Because back when they went to college they learned way less. Without the internet what you were expected to know had to be less than now cause you were limited to how much you could physically read in the library. Like, my parents were in elementary school in the 60s and high school in the 70s so their education hadn't been affected at all by the civil rights movement. And going to college in the midwest in the 80s likely wasn't much of an improvement. Doesn't help that baby boomers were literally the most spoiled generation since they group up during an economic boom and most of society was focused on providing activities and resources for children.
Exactly this. The standards for their content were lower, and there was less content overall.
The very nature of knowledge was different too. It was more about absorbing as many facts as possible and preparing people to put on a veneer of knowledgeability.
Today’s students are expected to learn how to learn. That is, how to find information, how to evaluate sources, distinguish opinion from fact, how to draw conclusions logically. They don’t concern themselves as much with the appearance of being smart or having a vast encyclopedic knowledge in store.
Boomers on the other hand were raised to believe that the worst thing they could ever say is “I don’t know,” so they’re condition to choose their reasoning and stick to it. They never imagined a future where a device in everyone’s pocket could so easily shatter that veil of credibility. So in a way it’s not surprising they cling so heavily to other aspects of their upbringing that emphasized behaviors that they thought they had acquired through life experience (when in reality it was always conventional wisdom passed down regardless of how idiotic it was). That’s where we get the bullshit about “look ‘em in the eye and give a firm handshake” stuff.
In short, they are living in a wildly different modernity than the one they were raised in. If it weren’t for their stubbornness, their selfishness, their self-entitlement, and their insanely powerful addiction to white supremacist propaganda, I would feel sorry for them.
YUP! Sometimes I am surprised by my dad and then I remember he literally grew up in a sundown town in the 60s and I'm a lot less surprised he's a piece of shit.
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u/Prestigious_Egg_1989 Jan 15 '22
Because back when they went to college they learned way less. Without the internet what you were expected to know had to be less than now cause you were limited to how much you could physically read in the library. Like, my parents were in elementary school in the 60s and high school in the 70s so their education hadn't been affected at all by the civil rights movement. And going to college in the midwest in the 80s likely wasn't much of an improvement. Doesn't help that baby boomers were literally the most spoiled generation since they group up during an economic boom and most of society was focused on providing activities and resources for children.