General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It seems like there's a lot of dislike and contempt for "boomers" from "millennials" [View all]rufus dog
(8,419 posts)But it was the parents of the "Greatest Generation" who mainly suffered through the Depression, they then fully supported sending their children off to war and cutting back on goods and services. A large number of those children then took theirs and to hell with everyone else. I would wager the majority of those with a, fuck the rest attitude, were not the front line fighters but more like the typical chicken hawks boomer's during Vietnam.
Being at the tail end, or just out of the Boomer generation I understand how those who came later can point fingers at the Boomer's. But from my perspective it was the "Greatest Generation" that started the "I got mine" attitude. Unlike their parents (as a generation) they didn't feel it necessary to make any additional sacrifices and to invest in future generations.
They then swept Reagan into office with the help of their voting age Boomer offspring breaking for St. Ronnie. These people were borderline fanatical in their support and belief that a change was needed. The change they wanted included far right, hypocritical, religious doctrine, the belief that certain minority groups and/or Unions were responsible for their own shortcomings.
Now we have the opposite occurring. Those who were in the minority in fighting the Reaganites held true to their values, with the help of their offspring they swept Obama into office.
Point being, generations as a whole do have ownership of the overall direction, but their are numerous good people in all generations. The split is generally separated by just a few percentage points. So we shouldn't be pointing fingers at generations, but rather the selfish fucking assholes who are part of a generation. Additionally we, the good guys have turned the tide, as liberals became a derogatory term we are now seeing the early stages of Republican becoming a derogatory term.
In addition, it took years for the selfishness of the Reagan Revolution to have its impact, long after he left office.