Millenial liberals falling over themselves to pin the blame for class inequality on “boomers” or “gen x” while themselves aspiring towards upper middle classhood. Like there isn’t a massive underclass of 45-60yos living in abject poverty, or a generation of post-war working class who died too early. People say “destroy capitalism” and talk about how hard it is to talk to their upper middle class parents about the job market… when we are all going to be the beneficiaries of capitalism in 20 years when our parents pass and we inherit their property… being a broke Bohemian in our 20s doesn’t make us the True Victims of capitalism… and if we really want to see this system abolished or transformed we have to be willing to disinherit ourselves from generational wealth
….give up the homes we’re inheriting? I’m confused, can someone run this over with me? I’m trying to understand…I’m just not sure what I should do if I can’t afford to ever buy a home in the near future and need a place to live.
Ah yes let me give away the home my Capitalist Scum immigrant mother gave up everything for, that’ll show the oligarchs
Hi, I’m sorry if this post lacked clarity. It is specifically about middle class millennials positioning difficulties of the contemporary tertiary-educated job market as a class struggle against their parents’ generation (either boomers or gen x depending on which end of millennial they fall under) and the inaccuracy of imagining class as a generational conflict – boomers aren’t rich by default, and people usually arrive at this conclusion because they are using their own upper middle class parents as a point of reference while ignoring the implications of their parents’ assets on their own class mobility. I’m not calling for the abolition of personal property/land rights, but asking that people be honest in understanding that our parents’ assets are our future assets. So to have upper middle class parents is to be upper middle class, despite how hard it may be to get a job as a liberal arts graduate or whatever, and that to call for the abolition of capitalism is to accept that we don’t have a right to be wealthy. Again, I apologize that this did not come through clearly.
Tag: generational rhetoric
Historically, nearly every generation’s economic status was nearly identical to their parents’. The way the baby boomers did exponentially better than their parents was an historical anomily. Millennials are not the first generation to be less well-off than their parents, they’re just not experiencing the rare and specific set of circumstances that lead to a sudden burst of upward mobility. And needless to say all of this is only for white people.
I feel like it’s been completely forgotten that “our kids will be less well-off than us” was a common refrain about Gen Xrs in the early 90s.
Historically, nearly every generation’s economic status was nearly identical to their parents’. The way the baby boomers did exponentially better than their parents was an historical anomily. Millennials are not the first generation to be less well-off than their parents, they’re just not experiencing the rare and specific set of circumstances that lead to a sudden burst of upward mobility. And needless to say all of this is only for white people.
There’s a weird kind of generational synechdoche that happens. Like things that are blamed on “boomers” or “millennials” almost always refer to a very specific subset of each generation. For boomers, it’s the ones who could consolidate industries, cause wage stagnation for labor, etc. For millennials, it’s the ones who can take extended backpacking trips, eat avocado toast daily, etc. So basically what I’m saying is: It’s the rich ones.
Pretty much. Even the stereotypes about Gen X “slackers” (which were bizarrely gender focused in addition to classist, Gen X women just didn’t even exist to the media) were mostly focused on young upper middle class men in the burbs.
I feel like Gen Z isn’t aware that Boomers had a counterculture or that it has any relevance still
It’s weird. It’s like they’re totally unaware that the Civil Rights Movement existed, that there were radicalized countercultures, that Woodstock/the “Summer of Love”/ etc happened.
As a Gen Xr who had hippie parents, who’s known lots of Gen Xrs who had hippie parents, it’s weirding me out. There is a lot of specific cultural, generational baggage that goes with that. It’s not like the stereotypical Millennial just crawled out from under a rock, there were lots of Gen Xrs who were early adopters of that zeitgeist.
Also, Gen Y mainstream edge culture has its roots in Gen X counterculture, which has its roots in Boomer counterculture.
this is really it huh? millenials are old now. they can’t handle kids dancing just bc its from something they’re not into. bc its not aimed at them. congratulations you’re doing what you said you wouldn’t and are turning into your parents and grandparents. i know this is how it always goes but millenials were So Sure they’d break the cycle and look at them. mad at kids doing fun lil dances. shut up
generational conflict is honestly such a shitty framing of such important issues, because it lets each cohort develop a victim identity that they maintain even as they transition into the structural privilege of older adulthood, blinding them to their own bullshit even once they’re the ones with most of the power. youth as a social category remains constant no matter how many people age out of it, and ageism needs to be understood as the marginalization of that category, not of people born in any specific set of years.
Ageism also manifests against elderly people, which “generation wars” bullshit perpetually forgets. “Fuck Boomers” isn’t a great look when Boomers are dying in shitty nursing homes.
I mean you’re right, the way we treat the elderly needs to be improved
But also fuck boomers
The baby boom generation, as the name indicates, is huge and diverse. It includes both Donald Trump and first-gen immigrant women who clean his hotels. Anti-Boomer rhetoric, it seems to me, pointlessly divides people who might otherwise be able to work together. Millennial activists and working-class people would actively benefit from reaching out to older people in the same boat, and vice versa. If you mean “fuck specific CEOs and legislators”, then say that.
What drives me nuts about the whole “boomers vs. millennials” narrative is like – its construction depends entirely on the erasure of already marginalized people.
“Boomer”, in these arguments, always means “white, affluent, and able-bodied”. The existence of poor, nonwhite, or disabled baby boomers contradicts the oppressor/oppressed paradigm, so they are simply ignored. “40 years ago everyone had a house and a job and lived in harmony” is a fiction. It has always been a fiction. It’s post-WWII propaganda constructed to dismiss systemic poverty and racism. Hold up the smiling suburban ideal and no one will notice the slums. It has never been true for more than a fraction of people, and it drives me batty how many millennials wholeheartedly buy into it. I’m sincerely sorry you can’t afford a house, but for the love of god stop acting like systemic inequality was just invented because you hadn’t noticed it before.
It’s fiction that directly implies the demand “Make America Great Again”.
Also friendly reminder that the reason old people skew conservative is not that people get more conservative as they get older, but that poor and disabled and otherwise marginalized people tend to die younger.
So yeah, there’s probably more conservative boomers than millenials NOW. That doesn’t mean that was the case when the boomers were in their late 20′s and early 30′s.
What drives me nuts about the whole “boomers vs. millennials” narrative is like – its construction depends entirely on the erasure of already marginalized people.
“Boomer”, in these arguments, always means “white, affluent, and able-bodied”. The existence of poor, nonwhite, or disabled baby boomers contradicts the oppressor/oppressed paradigm, so they are simply ignored. “40 years ago everyone had a house and a job and lived in harmony” is a fiction. It has always been a fiction. It’s post-WWII propaganda constructed to dismiss systemic poverty and racism. Hold up the smiling suburban ideal and no one will notice the slums. It has never been true for more than a fraction of people, and it drives me batty how many millennials wholeheartedly buy into it. I’m sincerely sorry you can’t afford a house, but for the love of god stop acting like systemic inequality was just invented because you hadn’t noticed it before.
The fact that this narrative has gained so much momentum lately is probably due to the fact that the middle class is disappearing. More and more among those coming from non-marginalized families are becoming poor and coming in contact with inequality.
Problems remain unnoticed as long as only minorities experience it. Which is sad and dangerous not only for the minorities themselves, but for society as a whole.
I agree. People are comparing the middle class now to the middle class 40 years ago, and it’s not inaccurate to say that we’re comparatively worse off now. Problem is, the analysis ignores anyone who wasn’t middle-class or higher to begin with.
What drives me nuts about the whole “boomers vs. millennials” narrative is like – its construction depends entirely on the erasure of already marginalized people.
“Boomer”, in these arguments, always means “white, affluent, and able-bodied”. The existence of poor, nonwhite, or disabled baby boomers contradicts the oppressor/oppressed paradigm, so they are simply ignored. “40 years ago everyone had a house and a job and lived in harmony” is a fiction. It has always been a fiction. It’s post-WWII propaganda constructed to dismiss systemic poverty and racism. Hold up the smiling suburban ideal and no one will notice the slums. It has never been true for more than a fraction of people, and it drives me batty how many millennials wholeheartedly buy into it. I’m sincerely sorry you can’t afford a house, but for the love of god stop acting like systemic inequality was just invented because you hadn’t noticed it before.
It’s fiction that directly implies the demand “Make America Great Again”.
Baby boomer goals: home ownership, 2.5 kids, dream vacations to florida/hawaii
Millenial goals: having any money left after bills, an apartment without roommates, dying quickly and painlessly in the initial nuclear exchange to avoid witnessing the collapse of humanity
Accurate
Guys, the fear of nuclear annihilation hung over half the 20th century, it defined the entire boomer generation. Other boomer goals included not getting drafted, marrying someone of a different race, and living past 70.
My mother’s goal was to not have her friends return from Vietnam in pine boxes
My grandmother was a boomer born in a tar paper shack on a river and her goal was to not have to live in a tar paper shack, and also not have all of her brothers die before age 30.
A lot of baby boomers are finding themselves without jobs, no savings, no retirement, no home, and having to move in with their kids while their health rapidly declines with age and drives up medical costs. The idea that they’re all wealthy and secure is bullshit. We’re all struggling.
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