this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] Cruxifux@lemmy.world 355 points 10 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@lemmy.world 97 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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@lemmy.world 60 points 10 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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[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 14 points 10 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@lemmy.world 19 points 10 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.

[–] Rookwood@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

It will solve the problem of their voting habits. They have lead us down this insane path because they are a narcissistic generation. Things won't be perfect, but we might, just might, start turning things around. If we still can.

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[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 64 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] havokdj@lemmy.world 52 points 10 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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[–] Swasey@lemmy.world 45 points 10 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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[–] dipshit@lemmy.world 43 points 10 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.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemy.lol 23 points 10 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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[–] sleepmode@lemmy.world 41 points 10 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@lemmy.world 22 points 10 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@lemmy.world 13 points 10 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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[–] CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

WTF are Keanu Reeves and Madonna doing there 😃

[–] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 55 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 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@lemmy.world 82 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

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

May Keanu have mercy on my soul.

[–] CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I get that I just thought its supposed to be dead by boomers up there

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[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 38 points 10 months ago

Putting Keanu next to dead Boomers is like when Micheal Scott announced he hit Meredith and the doctors did all they could.

Why would you phrase it like that?!

[–] BoastfulDaedra@lemmynsfw.com 34 points 10 months ago

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

Thank God.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (16 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.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 15 points 10 months ago

The boomers also have high levels of wealth inequality

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 10 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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[–] IHeartBadCode@kbin.social 30 points 10 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@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)
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[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 14 points 10 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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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 29 points 10 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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[–] TheWoozy@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago (7 children)

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

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 10 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.

[–] GiantRobotTRex@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 10 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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[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 27 points 10 months ago (17 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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[–] Chev@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (6 children)

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

[–] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

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

[–] TheWoozy@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

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

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[–] GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago
[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 20 points 10 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@lemmy.world 17 points 10 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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[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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

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[–] aleq@lemmy.world 13 points 10 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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[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Must be nice to have Gen X parents eh? I mean…. Being able to afford the luxury of wishing death upon an entitle generation with no consequences…. Sounds so…. Easy.

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[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

It's a start.

I kid, I kid, my parents are already dead, not everyone who was/is a boomer is horrid. But this generation has hung around power for too long, it's time to move on.

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