Why Millennials and Gen Z Hate Boomers
279,325
Published 2021-10-13
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/ReasonTV?sub_confirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/reason
Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
What are the long-term psychological effects of growing up in a world where the 9/11 attacks and school shootings drastically restructured your childhood around overblown fears of random violence, where the Great Recession wiped out your parents' savings, and the historically slow economic recovery hampered your job prospects for a decade, and where you were reminded every single day that the world only has a few years left before climate change makes the planet uninhabitable? And on top of all that, you face massive political polarization, growing racial strife, and COVID-19?
Meet "Generation Disaster," the subject of a fascinating new book by State University of New York at New Paltz psychologist Karla Vermeulen. Subtitled Coming of Age Post-9/11, Generation Disaster is built around a massive national survey of people born between 1990 and 2001. Vermeulen looks at the cumulative impact of being raised in a relentlessly apocalyptic social and political environment, the role that Boomer and Gen X parents and authorities play in stoking anxiety, and how new forms of technology and media have influenced the worldviews of millennials and Generation Z members roughly between the ages of 20 and 30.
In an era of mounting generational hostility, Vermeulen is an essential mediator between older and younger Americans, and her book, Generation Disaster, is a rich, empathetic portrait of a group too often simply—and wrongly—dismissed as weak, lazy, and entitled.
Generation Disaster: global.oup.com/academic/product/generation-disaste…
Footage Credit: Isaac Reese and Noor Greene
Music Credits: "Wild Cat," by Ian Post, and "Punch," by Oliver Michael via Artlist.io
Produced by Regan Taylor; map graphic by Isaac Reese; audio post-production by Ian Keyser
All Comments (21)
-
"Handed the bill for a party they didn't get to attend" is spot on.
-
Imagine saying “selfish” and “entitled” about the generation YOU raised. lmao
-
Boomers: "You're spoiled!" Gen Y: "Uhh, you bought your first house at 22 years old with a 9-5 job you got with a high school diploma and could afford a stay at home wife and three kids."
-
As a Gen Z, I can say climate change isn’t my major concern. My concern is the absolutely abysmal economy we inherited. We can’t afford homes, health care, college, and increasingly even rent despite being more productive than boomers at our age.
-
We hate them because they covered up solid hardwood floors with laminate.... and then say we're dumb
-
The Boomers were handed EVERYTHING on a golden platter. The fact they really believe they "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" is the most irritating thing about them.
-
To the younger generations complaining that you've got to foot the bill for a party you never got to go to, I remember before you were born, most Boomers would essentially brag about this. Asked about the future the answer was almost always, "Well I'll be dead, that will be for our grandkids to figure out.".
-
Boomer generation basically ran up the credit card during their generation then said, "Here's the bill" before dying.
-
When you are 80+ and still hanging onto power, you aren’t there because you want to help people. Retire and give control to younger people.
-
Not many of us hate Boomers. We just don't hesitate to call Boomers out on their BS when they look down on us for getting participation trophies, even though their generation gave us those trophies.
-
Imagine if you were virtually guaranteed a secure job straight out of high school that paid around $65k plus benefits. Then imagine that housing was also about half the price it is now and far less competitive, college was about a tenth the price, and straight As with a couple Bs was good enough to get you into a top university. This was the situation for boomers when they came of age. It's the same dynamic as a spoiled child, blown up to a generational level.
-
Reminds me of the scene from Gladiator: "Your faults as a son are my failures as a father."
-
My favorite is when Boomers try and tell me how spoiled and impatient our generation is, and yet the Boomers I deal with at work all day get angry and demand my manager when the coupons only kick in when you've bought two of an item or it's expired. They're the ones who feel the need to announce at every store, restaurant or business : "This is the worst service I've ever had, you just lost a customer" or tip their waitress >$2 on a $100 meal. #Boomers
-
Boomers: Why do you have no money or assets? Me: why are you asking for $1500/month for an efficiency apt and only paying me $10/hr? Boomers: No it's because you're lazy, entitled and spend your money on avacado toast.
-
I am a boomer (b. 1957) and I agree with the insults hurled at the boomers. I feel I have been surrounded by soulless, amoral hypocrites my whole life. And the vampires continue on with this bizarre show. But that is only part of the story. Our society was and is controlled by a small group of the ultra wealthy that have been pushing down the living standard of all of us for decades, not to mention forcing us to engage in endless wars.
-
The reason they’re so bitter, narcissistic and resentful is because these people had everything handed to them and chose to be bitter because of no actual struggle in their lives. Boomers would rather act nasty towards their kids instead of help their literal children
-
I am a baby buster, the generation after boomers. Boomers are the most pampered, entitled, and narcissistic generation ever born.
-
I was told I was a “lazy and entitled” because I didn’t wanna throw my back out at a low end minimum wage dead end job… they literally were confused when I quit and got a job at another company that paid more, do people expect 110% efforts from jobs that don’t pay enough to life?
-
Boomers, the generation that pulled up the ladder from behind them.
-
Dealing with boomers while working in customer service jobs is like trying to get a crazy person to take their pills while having both of your hands tied behind your back.
