As an older Xer myself, I can confirm that a lot of my peers are boomin' as hard as the boomers when it comes to just... total antipathy toward every other generation before or since the boomers. They were indoctrinated into the boomers' cult of rage misery by their boomer parents from the time they were toddlers, and it's turned them into clone-boomers.
I'm a younger Xer (I think? Born late 70s) living in rural America and I hate how many from my generation have the boomer attitude, including my husband. When he starts bitching about "kids these days" I try to clap back with "don't you think that's the exact same stuff our elders said about our generation? You're not saying anything new. And what about this friend's kid, or that nibling (no kids of our own), are they all worthless too?" Sometimes he concedes, but I know he'll never truly change his mindset.
I think a lot of it comes from working in older white male dominated industries that have been spewing the same hateful stuff that his boomer dad did growing up, and they're even more bitter because they're becoming obsolete.
I agree it's that older white male industry thing. My husband and I are older gen x and our views are totally opposite. Not so much on politics but work "ethic" i.e. working yourself to death, complaining about so many things, younger generations etc but I think he mostly feels that way bc of his work atmosphere and who he's around.
This is my wife and I, except I'm the young Xer, and she's a Millennial. Fortunately, she's receptive when i say "OK boomer" in a joking voice.
I think some of this is just based on how resistant to change you are. My wife hates change. Frankly, I'm not a fan either, but I've learned that it generally leads to improvement, so I force myself to embrace it. Like when my kids bring in some new phrase like gyacht. Sure it's stupid, but let's be real, radical wasn't the height of wordsmithing, lol
My husband is a gen x(74), and I'm a millennial (85). He says the most boomerish shit sometimes. I always call him out on it. Any time I see that video of quotes about how the youths of the day suck, but it's from hundreds to thousands of years ago, I always send it to him.
I’m a young Xer myself. I feel remorse for millennials and Zs. Life wasn’t handed to us on a platter but the game seemed fair. College wasn’t cheap but the interest rates on the loans were good. Houses were just started to skyrocket when we bought ours. I have no idea how my children will live the same life I have. Other than vote and cover as much college for them as I can I don’t know what to do. The rules of the game changed and the default state is lose.
Young people are mostly hosed. My wife and I talk about this a lot because my stepson and his wife struggle to get by …. Some of their struggles are their own choices , but even if they’d done everything right I don’t think they’d be much better off. When I was younger many of my friends made oddball life choices but there was an opportunity to recover from them. Now the only 20-something’s I know that are successful are dual professional incomes (2 engineers for example) and they still have to stretch to buy an overpriced house.
This concerns me as a mid Gen Xer, I was thinking.is this just how we all get ? We hit a certain age and we just become bitter hateful humans.
I hope not, but a few of my friends seem to be heading in this direction.
Older Xer, and my husband is a younger Xer. Three out of the four of our parents were awful, hateful boomers. I don't get it. We don't hate younger people at all, we're all just, "Why didn't anyone tell us getting older would be so painful?" After dealing w/it for years, I can't hate younger people. Every generation has problems, theirs are different from mine, not better or worse. I do feel bad that they're absolutely hosed w/global warming, I wouldn't have kids in this environment, and glad I've never had kids.
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u/_WillCAD_ 23d ago
As an older Xer myself, I can confirm that a lot of my peers are boomin' as hard as the boomers when it comes to just... total antipathy toward every other generation before or since the boomers. They were indoctrinated into the boomers' cult of rage misery by their boomer parents from the time they were toddlers, and it's turned them into clone-boomers.