this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] Cruxifux 377 points 5 months ago (12 children)

How disappointed we will all be when all the boomers are dead and it doesn’t solve any of our problems.

[–] AllonzeeLV 102 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

We'll just have to see, won't we?

Plus, it's not like the climate will just snap back into place when the boomers are finally too old for their skeleton talons to cling to power. That shit is going to take generations of sacrifice to roll back, if it doesn't topple civilization first.

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/warmest-arctic-summer-on-record-is-evidence-of-accelerating-climate-change

The whole ethos of the majority of baby boomers seems to have been to raze the forest they got to enjoy behind them (as opposed to planting trees whose shade they'd never sit in like most generations aspire to), and they seem to be having remarkable success in that.

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[–] SomeGuy69 61 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The issues they left behind will last for generations. Funny that anyone could believe this goes away in our lifetime.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It's not about a magic cure that'll fix everything over night.

It's about repairing decades of harm done by a generational mindset that valued wealth acquisition and material possession above every other facet of society. We won't fix that trauma in one, two, or three generations but it will get better and better with time and distance to boomerism.

[–] hightrix 27 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

The values of wealth accumulation and materialism are not at all limited to or even expressed mostly strongly by the Baby Boomer generation.

The line of thinking that capitalism dies with boomers or that Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, or whatever comes next will not fully embrace capitalism and will move towards socialism or some other non-competitive society seems pretty naive.

Humans are a competitive species. Most people want to win. I doubt this mindset dies with boomers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Humans are a co-operative species, same goes for our ape and monkey cousins.

It is this instinctual nature of working together that enabled us to take down bigger prey, settle new lands, and become the dominant species on the planet.

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[–] Skyrmir 19 points 5 months ago

The next most conservative generation is Gen X. All few dozen of us. Expect those with power to retain it with massive use of wealth to constrain the rules of democracy, rather than numbers of voters.

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[–] EdibleFriend 69 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Shame the damage they did won't go with them.

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[–] havokdj 61 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Keanu reeves is so close to and so engrained in gen x culture that I think it's unfair to label him a boomer

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[–] dipshit 59 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Gentle reminder that the whole generations thing is made up.

But true that many of these folks and older hold high positions of power, which is probably the cause for the clock.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Crazy that you're the only person I've found in the thread that realizes this. Generational theory largely accepts that the concept of monolithic generations is reductive. Yes, people born in and around the same time can have shared cultural experiences, but the idea that those are what purely shape you ideologically or that you behave as a component of a monolith are ludicrous. And then there's subgenerations, microgenerations, etc. Just look at the sociological research of Karl Mannheim for a very complex discussion on the topic.

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[–] Swasey 47 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Interesting to look at, numbers wise.. but it makes me think of the time I have left with my parents. I'm calling them tomorrow!

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[–] sleepmode 43 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The problem isnt going to end with them. My right wing friends are completely indoctrinated by their boomer parents. And getting louder and louder about it.

[–] in4aPenny 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They'll be outnumbered after the boomers are gone. They'll either have to adapt, hide back in the shadows, or go full extremist.

[–] sleepmode 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Here’s to hoping. It’s exhausting. I can’t have a single conversation without them slyly trying to slip in some earworm or go off on a tirade unexpectedly because I inadvertently trigger them.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

WTF are Keanu Reeves and Madonna doing there 😃

[–] AllonzeeLV 56 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Madonna - Born 1958

Keanu - Born 1964 so boomer of the cutoff year.

It's not my countdown clock, but all the images they chose are of the baby boomer generation, chronologically.

[–] saltesc 84 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] AllonzeeLV 30 points 5 months ago

I concede the point, the argument, and my very life.

May Keanu have mercy on my soul.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago

Thanks Lemmy. I just had to wiki to double-verify that Keanu Reeves is not dead.

Thank God.

[–] Smoogs 38 points 5 months ago (26 children)

Just How stupid does one have to be to think all their woes exist with only one generation? There are far bigger monsters alive today in current younger generations (many in millennial) that are far more destructive to our lives and the earth. They’ve seen more $$$ than any boomer and will laugh at you while you live out of a garbage can.

And you’d still probably be posting stupid memes like this acting completely oblivious to the burning hell around you.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

You're framing your indignation from a place of generality. No one thinks that boomers are the sole source of the World's woes. However, they are the largest generation and tend to dominate discussions surrounding housing and the economy. They also make up a huge portion of the elected officials in North America, and younger generations have had it much harder than boomers ever did. It's a lie that millennials and gen z have had more money than our parents and grandparents ever did. We don't have nearly the purchasing power people did in the 50s and 60s.

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[–] Yoz 34 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Who the fuck put keeanu in there?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (17 children)

Just checked, wow he’s technically a Boomer! Born in 1964, so just made it.

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[–] FlyingSquid 33 points 5 months ago (5 children)

My mother is pre-Boomer (born soon after the U.S. entered the war) and has been incredibly progressive her entire life. She has never voted for a Republican. She marched for civil rights. She wanted me to know that women and men are equal and that color and religion and ethnicity should not make you dislike someone. She taught me about sex (appropriately) when I asked about it at 3 or 4 years old rather than shielding me from it. My brother and I both have (had in my case, but that's another story) gay best friends who were also best man at both of our weddings. She always welcomed them even though my brother and his friend became friends in the mid-1980s. I remember asking my mother what she would do if I was gay and she said she would love me no matter what I was. I don't specifically know her politics, but my dad, born even earlier (1931) was mostly the same way. He definitely had his prejudices- although he would deny it- and he was a lot more sexist than he thought he was, but he was also an outspoken socialist until the dementia got too bad for him to be outspoken about it. One of the last things I was able to tell him before he was too far gone to understand was that Bernie was running for president.

I have certainly had a lot of issues with Boomers and people older than them, but it is far from universal, but I am really proud of my parents for always being progressive.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I find this insanely interesting. I hope someone does this for us Xers but I have a feeling that everyone will forget about us.

And with this, I’m also interested in the rate of change here. Are boomers dying faster, slower, steady rate?

[–] AllonzeeLV 31 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)
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[–] AFKBRBChocolate 14 points 5 months ago

It would be very surprising if the rate was steady. Boomers are ages 59 to 77 today. The ones who have died have been on the younger side, but it won't be long until most are within a standard deviation for average lifespan.

Also, there weren't the same number of boomers born every year. In fact, 1946 had a spike of them, and the rate started falling off each of the last seven years or so of the range. So we started with more older boomers than younger boomers.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (19 children)

I love how many people are going on about how one generation isn't the cause of all our problems. I agree. Neither the post nor the website say anything good nor bad about any generation, just that it's -mildly interesting- that boomers just hit 1/3 dead.

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[–] TheWoozy 28 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Boomers were hated by their elders for being too liberal and hated by their youngers for being to conservative.

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 5 months ago (7 children)

They got more conservative as they got older. All those hippie kids who protested Vietnam and experimented with drugs and sex ended up voting for Reagan.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (3 children)

People seem to have this view that everyone in the '60s was a hippie but that's just not true. Time Magazine put the number around 300,000. In a country of 200 million, that's only 0.15% of the population. They were a counterculture not mainstream culture. The vast majority of kids did not become hippies, and many actively hated the hippies.

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[–] Chev 24 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Is this like a timer for when we can start fighting climate change?

[–] MataVatnik 19 points 5 months ago

We got plenty of idiots in our generation too. We're not off the hook

[–] TheWoozy 15 points 5 months ago

Boomers started fighting climate change decades ago. (see Al Gore)

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[–] GrammatonCleric 20 points 5 months ago
[–] ramenshaman 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Not long ago I found out that my dad is too old to be a boomer. Apparently it's called "the silent generation".

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[–] pandacoder 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why is a Canadian actor and citizen in one of the photos for a US countdown...?

(Yes I'm referring to Keanu.)

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

At this point, I'd rather like to see edgelords go extinct.

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[–] aleq 14 points 5 months ago (4 children)

well that's fucking dark (and as others have pointed out, misguided - won't solve a thing)

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