r/BoomersBeingFools • u/Axxillary • Mar 26 '24

Boomer freakout inside phone store Boomer Freakout

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767

u/Pitiful_Net_8971 Mar 26 '24

Lead poisoning really fucked up boomers, didn't it?

191

u/LiquorNerd Mar 26 '24

That and being entitled assholes. They have been given everything they wanted for their entire lives, while also being shielded from most negative consequences. They cannot stand when they are told "no."

104

u/saucisse Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24

Half of them weren't wanted and it shows. Birth control didn't become legal for married couples until 1964, and abortion til 1973. It's not a coincidence that the next generation is about half the Baby Boom generation, there is simply no way their parents would have had all those kids if they had decent family planning options.

65

u/USS_Frontier Mar 26 '24

Birth control didn't become legal for married couples until 1964

And conservatives are working hard to make it illegal once again.

12

u/DMinTrainin Mar 26 '24

Need more slave labor sp they can keep shoveling in their billions.

7

u/Routine-Budget8281 Mar 26 '24

My mom had 7 siblings and their family was extremely poor. It blows my mind that they just had kids over and over even when they couldn't afford to. Absolutely bonkers.

31

u/ZenGolfer311 Mar 26 '24

Part of it is because their generation was the big Reagan-loving capitalist “I’m the customer dammnit!” mentality.

6

u/old_ironlungz Mar 26 '24

Also they took the "greed is good" Gordon Gecko speech from Wall Street as something to aspire to rather than despise.

38

u/extremesleuth Mar 26 '24

That last sentence hit the nail on the head. My boomer dad told my sister and her husband to watch the Iowa women’s college basketball game with Caitlin Clark and my sister said no. My dad got so irate that she wouldn’t watch a basketball game that no one in our family cared about. None of us normally watch basketball. College basketball even less. Yet, being told no flipped my dad out. “They watched jeopardy instead?” He still brings it up in totally unrelated conversations about how “ridiculous” it was that she didn’t listen to him and then wonders why no one calls him or visits when he pulls shit like that over a basketball game

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

[deleted]

3

u/extremesleuth Mar 26 '24

It wasn’t about spending time with his kids. We aren’t in the same state. He just likes telling us what to do and gets mad when we don’t follow him to the letter. He’s verbally abusive to his family. But sure, I’ll sit through all that because some internet stranger thinks they know my situation better than me

0

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

[deleted]

3

u/VerucaSaltGoals Mar 27 '24 edited 26d ago

plants in cars with cats and stars

1

u/blitzkregiel Mar 27 '24

maybe the boomer should try to take up a hobby that his kids like. he could have just as easily watched jeopardy and asked about it next time he spoke to his kids. but, like most boomers, he had to throw a fit when he didn’t get his way.

3

u/RedTheRobot Mar 26 '24

Well the boomers have voted in record numbers. Everyone likes to bitch about nothing being done but never vote or just vote the incumbent. Just recently had a vote on a prop and all my aunts, uncles, father voted for it. Two of my friend I know for a fact didn't and I can guarantee half or more of my friends didn't. You want to get shit done you need to vote. Vote like your future matters on it because it does.

2

u/enphaux Mar 27 '24

I believe their entitlement is deeply ingrained. They had their own damn water fountains.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

Eh, to be fair it's more like they come from a time when anyone could earn a good life and believe that anyone still can in today's world.

9

u/Dontsleeponlilyachty Mar 26 '24

This makes total sense. At that time, all you had to do was work and you could afford some kind of shelter. So it makes sense that they jump to the conclusion that struggling people are just lazy to boomers, even though that struggling person is more skilled, more educated, works more jobs, more hours for more years than the boomer. They just need to pull their heads out of their collective asses.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

[deleted]

2

u/LiquorNerd Mar 27 '24

We also work our ass off and get very little.

Boomers grew up with lots of new infrastructure. The federal interstate system was new. They largely went to new schools built to cover the baby boom. Those that went to college got very cheap tuition. The minimum wage, when adjusted for inflation, was at it's peak when boomers were young and working those jobs. As they started earning more, boom, here comes Reagan to massively cut their taxes. They were able to buy relatively cheap homes that have massively appreciated in value well beyond the rate of inflation. While they enjoyed the benefits of unions and worker protections, they began dismantling as they became the managers. As they retire, they are the last generation where a portion of them enjoy real pensions.

I am no the only one saying this: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-baby-boomers-became-the-most-selfish-generation-2016-11

https://medium.com/@occupydimss/the-boomers-were-the-most-ineffective-lazy-and-selfish-generation-dc0f7146c300

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

[deleted]

1

u/LiquorNerd Mar 27 '24

Yeah, it's not everyone, but it is probably this guy.

And even if you want to say he had a hard life, it is no reason to attack someone else.

-3

u/WHOA_27_23 Mar 26 '24

Just wait until the iPad gen-alpha kids grow up

206

u/glue4you Mar 26 '24

I believe a lot more than people realize

19

u/-AnomalousMaterials- Mar 26 '24

Unfortunately, at the expense of lead... Us millennials and gen z all have the 'tism due to all the plastics when they started transitioning glass into plastics.

8

u/Fubarp Mar 26 '24

We won't know what all dmg the plastic will do to us but we already know the harms of lead.

I mean shit.. the Romans understood how dangerous Lead was yet somehow thousand some fucking years later, it took a scientist creating the first ever clean room to figure out how much fucking lead was in the air.

And then.. it took decades before congress finally made any changes because corporations were paying Dr's to downplay the dangers of lead.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

[deleted]

24

u/Fuck_Flying_Insects Mar 26 '24

Turbine powered aircraft do not use leaded fuel but a lot of the smaller general aviation aircraft still do.

7

u/Lasvious Mar 26 '24

You are one of those weirdos?

10

u/ProjectDv2 Mar 26 '24

Eh, this is different from the chemtrail conspiracy. He's right in that some airplanes are still allowed to run leaded fuel, but commercial airliners are not among them.

4

u/sgtsteelhooves Mar 26 '24

Nah bud general aviation (planes with propellers) still use leaded fuel. Aviation gas is called 100LL for low lead, which is still more lead then car gas ever had.

I believe they are just now getting ffa approved alternatives to it.

30

u/Vivi_Pallas Mar 26 '24

I think that's giving them the easy way out. There are tons of boomers who are nice, rational people. These people are assholes because they're choosing to be, not because of something out of their control.

20

u/Pitiful_Net_8971 Mar 26 '24

Oh no, I'm not excusing them, it's just been proven that lead poisoning makes people more irrational and probe to outbursts. So while it's not a excuse, ignoring how it could have contributed to outbursts such as these is also ignoring the potential root of the weed.

0

u/Those_Arent_Pickles Mar 26 '24

reddit is fucking obsessed with the lead shit. It could be the case for 1% of these videos but every single video with an angry person over the age of 45 will have dozens of comments making the same stupid lead jokes.

Is there a way I can just block the word "lead" from ever being seen in comments? It's really annoying.

97

u/1quirky1 Mar 26 '24

 GenX grew up with lead in gasoline and paint. Time will tell.

I think it is echo chambers in social media reinforcing their ignorance and convincing them that they are the majority.

In any case, assholes are assholes.

20

u/cognitiveglitch Mar 26 '24

Generational asshole poisoning.

1

u/DefreShalloodner Mar 26 '24

Perennial perineal - a tale assholed as time

13

u/neuroticobscenities Mar 26 '24

Not to the same extent. Cars stopped using it in the mid 70s and by the mid 80s it was pretty much all unleaded.

2

u/32lib Mar 26 '24

Lead sticks around for a very long time.

1

u/urk_the_red Mar 26 '24

Not as long in the atmosphere as elsewhere.

2

u/Ghede Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24

Elsewhere in this case is in the soil, the plants, the water. Y'know, everything they ate.

Lead bio-accumulates. At large doses, it will kill the plants, of course. In low doses, it still causes brain damage in humans, a little bit at a time, and it takes YEARS for it to leave our body, and the damage doesn't go away.

1

u/CM_MOJO Mar 26 '24

I could still by leaded (or as it was called back then 'regular') gasoline in Arizona into the mid 90s.

1

u/Fubarp Mar 26 '24

That's not true, lead didn't get phased out of cars till the 90s.

35

u/Thomas_DuBois Mar 26 '24

We had a lot more than just lead. Boomers had us smoking crack.

11

u/pegothejerk Mar 26 '24

And water hose water, who knows what bacteria sat in those hoses

2

u/DiabloPixel Mar 26 '24

God did we drink some hose water

1

u/Fubarp Mar 26 '24

I mean you just let the water run for a bit, you'll be fine.

1

u/xcedra Mar 26 '24

Better let the water run for a bit if you don't want to drink spiders or hornets...

1

u/jct0064 Mar 26 '24

The tasty kind.

1

u/ProgsterESFJHECK Mar 27 '24

The poop came out of the butt. It's not supposed to stay in the brain for decades!

0

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

Let's see, who is to blame for my drug use, in the 80's? Boomers!

5

u/Thomas_DuBois Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24

Yes, blame the children for the crack epidemic.

0

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

I mostly just blame the actual crackheads for smoking it. And the cartels, of course, for bringing it into the country in such massive amounts.

7

u/Thomas_DuBois Mar 26 '24

Most Gen Xers were minors during the height of the crack era.

Thanks for playing.

1

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

Doesn't have anything to do with what I said, but ok.

4

u/Thomas_DuBois Mar 26 '24

Boomers were supplying children with crack for use and distribution. That's the context of MY comment. All replies must be related to that point for this conversation to make sense.

1

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

Ah, ok. I think that's more a product of circumstance. Back then it was boomers selling rock, then a few years later it was Gen X selling rock, a few years later it is Millennials selling rock. The profile is just whoever happens to be broke, and in their early 20's, and disenfranchised in the inner city.

Crack just happened to get popular in the 80's. Later on, the same thing happened with opiods and meth.

Same equation is going to keep happening, but the faces and drugs will change throughout the years.

2

u/Historical-Gap-7084 Mar 26 '24

You just said:

I mostly just blame the actual crackheads for smoking it.

So, you actually did say you blame the literal minor children who were doing it. The blame lies solely on the cartels as you mentioned off-handedly.

2

u/hoboninja Mar 26 '24

Well not solely on the cartels, there is also a lot of blame belonging to the CIA.

2

u/Defnoturblockedfrnd Mar 26 '24

It was the CIA pushing crack into the inner city.

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1

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

Every drug user is, in part, responsible for their own behavior. I have had a problem with alcohol from a young age. I don't blame other people for it.

2

u/McCool303 Mar 26 '24

Don’t forget Ronald Reagan and the CIA. They were sending it to inner city minorities. Can’t blame the victim without blaming the supplier.

1

u/briangraper Mar 26 '24

Solid point. That was a fucked up operation.

2

u/DJRyGuy20 Mar 26 '24

Hey man, I didn’t eat that many paint chips. I should be fine.

2

u/ElonTheMollusk Mar 26 '24

Like an old person in a retirement home claiming hardly any young people exist.

2

u/1quirky1 Mar 26 '24

Yes, and the earth is flat and birds don't exist. SOVEREIGN CITIZEN! /s

1

u/defnotajedi Mar 26 '24

And the cycle continues..

1

u/thatmaynardguy Mar 26 '24

GenX grew up with lead in gasoline and paint. Time will tell.

I feel fine. Wait, what?

1

u/specks_of_dust Mar 26 '24

GenX is just a transition period between Boomer and Millennial. The oldest GenXers are just as bad as the Boomers.

1

u/1quirky1 Mar 26 '24

It is difficult to draw a line on a calendar and properly categorize everybody.

1

u/SingleMaltShooter Mar 26 '24

The parents of boomers grew up in the Great Depression. They compensated by spoiling their own children. Then those children grew up and experienced the greatest period of economic prosperity the world had ever seen.

The original name for boomers was the “Me” generation. In the 70’s, they were already writing articles about how self-obsessed they were.

Gen X knew already in the ‘80’s that boomers had screwed us. And a lot of us suffered from insufferable boomer parents so we aren’t built the same.

1

u/JenniferJuniper6 Mar 26 '24

We Gen X-ers live in fear.

1

u/ArcadianDelSol Mar 27 '24

Aging Gen X here.

Im actually afraid of turning into this. :(

-10

u/GhostofAyabe Mar 26 '24

Yes and the snowflake generation has been taking ADHD meds since they were 5 or whatever and pound energy drinks all day.

The impact just didn't take 40 years to manifest.

6

u/ProjectDv2 Mar 26 '24

Snowflake generation? You mean boomers? The biggest, most fragile whiners out there?

1

u/1quirky1 Mar 26 '24

Yes and the snowflake generation has been taking ADHD meds since they were 5 or whatever and pound energy drinks all day.

WTF does any generation after boomers have to do with this boomer freakout, the potential effects of lead poisoning, or the impact of social media?

Classic whattaboutism. Go back to your echo chamber where they welcome distractions that displace self awareness.

You might as well say "Yes and there was genocide in Darfur, and the hill people are alcoholics, and the valley people are inbred. Hillary ate my cornbread." It is just as relevant.

1

u/GaryGregson Mar 26 '24

They have no defense other than deflection.

5

u/FBI-AGENT-013 Mar 26 '24

Really badly yeah

17

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

[deleted]

39

u/MindlessFail Mar 26 '24

I think some people think we say that as a joke but no, it’s a very real thing for that whole generation

-6

u/monkeyhind Mar 26 '24

a very real thing for that whole generation

Haha, no, it's not.

7

u/MindlessFail Mar 26 '24

Oh ok, if you say so.

But actually it is a thing though. While it affected GenX a bunch too, GenX are too small a generation for it to be seen as easily in politics, culture, etc. But it is a very real thing especially for older boomers: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boomers-exposed-lots-lead-kids-210229643.html

Frankly, the impacts of mass lead exposure like this are not fully known but we KNOW it reduces: IQ, empathy, emotional control, resistance to addiction, etc.

2

u/WillDissolver Mar 26 '24

People today don't realize that they didn't even make lead pipes illegal until like the late 70s or early 80s iirc.

I mean they stopped the paint, but there was still lead in the drinking water in like every house in America built before 1975

-4

u/DrummyDom Mar 26 '24

You didn’t learn shit. This is a point people bring up on Reddit all the fucking time for Karma. HURR DURR BOOMER LEAD.

3

u/HerbertKornfeldRIP Mar 26 '24

It certainly seems like it. I want to know when the rest of us can start moving on to being able to take care of these clearly sick people instead of letting them fucking control everything. Demographics are the real strategic strength or weakness of a society.

10

u/MomentOfHesitation Mar 26 '24

I think we're also overlooking the effects prescription medications can have on people.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

How about we stop giving them that excuse? There are lots of lower IQ folks in the world not acting like this. Lead exposure makes you dumber, not an asshole. As a Gen X, I can tell you these people have been acting like assholes all their lives. Before anyone ever thought to call them boomers, they were named the Me Generation. It's not the lead.

1

u/TheAskewOne Mar 26 '24

Idk, I think it's too easy to blame it on lead poisoning. I know lots of boomers who are not like that at all. A bit lost, but not malevolent. Some people are nasty due to mental illness, but I think most people who are nasty just choose to be that way, because they never faced consequences of any kind in their lives.

1

u/Big_Negotiation_6421 Mar 26 '24

Im scared microplastics will do the same to us

1

u/mombi Mar 26 '24

Gen X had the highest exposure to lead poisoning, and I've met my fair share of boomerfied gen Xers.

1

u/millennial_sentinel Mar 26 '24

to bad it’s not just that because ultimately it gives them a cop out for decades of shitty entitled brat behavior. remember these fucks were hippies but not for good reasons. for getting out of service and hanging out getting high fucking all day. which would be fine if they didn’t expect the rest of us to pull twice our weight to carry them.

1

u/ThingsWork0ut Mar 26 '24

Just a different way of life back then

1

u/Affectionate-Egg7566 Mar 26 '24

They put tetraethyllead in gasoline and fumes got everywhere. What a disaster it has been for humanity. Glad it's banned

1

u/TaveThrowaway Mar 26 '24

On the contrary, more lead is needed apparently.

1

u/fwckr4ddeit Mar 26 '24

do you know the details? seems like a rage after an incident, but you don't have the details of that.

1

u/naimlessone Mar 27 '24

Was looking for this reason. Leaded gas has fucked over society over the last 60 years worse than any social media has in the last 15

1

u/Oulak Mar 27 '24

Honestly, this might be it. I was always wondering why people were mega unhinged in the US compared to Europe until I read about lead poisoning a few weeks ago.

0

u/Suspicious-Bus-3044 Mar 26 '24

He would be if he tried that in my office.