@applebaps tbh I feel like this boomer meme stuff is so common because it's... fundamentally compatible with the liberal belief in 'slow but inevitable progress' and that people are 'artefacts of their time' (and there for cannot change). It's such an easy answer for why the world is this fucked, with such a clear "us vs them, but also because of time/death eventually we will 'win'" narrative it's hard not to fall for it. I know I did once...
But gosh it is pure 100% bullshit.
@applebaps there are countless "boomers"(whatever that means) who have been radicals for decades, or who are recent or long standing members of queer/trans community, or etc etc.
There are also countless millennial and <whatever the next group is called> racists, homo+phobes, and outright fascists. Pretending we're trapped in a slow and steady progressive narrative is a foolish mistake at best, and maintaining the idea that the problem is "older people" is maintaining systemic inequity.
Oh, and also: this comes on top of a lifetime of Xers being this tiny group forever overshadowed by or lumped in with Boomers... always for purposes of disparagement. It never fails to irritate, even after half a century.
@xenophora @BunnyHearted @applebaps
in my bit of England, many late middle aged and senior folk are *very* progressive minded, often more so than younger people, but that is also as they by and large have stable careers or well funded retirement pensions.
I listen to Radio Caroline and the other two community radio stations a lot in the car, and I still hear the "spirit of the late 60s" amongst the older presenters..
@vfrmedia @BunnyHearted @applebaps
My feeling as a Yank is that historically speaking, a sizeable number of Boomers never took part in the upheaval and public fights for justice that we now think of as endemic to the 1960s. Hell, maybe the *majority* sat it out. (Often not b/c of real malice but b/c --as some pointed out to me-- they were poor & struggling every day just to stay alive.)
@vfrmedia @BunnyHearted @applebaps
These norms which were once strange ideas have often come from a small group working to better a collective where the majority would not (or could not) participate.
@xenophora @BunnyHearted @applebaps
my own parents had to leave a housing co-op style place in London and their politics shifted more towards centre right as even the alternative scenes weren't as open to non-whites (who were expected to work hard whilst others partied), yet at the same time I don't think its a coincidence that the social changes of late 1960s led to them marrying (without parental approval) and leaving Malaysia for UK - so I am literally a product of this social revolution!
@BunnyHearted @applebaps
[raises hand] Xer here. And yeah. I'm used to it but it's still kind of irritating. If you challenge people on it they'll say, "Well 'Boomer' is a state of mind." And that's silly. If you mean *Conservative* say so. We all know of younger people who've been obliquely or openly hostile to positive social change. That's not some relic of a bygone day. It's still very real.