# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/161 "2011-07-17T18:54:03Z")
\*Beatnik slacker hippie or a freak, Ain’t it all the same thing all of us seek What our parents do, way back when? Makes me hear the same thing again and again… Generation “A” or Generation “Z”, Who the hell are you to put a label on me? This label of the week is getting kinda lame, The more things change the more they stay the same.\* “Generation Why” - Reverend Horton Heat ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/162 "2011-07-17T19:18:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Bet your ass! We are going to carpe the snot out of every diem we can find. You youngsters don’t matter, except to stay employed to pay our Social Security and as a source of transplants. It’s all about us, and it always will be. Never give up! Never surrender! That would be funnier if so many of the older generations didn’t actually seem to think like that. Including people my age. Their motto seems to be “loot the world, spit on the young, let them inherit an ecologically and economically collapsed theocratic fascist hellhole.” One reason I don’t want children is because I fully expect the next few generations to collectively spit on our graves because of what we’ve done to them, the hopelessly corrupted, burned-out future we seem determined on consigning them to. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/163 "2011-07-17T19:21:28Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That would be funnier if so many of the older generations didn’t actually seem to think like that. Including people my age. Their motto seems to be “loot the world, spit on the young, let them inherit an ecologically and economically collapsed theocratic fascist hellhole.” One reason I don’t want children is because I fully expect the next few generations to collectively spit on our graves because of what we’ve done to them, the hopelessly corrupted, burned-out future we seem determined on consigning them to. None of us feel that way. We just say it because fools will believe anything they see on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/164 "2011-07-17T19:46:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > None of us feel that way. We just say it because fools will believe anything they see on the internet. I wasn’t talking about what they _say_, I was talking about what they _do_. **silenus** was joking I’m sure, but his joke is a pretty close match to the actual attitudes and behavior I see. ---
**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 17, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/165 "2011-07-17T19:58:39Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Well, if it makes you feel better, Glenn Beck, Andrew Breitbart, Matt Drudge, Michelle Malkin, Rich Lowry, Jonah Goldberg and the founders of Red State and NewsMax are all Xers, and they’re definitely trying to bring about political change. Of course, the political change they desire is to repeal most or all of the reforms of the 20th Century. ---
**Author:** ![Vannort54](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8dc957/32.png) [@Vannort54](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vannort54)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/166 "2011-07-17T20:01:39Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > Look, there’s no point in getting worked up about it. Save what you can for yourself and your kids, because God only knows what’s going to be left. > > Of course, all that can change. There are 60 Boomers in the Senate, 254 in the House of Representatives, and Obama’s a Boomer, so perhaps they’ll think about what they’ll be leaving behind. They’ve done a bang-up job so far and we’ve got a LONG way to go. Reassuring, isn’t it? If generation x can do much better than the baby boomers they better start living off there parents and stop playing your video games that the baby boomers invented and get a job stop having the baby boomers pay for your fun oh wait did I say work I forgot generation x expect there mommy and daddy to support them till there 35 yrs old. ---
**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 17, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/167 "2011-07-17T20:06:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Exactly. Several boomers have made snippy comments directed towards me and others in the GenX generation. In this thread? I’m shocked and astounded. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/168 "2011-07-17T20:19:22Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Of course, the political change they desire is to repeal most or all of the reforms of the 20th Century. I didn’t say they were trying to bring about political changes you liked, necessarily. ---
**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 17, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/169 "2011-07-17T20:21:11Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That would be funnier if so many of the older generations didn’t actually seem to think like that. Including people my age. Their motto seems to be “loot the world, spit on the young, let them inherit an ecologically and economically collapsed theocratic fascist hellhole.” One reason I don’t want children is because I fully expect the next few generations to collectively spit on our graves because of what we’ve done to them, the hopelessly corrupted, burned-out future we seem determined on consigning them to. Have a nice day! ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/170 "2011-07-17T20:32:06Z")
> [@Vannort54](#): > > If generation x can do much better than the baby boomers they better start living off there parents and stop playing your video games that the baby boomers invented and get a job stop having the baby boomers pay for your fun oh wait did I say work I forgot generation x expect there mommy and daddy to support them till there 35 yrs old. I think you’re confused about who “generation x” is. Most of us are in our mid to late '30s and haven’t lived off of our parents for a very long time. We’re married with our own kids now. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/171 "2011-07-17T20:35:44Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Yeah, I know all this, and sorry for the breach. Our long-time pet and companion of the last 19 years is dying and will likely have to be euthanized soon. It’s creating a surprising amount of emotion in me, to the point of feeling depressed. I think I’m tending to lash out on this board out of proportion to the perceived offenses. In my favor, I’ve killed many more than I’ve published. I think I need to just back away from the Pit and the political fora for awhile. I’m very sorry to hear this **Chefguy**! > [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Isn’t that what he said? 😕 His post sounded like he thought “boom” meant noise, as in from a war. > [@LilyoftheField](#): > > Seriously? What, are you 12? > > But then again, it seems like this whole thread is about the blame game, isn’t it? It’s a proud tradition for humanity. Every generation blames the previous one for the ills of the world. And its been working so well for us because now we have no problems at all! > > Well…maybe a few. > > On behalf of the boomer generation, let me apologize to the current generation for not making the world ‘right’ for you. To be fair, it wasn’t exactly ‘right’ when we got it and the wars we fought were visited upon us by the generation that preceded us. My brother served in Vietnam as a kid not yet old enough to vote, so I’m pretty sure he didn’t have anything to do with what ‘started it’. Not that it mattered. > > Guess what? There’s not a single generation that has ever been born that has not suffered because of events that they didn’t ‘start’. > > But sure, let’s just waste our time finding someone or some group of someones to blame for everything that’s wrong. Boomers did it too - does ‘don’t trust anyone over thirty’ sound familiar? We tried to ‘fix’ it through sit-ins and protests and demonstrations. Nowadays, you don’t even have to leave your home to make your sentiments known - we have the internet for that! Let’s hope that works better. > > In the meantime, I’m pretty sure the ‘You started it!’, ‘No, you!’ isn’t going to be an effective way of handling the problems. If your baby is on the floor getting his toes chewed off by rats, you don’t deal with it by saying ‘I didn’t throw the garbage on the floor, why should I have to pick it up?!!’ This x 100. > [@Fenris](#): > > Um…read the words I wrote. That’s exactly what I said. "Baby Boomers were kids born after the war. Hence the “boom” part of it.’ It was a population boom… > > or did you think that “boom” meant, like bombs going off and such? 😛 Yup. It seemed to go with the rest of what you wrote. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/172 "2011-07-17T20:40:11Z")
> [@Vannort54](#): > > If generation x can do much better than the baby boomers they better start living off there parents and stop playing your video games that the baby boomers invented and get a job stop having the baby boomers pay for your fun oh wait did I say work I forgot generation x expect there mommy and daddy to support them till there 35 yrs old. Good thing the majority of Gen Xers are already over 35, then. ---
**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 17, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/173 "2011-07-17T20:40:27Z")
> [@MissSwitac](#): > > I was born in 1964 I don’t relate to Baby Boomers or Generation X. I am what someone coined “Generation Jones” People born between the years 1954 and 1965. Obama included. As one article described it, “They were the Baby Boomers who didn’t make it to Woodstock — because it would have taken them way past their bedtimes.” > [Generation Jones](http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/understanding-8216generation-jones-and-other-mini-generation-gaps/4439) I’m glad someone mentioned this. I’m a few years older than you but my experience was much the same. As young as I was, I gravitated towards rock ‘n’ roll and enjoyed the music when I heard it on records or on the radio. I watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, a little boy going on six, lying on the floor looking up at the screen. I was a Doors fan from the first single. I was into just about all the music that we now associated with the mid and late 1960s, but I was too young to experience it on an adult level, such as by going to concerts or clubs. I do identify with the Baby Boom in terms of the music, and of other cultural aspects. I consider myself to be a Boomer because of that, and also because the calendar tells me so. But, to the extent one can ever generalize about these things, the counter-cultural currents of the 1960s became mainstream by the mid 1970s. On the other hand, the major ethos of the 1960s counter-culture was that its members didn’t want to “sell out” for “the good life”, namely lots of money, a nice house, and so on (the hippies were mostly a middle-class white thing). By the mid 1970s, we had had the first oil shock, and it was possible to imagine a future in which we would not be able to keep regular cars rolling, never mind flying cars. If we break the boomer generation down by age into two mini-generations, then the younger half had a decidedly more pessimistic and gloomy world view. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/174 "2011-07-17T20:49:42Z")
> [@Vannort54](#): > > Because you won’t stop playing video games and you don’t want to work you think that everything should be handed to you. Bring back the draft like it was in our day and let’s see how many of you are willing to die for this country like we did in Vietnam at least you will have a job instead of mooching off of your parents. It’s shit like this that makes me join in the fuck the Baby Boomers attitude. ‘You kids don’t work as hard as we did and just want everything handed to you’ No really what the younger generations would like is the same opportunity to work hard and succeed that was offered before the baby boomers came along and and horded every bit of wealth and opportunity for themselves. Look at the costs of things now compared to then in terms of percentage of hourly pay and tell us we’re just lazy. We work harder and longer now for less. I’d love to be able to buy a new home for only 4 times my yearly salary today on average we pay twice that. Not to mention we aren’t able to even go to our beaches or parks without being hit up for parking and fees at every public park we go to. Yeah back in your day ‘we played outside and went to the beach’ Yeah back in you got to do those things for free now we have to pay for it. Come on keep telling us how easy us kids have it today and how hard it was for you. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/175 "2011-07-17T20:54:01Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > …(the hippies were mostly a middle-class white thing)… Since most of the people in America at that time were “middle class”, what else would you expect? Most of them were white, too, you know. ---
**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 17, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/176 "2011-07-17T21:01:23Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Exactly. Several boomers have made snippy comments directed towards me and others in the GenX generation. Those comments have wondered if I will ever have kids or if we as group stop mooching off of our parents and get a real job. Those of us who’ve been here a long time know that isn’t true in your case. Judging by your statements elsewhere on this board, and your public profile, you’ve done very well for yourself. With that in mind, can you really be this pissed off because the last few Presidents and Congressional leaders have been boomers? Is there any rationale for allowing the _existence_ of some aging rock bands and their aging fans to _enrage_ you that much? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/177 "2011-07-17T21:03:09Z")
All right GenXer’s, that’s it! You pushed me too far. I’m putting the curse on you. > [@Mom](#): > > I hope one day you have some children who act exactly the same way that you act. ---
**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 17, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/178 "2011-07-17T21:05:14Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Since most of the people in America at that time were “middle class”, what else would you expect? Most of them were white, too, you know. But we were totally cool with that Negro guy, Jimmy Hendrix. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/179 "2011-07-17T21:21:31Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But we were totally cool with that Negro guy, Jimmy Hendrix. We let colored people come to our swim club as guests too. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212/180 "2011-07-17T21:29:57Z")
Sad truth is that black folks, by and large, hated hippies more than just about anyone, at least early on. Knew a semi-black hipster, made a damn good living, buying weed from us and selling it to black guys at about 500% markup. You could tell them right out, you’re paying way too much for your smoke, and they wouldn’t believe you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-the-baby-boomers/589212.md?page=10)