Talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation...

[MindPilot]

The "generation gap" lives, apparently ripped wide open by Obama. I had so hoped we were over that shit, but I guess not. The fact that boomer-bashing has become a popular pastime on DU so fast is really disturbing. It shows how easily we can be divided and it shows how some--probably deeply bitter about their own lack of accomplishment--will dip their broad brush into anything to disparage an entire group.

We boomers lived the first half of our lives under the constant and very real threat of nuclear annihilation. (Unlike today's wildly exaggerated "terrorists", the commies actually had nuclear warheads and the ability to deliver them.) We are still a bit on edge and you would be well-advised not to fuck with us.

That said, to those of you who maintain that boomers accomplished nothing, or that we are solely responsible for the whatever your pet issue happens to be, all I can can say is: YOU KIDS GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!

[IndianaJones]

1. Obama is a Boomer. He is under the impression that he has been "cured" of his generation. nt.

[yardwork]

7. So I hear. He's a year younger than me but by God (literally) he's a different generation!

How does he do it.

[Iris]

43. a good moisturizer?

n/t

[yardwork]

52. That must be it. Will Obama do Oil of Olay spots next?

[Iris]

53. In this political climate? Ya never know!

That might help with the metrosexual vote, but what about the Christians?

[yardwork]

55. It's a Big Tent.

[msongs]

2. stay tune for cut and paste jobs "proving" everyone is lying about what obama said nt

[havocmom]

3. When I think of all the shoe leather we marched through ...

UPHILL both ways....

Great rant MindPilot :thumbsup:

[MindPilot]

10. in the snow...

These kids today with their hair and their clothes..!

[SteppingRazor]

4. "you would be well-advised not to fuck with us"

DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, OLD MAN!!!!! :grr:







:rofl:

[KayLaw]

5. Those people are asses

Plain and simple. Anyone who judges a person based on their sex, nationality, skin color of date of birth is a worthless ass.

[Beerboy]

6. Hahaha!

What's that you said is wrong w/ your obama? What's that?

[Fresh_Start]

8. Always be suspicious of people who use 'divide and conquer' politics

its modus operandi for the GOP.

Don't assume because someone is here pretending to be pro-democratic, that they are anything other than a paid troll working against the democratic party and working against the American people.

[JohnnyLib2]

14. Amen, amen, amen.

[Donnachaidh]

20. THANK YOU!

the MO of the GOP and the Corporatist lackies.

[Fresh_Start]

21. Yes, the Social Security privitization was one such push

there are many others.

[yardwork]

9. "We are still a bit on edge and you would be well-advised not to fuck with us."

LOL! So true.

And I don't care that I don't understand how to use technology, either. I can always find a small child to show me how to use my Blackberry.

[MindPilot]

12. Yeah who can hit those tiny little keys with arthritic hands? n/t

[yardwork]

13. I can't even see the keys. I don't understand why everything is so %$#*& small nowadays!

[Joanie Baloney]

11. I recognize him...

Is Obama that kid who's been whacking off in my tool shed?!?111!!??


Hee hee!!


:D

[MindPilot]

61. Once again JB, you're too hip for the room...

None of us oldsters got the reference.

BTW was that hip recently replaced?

[zabet]

15. Well said.

I well remember being terrified of nuclear annihilation. I remember
the drills the schools did, our JR high school actually had a bomb shelter.
Obama may technically by age be a baby boomer but, political
aspirations have erased the effect of being a boomer from his memory.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[havocmom]

17. We put WAY more into Social Security than our elders did

and we worked, paid into the coffers for their old age, still managing to get some war or another ended, advance civil rights a big leap in many directions and get the technology boom groundwork laid.

Many of us seem to also be presently saddled with caring for our parents AND the our grandchildren.

That latter thing is damned odd...

[Fresh_Start]

19. Well, we brought that on ourselves

unlike the generations before or since who were both more 'me,me,me' albeit for different reasons, we had a social conscience and refused to close our eyes to the inequity before us.

Go to any volunteer organization where you live. You'll see boomers and you'll see very few younger volunteers.
(Except of course those that are court ordered to do community service)

[KayLaw]

25. Huh?

How are the Baby Boomers responsible for what today's politicians care about? People ages 18-100 vote.

Baby Boomers have been paying through the nose to support their parents and grandparents via whopping FICA taxes and are not sucking up anything. Do you even know what a Boomer is? I ask this because I ran into one fool who complained about retired 53-year-olds sucking up the Medicare money.

I think you're selfish because you hope the government will stop writing SS checks. If you haven't been paying into the system for long you won't have as much to lose as someone who's been paying since the 1960s. Do you think the government is going to let you keep that money? Guess again.

You've been suckered by the republicans and the MSM.

[onelittleindian]

39. kaylaw

don't let facts get in your way. Fica taxes in the sixties were about 3 percent of an average paycheck, now it is fourteen or so. I know that includes medicare but the fact is younger people are getting crushed by taxes compared to the boomers. And for those who say it isn't that high I suggest you become self employed. Then you will see how high it is.

[KayLaw]

44. The Boomers are still paying FICA!

Just like you and were around when Greenspan and St. Ronnie raised the taxes sky high. My husband and I are boomers and will continue to work and pay taxes as will other Boomers. My Boomer s-i-l just got her daughter into kindergarten and will go back to work and continue to pay the same taxes you do. Most of us are nowhere near retirement age!

Those are the facts. I wonder why you single out the Boomers when it's the older people who are the ones collecting benefits and who paid little into the system. Why doesn't that bother you, pray tell?

[yardwork]

51. Um. Most of us boomers are still working so we're getting "crushed" just like you.

[ProfessorGAC]

67. Hey Slick! Most Boomers ARE STILL WORKING!

The boomers are just starting to retire. So, that would mean IT'S A FACT(!), that plenty of us are paying the 14.5% also.

You won't get any sympathy from me about taxes being too high. That is simply the price of living in an advanced society. Shame on you for not figuring that out.
The Professor

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. Too bad you don't know what you are talking about.

Now you boomers just want to suck up the social security and medicare at a rate much more than what you put in.

Yeah, too bad you don't know what you are talking about.

[onelittleindian]

41. blue state

Look at the fica tax rate history and you can see that the tax rate as well as the cap has risen steadily. While someone retiring now will get back more than they paid in 5 or 6 years, someone retiring in twenty years will not. You can find the fica tax history or you can remain an idiot.
you can then go hang out with this so called boomer and help him keep the KIDS off his lawn!

[KayLaw]

45. Retiring in twenty years?

That would be many of the Boomers, for Pete's sake!

[MindPilot]

47. "so-called" boomer?

I'm 52 which puts me squarely in the middle of the demographic. I still have way more working years ahead of me than I care to think about before I can even consider retirement. By the time I'm done, I will likely have put more into the system than I will ever be able to take out.

[shenmue]

18. Oh for crying out loud. If I have to hear from one more cranky, resentful boomer...

"YOU KIDS GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!" Hypocrite much?


Will you Baby Boomers just shut up and let other people live their own lives?

Where did you get this idea that you can judge me, label me based on what *you* have made up in your head, or that I have to answer to you?

Baby Boomers treat everybody else like children. This is ridiculous.

[WinkyDink]

23. This is a stupid post. And no, sonny, we WON'T "just shut up". YOU are clearly "resentful".

[havocmom]

28. We do hope medical science developes a supplement for the humor impaired

Who knows, may happen in your lifetime, then you might see the crack about 'get off my lawn' as the funny reference to crabby old people and clueless younger people we boomers understand, having grown up in an era where we actually went outside to play...

The sad part is how few see this diversion/divide & conquere topic for what it is: Split people and you diminish their collective power. Heaven forbid we all hang together and notice it is the giant corporations doing us ALL in!

They don't want us boomers to dwell on facts like we busted our asses on civil rights to have them disappear now. Ditto environmental protection and open space for heritage issues.

They don't want us to dwell on facts like we busted our asses in our working years to see corporations raid our pension funds via various means and steal our nest eggs through bad corporate management and raids that render our hard gained, but wee portfolios rendered useless.

They don't want us to dwell on the fact that you, our children, have NO FUCKING FUTURE because of what they have done with the economy and turning America into a third world pauper nation.

They sure as hell don't want YOU noticing that the air is poison and all the water and seeds for food are under corporate control. Oh, and no jobs for you guys...

Yeah, keep fighting the generational war and don't get around to noticing who the real enemy of all of us is. They are in their board rooms and private jets laughing their asses off.

THEY get the humor of the situation.

[yardwork]

54. Lighten up, Francis.

[Enrique]

22. screw you old man!

the young man's got nothing in the world these days!

[KayLaw]

24. Excuse me!

What in the Sam Hill do you think the average Baby Boomer has that you don't? Seriously,what? Baby Boomers have worked and paid FICA taxes for ages. We're all in the same boat, dumb bunny.

[MindPilot]

34. That's because you're 30 and still living in your dad's basement.

[MuseRider]

26. Ha Ha I LOVE it!

Seriously. In grade school we had to have emergency plans drawn up and given to the school in case of nuclear attack. Then the duck and cover drills.

Spent our teen years and more protesting a war that was killing our brothers and friends rapidly and there was no real way for regular folks to get out of it.

Also worked on civil rights. Lived during the time that there were "colored entrances" in the back and "colored" drinking fountains. People died trying to make things better but we damned well got it started.

Watched the assassination of a beloved president, then Martin, then Bobby.


Spent the rest of the time working hard to get out from under the same fucking criminals that are back in power.

Spent the Reagan years apologizing every time I went out of the country, especially when I was down Grenada way.

Worried about ecological disaster ALL our lives and watched as the country continued on the path it is still on.

The key words here are watched and worked. We watched and worked to the best of our ability to change things for the better of everyone. Odd how that effort has now turned into "hippie" bashing.

Yes, these people ruling now are from our generation but I do not believe they are typical. Every generation has their trials and their bad apples ;).

[KayLaw]

27. The age isn't the issue

Yes, a lot of the rulers may be Boomers but the ages of the voters is the actual issue. Also, the age of a ruler is only one characteristic. I could easily point out that most of the rulers and Powers that Be are white males. Are all white males selfish?

[MuseRider]

31. True

but I was addressing the OP and the generation wars that have cropped up lately. That is all. You are absolutely correct about that and that is what I meant, kind of anyway, when I mentioned that all generations had their trials and bad apples.

[havocmom]

29. These people ruling now... it's about CLASS WARFARE, nada to do with generations

And the top 1% is winning while we quibble.

Jenna Bush, sticking her tongue out at press and protesters while riding in the back of that limo said it all.

Not about age or era. ALL about class and maintenance of power.

[MuseRider]

32. I agree

but I was addressing the generation wars that have been going on. I could not agree with you more. I just hate to see all the loathing of boomers by people who have what they have partly because of us.

I get fired up by young women who mention feminism like it is a dirty word. That is what I was talking about.

You nailed it with the Jenna reference.

[havocmom]

49. You and I see eye to eye, MuseRider

And, oh, yes, I recall "duck & cover". Even at a tender age, I knew it was a pointless exercise.

Ditto to the fire that rises when I hear a young woman scoff at feminism as she enjoys so many benefits from the struggles you, me, our mothers, our grandmothers got through to make those benefits possible.

Granny and mom, were they here today, would be fighting right along side me, you, and our daughters.

It is economic class. Always has been.

[JohnnyLib2]

30. Nice summary.

I'm from the same background and think many of the battles are the same (human rights, unnecessary wars in particular). This age/boomer issue seems like a huge waste of time and of unity.

[MuseRider]

33. It is a waste

and thank you about the summary.

I totally left out the work done for women. I don't know how I managed to forget that huge important issue but I did. It seems we fought a lot of battles all at around the same time and were successful in most. That says a lot about the power of a pissed off generation.

[treestar]

35. This kind of stuff is most ridiculous, I agree

In the first place, generations can't be clearly defined. People are born every year. Every generation has a different set of circumstances to deal with, so they can't even be compared even if you want to arbitrarily define them.

The only thing significant about baby boomers is that there are so many of them and whatever age they are tends to dominate this society. But they are as varied as any other generation in outlook, etc.

I think it's stupid when the "Greatest Generation" claims to be the greatest, and when any other such distinction is claimed to make a group of people generalized about via age.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MindPilot]

42. Another one proves my point.

Drop dead? What, the only way you can get your life started is by collecting your parents life insurance? Sorry, but I cashed that policy in...to buy drugs. And a Corvette.

[yardwork]

58. Zoom zoom! Outtamyway, whippersnappers!

Gon cash in that pension plan and whee!!!!

[KayLaw]

46. You are a psychopath.

Selfish and nasty, but I refuse to judge others your age by your repulsive personality.

[MindPilot]

50. Unfortunately we boomers have to take responsibility for this.

Some of these selfish and nasty sill-living-in-the-basement Gen-Xers are our children. x(

[yardwork]

57. That one is clearly the result of poor parenting.

[yardwork]

56. Charming.

[bluedog]

40. baby boomers (1945-1964) well

Oprah winfrey was born Jan 1954........did he call her a boomer ..did he not take her endorsment.hoping that the "boomers" who like her will ..vote for him?

[Hawkowl]

48. Obama is divider

This is really sad. It's not about generations. It is about selflessness and progressive values.

[LeftHander]

59. HAHAHA crapulent old lawn geezer....get a condo already

why do your hate dandelions so much??

(come on it's friday...lightenup)

[MindPilot]

60. I'll be moving into the assisted living facility soon enough.

Or maybe I'll just take the kid's inheritance and spend my final five on a cruise ship.

[Javaman]

62. I'm a self loathing boomer. lol

I bash only when bashing is needed. :)

[tomg]

63. Just an anecdote and reflection that might offer

some perspective. Not anti-Obama/ Hillary, pro-Obama/ Hillary/ pro Boomer/ anti boomer or any of it.

At Woodstock, Abby Hoffman got up in the middle of the Who's set and tried to get the crowd to get energized over Jon Sinclair. The exact event, whether it was Townsend knocking him upside the head or bumping into him accidentally, was a bit unclear ( I was pretty close and it looked - to my rather befuddled at the time mind - to be somewhere between but closer to ass kicked). But this is the point, here was Hoffman, a real vet of the movement, being apparently - and possibly correctly under the circumstances, I'm not drawing judgements on Hoffman or Townsend - being dismissed from the stage in favor of partying. Oh, and the crowd generally applauded it.

The great irony is that immediately after the Who came the Jefferson Airplane who opened with Volunteers. I didn't see too many "Volunteers for America" that morning. Well, Hoffman goes off, goes underground and keeps fighting the good fight, particularly in environmental issues, until his death in 1989.

Point of my anecdote - we, like most generations - have always been split. It is just that with our generation, the split was far more extreme. For me, there is very little difference between those who thought that the mantra should be "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" as an end in itself and what many of them evolved into, like, say, George Bush, or the blow-addled assholes of the 80s who supported Ronald Reagan where the mantra is "sex, drugs and stock portfolio." And they marched against the war because it was their asses about to get shot off. Likewise, there were always those who marched for Civil Rights, who helped in the fight for human rights( in all of its range), in the environmental movement for every other reason. Many of them are still marching, organizing and the like.

In fact, if you want a sense of our generation, in some ways look at the very divergent paths of Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, his sidekick who became a business man and a entrepreneur. He, too, is dead - hit by a car while jaywalking.

Point of my stupid post - most of us are pretty much like Bill Clinton - we get some shit done, we blow other shit. We don't or didn't fuck up out of intention. We marched, but we kept our deferrments. Most of us covered our asses, but we'll push for gay rights ( and think don't ask don't tell is acceptable "for now" - that was our guy).

As to Obama and the generation gap: "Senator Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60's and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

Well, great, some people - say, Pete Seeger, has been fighting the same fight since the 30s. Others go on to other things. Maybe we keep fighting the same fights - or avoid fighting any - because the same shit is happening. If those coming after us have some better tactics, works for me. Let me know. I'll try them. Until you have some better tactics, I have to go with what I know.

Oh, yeah- generational divides are nothing new - Remember the fights between the Old Left and the New Left - and, to put the Hoffman/Townsend thing in perspective - Pete Seeger did unplug Dylans electric guitar at Newport and threaten to break it.

Sorry about the length. Just been doing some thinking about this for a long time.

edit: typo

[yardwork]

64. Pete Townsend said that he kicked Hoffman off the stage.

It's rude to get up on state when somebody else is performing. Hoffman should have waited his turn.

[tomg]

65. I know, but later Hoffman sort of

hedged on it, and I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt.As I said, from my position, it looked like an ass kicking. Townsend also at one point said he regretted the way he handled it.

There is no question that Hoffamn should have waited. There is also no question that a lot of what was going on was pretty ad hoc and chaotic.I mean kindness was plentiful but etiquette was not. Likewise, Pete Seeger is flat out my idol, but unplugging someone's guitar in the middle of a song is also pretty bogus. Of the Hoffman-Townsend dust-up, as I said, no criticism - just a kind of a moment that encapsulated a split.

[yardwork]

66. I see your point, and I'm grateful that you posted. You were there.