# Tom Brokaw, I am so tired of your Greatest Generation shtik **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 7, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027 "2012-09-07T19:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/21 "2012-09-08T14:46:43Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > Hell, this is way out of date. Most people in my generation are just waiting for the Boomers to die off. Now THERE’S a generation that completely full of shit. At least the Greatest Generation actually accomplished things… ::checks ammunition store in the basement:: Come and get us, punk. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/22 "2012-09-08T14:55:12Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yeah, boomer are full of themselves. They should just get the hell off the lawns of the greatest generation! The “Greatest Generation” is a bunch of geezers who should get the fuck out of my way. I’m sick and tired of them squirreling around in their goddamned change purses for a fucking nickel when they’re in front of me at the grocery store, or doing 25 under the limit with their left turn signal on for no reason. There’s no such thing as distinct “generations.” We aren’t cicadas; we keep making babies every year. People who claim one generation’s better than another can suck it. So when someone claims “the boomers” are responsible for desegregating schools, which is both insane and innumerate, I gotta say something. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/23 "2012-09-08T14:59:56Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Here’s a link to some of my favorite Carvey-Brokaw: [Link to “pre-recorded ‘Death of Gerald Ford’”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE) Thank you for making a dreary Saturday morning less so. That was amazingly funny. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/24 "2012-09-08T15:50:58Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Here’s a link to some of my favorite Carvey-Brokaw: [Link to “pre-recorded ‘Death of Gerald Ford’”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE) The minute I saw this thread, I went and found that… but it was already linked to. My kids walked in as it was playing, and started reciting it: _“Gerald Ford, eaten by wolves… he was delicious.”_ And, yeah, Greatest Generation, the rest of us in line don’t care if you’re just… sure… you have 85c in change… somewhere here, just a minute, now… you’re going to come up a dime short and have to break a bill anyhow, ya coot! (At what age does that become your over-arching goal in life? I’ve never seen anyone under 60 do it) ---
**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:** [September 8, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/25 "2012-09-08T16:09:41Z")
The fact that the boomers are a lazy, greedy, selfish, ungrateful, hypocritical generation doesn’t make our parents any greater. We can certainly create a long thread about the shortcomings of boomers. I was born on the far side of the curve and I’ll be one of the locusts who arrives at the field after it’s been stripped clean. But this thread is about the group that’s currently driving slowly in the left lane with their blinker on who are partying on the golden parachute they set up for themselves and expect us to pay for. Luckily we’ve passed on a new irresponsible generation that would never even consider trying to support us, and couldn’t because their only skill is playing video games. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/26 "2012-09-08T17:09:59Z")
The Greatest Generation were also the ones waving the Confederate flag in front of schools, screaming about the nigger babies coming to spread the nigger cooties. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/27 "2012-09-08T17:25:56Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > And BTW, what have YOU done lately? I masturbated TWICE before coming to work this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/28 "2012-09-08T17:52:50Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The “Greatest Generation” is a bunch of geezers who should get the fuck out of my way. I’m sick and tired of them squirreling around in their goddamned change purses for a fucking nickel when they’re in front of me at the grocery store, or doing 25 under the limit with their left turn signal on for no reason. > > There’s no such thing as distinct “generations.” We aren’t cicadas; we keep making babies every year. People who claim one generation’s better than another can suck it. So when someone claims “the boomers” are responsible for desegregating schools, which is both insane and innumerate, I gotta say something. Don’t you see the irony in what you wrote? And, no, you don’t have to say something. You could actually shut the fuck up, although you seem to think you have a special input due to your lofty position. ---
**Author:** ![Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Non_Lawyer_Paid_Spokesentity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/29 "2012-09-08T18:13:18Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > Guess what…we Baby Boomers _did_ change American politics. Black children went to white schools (that actually had books!) We protested the Vietnam war and Tricky Dick resigned. > > We started Earth Day. Zero Population Growth. Reproductive rights. None of the Supreme Court Justices who heard Brown vs. Board of Education were boomers. Thurgood Marshall who argued the case for Brown was not a boomer. Yeah, you protested the Vietnam War and Johnson and Nixon listened for about 6 seconds, although to give Nixon credit he _did_ actually go out and talk to some protesters at the Lincoln Memorial at around 2:00 in the morning during one of the anti-war marches in DC, but I digress. You protested the Vietnam War and Johnson and Nixon listened for a couple of seconds and then said “GO FUCK YOURSELVES” and increased the troop levels/increased the bombings. If one actually takes an objective view of the anti-war protests vis-a-vie Vietnam, they were a complete and utter failure. They did NOTHING to shorten America’s involvement in the war and in fact ended up killing more Americans and Vietnamese. As for Earth Day and Reproductive Rights, again none of the court cases laws passed regarding those issues were made by Boomers. Sure it may have been boomers protesting, but the leader on many of those issues Ralph Nader is not a boomer, being born in 1934. But keep up trying to twist history and the facts to meet your own delusional view, it’s kind of cute, in a five year old kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Non_Lawyer_Paid_Spokesentity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/30 "2012-09-08T18:29:19Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > The Greatest Generation were also the ones waving the Confederate flag in front of schools, screaming about the nigger babies coming to spread the nigger cooties. Ignorance is bliss in your case, huh. But let’s just look at some photographs which prove just how precisely overstuffed with shit you are, shall we, after which I expect a full retraction and apology for this post. The first photo is of one of the Little Rock Nine walking, or trying to walk to school: [http://playsforpresidents.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/little-rock-nine.jpg](http://playsforpresidents.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/little-rock-nine.jpg) The only people ‘screaming about the nigger babies coming to spread the nigger cooties’ are the blond **teenager** aka Baby Boomer to the right of the aforenamed ‘nigger baby’ and the dark haired **teenager** behind the aforenamed 'nigger baby. I think it’s safe to say that the blond haired crewcutted youth with the white polo shirt with the dark collar grinning in the background is also a Baby Boomer. But we’re just getting started!! Next we have two photos of the same incident/location, a lunch counter where as you call them ‘nigger babies’ and a white are sitting in in protest. The crowd gathered behind them seems to be less than pleased with their prescence, agreed? Pic 1: [http://www.usm.edu/crdp/html/cd/M319-52b.jpg](http://www.usm.edu/crdp/html/cd/M319-52b.jpg) Pic 2: [http://www.awesomestories.com/images/user/fba33a83c1.jpg](http://www.awesomestories.com/images/user/fba33a83c1.jpg) Looking at the first pic I count 19 people (22 if you count the sitter inners) whom I would say are Baby Boomers and 3 people who are of the Greater Generation or older. Taking the second photo I count 24 people who are obviously Baby Boomers and only one person, the man on the far left of the pic who is of the Greatest Generation or older. I semi-eagerly await your complete and utter apology and retraction of your earlier post. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/31 "2012-09-08T18:41:05Z")
Say what now? So you’re saying that their parents were perfectly fine with desegregation and that it was their teenaged children, on their own volition, who went out and shouted down the negroes? Thurgood Marshall’s biggest opponents were a bunch of tow-headed teenagers? Not the people who actually voted for folks like McGovern and Wallace. But teenagers? Is that SERIOUSLY what you are communicating here, you retarded donkey? ---
**Author:** ![JXJohns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jxjohns/32/469_2.png) [@JXJohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JXJohns)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/32 "2012-09-08T18:47:39Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > Ignorance is bliss in your case, huh… > > I semi-eagerly await your complete and utter apology and retraction of your earlier post. Clearly, your three pictures represent the entirety of those on both sides of the civil rights discussion. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/33 "2012-09-08T18:51:18Z")
Me, I’m a Tweener. We won’t be remembered for anything besides '80s teen sex comedies. But should a challenge like the Depression or WWII arise, we could still meet it. Of course, you’d have to cue us with a drum synthesizer riff, then we’d pull it off during a montage during a hair band power ballad. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/34 "2012-09-08T18:58:30Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Say what now? > > So you’re saying that their parents were perfectly fine with desegregation and that it was their teenaged children, on their own volition, who went out and shouted down the negroes? I guess the greatest generation was filled with really bad parents. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/35 "2012-09-08T20:22:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The fact that the boomers are a lazy, greedy, selfish, ungrateful, hypocritical generation doesn’t make our parents any greater. We can certainly create a long thread about the shortcomings of boomers. I was born on the far side of the curve and I’ll be one of the locusts who arrives at the field after it’s been stripped clean. But this thread is about the group that’s currently driving slowly in the left lane with their blinker on who are partying on the golden parachute they set up for themselves and expect us to pay for. Luckily we’ve passed on a new irresponsible generation that would never even consider trying to support us, and couldn’t because their only skill is playing video games. I don’t think the $1400/month that the SSA sends me could be considered a ‘golden parachute’. I banked my retirement through 44 years of non-union hard work, fought in a discretionary war, and raised four children on a military salary; I apologize to nobody. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/36 "2012-09-08T20:29:01Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > I semi-eagerly await your complete and utter apology and retraction of your earlier post. Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. Mind if I call you **Nonny** for short? ---
**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:** [September 8, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/37 "2012-09-08T20:48:00Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > We protested the Vietnam war and Tricky Dick resigned. And you elected George W. Bush and invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m not sure the math is working out so great for you, here. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/38 "2012-09-08T21:12:02Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I don’t think the $1400/month that the SSA sends me could be considered a ‘golden parachute’. I banked my retirement through 44 years of non-union hard work, fought in a discretionary war, and raised four children on a military salary; I apologize to nobody. Interesting. I pictured you as boomer. ---
**Author:** ![Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Non_Lawyer_Paid_Spokesentity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/39 "2012-09-08T21:25:00Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Say what now? > > So you’re saying that their parents were perfectly fine with desegregation and that it was their teenaged children, on their own volition, who went out and shouted down the negroes? > > Thurgood Marshall’s biggest opponents were a bunch of tow-headed teenagers? Not the people who actually voted for folks like McGovern and Wallace. But teenagers? > > Is that SERIOUSLY what you are communicating here, you retarded donkey? Here’s an idea. Quit putting words in my mouth. But go ahead and link to where I wrote that the Greatest Generation was okay with desegregation? As I wrote before, NONE of the 9 Supreme Court justices who decided Brown v. Board of Education were Baby Boomers. Thurgood Marshall who argued the case before the court is also not a Baby Boomer. Are you seriously going to dispute these facts? Marshall’s opponents in the Court Room were not Baby Boomers they were members of the Greatest Generation or older. Now, one can of course argue that in his much later years on the Supreme Court he did have opponents who fit in to the Baby Boomer slot, such as Scalia. As to the Baby Boomer teenagers, I doubt their Greatest Generation parents had to goad them much, if at all to run through the streets shouting “Nigger nigger nigger nigger!!” You seem to have this very mistaken idea that every single Baby Boomer was and is a far left wing liberal who embraced the gays and the NEGRO and integrated schools just as fast you can snap your fingers. Now, that’s a right pretty story, but it’s an out and out lie. Oh and please explain your blathering nonsense about Marshall and tow headed teenagers. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027/40 "2012-09-08T21:25:34Z")
> [@Non\_Lawyer\_Paid\_Spokesentity](#): > > Ignorance is bliss in your case, huh. > > But let’s just look at some photographs which prove just how precisely overstuffed with shit you are, shall we, after which I expect a full retraction and apology for this post. > > The first photo is of one of the Little Rock Nine walking, or trying to walk to school: [http://playsforpresidents.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/little-rock-nine.jpg](http://playsforpresidents.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/little-rock-nine.jpg) > > The only people ‘screaming about the nigger babies coming to spread the nigger cooties’ are the blond **teenager** aka Baby Boomer to the right of the aforenamed ‘nigger baby’ and the dark haired **teenager** behind the aforenamed 'nigger baby. None of the Little Rock 9 was a Boomer: > [@](#): > > The nicknamed “Little Rock Nine” consisted of Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942), Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (b. 1940), and Melba Pattillo Beals (b. 1941). Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High School. This happened in 1957, so you are saying the protesters were generally a bunch of 13-year-olds or younger, and not the contemporaries of The 9, or older?? You lose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-brokaw-i-am-so-tired-of-your-greatest-generation-shtik/634027.md?page=3)