Somewhere out there are Baby Boomers

[no_hypocrisy]

who became Reagan Yuppies in the Eighties. Their new drug of choice was money. (Exhibit One: Jerry Rubin, ex-Yippie)

And they invested in the stock market, expecting a big pay-off with a retirement.

They followed the Rules. They trusted the Market. They trusted the Government (except when Dems were in charge.)

And here they are, hemorrhaging their dreams, their futures.

It's like a bad Greek tragedy.

[marble falls]

1. But all those tech bros aren't boomers. Fuck the generational shit. Jerry Rubin was just fucking Jerry Rubin.

[Walleye]

2. Many of us, baby boomers worked hard at our careers through those years. Investing in a 401(k).

Riding out every goddamn up and down in the economy. We finally made it alive to retirement age, and now this. We are not ex-yuppies most of us, most of us just want to live our retirement in peace. We can’t have that, we’re not allowed to have nice things.

[Emile]

20. +1

[sinkingfeeling]

33. A lot of us are ex-Hippies. Vietnam war protesters, and Equal rights supporters who worked 45 years or

more, paying our taxes and saving a little for retirement.

[Walleye]

40. I think I fit that description and most of the people I know

[chicoescuela]

35. you are correct sir

[CousinIT]

52. Yep. Watching our 401 (k) evaporate just as we're preparing to retire. nt

[yorkster]

3. Disappointing to see this here - simplistic "generalization".

[JT45242]

4. Little sympathy for boomers as a group...they turned from protesting for civil rights to buying into fear of browning

Of America.

As a gen X , we are often accused of being the greed is good generation with Gordon gecko as our hero ...nope that was our mentors in the boomers.

When the Willie Horton add worked on boomers it was the first step towards the groupthink that as long as someone is suffering more than me and I can pursue as much money as possible and the nonstop fear mongering on conservative media, it was only a matter of time before some exKGB realized Kruschev promise that they would bury us.

Lifestyles of the rich famous lies and the apprentice and we had millions of boomers voting for mango Mussolini because that uppity black woman should not be elected.

I realize that the boomers in DU are not that group, but have watched my father in law who worked with the Rev. Barber senior on civil rights as a minister become a birther and trump voter. He is more representative of the generation. He was at the Kent State shooting as an architectural student. Not a protester, but he was there.

[Scrivener7]

6. Mmmkay. And I guess we should have no sympathy for you either: "How Gen X Became the Trumpiest Generation."

How Gen X Became the Trumpiest Generation
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/20/cherie-westrich-alt-rock-gen-x-maga-00033769
Now, though, there is no confusion: Generation X is safely Republican. One model from 2014 measuring only white voters through the 2012 election shows those born in the mid-to-late 1960s being the most Republican-leaning of all, more so than the older Boomers and Silent generation. In a poll released in late April by Marist/NPR that separated voters by generation, Generation X had the highest level of disapproval for Biden and were the generation most likely to say they would vote for a Republican candidate in the midterms if they were held that day.

[EYESORE 9001]

13. ...

[Walleye]

21. I call them the Nancy Reagan generation. They don't seem to understand real life. They brought up on just say no.

[Scrivener7]

27. I disagree. My point was that all broad brushes are ridiculous..

[Walleye]

53. That is absolutely true. I think we all suffer from that kind of thing as well as far as being the victims of it.

[JT45242]

45. Not sure the 2024 election results bore that out -- as Boomers went more for teh felon -- White, especially white males,

of both generations have bought into the myth that the world is pitted against white men rather than admitting that lack of skills, educatin, etc. got you replaced by robots and computer efficiency. Much easier to blame it on the "browning of America" or "DEI hires" of women and minorities.

There is a reason that all the major spokespeople for this bullshit have been white makes -- first Limbaugh and his ilk and now with younger white men screaming about how the world discriminates against them .

No Joe Rogan -- you got fired and have little comedy career because you were not funny and were unreliable on the set. Your only steady job is to be the shill for the russian mob who own the UFC and to spout Russian propaganda via podcasts. Shapiro and a slew of others.

If the Boomers had not swung to Reagan and eliminate dthe fairness doctrine and not allowed a foreign interest to buy a "news" company to turn it into a propaganda factory, we might be in a very different place.

White males -- especially undereducated and exceptionally wealthy -- are what are driving the trump train -- one out of a belief that they can blame someone else for their own failures and the other out of a sense of greed that they can manipulate the poor to steal more and more wealth.

[yorkster]

47. There were also a helluva lot of people older than the boomers

who went for Reagan big time.

[Jit423]

7. Sadly, you are correct in so many ways.

You will take some hits, but deep down we know you are right.

[hlthe2b]

9. Two screen names so very similar. with identical viewpoints.. What a coinkeydink....

[marble falls]

32. "In your heart you know he's right." Some serious irony here, junior.

[hlthe2b]

8. Such divisive posts--whether against Boomers, Gen-X, Millenials, Gen-Z need to stop!

There are Trump-supporters, dishonest, greedy people and genuine a-holes among EVERY generation.

So, given your attitude, I guess you are celebrating Boomers who have lost everything and will end up on the streets? Yes, I know of some who are THAT close to being homeless. And, no, none of them ever stepped away from their compassion and support for all others in the name of $$$.

Your post is shameful.

[UpInArms]

11. I disagree with your assessment

I see gen x as the real problem.

They were not raised by the generation of wwii veterans … they embraced the I me me my crap wholeheartedly.

I know too many of them who are too lazy to be informed or involved. They tend not to vote in every election. They think they are too busy.

I have been in the streets since the 70s, fighting for women’s rights and citizens’ rights. We have protested every war and every bad actor.

Anyone who cannot remember life before the microwave and cellphone should do a bit of introspection.

[Walleye]

22. "buying into fear of browning of America". Sorry, but that's a big load of crap

[marble falls]

31. BS. You'd better take a good look at the biggest segement of those at town halls, ...

... and who is attending the rallies.

[mcar]

39. So, you know every Boomer in the U.S.?

all of us "turned from protesting for civil rights to buying into fear of browning Of America." All of us?

Oh, and your FIL is not "more representative" of our generation.

This is insulting, divisive nonsense.

[Scrivener7]

5. Generation Jones here (I just learned that's a thing) so technically I'm one of those

Boomers. We've been through massive losses before. I'm thinking of 1987, 1989-91, 97-00, 2001, 2008, 2020 and now. I may be missing one or two in there.

Many of us have learned from the past and become extremely cautious.

Of course, I suspect the magats my age thought this was going to be a windfall for them. For them I have many tots and pears.

[Woodwizard]

10. 1964.

Do we need to paint with a broad brush? 52 percent of men unde 50 voted for Trump.

I have worked my whole life with my hands living simply and putting away everything I could so I could retire and survive. Then to watch it burn under the whims of the clueless.

Keep the generation typing on FB.

There is an uptick of baiting posts on DU, it is a much different place than 20 years ago.

[Easterncedar]

12. Note the OP isn't saying anything about all Boomers

Don’t take it personally! This doesn’t describe me or my siblings or my friends, but surely applies to some of our generation.

[Mariana]

14. Exactly.

If it isn’t about you, then it isn’t about you.

[hlthe2b]

18. Bullshit. Most of us are objecting to the overt divisivenss. It is ugly as hell.

[Scrivener7]

15. But it applies to some of every generation. So why single out one and smack lips over their members' suffering?

And how do you get that the OP said nothing about Boomers. Read the title again. The post is explicitly about Boomers.

[EYESORE 9001]

16. Makes me wonder why it needs further discussion at all

unless it’s to stir the merde - as if we didn’t have enough divisiveness already.

[hlthe2b]

17. At least 2 Responders on this post have. So read the others before excoriating those of us objecting to such

conflation of an entire generation with MAGA/TRUMP ugly selfishness--whether Boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Z, Millennials.

Read the thread before insulting the rest of us who are RIGHTFULLY objecting to such nastiness and divisiveness.

[Walleye]

23. Putin, Musk and Trump love to see us picking away at each other like this. It makes them happy.

[marble falls]

36. BS. All he mentioned was "boomers", not "some boomers", not "including Xers, Millenials etc" ...

... no qualifications at all. Just "Boomers".

It's good that a sense shame caused you to misinterpret what he meant when he said "boomers". It shows you don't really believe that crap, either.

[marble falls]

43. That's not the discussion. The discussion is "boomers elected Mango Jebus", that "boomers ...

... are no longer marching because we all became rich."

We still march. We still struggle. We still get arrested at protests.

If we can't hold hands, our lines will not hold.

[lark]

19. Yes, there are those that took a hard right turn.

However, this is not all Boomers. A lot of us that marched against Vietnam were in the Hands Off ralllies last Saturday and thankfully there were also newbies that had never protested before. There were all ages there!

[Walleye]

24. Most of the people I saw at our rally were middle-aged or older. Don't know where the young people are

[Scrivener7]

28. Plenty of younger people at mine.

[marble falls]

38. oooppps.

[Walleye]

56. Well, as possibly the location, there was one in Newark close by which is a college town

[lark]

55. Young folks are in denial is what I think.

There were some 20 somethings at our rally, maybe a few teenagers, but mostly middle age and older.

[Walleye]

57. There may have been many more young people at the Newark rally, which is near the University

[Ferryboat]

25. Divide and conquer

Last edited Wed Apr 9, 2025, 12:49 PM - Edit history (3)

That is what assholes do.

Get us arguing amongst ourselves pointing fingers.

Just stop it

[mucholderthandirt]

26. Sucks to be them. Karma is a bitch. Told ya so. Hm. I'm running out of stuff. I was not such a Boomer.

I've always been poor, my family is poor (mostly working poor, but one paycheck away from disaster). I have no sympathy for people who let greed and stupidity run their lives. They knew full well what they were doing, and what the consequences were. They just hoped everyone else was going to suffer them.

Pull your big kid's britches up and deal, you dig me?

[doc03]

29. We gave you GWB, Trump, $35 trillion debt and lied us into a couple wars. Other than that

what is the problem. I am not saying we haven't done some good things but let's be honest.

[Vogon_Glory]

30. Sorry, but Trump voting was not an all-Boomer production

A lot of Trump voters came from the Gen X and Millenial generations, as well as from the up-and-coming idjits from the Generation Z generation who blew off history class and thought that the lesson units about the Great Depression were so-o-o-o irrelevant.

[jalan48]

34. I want to see the breakdown by horoscope sign.

[mcar]

37. Hubby and I are Boomers

we did not become Reagan Yuppies. Our retirement savings is in the stock market (most of it).

Why tar all of us in the stock market as "Reagan Yuppies?" My husband is a retired public school teacher, I'm a retired editor. We run a small charity that gets medical supplies to countries in need.

[Drum]

41. Sometimes I can't help but get a certain impression...

…when an Original Poster never comes back to their post to attend to their droppings.

[marble falls]

44. Funny how that works. It makes it feel like a trolling, doesn't it?

[Drum]

46. Yup

[ananda]

42. So true. I've been lamenting what happened to my generation..

since the eighties.

We were so great in the 60's and 70's.

It really is a tragedy.

[thucythucy]

50. Progressives have never been in the majority

in any generation, ever.

"Hippies" and peace and civil rights activists were a minority in the 1960s. The so-called Greatest Generation, as an example, was overwhelmingly conservative and supported the Vietnam War almost to the very end.

What happened in the '60s was a confluence of circumstances that will probably never again be possible:

Media not under the control of a few oligarchs, and which included journalists, even in the mainstream, not afraid to report the truth as they saw it;

A public university system that for the first time in American history allowed access to working class people, many of whom were radicalized by their education--which for the first time began to include revisionist accounts of American history;

An economy--thanks in large part to FDR's New Deal and the GI Bill of Rights--that provided an unprecedented degree of affluence, most especially for young white males, and made the economic disparities between whites and everyone else all the more glaring;

the advent of birth control, together with the burgeoning women's movement, that for the first time ever enabled more women to make choices about the course of their lives;

a public school system that in the 1940s and '50s and into the '60s enjoyed a status and an influx of public investment that raised standards and produced more critically thinking young people than ever before;

a labor movement more robust and more effective in raising living standards than we'd seen, before or since...

Since then the right has been on a campaign--largely successful--to undo all of that:

Undermining and directly attacking all aspects of public education. Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California largely by attacking the University of California, continuing as president to attack "eggheads" and "Marxist professors":

Buying up all the major media outlets so that only conservative voices get full airing;

Attacking feminism and civil rights by pitting white men against everyone else;

Ending or undermining much of the social safety net put into place by FDR, Truman, and Johnson;

Attacking or co opting the labor movement.

What we are seeing today is the culmination of all these efforts.

Until the left begins to understand and confront all these factors progressives will most likely never again be in a position to influence, let alone control, the direction we take as a society.

[ananda]

58. That's a good idea. Also, the idea of "permissiveness" took hold...

and that led to huge fear, especially of Black people
and women who believed in free love.

Nixon got hold of that, and so did Reagan; and many
people bought into it.

And the society as a whole has never recovered from it.

The racism and misogyny you see now grew out of that era.

[stillcool]

49. humans...

what you see in one, is inherent in us all...mirrors everywhere if you dare to look. Divide and conquer always seems to work, regardless of the purely accidental time and place of our birth.

[viva la]

51. I have an acquaintance like that-

Only he STILL thinks Trump is great for the economy.
This is a businessman who has an MBA and everything, and lives on his investments. But he must not be looking at his portfolio very often, as he is absolutely certain Biden was terrible for the stock market, and that Trump is right at this moment lifting us to new heights.

It's like he is blinded by his adoration of Trump. He of all people should be cynical and clear-eyed because he's trained as a financial analyst, but he sees that down arrow on the Dow Jones graphic and says it's up up up.

So I don't actually have a lot of confidence that those Trumpy boomers (I'm a boomer, but always anti) will look at their own funds and say, "Wait. I'm losing money this year."
Trumpers have 20/20 anal vision, as my dad used to call it.

[jls4561]

54. Not exactly relevant to this discussion. Just a song I like that was around SF in the Reagan years.