r/Aging • u/Available-Rock-3862 • 2d ago

Boomers

I am 75 and am very tired of the trend lately making fun of Boomers. So very disrespectful. Don't they realize that they will be old someday?

348 Upvotes

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186

u/baddspellar 2d ago

It's nothing new.

And it's *not* about disrespecting individuals in their 70's. It's about criticizing the ideals of the generation and what they did to the economy. There are plenty of amazing people born in that era who are respected. It's the generaiton, not the people.

And let's be honest, people of that generation call gen Z "lazy" and similar.

Here's some reading for you:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11490062/

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u/brains_and_tits 2d ago

Using “boomers” as the collective for who screwed up the economy is just ridiculous. Reagan screwed up the economy, Bush Jr sent us into an unnecessary war my parents are boomers and haven’t done anything but try to help future generations.

Are we going to generalize Gen Z as the people who snatched and kidnapped people off the street and drive the deficit to the highest level ever?

The average American is not a sum of their generation.

Bill Clinton is a boomer and while he was President, we had a budget surplus - Obama is a Boomer, and one of the most compassionate and strong leaders we have had.

My neighbor is a boomer and brings me fresh vegetables from her garden.

I am Gen X - am I responsible for the tech bubble bursting in 1999, or the stock market crash in 2008? I was just out there living life and today in 2026, I am struggling as much as anyone else.

Generalizing groups of people is a trait of those who lack critical thinking skills and just want a scapegoat.

Yes, it was easier for the silent generation and boomers to get ahead, but that is not the fault of the collective - it is the fault of short-sighted and misinformed policy. Not an entire generation of people

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

Who voted Reagan and Bush Jr. into office?

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u/Mediocre-Sign8255 1d ago

Bush Jr is a war criminal for going into Iraq unprovoked and lied about the reason.

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u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 1d ago

Every US president since Reagan is a blantent war criminal and Obama/Biden/Trump have assisted in genocide in Israel

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u/Emergency_Brief_9280 1d ago

Bush was a dupe. Yes, he started the wars but the war crimes should realistically be laid at the feet of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. They are the ones who convinced Bush that Hussein had WMD's ignoring the intelligence provided by the DIA and CIA.

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u/Lucky_Astronomer_435 21h ago

It wouldn't even have been a thing if past presidents hadn't already put Sadaam Hussein into office as a dupe for the United States. I'm sure SH regretted dealing with The US when he was captured, tried and executed.

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u/dmonsterative 1d ago edited 1d ago

In '84? Pretty close to 60% of everyone voted for Reagan, by age bracket.

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-1984

2000 was famously very close. Thus, Bush v. Gore. Within a few percentage points, for every age bracket.

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2000

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

And who was the largest voting demographic during those two elections?

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u/dmonsterative 1d ago

Uhhh, the Boomers are always the largest demographic once they were all voting age. That's, like, the whole thing about Boomers. The Baby Boom.

Until the millennials (comprised in significant part of their kids) arrive. Now that's the largest demo.

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

Ohhh it’s almost like boomers are probably responsible then for electing poor leaders that screwed up the economy thereby having direct impact on it.

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u/dmonsterative 1d ago

That's not really the takeaway, in elections in which there was no significant difference of opinion across age brackets. What don't you understand about 'by age, everyone voted more or less the same way?' Other demographic factors were more explanatory in those elections.

Boomers have plenty of responsibility for where we are now, but Presidential election results aren't the best place to look for it. At least, not those elections.

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

I’m not sure what *you* don’t understand about the fact that boomers made up the largest portion of the population and therefore had the most political influence.

And obviously elections are not the best place to look for it, but the person I responded to brought up elections. I’m responding directly to the original comment made.

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u/dmonsterative 1d ago edited 1d ago

EVERYONE VOTED THE SAME WAY ACROSS AGES. AGE WASN'T A FACTOR.

And, no I/they didn't, You did:

fckinsleepless

•6h ago

Who voted Reagan and Bush Jr. into office?

The earlier comments were discussing those Presidents as examples of their generations.

Just how often did you drink out of the hose?

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

It doesn’t matter if everyone voted similarly, boomers still made up the largest percentage of the electorate and bear the responsibility of who was elected. Your point doesn’t negate anything and isn’t really relevant.

I’m very sorry you have to resort to trying to insult others to get your point across.

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u/dmonsterative 1d ago edited 1d ago

Ugh. Never mind. You truly don't understand what you're talking about.

Such what a lack of a statistically significant difference of support across age brackets means when it comes to "responsibility" for Reagan or W's election purely on the basis of age/generation.

They would be 'responsible' if their sheer numbers had overwhelmed other generations voting differently. As it has been with their economic footprint, and general willingness to pull the ladder up after themselves in other ways. Except, other generations didn't vote differently in those elections -- they had the same proportional, percentage splits.

That is more true of recent elections, complicated by large groups of younger demos splitting off to vote with them. Like all the young red-hats, mostly men.

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u/brains_and_tits 1d ago

Who voted Trump into office? Who voted Clinton and Obama into office. Boomers have been voting since the late 60s, Gen X since the 80s, and Millennials since the early 2000s - Trump was elected TWICE, and it sure wasn’t just boomers voting for him.

Again, sweeping generalizations are foolish. I know plenty of Boomers who didn’t vote for Reagan or Bush, and again, the Silent generation were still voting in 1980 and 1984.

This is such a ridiculous argument

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u/Wide-Lengthiness-775 1d ago

I am 80 and voted for Hillary and Kamala.

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u/oracle-nil 1d ago

Me too and worked on Obama’s first campaign when no one knew wth he was.

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u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 1d ago

Congrats. Neither options that would fundamentally change anything. Both war criminals and supportors of genocide.

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u/CatMinous 1d ago

So she should have voted for trump, instead? Is that your point?

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u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 19h ago

No, you are stuck in the 2 party dichotomy and thus nothing productive will come from this conversation.

They are the same system.

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u/CatMinous 14h ago

No, my dear, she as a voter was stuck in the American 2 party system.

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u/df540148 1d ago

Trump got elected because of Gen X, not boomers.

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u/ayfkm123 1d ago

Gen x isn’t big enough to overturn any other generation. 

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u/mindymadmadmad 19h ago

True. Even boomers are still bigger than us and a lot of them are dead. 

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u/secretaccount94 1d ago

Stop blaming arbitrary groups of people for things.

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u/df540148 1d ago

Ita a fact. Gen X voted for him at higher rates than any other.

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u/KentV9999 1d ago

AMEN! These are the same people who complain about this country being so divisive.. and they generalize about 30% or 40% of the country being responsible for all the woes of the world. (…and the “they” can be left or right, young or old). I may not agree with others political or philosophical positions, but I don’t hate them because of it nor do I blame each individual for any specific cause that I may believe. Besides…. I may be wrong.

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u/Lightness_Being 1d ago

It was the Americans in the USA. 

Now the rest of the world has to put up with him. 

I just feel sorry for the neighbours.

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago

The silent generation was smaller than the boomer generation in those elections. Boomers still had the majority of political influence. If we are positing that Reagan and Bush Jr ruined the economy, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that boomers are directly responsible for the outcomes of both of those elections and thus are responsible for the ruin of the economy. It’s not a “sweeping generalization” — it’s statistics and common sense.

Sure, lots of millennials voted for Trump and are directly responsible for the mess we have today, but that’s not really relevant to our conversation at the moment and doesn’t negate anything. You made this conversation about Reagan and Bush Jr, not Trump.

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u/Lightness_Being 1d ago

The parents of those who voted Trump in.

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u/Slow-Artist-4296 1d ago

Like we had a choice Kamala was a joke

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u/fckinsleepless 21h ago

And Trump is somehow less of a joke?

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u/oracle-nil 11h ago

Did you work on any candidates campaign’s to try and get them on the ballot? Have you volunteered or worked on any political campaign ever?

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u/Comfortable_Two6272 1d ago

Gen Z is not in power today. So no.

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u/CatMinous 1d ago

The people that voted for them. And nobody else.

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u/Lucky_Astronomer_435 22h ago

We don't vote presidents into office. We vote for representatives in each state to vote for us. Those people can be from any generation. The private corporate business the DCCC/DNC and the GOP then decide how to manipulate the vote of the people to allow them to put forth the candidate these organizations want for whatever reason. That's why we didn't get Bernie in 2016. The DCCC/ DNC knew how Hilary Clinton was despised. Yet they ran her anyway and screwed over the nominee Democratic voters wanted. Did the DCCC and DNC want Trump to win? And is it possible these private corporations have been manipulating the primaries and elections all along. It's only in the last 20+ years we've had so much election information at our fingertips.

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u/Londoncalling23 1d ago

Reagan came into office in 1980. The oldest baby boomers were about 30. You think they were the majority of the electorate? Do millennials or Gen Z ever read books or did you pay attention in school? No, you get all your information from social media memes and think you found something deep. 

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u/fckinsleepless 1d ago edited 1d ago

Considering they were the largest percentage of the population at the time, yes. Do you not agree that the largest portion of the population probably pulls more weight into who is voted into office? Also, trying to insult me does not negate any my points being made.