Generational Warfare Is Built On A Pile of Garbage
Don't fall for the okie doke.
Recently I did a Twitter thread (can you still call it that?) on how generational warfare is garbage after noticing the similarities in news stories about Gen X (slackers), millennials (lazy kids who got “participation trophies”), and Gen Z (easily triggered “snowflakes”) that often put the blame on young people for not being as resilient or having the same work ethic as Boomers. This ignores that Boomers were the first, and only really, generation to have a fully functioning social safety net to work from here in the United States.
All the gains and protections that started after the Great Depression and lasted through LBJ’s Great Society plan were steadily eroded by Presidents Reagan, Bush the senior, and even Bill Clinton, as the programs that saved lives and built our thriving economy were dismantled, shrunk, or stymied by a government that labeled these things as “handouts” the minute they went to people other than white people.
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So I wrote a piece for HuffPost’s Opinion section about it and how instead of blaming young people for not being immediately successful out the gate (in this economy???), we need to focus on the real problem — inequality and a system that protects and rewards the rich.
Here’s a snippet:
But something strange happened after Gen X ascended to the middle of the generational food chain (still behind boomers, who control half of the nation’s $140 trillion in wealth), millennials showed up, yet history seemed to be in reruns. As Gen X had proven to actually be “hard workers” who helped create our tech-savvy world, millennials were the new kids to knock for having to move back home after college, unable to find work in … you guessed it … the 2001 recession and the 2007 economic collapse, aka “The Great Recession” that lasted until 2009 and was marked by even more income inequality, the 2008 subprime loan crisis and rising costs.
Somehow, everyone was making the exact same mistake. Countless stories came out in the press railing these “whiny” and “entitled” kids who were “ruined” because they’d grown up receiving “participation trophies” and were “helicopter parented” to the point of uselessness. It was everyone else’s fault BUT the economy, which had only become more volatile as, again, the social safety net was further stripped away under Clinton and banks were allowed to run rampant with little recourse or protections for consumers under the mistaken belief that if you roll back protections, the savings will “trickle down” to the poors.
The Substack of the Writer Formally Known As The Black Snob is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
