Boomers in the 80s and 90s were fucking depressed. They described their lives as a boring, soul-crushing existence where they did the same hollow shit day in and day out. They hated their bosses, they hated their jobs, their kids, their wife/husband. People had "Mid-life crises" where they tried to fill the void with "a fast car and a young hot fling." things capitalism told them would make them happy. It didn't.
Seriously listen to any media made by boomers when they were in their 30s-50s. It's all jokes about how fucking mundane life is.
Even at its peak, life under capitalism was hollow and soul crushing.
They were basically taught "as long as you keep your head down and play the game, we won't hurt you financially"
Sure, (if you were white and male) you had money, but it took everything else away. Community, friendship, family. Trapped them in a gilded cage. Having to watch their children having even that promise of financial stability ripped from them. And don't get me started on how terrible it was if you weren't a white dude.
I have to wonder if the "selfish, childish boomer" stereotype is something of a coping mechanism. Maybe some boomers are like that because thats their jokerfication.
One of my least favorite kinds of media is the kind where boomers and Gen Xers whine about how terrible working their stable jobs is and how their lives feel aimless, I should go take a soul searching trip to Nepal, life is simpler there, maaaaaaan. I mean, it's capitalism, of course the jobs are going to suck to some extent, but even at the time they should've had some perspective. Douglas Coupland's Generation X, which is where the term comes from, is the perfect example.
Ya it’s annoying but I think those feelings of ennui are valid. One merely needs to connect those feelings to their material basis and you’ve got a large potentially progressive demographic as capitalism further decays. Obv it’s better to have ennui than to be impoverished in the global south, but it’s still a negative symptom of capitalism, and expression of that should be encouraged.
I was young enough to be around to fucking hate the "generation meh, REALITY BYTES" privileged ennui shit from bored well-to-do Xers that became adults before I did, having few materially tangible things to complain about but getting preoccupied with poisoning themselves with irony.
Turns out even with livable conditions capitalism is alienating and awful. They focused on that part cause they had lvsvle conditions.
I have a stereotype in my head about gen Xers not verbalizing their positions enough
even Boomers seem more verbal, while gen X just seems "wishy washy" somehow. I know little about gen X so correct me if this is wrong