jumpingjacktrash:

apparentlyeverything:

Look, I’ve got a long-standing beef with Millennial v. Boomer discourse that I could spend a few hours on, but lemme try to sum it up briefly. 

Many of the modern economic problems that affect many Millennials that are often blamed on Baby Boomers (unemployment/underemployment, soaring costs of education, loan debt, comparative lack of opportunities, poverty, etc. etc.) started well before our generation came of age. Most of these same economic issues fucked up Generation X before us, but because they were a smaller generation, people didn’t hear about it as much. And most of these problems grew directly from right-wing political and economic policies that began in the Reagan presidency in the 1980s, before the Boomers were in political ascendancy. (Yes, there were a few young Boomers in Reagan’s administration, but the leading neocons/neoliberals, using the actual meaning of the term, not the tumblr left’s version of it, who led the move rightward were older.) Boomers, by virtue of their age, enjoyed the unique benefits of the post-War (1945-1980) economy and many managed to escape the worst effects of the Reagan Era cuts, but not all did equally (see below.) And many of them, personally, are total clueless assholes about how unique their experience was. I have Boomer parents born in the early 50s, so like I know.  But one of the biggest problems I have with Millennial/Boomer discourse is that it de-politicizes and de-contextualizes important social/political/economic shifts that were the direct result of Republican policies. It reduces it all to just a generational conflict in which one selfish group of people just didn’t want to share their toys with their kids. And even if you accept the idea that one generation can personally screw over another via political means, the idea that Boomers would target their own children specifically is particularly odd. Though I’ll also point out that the “who raised us” issue is more complex, as the Boomer generation ends in 1964, and quite a lot of people born in the 90s who could still be considered Millennials, have parents born after that. 

As for the idea that Boomers make up the majority of the workforce, actually Millennials are now the largest segment of the workforce, slightly ahead of Gen X, with Boomers well behind. The oldest boomers are 71 now, and the youngest are 53. A lot of the oldest ones have retired and the younger ones are on their way there. X  As for having “all the powers in government” that’s a pretty hard thing to quantify. Trump and many of his key advisers are Boomers, but there are a number of GenX and Millennials too. Which is why I get annoyed at the idea that Millennials are somehow innately more compassionate and kind than older generations, because not really. Millennials overall are more democratic/left leaning than older voters, but Trump still won among white millennials.  Many baby boomers, too, were very liberal in their youth, and became more conservative with age, especially the white ones. It’s a pretty common thing to happen. It’s not as if that fate is going to magically spare our generation, so most of this discourse is not going to age well.

Which brings me to the other issue, that you can legitimately talk about Millennials and Baby Boomers as distinct groups with similar characteristics and experiences. Most of this discourse is highly race and class based but people don’t seem to acknowledge that. It’s focused around the experiences of middle to upper class white boomers and their kids, who presumably don’t have it as easy. And in many cases, this is probably true. Though if you’ve read any financial news in the last few years, they’ve been talking a lot about the huge amount of “wealth transfer” that has started from well-off Boomers to their kids. But for many other Boomers, this wealth never materialized. Plenty of people never had access to it thanks to their race or immigrant status. So the idea that one generation “owns everything” or needs to “take the blame” blurs the fact that within any generation there are huge differences in wealth and access to power.

Basically millennial/boomer discourse is ahistorical, apolitical, and focused on the experiences and expectations of middle class white kids, and that’s why I’m not here for it.

a good point. reagan and his bunch weren’t boomers, they were the boomers’ parents. the so-called ‘greatest generation’ – they named themselves that, which is pretty illustrative imo. they lived through the great depression and fought in ww2, and apparently liked it? or at least the politicians of that generation seemed awfully fond of being at war.

probably because there’s so much money to be made from it.

boomers, my parents’ generation, were the civil rights marchers and anti-war protestors, the stonewall rioters and the feminist groundswell. the progressive politics too many millennials seem to think they invented were hammered together by the boomers out of 1920′s socialism, vapid freshman idealism, optimistic drug-inspired asspulls, and oceans of blood. just because y’all young folks are farther along that path doesn’t mean you’re more idealistic or pure. so, you know, that’s about fucking enough of laughing at grannies for not being current on feminist terminology. no more of that.

my generation, gen-x, was political and active on an even larger scale, but having seen that our parents’ idealism didn’t fix things – and being under the thumb of reaganism, which SUCKED SO MUCH – we tried to think outside the box. we looked for ways one person, or a few people, could make a mark without needing to come up with a political party and a crowd of thousands. the punk diy ethic, zines, graffitti being more than just pissing your name on a wall with paint, guerilla everything. traveller bands who chose to be homeless and live on garbage for freedom’s sake. motorhead culture – yes, i’m talking about those greasy mouth breathers in the AC-DC shirts smoking behind the school in all the 80′s teen comedies, those guys were actually counter-culture as fuck. they didn’t think of themselves as political, but when the tv is selling you the idea that a shiny car means you win at life, building monsters out of stripped junkers and weaponized dgaf is pretty goddamn punk if you ask me. i might be biased a little, though, cuz that’s my jam.

anyway, motorcity is the 80′s motorhead counterculture repackaged in neon. i half think the reason it got canceled is because studio execs figured out how subversive it is.

and then there’s you guys, millennials, my darling childs, so angry because for just a few years we were actually living in the future and things were getting visibly better every year, and you had no reason to think it was a mirage, but then it vanished and left you with a mouthful of sand.

of course you want a culprit brought to justice. but that’s not how political change works. it’s not a cop show. you can’t slap granddad in handcuffs and suddenly have a living wage appear.

so my advice – take it or leave it, because i am not in fact your dad, however strong my dadfeels – is to not get distracted by the bullfighter’s cape. generational finger-pointing is flashy, but there’s nothing behind it.