@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.