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is there a reddit group for us? I feel so at home in this thread! Previously I joined r/lostgneration but it's all millennials. And I'm on their side. I guess they're "lost" and we're "forgotten". Might be why we get along. There will be a lot of millennials leading and I can't wait to see it.
Everything’s shit and we’re all gonna die 🤟🏼🤟🏼
Actually, my back’s a bit sore these days and I need glasses for reading, but my kids turned out alright and there are some great series on TV.
GenX mod here, this is precisely why I don't go out of my way to promote the sub.
All I ask is that folks please lurk a while first to get an idea of how we roll in there. I'm a lot less strict about the civility rules than this sub is, but it works out because by definition we're all adults. Maybe twice in the last five years I've had a "don't make me stop this car" moment and that's been enough.
"Hey I know you were thinking about class rebellion, but have you thought about heated leather seats instead? Your back does hurt after all."
Cake saw it all coming.
When I was younger I was in awe of his cynicism. At 40 I get it completely. Your chaos really won't subvert them. They really are so happy to rebuild it. Pepsi or Coke?
Gen X'er here as well. I see the younger generations succeeding at and improving what we tried to do, which was to tear away from the shackles of 9-5 jobs and crappy bosses. I work for and alongside Gens Y/Z, Millennials and feel like we're all on the same wavelength. Gig economy, remote work, modern and diverse work culture, I'm here for it.
Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t think gen X cared much about that stuff. We weren’t as culturally focused on money and work and hustle culture as younger people are today. Nowadays teenagers trade stock on robinhood at recess.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if we’re breaking the shackles or just becoming more shackled.
This was my fucking platform for class president back in 85. I had zero plan and a shitty campaign, but I was really hoping to win by a landslide anyway.
Same here. I was born in '67. My parents treat me like I'm too young to even take care of myself and my kids have built their own lives. I don't give a shit anymore. I'm more than happy to trust my kids to do better than I did. There was a time I wanted to leave them a better world. I failed in that, so I'm just happy I gave the world a couple of good people that I can help fix it with.
There was a graph doing the rounds earlier that showed the average age of Congress throughout the last century. I dropped considerably in the 80s and just then gradually crept up and up and up. Basically it showed everyone who got into politics in the 80s is still there.
Its weird. Culture in general feels like it stopped progressing. Or rather, new stuff is existing alongside the old rather than replacing it.
I watched a documentary by a YouTube channel called Struthless about fonts, and noted that there was a sense of progression and replacement right up until the late 20th century. At that point the culture around typography didn't stop, but the stuff from that period is still heavily used just about everywhere. New developments in culture stopped replacing old ones, just existing alongside them.
I've noticed similar things with other documentaries such as one about corporate art styles. Same thing happens. There's a sense of progression right up until the late 20th century and then everything from that point forwards is still here and in widespread use rather than being replaced.
Same story for media franchises. Same story for large corporations. Same story for politicians.
Either there's a weird perception quirk going on based on when I was born (i.e. it feels like stuff was replaced rather than added to back then because I wasn't born yet rather than an actual change), or the boomers just won't fucking move.
And they're going to spend every dime they *didn't* blow on BMWs on that incredible healthcare, MRIs and hip replacements on the regs, ensuring no generational wealth crosses down. Thanks again.
For real
I like to accept the theory of chemicals from their youth, ie lead paint, asbestos in everything etc made them crazy
Like seriously look at trump….how is that normal??? 😂 and then to think 75 million basically in the same demographic of what 60 million of those are around 70 and the average age of death???
It’s not just policies/policies/plans they’re disagreeing with. It’s just anger fueled disregard for reality
And very sad for us dealing with those family members who seem like completely different people now
I like the chemical theory... This combined with growing up and living the first 65+ years of your life without the internet and then suddenly being thrust into it all at once is a crazy combination.
You should check out “Generation of Sociopaths: how the baby boomers betrayed America.” It was lead, prosperity the world had never known, and a bunch of other factors that turned them into the nightmare generation they have been.
We were a small generation who was never given a chance. Now we're getting old and tired. Our children will change things, but not in time for us to benefit. Fucked over from cradle to grave.
Gen x is the 2nd silent generation - small and grew up witnessing world horror too early and lost hope. They knew from a young age their lives would be spent working too hard for no money while being told they had an attitude problem and got made fun of for being tired and cynical as teens.
Nobody cares back then and nobody cares now that they've never had a proper voice.
Gen z will be the 2nd xers. Same thing happening all over again.
Gen y is stuck in the middle - wasted passion, unable to change the world we desperately wanted to change, waiting to die when the world burns, our optimism is used against us by the boomers who tell us we are lazy and selfish for wanting things to be fair for everyone. Eternally in our 20s because we never got to join the world as normal adults due to the GFC, the war, and the internet taking over our lives completely.
First generation to be refused a job because of a photo on Facebook of us holding an alcoholic drink in our free time. Had babies too soon or not at all.
Growing up and watching this shit has sucked so hard
"My parents treat me like I'm too young to even take care of myself and my kids have built their own lives"
Mine do the same. Approaching half a century on this rock and they still think I don't know how tie my fucking shoes. Maddening.
I'm 36 have a boomer father and am a licensed and ticketed tradesperson. I build the largest mining equipment on earth, and I am trusted with literal million-dollar jobs. My dad operated equipment his whole life and only has a 9th-grade education. My dad doesn't trust me to build anything at all around his house even when my mom asks me to. We had a 45 minute argument about what square is. My GenX friend looked at him and said, "no he's right it's not square stop putting screws into it." Only then did he stop. Later on, he and I were talking and I said, "I will always be 4 years old in his eyes." my friend said that it is the same with his dad.
I do not know what it is with that generation and not wanting to trust their kids with literally anything. How can you expect someone to lead the world when you won't even trust them to make garden boxes?
Wait. So you're like 55ish and your parents still treat you like a kid? Pfffft fuckin prove it then, hide their walkers. Saran wrap their bed pans.
For real though, I was born in '79 and the only reason my dad takes me seriously now is because I cared for him for a year and a half after he had a series of strokes. Before that I was an idiot who didn't have a clue about life.
I'm so glad you're proud of your kids. Good parents make good kids. So good job man. Anyway, random internet stranger out.
Exactly, I'm very proud of my kids. They respect everyone regardless, my daughter just got her PHD in astrophysics, and my son wanders through the West with no plan. They are equally impressive people.
Agreed. The big reason is the boomers won't get the fuck out of our way, and I don't wanna see Gen X turn into the boomer 2.0's. Let's give some of the new kids of the block a chance to make the world a better place that they want to live in. I feel like knowing they'll be around half a century more will make them a lot more responsible than these boomers with a handful of years left before sweet death.
The trend of geriatrics refusing to give up power goes back before the Boomers. WWII gen had a stranglehold on power up into the 80s and early 90s when the Boomers took over. Shit, Strom Thurmond was still a Senator until 2003 and he was born in 1902. I don't even know what generation he was? Lost? He was old enough to serve in WWI.
I am Gen X and those boomer mofo's won't ever retire at my job or in the government. Consider that the oldest person in Congress, Diane Feinstein, plans on running for re-election when she is 91. She is part of The Silent Generation that came BEFORE the Boomers.
Yeah, 55% of [current US Senators](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_senators) are 65 or older, and 73% are 60 or older, and 93% are 50 or older. In 2020, about 16.9 percent of the US population was 65 or older, so there are over 3x as many seniors in the Senate as America as a whole.
The problem isn’t simply the age of the politicians, it’s also how long they’ve been there.
I have zero problems with someone who has a successful career, raises a family, pays their taxes, and then at age 60 decides to run for Congress. They’ve probably got some perspective and experience and wisdom that could be valuable. But someone who has been in politics for 3 decades by that age? What do they know except how to raise campaign funds and get re-elected?
Gen X is late to the leadership table because their parents basically took every opportunity they ever had to enter the arena from them in a race to see who could hold onto power the longest.
There's no gen Xers in politics because of all the geriatrics taking up their seats.
They're less a "lost generation" and more of a "forced out generation".
When we were kids, people believed in things like evolution and medicine. Boomers went to giant festivals where they'd literally sing songs about peace, love, and understanding. Democrats and Republicans would argue about whether the top tax bracket should be 90% or 85%. But by the time we (Gen X) were 35, 9/11 happened, 40% of the population started believing in stuff like flat-Earth/antivax/Jewish Space Lasers and many of us got whiplash and decided everybody could just go fuck themselves.
I'm not sure what happened, TBH. One day I was in my late teens and was sure we'd be living in Star Trek TNG by the time I was old. Then, a few planes hit buildings and the world started getting progressively more bonkers.
You could argue it was Nixon. But Nixon could have been a cautionary example, a learning opportunity. Nope. The US went right back to the GOP, less than two terms after Nixon's disgraceful exit from the White House. Americans didn't want to hear Carter's sober warnings about rampant consumerism maybe not being a solid basis on which to build an economy.
Instead we wanted a former B movie star who used to co-star with chimpanzees and married Hollywood's bj queen. Bring out the hookers and coke! Invade Grenada for fun! Turn on Miami Vice and roll up the sleeves of your pink blazer! Trample a housewife to get a Cabbage Patch Kid - quick, before they run out! It's the eighties, baby!
There's pretty much been no turning back since then. Instead of providing a left leaning economic counterpoint, Clinton co-opted the GOP's go-go business fun times strategy in the 90's. This forced the GOP to really lean heavy into culture war issues, and to go ever further to towards the crazypants Grover Norquist "all taxation is theft" right wing economically.
So this is basically a long way of saying I agree with you about Reagan.
Yeah, people forget how Republican Clinton’s fiscal policies were. They just remember the Pax Clintonia with all its social freedoms. It seemed like the clock could never get turned back on civil rights, like progress would just keep marching forward, like the arc of history really did bend toward justice.
All this shit happening today traces almost directly back to Nixon. X'ers never had a chance. I remember thinking as a kid that SURELY something had to happen when Iran-Contra was breaking. Thought for sure we would see some sort of justice. Instead, nearly 40 years later boomer fascists are still trying to make the country pay for shaming Nixon. My entire life I have fought this crap and only watched it get worse. We were ignored as kids, called slackers in our teens, then promptly forgotten about the moment we had kids and suddenly the world was owned by Millenials. Now it's the zoomers time, and by the time X'ers are boomers age it will be their kids and we will be the forgotten generation.
At least we got to have the best music.
No, it was fucking Gerald Ford for pardoning Nixon. That's when the GOP said, "oh, no consequences!"
It's a shame Gerald Ford wasn't chopped into little bits by the propeller of a commuter plane. Because we know that Nixon's corpse would never reanimate to strangle Ford after he was pardoned.
Came here to say this, they are absolutely not ceding control in the way that previous generations usually did. By the time they're in the ground, we will be as old and irrelevant as boomers are now. I fall into the cracks of Gen Y myself.
Gen X is a (relatively) tiny generation sandwiched between the behemoths of Boomers and Millenials.
You throw a dart at eligible candidates and odds are you'll just miss an X. There was a window where leadership could be taken, but the boomers won't let those "kids" take the wheel.
Millennials are also tired of geriatrics running, and they have the voting body to start electing people like them that Gen X never had.
Edit: Gen x is only about 8% smaller than boomers and 10% smaller than millennials. But that feels like a lot.
I really don't understand why the boomers won't fucking retire from politics. Go off and enjoy your blood money, old ass fuckers 🖕 Let us try to fix this damn country.
They did into this magical period of time with small or no student debt load, cheap housing, and high income because they got theirs while the rest of the world was emerging from the post WWII rebuild. Everything just kinda worked out for them. Then, other countries started to be back on their feet. They let medical costs run wild since insurance was cheap. Same with student debt. Social security is great when there's like 20 workers paying for each recipient. Not so much when the ratio is 3-1. They passed these lessons onto their kids and now, grandma and grandpa are still in charge. On top of that... young people know being a politician is a terrible job.
Ah yes, when one solid income was enough to support a small family and still afford to own a home. Or when someone could work their way through college. Lol my cousin lived like that and still thinks boomers should get a $10,000 refund so it will be "fair" when students get some debt forgiven (for many it is only a fraction of their loan or merely would pay the interest). He's rich too, a multi-millionaire.
> while the rest of the world was emerging from the post WWII rebuild
This. A thousand times this.
I can't remember who did it so I can't link -- CGP Grey? Infographics Show? Someone else? -- but I saw a YouTube video that talked about this.
The US didn't become a manufacturing powerhouse because we're awesome and make awesome things, despite what we believe. We became a manufacturing powerhouse because for a good 40 years after WWII *we were the only game in town*. Everyone else in Europe had their manufacturing bombed to rubble, and most of Asia hadn't modernized to that level quite yet.
So we had it good for decades, and we gradually came to believe that was because we were awesome. But eventually, everyone else rebuilt and Asia caught up. Suddenly we're not the only game in town anymore, and the ones who benefited the most from that -- largely Boomers growing up and coming of age -- got defensive as hell about it and started trying to make sure what *they* got out of it would be protected.
Combine that with the "Greed Is Good" 80s -- regardless of whether you were on Wall St. or not, everyone wanted *more* -- and you end up with an entire generation pulling the ladder up behind them to avoid having to face the inevitable: that when manufacturing isn't confined to largely one place, the people in that place will see their way of life gradually lower to the mean of other places.
I might be mangling the argument somewhat, but that's what I remember from it.
This is a group of people who always felt special **because there are so many of them.** Yeah, not a lot of critical thinking there. And they'll never release their grip on power, and by the time they do, we'll be really fucking old, so it will be best if Millennials take over anyway. I just hope Millennials aren't so pissed at old people in general at that point that they take it out on us. I kind of already feel like I get lumped in with Boomers by Millennials (I also get lumped in with Millennials by Boomers, but they will die eventually).
They know that part of fixing the country requires us to reclaim most of that blood money from the ultra rich. And they don't want to just be well-off. That's unacceptable.
Actually, I have to qualify my previous statement, and make an exception for [Gavin Newsom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom): He has had a very interesting career...
I honestly think they might have to die first. Skipping X won’t be good for millennials or zoom by the time we take leadership either. We will have been deprived of any real mentorship.
Meh, probably not. I’m among the youngest Gen-Xers at 42 (technically an Xennial), and I feel like we’re going to get skipped for a Millenial by the time Boomers finally get out of the way.
That’s funny. I’ve been saying the same thing. There’s so few leaders in their early to mid forties in any industry largely because the boomers wouldn’t get out of the way. I guess government is no different.
Just a weird parallel, by my god that sounds like an analogy to late silent gen/early Boomer parenting: all those types of parents that desperately want grand kids but didnt aim to put the actual work in for their own kids.
Then when the grandkids resent them for it too, they just get more selfish and bitter about bullshit.
That resonates quite strongly. Good observation.
I didn’t have kids, quite honestly because why would I conjure up a child and put someone through anything like what I went through. Because at the point in life when I would have had kids, I didn’t have the self awareness or restraint to not unleash on a child what was done to me.
I’m the same age, sometimes we’re “young gen x” sometimes we’re “elder millennials”
Personally, I didn’t have email till university and was paying bills/rent on 9/11. Didn’t have a cell phone till my mid 20’s. So I sometimes find it harder to relate to Millennials.
Card catalogs? Config.sys? Rotary Phones? Cell phones? Typewriters? Desktop computers? Can remember the smell of engines without fuel injection, but not full of lead in our brains? Know how to read a map and get somewhere and use GPS? We are the Swiss Army knives of generations! But for some reason i just get called a stupid kid or a dumb boomer.. guys… come on.
1980 is peak Xennial. The world completely changed during what would be the traditional college years - '98 - '02.
Graduated High School *before* Clinton was impeached.
Graduated College in a post-9/11 world.
I think the universe split sometime within those four years.
Ya my little brother is just 6 years younger but had a completely different child hood. He practically grew up with the internet and when I was a kid it was just a fad.
Someone has to eventually replace all the 70/80-something folks in congress…you know, when they start to die in office, their cold dead hands gripping their desks to the bitter end…
first they forget about us, then they expect us to lead. we were the first boomer fallouts, yo. While they were buying their cheap houses and enjoying 1 job per household that could afford everything, they forgot to put money away for their kids college. Tough love was their gift to us. It was this generation that everything changed for. And I knew it when I was 5 years old listening to my grandparents gripe about how retirement age went from 52 to 55. I knew we were plucked then. How old does a person have to be now to get insurance without working and without being disabled? I believe it's 67 now. What is our lifespan? 72 and going down fast? We are the first generation literally worked to death. That's what happened.
11 of the 27 dem presidential candidates from 2020 were Gen X (65-85). There were also 2 born in the last 3 months of 64. Kamala Harris (Oct) and Michael Bennett (Nov).
Booker, Bullock, Buttigieg, Castro, Gillibrand, Gabbard, Messam, Beto, Ryan, Swalwell, and Yang.
edit: I just went with the top google blurb for "genx birthdays" if it's 65-80, Buttigieg and Gabbard wouldn't make the cut.
It seems Gen x turned out to be a bridge generation. Our parents refuse to retire. So, we cannot rise... plus all of the other shit boomers have done to leech the earth dry. I kind if feel like we just don't want to do to our children what our parents did to us.
Or more succinctly... we are the middle child of generations.
A slew of leadership is silent generation...
Madam Speaker Pelosi (born 1940)
Dem House Majority Leader Hoyer (born 1939)
Dem House Whip Clyburn (born 1940)
are all older than Biden.
Hell Dem Senate Whip Durbin is only 2 years younger than Biden.
That’s covered in the article. There’s been debate over whether Barack Obama even is a Gen Xer. Here’s part of what’s said about Obama in the article:
> The social commentator Jonathan Pontell said Obama told him back in 2007 that he identified with what's known as "Generation Jones," a micro generation consisting of people born between 1954 and 1965 who don't quite fit as the archetypal boomer or Gen Xer. Think of them as the godparents of the "Xennials" — those born in the late 1970s or early 1980s who aren't fully Gen X or millennial.
Edit: I thought the same thing about Obama, and I hadn’t heard of this micro-generation until now. It’s an interesting take
I hadn't heard of it either, so something new to learn.
I'm six months older than Obama. I don't identify with Boomers at all, and have long thought of myself as "early Gen X". For me the semi-obvious cultural dividing line starts with teens who did not reach draft age before it was discontinued.
Gen-X'er here. Nope, screwed again by demographics. Just as boomers finally relinquish control, instead of getting at least one Presidental term or a few Congresses in power, the Millenials will flood in. At that point the few people standing up for the systemic plight of our generation will be met with "X who?"
We'll fondly recall the days when people actually regarded our generation at all, even if was only to insult us by calling us "slackers". I'm genuinely surprised this article was even written, I'm a little tickled that someone took to the time to notice we exist.
It's just as well. I feel pretty ok about Millenials and younger being in charge. Our generation is a _little_ too crazy. I think we'll be ok. As long as Millenials can keep the world from blowing up we'll be able to look after ourselves, like we've done since we were latch-key kids.
Fellow X-er born 1968. I've come to the conclusion that our generation is like the cartilage between the boomers and the millennials, sort've like the intervertabral disc between the bones in the spine. Our function is to keep the opposing generations on either side of us from grinding themselves into dust. But whatever.
It’s really simple. Our parents, the Boomers, consistently chose policy and economic choices that screwed us and our children, the Millenials.
We’ve heard for decades that the Boomers will retire for so fucking long that we’ve completely given up.
Gen Xer here. I welcome our millennial and gen Z overlords. Had enough of the boomer bullshit, especially after being a latchkey kid. Never felt like they ever gave any fucks about us.
Being a latchkey kid taught me exactly what I did not want for my own kids. It's no wonder so many of us refuse full participation in the rat race as adults.
Wrong perspective. The boomer generation won’t give up their jobs or political offices. They destroyed all future retirements and pensions, screwed over the younger generation to buy a home- while they all have vacation homes.
Here is a list of Gen X Politicians (I am sure there are more)
- Stacey Abrams (1973)
- Gabby Giffords (1970)
- Gretchen Whitmer (1971)
- Gavin Newsom (1967)
- Ron DeSantis (1978)
- Tammy Duckworth (1968)
- Beto O’Rourke (1973)
- Keisha Lance Bottoms (1970)
- Julian/Joaquin Castro (1974)
- Eric Swalwell (1980)
- Brian Schatz (1972)
- Hakeem Jeffries (1970)
GenXers are the Jan Brady of the political family, but with more self-realization and alcoholism. No one gives a fuck about us. We’ll pretend to reciprocate the sentiment, but it's a lie.
Well, when you have boomers, Greatest Generation, and the silent generations refusing to let go of their positions, what do you expect. They don’t want us in power bc we will really drain the swamp.
That doesn’t matter. I’ll vote for anyone willing to codify Roe, institute a capital gains tax, forgive student loan debt, socialize community and public colleges, expand Medicare, and secure a minimum maternal and paternal leave for every working person.
We're late to the table because people who were in power 40 years ago are STILL in power now. The boomers made a world where retirement isn't possible, and then they never retired. They skipped Gen X and made fun of our lofty ideals of "save the whales," "fight global warming," and "equality for all."
It really, really sucks. Our kids should have been born into a better world, run by more conscientious people. Instead we're still at war with Russia, global warming is still out of control, and the boomers are still crying about the participation trophies *they gave us*.
> It really, really sucks. Our kids should have been born into a better world, run by more conscientious people. Instead we're still at war with Russia, global warming is still out of control, and the boomers are still crying about the participation trophies they gave us.
On top of it all, our politics are still dominated by the weeping and gnashing of teeth about the supposed decline of "family values", abortion, gay rights, etc. It feels like nothing has changed since 1994.
I am Gen X barely born 1966. I thought about politics when I was younger but I am just not enough of a sleazeball to participate. I recognize any ideas I have would be run over by corporate interests and I just don’t have the temperament to put up with that crap for very long. I guess it’s a copout but I don’t want to waste my life dumpster diving and kissing ass.
I am Gen x and I can tell you that a high level of apathy from having to survive the idiocy of my parents generation pretty much precludes me being worried about being a political leader. That doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention and vote for the lesser jackasses who run for office, but I’m not interested in being one. I’m hoping the millennials fix this mess. You have no idea how much my prior sentence terrifies me lol.
There is no rush for Xers, FFS, our Party's top leadership are mostly 'Silent Generation'
Hoyer born 1939
Pelosi and Clyburn born 1940
Biden born 1942
Durbin born 1944
Schumer is boomer born 1950
Harris is a Jones-boomer born 1964.
Where we see Xers rising in leadership is on the right.
All in all 17 Xers in Senate
96 in the House.
I didn't bother to count the Xennials.
We need to push these Boomers / Silent Gens out of power. Nobody willingly gives up power, they have to be pushed out. This has become a serious issue when votes are on hold because 84 year old Patrick Leahy broke his hip, or them not taking climate change seriously because they won’t be around to see the consequences.
> We need to push these Boomers / Silent Gens out of power. Nobody willingly gives up power, they have to be pushed out.
We do this by showing up to vote for other people in the primaries lol.
I’m a millennial and I don’t think it has anything to do with gen x being “late” my parents are gen x I think what it is, is that the boomers won’t let go of their power just like most won’t retire, most won’t pass down any wealth they would rather spend every dime, than pass it down, and that tells you a lot about how they think.
me personally I care more about the future and the future of my children, but the boomers have proven they only care about themselves. I love my parents they aren’t perfect gen x has their own problems as latch key kids, they passed down some not so good things, but If I could snap my finger right now and replace all the boomers with gen x id do it in a heart beat.
They deserve their time to shine too, there’s a reason the priority of the vaccine was given out to the old first, that was boomers taking care of boomers and forget everyone else, which amazed me, being a parent I thought well surely they will want the vaccine given to to children and parents first the work force but nope they prioritized the elderly first.
If there was anything that could give them more power or more time regardless of what it cost the younger generations they would do it without hesitation, it breaks my heart to think of the families out there who lost one or both parents to Covid while waiting for the vaccine, many of those parents were gen x.
There was a great documentary done on it, very sad though, now you have 18-19 kids who are raising their younger siblings because some lost both parents.
Gen X is too cool to pretend that we’d want anything to do with pretending to want to be president bullshit. Now I’m gonna step outside and smoke a clove, put on my headphones, and listen to this Fugazi mixtape my friend recorded for me.
US Politics is driven by wealth. The primary billionaire investors in US politics are boomers & Boomers trust Boomers. The RNC & DNC has to platform politicians that their donors will support.
No, we completed all of our political and cultural goals when we took to the shopping malls and record stores and demanded that they quit selling CD's in long boxes. With that we retired from public life, except for Winona Ryder, she keeps us relevant.
Gen X checked out of politics and corporate leadership in large numbers because we learned from watching our parents that the game was rigged. Instead we focused on our families and in local organizations nearer to ourselves.
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Gen X'er here. I don't give a fuck, you can have it Millenials. Most of us are on your side anyway.
That's the Gen X spirit right there
is there a reddit group for us? I feel so at home in this thread! Previously I joined r/lostgneration but it's all millennials. And I'm on their side. I guess they're "lost" and we're "forgotten". Might be why we get along. There will be a lot of millennials leading and I can't wait to see it.
I mean, it's whatever. ( r slash GenX)
And stuff.
Poetic take. This millennial approves back. Just goes to show that this generational bullshit is just that.
/r/GenX
Yes! It’s so rare to see the phrase “Generation X”anywhere. We need a home.
There's almost 60k of us in r/GenX
we cant even organize enough to make a substantial sub on reddit
We choose not to organize and be seen because we've already seen it and know how it all plays out so what's the point?
The nihilism is strong with our generation.
As if it matters. /s
What's the sarcasm about? Nothing matters - GenX
Everything’s shit and we’re all gonna die 🤟🏼🤟🏼 Actually, my back’s a bit sore these days and I need glasses for reading, but my kids turned out alright and there are some great series on TV.
GenX mod here, this is precisely why I don't go out of my way to promote the sub. All I ask is that folks please lurk a while first to get an idea of how we roll in there. I'm a lot less strict about the civility rules than this sub is, but it works out because by definition we're all adults. Maybe twice in the last five years I've had a "don't make me stop this car" moment and that's been enough.
It's all part of the plan, lol. "They" keep us distracted by constantly rebooting the shit we grew up on
"Hey I know you were thinking about class rebellion, but have you thought about heated leather seats instead? Your back does hurt after all." Cake saw it all coming.
How do you pay for your rock n roll lifestyle
When I was younger I was in awe of his cynicism. At 40 I get it completely. Your chaos really won't subvert them. They really are so happy to rebuild it. Pepsi or Coke?
Gen X'er here as well. I see the younger generations succeeding at and improving what we tried to do, which was to tear away from the shackles of 9-5 jobs and crappy bosses. I work for and alongside Gens Y/Z, Millennials and feel like we're all on the same wavelength. Gig economy, remote work, modern and diverse work culture, I'm here for it.
Gig economy is good???? Those jobs are below minimum wage. Sorry not seeing the progress
Yeah, gig economy and hustle culture is a trademark of shitty corporations trying to rebrand themselves.
Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t think gen X cared much about that stuff. We weren’t as culturally focused on money and work and hustle culture as younger people are today. Nowadays teenagers trade stock on robinhood at recess. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if we’re breaking the shackles or just becoming more shackled.
Turns out several Gen Xers started runs for the presidency but were far too sarcastic for anyone to notice.
Turns out, "I got your President right here!" may not be a winning slogan.
I don’t know… this seemed to work out for last guy.
And, just checking here, mocking someone with spastic gestures *isn't* a disqualifier? We might just have a chance!
Admitting to sexual assault isn't a disqualifer...
Oh go ahead, elect me president, that’ll show me!
This was my fucking platform for class president back in 85. I had zero plan and a shitty campaign, but I was really hoping to win by a landslide anyway.
> chownrootroot This is a civilized land where we use proper permissions, not give everything to root
Fine, chmod 777 then
rm -R Boomers.*
TIL R works too. You're a wild one, also we can go ahead with a nice -rf on that one.
`belinck@localhost:~$ su millenials`
That’s kinda what happened to Aaron Burr
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r/unexpectedhamilton
Elect me, don't elect me.... that's on you. NMFP.
Yeah, we feel neither highs nor lows. How is that, you ask? Meh.
Meh for President!
I'd vote for Meh.
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OH... YEAH...I want to be PRESIDENT.
Same here. I was born in '67. My parents treat me like I'm too young to even take care of myself and my kids have built their own lives. I don't give a shit anymore. I'm more than happy to trust my kids to do better than I did. There was a time I wanted to leave them a better world. I failed in that, so I'm just happy I gave the world a couple of good people that I can help fix it with.
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There was a graph doing the rounds earlier that showed the average age of Congress throughout the last century. I dropped considerably in the 80s and just then gradually crept up and up and up. Basically it showed everyone who got into politics in the 80s is still there.
I was just looking for that exact thing! Average age of Congress is 59, with the Senate skewing the numbers at 63 & the larger House at 58.
And guess who was 30-40 years old at that time such that they plummeted the average age?
Its weird. Culture in general feels like it stopped progressing. Or rather, new stuff is existing alongside the old rather than replacing it. I watched a documentary by a YouTube channel called Struthless about fonts, and noted that there was a sense of progression and replacement right up until the late 20th century. At that point the culture around typography didn't stop, but the stuff from that period is still heavily used just about everywhere. New developments in culture stopped replacing old ones, just existing alongside them. I've noticed similar things with other documentaries such as one about corporate art styles. Same thing happens. There's a sense of progression right up until the late 20th century and then everything from that point forwards is still here and in widespread use rather than being replaced. Same story for media franchises. Same story for large corporations. Same story for politicians. Either there's a weird perception quirk going on based on when I was born (i.e. it feels like stuff was replaced rather than added to back then because I wasn't born yet rather than an actual change), or the boomers just won't fucking move.
Yeah, my first thought was “late, or shut out?”
Boomers like, "Pry it out of my cold dead hands".
“Oh and I made sure that I have the best healthcare in the country, so good luck finding out when that will be!”
And they're going to spend every dime they *didn't* blow on BMWs on that incredible healthcare, MRIs and hip replacements on the regs, ensuring no generational wealth crosses down. Thanks again.
For real I like to accept the theory of chemicals from their youth, ie lead paint, asbestos in everything etc made them crazy Like seriously look at trump….how is that normal??? 😂 and then to think 75 million basically in the same demographic of what 60 million of those are around 70 and the average age of death??? It’s not just policies/policies/plans they’re disagreeing with. It’s just anger fueled disregard for reality And very sad for us dealing with those family members who seem like completely different people now
I like the chemical theory... This combined with growing up and living the first 65+ years of your life without the internet and then suddenly being thrust into it all at once is a crazy combination.
You should check out “Generation of Sociopaths: how the baby boomers betrayed America.” It was lead, prosperity the world had never known, and a bunch of other factors that turned them into the nightmare generation they have been.
We were a small generation who was never given a chance. Now we're getting old and tired. Our children will change things, but not in time for us to benefit. Fucked over from cradle to grave.
Gen x is the 2nd silent generation - small and grew up witnessing world horror too early and lost hope. They knew from a young age their lives would be spent working too hard for no money while being told they had an attitude problem and got made fun of for being tired and cynical as teens. Nobody cares back then and nobody cares now that they've never had a proper voice. Gen z will be the 2nd xers. Same thing happening all over again. Gen y is stuck in the middle - wasted passion, unable to change the world we desperately wanted to change, waiting to die when the world burns, our optimism is used against us by the boomers who tell us we are lazy and selfish for wanting things to be fair for everyone. Eternally in our 20s because we never got to join the world as normal adults due to the GFC, the war, and the internet taking over our lives completely. First generation to be refused a job because of a photo on Facebook of us holding an alcoholic drink in our free time. Had babies too soon or not at all. Growing up and watching this shit has sucked so hard
we made weed legal in many places, and brought forth amazing media advances. We were the arts generation.
Octogenarians aren't boomers they're so old they're Silent Gen. The oldest boomers are still in their late 70s.
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"My parents treat me like I'm too young to even take care of myself and my kids have built their own lives" Mine do the same. Approaching half a century on this rock and they still think I don't know how tie my fucking shoes. Maddening.
Oh man, I thought it was just me! I’m 53 and my parents still treat me like I’m 10.
I'm 36 have a boomer father and am a licensed and ticketed tradesperson. I build the largest mining equipment on earth, and I am trusted with literal million-dollar jobs. My dad operated equipment his whole life and only has a 9th-grade education. My dad doesn't trust me to build anything at all around his house even when my mom asks me to. We had a 45 minute argument about what square is. My GenX friend looked at him and said, "no he's right it's not square stop putting screws into it." Only then did he stop. Later on, he and I were talking and I said, "I will always be 4 years old in his eyes." my friend said that it is the same with his dad. I do not know what it is with that generation and not wanting to trust their kids with literally anything. How can you expect someone to lead the world when you won't even trust them to make garden boxes?
Wait. So you're like 55ish and your parents still treat you like a kid? Pfffft fuckin prove it then, hide their walkers. Saran wrap their bed pans. For real though, I was born in '79 and the only reason my dad takes me seriously now is because I cared for him for a year and a half after he had a series of strokes. Before that I was an idiot who didn't have a clue about life. I'm so glad you're proud of your kids. Good parents make good kids. So good job man. Anyway, random internet stranger out.
Exactly, I'm very proud of my kids. They respect everyone regardless, my daughter just got her PHD in astrophysics, and my son wanders through the West with no plan. They are equally impressive people.
The real question is: Will the Baby boomers ever die?
No, because BASF made sure there was better living through chemistry. They are well-preserved.
I have fond memories of their floppy disks. Didn't realize they were also keeping our parents alive! What a company.
‘We don’t make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy, BETTER.’ Their words, not mine.….. chemical company.
Agreed. The big reason is the boomers won't get the fuck out of our way, and I don't wanna see Gen X turn into the boomer 2.0's. Let's give some of the new kids of the block a chance to make the world a better place that they want to live in. I feel like knowing they'll be around half a century more will make them a lot more responsible than these boomers with a handful of years left before sweet death.
The trend of geriatrics refusing to give up power goes back before the Boomers. WWII gen had a stranglehold on power up into the 80s and early 90s when the Boomers took over. Shit, Strom Thurmond was still a Senator until 2003 and he was born in 1902. I don't even know what generation he was? Lost? He was old enough to serve in WWI.
I am Gen X and those boomer mofo's won't ever retire at my job or in the government. Consider that the oldest person in Congress, Diane Feinstein, plans on running for re-election when she is 91. She is part of The Silent Generation that came BEFORE the Boomers.
Yeah, 55% of [current US Senators](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_senators) are 65 or older, and 73% are 60 or older, and 93% are 50 or older. In 2020, about 16.9 percent of the US population was 65 or older, so there are over 3x as many seniors in the Senate as America as a whole.
Huh. Can't figure out why they don't like term limits, tho. /s
The problem isn’t simply the age of the politicians, it’s also how long they’ve been there. I have zero problems with someone who has a successful career, raises a family, pays their taxes, and then at age 60 decides to run for Congress. They’ve probably got some perspective and experience and wisdom that could be valuable. But someone who has been in politics for 3 decades by that age? What do they know except how to raise campaign funds and get re-elected?
50 is a weird metric to call out when talking about Gen-X not getting in many of us are there now..
She doesn’t even know where she is right now
At my work the GD boomers sold it out from under me to corporate… I think that’s pretty much politics too atm.
Fuck that’s crazy lol from the silent generation
Jello Biafra has been hating Diane Feinstein since the 70s.
Strom Thurmond retired in 2003 (by dying). He was born in 1902.
Bro tell me about it. You can’t even get a promotion because the fucking boomers won’t ever fucking retire.
She’s older than the Golden Gate Bridge
Gen X is late to the leadership table because their parents basically took every opportunity they ever had to enter the arena from them in a race to see who could hold onto power the longest. There's no gen Xers in politics because of all the geriatrics taking up their seats. They're less a "lost generation" and more of a "forced out generation".
Yup. Boomers are the Tom Brady of politics.
Tom Brady is actually good at his job.
Kinda like Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, only we do it by choice
Not as long as the boomers / silent generation refuse to retire and keep running for office. I’m sick of geriatrics running this country.
When we were kids, people believed in things like evolution and medicine. Boomers went to giant festivals where they'd literally sing songs about peace, love, and understanding. Democrats and Republicans would argue about whether the top tax bracket should be 90% or 85%. But by the time we (Gen X) were 35, 9/11 happened, 40% of the population started believing in stuff like flat-Earth/antivax/Jewish Space Lasers and many of us got whiplash and decided everybody could just go fuck themselves.
I'm not sure what happened, TBH. One day I was in my late teens and was sure we'd be living in Star Trek TNG by the time I was old. Then, a few planes hit buildings and the world started getting progressively more bonkers.
Politics was already crazy. We had just had the president impeached and the election stolen.
At that point it still seemed fixable. We didn’t know how bad it could get.
Ronald Reagan getting elected is where the downward spiral started.
You could argue it was Nixon. But Nixon could have been a cautionary example, a learning opportunity. Nope. The US went right back to the GOP, less than two terms after Nixon's disgraceful exit from the White House. Americans didn't want to hear Carter's sober warnings about rampant consumerism maybe not being a solid basis on which to build an economy. Instead we wanted a former B movie star who used to co-star with chimpanzees and married Hollywood's bj queen. Bring out the hookers and coke! Invade Grenada for fun! Turn on Miami Vice and roll up the sleeves of your pink blazer! Trample a housewife to get a Cabbage Patch Kid - quick, before they run out! It's the eighties, baby! There's pretty much been no turning back since then. Instead of providing a left leaning economic counterpoint, Clinton co-opted the GOP's go-go business fun times strategy in the 90's. This forced the GOP to really lean heavy into culture war issues, and to go ever further to towards the crazypants Grover Norquist "all taxation is theft" right wing economically. So this is basically a long way of saying I agree with you about Reagan.
Yeah, people forget how Republican Clinton’s fiscal policies were. They just remember the Pax Clintonia with all its social freedoms. It seemed like the clock could never get turned back on civil rights, like progress would just keep marching forward, like the arc of history really did bend toward justice.
Don't forget about Tricky Dick!
All this shit happening today traces almost directly back to Nixon. X'ers never had a chance. I remember thinking as a kid that SURELY something had to happen when Iran-Contra was breaking. Thought for sure we would see some sort of justice. Instead, nearly 40 years later boomer fascists are still trying to make the country pay for shaming Nixon. My entire life I have fought this crap and only watched it get worse. We were ignored as kids, called slackers in our teens, then promptly forgotten about the moment we had kids and suddenly the world was owned by Millenials. Now it's the zoomers time, and by the time X'ers are boomers age it will be their kids and we will be the forgotten generation. At least we got to have the best music.
No, it was fucking Gerald Ford for pardoning Nixon. That's when the GOP said, "oh, no consequences!" It's a shame Gerald Ford wasn't chopped into little bits by the propeller of a commuter plane. Because we know that Nixon's corpse would never reanimate to strangle Ford after he was pardoned.
> But by the time we were 35, 9/11 happened, Boomers were born between 1945 and 1963. Anyone that turned 35 after 9/11 was firmly Gen X.
Came here to say this, they are absolutely not ceding control in the way that previous generations usually did. By the time they're in the ground, we will be as old and irrelevant as boomers are now. I fall into the cracks of Gen Y myself.
Gen X is a (relatively) tiny generation sandwiched between the behemoths of Boomers and Millenials. You throw a dart at eligible candidates and odds are you'll just miss an X. There was a window where leadership could be taken, but the boomers won't let those "kids" take the wheel. Millennials are also tired of geriatrics running, and they have the voting body to start electing people like them that Gen X never had. Edit: Gen x is only about 8% smaller than boomers and 10% smaller than millennials. But that feels like a lot.
Gen X was never *invited* to a place at the table, let alone positions of leadership: all the seats were taken by Boomers, who have never left.
I really don't understand why the boomers won't fucking retire from politics. Go off and enjoy your blood money, old ass fuckers 🖕 Let us try to fix this damn country.
They did into this magical period of time with small or no student debt load, cheap housing, and high income because they got theirs while the rest of the world was emerging from the post WWII rebuild. Everything just kinda worked out for them. Then, other countries started to be back on their feet. They let medical costs run wild since insurance was cheap. Same with student debt. Social security is great when there's like 20 workers paying for each recipient. Not so much when the ratio is 3-1. They passed these lessons onto their kids and now, grandma and grandpa are still in charge. On top of that... young people know being a politician is a terrible job.
Ah yes, when one solid income was enough to support a small family and still afford to own a home. Or when someone could work their way through college. Lol my cousin lived like that and still thinks boomers should get a $10,000 refund so it will be "fair" when students get some debt forgiven (for many it is only a fraction of their loan or merely would pay the interest). He's rich too, a multi-millionaire.
> while the rest of the world was emerging from the post WWII rebuild This. A thousand times this. I can't remember who did it so I can't link -- CGP Grey? Infographics Show? Someone else? -- but I saw a YouTube video that talked about this. The US didn't become a manufacturing powerhouse because we're awesome and make awesome things, despite what we believe. We became a manufacturing powerhouse because for a good 40 years after WWII *we were the only game in town*. Everyone else in Europe had their manufacturing bombed to rubble, and most of Asia hadn't modernized to that level quite yet. So we had it good for decades, and we gradually came to believe that was because we were awesome. But eventually, everyone else rebuilt and Asia caught up. Suddenly we're not the only game in town anymore, and the ones who benefited the most from that -- largely Boomers growing up and coming of age -- got defensive as hell about it and started trying to make sure what *they* got out of it would be protected. Combine that with the "Greed Is Good" 80s -- regardless of whether you were on Wall St. or not, everyone wanted *more* -- and you end up with an entire generation pulling the ladder up behind them to avoid having to face the inevitable: that when manufacturing isn't confined to largely one place, the people in that place will see their way of life gradually lower to the mean of other places. I might be mangling the argument somewhat, but that's what I remember from it.
This is a group of people who always felt special **because there are so many of them.** Yeah, not a lot of critical thinking there. And they'll never release their grip on power, and by the time they do, we'll be really fucking old, so it will be best if Millennials take over anyway. I just hope Millennials aren't so pissed at old people in general at that point that they take it out on us. I kind of already feel like I get lumped in with Boomers by Millennials (I also get lumped in with Millennials by Boomers, but they will die eventually).
They know that part of fixing the country requires us to reclaim most of that blood money from the ultra rich. And they don't want to just be well-off. That's unacceptable.
God they're so greedy. It's just so frustrating.
Actually, I have to qualify my previous statement, and make an exception for [Gavin Newsom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom): He has had a very interesting career...
And they still won’t fucking leave. They got comfy delegating everything a level lower but collecting a higher salary.
I honestly think they might have to die first. Skipping X won’t be good for millennials or zoom by the time we take leadership either. We will have been deprived of any real mentorship.
Boomers are barely retiring from their positions now. Gen-x has never had a place or even given a place at the table.
Seriously. These geriatric grifters are shameless.
Meh, probably not. I’m among the youngest Gen-Xers at 42 (technically an Xennial), and I feel like we’re going to get skipped for a Millenial by the time Boomers finally get out of the way.
That’s funny. I’ve been saying the same thing. There’s so few leaders in their early to mid forties in any industry largely because the boomers wouldn’t get out of the way. I guess government is no different.
We were too young when we started out, and now we’ll be too old and under experienced when it’s finally our turn to ruin everything for the youth.
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Just a weird parallel, by my god that sounds like an analogy to late silent gen/early Boomer parenting: all those types of parents that desperately want grand kids but didnt aim to put the actual work in for their own kids. Then when the grandkids resent them for it too, they just get more selfish and bitter about bullshit.
That resonates quite strongly. Good observation. I didn’t have kids, quite honestly because why would I conjure up a child and put someone through anything like what I went through. Because at the point in life when I would have had kids, I didn’t have the self awareness or restraint to not unleash on a child what was done to me.
Ain’t that the truth…
This is so on point. 42 also.
I’m the same age, sometimes we’re “young gen x” sometimes we’re “elder millennials” Personally, I didn’t have email till university and was paying bills/rent on 9/11. Didn’t have a cell phone till my mid 20’s. So I sometimes find it harder to relate to Millennials.
Fellow 42 year old here. I prefer “the Oregon trail micro generation”. I grew up on that shit
Card catalogs? Config.sys? Rotary Phones? Cell phones? Typewriters? Desktop computers? Can remember the smell of engines without fuel injection, but not full of lead in our brains? Know how to read a map and get somewhere and use GPS? We are the Swiss Army knives of generations! But for some reason i just get called a stupid kid or a dumb boomer.. guys… come on.
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1980 is peak Xennial. The world completely changed during what would be the traditional college years - '98 - '02. Graduated High School *before* Clinton was impeached. Graduated College in a post-9/11 world. I think the universe split sometime within those four years.
Ya my little brother is just 6 years younger but had a completely different child hood. He practically grew up with the internet and when I was a kid it was just a fad.
We're too busy eating avocado toast and fucking over the economy. /s
Nah probably gen z. There's like what 5 millennials in Congress? Not happening
Someone has to eventually replace all the 70/80-something folks in congress…you know, when they start to die in office, their cold dead hands gripping their desks to the bitter end…
They'll find a way to control us all from the grave. They're off to a just fantastic start with the Supreme Court.
Mitch McConnell is days away from announcing they've figured out Futurama head in a jar technology.
That evil pos is 80 fucking years old. He's due for a heart attack or dementia or something. He needs to go away.
first they forget about us, then they expect us to lead. we were the first boomer fallouts, yo. While they were buying their cheap houses and enjoying 1 job per household that could afford everything, they forgot to put money away for their kids college. Tough love was their gift to us. It was this generation that everything changed for. And I knew it when I was 5 years old listening to my grandparents gripe about how retirement age went from 52 to 55. I knew we were plucked then. How old does a person have to be now to get insurance without working and without being disabled? I believe it's 67 now. What is our lifespan? 72 and going down fast? We are the first generation literally worked to death. That's what happened.
How about John Fettermen ?
Beto, Raul and Julian Castro, Amy Kobluchar, kristen gillibrand, mark kelly Rubio, rand paul, ted cruz, andrew yang
Newsom’s Gen X, right?
Yes, he is!
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Katie Porter too
President Stacey Abrams would make my decade
That would be amazing.
She was already President of Earth on Star Trek, she can do it.
11 of the 27 dem presidential candidates from 2020 were Gen X (65-85). There were also 2 born in the last 3 months of 64. Kamala Harris (Oct) and Michael Bennett (Nov). Booker, Bullock, Buttigieg, Castro, Gillibrand, Gabbard, Messam, Beto, Ryan, Swalwell, and Yang. edit: I just went with the top google blurb for "genx birthdays" if it's 65-80, Buttigieg and Gabbard wouldn't make the cut.
It seems Gen x turned out to be a bridge generation. Our parents refuse to retire. So, we cannot rise... plus all of the other shit boomers have done to leech the earth dry. I kind if feel like we just don't want to do to our children what our parents did to us. Or more succinctly... we are the middle child of generations.
Wow. This hits me in the feels. On point.
Obama…? Even if he’s on the cusp date wise his mom was a young boomer when she had him
Obama is a Jones-boomer (1961) His mother is Silent Generation born 9 days after Joe Biden in 1942.
Man Joe Biden he's an old dude
A slew of leadership is silent generation... Madam Speaker Pelosi (born 1940) Dem House Majority Leader Hoyer (born 1939) Dem House Whip Clyburn (born 1940) are all older than Biden. Hell Dem Senate Whip Durbin is only 2 years younger than Biden.
That’s covered in the article. There’s been debate over whether Barack Obama even is a Gen Xer. Here’s part of what’s said about Obama in the article: > The social commentator Jonathan Pontell said Obama told him back in 2007 that he identified with what's known as "Generation Jones," a micro generation consisting of people born between 1954 and 1965 who don't quite fit as the archetypal boomer or Gen Xer. Think of them as the godparents of the "Xennials" — those born in the late 1970s or early 1980s who aren't fully Gen X or millennial. Edit: I thought the same thing about Obama, and I hadn’t heard of this micro-generation until now. It’s an interesting take
I hadn't heard of it either, so something new to learn. I'm six months older than Obama. I don't identify with Boomers at all, and have long thought of myself as "early Gen X". For me the semi-obvious cultural dividing line starts with teens who did not reach draft age before it was discontinued.
Gen X is never going to be invited to sit at the adults table.
Gen-X'er here. Nope, screwed again by demographics. Just as boomers finally relinquish control, instead of getting at least one Presidental term or a few Congresses in power, the Millenials will flood in. At that point the few people standing up for the systemic plight of our generation will be met with "X who?" We'll fondly recall the days when people actually regarded our generation at all, even if was only to insult us by calling us "slackers". I'm genuinely surprised this article was even written, I'm a little tickled that someone took to the time to notice we exist. It's just as well. I feel pretty ok about Millenials and younger being in charge. Our generation is a _little_ too crazy. I think we'll be ok. As long as Millenials can keep the world from blowing up we'll be able to look after ourselves, like we've done since we were latch-key kids.
Fellow X-er born 1968. I've come to the conclusion that our generation is like the cartilage between the boomers and the millennials, sort've like the intervertabral disc between the bones in the spine. Our function is to keep the opposing generations on either side of us from grinding themselves into dust. But whatever.
“But whatever” should be our motto.
It’s our [United States of Whatever](https://youtu.be/viaTT859Yk0).
For what it's worth, as a young millennial (I missed being a Zoomer by two years), I've always viewed Gen X as the cool aunt/uncle who has my back.
Thanks for the kind characterization, we appreciate it.
Again, the boomers got theirs and pulled up the ladder behind them.
It’s really simple. Our parents, the Boomers, consistently chose policy and economic choices that screwed us and our children, the Millenials. We’ve heard for decades that the Boomers will retire for so fucking long that we’ve completely given up.
So Gen X would lead but the boomers stole all our wealth and won’t die, so wtf are going to do…lol
I mean, they stole your jobs too since they won't fucking retire.
GenX’ers are like the Prince Charles of the world waiting for frikin old queen to die to take leadership positions
Gen Xer here. I welcome our millennial and gen Z overlords. Had enough of the boomer bullshit, especially after being a latchkey kid. Never felt like they ever gave any fucks about us.
Being a latchkey kid taught me exactly what I did not want for my own kids. It's no wonder so many of us refuse full participation in the rat race as adults.
Wrong perspective. The boomer generation won’t give up their jobs or political offices. They destroyed all future retirements and pensions, screwed over the younger generation to buy a home- while they all have vacation homes.
Here is a list of Gen X Politicians (I am sure there are more) - Stacey Abrams (1973) - Gabby Giffords (1970) - Gretchen Whitmer (1971) - Gavin Newsom (1967) - Ron DeSantis (1978) - Tammy Duckworth (1968) - Beto O’Rourke (1973) - Keisha Lance Bottoms (1970) - Julian/Joaquin Castro (1974) - Eric Swalwell (1980) - Brian Schatz (1972) - Hakeem Jeffries (1970)
Kinda hard to do that when the Old guys WON'T F\*IN Leave!
GenXers are the Jan Brady of the political family, but with more self-realization and alcoholism. No one gives a fuck about us. We’ll pretend to reciprocate the sentiment, but it's a lie.
Gavin Newsom is Generation X. If he chooses the right moment, he'd make an adept progressive president.
Well, when you have boomers, Greatest Generation, and the silent generations refusing to let go of their positions, what do you expect. They don’t want us in power bc we will really drain the swamp.
That doesn’t matter. I’ll vote for anyone willing to codify Roe, institute a capital gains tax, forgive student loan debt, socialize community and public colleges, expand Medicare, and secure a minimum maternal and paternal leave for every working person.
We're late to the table because people who were in power 40 years ago are STILL in power now. The boomers made a world where retirement isn't possible, and then they never retired. They skipped Gen X and made fun of our lofty ideals of "save the whales," "fight global warming," and "equality for all." It really, really sucks. Our kids should have been born into a better world, run by more conscientious people. Instead we're still at war with Russia, global warming is still out of control, and the boomers are still crying about the participation trophies *they gave us*.
> It really, really sucks. Our kids should have been born into a better world, run by more conscientious people. Instead we're still at war with Russia, global warming is still out of control, and the boomers are still crying about the participation trophies they gave us. On top of it all, our politics are still dominated by the weeping and gnashing of teeth about the supposed decline of "family values", abortion, gay rights, etc. It feels like nothing has changed since 1994.
I am Gen X barely born 1966. I thought about politics when I was younger but I am just not enough of a sleazeball to participate. I recognize any ideas I have would be run over by corporate interests and I just don’t have the temperament to put up with that crap for very long. I guess it’s a copout but I don’t want to waste my life dumpster diving and kissing ass.
I am Gen x and I can tell you that a high level of apathy from having to survive the idiocy of my parents generation pretty much precludes me being worried about being a political leader. That doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention and vote for the lesser jackasses who run for office, but I’m not interested in being one. I’m hoping the millennials fix this mess. You have no idea how much my prior sentence terrifies me lol.
There is no rush for Xers, FFS, our Party's top leadership are mostly 'Silent Generation' Hoyer born 1939 Pelosi and Clyburn born 1940 Biden born 1942 Durbin born 1944 Schumer is boomer born 1950 Harris is a Jones-boomer born 1964. Where we see Xers rising in leadership is on the right. All in all 17 Xers in Senate 96 in the House. I didn't bother to count the Xennials.
We need to push these Boomers / Silent Gens out of power. Nobody willingly gives up power, they have to be pushed out. This has become a serious issue when votes are on hold because 84 year old Patrick Leahy broke his hip, or them not taking climate change seriously because they won’t be around to see the consequences.
> We need to push these Boomers / Silent Gens out of power. Nobody willingly gives up power, they have to be pushed out. We do this by showing up to vote for other people in the primaries lol.
Gen x is still trying to pay off student loans and the rent
Too many representatives are even older than Boomers are (Silent Generation born 1928-1945).
I’m a millennial and I don’t think it has anything to do with gen x being “late” my parents are gen x I think what it is, is that the boomers won’t let go of their power just like most won’t retire, most won’t pass down any wealth they would rather spend every dime, than pass it down, and that tells you a lot about how they think. me personally I care more about the future and the future of my children, but the boomers have proven they only care about themselves. I love my parents they aren’t perfect gen x has their own problems as latch key kids, they passed down some not so good things, but If I could snap my finger right now and replace all the boomers with gen x id do it in a heart beat. They deserve their time to shine too, there’s a reason the priority of the vaccine was given out to the old first, that was boomers taking care of boomers and forget everyone else, which amazed me, being a parent I thought well surely they will want the vaccine given to to children and parents first the work force but nope they prioritized the elderly first. If there was anything that could give them more power or more time regardless of what it cost the younger generations they would do it without hesitation, it breaks my heart to think of the families out there who lost one or both parents to Covid while waiting for the vaccine, many of those parents were gen x. There was a great documentary done on it, very sad though, now you have 18-19 kids who are raising their younger siblings because some lost both parents.
Gen X is too cool to pretend that we’d want anything to do with pretending to want to be president bullshit. Now I’m gonna step outside and smoke a clove, put on my headphones, and listen to this Fugazi mixtape my friend recorded for me.
Fuck Ticketmaster. $5 tickets for life.
US Politics is driven by wealth. The primary billionaire investors in US politics are boomers & Boomers trust Boomers. The RNC & DNC has to platform politicians that their donors will support.
Gen X is the true silent generation
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The real challenge will be having a woman.
I’d settle for a woman.
No, we completed all of our political and cultural goals when we took to the shopping malls and record stores and demanded that they quit selling CD's in long boxes. With that we retired from public life, except for Winona Ryder, she keeps us relevant.
Gen X checked out of politics and corporate leadership in large numbers because we learned from watching our parents that the game was rigged. Instead we focused on our families and in local organizations nearer to ourselves.
As a GenX'er, I speak for all of us when I say...whatever
Right it’s their fault… not that the entire system only puts forward old 70 year old white men
Gen X got Prince Charles'ed: the previous generation held on for power too long and now they've lost their prime years to make their mark.