Politics-What's on your mind?

[dark_crystal]

I spent the 90s clerking in bookstores, record shops, and coffeehouses-- while attending art school. I met TONS of aging hippies. The women were cool. The men were universally pervs.

"Hippies and Yuppies are two different groups" coming from Boomers is awfully similar to the "we never lived in the South" language that lets white people claim they can't be complicit in white supremacy.

Boomers cannot freeze their legacy at the 60s. Gen X met the baby boom in the 70s and 80s.

Generation X As children and adolescents

Demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe, who authored several books on generations, including the 1993 book specifically on Generation X 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?, reported that Gen Xers were children at a time when society was less focused on children and more focused on adults. Gen Xers were children during a time of increasing divorce rates, with divorce rates doubling in the mid-1960s, before peaking in 1980.

Strauss and Howe described a cultural shift where the long-held societal value of staying together for the sake of the children was replaced with a societal value of parental and individual self-actualization. Strauss wrote that society "moved from what Leslie Fiedler called a 1950s-era 'cult of the child' to what Landon Jones called a 1970s-era 'cult of the adult'."

The "Me" generation

The "Me" generation in the United States is a term referring to the baby boomers generation and the self-involved qualities that some people associate with it. The 1970s were dubbed the "Me" decade by writer Tom Wolfe; Christopher Lasch was another writer who commented on the rise of a culture of narcissism among the younger generation of that era. The phrase caught on with the general public, at a time when "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment" were becoming cultural aspirations to which young people supposedly ascribed higher importance than social responsibility.

The cultural change in the United States during the 1970s that was experienced by the baby boomers is complex. The 1960s are remembered as a time of political protests, radical experimentation with new cultural experiences (the Sexual Revolution, happenings, mainstream awareness of Eastern religions). The Civil Rights Movement gave rebellious young people serious goals to work towards. Cultural experimentation was justified as being directed toward spiritual or intellectual enlightenment. The mid to late 1970s, in contrast, were a time of increased economic crisis and disillusionment with idealistic politics among the young, particularly after the resignation of Richard Nixon and the end of the Vietnam War. Unapologetic hedonism became acceptable among the young, expressed in the Disco music popular at the time.

The new introspectiveness announced the demise of an established set of traditional faiths centred on work and the postponement of gratification, and the emergence of a consumption-oriented lifestyle ethic centred on lived experience and the immediacy of daily lifestyle choices.

By the mid-1970s, Tom Wolfe and Christopher Lasch were speaking out critically against the culture of narcissism. These criticisms were widely repeated throughout American popular media.

The 1970s have been described as a transitional era when the self-help of the 1960s became self-gratification, and eventually devolved into the selfishness of the 1980s

The Me Decade was toxic as hell, and the hippies are implicated, i'm sorry.

Xers are never going to remember the Boom the way the Boom remember themselves. We were there for the 70s. The 60s are a story.

We watch Millennials squaring off against the Boom, and-- while we are crossing our fingers for them-- we suspect they've underestimated just how ugly the response is going to be.

Like, the Millennials didn't watch an entire generation of their brothers die. Someone who came of age under Obama is going to have a different idea of what's possible than people growing up under Reagan-- who, I know, was not a Boomer, he would be 109 y/o by now.

But Rush Limbaugh was a Boomer, and that's what pushed me into activism. I was behind the counter when a flood of Boomers bought his first book, and wanted to tell me about it while they wrote their checks.

I was in ACT-UP, I was in the Lesbian Avengers, I was on Q-Patrol, I protested the Iraq War,
I spent the night before election day 1990(?) driving around Shreveport Louisiana, stealing David Duke signs out of people's yards.

Millennials know that the government killed a bunch of queers, but they did not watch it. The idea that the US could descend into theocracy is mostly hypothetical to them. Xers agree with Millennials' goals, but we have less confidence in the methods-- extremes make us nervous.

Like the girl who confronted Chelsea Clinton at the memorial last week. She was wearing a Bernie shirt. That makes this Xer nervous.

[Martina]

I'm a late boomer, born 1958. I certainly saw a generation die.

My friends who had kids conformed to another stereotype, suddenly becoming serious householders, super concerned with their kids and being good parents. Of the friends I've known for thirty plus years, none of those who married got divorced. One, a gay male without kids, really needs to. I think my experience is a little different.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Martina

I'm a late boomer, born 1958. I certainly saw a generation die.

My friends who had kids conformed to another stereotype, suddenly becoming serious householders, super concerned with their kids and being good parents. Of the friends I've known for thirty plus years, none of those who married got divorced. One, a gay male without kids, really needs to. I think my experience is a little different.

My partner was born in 1961. She does not seem like a boomer to me at all.

Ya'll are in Generation Jones

Generation Jones is the social cohort of the latter half of the Baby boomers to the first years of Generation X. The term was first coined by the cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who identified the cohort as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the U.S. who came of age during the oil crisis, stagflation, and the Carter presidency, rather than during the 1960s, but slightly before Gen X. Other sources place the starting point at 1956 or 1957. Unlike older baby boomers, most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and for them there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War had been for the older boomers.

The name "Generation Jones" has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a "keeping up with the Joneses" competitiveness and the slang word "jones" or "jonesing", meaning a yearning or craving. It is believed that Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the 1960s, and then confronted with a different reality as they came of age during a long period of mass unemployment and when de-industrialization arrived full force in the mid-late 1970s and 1980s, leaving them with a certain unrequited "jonesing" quality for the more prosperous days of the past.

The generation 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 come immediately preceding them; thus, many complain that there was a paucity of resources and privileges available to them that were seemingly abundant to older boomers. Therefore, there is a certain level of bitterness and "jonesing" for the level of freedom and affluence granted to older boomers but denied to them

My parents are Silent Generation (born '39 and '43, married late and did not have me until 1970, when dad was 31 and back from 2 deployments)

I recently found a book about the Silents called The Lucky Few: Between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom.

Born during the Great Depression and World War Two (1929 – 1945) - between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom - an entire generation has slipped between the cracks of history. Yet behind the scenes, these Lucky Few became the first American generation smaller than the one before them, and the luckiest generation of Americans ever.

As children they experienced the most stable intact parental families in the nation’s history. Lucky Few women married earlier than any other generation of the century and helped give birth to the Baby Boom, yet also gained in education compared to earlier generations. Lucky Few men made the greatest gains of the century in schooling, earned veterans benefits like the Greatest Generation but served mostly in peacetime with only a fraction of the casualties, came closest to full employment, and spearheaded the trend toward earlier retirement.

More than any other generation, Lucky Few men advanced into professional and white-collar jobs while Lucky Few women concentrated in the clerical "pink-collar ghetto." Even in retirement and old age the Lucky Few remain in the right place at the right time. Here is their story, and the story of how they have affected other recent generations of Americans before and since.

These folks are ages 70-90 now. They are ALLLLLLLL Republicans at this point, it seems. These are the people Republicans were going for with the Southern Strategy. Lucky Few and Greatest Generation people who were Democrats peeled off when the Dems blew off the unions.

Anyway, this particular digression was about generational fractures among anti-Trump voters.

I say "anti-Trump" because today it does not feel useful to talk about Democrats. The candidate who runs against Trump will need to understand that we are building a coalition of Republican defectors (optimism), moderates, centrists, liberals, progressives, socialists, and leftists.

Only about half of those find "beat Trump" to be sufficient motivation. The other half want a revolution. The moderates, centrists, and liberals keep yelling at everybody else about how to beat Trump and not understanding why they don't seem terrified by the possibility of another 4 years.

I think that is our generational issue-- older moderates/centrists/liberals (plus most minorities of all ages) are terrified of a Trump win and prioritize beating him above all else.

Progressives, Socialists, and Leftists aren't motivated by the fear of another 4 years. They want a candidate who beats Trump on the way to changing the world.

To me, that's Bernie. The media has successfully ghettoized him as appealing only to white Millennials, though. His path to the nomination has to get him out of that ghetto.

[kittygrrl]

it's a good sign...news commentators are pronouncing mayor Pete's last name better...he has a good sense of humor about it..i really wish he had a chance...i think he is the best kind of person..there are others of course, but his light is the brightest..to me

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by kittygrrl

it's a good sign...news commentators are pronouncing mayor Pete's last name better...he has a good sense of humor about it..i really wish he had a chance...i think he is the best kind of person..there are others of course, but his light is the brightest..to me

There has been a two-week Mayor Pete honeymoon but i predict it stalls starting either today or tomorrow, based on comments to his social media.

The progressives don't like his immigration, foreign policy, and NatSec/Manning/Snowden stances and the Hillary voters are starting to complain about sexism in his media coverage vs Warren's.

Warren is not going to make it because her hair color is too close to Hillary's. I am serious.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

There has been a two-week Mayor Pete honeymoon but i predict it stalls starting either today or tomorrow, based on comments to his social media.

The progressives don't like his immigration, foreign policy, and NatSec/Manning/Snowden stances and the Hillary voters are starting to complain about sexism in his media coverage vs Warren's.

Warren is not going to make it because her hair color is too close to Hillary's. I am serious.

I cannot stand to hear Warren speak, and that other blonde woman running (can’t even remember her name), needs get some confidence and speak up! Do you suppose I (we) are so used to male politicians, that we hear a female voice and we want to slap someone? Hilary’s voice was like nails on a chalk board...but, I “hear” Kamala and Amy without cringing, soooooooooo?

Why is it that hair color/style and voices matter so much when they belong to a woman? Are we conditioned to expect women to be “pretty” and in their “place”? Am I considered a sexist pig, or am I conditioned by society to see things in a slant toward men?

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

I cannot stand to hear Warren speak, and that other blonde woman running (can’t even remember her name), needs get some confidence and speak up! Do you suppose I (we) are so used to male politicians, that we hear a female voice and we want to slap someone? Hilary’s voice was like nails on a chalk board...but, I “hear” Kamala and Amy without cringing, soooooooooo?

Why is it that hair color/style and voices matter so much when they belong to a woman? Are we conditioned to expect women to be “pretty” and in their “place”? Am I considered a sexist pig, or am I conditioned by society to see things in a slant toward men?

For me, the issue with Warren and Clinton is that i associate them with second-wave feminism, and i associate the second wave with a lot of negative stuff. The second wave sidelined lesbians and second-wave lesbians sidelined butch-femme.

PLUS i just feel like they all want us to be Diane Keaton from the Baby Boom, pre-baby.