a shame there will never be a Gen X president because it woulda been funny to see Beto end with "the skate of our union is strong" and then do an ollie over the justices and ride out
bluesky is magical, I can start with a bad pun and two hours later I've got folk playing generations in my mentions
it's not, like, good magic, but it is what Twitter used to have
technically but as someone who falls into that interstitial area, I will die on this hill: if you were in kindergarten during Woodstock/Vietnam War protests, you were never *really* part of the boomers.
to put it more succinctly if you weren't fucking while your brand new copy of the Woodstock soundtrack played on the turntable then you did not experience the boomer experience (or get the advantages of it)
Boomers attended public schools with libraries. X had empty rooms where drivers ed & shop class used to be taught in 1977. We had 39 kids in a class & activity fees for sports. The Xer who could have been potus is still paying her student loans & never ran for office because she had to work too much
My brother, who was born in the early 60s and was too young to be doing any of that during Woodstock called himself Generation Huh? As they got all the good schooling, upbringing, etc.. that the boomers did, but did not get the good Boomer life. Instead it was a precursor to GenX life.
Waa six in 1969. Vaguely remember drivjng passed Woodstock and the insane traffic on our way to Fort Ticonderoga. Mom and dad folsing and refolding the AAA Triptiks.
I was born in 1959, but both my parents were born in the early 20s, and my two brothers were born end of WWII. Generation isn't a year range, it's also culture. I feel like a really solid boomer.
I also watched MTV, started working on the Internet in 1982, was playing computer games in the 1970s, and taught most of my friends about real Asian food of various sorts.
Your affection or repulsion for generational things is the same kind of generalization as stereotypes of gender/race/...
Yup. You have.
We're 1970s kids. We were never exposed to the draft, or the fear of being dragged off to Vietnam. That's really the cutoff line.
I was a punk rocker, not a hippie dancing at Woodstock. To be honest, I think the Hippie boomers had a lot more fun than us (except for the Nam thing).
I know exactly what you mean, and that's why I prefer and choose the demographic label "Generation Jones" instead. I mean none of the labels are entirely accurate, but I'm definitely not a "real" boomer, and this fits. Check it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generat...
"Generation Jones is noted for coming of age after a huge swath of their older brothers and sisters in the earlier portion of the Baby Boomer population had; thus, many note that there was a paucity of resources and privileges available to them that were seemingly abundant to older Boomers."
I mean... if you ask me, I think the 'short end of the stick' has gotten shorter and shorter for 'X', Millenials, etc. Don't blame their anger.
But we get the heat for being "boomers" while knowing that all we got were the crumbs left behind by the locust wave that went before us. (1961)
This is why boxing people into “Generation Brand Name” categories is always a bit silly.
People are born every day of every year everywhere in the world, in all kinds of circumstances, lumping them all together between arbitrary date brackets and saying “These People are Like This” is so weird.
I don't think it's silly. It's not precise or accurate on an individual level, but what the label describes is a commonality of shared experiences. Things a 'cohort' experienced at the same time and age that gives a lot of us a kind of shared subconscious around those memories and experiences.
I'm a 1964 babe, but don't identify as a boomer - once I read Coupland's Gen X essay and nodded after every single descriptive sentence, I realized where I identified more. All of it is a bit arbitrary anyway and, I don't think, was ever meant to be as hard lined as some folks try to make it.
Enh, there's overlap. I was born in 1962 to parents who grew up during the Depression and fought in WW2 (well, dad did, but). Textbook Boomer.
Angie was born three months BEFORE me, but HER mother was in college in the (early!) '60s and was barely even BORN before the start of WW2. She's ~Gen X
I don’t think there’s any real social science data justifying the line between Boomers or Gen X (or any other so-called generations). Strauss and Howe said Gen X started in 1961. 🤷
Gen Z voters are currently perplexed as to why President O'Rourke threatened to kick the ass of Marilyn Manson. "Is she a Congresswomen from Georgia or something?"
