The Generational Blind Spot-BOOM! - Page 2

Originally Posted by @_@ Artman

The economic crisis is just a media conspiracy.

O'Reilly and Rove said so, so it must be true.

Originally Posted by franksargent

O'Reilly, Rove, Hannity, Coulter, Fix all dat NoiZe, et. al. are all a bunch of douche nozzle headed asshats.

Originally Posted by franksargent

Generation X

Circa 1990 is calling you know who!

Originally Posted by e1618978

But I fit that description, I'm not trying to say we aren't like that.... Each generation is different, due to socioeconomic forces at work during their childhoods. Why are you unable to see the baby boomers for what and who they are?

Originally Posted by e1618978

But I fit that description, I'm not trying to say we aren't like that.... Each generation is different, due to socioeconomic forces at work during their childhoods. Why are you unable to see the baby boomers for what and who they are?

Originally Posted by addabox

So presumably one of those gen x traits is "happily accepting of glib, reductive descriptions of vast groups of people, as long as it affixes blame for societal ills somewhere other than with me?"

"Socioeconomic forces at work during their childhoods" is just one of any number of contributing factors to the behavior of any given individual, and given that "boomers" encompass people from vastly disparate socioeconomic backgrounds, not even a reasonably predictive one, at that.

Is it your contention that someone who grew up in the sixties dirt poor, the son of an intermittently employed laborer, is likely to have much the same take on the nature of things as the kid who grew up prosperous? How about one of them Latino "boomers" vs. Harvard bound prep school kid? Teenage mom vs. boy who went of to Viet Nam vs. proto-computer nerd? Somehow all these people are more alike than not, in some significant way, because they grew up across a twenty year span of American history that saw some of the most rapid and profound cultural changes we've ever experienced?

I'm particularly pleased that Nick has embraced identity politics, however, although I suspect that for him "boomers" simply means "fucking dirty hippies."

Originally Posted by addabox

I'm particularly pleased that Nick has embraced identity politics, however, although I suspect that for him "boomers" simply means "fucking hippies."

Originally Posted by addabox

The really cool thing is that this generation of thirty something cranks can also come to loath the kids, for failing to respect them when they're older.

You just know this generation of thirty something cranks are going to so be about respect for the elders, in about twenty or thirty years. And of course they'll lie about how it was when they were young.

Good luck with that, guys.

Originally Posted by midwinter

It's a remarkable combination of "fuck you old man!" and "get the hell outta my yard!" innit?

Originally Posted by addabox

Is it your contention that someone who grew up in the sixties dirt poor, the son of an intermittently employed laborer, is likely to have much the same take on the nature of things as the kid who grew up prosperous?

Originally Posted by e1618978

It makes sense that we would be that way - since there is a baby boom on either side of us. Kind of like being squeezed between two big tits - everybody just notices the tits.



Yes - as long as you chop the top 10% and bottom 10% off the bell curve, and limit yourself to white people. Most everyone in the US was prosperous in the post-war boom period, because everybody else (Europe, etc) was wrecked and we were the only industrial power.

Originally Posted by midwinter

It's a remarkable combination of "fuck you old man!" and "get the hell outta my yard!" innit?

Originally Posted by addabox

It strikes me that the kids are going to be increasingly non-white and strangely disinterested in beating up on teh fags and the godless.

I'll wager they're going to take a very dim view indeed of the idiot generation that put Bush in power so that he could well and truly Fuck. Everything. Up.

Just think, Nick: pretty soon you won't have the boomers to kick around anymore and you'll be alone with the New Monster Children. The ones who like people like Obama. The ones that hate your fucking guts.

Originally Posted by midwinter

As much as I'd like to believe this, I know in my heart that the GOP can rally around a leader or a new group to hate like nobody's business.

Originally Posted by addabox

True, I would have never figured that they'd put the financial crisis through the blame machine and come up with....... boomers. I guess if you can't blame your own failed policies and you can't blame the jews and just blaming the liberals some more strikes even your sympathizers as brazenly insane, you start casting about.....

Still, in the years to come, I don't think it's going to be so much about who the right is deciding to hate next, but how everybody else starts really hating them, and then goes from that to ignoring and forgetting about them.

There will always be, however, another bunch of 16 year olds to rediscover Ayn Rand and realize that at last someone understands the gravity of their terminal uniqueness, so the cycle can begin anew.

Originally Posted by addabox

The really cool thing is that this generation of thirty something cranks can also come to loath the kids, for failing to respect them when they're older.

You just know this generation of thirty something cranks are going to so be about respect for the elders, in about twenty or thirty years. And of course they'll lie about how it was when they were young.

Good luck with that, guys.

Originally Posted by addabox

I think it's quicker to just say "Goddamn fucking hippies got all the sex and drugs and good times and left us with none", since we're apparently not requiring any of this to make a lick of sense.

It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant...

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of 'history' it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened...

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turnoff to take when I got to the other end... but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: no doubt at all about that...

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...

And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply PREVAIL. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Originally Posted by franksargent

AFAIK, only one of PO's favorite ... has put forward this flawed argument.

This PO'ed poster started this thread linked to an article that did not contain, in any way, shape, or form, the words "boomer" or "boomers" or "baby boomer" or "baby boomers".

I noted this fact twice, the first time the thread starter replied with gibberish, and the second time the thread starter remained silent.

For an obvious reason.

Because, I was in fact correct.

So we go from a totally unrelated article (that never mentions anything related to American age demographics in any way, shape, or form) about the economy directly into some totally unrelated illogical irrational unreasoning subjective myopic blame boomers screed.

Originally Posted by trumptman

Yeah I don't get it. The guy who won has the same Secretary of Defense, appointed all the Senators who were deluded into voting for it for his cabinet and now he wants to put his own name on the half a trillion dollar bail out packages.

So much has changed.... Now instead of Democrat-lite, we've got Democrat Classic.

Originally Posted by trumptman

I will and I'll continue to inform it with articles I find. You can continue to dismiss all contrary thought as hate.



Yeah I remember reading that in 1990 and thinking to myself two things. First I'm 20 and I have conquered the world yet. That is some standard they have there. Then I though about the boomer standard of conquering the world which involved following the dead, going to a "march" and finally getting really drunk and high and thought "wow are these guys ever full of shit."



He is unable to see that because then it would mean growing up.



Well we are led to believe that the last two Democratic presidents fit exactly that background so that probably undermines your snark a bit.

So I would say they are more alike than not. Twenty years prior Obama could not have been elected and likely wouldn't have a Bill Richardson to put in his cabinet. Twenty years later the kid will wonder who the hell keeps track of someone being "half this and half that" and nothing about color from the president or cabinet will be historical.

I've never said the boomers didn't try to achieve cultural change. However like most good intentions though, it really has a nefarious purpose. They hollowed out the wealth while claiming "gee we can vote for a black man" and we all get to enjoy the 11+ trillion dollar bill.



Dude, go take your meds.



I apparently didn't know that I alone am the "new meme for the right."

Apparently I'm not getting my check for my royalties. I'll need to check into that.



I suspect that the generation after the boomers isn't going to worry so much about crap like "respect" because the generation that fixated on that were just so full of shit. They will never have gotten any from the boomers so and won't have spent their lives making up strange measures of supposed social progress and good intentions to gain that "respect" so they won't expect it either.

My generation is the one the articles often complain about where, as an example one person stays home and takes care of the kids. The older feminists all scream the new women are disrespecting their legacy. The older men are wondering how you are going to keep up with the Jones when you don't work 60 hours a week and end up twice divorced and broke (even though you earned a lot) because you kept fucking the secretary.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the kids and the less hectic life.



Don't worry, enough concrete and fencing will fix that. Plus the combination is valid when Grandpa Boomer is living in the converted garage because he is broke.



They won't remember you are talking about a demographic that was well over 80% white to begin with.



So that statement above makes sense? You should find a way to make your ranting caricatures of my views and your own views, which are expressed in cartoonish rants more distinct because they get harder to understand when all mashed together that way.



We've been picking up Mom and Dad and cleaning up their bullshit for a long time. The fact that the savior won't be able to save and the problem will be big enough to let the kids further down the line know they are on the hook for trillions as well should wake up and broaden up the groups holding these views pretty quickly.

If it doesn't, well then trillion dollar a year deficits will leave everyone pretty broke pretty quick.



I think you're presumptions are not only wrong, but you are already suffering under them. First I voted down prop 8 but of course it wasn't me that passed it. It was the "kids" of course that passed it. I don't mean just the young but black, latino, and asian groups that boomers and the left will come in and realize that "oh crap, they are up for grabs, they don't automatically tow the party line" and perhaps they will even be seriously hateful and pissed about it just like you demonstrate. They might even alienate them away for a generation because the default argument for disagreement from Frank, yourself and others is that it isn't really disagreement, but hate. So really when the empowered blacks that voted down prop 8 are being told by gays that they really are just hateful bigots, you might just alienate them away for a generation or two.

The people of who that dim view will be held on will be the boomers. They will be the one wondering why their entire legacy of racial wedge politics no longer works when the generations afterwards are of all races, have the power and don't know what the hell these windmills are that the boomers keep tilting at with regard to boogyman politics.



We can also let the people doing the hating have enough "good intention" rope to hang themselves with and for when they begin hating on black church and mormon church leaders for not voting as they want they can think for themselves.

Think for themselves of course really being GOP code for hate hate hate and of course more hate.

Damn, you guys really are a one note song. When the generations after the boomers wake up and collectively realize that disagreement doesn't instantly mean hate, you will be screwed.



Yeah. I suppose the right will just go away and there will be utopia along with that occasional 16 year old who needs to be "reeducated."



No Frank it can't just be me. Don't you know that I am my entire generation. I am also the entire right. I am the maker of memes and controller of all. I am the entire Republican party, me and my barking dog and my lawn. Now if we could just get Artman in here to post the nice pictures of all the addabox and midwinter caricatures, the thread will be done.

Originally Posted by trumptman

First I voted down prop 8 but of course it wasn't me that passed it. It was the "kids" of course that passed it. I don't mean just the young but black, latino, and asian groups that boomers and the left will come in and realize that "oh crap, they are up for grabs, they don't automatically tow the party line" and perhaps they will even be seriously hateful and pissed about it just like you demonstrate.

Originally Posted by trumptman

Well I'll call myself lucky because we get three words while you get one. Hate, hate and hate.

That well is beyond dry.

Originally Posted by trumptman

Now will all these new wild children stay the same as they grow up, or might they become some Volvo Driving Soccer Moms?

Originally Posted by addabox

It's interesting that you post that, Artman because my understanding is that at birth Boomers came with a tag that said "Light fuse and stand back."

To the wingnut who stole my Obama/Biden magnet and left a note - w4m Date: 2008-11-20, 12:49AM PST

I was really angry when I got to my car, which was minding its own business parked in the Barnes & Noble parking lot, and I saw that someone had stolen my precious Obama magnet! I waited more than 2 months for that magnet to come in the mail!!

But then as I was driving home I noticed a small white paper flapping in the breeze under my windshield wiper. I pulled over to retrieve it and it was a sloppily-scribbled, psychotic expression of your wingnut political beliefs. I do not care about your paranoid mental disorder (I quote: "Are you ready to give up your freedom? It's COMING MORON!!")

You stole my magnet. I want it back. I'll give you 24 hours to put it back on my scion, which will be parked there tomorrow... or I will take the scrap of Wells Fargo bank statement you wrote your wing-note on to my friend who works for Wells Fargo. She will scan the barcode on the corner of your note and tell me who you are. And I will come steal something YOU value, perhaps your fingernail clipping collection or John McCain blow-up doll!

You have until sundown Thursday, douchbag!

Originally Posted by trumptman

No Frank it can't just be me. Don't you know that I am my entire generation. I am also the entire right. I am the maker of memes and controller of all. I am the entire Republican party, me and my barking dog and my lawn. Now if we could just get Artman in here to post the nice pictures of all the addabox and midwinter caricatures, the thread will be done.

Originally Posted by trumptman

You should feel the exact opposite. The big anchor around the Republican neck is getting ready to come off and now they can come out swinging without worrying about defending him. That makes their job a whole lot easier. So will the fact that under a Democratic Congress we will likely have our first trillion dollar deficit and they won't be going away under Obama.



It isn't thrashing about. It is understanding numbers especially percentages and how they can shift over time. When a measure cannot pass in a blue state during a blue electoral tidal wave with huge numbers of blue voters, it becomes harder to pass in the future unless you can show momentum going that way. The claimed momentum is younger voters getting older and still voting the same way, but we know as a general people don't vote at 40 exactly as they did when they were 20. It isn't an absolute, but percentages.

My point was that the measure was already down 21 points and is likely to progress down more as those young folks age.

Finally "the kids" did vote it in if they supported other measures and candidates in appropriate percentages but did not support this measure the same way. If an interest group doesn't overwhelmingly support something in their interest, that is still a loss in my book. Your view sees 50%+1 and calls it support. My view sees -21% and knows this is likely to get worse as they age. 18-29 year olds, most of them aren't even married yet. Check back in ten years when more of them are and see if they have any strong opinions about the institution. Much like taxes, the opinion changes quickly when you are paying them instead of merely giving opinions on them.



I didn't know you replaced a fence. I was referring to keeping kids off the lawn. I don't happen to own a dog for clarification or yell at kids or elders from my front porch (which I don't have either.)

I think we need a dry erase board with the list of the caricatures and who actually has what since apparently we switch from one to the other quickly.



Well those of us that are less stupid know that you call the liberal agenda civil rights and the conservative agenda cultural wedge issues, but both have agendas regardless. Tax the rich, spread the wealth, white boys party that can't attract any one younger than 30, and anyone who is single, no cultural wedge issues there folks. None atall.

The big anchor around the Republican neck is getting ready to come off and now they can come out swinging without worrying about defending him. That makes their job a whole lot easier.

You should feel the exact opposite. The big anchor around the Republican neck is getting ready to come off and now they can come out swinging without worrying about defending him. That makes their job a whole lot easier. So will the fact that under a Democratic Congress we will likely have our first trillion dollar deficit and they won't be going away under Obama.

Originally Posted by franksargent

Three times.

Three times, I've brought up the one salient fact about this thread.

Three times, you have now avoided making a direct rebuttal of that one salient fact.

Your ... is palpable, unmitigated, and incontrovertible.



For the 4th time, the original link that started this thread...

... does not contain the words ...

"boom"

"boomer"

"boomers"

"baby"

"baby boom"

"baby boomer"

"baby boomers"

Originally Posted by jimmac

You know maybe he just thinks it does. ( I'd put a wink after this but the forum format says there are already too many images ).