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PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

To the Boomers who are chill and hate capitalism as much as we do: I’m sorry you’re getting blamed for the politicians’ actions.

To the Zoomers and other young people: I don’t see any reason why we’re not gonna end up in the same boat as the Boomers when we grow old. You are not unlearning the capitalist distortions passed onto you by your elders; you take defense contractor, finance, police, and military work with just as much ignorance as prior generations; you still do not oppose imperialism; and you know about climate change and Epstein and you still refuse to take up arms against capitalists and the State. (Like the Boomers, if you do not fit this description, my ire is not with you!)

Frankly, it’s gonna be just like the Boomers: the good ones are being crushed by capitalism in silence and forgotten. If you’re wondering where most of the good Boomers are, check the cemeteries. Same with Zoomers. I see it happen every day. And when we do grow old, the vast majority of us are gonna mostly be conservative weirdos with rich backgrounds who abused their way to the top in a system designed to reward only abuse, because the rest of us will have been killed off.

And for everyone: your generation is not special. Every generation has their own unique challenges, some are harder than others, but you are not somehow magically exempted from developing the same oppressive behaviors of previous generations unless and until you spend the time unlearning capitalist distortions and obliterating the systems that instill capitalist distortions.

Give Zoomers a few more years and I guaran-fucking-tee you our politicians are gonna be milquetoast neoliberals just like the rest because we haven’t actually learned a goddamn thing from our suffering, because suffering doesn’t teach you shit, and because Zoomer capitalists are still capitalists and therefore exert bourgeois class solidarity over any solidarity they might have with their generation or any other subset of the proletariat.

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DarkFuture@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I mean I get what you’re saying. Economic desperation could drive us to being greedy ladder puller uppers just like the boomers.

I don’t know. Maybe. I know that I’m in my 40s and only becoming more liberal and more likely to vote to help others. And that kind of voting mentality could lead to stripping power from the ultra wealthy and clawing back some power for the middle class.

I’m not getting the impression that millennials and younger are going to be greedy on the epic scale boomers have been.

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ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Yeah, nah. None of us have houses and most are in the same position I’m in: I will have to work until I die. There’s no retirement in my future. If anything I’ll just be moving further left as I get older.

A big part of the reason that boomers are so awful is that they own all the houses and made sure their pet politicians made the value keep going up over time by limiting the amount of housing being built.

Our circumstances are so drastically different from the boomers that there’s just no way we’re going to be just like them. I do agree that we have to be mindful of the warnings you’re mentioning, but I don’t think it’s even possible to follow in their footsteps. They did a thorough job pulling the ladder up.

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- PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Yeah, nah. None of us have houses and most are in the same position I’m in: I will have to work until I die. There’s no retirement in my future.
  
  Me too lol, I’m a Zillenial.
  
  As I have said to others: just because we suffer doesn’t mean we learn anything from our suffering. Give us a few years to turn 35 and you will see capitalists our age pulling up the ladder just like our parents did, although we’ll probably do it using pseudo-inclusive language and pseudo-therapy speak.
  
  If anything I’ll just be moving further left as I get older.
  
  Yeah me too, and I absolutely believe you, but we’re leftists in a leftist space. The rest of our cohort are not like us yet. In particular, we need to teach our cohort a class conscious analysis of the world, and make this proletarian class conscious position unignorable by the capitalist class.
  
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- Rothe@piefed.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Yeah, nah. None of us have houses
  
  That is not true though and it is exactly the point: The rich ones born of rich parents definitely do have houses. You are completely overlooking the class aspect in favour of nonsensical ageism.
  
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  - ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Hah! Surrrrre. The teeny tiny percentage of the younger generations who end up with houses will be super impactful on future elections, lol.
    
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Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
That is exactly the same gripe i have with most of my GenX brethren - for a generation that was defined by punk and revolt, a surprisingly large amount of them ditched the things their generation stood for to make sure they have a good place in the rat race. I know that many did not have a lot of choices because the boomers clinge to the levers of power to this day, but to take part in their system that so many of us despised is akin to being a traitor.

And especially in the US the younger generations are more than willing to carry on the torch, radicalized by their civic religion and evangelism. Other countries are not immune, but they generally have a better understanding that what the US are doing is problematic.

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- nightwatch_admin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Some of the boomers were the hippies that made a big stink about ‘Nam. And the environment. Much as I think the boomer generation were spoiled kids that spent their lives grabbing money from generations before and after them, a significant part was not and will never be, and imho that goes for any generation. It’s amazing how many young people voted for Trump or Afd, for example.
  
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  - FluorideMind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    When I say the it’s the boomers fault I mostly mean the ones in power. Ofc the avg boomer isn’t malicious, but selling their house (to a corp) they got for pennies so they can throw money into a slot machine instead of leaving it for family is a huge issue I’ve seen from boomers in my area.
    
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    Rothe@piefed.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yet your use of language regurgitates deliberately constructed ageism propaganda. So perhaps be more mindful of how you use it in the future, so as not to uncritically repeat their propaganda and deflect from actual meaningful class war?
    
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  - Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    They vote for these people because of (social) media manipulation - you get one guess who the people behind this manipulation are.
    
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  - Malica@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    The manosphere got to gen Z, they will not get them again
    
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- Malica@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Look at the boomers too, sexual revolution, anti war hippies, now a disturbing number spend their time terrorizing people on hoa boards. I’m determined to not end up a monster like this.
  
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  - Superdooper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Only a small % of boomers were hippies but they were able to have a huge impact on society. Many were normies that haven’t changed that much in their life.
    
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    Malica@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    That explains a lot. My parents were hippies and so where their friends, I assumed it was most of their generation. They had a huge impact, as you said.
    
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story@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
this is so optimistic we will be dead

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im_fine_sandy@nord.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

I don’t see any reason why we’re not gonna end up in the same boat as the Boomers when we grow old.

There’s a variety of very well documented reasons.

I can’t be bothered enumerating everything you’re ignoring to make that statement but very briefly, the next 50 years will not be as prosperous as the last 50 years as Milennials and Gen X clean up the mess left by boomers.

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- PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I think you stopped reading where you quoted me. I am absolutely not denying that things are bad for Zoomers or even that the vast majority of us are fucked…but the ones who survive are less likely to consider themselves victims of capitalism.
  
  Like if we don’t learn to turn our criticism inwards, and we don’t fight against the system so at least more anti-capitalists and victims of capitalism survive into old age…we’re just gonna end up reproducing “Boomer” abuses. Yes things are worse for us, but we’re so fucking callous, just as callous as the people who raised us, just as uncritical and ignorant as the people who raised us, that we’re on track to reproduce all their bullshit as a group.
  
  Just because you suffer doesn’t mean you learn. As a corollary, just because you suffer more doesn’t mean you learn more. Zoomers are suffering without learning. Lots of Boomers also suffered, and many were killed by capitalism in silence. You’re dealing with a subset of Boomers who is increasingly likely not to feel like victims of capitalism.
  
  I guarantee you, wait for Zoomers to turn 35 and you’ll see our true colors. We’re not fucking special. Look at our non-reaction (as a collective!) to Epstein; look at how we still work for these monsters, still pay taxes to these monsters, still door-knock for these monsters’ politicians, still fight in these monsters’ wars, still join these monsters’ police departments. We’re just as capable of being monsters as our parents, and just like in the past, the system will reward the most abusive among us.
  
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