivity has soared, real wages have been stagnant. Millions of people in the US are now struggling to afford housing and groceries. Politics and the environment? Fascists have risen to power and the environment is collapsing.

[valleyrogue]

66. Actually, only the very oldest of the baby boom generation were even involved in the protest movements.

I was born in the middle of the baby boom era, 1955, and was just 14 at the end of the decade of the 1960s in 1969. It was those born just prior to the first year of the baby boom (1946), specifically those born during World War II, who were the activists and not a few who were born during the Great Depression years.

The baby boom has nothing to do with what was going on politically or sociologically. The only thing notable about it was the high birthrates that occurred following the second world war. They went up in 1946, stayed high throughout the 1950s, with 1957 being the peak year of that cohort, and then after 1964 the high birthrates stopped. It is the only demographic that has been recognized by U.S. Census. The rest of these alleged generational cohorts are mostly b.s.

[Cirsium]

67. That is true

That is an excellent observation. I almost mentioned that in my OP. I agree with everything you wrote. Thanks.

[Cha]

7. It's Weird how the younger people went for

the Sick Fuck this time.

We wanted someone in the WH who knew what they were doing.. in this case what She was Doing. Not a Psychopathic Liar.

what was it they like about him? The Rapist, Sexual Predator, the 34 counts a Felon? The Convicted Fraud? The Hate Garbage constantly coming out of his ugly mouth..

This Shit he's going to do to kill the Environment Even More.. WTG kids you Stupid fuckups... nice Planet to leave our Future Generations.

Don't give a Shit about Ukraine.

Sorry World!

[LisaL]

31. A bunch of young white males feeling under-appreciated, I guess.

They don't care so much about health insurance and social security, because they are still young.

[Cha]

58. Little do they know.. Their Grandparents & Soon

their parents most certainly will.

[LakeArenal]

60. Especially when the old folks have nowhere to go but to move in with them.

[Cha]

61. Exactly.. The future does not look bright.

We need Miracles.

[jimfields33]

54. They are furious that President Biden didn't get college loans paid for everyone.

For some reason they forget to blame the judges who stopped him.

[moniss]

8. I am always amazed

at the number of people I talk to today who are in their early '40's and younger who know almost nothing about the Vietnam War, Civil Rights struggles, Nixon, Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare/Blacklist era etc. and who show no interest in finding anything out about any of it. Don't get me wrong. This is not a generational bash. It is just an explanation of how the lack of either experiencing those years or being taught in school about those years contributes to people being susceptible to memes from the right about "deportation", "regulations", "whites being treated unfairly" etc.

[AZ8theist]

9. It's been part of the Reich Wing plan for DECADES...

..dumb down the population by destroying public education.

Ignorant people are compliant people.

[LisaM]

11. That's an excellent point, and kids are also losing critical thinking skills.

We have been pushing STEM at the expense of the liberal arts, equating educational value to potential salaries, and stripping away important subjects like civics for too long.

There is nothing wrong with looking things up on Google, but that is the beginning of real research, not the end.

Lately I have been reading articles that students -bright students - are showing up at college without the ability to read a whole book. They are used to excerpts and they can locate content, but there is no larger context. This is bleeding over to society at large.

I, too, am amazed at how the shadow of the Vietnam War and the Cold War have vanished out of the conversation. And, go to the history section at a book store, and it's dominated by WWII. WWI (which in my opinion is still going on) has vanished from historical memory and the global conflicts that led to Vietnam have likewise been dismissed. Jesus, we could teach a whole class on the Vietnam War based on contemporary song lyrics from the 1960s alone. But we don't.

[moniss]

13. Excellent analysis and yes it is noticeable

the incredibly shortened attention spans. It's most notable to me as I interact with younger people in business situations. If I speak on something for longer than a sentence or two I can sense them zoning out and I, in a kidding way, say "I can see your thumbs starting to twitch". But sometimes if they just stare at me I might hit 3 items of information in a paragraph length statement but after I have finished they can't repeat back to me most of what I said. Just the other day I was on a phone call with a person who was looking at a computer screen list of companies. I asked her to read me the list but I gave her the names of 3 companies to not bother with. Not long difficult names either. Just one word for two of the companies and three simple single syllable words for the 3rd one. By the time she read me 4 names she had forgotten what I had told her and she began reading me the companies I had excluded.

At the end of a day I have never seen people who spend so much time taking in "information" all day long and yet at the end of the day they remember little of it or, as you pointed out, the context of anything or how it might relate to something else. It's like mindlessly being a part of some "gerbil running in the wheel" sort of scenario and just responding to stimuli.

You are so very correct in your take on WW1 and yes the problems created are still with us today. Our media and Western governments put out this very simplistic picture of things and then hammer that incessantly as the propaganda. When you mentioned the history section at the book store it reminded me of a time a few years ago when I was watching the History Channel and they were doing their typical WW2 all day and night programming. After awhile I noticed that I was listening to narration about a battle but they were running the same stock footage as they had just done a half hour before for a completely battle. As though they had hundreds of stories to tell but only 10 minutes worth of film so they just kept using it again. Same airplane scenes dropping bombs no matter if the the action was for Germany or Italy. Same artillery going off. The same groups of battleships and carriers in every battle in the Pacific sustaining the same damage in the same way with the same sailors. So it became just like some droning on and I thought to myself "For what purpose is this being shown in this way because beyond some of the narration the visuals aren't even real to the events?" That's when I reminded myself that "programming" is exactly the right word for what it is. Just a simple tale hammered over and over for the purpose of the viewer "getting the desired message".

[LisaM]

19. Ha, re the History Channel...when it first started, they covered more history.

But they had this seemingly same group of scroungy actors who portrayed every group that fought in skirmishes up to about 500. One day they would be Celts, then they'd be Gauls, next they would turn up as Macedonians, then Hittites, etc. It was pretty funny.

I like your comment on how the younger workforce takes in information all day but then can't repeat back anything meaningful. My issue with younger coworkers (when we are in the office) is how they have headphones or earbuds on all day. It distances themselves from the people they work with - I know they have on Spotify or podcasts. We think it comes off as rude, but I honestly think some of them can't function unless they are in their comfort bubble. I like to be highly attuned to where my surroundings.

[jfz9580m]

15. Agreed

I wish I knew more about these topics myself.

I am part of the Google generation myself but I don’t actually think that is a good thing. I subscribe to Nicholas Carr’s views on how having no memory is making us stupid:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stupid%3F

Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains! (alternatively Is Google Making Us Stoopid?) is a magazine article by technology writer Nicholas G. Carr, and is highly critical of the Internet's effect on cognition. It was published in the July/August 2008 edition of The Atlantic magazine as a six-page cover story.[1] Carr's main argument is that the Internet might have detrimental effects on cognition that diminish the capacity for concentration and contemplation. Despite the title, the article is not specifically targeted at Google, but more at the cognitive impact of the Internet and World Wide Web.[2][3] Carr expanded his argument in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, a book published by W. W. Norton in June 2010.

I am myself not that much better except I pass the lowest level of the Dunning Kruger thing and am quite genuinely aware of how shallow a lot of my knowledge is. A moron with a PhD is how I often feel. And that isn’t imposter syndrome. It is the reality that education is suffering due to constant undermining.

[praxEs]

50. I believe that ciivics belongs in high school.

Most colleges and universities impose distribution requirements on all their students. These usually include American history.

[appalachiablue]

12. The Far Right has long targeted education, standard for autocrats. Reagan & Co

went after education in the 1980s. President Carter had established the US Dept. of Education in 1980.

The country has been radically impacted since 'Dutch' Reagan and the start of 'free market' trickle down economics - Neoliberalism which Margaret Thatcher implemented in the UK in the late 1970s.

[SADAR]

21. I've noticed that, too.

My husband and I have discussed how a lot of younger generations have NO idea of has happened before, a consequence of dumbing down public education.

An example...My son, daughter-in-law, step grandson and I were all in a fast-food restaurant, where a family of four were also dining. These were some of these parents that ask their kids a question like "What is this called ( a bird, a box, the time,etc)?" and when the kid answers, they look around the room to see if anyone noticed what a little Einstein they have created. I was discussing history with my step grandson (he's always been an exceptionally bright and engaged kid), and I told him that my best friend's dad told her the only reason they wanted you under your desk in a nuclear strike was so the bodies could be identified. The Einstein mom shot me a look that could've killed. I smiled at her, thinking that maybe her kids could use a history lesson or two.

Stop worrying about making kids uncomfortable with the truth and start teaching it. Especially the nasty bits...nuclear war, polio, racism, Nazis, religious persecution (the witch-hunting kind), mustard gas, all of it.

My mother always discussed WWII with me, atrocities and all, without worrying if it made me uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, we are all now condemned to repeat it.

[moniss]

22. Yes indeed I remember the March of Dimes

very well. Given that the tyrant claims he will put in RFK Jr. into a health role I am very fearful that what they will do is make most if not all vaccinations optional. We will see horrendous outbreaks of diseases among children.

[travelingthrulife]

39. Is that why we were under those desks? lol.

I thought it was for debris. Either way it seems laughable.

[Mariana]

37. Yes, their elders failed to educate them.

[voteragain]

16. when

when are people going to stop carving up things?

the elite love carving up things.

we are all on this planet together....we are humans not generational divides.

the top end loves dividing us the humans. it's worked forever since I have been alive for them to get richer.

I'm called a boomer because of my age my wife calls me an old fart with selective hearing.

I'm not insulting anyone, but WE had better get together real quick while there might still be time to right the wrong what's coming soon.

[hlthe2b]

20. Boomers may be the only group that knew (and paid mind) to both their own and their parent's history

After the election, Jimmy Kimmel (Wednesday) did his man-on-the-street interviews of 20-somethings, 30-somethings, and at least one 40ish person asking if they were going to vote today (Wednesday), if they had voted were there lines this morning, and on and on. The number of earnest people of all races in those age demographics who did not know that the election had already occurred, who had won or even who the candidates were was devasting to me. I can't laugh.

My sigline speaks to what will destroy us if we don't educate the masses and keep them informed--somehow.

[Lovie777]

27. Young went with Harris.............

please stop it.

[LisaL]

32. Young males did not. If they did, we would have had president Harris.

NT

[Mariana]

38. Most of the old males voted for Trump, too.

[LisaL]

29. They know they were going lose their benefits and healthcare under Trump.

It's a shame what is going to happen.

[uponit7771]

34. Yep, I saw that and fell to the floor

[mopinko]

35. they targeted young voters 4 suppression. long lines at colleges, id wars,

they moved polling places off campus where they cd. they worked hard to make sure the next gen of dem voters wd find it onerous and useless.
a lot of those kids who tried to vote will never bother again.

bashing them wont help.

[Cirsium]

40. Not bashing

I am not bashing young people, not at all. Sorry if I didn't express that well. I am trying to say don't bash any generation, don't generalize about people according to their age.

Yes, the voting rights of young people were seriously under attack. Yes, young people are facing horrific pressures and barriers.

I am strongly advocating for inter-generational solidarity. We are all at risk now. We are all in the same boat.

[Ping Tung]

41. I'm a pre-boomer and agree with this post.

When I went to the protests in the 60's the boomers were always present en masse.

[praxEs]

42. Why is anybody surprised that we boomers came through.

We are the ones who became heavily involved in the civil rights movement. We are the ones who helped revitalize the campaign for women’s rights. We are the ones who forced an end to the war in Vietnam.

Our most unfair activity consisted of how long we controlled popular music simply because there were so many of us.

[Mariana]

57. It's surprising because the majority of Boomers voted for Trump in 2016 and in 2020.

Enough of them changed their minds that slightly less than half of them voted for him this time.

[standingtall]

43. Show me data that older people voted more for Harris then Trump

They didn't, because if they did Harris would be President elect right now. Not bashing it's great that they improved over previous election cycles, but it's nothing to brag about.

[Cirsium]

45. That is not what I said

I did not say that older people voted more for Harris then Trump.

[FakeNoose]

52. My home state of Pennsylvania just willingly became part of Dumbfuckistan

So I won't ever criticize another state or another generation. We have no center any more....

[Klarkashton]

53. These Gen whatever's can't buy a house or

Pay the rents anymore. Trump made it sound like he was giving them a chance with his lies about a golden future.

Harris made some vague complicated claim about a tax break to buy a house. What good is a tax break if you don't make enough money to qualify for a tax break.?

[whathehell]

59. Correct.

but I think you mischaracterized the Harris position on housing..I don't know about the "vague, complicated tax break to buy a house" but she offered people $25,000 toward the down-payment on a house, and I doubt an offer from government can get more generous than that.

[Klarkashton]

62. It was a tax credit as I understand it. Perhaps I am wrong

I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

[Cirsium]

68. Indeed

Young people have been handed a raw deal.

[Historic NY]

55. Those exit poll of the 45-65 group are going to get ot see just what

will happen to the SS. I got a headache just reading these exit polls especially the salary, family income, etc. the is off cognitive dissonance is off the wall in the US

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls]

[Ruby the Liberal]

63. GenX (my generation)

was the one age bracket that voted Trump over Harris.

GenX turns 60 in 2025.

If they disable the ACA and move Medicare to 70+ - there may just be some buyer's remorse.