"A specter is haunting millennials: the specter of the Baby Boom." - me
I’ve noticed an increasing distain among left-wing Millennials for Baby Boomers – that is, the generation of Americans who were born after the Second World War and before the mid-60s. Go to “leftbook” or Zig Forums or Weird Twitter or whatever other ostensibly radical community you feel like subjecting yourself to and you’ll discover that there’s a large contingent of young (mostly Millenial, though the nature of these communities makes it hard to know everyone’s ages)socialists who don’t like Boomers. They don’t like their politics, they don’t like their rhetoric, and they certainly don’t like how Boomers are (apparently) preventing the Revolution from overthrowing the American Empire.
Now, I’ll get this out of the way: yes, the current President of the United States is a Boomer, as were the three before him. The majority of US congressmen are Boomers. Five of the current Supreme Court Justices are Boomers. Boomers are also overrepresented among Fortune 500 CEOs, media clerks, and pretty much every other public face that a young radical can point at and say “that’s The Man.”
But Boomers are not the oppressing class. They’re not a class at all; they’re bourgeois, petty bourgeois, proletarian, and lumpenproletarian. There are plenty of Boomer workers being exploited by their Gen X or even Millennial employers right now.
Now, one might argue that, although Boomers (as a whole) are not the enemy, anti-Boomer sentiment nonetheless taps into radical consciousness; that is, the opposition to Boomers is a clumsy but well-intentioned approximation of opposition to the Bourgeoisie. There are certainly anti-Boomer memes that reflect this. However, the majority of the anti-Boomer sentiment I’ve seen doesn’t come from the left; many of the most vocal opponent of Boomers are open reactionaries who blame Boomers not for perpetuating capitalism but for allowing non-Whites into the United States, promoting “degeneracy,” and standing in the way of Donald Trump. And besides them, plenty of anti-Boomer types don’t seem too political at all; look at any 4chan board to see Boomers despised for their tastes in art, their sense of humor, and even their daily routines. At this rate I wouldn’t be surprised to see anti-Boomer memes on CNN next year. Boomers aren’t criticized for being reactionary; they’re criticized for whatever (perceived) social ill one wishes to ascribe to them.
I don’t think that’s an accident; I think it’s more sinister than that. To explain, I need to move back to the 1960s and (to a lesser extent) the 1970s, when Boomers themselves occupied the current position Millenials do now. At that time, there was a strong sentiment among radical youth that older generations were to blame for the problems of the world, and that they would never fall in line with the impending social upheaval. The older generations were the ones in all the positions of authority, and they were by and large more conservative than the younger generation. (See any similarities here?)
The thing is, those talking points from the 60s were flat-out false. Plenty of survivors of deadly union struggles were still around in the 60s, as were international veterans of the Spanish Civil War. If you were a young person in 1965 and you wanted to find someone who’d literally taken up arms against the bourgeoisie, you wouldn’t want to look at people your age: Old Man Robertson from down the street had been in the IWW. Yet if you listened to the way Bob Dylan told it, no one over 30 (that is, no one with actual experience organizing) should be trusted. This lack of experienced guidance materially hurt the radical movements of the time; if the twenty-somethings had actually listened to their elders, maybe they wouldn’t have been so prone to grandstanding, ultra-left deviations, or sabotage by COINTELPRO.
Back to the present: like the activists of the 60s did with their predecessors, anti-Boomer individuals ignore (or obfuscate) that many Boomers are or were among the most radical people in US history. The Black Panther Party included many Boomers, including Fred Hampton and Mumia Abu-Jamal (Huey P. Newton and Kwame Ture were both nearly Boomers as well). Boomers could be found among the Stonewall Rioters, the Natives who occupied Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, and the feminists who worked to criminalize spousal rape and legalize birth control. The fact of the matter is that Boomers contributed more to the Left than Millenials ever have (and quite possibly more than they ever will) – and these people are still alive! You can literally send emails to these people, asking them for advice!
Now, this generational conflict (both then and now) could certainly come from very mundane sources. It’s something of a cultural constant for children to rise up against their parents, at least in small ways. But if that’s all it is, why isn’t Generation X to target of Millenial ire?
Leo Perez
No, I think the generational conflicts both now and then were manufactured. Remember what I said about lack of direction crippling a lot of 60s activists? Well, I think that’s true now too; look at the pathetic state of movements like Occupy Wall Street or whatever the party/org/LARP troupe du jour is. From what I’ve seen, modern movements suffer greatly from a lack of experienced leadership, a role that would be best suited for… Boomers! So, who wants to sow discord between Boomers and Millenials? The very people that radical movements threaten: the bourgeoisie, the state, the FBI; the ones who actually are The Man.
Now, I have the suspicion that this last part will be met with significant skepticism. Surely the FBI didn’t make that dumb wojak? We know that the US government made use of “radical” elements to suppress communist movements in the 1960s (see: postmodernism). And we know that the Internet is extremely vulnerable to state intervention, both because of the increased anonymity inherent to the medium and because of ties between the state and platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I don’t think it’s at all implausible that our enemies are acting through the insidious stupidity of 4chan.
But even if you don’t believe that hating Boomers is a deliberate ploy to weaken radical movements, it weakens them anyway, and the only thing worse than someone who gets a paycheck from the FBI is someone who does their work for free.
Caleb Long
Special thanks to /cuttlefish_btc from Twitter, whose thread on this phenomenon in the 1960s inspired me to write this.
This is the sort of idiotic meme I'm talking about, thanks for backing me up.
they thought PoC were gonna wash their asses and pay their pensions
Jaxon Perry
You are trying to derive nuance were very little exists: most Americans from this generation are lumpen retards, and that is just a fact of life.
Brandon Jackson
This is what I mean; anyone can project their own political biases onto the Boomer thing, it isn't at all radical.
Do you mean Boomers or Millenials? Either way that's demonstrably false.
Evan Sanchez
Oops, shitposting flag (not that I have anything against "tankies" but this thread is meant to be a non-sectarian look at the problem).
Carter Nelson
Aside from memes that offend your sensibilities what actual fallout or division have you seem physically manifest?
Wasnt that simply funding artistic projects to give the impression of the US being more open and tolerant than the USSR over using post modernists to fragment the movement.
Ask yourself why the boomers werent there to provide it or even there beforehand and you will find part of the answer to millennial angst.
My dad has bought two houses because of his dad, has a job that pays a living wage (although not that much) without any college. I cannot move out and he cannot help me at all. He's just waiting to sell the house we live in. Although he is every much a prole, increasing property value keeps me living with him as he and I are just getting older (I'm 30, he's 63).
I'm just growing to resent my parents more and more the longer I live with them.
Josiah Ramirez
A lot of anti-boomer sentiment comes from their reliable support for the two parties and their status as beneficiaries of the few social programs that still exist. Young people get frustrated by boomers who have essentially been bought off by Social Security, Medicare, and the remnants of broad economic prosperity in the post war era, such as it was. It's clear boomers are more vulnerable to establishment media propaganda, look at the new cold war narrative they've swallowed whole.
Nicholas Cook
Don't give a shit about whatever Boomer apologist crap this is especially when it just seems you've cherry picked a tiny minority of the left which existed within that generation, no one thinks all Boomers are some evil being the vast majority of Boomers were content to go along with everything they did and they profited vastly off of it and then they think the evil ussr socdem Bernie is going to destroy based capitalist America with Pokemon go and Iphones. That's why people dislike Boomers. Shitty petty bourgeois indivudals and defendrs of the one of the most evil things to ever exist Amerikka.
No it's not, it's a safe punching bag for weird twitter twats and their fail son followers that are watching their narcissistic parents completely reneg on their social contract and fritter away their future inheritance on HELOCS and reverse mortgages and too much of huge, weeping pussies to call out the bourgeois.
Oliver Brown
>See kids, boomers TOTALLY supported Black Liberation, me and Huey are the same age! please ignore the fact that I couldn't care less that there's still black panthers rotting in jail, The dialectics may be the same but but the greatest generation and the boomers are NOTHING alike. The greatest generation was FUCK ROCK STUPID. The Navy had to do shit like tell recruits to NOT DRINK THE FUEL to get drunk, and make cartoons for everything because none of them could fucking read.
Nicholas Evans
I can't decipher the actual point of this post. Yeah, its arguable that the average American in the 30s-40s was dumber than the average boomer and so the average boomer is dumber than the average millenial but this is accounted for by the fact that Autism Level levels tend to rise as societies become more developed and education/information more widespread.
The average Russian peasant/worker in 1910 was probably dumber than the average subsaharan African today but that doesn't mean their political stance was invalid in supporting the Bolsheviks.
Likewise, aren't we the kind of people who typically argue against fetishization of Autism Level tests and the like?
The Greatest Generation may not have been the smartest generation but they were actually smart enough to know what's up. There were probably more active commies and better organized/more influential in the 30s than there was in the 60s-70s. The capitalist class called it "the red 30s" for a reason.
Ayden Brown
I like Cuttlefish, but we should also keep in mind that the concept of major generational differences is part of Marxism-Leninism. EG Lenin says that the revolutionary generation won't be able to move to a higher stage of communism because they will have too many leftover bourgeois notions. As for the boomers, the "boomer" that people are mostly talking about is clearly a specific class of boomer – mostly white and "upper middle class," with no end in sight to their ridiculously myopic worldview. It's an objective fact that these boomers enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) major material benefits that many of their offspring simply can't access any more. This leads to a sharp divide in worldview between boomers and millennials. Moreover you are right to point out that many radical boomers were, back in their day, conned into dismissing labor militancy, and embracing spiritualism, individualism, idealism, and many other bourgeois trends. The BPP went against this trend, likely due to its origins in a different nationality and class. I think you are overselling it to say that "Boomers contributed more to the Left than Millenials ever have (and quite possibly more than they ever will," as the dominant idealist trend in radicals accomplished nothing whatsoever, and narcissistically takes credit for the victories of others (such as the victory of the Vietnamese over the USA being disgustingly portrayed as predominantly the result of protests in the West).
Ethan Diaz
Dafaq does that have to do the greatest generation being illiterate. And I don't know what measure of "dumbness" you subscribe to but Sub Saharan Africans are self sufficient while those Russian peasants weren't.
No they weren't, they let fascism fester all throughout the 30s. Fascism was also widely popular in the 30s in Burger land, what's your point.
Eli Miller
>Being this much of a Glow In The Dark N-word
Jacob Taylor
I can't actually prove that the left would be more organized/coherent without this generational tension, it's just my theory. Read this: cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86S00588R000300380001-5.PDF I think there's been work done to neuter and suppress the revolutionary potential of proletarian Boomers and turn them against the younger generation too, as this meme suggests; I didn't talk about that in my initial posts but I definitely think it's worth exploring.
More than in Gen X or this generation. You wouldn't know it from how people talk about them. Lol is this Facebook? Come on dude. Yeah I'm sure George the 70 year old walmart employee is living the high life.
I don't think it's really radical but that type of person certainly positions himself as counterculture.
I think we're in agreement. People might think they're targeting the ruling class by singling out Boomers but their missing the point.
And they have to tell teenagers today not to eat Tide Pods.
I really don't think the distinction is that clear. Also, even if people mean all of that when they say "Boomers", it still obfuscates actual class differences and should be avoided. Of course in the end those movements all collapsed one way or another, but would you dispute that the BPP at its height was a greater threat to the US than any movement or organization of the past two decades? Or that the anti-Vietnam War protests were more effective than protests against the Iraq War granted this is probably because of the draft, but still?
Austin Gray
But is there really that kind of tension? I mean we dont see things like older people being kicked out parties due to their age. Were do we find the evidence of such a tension outside of a few memes. Is that the right document? It doesn't really seem to demonstrate your point and indeed goes in the opposite direction in demonstrating the decline and emergence of new communist theory happened outside of CIA or US intervention. That didnt really address the question I asked you. Still in response to your comments I dont see much evidence to suggest it is directly a product of intent. I see it as being firstly the simple cultural gap (for instance Boomers not realising that the "paltry" 2.50 an hour they got payed in the 60s to do unskilled labour would be the equivalent of a person earning 21.25 an hour not to mention the war on drugs) and secondly boomers have very different material interests and wealth than Millennials.
For instance in my country Boomers destroyed the housing market for the young by introducing policies subsidised people buying investment properties. Given that many have their retirement bound to this directly or indirectly in this their desire to threaten this system evaporates. (and yes not all boomers are home owners and neither are all mellenials "homeless" but these are smaller segments)
More generally though boomers are much easier to buy off electorally because they are insulated from the bad outcome of short sighted policies as they wont be around to see them through long term. Boomers can always retreat and scrape by on the remnants of a decaying social welfare system and post war boom money - Millennials cannot. Mellennial's know that the system is only going to tax and police them harder whilst providing fewer and worse services.
Now whilst this does not mean boomers are devoid of revolutionary potential there are going to be natural conflicts of interests. That said I dont think they are large enough to play a decisive role.
