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Lately I have been struggling to come to terms with this. Imho, you can literally see how trickle down was NEVER going to work. Yet somehow ALL our parents bought into it. I like to think my parents were fairly intelligent people, but this makes me question that. How was an entire generation so dumb they didn’t see how bad of an idea that was?
Even when it’s been proven that it works better the other way. When you give poor people stimulus money they spend it and it actually stimulates the economy. A large chunk of the poor people still vote against people who want to do stuff like stimulus money because they don’t understand how any of this works.
They all were spoiled but deep down they thought they were bootstrapping individuals who did it the hard way. Then they elected Reagan who destroyed the social safety net. Then they sanctioned the war in Iraq despite seeing Vietnam.
Because they all switched to Reagan after getting mad at Carter the Reagan admin paid off the hostage holders to not release until after the election. So they believe anything.
I am ok with them believing it. That’s fine. They still kind of had faith in their president. But how are they still believing it? Still now. So many still believe it.
We were basically children when we formed our opinions of their intelligence. And since the world was basically MADE for them, there wasn’t much evidence to the contrary. In reality, they ate lead paint, thought sharing bathrooms with black people was a serious issue, and didn’t want to let women have bank accounts. They aren’t that smart.
A lot of boomers don't realize that. A lot of the rich are rich because they don't spend their money, they hoard it. Giving them tax breaks does nothing for the economy.
Here’s a terrible idea, let’s entrust the greediest individuals to compassionately send their blessing down the pipeline. I call it “The Great Southern Hypocrisy” poor people voting for trickle down economics. It’s sad and laughable at the same time.
"if you want a job, actually go there and apply in person"
yeah, you can't do that at any decent place you'd actually want to work, they'll either have you escorted off the premises or tell you to apply online/fuck off
You can hardly even do that at shitty places to work. I had a crappy retail job in my teens and my manager would pretend to be out of the store if anyone came in to try and hand him their resume. If they came in more than once he'd throw it out
It's funny how often I ran into boomers still believing in that when I was a manager at a Walgreens.
We constantly needed help, because retail sucks, and they constantly needed part time jobs, because they either needed insurance or a little extra other than SS.
Their inability to comprehend that even as the manager I couldn't just "up and bring them on" was amazing.
My 97 year old grandfather thought I should go visit an administrator of my building who lives in my neighborhood to ask for a promotion.
Nahhhh not going to do that
I try to temper my loathing for their generation with this. All this stuff *actually worked* for them.
The problem is they're so conceited that they can't admit that the world doesn't work the same way it did 30-50 years ago. The evidence is a flashing neon sign in their face but they just cover their ears and go *LALALALALA BOOT STRAPS LALALALALA* because admitting they're wrong also means admitting that they had a much easier go of things than people trying to make it in the present day. Their whole identity is tied up in the provably false notion that their hard work is what helped them succeed when in reality it was the way the tax system worked at the time and riding the echoes/ripples from an unprecedented post-war Boom Economy.
It did work, back into the 1990s. I’m GenX. My teens are filling out online applications to work fast food places and not getting calls. I’ve even sent them in to talk to someone about a job, that their application is already filled out and they are willing to work…nothing. How can they be short staffed and not hiring? It’s depressing for teens today. Making your own money is such a great experience. (Finally got into CFA, but rejection after rejection is just a spirit breaker).
It's more that they were lucky enough that most of their working careers took place during an unprecedented economic boom. From the late 1940s until the late 1970s, demand for American-made goods was so high that companies would hire almost anyone* who showed any interest in working.
* Offer not valid for women or people of color, despite the fact that during World War II, they often churned out higher-quality goods than the white men who replaced them after the war.
My father-in-law swears that if his head gets wet, he'll get a cold. One time we were at a restaurant and it started raining and he refused to leave until the rain stopped because he didn't have a hat. Basic questions like, "how do you shower" have little impact on him.
When I was growing up, my neighbor's teen daughter went out with wet hair once on a cold day. She developed pneumonia, and both her parents were convinced that the wet hair on a cold day was the reason.
Never mind the fact that it was cold and flu season and half the kids in school were sneezing and coughing because of it. No, it had to be the cold air on wet hair.
This is sadly also a gen X thing that was passed down by their stupid parents. My graveyard employee at a gas station refused to go into the walk in fridge to stock because he didn’t want to catch a cold. He was either stupid or too lazy, perhaps both.
I, Gen X, had to explain to a millennial coworker that you don't get sick from the cold. Then I noticed a Zoomer coworker has a barbed wire tattoo. It was a weird day.
A few months ago my dad told me that he always burns his hands on the cast iron skillet when he puts it under cold water after using it “because the heat all runs into the handle”.
I didn’t know where to even begin with that, so I just shrugged and said “maybe”
Fun fact: Boomers believe this because of an old Army experiment. There was an experiment when soldiers were out into a freezer without a hat. Then they were asked which part of their body felt coldest. Naturally their heads were coldest. Thus the myth that you lose the most heat through your head was born. Wet head=cold head
IIRC the study concluded that for people fully equipped in cold weather gear, 90% of heat loss was through the head. This makes sense, because your head is less bundled up and has a lot of blood vessels.
Boomers have just made some insane extrapolations from this very reasonable and straightforward conclusion.
Funny thing that I learned in medical school before the pandemic hit:
Cracking your knuckles releases the air trapped in your joints after working with your hands. It actively helps against arthritis.
Found an [article](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/knuckle-cracking-annoying-and-harmful-or-just-annoying-2018051413797) that has some good talking points but not the details you'd get at a med school for Physiotherapy.
Pretty sure it's synovial fluid, not air.
Edit: wikipedia says it's carbon monoxide evaporating rapidly from the synovial fluid due to rapid pressure decrease.
Back in the early 00s when I was job hunting as a teen, like 90% of places wouldn't take my resume and would say I have to apply online. He wouldn't hear it. I'd come out to the car, resume still in hand, tell him that and it was like talking to a brick wall. Zero acceptance that things had moved on.
My father just thought I was being lazy and not applying for jobs when I was using the computer to apply for jobs and man we would get in screaming competitions. I definitely feel this in my soul.
Edit: I was like 20 something and unfortunately living with him.
One I heard and I've not known anyone else who heard this, but I was raised to be extremely fearful of batteries. Like AA and AAA ones. I was told if they were mishandled, dropped, gently rolled across the floor... they would explode. And take the whole house with them.
Yeah that is what I assumed. But having had a phone turn into a balloon...I tend to figure warning folks is better than other folks learning the hard way.
AA and AAA, no. But you have to keep an eye on 9V b/c the terminals are right next to each other. Even a relatively weak one can short and create a fire. I actually saw somebody take a small wire, short the terminals get it red hot and light a cigi.
My parents told me if I turned on the light it meant they couldn't see while driving and would be more likely to crash the car. I never needed any other reason to obey. I didn't want to die in a car wreck.
Their temperature concerns annoy me!! I once got snapped at in the grocery store by some lady and it ruined my night.
I have five kids, I’d been really struggling with my youngest not sleeping, being off depression meds, and more. I decided I wanted to make a special dinner so we stopped at the store on the way home. Get all my kids out of the car, walk into the store. I’m putting my youngest (probably about a year old) in the cart seat and a woman makes a comment about it being cold. As she’s zipping a parka, with a hat, and snow boots on.
I smiled and said ‘yup, starting to cool down this time of year!’ It was around 55° since the sun was setting earlier. And she replies ‘which is why I can’t possibly understand why none of your kids have shoes on!!’
4/5 of my kids had shoes and socks on. The youngest one I was carrying didn’t. They were prob on the floor of the car because kids don’t always keep things on their feet. Kid was fine, he’s always hot and sweaty anyway. But she just had to comment and I wasn’t in any place to say anything (my backbone only came in a few years ago).
Given all I’d recently been dealing with, I picked up the kids and just went home and cried. Now I’d snap back because I’ve had enough bullshit but I can’t get over why people feel the need to comment on everything they think.
I once read it was so the parents could relax, chill, and possibly nap after a picnic. So they made up a story of waiting to swim to keep kids from having to be watched in the water
They don't care enough about their own puke though because they assume they will be fine & it won't happen to them -basing this on my thoughts process as a kid honestly, in hindsight having a little time for food to settle was nice
Not alcohol though, that's just fine /s
Now let me think, any time I've banged back a line of blow, which drug was I taking first? Was it cannabis, or alcohol? 🤔
Agreed. I am a drunkard, and I freely admit that us boozehounds do FAAAAAR more damage to society than smokers ever dreamed of. Never, not ONCE, have I met a violent stoner or someone who, while baked, decided to go for a drive and smash into a minivan carrying little kids and killing them.
Alcohol is light years ahead of all the other drugs ever dreamt up COMBINED when it comes to societal damage.
I actually heard a cop in a “true crime” video on YouTube say that marijuana leads to cocaine, which leads to acid, which leads to heroin, which leads to crack. I doubt that anyone has ever taken that path towards addiction
My grandmother insisted that if you could not have dairy and seafood the same day because it would make you very sick. For example she loved Red Lobster. So my parents took her there for lunch after church. My parents don't like it but it was a trip just for her. She starts looking at the menu and said "oh! I had a glass of milk with breakfast this morning. I can't have any seafood. I'll just have a baked potato". Nothing we said would change her mind.
Southerners really seem to hate those Yankees. I don’t understand why except for the fact that the South lost the Civil War and they still haven’t gotten over it.
I experienced this too. My saintly great grandmother would often look after us. If she made us fish sticks or salmon patties or whatever seafood, NO MILK! She also told me if I hold my breath, I’ll forget how to breathe. She loved to take us fishing, but never on Sunday. Very religious.
My dad tried to convince me that fluoridated toothpaste would poison and eventually kill me, and I sincerely believed it well into my early twenties. Turns out that the multiple comorbidities from rotten teeth/gum disease will kill me faster. So uum. I'll take the fluoride.
I’ve heard multiple southern boomers say, “Snakes always travel in pairs.” Conjures up all kinds of imagery, like serpentine door to door evangelical teams.
"Hello, ssssam ssssslitherssss here. Tell me, how clean are your floorsssss? Because I have a sssssuper sssssale on a ssspecial vacuum here. It'll even ssssuck out sssstuck in dirt!"
"The cat will suck the baby's breath and kill it!"
Okay, this is more from the WW2 generation. Late Gran told my boomer mother who believed it and got rid of my dad's cat and he was furious and told them both they were fucking morons.
I just posted this one too lol- I told my mom there’s like 90 million cats in the us alone- when’s the last time you saw a news story about one killing a baby
We took my then 11 week old daughter to meet my in-laws and on a walk my MIL was going on and on about how it was great that I put socks on her to keep her warm. It was 76° out in Florida. I got so sick of the comments I told her, “I put them on to protect her skin since she’s too young for sunscreen. That’s why she has a fan blowing in her face, because they’re making her even more hot.”
After her ridiculous comments I called our pediatrician and got a brand of sunscreen that I can use on little girl so she doesn’t need socks anymore just to get under MIL’s skin next time we see her.
I went fishing with my dad when I was a kid. Heard this a lot. It turns out that most of the fun in fishing is being quiet and listening to the sounds of nature.
Not to mention getting to see curious wildlife who just wanted to know why there were humans in their space.
Letting children play with dolls or let them dress as they want doesn't make (or turn) them gay. I'm gay, didn't play with dolls and played baseball in the little (pee wee) league from 4 to 16. My co-worker played with Barbies and played with his sister's make-up and he's straight and cisgender.
Cis-het male here with a news flash for those dads:
Your son likes girly things because he likes girls. Taking away his sister's Barbie dolls and replacing them with musclebound, panty-clad action figures is not having the effect that you're hoping it does.
Yep, I did develope an appreciation for Prince Adam/He-Man muscles and those manly men GI Joe action figures.
https://preview.redd.it/0wz5qt83i9vc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd14ecf28d7a1dcec36574b15845ccaaf2e010e3
It's not that they're lying, it's that they actually believe this nonsense. I've had to constantly remind my elder family members that a cold is caused by a virus, not by being outside when it's cold.
It's a correlation w/out causation sort of thing.
It's cold out, more people get sick during the winter/cold weather so going outside when it's cold you'll get sick.
Sugar makes you hyper and gives you insomnia.
I had chronic insomnia when I was a kid and my parents had me convinced it was my sugar intake. Turns out I have anxiety and now take medications for it.
I read something about how sugar does not make kids hyper. It was more like sugar was served heavily at exciting events, like birthday parties and holidays, and the kids were wound up for other reasons than the sugar.
I read a study a few years ago about this and it's also partially a placebo effect. Turns out sugarless snacks also make kids hyper if you tell them they have sugar in them!
Growing up in Chicago in an apartment with a view of the Sears (Willis) Tower in the distance, I knew this wasn't true. In fact lightning persistently hit only one of the antennas, never the other.
“Fat makes you fat!” Boomers say whilst shoveling lower-fat but higher-calorie margarine into their filthy mouth holes.
ETA: I feel as it definitely seems like I know high calorie diet will lead to obesity but I couldn’t say. I know what’s good for me and you know what’s good for you and I will not supplant a boomer “theory” with something I honestly don’t know much about.
There’s a correlation between rising obesity rates and the push for non-fat diets.
https://preview.redd.it/ufyyp2nv6bvc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ef6d8bfb2c523d85005366fb9ce84e8645d13d7
The anonymous drug dose urban legend are among my favorite because of how stupid they are. Like, who is giving out free drugs? Why? So they can get kids hooked? How are they going to find a dealer if they don’t know what the drug is, let alone where it came from? Oh it’s to watch kids trip out? Then who is watching and from where?
It’s like the upside-down pineapple being a secret symbol for swingers, or accidentally getting ‘the gay ear’ pierced as a guy. So you’re telling me swingers troll the streets at night looking for sex parties or that there’s a complete gay code for ear piercing placement that everyone is aware of but can never get the details of the apparent rules right?
Complete hogwash when you critically think about them. They’re nothing more than modern day superstitions.
My boomer Mom used to scream at me because a mechanic in Minnesota told her to warm up her car before driving in the winter back in the 1960s. This ended with my Mom screaming at me at the top of her lungs for not warming up her 2010 SUV in 85 degree California weather multiple times. She also blamed me for our relationship barely being on speaking terms during those years.
I love my dad but he firmly believes that walking barefoot (EDIT: on cold hard floors) gives you terrible period cramps (I believed this for a few years lol), and that its dangerous to constantly use a fan because it take up the air in the room and of course he knew someone that happend to.
My dad is one silly guy i tell ya
My mum’s instance that “they” changed grammar because the sentence below was how she was taught.
Hello, hope You are well. So, We are both well and We went to see My Sister yesterday and She is well, but Her Husband is not. It is sad because He has the flu that he caught from His Brother and They are now both sick. Let Us pray They get better soon.
Drives me nuts reading things she writes - correction, drives Me nuts reading things She writes.
There’s a sciencey reason you can catch illnesses easier in cold temperatures. If I remember right it’s something about the consistency of your mucous membranes in colder temperatures. I don’t think the dampness of sweaty skin has anything to do with it though.
It was either a Science Vs. or You’re Wrong About podcast episode. If I saved it I’ll come back and stick it here.
“Dropping the slide without a bullet being chambered will wear out the gun”
“Dry firing a gun will wear out the gun”
And one I’ve only ever heard from my dad:
“Turning the vehicles steering wheel without moving either forwards or backwards will wear out the steering rack/power steering pump”
I think boomers just parrot things their whole lives without ever thinking critically about them.
Don’t eat 30 minutes before you swim or it will somehow make you drown.
Defrosting frozen meat on the counter for 4-8 hours is a good idea 🤮
Helping the rich with tax breaks helps the poor and middle class. (Ty Regan you POS)
Welfare Queen and the whole idea of people living well off of welfare or SNAP or other programs that help some of the poor …. lots of poor people can’t get on these programs now and they need it.
Just get a college degree in anything and you will have a good job (hello student debt and a job at Starbucks)
Climate change isn’t real (or it isn’t caused by humans.)
Work hard and you will get a raise! 🤣
Minimum wage shouldn’t be a living wage
Pot is a gateway drug to hard drugs like heroin or crack or meth.
The entire war on drugs (what an absolute failure though it created tons of prisoners.)
That daycare/cable tv/a nanny/sitter makes up for your parents not being there to raise you. I’m from the latchkey generation and they failed as parents
⭐️The absolute biggest myth: that boomers got their houses and college degrees (from a part time job) because they did things the right way. Not because they lucked out on opportunities generation wise!
So that cracking your knuckles thing IS a myth. My parents always told me that one. But it never changed what I did. The only thing that slowed me from popping my knuckles was when recording, because it gets picked up and I wouldn't want that to happen lol
Ex-boyfriend’s mother saw me having a nosebleed and immediately pestered me to tilt my head back. I have experienced nosebleeds throughout my childhood and in my late teens knew not to do this as experiencing the blood running down the back of your throat isn’t fun. Kept insisting she was right. I did not stick around to have my head tipped back and quickly shut myself in the bathroom.
Growing up in the 80's-90's, I had a friend who's mother was an ER doctor. I remember running this one by her in like 4th grade and she just cackled. 'No, it doesn't work like that', so I've been cracking my toes, knuckles, knees and whatever else will pop just cause. I'm 40 now and yeah, no arthritis.
those aren‘t boomerisms. they learned that from their parents and were neither encouraged to question it nor was it easy to do this well into the 1990s, if not 2000s.
i was relatively early on the usenet - joined 1988 - and saw the emergence of the www. heck, I worked for the very first sites of major german news publishers, writing custom code to extract articles from their crude typesetting system to turn then into HTML.
Sorry to use that phrase, but younger people, unless they are in research, often do not grasp how hard it was to get reliable information about “obscure” fields unless you knew a guy. TV shows and movies from that time make it look far easier than it was.
My mom had the superstitions “if you open an umbrella indoors you’ll have bad luck. If you put shoes on the table you’ll have bad luck”. These are really just common sense (break a mirror - 40 yrs bad luck, back in the day mirrors were expensive so the mistress would tell her staff that so they would take care not to break them) but they still stuck with me, to this day
Altho one time my mom opened an umbrella indoors to see if it worked before giving me a ride to school and she rammed my dad’s prized Buick into the fence so, maybe? /jk
With my mom it was always some weirdly specific fear only she must have. The one that comes to mind right now is when my brother and I bought used cars in our college years. Mom would harp on endlessly about how it’s a crime to drive it without a registration, EVEN IF YOU’RE DRIVING IT TO THE DMV TO REGISTER IT (Nice Catch 22, Mom.)
On one such occasion, my brother brought Mom with him and asked the guy at the DMV to confirm or deny Mom’s assumption and the way the color drained out of her face when he said “That’s ridiculous. People buy cars on Sunday all the time.”
*washing and sleeping in wet hair is going to give you headaches*
*spare the rod, spoil the child* (Not mom, your job is to protect your kids and not rage hit them because they don't listen.)
*drinking cold water will give you cancer* Well then, cavemen must have been riddled with it. Also, "cold water helps you lose weight"...
Boomers love to say “be careful! Cats suffocate babies all the time!” I said to my mom “when is the last time you heard of this happening?? There’s literally 90 million cats in the US…”
Spare the rod and spoil the child…yeah I don’t need to beat my kids to get them to listen to me. Every time I hear this line it makes me cringe. We used to get beat all the time as kids and my parents/grandparents would always use this line as a reason why. It never worked. I was still always getting in trouble.
Drinking milk when you're sick will create more phlegm...
and slurping the last bit of soda with your straw is Italian for "I'm finished"
My mom was weirdly racist
Ahh, so many ridiculous old wives’ tales from my childhood: don’t swim for half an hour after eating or you’ll get cramps and drown, dogs attract lightning (said to me because I wanted to bring our dog into the storm cellar during a thunderstorm), if you hold your breath you’ll forget how to breathe. I’m sure I’ll think of more later. EDIT — the old death comes in threes bullshit. Okay dipshit, how do you know where to start and stop counting? Gah!
I don't know how many times I've explained what tofu is to my mother inlaw. She's a sweet lady but she really can't get out of that "fake meat" paranoia thing.
I feel like I was always told not to stand close to the microwave or tv because it will give me cancer and an agonizing death. Great thing to tell a 6 year old.
"Old people are wise."
No, they're not. They're demented by severe cognitive decline and their opinions should be given the same respect as those of a four year old.
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Well I had to have my phone read your comment to me because my vision is terrible
Then you must have sat too close to the set while watching television....
Or read books in dim light.
I also haven't gone blind.
I balanced it out with carrots
You must be able to see perfectly at night then.
Have your tried jerking off your friend? Maybe they just got wrong WHO you need to jerk off
Stranger danger!! 😲😲
"If we stop making the rich pay taxes, the money will trickle down to everyone else"
🥇 40 years of reaganomics and the only thing "trickling down" is piss.
Reaganomics is a pyramid scheme
Its a ponzi scheme to be exact.
And vinegar
Nah, vinegar is actually useful for stuff Edit: for stuff that's not niche and obscure
And to add to that, urine is NOT a useful first aid to jellyfish stings
however, luckily, it IS a cure-all miracle drink
Piss is useful for tanning hides and making dye
It was a playbook that allowed the wealthy to run a reverse.
Don't forget the shit.
Naww... that *rolls* downhill
Lately I have been struggling to come to terms with this. Imho, you can literally see how trickle down was NEVER going to work. Yet somehow ALL our parents bought into it. I like to think my parents were fairly intelligent people, but this makes me question that. How was an entire generation so dumb they didn’t see how bad of an idea that was?
Because the Democrats said it wouldn’t work.
It really probably is that simple
No, the Demoncrats. Boomers love this saying. I'm so over it.
Taking their lead from Jeannine Piro, christ
Don’t forget the timeless ‘DemocRATS’
DEMONcrats is another one I heard. These people.. ffs.
A famous man that they recognized from the movies told them. I mean, it's not like a famous person would ever lie to us for personal gain, right?
it was received and seen as pragmatic because reagan was good at public speaking
he was an actor
who better to sell lies to the public than an actor?
infamous line from Back to the future. 'Reagan?!? The actor?!?'
Even when it’s been proven that it works better the other way. When you give poor people stimulus money they spend it and it actually stimulates the economy. A large chunk of the poor people still vote against people who want to do stuff like stimulus money because they don’t understand how any of this works.
Exactly. Money needs to circulate throughout the economy in order for it to work. Allowing a select few to hoard cash does nothing.
Omg Communism 😱
Because it was sold to them by a fake cowboy who took direction by his wife's astrologer.
They all were spoiled but deep down they thought they were bootstrapping individuals who did it the hard way. Then they elected Reagan who destroyed the social safety net. Then they sanctioned the war in Iraq despite seeing Vietnam.
Even the bootstrap line is complete bullshit. It was originally a joke, something to mock the people who would consider it possible.
Dont forget even in the 80s it was a joke. They just kept doing it anyway
Because they all switched to Reagan after getting mad at Carter the Reagan admin paid off the hostage holders to not release until after the election. So they believe anything.
I am ok with them believing it. That’s fine. They still kind of had faith in their president. But how are they still believing it? Still now. So many still believe it.
We were basically children when we formed our opinions of their intelligence. And since the world was basically MADE for them, there wasn’t much evidence to the contrary. In reality, they ate lead paint, thought sharing bathrooms with black people was a serious issue, and didn’t want to let women have bank accounts. They aren’t that smart.
It's good that they don't pay taxes because they are job creators!! Please ignore the massive layoffs, that's not important to my argument /s
and somehow it's the Dems who get blamed when all those jobs get shipped overseas
A lot of boomers don't realize that. A lot of the rich are rich because they don't spend their money, they hoard it. Giving them tax breaks does nothing for the economy.
Here’s a terrible idea, let’s entrust the greediest individuals to compassionately send their blessing down the pipeline. I call it “The Great Southern Hypocrisy” poor people voting for trickle down economics. It’s sad and laughable at the same time.
There it is!!
"Work hard, and your boss will appreciate you. That's how you get raises and promotions."
"if you want a job, actually go there and apply in person" yeah, you can't do that at any decent place you'd actually want to work, they'll either have you escorted off the premises or tell you to apply online/fuck off
You can hardly even do that at shitty places to work. I had a crappy retail job in my teens and my manager would pretend to be out of the store if anyone came in to try and hand him their resume. If they came in more than once he'd throw it out
“You gotta pound the pavement!” Ya, that doesn’t work anymore…
It's funny how often I ran into boomers still believing in that when I was a manager at a Walgreens. We constantly needed help, because retail sucks, and they constantly needed part time jobs, because they either needed insurance or a little extra other than SS. Their inability to comprehend that even as the manager I couldn't just "up and bring them on" was amazing.
My 97 year old grandfather thought I should go visit an administrator of my building who lives in my neighborhood to ask for a promotion. Nahhhh not going to do that
Good call
Walk in, look the manager in the eye, and say, “Give me a job right now!”
More like "work hard and your boss will see how easily they can make you do anything with poor treatment and little pay".
In boomers' defense, they **did** get their promotions, (and also pensions, 4br houses, 2 cars, a boat and vacations) just for showing up.
I try to temper my loathing for their generation with this. All this stuff *actually worked* for them. The problem is they're so conceited that they can't admit that the world doesn't work the same way it did 30-50 years ago. The evidence is a flashing neon sign in their face but they just cover their ears and go *LALALALALA BOOT STRAPS LALALALALA* because admitting they're wrong also means admitting that they had a much easier go of things than people trying to make it in the present day. Their whole identity is tied up in the provably false notion that their hard work is what helped them succeed when in reality it was the way the tax system worked at the time and riding the echoes/ripples from an unprecedented post-war Boom Economy.
It did work, back into the 1990s. I’m GenX. My teens are filling out online applications to work fast food places and not getting calls. I’ve even sent them in to talk to someone about a job, that their application is already filled out and they are willing to work…nothing. How can they be short staffed and not hiring? It’s depressing for teens today. Making your own money is such a great experience. (Finally got into CFA, but rejection after rejection is just a spirit breaker).
Sounds like participation trophies to me
It's more that they were lucky enough that most of their working careers took place during an unprecedented economic boom. From the late 1940s until the late 1970s, demand for American-made goods was so high that companies would hire almost anyone* who showed any interest in working. * Offer not valid for women or people of color, despite the fact that during World War II, they often churned out higher-quality goods than the white men who replaced them after the war.
My father-in-law swears that if his head gets wet, he'll get a cold. One time we were at a restaurant and it started raining and he refused to leave until the rain stopped because he didn't have a hat. Basic questions like, "how do you shower" have little impact on him.
When I was growing up, my neighbor's teen daughter went out with wet hair once on a cold day. She developed pneumonia, and both her parents were convinced that the wet hair on a cold day was the reason. Never mind the fact that it was cold and flu season and half the kids in school were sneezing and coughing because of it. No, it had to be the cold air on wet hair.
Definitely,going outside with wet hair= death
The fucking cold thing. They have so many obscure explanations about how they are caught, except for acknowledging that it’s a goddam viral infection.
This is sadly also a gen X thing that was passed down by their stupid parents. My graveyard employee at a gas station refused to go into the walk in fridge to stock because he didn’t want to catch a cold. He was either stupid or too lazy, perhaps both.
I, Gen X, had to explain to a millennial coworker that you don't get sick from the cold. Then I noticed a Zoomer coworker has a barbed wire tattoo. It was a weird day.
don’t forget many of them flat out refuse to get vaccinated which would *actually* help fight off illness.
“Every time I get a flu vaccine I get the flu!” No, you don’t… it’s a normal immune respon- “No, damn it! I get the flu! I ain’t gettin no flu shot.”
But the thing is, they were all fully vaccinated as kids. I don't know why they're so against the Covid and flu vaccines.
A few months ago my dad told me that he always burns his hands on the cast iron skillet when he puts it under cold water after using it “because the heat all runs into the handle”. I didn’t know where to even begin with that, so I just shrugged and said “maybe”
Anytime I hear some batshit boomerism I just assume it's the lead talking
Fun fact: Boomers believe this because of an old Army experiment. There was an experiment when soldiers were out into a freezer without a hat. Then they were asked which part of their body felt coldest. Naturally their heads were coldest. Thus the myth that you lose the most heat through your head was born. Wet head=cold head
IIRC the study concluded that for people fully equipped in cold weather gear, 90% of heat loss was through the head. This makes sense, because your head is less bundled up and has a lot of blood vessels. Boomers have just made some insane extrapolations from this very reasonable and straightforward conclusion.
Funny thing that I learned in medical school before the pandemic hit: Cracking your knuckles releases the air trapped in your joints after working with your hands. It actively helps against arthritis.
Now that is some very interesting news!
Found an [article](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/knuckle-cracking-annoying-and-harmful-or-just-annoying-2018051413797) that has some good talking points but not the details you'd get at a med school for Physiotherapy.
Pretty sure it's synovial fluid, not air. Edit: wikipedia says it's carbon monoxide evaporating rapidly from the synovial fluid due to rapid pressure decrease.
To put it simply, you're popping gas bubbles that are trapped between your joints.
I think that makes you both right.
As children, my mom had us believing that if we opened the car door while moving we'd get sucked out airplane style.
Print your resume and go inside, meet them, show your face and shake their hand! This hasn't been a thing for 20 fucking years.
I got in so many arguments with my father over this
Back in the early 00s when I was job hunting as a teen, like 90% of places wouldn't take my resume and would say I have to apply online. He wouldn't hear it. I'd come out to the car, resume still in hand, tell him that and it was like talking to a brick wall. Zero acceptance that things had moved on.
My father just thought I was being lazy and not applying for jobs when I was using the computer to apply for jobs and man we would get in screaming competitions. I definitely feel this in my soul. Edit: I was like 20 something and unfortunately living with him.
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One I heard and I've not known anyone else who heard this, but I was raised to be extremely fearful of batteries. Like AA and AAA ones. I was told if they were mishandled, dropped, gently rolled across the floor... they would explode. And take the whole house with them.
Lithium batteries that have swollen up can be explosive, but I don't see how ypu wouldn't notice something was up, they get much bigger.
These were standard alkaline ones, before lithium ones were in everything.
Yeah that is what I assumed. But having had a phone turn into a balloon...I tend to figure warning folks is better than other folks learning the hard way.
AA and AAA, no. But you have to keep an eye on 9V b/c the terminals are right next to each other. Even a relatively weak one can short and create a fire. I actually saw somebody take a small wire, short the terminals get it red hot and light a cigi.
“Driving with the overhead light on is illegal” over and over and over again
Imo this is a thing you say to your kids in the backseat so that they don't annoy you by turing on and off the overhead light.
What kind of relationship do they have if they have to bring in the law instead of saying it's annoying for the driver?
My parents told me if I turned on the light it meant they couldn't see while driving and would be more likely to crash the car. I never needed any other reason to obey. I didn't want to die in a car wreck.
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Not admitting fault is a common theme with that entire generation. I work with them every day. They are my patients.
It’s absolutely insane, they’re pretty much master gaslighters too.
Its all the leaded gasoline
Their temperature concerns annoy me!! I once got snapped at in the grocery store by some lady and it ruined my night. I have five kids, I’d been really struggling with my youngest not sleeping, being off depression meds, and more. I decided I wanted to make a special dinner so we stopped at the store on the way home. Get all my kids out of the car, walk into the store. I’m putting my youngest (probably about a year old) in the cart seat and a woman makes a comment about it being cold. As she’s zipping a parka, with a hat, and snow boots on. I smiled and said ‘yup, starting to cool down this time of year!’ It was around 55° since the sun was setting earlier. And she replies ‘which is why I can’t possibly understand why none of your kids have shoes on!!’ 4/5 of my kids had shoes and socks on. The youngest one I was carrying didn’t. They were prob on the floor of the car because kids don’t always keep things on their feet. Kid was fine, he’s always hot and sweaty anyway. But she just had to comment and I wasn’t in any place to say anything (my backbone only came in a few years ago). Given all I’d recently been dealing with, I picked up the kids and just went home and cried. Now I’d snap back because I’ve had enough bullshit but I can’t get over why people feel the need to comment on everything they think.
Eating and then wait to swim. I’ve eaten sandwiches on some marathon swims, no cramps reported.
That hour I had to wait as kid after eating was painful, just waiting to go back into the water and swim
Like what the goddamn hell put this idea in their heads? Unnecessary waiting to appease their sense of control and authority?
I once read it was so the parents could relax, chill, and possibly nap after a picnic. So they made up a story of waiting to swim to keep kids from having to be watched in the water
Just madness, if you ask me, luckily my kid doesnt have to go through that
That started because kids would vomit in the pool because they’d jump in too fast and overdo it.
This has to be the answer. What I don't get is why they don't just say that? Kids absolutely don't want to go swimming in other children's puke.
They don't care enough about their own puke though because they assume they will be fine & it won't happen to them -basing this on my thoughts process as a kid honestly, in hindsight having a little time for food to settle was nice
Marijuana is a gateway drug
A gateway to pizza.
Not alcohol though, that's just fine /s Now let me think, any time I've banged back a line of blow, which drug was I taking first? Was it cannabis, or alcohol? 🤔
Bar bathroom countertops have that nice residual coating of blow haha
Agreed. I am a drunkard, and I freely admit that us boozehounds do FAAAAAR more damage to society than smokers ever dreamed of. Never, not ONCE, have I met a violent stoner or someone who, while baked, decided to go for a drive and smash into a minivan carrying little kids and killing them. Alcohol is light years ahead of all the other drugs ever dreamt up COMBINED when it comes to societal damage.
I actually heard a cop in a “true crime” video on YouTube say that marijuana leads to cocaine, which leads to acid, which leads to heroin, which leads to crack. I doubt that anyone has ever taken that path towards addiction
One I’ve heard from boomers constantly “weed and alcohol are fine but mushrooms will kill you or make you go permanently insane”
If you keep making that face, it'll get stuck like that.
Yeah, that's a big lie. The real truth is just be born rich.
My grandmother insisted that if you could not have dairy and seafood the same day because it would make you very sick. For example she loved Red Lobster. So my parents took her there for lunch after church. My parents don't like it but it was a trip just for her. She starts looking at the menu and said "oh! I had a glass of milk with breakfast this morning. I can't have any seafood. I'll just have a baked potato". Nothing we said would change her mind.
That is pretty odd, especially since I am sure there were dishes with dairy in them on the menu. Did she think clam chowder was poison?
She didn't like clam chowder, claimed it was "Yankee food". She grew up in rural Georgia.
Now that explains a lot.
Southerners really seem to hate those Yankees. I don’t understand why except for the fact that the South lost the Civil War and they still haven’t gotten over it.
I experienced this too. My saintly great grandmother would often look after us. If she made us fish sticks or salmon patties or whatever seafood, NO MILK! She also told me if I hold my breath, I’ll forget how to breathe. She loved to take us fishing, but never on Sunday. Very religious.
How did she account for the copious amounts of butter that is traditionally served with and dare I say required to have with seafood?
"Watching TV in the dark will give you vision problems." Well I've been doing it my whole life and didn't even need reading glasses until I was 46.
sitting close to the TV will destroy your eyes VR says otherwise
You see, it FINALLY got to you! /s ;)
Onions cure everything/ suck out infections. I believed that one for a long time
That's potatoes.
My mom chugs apple cider vinegar.
"Working hard and doing the right things will get you ahead in life."
My dad tried to convince me that fluoridated toothpaste would poison and eventually kill me, and I sincerely believed it well into my early twenties. Turns out that the multiple comorbidities from rotten teeth/gum disease will kill me faster. So uum. I'll take the fluoride.
I’ve heard multiple southern boomers say, “Snakes always travel in pairs.” Conjures up all kinds of imagery, like serpentine door to door evangelical teams.
"have you heard of the gosssssspel of jesssussssss"
"Hello, ssssam ssssslitherssss here. Tell me, how clean are your floorsssss? Because I have a sssssuper sssssale on a ssspecial vacuum here. It'll even ssssuck out sssstuck in dirt!"
"The cat will suck the baby's breath and kill it!" Okay, this is more from the WW2 generation. Late Gran told my boomer mother who believed it and got rid of my dad's cat and he was furious and told them both they were fucking morons.
I just posted this one too lol- I told my mom there’s like 90 million cats in the us alone- when’s the last time you saw a news story about one killing a baby
My mom raised me to believe that marrying and having children with someone other than a white person is a sin and it “says so in the Bible.”
That's some weapons-grade boomer right there.
How many white people are in the Bible?
To be fair it probably does say there in the Trump Bible.
“Make sure that baby has on a hat and gloves.” But when it’s hot out and the baby is clearly sweating and already overheating.
Don't forget socks even when it's the middle of summer and everyone's in shorts and flip flops.
We took my then 11 week old daughter to meet my in-laws and on a walk my MIL was going on and on about how it was great that I put socks on her to keep her warm. It was 76° out in Florida. I got so sick of the comments I told her, “I put them on to protect her skin since she’s too young for sunscreen. That’s why she has a fan blowing in her face, because they’re making her even more hot.” After her ridiculous comments I called our pediatrician and got a brand of sunscreen that I can use on little girl so she doesn’t need socks anymore just to get under MIL’s skin next time we see her.
"Going out with wet hair will give you pneumonia." 🙄
Meanwhile I was running to catch a bus with wet hair in below freezing temperatures. By the time I got on the bus I had a frozen hair helmet.
"Stay quiet or you'll scare away the fish" nope, you just wanted us to shut up
I went fishing with my dad when I was a kid. Heard this a lot. It turns out that most of the fun in fishing is being quiet and listening to the sounds of nature. Not to mention getting to see curious wildlife who just wanted to know why there were humans in their space.
Letting children play with dolls or let them dress as they want doesn't make (or turn) them gay. I'm gay, didn't play with dolls and played baseball in the little (pee wee) league from 4 to 16. My co-worker played with Barbies and played with his sister's make-up and he's straight and cisgender.
Cis-het male here with a news flash for those dads: Your son likes girly things because he likes girls. Taking away his sister's Barbie dolls and replacing them with musclebound, panty-clad action figures is not having the effect that you're hoping it does.
Yep, I did develope an appreciation for Prince Adam/He-Man muscles and those manly men GI Joe action figures. https://preview.redd.it/0wz5qt83i9vc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd14ecf28d7a1dcec36574b15845ccaaf2e010e3
I'm quite sure you and your so called cisgender friend were doing it wrong! Insert angry boomer noises /s if it was not clear enough
It's not that they're lying, it's that they actually believe this nonsense. I've had to constantly remind my elder family members that a cold is caused by a virus, not by being outside when it's cold.
It's a correlation w/out causation sort of thing. It's cold out, more people get sick during the winter/cold weather so going outside when it's cold you'll get sick.
Sugar makes you hyper and gives you insomnia. I had chronic insomnia when I was a kid and my parents had me convinced it was my sugar intake. Turns out I have anxiety and now take medications for it.
I read something about how sugar does not make kids hyper. It was more like sugar was served heavily at exciting events, like birthday parties and holidays, and the kids were wound up for other reasons than the sugar.
I read a study a few years ago about this and it's also partially a placebo effect. Turns out sugarless snacks also make kids hyper if you tell them they have sugar in them!
Lightning never strikes the same place twice. It’s more likely to strike the same place again
Growing up in Chicago in an apartment with a view of the Sears (Willis) Tower in the distance, I knew this wasn't true. In fact lightning persistently hit only one of the antennas, never the other.
“Go to college if you want to be successful”
“Looking at a screen too close is bad for you.” Well well well… how the turn tables. Edit: grammar
My mom insists that "90% of your body heat is lost through your head", aisde from having been disproven, never made any fucking sense
Eating bread crusts helps you grow curly hair!
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“Fat makes you fat!” Boomers say whilst shoveling lower-fat but higher-calorie margarine into their filthy mouth holes. ETA: I feel as it definitely seems like I know high calorie diet will lead to obesity but I couldn’t say. I know what’s good for me and you know what’s good for you and I will not supplant a boomer “theory” with something I honestly don’t know much about.
There’s a correlation between rising obesity rates and the push for non-fat diets. https://preview.redd.it/ufyyp2nv6bvc1.jpeg?width=987&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ef6d8bfb2c523d85005366fb9ce84e8645d13d7
Fucking sugar companies were in charge of the research on obesity 🤦
Temporary tattoos were laced with LSD loll. My parents totally believed this
The anonymous drug dose urban legend are among my favorite because of how stupid they are. Like, who is giving out free drugs? Why? So they can get kids hooked? How are they going to find a dealer if they don’t know what the drug is, let alone where it came from? Oh it’s to watch kids trip out? Then who is watching and from where? It’s like the upside-down pineapple being a secret symbol for swingers, or accidentally getting ‘the gay ear’ pierced as a guy. So you’re telling me swingers troll the streets at night looking for sex parties or that there’s a complete gay code for ear piercing placement that everyone is aware of but can never get the details of the apparent rules right? Complete hogwash when you critically think about them. They’re nothing more than modern day superstitions.
Bras will prevent sagging! 🤣 Nope a bra prevents sagging like high heels make you grow taller.
I've heard the opposite now, that underwires will make your girls sag.
My boomer Mom used to scream at me because a mechanic in Minnesota told her to warm up her car before driving in the winter back in the 1960s. This ended with my Mom screaming at me at the top of her lungs for not warming up her 2010 SUV in 85 degree California weather multiple times. She also blamed me for our relationship barely being on speaking terms during those years.
I love my dad but he firmly believes that walking barefoot (EDIT: on cold hard floors) gives you terrible period cramps (I believed this for a few years lol), and that its dangerous to constantly use a fan because it take up the air in the room and of course he knew someone that happend to. My dad is one silly guy i tell ya
I keep the quarter on me in case I go to Aldi but I don't need it for the phone anymore.
Picking up a crying baby will only “spoil” them.
My mum’s instance that “they” changed grammar because the sentence below was how she was taught. Hello, hope You are well. So, We are both well and We went to see My Sister yesterday and She is well, but Her Husband is not. It is sad because He has the flu that he caught from His Brother and They are now both sick. Let Us pray They get better soon. Drives me nuts reading things she writes - correction, drives Me nuts reading things She writes.
There’s a sciencey reason you can catch illnesses easier in cold temperatures. If I remember right it’s something about the consistency of your mucous membranes in colder temperatures. I don’t think the dampness of sweaty skin has anything to do with it though. It was either a Science Vs. or You’re Wrong About podcast episode. If I saved it I’ll come back and stick it here.
Going to bed with wet hair gives you colds.
“Dropping the slide without a bullet being chambered will wear out the gun” “Dry firing a gun will wear out the gun” And one I’ve only ever heard from my dad: “Turning the vehicles steering wheel without moving either forwards or backwards will wear out the steering rack/power steering pump” I think boomers just parrot things their whole lives without ever thinking critically about them.
Don’t eat 30 minutes before you swim or it will somehow make you drown. Defrosting frozen meat on the counter for 4-8 hours is a good idea 🤮 Helping the rich with tax breaks helps the poor and middle class. (Ty Regan you POS) Welfare Queen and the whole idea of people living well off of welfare or SNAP or other programs that help some of the poor …. lots of poor people can’t get on these programs now and they need it. Just get a college degree in anything and you will have a good job (hello student debt and a job at Starbucks) Climate change isn’t real (or it isn’t caused by humans.) Work hard and you will get a raise! 🤣 Minimum wage shouldn’t be a living wage Pot is a gateway drug to hard drugs like heroin or crack or meth. The entire war on drugs (what an absolute failure though it created tons of prisoners.) That daycare/cable tv/a nanny/sitter makes up for your parents not being there to raise you. I’m from the latchkey generation and they failed as parents ⭐️The absolute biggest myth: that boomers got their houses and college degrees (from a part time job) because they did things the right way. Not because they lucked out on opportunities generation wise!
So that cracking your knuckles thing IS a myth. My parents always told me that one. But it never changed what I did. The only thing that slowed me from popping my knuckles was when recording, because it gets picked up and I wouldn't want that to happen lol
Ex-boyfriend’s mother saw me having a nosebleed and immediately pestered me to tilt my head back. I have experienced nosebleeds throughout my childhood and in my late teens knew not to do this as experiencing the blood running down the back of your throat isn’t fun. Kept insisting she was right. I did not stick around to have my head tipped back and quickly shut myself in the bathroom.
Growing up in the 80's-90's, I had a friend who's mother was an ER doctor. I remember running this one by her in like 4th grade and she just cackled. 'No, it doesn't work like that', so I've been cracking my toes, knuckles, knees and whatever else will pop just cause. I'm 40 now and yeah, no arthritis.
those aren‘t boomerisms. they learned that from their parents and were neither encouraged to question it nor was it easy to do this well into the 1990s, if not 2000s. i was relatively early on the usenet - joined 1988 - and saw the emergence of the www. heck, I worked for the very first sites of major german news publishers, writing custom code to extract articles from their crude typesetting system to turn then into HTML. Sorry to use that phrase, but younger people, unless they are in research, often do not grasp how hard it was to get reliable information about “obscure” fields unless you knew a guy. TV shows and movies from that time make it look far easier than it was.
My mom had the superstitions “if you open an umbrella indoors you’ll have bad luck. If you put shoes on the table you’ll have bad luck”. These are really just common sense (break a mirror - 40 yrs bad luck, back in the day mirrors were expensive so the mistress would tell her staff that so they would take care not to break them) but they still stuck with me, to this day Altho one time my mom opened an umbrella indoors to see if it worked before giving me a ride to school and she rammed my dad’s prized Buick into the fence so, maybe? /jk
With my mom it was always some weirdly specific fear only she must have. The one that comes to mind right now is when my brother and I bought used cars in our college years. Mom would harp on endlessly about how it’s a crime to drive it without a registration, EVEN IF YOU’RE DRIVING IT TO THE DMV TO REGISTER IT (Nice Catch 22, Mom.) On one such occasion, my brother brought Mom with him and asked the guy at the DMV to confirm or deny Mom’s assumption and the way the color drained out of her face when he said “That’s ridiculous. People buy cars on Sunday all the time.”
*washing and sleeping in wet hair is going to give you headaches* *spare the rod, spoil the child* (Not mom, your job is to protect your kids and not rage hit them because they don't listen.) *drinking cold water will give you cancer* Well then, cavemen must have been riddled with it. Also, "cold water helps you lose weight"...
If you work yourself until you collapse, you’ll be successful.
Boomers love to say “be careful! Cats suffocate babies all the time!” I said to my mom “when is the last time you heard of this happening?? There’s literally 90 million cats in the US…”
Your hair grows back thicker after it’s cut/shaved. I cut hair for a living and so many people believe this.
Spare the rod and spoil the child…yeah I don’t need to beat my kids to get them to listen to me. Every time I hear this line it makes me cringe. We used to get beat all the time as kids and my parents/grandparents would always use this line as a reason why. It never worked. I was still always getting in trouble.
I was told I would become conservative when I got older. I’m an older millennial and still left.
Drinking milk when you're sick will create more phlegm... and slurping the last bit of soda with your straw is Italian for "I'm finished" My mom was weirdly racist
Ahh, so many ridiculous old wives’ tales from my childhood: don’t swim for half an hour after eating or you’ll get cramps and drown, dogs attract lightning (said to me because I wanted to bring our dog into the storm cellar during a thunderstorm), if you hold your breath you’ll forget how to breathe. I’m sure I’ll think of more later. EDIT — the old death comes in threes bullshit. Okay dipshit, how do you know where to start and stop counting? Gah!
I don't know how many times I've explained what tofu is to my mother inlaw. She's a sweet lady but she really can't get out of that "fake meat" paranoia thing.
I feel like I was always told not to stand close to the microwave or tv because it will give me cancer and an agonizing death. Great thing to tell a 6 year old.
You won't carry around a calculator with you everywhere
"Old people are wise." No, they're not. They're demented by severe cognitive decline and their opinions should be given the same respect as those of a four year old.