You’re going to read this, and you’re going to say, how is this about tech? I’m gonna head you off at that pass: This is a message from Internet, the generation that became the voice that set the tone for everything you love about the Net. And it’s pissed. -Editor
[M G’s note for TBP… this is a fascinating viewpoint article. I hope others here at TBP read it and comment. I have a couple of Generation X friends. One of them is black. Haha… that is funny, but Neika will back me up on that. And, of course? I’ve got pictures.]
I pasted the article in full, since it was originally shared from the link at the bottom.
Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we’re in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things “going forward,” to borrow the business-speak. Economists are warning that even when the economy recuperates, full employment will be lower and growth will be slower-a sad little rhyme that adds up to something decidedly unpoetic. A majority of Americans say, for the first time ever, that this generation will not be better off than its parents. —New York Magazine
Generation X is sick of your bullshit.
The first generation to do worse than its parents? Please. Been there. Generation X was told that so many times that it can’t even read those words without hearing Winona Ryder’s voice in its heads. Or maybe it’s Ethan Hawke’s. Possibly Bridget Fonda’s. Generation X is getting older, and can’t remember those movies so well anymore. In retrospect, maybe they weren’t very good to begin with.
But Generation X is tired of your sense of entitlement. Generation X also graduated during a recession. It had even shittier jobs, and actually had to pay for its own music. (At least, when music mattered most to it.) Generation X is used to being fucked over. It lost its meager savings in the dot-com bust. Then came George Bush, and 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generation X bore the brunt of all that. And then came the housing crisis.
Generation X wasn’t surprised. Generation X kind of expected it.
Generation X is a journeyman. It didn’t invent hip hop, or punk rock, or even electronica (it’s pretty sure those dudes in Kraftwerk are boomers) but it perfected all of them, and made them its own. It didn’t invent the Web, but it largely built the damn thing. Generation X gave you Google and Twitter and blogging; Run DMC and Radiohead and Nirvana and Notorious B.I.G. Not that it gets any credit.
But that’s okay. Generation X is used to being ignored, stuffed between two much larger, much more vocal, demographics. But whatever! Generation X is self-sufficient. It was a latchkey child. Its parents were too busy fulfilling their own personal ambitions to notice any of its trophies-which were admittedly few and far between because they were only awarded for victories, not participation.
In fairness, Generation X could use a better spokesperson. Barack Obama is just a little too senior to count among its own, and it has debts older than Mark Zuckerberg. Generation X hasn’t had a real voice since Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, Tupac was murdered, Jeff Mangum went crazy, David Foster Wallace hung himself, Jeff Buckley drowned, River Phoenix overdosed, Elliott Smith stabbed himself (twice) in the heart, Axl got fat.
Generation X is beyond all that bullshit now. It quit smoking and doing coke a long time ago. It has blood pressure issues and is heavier than it would like to be. It might still take some ecstasy, if it knew where to get some. But probably not. Generation X has to be up really early tomorrow morning.
Generation X is tired.
It’s a parent now, and there’s always so damn much to do. Generation X wishes it had better health insurance and a deeper savings account. It wonders where its 30s went. It wonders if it still has time to catch up.
Right now, Generation X just wants a beer and to be left alone. It just wants to sit here quietly and think for a minute. Can you just do that, okay? It knows that you are so very special and so very numerous, but can you just leave it alone? Just for a little bit? Just long enough to sneak one last fucking cigarette? No?
Whatever. It’s cool.
Generation X is used to disappointments. Generation X knows you didn’t even read the whole thing. It doesn’t want or expect your reblogs; it picked the wrong platform.
Generation X should have posted this to LiveJournal.
Republished from Mat Honan’s tumblr.
“Generation X knows you didn’t even read the whole thing.”
I scrolled down skimming with my usual 1967 ‘Evelyn Wood’s speed reading scan…read the above line, and said to myself with a chuckle…
OK BOOMER!
You crack me up! I’m so glad you hang out here with the rest of us monkeyshiners! I thought about adding Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself but I did copy it verbatim, so didn’t take the license. However, now I kind of have…
Hey Boomers – Gen X is about to do a stage dive on your heads!!!
Here’s a bittersweet tune that really captures the NOMAD essence of the young, formative time of Gen X: (Has it really been ~40 years since this song debuted??)
No sound is heard from unit two
When there was once so much to do
Was once a green mansion, but now it’s a wasteland
Our days of wreckless fun are through
GO!
Kids in a fast lane living for today
No rules to abide by and no one to obey
Sex, drugs and fun is their only thought and care
Another swig of brew another overnight affair
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
Kids of the black hole
Messages and slogans are the primary decor
History’s recorded in a clutter on the floor
Inhabitants that searched the grounds for roaches or spare change
Another night of chaos is so easy to arrange
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
Kids of the black hole
The nights of birthdays
The nights of fry
The nights of endless drinking
The nights of violence
The nights of noise
The nights that had to end for good, still not understood, by the girls and boys
Carefree in their actions as for morals they had none
When the girls were horny who would be the lucky ones?
Pushing all the limits to a point of no return
Trashed beyond belief to show the kids don’t wanna learn
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
House of the filthy, house not a home
House of destruction where the lurkers roamed
House that belonged to all the homeless kids
Kids of the black hole
Yeah..Gen-xer here. Probably why I am tired of the crap. Too smart and historically literate to side with the Marxist Millennials and too war weary to toe the conservative, pro-war lockstep.
We’re too busy busting butt taking care of our Boomer parents in their retirement and our slacker, snowflake kids try and figure out what they are going to do with their lives– We have around 40% of our labor confiscated by the bloated government ( and that doesn’t even count fees, surcharges and inflation).
We expect SSI and Medicare to be bust by the time we can recoup some of our money, our savings might be at negative interest and “con”gress will likely access our 401k’s for the next billionaire bailout.
All of this and more…We have no reason to be pissed, right?
“We have around 40% of our labor confiscated by the bloated government”
wait until 40% of your labor is confiscated by medical bills.
Javelin,
Great comment! 1,000+
I don’t care what generation you are (the sooner the better) get relentlessly out of debt until its ‘Gone With the Budget Wind’…day by week, by month, by year…every dollar has a name, SACRIFICE! It’s a place with a promise and a reward that only you can experience.
Stare at the debt challenge without blinking until it turns and runs out of your life forever.
Go HARD into HARD assets, and figure out where to stand on your own two feet.
Shitstorm coming…don’t know when…but it will be like no other storm.
Once you drive the stake into the debt vampire’s heart, and once you live FREE from the debt hustlers, you will be able to do cartwheels on your own bootstraps.
Good advice…
Amen brotha’, trade in those depreciating FRN’s for hard assets and debt elimination!! Been doing that for years now. I’m now this |..| far from being debt free. Oh, and a little bit of physical AU, AG, PB doesn’t hurt either.
My next step is to buy rural land in a nice quiet spot that’s near people who look and think like me.
Thank YOU!
Javelin, as a man who is older than the boomers I have just one thing to say. The more things change the more they remain the same. I didn’t coin the phrase but it is accurate.
I, a boomer, am/was to busy raising children by my bum gen x daughter and my millennial granddaughter (daughter of gen x bum). I didn’t raise either of them to be bums but yet here I am footing the bill. I received no support from either of the parents my grand daughters that I raised and I do not receive any support form the parents of the two great grandchildren I am currently raising. My other children are responsible adults and take care of their children ( 1 older and 2 younger than the gen x bum).
It is a sure bet that neither I nor the wife will live until the two boys, we are raising, reach the age of majority. In which case, the care and welfare of them will fall either to my son or my youngest daughter as per a previously agreed arrangement.
I just want a bumper sticker that says, “I am spending your inheritance raising your children and grandchildren!”
No one said being black was easy
That’s “black” as in present- rather than future-oriented, rather than (necessarily) skin color.
Nailed it.
In our house my wife and I have gone from caring for our kids to caring for our elderly boomer parents.
I think in a sense (in terms of family structure) we’ve reverted back to the way things were before Boomers came on the scene. It used to be normal for extended families to operate this way. Except without the EXCESSIVE TAX BURDEN.
Everything old is new again. Including slavery. I guess.
You take all your money, energy and time and provide care for elderly parents while our govt robs us of taxes ro provide ebt, welfare for lazy and illegals. Sounds about right. A great slave trade the feds have going on to keep us all distracted….while they rob us blind and eat caviar
Another generation, invincible in their public school induced ignorance, all ready to take over running things.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Wonderful MG and so good, thank you. I have sent it to my children (they are Gen X).
I am of the Silent Generation; we just sit around now and wonder what all the ‘tech’ is and see our Millennial grandchildren fingering their iPhones and snap-chatting their ‘friends’ who they have never met and don’t understand but think that they would like to see their wonderful Big Mac in all its glaring colours, ‘cos it’s cool or something; I always thought good food was hot.
I have written about all this in my book (Introduction) and muse that I am so grateful to have been born in an era of sanity, prudence, propriety, authenticity, genuineness and sincerity. When you could go ask a policeman for help in anything and bank managers were just that, they managed their bank and your money, which you knew was safe in their hands.
There were cars that broke down once in a while but you could fix with a minimum of knowledge and a spanner (you say lever?). The front seat accommodated a minimum of four, comfortably and we were not required to ‘belt up’. We could smoke our heads off (and did) with cork tips for the extra healthy puff. Drugs were things you got from the doctor when you were ill and had to stay in bed for a fortnight and ‘sweat’ it out. Then you could listen to the wireless and do crosswords, jigsaws or read a book (unusual today I understand).
We had vitamin supplements provided by the government and free milk in the mornings in school which kept us especially healthy. Our parents were home when we came back from school and they gave us their time and experience to learn the ways of the world while mum cooked the dinner and dad smoked his pipe and set up the train set. Or failing that, there was always ‘Meccano’ to keep us busy for hours.
It was always safe to play outside, with no risk of abduction, and summer days were passed away gleefully getting covered in mud and tearing our trousers whilst climbing trees – there being NO health and safety in those days. We were taught to take risks and pay the price of failure, learning how to fail being the secret of success. We were tested in exams and failed if we deserved it and prizes were given for winning whilst the losers learned valuable lessons about doing better next time. Excellence was prized and rewarded.
The most powerful pesticide was DDT which didn’t do much but it kept the users happy to know that they had ‘done something’ to keep the crops safe – it was a palliative and was OK. The world buzzed with life and the joy of living as witnessed by the extent of the bugs on the windshield after a summer drive – not any more – the insects are disappearing fast under the attack of glycophosphate, or some such poison, promulgated by Monsanto to keep the industrialised agribusiness in excess profits.
Oh dear, I have rambled on, as is my wont these days, and I have started dribbling again, so I will go to bed now and read.
I enjoyed it very much. I plan to read more of your book and appreciate greatly your contributions, espeically now that you feel like joining in with the discussion.
If anything will get that wily coyote here to chastise me for being nice, it is being nice. LOL… wherefore ART THEE EC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meCZ5hWNRFU
Thanks, MG and I love TBP – a stunning place to be. However I do enjoy getting involved but my time is limited and it’s 2am already again!
Enjoy the read.
M G,
I second your comment regarding Peter and Mark. Two great guys. And many other great people on TBP. Including all your alter egos. ?
wrench
Awesome, Anon, many thanks – I will get the hang of these transatlantic expressions some day! :-)))))
wench
Gen-X wasn’t at Mt. Suribachi or the Normandy beaches. My point being every generation has its ordeals.
They are gonna get f-ed a lot more on the way to the pearly gates.
You only get F-ed if you try to play the game. Don’t play the game, play your own…..that way, even if you fail, you go out on your own terms.
Just sayin’
A deacon friend sent me an article from a catholic site on how the millennials have it rougher than previous generations and I replied that all generations have their own cross to bear. I told him to look at first article comment on the person that graduated high school into the depression, went to war and saw and did things that changed his life. He came home and shut his mouth about what he did and saw and didn’t have someone telling him he had PTSD. That man was just like my dad and his experiences after Suribachi. Search Marines Communion Suribachi, my dad is looking at camera with his hands in his dungaree pockets (3 marines receiving communion 3 march ’45). Also Kessel Narimasu.
“It just wants to sit here quietly and think for a minute.”
my generation used to sit quietly and think that perhaps the soviet missiles were on the way and we hadn’t been told yet ….
every generation has its successes, failures, problems, and coulda/woulda/shoulda’s. way it is.
It was simply an article of faith that the commie hordes were going to pour through the Fulda Gap, that a full exchange nuclear war was just around the corner and that Red Dawn was predictive programming. We simply assumed we would never live to see 30……Gen X wussies!
“article of faith”
well coming off of wwii with 20 million dead and entire cities obliterated and the army air corp / brand new air force saying that all future wars would be atomic and fought and won in half an hour by the brand new air force, it was considerably more than mere faith.
I was convinced I would never see 50. Now I’m wondering WTF to do with all this extra time ….
“I don’t feel like an old man. Actually I feel like a young man – with something wrong.
– critic George Jean Nathan interviewed on his 50th birthday anniversary.
^Says the no money down, Harley-financing Boomer.
To paraphrase a famous song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, it’s not every “boomer” that is the problem. In fact, many of us boomers struggled through life, but finally “made it”.
I am a “boomer” who has worked all my life, starting at 12 years of age. Being one of a large family, life for my parents and us was not easy, but we all persevered in our own ways and were successful in life.
Nobody ever gave me anything. What I did was gained “with the sweat of my brow”.
If there is any “blame” to be placed, it must be placed at those of previous generations, especially the “greatest generation”, that formulated and passed many of the destructive laws and customs that we live under to this day.
From the enactment of the federal income tax and the creation of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve cartel, previous generations have a lot to answer for.
The “greatest generation” was duped into fighting a war for European (jewish) interests, destroying much of European culture as a result, and solidifying international jewish power by NOT going after the REAL enemies of human culture, legitimizing the state of Israel, thereby consolidating jewish power, and assuring the jewish zionist hold on the world political process.
Let’s not forget that the “greatest generation” pushed for the terribly misguided “civil-rights” acts, statutes and laws, which effectively disenfranchised whites (but only whites) with the abolition of “freedom of association” (but only for whites). In fact, federal troops were used against law-abiding whites in violation of “posse comitatus” laws which prohibit utilizing the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. Whites have been effectively neutered since these laws were passed. Forced integration of schools (cross-district bussing and other schemes) was enforced by leftist judges (many who were jews) who insisted that blacks needed to sit next to whites in order to learn.
The “elephant in the room” to which blame can be squarely put on the “greatest generation” was the “Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965. This act successfully cut off the immigration for white Europeans while opening up the floodgates for third-world brown and black immigration.
Both major political parties were responsible for this travesty. Democrats saw increasing third-world immigration as a source for votes while the Republicans saw it as a source of cheap labor.
The wages of native-born Americans have not increased in real terms since 1970, that point in time being seen as the “high-water mark” in relation to wage growth. There has not been any “wage growth” since then.
All of the above can be attributed to those of the “greatest generation”…
To those of the “greatest generation” who are still alive…Thanks for NOTHING…
“Greatest Generation”. That’s a laugh brought to you by the “Department of Truth”! Wait, who wrote all of our “History” books…??
I’ll be honest with you, you’re wheedling on me:)
Wheedling… that’s a fun word!
Boomers, Zoomers, Millennials, Centennials, Gen X, Gen Y. Who the hell can keep them straight – and why bother? Let’s pick something better to fight about. How about everybody against the fatties?
“How about everybody against the fatties?”
well I’ve lost about 90lbs, please wait until I’ve lost 30 more ….
Good job! It’s a struggle.
Wow…gman…congratulations!
mine literally melted off and it was, indeed, disgusting
GenXer here…born 1966. I had an easier time supporting myself in 1986 than I do, now. We older GenXers still had shop class and home economics in school. A large majority of those around me were not really interested in college degrees. We just went to work. Manufacturing still existed. Min. wage was $3.35. No war. Many of our parents didn’t make it back from Vietnam when we were little.
Now, I can’t get hired…over 50, no degree, bad credit (can’t pay bills if you can’t get hired) and (eek), I’m white. I am persona non grata. There will be no Social Security for us. We got screwed in 1971.
As a generation, we are exhausted and suffocating.
In short, Nomads, perfectly illustrated above, and right on que for this Fourth.
Hit Tip to Admin, for bringing it to my, and many others attention so many years ago, and the constant promotion, thank you.
We Nomads, I am a cusp Boomer/Gen X’er much like the usurper Kenyan, 1961….we are the connection between the Grey Champion (Trump) and the next “Greatest Generation” the snowflake Millenials. Yes those snowflakes will step up here very shortly…..and we Nomads will be the managers of the effort….on both sides.
It all makes perfect sense now, we still have enough energy to endure the struggle and hopefully the experience and hard-won knowledge to be successful.
A generational competition for who is the most stoic and abused. How is that not cuck? We can’t afford our cog, which makes it invisible. Such prizes in play for those who ignore reality for the yucks.
Pathetic.
This article skews toward the younger Gen X / Nomads. But their elders grew up in the 70s listening to Skynyrd, Zeppelin, Zappa, and Petty; amidst 22’s, 12 guages, and custom mini-bike races with no helmets. Early skateboards, skinning frogs alive in the summer sun and shooting at bats in moonlight. Stealing Playboys and cigarettes. Flipping off high-dives at the pool and pummeling perverts in the park. Ditchweed, peppermint schnapps, sloe gin, and old Milwaukee. Fist-fights by fire-light.
Not sure why it happened or what it meant. But I do know nothing will ever fuckin surprise me. Nothing. Ever.
That’s my memory exactly. Very well put.
Middle of the pack Gen X’er here. I weep for my children because I believe that ours was the last generation that really had it good in America. Agreed that the “the greatest generation” and the “boomers” really f+++++++d this country up beyond repair.
I refuse to be blamed for it… I was an innocent bystander.
Thank you.
I found it hard, so hard to find. Oh well, whatever….Never mind.
– Kurt Cobain
Generation x moved to the suberbs of New York. Prohibited their kids from working for status reasons. The illegals filled the void.
Generation x didn’t bother to vote NO on school budgets. Generation X women voted for Democrats for status reasons thinking that status was free.
Generation X dream of cashing in their home and retiring in a cheaper location is dying with the fall in their home prices and the rise in the property prices they intend to move to.
Thanks for your comment. Some really important cultural issues ensconced there.
Best advice I have to offer since nobody has asked is to Not buy into the Bigger is Better house meme/bubble. Wait for the boomers to perish with their dope problems and it`ll all be dirt cheap.
Unfortunately for the younger generations, we boomers did screw up in one major way. We neglected to inform them about the realities of human life on earth. That for most people throughout history and now, existence is/was unrelenting poverty, bad health, despair, exploitation and pain. In fact, we told the Young Gens the opposite – that each of them is special, and that the world will open its arms to them. With a modicum of effort, they could expect three square meals a day and a secure home of their own. Rainbows and unicorns all the way.
Why did we fail to teach the realities? Because we forgot them, or never bothered to consider them. We had our problems, to be sure, but for the most part we lived in the best country in the best empire in the best of times. We still had a legal system and a sense of morality. We had a manufacturing economy where any Joe Blow could find a living wage. Psychopathic denizens pulled the strings of course, but they were still out of sight, out of mind. We were on a trajectory of onward and upward forever. Good times were all we ever knew, so that’s what we taught our kids to expect.
Now the younger generation’s expectations are colliding with reality. As the empire unwinds and the country descends into dystopia, it’s only going to get worse. Hang on kids!
Excellent summation/observation/confession; your words can be construed as any or all three . . . and what sucks is that it is not your fault, technically, so technically, none of us Gen-X’ers can kick you, personally, in the balls with a clear conscience. After all, you were conditioned by public schools in Keynesian economics, so infinite growth in a finite system is programmed into your brains, just as it was in ours. The Federal Reserve was a good thing, a government body with everyone’s best interests at heart . . . and, with the technology of a scientific calculator, NASA tooks us to the moon. Oswald acted alone. . . you get where I’m going. I guess I’m lucky; I read a book called “None Dare Call it Treason” when I was 9, and my father was a drug-addicted minister, so . . . well, er . . . by the time I hit high school, I had been through just enough that I KNEW everything in this “culture” is bullshit.
So . . . what I hold against boomers is the fact that more of them didn’t recognize sooner what a lot of them do now: it’s all BS, and that all (at least too many) their offspring have ever been able to do – too focused on just surviving – is to keep shoveling. And that’s a shame. But it’s also by design, because, I think we can all agree, the shit has gotten a lot deeper in the last thirty years, no joke.
You said that so well I’m not even going to ask to quote you… I already added it.
You have my permission, ma’am, to do as you see fit with whatever I post. And if i have been drinking I usually say as much, so please keep that in mind 🙂
Mister Shifter? Do you mind if I quote some of this comment in a post or would you rather I just say it without mentioning you. I want it on record for Coyote et al that I have learned from scaring rayray away (but NOT left a comment because that dude was loony), and here’s the “whole thing” so I can pick and choose later.
From Niebo… wonderful observation.
“niebo
Excellent summation/observation/confession; your words can be construed as any or all three . . . and what sucks is that it is not your fault, technically, so technically, none of us Gen-X’ers can kick you, personally, in the balls with a clear conscience. After all, you were conditioned by public schools in Keynesian economics, so infinite growth in a finite system is programmed into your brains, just as it was in ours. The Federal Reserve was a good thing, a government body with everyone’s best interests at heart . . . and, with the technology of a scientific calculator, NASA tooks us to the moon. Oswald acted alone. . . you get where I’m going. I guess I’m lucky; I read a book called “None Dare Call it Treason” when I was 9, and my father was a drug-addicted minister, so . . . well, er . . . by the time I hit high school, I had been through just enough that I KNEW everything in this “culture” is bullshit.
So . . . what I hold against boomers is the fact that more of them didn’t recognize sooner what a lot of them do now: it’s all BS, and that all (at least too many) their offspring have ever been able to do – too focused on just surviving – is to keep shoveling. And that’s a shame. But it’s also by design, because, I think we can all agree, the shit has gotten a lot deeper in the last thirty years, no joke.”
As a proud Gen-Xer I stand ready, bottle opener in hand, to do my part when the country goes up in flames. I advise though that there could be a 30 minute processing delay.
Yes, we Gen Xers heard the line about “first generation in American history to do worse than their parents” from an early age. Perfect example of how the very word “truth” is usually misused and misunderstood. What exactly does “do worse” than their parents mean? Have less money and less opportunity to make money? Yup. That’s exactly how it defined. And shit, maybe it is “true” in the most technical sense…and yes, the two massive financial crashes have come at very bad ages for Xers. But its ALWAYS about attitude and how you conduct yourself. ALWAYS. I’ll say it again, that is the real, only, capital T Truth. It applies everywhere and every when…and everyone who has ever lived has had more than enough reason to whine…sure some more than others but ALWAYS life is a bitch and then you die. The best solution–and not a great one mind you, just by far the best one–is to simply own it and do something to make it a little better for yourself and then for someone else.
Here’s the other little thing about the “truth” of the “first generation in American history to do worse than their parents” line. It’s self-fulfilling prophecy. I can say from my own experience and that of the people I grew up with, we’re a fucking cynical bunch and I have taken many a deep dive in the bottomless pool of nihilism. Is it because of my genetic make-up and my personality, sure….but also in part because of hearing at a young and impressionable age that I was a part of “first generation in American history to do worse than their parents.” The things we say, even if technically “true” can have long-lasting and wide-spread repercussions, so we should try to take better care when we speak the “truth.”
And to stir the shit-pot a little, it wasn’t just Nirvana (more to come on that topic) the early 90s were every bit as seminal a period as the late 60s in the short history of Rock ‘n Roll. Yes, Nirvana (Cobain dead) at the forefront, but also Soundgarden (Cornell dead too), Smashing Pumpkins (Corgan alive but grown very weird), Sublime (Nowell dead), Red Hot Chili Peppers (amazingly alive and still relevant), Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots (Weiland dead), Alice in Chains (Staley dead), Blind Melon (Hoon dead).
Long list of rock stars dead before their time….did I mention something about induced nihilism?
And, finally, someone posted some Nirvana lyrics in this post…I have a PhD in Nirvana…Let’s dive deep:
Waste your time by saving useless Gullibles
Kill a politician and then wear his clothes
This decade is the age of rehashing
Protest and then go to jail for trespassing
drove me insane
DRUD? My cousin died of painkiller et al overdose and was a Nickelback fan, according to his young widow who married a prince and ended up a pauper, thanks to addiction.
I am 58, almost the last of the Boomers, (the young ones who didn’t do it.)
He was 32, probably on the cusp, like I. Not quite a Millennial but stuck with the Gen X hangups.
Why, when I visit his grave, is there always a nickel turned upside down on his tombstone? Someone told me it was about the band Nickelback and suicide.
Can you explain?
Was your cousin in the military?
https://www.wideopencountry.com/ever-seen-a-gravestone-covered-in-coins-heres-what-it-means/
Seems kinda whiny.
Boomers are narcissistic.
They over negotiated benefits for their parents and themselves in public pensions because they had the large numbers. When the funds bust, they will not be troubled as they retired with “the promise”. We Xers and younger will pay for their retirement (which will last longer than the Silents because they live longer), watch our Socsecurity decrease both while helping our kids get their footing.
Maybe they should have noticed the demographics and paid more taxes or adjusted down their draw.
I think the problem lies in the words used to train up a generation.
The Boomers took the idea of entitlement and equality to levels unheard of since Icarus flew to the Sun.
In a world where the Lawyers are the gatekeepers to the law distributing Justice to Just Us, the rest of us can only assume the meager pensions we’ve managed to accumulate are enough to get us to the end.
How much is “Enough?”
My take on boomers is they negotiated a means of better than just existing by making sure they got theirs (pensions social security etc) so they could live for today their entire lives. Boomer to me is synonymous with live for today, make people around me jealous and envious for when I am old I will have plenty of time to become humble with my 6 figure retirement income….
Bullshit, left right and center.
Boomers weren’t even asked about the really important things going on, because those who stood to profit by what transpired hid them to avoid prosecution.
I grew up in Tennessee, next door to an Arkansas already being despoiled by the Clintons. Only a weird whisper or two crossed the Mississippi River to us; already the MSM was hiding crimes for a fee. We heard more about Ray Blanton, the crookedest governor ever elected (up to that time) and swore Lamar Alexander in four or five days early to prevent more Blantonisms (look him up, he was a cracker).
But Lamar was a RINO, and no one ever mentioned that either.
We saw Jimmy Carter as the feckless idiot he was (despite being a nuclear submariner, something the MSM repeated at every opportunity), and voted in Reagan to try and clean up some of the mess. OOPS, we got GHW Bush as a VP, and that was putting the Devil in charge of the henhouse. And the Gipper trusted Tip O’Neill to keep his word (they were both Irishmen), and wound up with higher taxes and no immigration reform, a pattern that repeated …
Bush was bad enough, globalist scum of a former CIA director, but then we got Bill Clinton, corruption personified, and his wife, the Wicked Witch of the West herself. They said we were getting “two for one” in that deal (electing Clinton President), but they never said “two what?”. We found out the hard way, as did Ron Brown, Vince Foster, Vicky Weaver, the Branch Davidians, and numerous others.
Hoping for an improvement, we tried the second Bush, but he was a zero, with Dick Cheney playing the role of Evil Grand Vizier. 9/11 happened, the Afghan War happened, Saddam Hussein happened, but rarely did the MSM even bitch about the Bill of Rights, the NDAA, the FISA courts, and all the other abominations they were paid to ignore. And to not tell us about.
Finally, we were sold Obama. Lies upon fraud upon corruption upon politicization of agencies. Things that are still just coming into the light, after Comey / Rosenstein / McCabe / Strozk / Page / Pietka / the various others at State, FBI, DOJ, and more. Hanging is too good for most of them.
Consider Trump to be our expiation. He is not perfect, he is no saint, but after the parade of pathetics listed above he is St. George to the D.C. dragon. Which is why every two-bit Obama appointed Federal judge, every one-bit agency appointee, every one-cent bureaucrat are trying their hardest to obstruct / slow / stop him, because he IS a threat to their grifting, lying, abusive lifestyle.
We finally saw them for the evil, disgusting, pedophiliac, rapist, narcissistic, nihilistic, soul-staining gutter slime they all are. “Drain the Swamp” is both a rallying cry and a promise; that we will never again listen to our “betters” in the MSM, government, agencies, techno-slavers and banking interests again, and when we finish the draining, we will fill it in and pour concrete over it to prevent its’ rising again.
Until a new generation forgets, fails to scrutinize and learns what we did, again…..
I know that guy, or at least one like him.
Wow. gilberts? Am so glad you contributed here.
X. Hate the term and most of the generation.
Hate boomers more. Not all, but Boomers sure fucked things up as a collective group.
Boomers are the most pampered, selfish, self-absorbed, phony, hypocritical generation in history. They’ve never stopped telling the rest of us how to live our lives. They wrecked the system, created nothing better to replace it, railroaded the system to profit themselves, had kids and ignored them while still chasing their own selfish interests, and now they dump their pronouncements down on the rest of us. Everyone before them was evil because they were all racist, evil, stupid, hateful, closed-minded bourgeois bigots and everyone younger than them is selfish, lazy, and stupid. For a bunch of people who are/were so proud of all their protesting and activism and drug use and free love, they sure were happy to silence dissent with “free speech” zones, campus speech codes. These same former pot-heads and 80s coke-heads now support zero-tolerance drug testing and mandatory drug possession sentences, and… well, they seem to be pleased when we get abortions, so I guess they’re OK with the free love still. These people benefited from and wrecked the most powerful economy in the world, and we all suffer from their financial chicanery, but they’ve embraced a system of debt servitude for the rest of us and they don’t want to let anyone declare bankruptcy. Ask a Boomer to forgive your crushing student debt, which was run up in their casino on their watch. HA! These people were literally able to say anything they wanted, do anything they wanted, fuck anything they wanted, and they will arrest a 5 year old for making a gun shape with his fingers, charge a little boy for kissing a little girl, and call the cops to arrest a developmentally disabled kid for wetting his pants in school. They hitchhiked to Mexico as teens and they will call the police if you let your child go play in the park alone. They hate guns, but they’re happy to hire armed security to protect themselves.
They so fucked up the system, they’ve tied up most of the nation’s wealth and given themselves a variety of freebies, yet many of them were so short-sighted, they made no plans for retirement. I’ve seen fat, stupid, lazy Boomers squatting in positions from which they should have retired long ago, but they refuse to go, keeping others dammed up, waiting for them to die so they can progress. I supported a govt office once where the senior guy had 30 years’ experience (so he claimed). When offered the manager spot, he refused the responsibility, and actually slept at his desk. His younger supervisor couldn’t fire him and we suffered his presence. He filled up a spot a talented, productive younger person could have had, performed no work, and was so selfish he literally abandoned his co-workers when they went into town together. I’ve seen a lot of that in recent years. If these things aren’t you, and they probably aren’t if you’re reading this, then good for you, but your cohorts are super-massive-mega-douchebags.
When I grew up, old people were all WWII vets, Korea vets, even some WWI vets. My dad served in the Navy during Korea-didn’t deploy tho. There were retired vets of all ranks in my neighborhood. COL Gerald Averill, author of Mustang, for instance, was the nice old man around the block who liked to play pranks on kids at Halloween. A gun store just outside of town belonged to a guy who lied about his age to join the Navy in WWII, served in Korea, and then served in Vietnam. Make any petulant comments you want; some of those people were damn good people. They were made of iron compared to the pussyfarts running around now.
My Young One will grow up in a world where all the old people are former protestors, drug dealers, free lovers, symbionese army veterans, ex-black panthers, former marxists, etc. Not much to look up to if you ask me.
“What did you do during the war, grandpa?”
“I protested, bombed the pentagon, did a bunch of drugs, got the clap, and I joined a commune!”
Worse, they’re going to look up to my friends and associates who… well, we were pretty good at Xbox. We could pound beer and destroy pizzas like it was our job. One of my coworkers got cussed at by Elizabeth Banks. That was pretty exciting. Worse than that, they might look up to the losers born in the 90s who got participation trophies for showing up. “What did you do during the war, dad?”
“Which one? Seems like we’ve been at war for most of my life at this point. There was Iraq, then Yugoslavia, then Iraq, then Afghanistan, then some brief things in Africa and South America, then Iraq again… Well, I watched the Marvel superheroes movies. That was pretty serious stuff. And I beat Call of Duty parts 2-4. I worked at TGI Fridays for a while. Then, I worked at Sunglasses Hut.”
X. Hate the term and most of the generation.
Hate boomers more. Not all, but Boomers sure fucked things up as a collective group.
Why Gen X says “Okay Boomer!”
Boomers are the most pampered, selfish, self-absorbed, phony, hypocritical generation in history.
They’ve never stopped telling the rest of us how to live our lives. They wrecked the system, created nothing better to replace it, railroaded the system to profit themselves, had kids and ignored them while still chasing their own selfish interests. Now they dump their pronouncements down on the rest of us.
Everyone before them was evil because they were all racist, evil, stupid, hateful, closed-minded bourgeois bigots and everyone younger than them is selfish, lazy, and stupid. For a bunch of people who are/were so proud of all their protesting and activism and drug use and free love, they sure were happy to silence dissent with “free speech” zones, campus speech codes.
These same former pot-heads and 80s coke-heads now support zero-tolerance drug testing and mandatory drug possession sentences, and… well, they seem to be pleased when we get abortions, so I guess they’re OK with the free love still.
These people benefited from and wrecked the most powerful economy in the world, and we all suffer from their financial chicanery, but they’ve embraced a system of debt servitude for the rest of us and they don’t want to let anyone declare bankruptcy. Ask a Boomer to forgive your crushing student debt, which was run up in their casino on their watch. HA!
These people were literally able to say anything they wanted, do anything they wanted, fuck anything they wanted, and they will arrest a 5 year old for making a gun shape with his fingers, charge a little boy for kissing a little girl, and call the cops to arrest a developmentally disabled kid for wetting his pants in school.
They hitchhiked to Mexico as teens and they will call the police if you let your child go play in the park alone.
They hate guns, but they’re happy to hire armed security to protect themselves.
They so fucked up the system, they’ve tied up most of the nation’s wealth and given themselves a variety of freebies, yet many of them were so short-sighted, they made no plans for retirement.
I’ve seen fat, stupid, lazy Boomers squatting in positions from which they should have retired long ago, but they refuse to go, keeping others dammed up, waiting for them to die so they can progress. I supported a govt office once where the senior guy had 30 years’ experience (so he claimed). When offered the manager spot, he refused the responsibility, and actually slept at his desk.
His younger supervisor couldn’t fire him and we suffered his presence. He filled up a spot a talented, productive younger person could have had, performed no work, and was so selfish he literally abandoned his co-workers when they went into town together. I’ve seen a lot of that in recent years. If these things aren’t you, and they probably aren’t if you’re reading this, then good for you, but your cohorts are super-massive-mega-douchebags.
When I grew up, old people were all WWII vets, Korea vets, even some WWI vets. My dad served in the Navy during Korea-didn’t deploy tho. There were retired vets of all ranks in my neighborhood. COL Gerald Averill, author of Mustang, for instance, was the nice old man around the block who liked to play pranks on kids at Halloween. A gun store just outside of town belonged to a guy who lied about his age to join the Navy in WWII, served in Korea, and then served in Vietnam. Make any petulant comments you want; some of those people were damn good people. They were made of iron compared to the pussyfarts running around now.
My Young One will grow up in a world where all the old people are former protestors, drug dealers, free lovers, symbionese army veterans, ex-black panthers, former marxists, etc. Not much to look up to if you ask me.
“What did you do during the war, grandpa?”
“I protested, bombed the pentagon, did a bunch of drugs, got the clap, and I joined a commune!”
Worse, they’re going to look up to my friends and associates who… well, we were pretty good at Xbox. We could pound beer and destroy pizzas like it was our job. One of my coworkers got cussed at by Elizabeth Banks. That was pretty exciting. Worse than that, they might look up to the losers born in the 90s who got participation trophies for showing up. “What did you do during the war, dad?”
“Which one?”
Seems like we’ve been at war for most of my life at this point. There was Iraq, then Yugoslavia, then Iraq, then Afghanistan, then some brief things in Africa and South America, then Iraq again… Well, I watched the Marvel superheroes movies. That was pretty serious stuff.
And I beat Call of Duty parts 2-4.
I worked at TGI Fridays for a while.
Then, I worked at Sunglasses Hut.”
I am gen x. I was a latchkey kid and loved it. Allowed me to get into trouble, find boundaries and make a man out of me. Taught me there are repercussions to actions. We are stuck between two larger more vocal generations that are very self centered snowflakes. The boomers were a coddled group as are the millennials. Both thought it was their destiny to change the world and they were somehow for some reason oh so much more special than other generations.
We are sick of seeing reality for what it is and how the false narratives are used for certain segments to win and others to lose. We do want desperately to be left the hell alone. I also feel there is a lashing out that will occur. When enough of us realize there is not much left anymore and no we won’t be left alone then, like when we were kids we did the hard things that mattered. And we took it on with responsibility. I feel most of us will face the onslaught with the same pragmatism. Like all generations they define themselves by what the majority are or do; not everyone in boomer or millennials generations are snowflakes obviously but we are trying to define a large group.