# Fuck the Baby Boomers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 16, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212 "2011-07-16T03:00:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/201 "2011-07-18T12:54:50Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I don’t really hate the Boomers. But the world will clearly be better off once my generation is in charge. Yeh, _riiiiiiiiiiight._ 😛 Because once we’re out of the way, you’ll find out that there are as many reactionaries in your generation mucking up the works as it turned out there were in ours. And as for waiting for us to get out of the way, that’s life, kids. Did you know that seven Presidents in a row - JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. - were born in the narrow interval between 1908 and 1924? True fact. Now _there_’s a generation that wouldn’t let go. We boomers still have a bit of time on the meter, thanks. But be patient - your turn to screw everything up will be here before you know it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/202 "2011-07-18T13:18:34Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > You’re right. You ate our lunch. Just leave the bill, we’ll pick it up for you. > > Absolute nonsense. You know why we “have no idea how to do anything”? Because you’re staying in your jobs almost a generation longer than anyone before you, leaving a huge number of your children, whom you purport to care about so much, to suck on the teat or get a job you wouldn’t even dream of taking because it’s beneath you. Like the old commercial goes, we learned it from watching you. And yet some of us do it anyway, we break our ass just like you claim to have done (in a prolonged era of completely unopposed US economic hegemony), and we get nowhere fast, just in time to hear how lazy we are. > > Good. Have at it. The longer you live, the harder you hold on to it, the more your quality of life diminishes. When the pain becomes unbearable and you’re a morphine-addicted shell of a human being, you’ll realize the folly of what you just said. And by then, my generation will be getting elected to office, and our memories are just as good as yours are. Remember, your kids get to pick your nursing home. +1 Its not that all boomers are evil or greedy, they’re just a really really big demographic and everyone from pandering politicians to ratings hungry television to Madison Agency advertising agencies have been courting them their entire lives. They have gotten used to getting what they wanted. And over the last 30 years or so they have wanted high levels of government service with low levels of taxation. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/203 "2011-07-18T15:50:28Z")
We taught the world to sing. In simple harmony, no less! Doesn’t that count for anything? ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/204 "2011-07-18T16:07:18Z")
I can’t tell if this is a debate about which generation is superior, or an argument about whose turd smells the best. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/205 "2011-07-18T16:16:40Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > I can’t tell if this is a debate about which generation is superior, or an argument about whose turd smells the best. Typical Generation Y response… ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/206 "2011-07-18T16:22:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We taught the world to sing. In simple harmony, no less! Doesn’t that count for anything? Piss off, asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/207 "2011-07-18T16:26:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Typical Generation Y response… The year in which your mother squirted you out has nothing to do with your quality as a human being. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/208 "2011-07-18T16:28:41Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > The year in which your mother squirted you out has nothing to do with your quality as a human being. Duh. Typical generation Y counter-response. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/209 "2011-07-18T16:30:01Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > +1 > > Its not that all boomers are evil or greedy, they’re just a really really big demographic and everyone from pandering politicians to ratings hungry television to Madison Agency advertising agencies have been courting them their entire lives. They have gotten used to getting what they wanted. And over the last 30 years or so they have wanted high levels of government service with low levels of taxation. “They”? As in all of us? Or just some? Please be more specific. The zeal to lower taxes and reduce services is not specific to baby boomers by any means. And to those who think we’re condescending–every generation goes through that with their elders. We thought ours were condescending, too, and some of them certainly were. But that has gone on since before we descended from the trees ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/210 "2011-07-18T16:32:29Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Typical generation Y counter-response. Typical “you don’t actually have anything to say” response. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/211 "2011-07-18T16:48:11Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > Typical “you don’t actually have anything to say” response. Boomers have bigger penises. Even the white ones! ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/212 "2011-07-18T17:35:40Z")
The major problem here is one of scale. It really does not matter, at the end of the day, if the Boomer motive is essentially no different than that of their parents or of their offspring. The sheer bulk of their numbers means that they are going to have a much more dramatic impact. I don’t believe that it is the Boomers fault that they are narcissistic. This is a function of environment. The sheer number of them has meant that as they have moved through their lives they have been pandered to. There is no way that this would not have happened in a capitalist culture. There is just too much money to be made. It was inevitable that, as a group, they would come to believe that everything that they said, did or thought had value for out of proportion to reality. What would be nice would be if that generation would realize that, due to their vast numbers, they wield an incredible amount of power and, having had this realization, returned to the purported values of their youth and took steps to leave a much smaller footprint. ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/213 "2011-07-18T17:41:22Z")
I guess we could blame the whole mess on the men of “The Greatest Generation” for being really bad at pulling out. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/214 "2011-07-18T17:43:50Z")
We did leave a smaller footprint - we had less kids than our parents did. Now all you have to do is have fewer again, and your kids fewer still, and eventually we can get the population down to a reasonable number where everyone on earth is descended from the Duggars (themselves Gen Xers, but I won’t hold it entirely against you). I certainly don’t approve of the uncontrolled breeding of the Greatest Generation but my parents and their friends failed to consult me in time to save the world. ETA I see Plumbkrazy and I can agree on something - it’s all my parents’ generation’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/215 "2011-07-18T17:50:51Z")
Mrs. Cake, having less children is a good start and all but won’t even come close to mitigating the damage. It would be like me saying that, as a member of an industrialized nation, I am accomplishing something for the global good by eating one less hamburger a day. Sure, it is better than nothing but absolutely meaningless in the face of the problem. You (the collective Boomer you) are pretty much running the show right now and things are pretty much fucked, as far as I can see. So… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/216 "2011-07-18T17:51:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Got ilk? Strictly low fat, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/217 "2011-07-18T17:54:07Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Boomers have bigger penises. Even the white ones! …and they’ll be perpetually erect. Although they failed to cure cancer, they did manage to come up with a few boner pills. If nothing else, at least I know I can use my external organ while tumors destroy my internal organs. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/218 "2011-07-18T18:03:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We taught the world to sing. In simple harmony, no less! Doesn’t that count for anything? Well, where’s my coke? > [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > I think it’s about time the media stopped shoving Joe Cocker and the Incredible String Band down our throats and paid some attention to Lady Gaga for once. You obviously don’t watch PBS. “The documentary exposing law enforcement ignoring civil liberties and sending innocent people to death row has been pre-empted by this very special performance by Smokey Robinson and his Miraculous Hydraulic Tuxedo.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/219 "2011-07-18T18:10:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We taught the world to sing. In simple harmony, no less! Doesn’t that count for anything? Yes, you did, and now we’ve all got diabetes. Thanks a lot, grandpa. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/220 "2011-07-18T18:12:56Z")
They sold it, you bought it. So, who’s stupid? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212.md?page=12)