chapotraphouse

I'm older than you, and my parents are boomers. But I always wondered how much better life would be growing up if my parents didn't buy into to bourgeois ideals so hard. Like so much interest was paid into maintaining appearances and pointless consumer goods that served no function. Sooo much effort was made into keeping the house nice, mowing the lawn, making everything neat, etc. We had a fine china and a presentable interior or a house. But my parents put zero effort into raising children. I feel like the kids were like the plates on display in the china case, just for show.

Probably as a reaction to my parents, but mid 40s me has ZERO interest in appearances. My flat is a bit messy, with commie pictures and books everywhere. Dishes get cleaned but might sit around for a day.

My mom once tried to make it out like wages were bad when she was young, and she mentioned how little she was paid in a secretary job in the 80s. We ran it through an inflation calculator and she was making like 70-80k as a secretary while my wife was making 40k modern bux with a college degree.

I think Gen X still believes that they saved Africa from communism by listening to a rock music concert. Live aid perfectly combined activism with consumerism.

Gen X grew up under rampant consumerism of the 80s. Plastic action figures and dolls. They have all of their nostalgia invested into brands.

Gen X will never shut the fuck up about how they were the last generation to play outside.

They get mad about regulations. "We used to have candy cigarettes and lawn darts." "Why don't they show guns in kid cartoons anymore?" "Kids today are too soft".

They grew up entirely under Reagan, so they believe all of Reagan's policies: "welfare queens", fear of frivolous lawsuits, anti-union sentiment, etc.

They spent most of their childhood eating leaded painted chips and inhaling leaded gasoline. I believe this causes Gen X to have behavioral problems in the current day.

They experienced the 90s crime panic as soon as they get out of high school and now they still obsess over local crime numbers. This is probably tied to some racist beliefs.

The 90s culture told them that it's wrong to work in an office jobs because it's boring and they're all meant to be rock stars. They think they're too good for a steady job.

Their culture they were raised by tells them that they are rebellious but they aren't rebelling against anything. 80s rock music presented a generic image of rebellion against nothing in particular, maybe cold war rebellion against communism. Today their instilled rebellion manifests itself against social movements, ie rebelling against "woke". See Kid Rock as example.

Gen X loves fast food but they want to murder the people who make fast food.

Gen X didn't have the internet until they were already adults. They never developed skepticism for the internet properly. Facebook bricked their brains.

I think a lot of their beliefs are probably influenced by Reaganism. They internalized Reagan's policies as children because they were too young to see the biases.

Yeah most of the shitty boomer mentality that gets mocked is really Generation Joneses brainworms and that includes early Gen X.

Gen Alpha parents are pretty messed up

A good portion of Gen X got to experience the hayday of capitalism in the west just like Boomers did, this makes them vulnerable to the same nostalgia tactics as Boomers. Apathy was also directly poured into their brains by early media giants to encourage them to not do anything- at least until they become their parents and adopt their reactionary opinions

wait I thought gen x became overbearing parents because boomers were neglectful? thats been my experience at least

I know generations are idealistic nonsense, but I unironically think boomers and gen X both are dealing with a permanent midlife crisis.

Some boomers seem to have this forever young mentality, and seem to resent actual young people slightly out of a sense of envy. Youth is the one thing millennials and gen Z have that they don't, and they wish they could literally steal it from them. So the closest thing they can do is make everything a luxury for the rich and clog up all the jobs to keep millennials and younger fighting tooth and nail for McDonalds jobs well into their 30s and have to live with their parents....because how DARE they ever get the spotlight and not them?

This isn't because their boomers, but I think that loads of propaganda has made this naked attention grubbing crabs-in-a-bucket mentality normalized among them.

my do-nothing job that pays me like 80k

Phew!

Tbh I just find dealing with parents (of any generation) difficult in general. There are people my age who are now parents and it really feels like we're speaking a different language sometimes. It's probably inevitable and not inherently bad, but a bit alienating all the same.

I agree with the post, but mostly because I seem to find any generation of parents awkward to deal with :p

GenX in general doesn’t get enough hate imo.

I am just done with all the Boomers and Gen-X folks being condescending about Millennials and Gen-Z being more supportive of options left of Liberal. Get hit with "you just don't understand what it was like living in the Cold War. And I don't think you would support them if you were around for Vietnam and constant threat of nuclear war" (or some version of how much chaos existed in the Cold War like we haven't lived through basically the same shit and more along with them).

Those same people will talk about how they protested Vietnam, nukes, and were so active (along with "you will get more conservative when you're older") in other protests like Civil Rights and Women's Rights. Maybe even say some shit like "I didn't sell-out, I bought-in" when pressed about why they became their parents. This doesn't mean that very broad generalizations of gens is correct. But there are some broad sections of every gen that are large enough to be the "symbol" of those gens. Millennials and Gen-Z will be known to Alpha and (I am guessing) Beta based on similar observations. So it really matters that we need to try to be better. I don't care what the older gens try to "symbolize" us as, because it is how much we fail those future gens that matters.