Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
-
@jilleduffy I agree with the sentiment that there's no such thing as a bad generation. However… your examples are things that mostly happened before the Baby Boom generation had any political power.
The Civil Rights movement began in the 1950s. ADA was passed in 1988, when boomers were rare in the US Congress. Climate science late nineteenth century, largely settled by the 1960s. Solar panels were put on the White House by Jimmy Carter, born 1924. Electric vehicles, early 1900s. Boomers contributed to all these things, but didn't start them.
Of course, neither did they invent neoliberalism, or the oil economy, or fascism, or climate denial, or any of the things that have accelerated in the time they've had the reins of power.
@isaacfreeman Fair points
The strongest activism that reached any achievement w Civil Rights happened in the late 60s thru mid 70s, and for ADA the late 70s (protests, sit-ins and the 504 occuptation). Yes, Carter was president in the late 70s when "he" put the solar panels up, but many of his staff were in their 20s & early 30s. Electric cars--yes, they date way back, but there was a push to get a line in production in the 90s led by Boomers (70s, too, but those were mostly prototypes)
-
@isaacfreeman Fair points
The strongest activism that reached any achievement w Civil Rights happened in the late 60s thru mid 70s, and for ADA the late 70s (protests, sit-ins and the 504 occuptation). Yes, Carter was president in the late 70s when "he" put the solar panels up, but many of his staff were in their 20s & early 30s. Electric cars--yes, they date way back, but there was a push to get a line in production in the 90s led by Boomers (70s, too, but those were mostly prototypes)
@isaacfreeman But I do see your points and think we agree on the sentiment
The point being: So much activism, radical movement, and progress was indeed created and pushed forward by the boomer generation
We do not need to demonize boomers as having held the world back. It is a tactic to divide people and keep us from blaming those at fault: the powerful and wealthy
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy Thank you for this statement. As a progressive socialist, I can tell you that the vast majority of my friends and family that are boomers are progressives and active in one way or another in good causes.
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy Uhm ... As a boomer I cannot boost this. It would Look like I wanted to defend ...
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy
Yes, and we're also stuck with this same shit and also fighting it. Age gaps are artificial hype. -
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy That doubt hits me hard every time I listen to Land of Confusion by Genesis.
Need to remember this viewpoint.
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy That's NOT a "steriotype." It's an EARNED REPUTATION. Ya'll turned yuppy-hippy, bought up all the housing, refused to hire, charged us 10 lifetimes for college when you were able to work your way through it EASY PEASY, and all the rest. Plus, you all abandoned us to latchkeys.
GenX over here. WE REMEMBER IT ALL.
Stop your apologetics. Your generation F'd us ALL over. How dare you.
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy yes! okay, boomer! (but actually, yes. many of my favorite people are baby boomers. scientists, teachers, nurses, professors, artists, authors, engineers, and parents. from whom I learned so much about what it means to be a good person in the world.)
-
@jilleduffy Thank you for this statement. As a progressive socialist, I can tell you that the vast majority of my friends and family that are boomers are progressives and active in one way or another in good causes.
@old_hippie @jilleduffy People forget that the Boomers were the hippies. They were the antiwar protestors. They were the kids mowed down at Kent State. They were the greatest generation of musicians of all time. They invented Earth Day.
The main thing they did wrong is that after spending the Sixties believing you can't trust the government, they fell for Reagan's con job in 1980 when he pretended that's what Republicans believed too.
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
Right on!
There are rotten Boomers and there are wonderful Boomers, and most are somewhere in between.
There are rotten Millenials and wonderful ones. Ditto for GenX'ers, ditto for whatever generation. (And "generations" is a silly idea, anyway. Does birth on Jan 1 make you a different person than birth on December 31?)
There are rotten Americans and great ones. Ditto for Russians, Chinese, or Fiji Islanders.
Let's not dig in our heels over simplistic stereotypes.
-
@old_hippie @jilleduffy People forget that the Boomers were the hippies. They were the antiwar protestors. They were the kids mowed down at Kent State. They were the greatest generation of musicians of all time. They invented Earth Day.
The main thing they did wrong is that after spending the Sixties believing you can't trust the government, they fell for Reagan's con job in 1980 when he pretended that's what Republicans believed too.
@msbellows
What I saw changing in my boomer parents took place in the 90s and 2000s, not the 80s. They got brainwashed by media saying crime was up and baggy pants and hip-hop booming radios is all criminal. It’s all the Rush Limbaugh radio and the COPS and true crime shows. They were being entertained in racist tropes.
@old_hippie @jilleduffy -
@old_hippie @jilleduffy People forget that the Boomers were the hippies. They were the antiwar protestors. They were the kids mowed down at Kent State. They were the greatest generation of musicians of all time. They invented Earth Day.
The main thing they did wrong is that after spending the Sixties believing you can't trust the government, they fell for Reagan's con job in 1980 when he pretended that's what Republicans believed too.
@msbellows @jilleduffy Reagan and his ilk were the worst. I never understood anyone falling for his bullshit.
-
@old_hippie @jilleduffy People forget that the Boomers were the hippies. They were the antiwar protestors. They were the kids mowed down at Kent State. They were the greatest generation of musicians of all time. They invented Earth Day.
The main thing they did wrong is that after spending the Sixties believing you can't trust the government, they fell for Reagan's con job in 1980 when he pretended that's what Republicans believed too.
@msbellows @old_hippie @jilleduffy "hippy" my ass . .
-
@msbellows @jilleduffy Reagan and his ilk were the worst. I never understood anyone falling for his bullshit.
@old_hippie @msbellows @jilleduffy
He was a trained actor, FFS! A paid persuader.
The first 100% corporate owned US president. -
@msbellows @jilleduffy Reagan and his ilk were the worst. I never understood anyone falling for his bullshit.
@old_hippie @msbellows @jilleduffy If you were a Boomer in CA you had reason to despise Reagan as Governor
-
Boomers didn’t fail the younger gens
The wealthy & powerful did
Boomers created the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, climate science. They put solar panels on the White House & made the first wave of electric vehicles
The ones who let the world down from a lack of political will were and still are the powerful & wealthy
Don’t let stereotypes about generations divide us!
@jilleduffy look at the Boomers out protesting NOW
-
@old_hippie @msbellows @jilleduffy
He was a trained actor, FFS! A paid persuader.
The first 100% corporate owned US president.@Barbramon1 @old_hippie @jilleduffy I mean, he was paid to make LPs like this: Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine
-
@old_hippie @jilleduffy People forget that the Boomers were the hippies. They were the antiwar protestors. They were the kids mowed down at Kent State. They were the greatest generation of musicians of all time. They invented Earth Day.
The main thing they did wrong is that after spending the Sixties believing you can't trust the government, they fell for Reagan's con job in 1980 when he pretended that's what Republicans believed too.
@msbellows @old_hippie @jilleduffy
the hippies/antiwar folks did not fall for Reagan -- we knew his evil well from People's Park in Berkeley CA
understand, a generation is not a monolith -- we had plenty of Republican "moral majority" types to contend with -
@Barbramon1 @old_hippie @jilleduffy I mean, he was paid to make LPs like this: Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine
@msbellows @old_hippie @jilleduffy
I lived through all that as a young adult. It was clear to me even then that he was as phony as the cowboy/host that he played on Death Valley Days.
Reagan was a General Electric mouthpiece on and off screen for years. He traveled around the US making speeches on their behalf. He denounced unions as communist, spoke against Social Security and other parts of the New Deal.
Interestingly, despite his anti union screeds, he was a union president for years. -
@msbellows @old_hippie @jilleduffy
the hippies/antiwar folks did not fall for Reagan -- we knew his evil well from People's Park in Berkeley CA
understand, a generation is not a monolith -- we had plenty of Republican "moral majority" types to contend with@libramoon @msbellows @old_hippie @jilleduffy My undergrad diploma from UC Berkeley is signed by Ronnie Rayguns. I've often thought that I should have his signature acid washed out.
When I graduated I moved down to Santa Monica - and had to deal with Bob Dornan as our Congress critter - gawd, what an awful person!!!
I wonder at the streak in humanity that can produce sociopaths like Dornan (and S. Miller). By comparison, Nixon and Reagan were downright caring humans.
The John Adams opera, "Nixon In China" (well worth seeing/hearing) paints an interesting alternative, at times even sympathetic, view of Nixon.
(BTW, I walked past People's park almost every day - and got tear gassed, too. But I never really supported the People's Park movement - it was too grungy even for my impoverished student tastes.)
