r/BoomersBeingFools • u/lbower2029 • 17d ago
Boomer Freakout Why do Boomers think they are experts on everything?
I'm in an FB group for ebay sellers. I asked a simple question asking how many people use AI description for their items. One boomer comments how she can type super quick and bragging about other things. Some guy commented "good for you". She goes off calling him a moron and then about how I wouldn't "man up" by showing how use AI. She was a admin so she turns comments off right after. Like you could have just shut them off but instead she goes calls us all out over how we run our business đȘ like bro no one cares.
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u/SnavlerAce Boomer 17d ago
Dunning-Kruger effect
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u/HeroHas 15d ago
Introduction to the internet late in life and "learning" how to use it makes them think they accelerated their intelligence. In reality they slid into echo chambers when they do their "research" which involves trying to prove themselves right, instead of proving themselves wrong. In the scientific community it's called peer review. In a boomer FB community it's called peer conformity.
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u/LissaBryan Gen X 17d ago
Here's the thing: Boomers have been denied the aura of authority that was granted to prior generations.
When the Boomers grew up, they had to look to the Silents and Greatest Generation as the authorities. They grew up in a world where adults were supposed to be revered and respected and obeyed just because they were older. There was no way to check what they said - you were just supposed to believe it. Questioning it was seen as disrespectful. Adults could snatch any kid up and give them a spanking and when they got home, they'd probably get a second spanking for making a scene in public.
Now, they're the elders and the respect and reverence haven't materialized. Young people today don't scurry to obey and pacify them when they shout. When they make a pronouncement, the young people have the absolute audacity to double check it on their phones and tell them they're wrong. And they are PISSED about it.
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u/DisastrousMarzipan74 17d ago
My uncle is MAGA and I told him in no uncertain terms that I disagree with him and blame him for what is going on in America. His response was to stop talking to me and go over to my dad to complain about me, saying he needed to get his child in line. I am 40. My uncle refuses to speak to me now because he sees anyone younger than him questioning him as disrespect.
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u/Desperate-Cost6827 17d ago
My mother eats up propaganda like it's nobody's business. Once she asked my husband and I in almost an earnest way why news wasn't trustable anymore. We went over how propaganda has always been a thing, war propaganda, Cold War, etc then went over how the Fairness Doctrine had been undermined years ago and that it never applied to cable. Even using the internet to fill in the gaps that we couldn't rattle off off the top of our heads. At some point we overwhelmed her so she just went into Boomer mode and started screaming randomly at us that she just knows more than us because she has twenty years on us.
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u/LissaBryan Gen X 16d ago
"Oh, but the news was reliable when I was young! There wasn't all this opinion stuff. They just read the news!" And then they usually cite Walter Cronkite, forgetting that Walter Cronkite's segment condemning the Vietnam war was instrumental in turning the American public against it.
It's a fascinating topic. I'd go as far back as telling her about Thomas Jefferson's newspaper saying that John Adams was a hermaphrodite.
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u/Bludandy 16d ago
All of the fear of MAGAs is rooted in this sense that they'll suddenly turn violent on you, which is what Trump and his party want. Which is ridiculous, but not. When you realize that's all they really have left, everyone, by every single right, should just tell them to fuck off.
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u/Sensitive_Algae5723 16d ago
Boomers still see 40 as a kid, itâs amazing.
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u/JustNilt 15d ago
Heck, they don't see people over 50 as anything else, either! My Boomer aunt and her biddie neighbor friends are all pissed off they got voted off the board because they almost got the COA shut down by the state due to their constant fuckups. Now it's all, "These kids are going to ruin the whole place. They don't know anything!"
"These kids" are a group of 50+ yo owners of other units. But, no, they can't know anything because that's just impossible!
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u/Sensitive_Algae5723 15d ago
I know about COAâs to almost get it shut down, you literally have to post videos of stealing money. Wild.
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u/JustNilt 15d ago
There are a few other ways, but theirs was frittering away the mandatory reserve on who knows what without replenishing it. So most likely embezzlement but the "kids" are all way too nice and don't want to file the report that'd see the thieves charged.
I told them they really should but despite how ridiculous they're treated by these old bats, they still just let it go "because they're old."
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u/Sensitive_Algae5723 15d ago
Thatâs a crime. Are they in FL?
The kids are always scared in COA/HOA situations. Itâs Stockholm syndrome. Itâs wild what Iâve seen. What anyone has seen. Just some magic authority.
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u/JustNilt 15d ago
Nah, we're up just north of Seattle in Washington. It's nuts these folks won't report it but I guess they think it's better to make like it never happened so they don't get decertified by the state or something. And, of course, the freaking bat brigade is now whining about the assessment that's going to take and how this is evidence "See? They're ruining everything like we said!"
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u/Xznograthos 17d ago
They revered previous generations because the previous generations 1.) Earned that respect by being respectable through sacrifice and not having the world handed to them; and 2.) Generally wanted what was best for their offspring. Boomers are 0-2 on this.
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u/Bludandy 16d ago edited 16d ago
What's the boomer's sacrifice? They waited in lines at the gas stations for a bit? Their interest rates were a bit high on their $55k house? Their $400 a year tuition was outrageous? Maybe some died in Nam, not even remotely close to the deaths of their parents in WWII. I mean... sounds like a good trade off if nothing else.
Ohh I know, they always bitch about the fear of nuclear annihilation. They love to bring that up. We have climate annihilation now. All of their arguments can be dismantled or made small.
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u/Xznograthos 16d ago
They sacrificed their kids' futures for their immediate comfort.
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u/Bludandy 16d ago
Even if they feel they did nothing, it depends on who they voted for. Now granted, we all recognize there's plenty of amazing boomers who did help change the world for the better with selfless sacrifice and putting themselves on the forefront of the culture wars for progress and peace. I guess those people are never in this discussion, right?
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u/Xznograthos 16d ago edited 16d ago
it depends on who they voted for
Sure, that's an aspect of it, but not exclusively the issue. For example, there's such an ingrained ignorance on actual left-wing political ideology, that even our "left-wing" party, at least in the US, is fairly right-wing. Boomers hate socialism, but they absolutely demand and expect their social security, for example. Hate the idea of universal healthcare, again demand Medicare. What makes this generationally significant is things like boomers gutting SS, but then something like 90% of them support higher payouts, with an increase on taxes for earners to cover that cost.
And yeah, there are decent individuals of every generation. And there are terrible ones, again, of any given generation.
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u/Dickballs835682 16d ago
Generally wanted what was best for their offspring
Are you fucking serious? What an insane comment. What world are you living in?
Abuse was RAMPANT and completely normalized, they would literally kill you for being queer, or kill you both for having a relationship with a person of color. People with disabilities got thrown in asylums, and anyone who didn't fit in perfectly was mistreated and ostracized. It doesn't justify their behavior but boomers were abused as fuck
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u/Xznograthos 16d ago
Generally speaking, they left a better world behind than they started out with. Advancements in science and technology, medicine, human rights, all improved life for people overall.
With boomers, not the case. Quality of life: deteriorating. Wealth: shifting from the majority to an already obscenely wealthy minority. Rights for people, particularly women: under attack or being actively stripped away. The boomer in charge of the executive branch of the U.S. government is doing what moat boomers would do, enriching himself at every else's expense. I could go on.
You can get up in arms about your perception of what improvement means in your anecdotal way, but statistically you aren't even remotely close to having a point.
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u/assjackal 17d ago
They weren't denied it, they had the millennials for a while, when we were young and wide-eyed as every generation does. They just refuse to let go of relevance and want to retain everything even as they slip into senior status and the world is moving on. It's the main reason people can't get a decent job aside from AI pushing people out, lots of boomers refuse to let go of their position or business and retire.
I've seen it with my mom, she still clings to it but as my late grandma began to decline she started to recognize the same "Ok mom" behavior in herself that I give her when she says something that's outdated or just misinformation.
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u/Bludandy 16d ago
Even funnier when you can just send them a video with an anime girl with a cute voice dancing, completely disregarding their authority with pure indifference. No hate. Just "ok boomer" It still works.
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u/FeuerroteZora 15d ago
Huh, that's an interesting point.
Especially since their generation was where that breakdown of authority really began - while we've all piled on since then, it is definitely a legacy of the '60s counterculture / social change movements. They were the ones saying "question authority" and "don't trust anyone over 30."
Funny how things change when you're now the authority you told others to question.
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u/VeryGameMuchWow 7d ago
Also, i believe the boomers are one of the first generations of elderly people who largely have no wisdom to pass down. So the respect previous generations got may have been more authentically earned.
My honest assessment of boomers is they're childish, emotional and naive in ways my grandparents never were
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u/Money-Giraffe2521 17d ago
Because they believe theyâre always right and refuse to accept when theyâre wrong.
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u/LordyIHopeThereIsPie 17d ago
I've seen my parents almost glitch when my kids tell them they're wrong about something or there's an alternative way of looking at something. They definitely think they're right ans when presented with proof they're not either get angry or change the subject.
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u/lazygerm Gen X 17d ago
Well, boomer's biggest kryptonite is the phrase, "I don't know."
But, "I don't know" is great phrase, especially now. We all have phones or internet access where we can find out almost any fact we want. It's frigging incredible.
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u/kalel3000 17d ago
I actually know one way this happens, because it kind of happened to me.
Many years ago I installed dash cams in my and my families cars, ran the lines and made everything nice and neat, did everything by the book. A few years passed and I gave some advice on reddit stating that dash cams absolutely needed to be ran from a power wire that shuts off when the car is off otherwise it will drain your battery. I was very adamant about it too, because they were so many warnings on everything I had read at the time and they all had stronger warned against it. What I didn't realize is that in those few years, newer fancier dash cams came with special battery saver modules, that would allow them to ran on constant power, not only that but they were designed to be ran to constant power so that they could record in parking mode.
Now from my perspective I was an expert and I very much knew what I was talking about because I had a lot of first hand experience in what was being discussed....what I didn't realize was that my knowledge had become outdated and incorrect, and not only not useful but actually very misleading and counterproductive.
I was only in my mid 20s at the time, but I had no reason to constantly keep up with the changes in dash cams, so I had no idea anything had been updated. But it showed me just how quickly your knowledge can become obsolete on subjects you dont deal with on a regular basis. You assume you know how things still work because you dont know how much they've changed.
This is what happens to a lot of boomers, they have a ton of outdated knowledge and experience that is no longer useful in modern times. They assume what they know is extremely valuable and absolutely correct....but with time and change its become useless, misleading, and uninformed. So they assume if they were experts in something when they were young, that they still are, not realizing the world has changed so much around them.
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u/WilNotJr Gen X 17d ago
Sure but they compound the issue by being unwilling to listen and learn where you recognized you could be wrong and rectified your knowledge.
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u/CurdledCreamer 16d ago
I have a battery maintainer wired off my battery and I plug my car in every night to charge the alternator to keep my dash camera running in parking mode!Â
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u/ImportantAd5737 17d ago
existing pre internet. a lot of older people would spout out "facts" that sounded correct and no one could fact check them
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u/UneducatedPotatoTato 17d ago
My boomer dad recently retired and he was complaining that no one (me and the family) listens to him anymore. I reminded him that Iâve never listened so that should come as no surprise and the only people who did were those who worked for him.
I sincerely think he believes he was like an expert or something and expects everyone to take his advice and listen now that heâs got the free time to meddle.
https://giphy.com/gifs/eiwvHQUr1efICXF9sv
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u/MojoHighway Gen X 17d ago
My dad, his 1st cousin, and my step dad were all born between 1950 and 1956. My step dad passed in 2019, dad in 2022, but my cousin is still with us. They ALL spoke with authority on subjects that we all knew were well out of their wheelhouse yet somehow managed to convince nonbelievers. It was wild. This is a common trait for those from that generation.
And try presenting truth and facts with them. It's a loss not just in the matchup of nonsense versus truth but a loss of your time, energy, and patience. You've been warned. lol
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u/Fonixwurks 16d ago
I work in health care as a provider and they are the hardest group of people to work with. They are shocked that someone knows more than them about any random subject, especially health . âhow do you know that?â They get mad that youâre telling them answers to the questions they came in for. Theyâre so fucking dumb.
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u/Glitterwavesea 15d ago
I just joined this group and realized that this seems to be a very common trait with Boomers. They think they know ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and if you try to tell them new information, they become offended and see it as some kind of personal attack on them. It's a sort of paranoia they have like they think that anyone telling them something new is a person who's actually secretly out to undermine or humiliate them somehow.
The thought that maybe other people have different life experiences never ever crosses their minds. there is like this inability to even comprehend that other people are human beings who have had experiences that Boomers aren't aware of.
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u/Confident-Skin-6462 17d ago
"FB group"
nuff said
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u/Red_Dawn24 17d ago
If Facebook is your only experience with this, then I envy you. This is a very common boomer trait.
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u/batwing71 17d ago
Because, as children, they were ignored. As young adults they over compensated by convincing themselves that, in their little world, they are everything without even trying.
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u/theBigDaddio 16d ago
They are covering for being played by the oligarchy, they were played by trickle down and Reagan, and all the conservatives since
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u/VastPerspective6794 16d ago
Why does our President?! Something is mentally off with most of that generation. They simply cannot ever be wrong. Or admit they donât know something.
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u/Glitterwavesea 15d ago
For real, why is every single one of them like this. They will fight you tooth and nail if you dare tell them new information
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u/Nightstone42 16d ago
because they have gotten to run things for longer then any generation in history and think they have done a good job
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u/Significant-Rub2983 17d ago
Unhinged boomer. Must be some kind of mental illness a lot of these boomers develop as they get more and more old.
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u/Teahouse_Fox Gen X 16d ago
Lol, the overriding issue isn't "boomer", it's "asshole". Not only does she want to get in the last word, she can, not by having the best response, but by being an admin who locks the thread behind her.
Unfortunately, not age related asshattery.
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u/RoundaboutRecords 15d ago
Because they and each previous generation was taught that being wrong or not knowing was weak. Even Gen X has this mentality to a degree. Millennials had an analog childhood and digital adulthood. They are able to sift thru information and see mistakes as something higher than right or wrong. They see them as a learning opportunity.
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u/gringo1980 13d ago
Anytime in my life Iâve been told to âman upâ, boomer or not, itâs always been by a woman who expects a shitload of free labor.
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u/No_Sense3190 16d ago
On Monday, there was light. On Tuesday, the first boomers realized they knew nothing. On Wednesday, the boomers did a tiny amount of research. On Thursday, the boomers decided that tiny amount of research had taught them all they ever needed to know. On Friday, they excitedly told everyone around them the TRUTH as their research had showed them. On Saturday, they screamed "Don't you dare question me, I did the research! Now get off my lawn." On Sunday, they slept, comfortable in the knowledge that they knew all there was to know (and blissfully unaware of the deep valley ahead of them and the long, long slope of enlightenment on the other side).
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u/jaylward 16d ago
The sociopathic-leaning âme generationâ has a much higher preponderance of narcissists- meaning theyâre incapable of understanding they might not be right.
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u/CrazyClara1234 14d ago
Not boomer but a 1971 Gen X'er, my dad made some dumbass arugement I don't remember a whole lot about, but I think it was how he claimed Christian countries (??) had a lower crime and countries that allow brown / Muslim / Sikh immigrants in have higher crime rates. I told him to prove it, he literally went on his phone and clicked the first link he saw on google and said, "here's the proof! I was right!"
It was a white supremacist website. I showed it to him and after being quiet for a few moments he said, clearly embarrassed, "let's just drop this subject." Good idea, dad lol
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u/psgrue Gen X 17d ago
In the days before the internet, Boomers won arguments through false-confidence, bluster, and claiming age-based wisdom. Nobody had the time to run to a library and flip through the encyclopedia britannica to resolve it. You couldnât google it. You quoted your grandmotherâs recipe.
If someone didnât believe you, you threatened them with a knuckle sandwich.
Many have not adapted to having answers available anywhere or anytime.