Love your Breakfast Club analogy - it’s like the last decade plus has been dominated by Principal Vernon-types on steroids, but the kids have escaped the detention room now and are running the halls again - Freedom!
Ok, so seriously, when it became clear that Orange Man Bad was in fact gonna take it, and take it hard, I laughed out loud and said, “Gen X finally had enough.” And then had to contemplate whether that makes us The Silent Majority of our era. (Does it?🤔😵💫) Fuck, yeah, it does.
We were silent for too long because we can’t be bothered to give a fuck because we know it is a corrupt as shit system. We were too busy defiantly going our own ways as usual cause nobody can be bothered to pay attention to us or our wellbeing for even two seconds in a row. Then we watched as things literally went INSANE. And finally said, We’re not gonna take it!/No/We’re not gonna take it/ANYMORE!
I wonder too if any generation has been positioned as X is. I have known intimately Americans who were born in the Victorian and the Digital Age. And we are the pivot generation. We were the first ones in the new world.
It hadn’t even occurred to anyone that if mom went off to work you might wanna have somebody check on the kids. We were tossed into adolescence post Sexual Revolution, smack dab into the middle of AIDS, and noone had thought to install some brakes on that car yet. The revolting date rape party that got Kavanaugh in hot water? That was Friday night nationwide, baby. They had cut us loose from waiting till you are married and in no way prepared us for
safety in the ensuing fuckfest. (Why did they have to beg us to wear condoms?! Think about it! 🤦♀️Why weren’t we wearing them? Cause they wouldn’t let us buy them. Holy fuck.)
And while we were off being our badass selves, we watched while the corporations took over the globe, commodified the counterculture, and then decided that wasn’t enough. No, whoever is behind the past few years of global chaos needs to not just demand obedience but take us over down to our very thoughts.
We paid attention enough back when they still had civics at school to know totalitarianism when we see it. And we’re archaic enough to think totalitarianism is not good. The spirit of individual liberty that built this nation, good and bad, and fueled our utterly unsupervised youths was not something we were willing to surrender.
So we said Back the fuck up. We got off of our defiant asses and voted. And the scary part is when today’s kids grow up and take over, they will have grown up with every single thing controlled and decided for them. And we are literally rewiring their little brains with technology, stifling their very breath with masks, and letting them scamper unattended through the deep woods of the internet, which is populated with wolves of a darkness we could never imagine. So who is the untended generation now? They look coddled and protected while we literally sacrifice them on the altars of our whims of free internet access, gender dysphoria, and untrammeled consumer capitalism.
Here’s the thing. Those of us who survived, did so with no car seats, no bike helmets, no safe spaces, no intervention no matter if we got beat or bullied or raped. And here we are, basically functional adults. And we got to the point of telling the whiners to shut the fuck up. And the mind control fucks to fuck off. But are we fiercely guarding our offspring, like the feral creatures we are? Do we rip out the metaphorical throat of those who lie to and damage our kids with casual glee and elitist disdain, so certain they know what is best for everyone else?
Okay. Thanks for the fantastic column. And for the space to rant as GenXish as I wish
Sara, you are a few steps ahead of me. I really did not see Gen X pulling for Trump. I did not see it coming. Not a single one of my friends from my teens and twenties agrees with me on this stuff, and we don't talk that often anyway.
But you are right over the target with how the kids of today are being raised. I say that we treat young adults like infants and young children like adults. We act like 23 year old women can't take responsibility for their actions or their emotions, but a 10 year old should have a book about blow jobs in the library.
I was super black pilled about our generation because I see parents my age transing their kids (I know at least two people from my former life in Brooklyn totally supporting the destruction of their teenagers minds and bodies), and I wasn't surprised because a lot of us still want to be 'cool' and 'edgy.' I didn't realise that on balance, most of Gen X was smart enough to know the difference.
And don’t forget the one thing for sure about the 10 year old reading the porn from the school library. It is absolutely imperative that they NOT talk to their parents about it.
This will just be our secret between just us. And let me show you what happens next….
When I first heard about the internet from a former navy IT guy who had a what we would now call a startup, my immediate first response was “how will we protect the children from every freak in the universe!?” But I did not foresee that it would literally destroy the very fabric of our society.
Like I currently live outside one of the major cities in the country & im getting tf out of here to move to a more rural area to get away from these city people. More of them have been migrating out of the cities into my area & they have been changing things for the worse.
Yes, yes, yes about studying civics and having no use at all about the evils of totalitarianism, in all of it's sneaky forms.
Some of that is our inherent rejection of authority, but without the flower power hippy attitude, and some is the time spent with our Greatest Generation grandparents. They looked evil in the face and kicked its ass. They made sure we understood how easily freedom can be taken when leaders, elected or otherwise, start promising that they could fix all of our problems if we would just sit back and let them manage our lives.
How could I leave out that we were raised by The Greatest?! The reason all the adults we knew seemed supremely capable was cause they were. And the grown up movie heroes were literally badasses who had served in the wars of the mid 20th century.
This is such a great comment. It made me feel nostalgic and proud and defiant, all at the same time.
And it made me sad and angry for the coddling of the last few generations that has made them weak and fragile and unable to see (or stand) the world as it is.
"It hadn’t even occurred to anyone that if mom went off to work you might wanna have somebody check on the kids. We were tossed into adolescence post Sexual Revolution, smack dab into the middle of AIDS, and noone had thought to install some brakes on that car yet. The revolting date rape party that got Kavanaugh in hot water? That was Friday night nationwide, baby. They had cut us loose from waiting till you are married and in no way prepared us for safety in the ensuing fuckfest."
This! Exactly this! And then, after all of this, they told us we were fulfilling our mothers' dearest dreams, not by giving them grandchildren, but by getting carted off for the legal abortions.
OK. I'm rolling up in about an hour in the 1966 Plymouth. Becky's the only one who can take turns with me driving because the rest of you fucks can't figure out how to shift a three-speed manual on the column.
I'm bringing Marb Light 100s, Diet Pepsi, Wrigley's spearmint gum, and Vivarin. Jenny, you're on Corn Nuts duty. BQ (obviously).
I’m in! But will refuse the Diet Pepsi and instead want a big gulp of Diet Coke that’s only half full so we can add vodka to it that i stole from my parents. I’ll bring my clove cigarettes and aqua net. Let’s roll!
Brilliant article. Thank you for so succinctly capturing why Gen X is really the FAFO generation.
One aspect that may also have contributed to Gen X being so tough and less likely to be so self absorbed is our grandparents. My grandparents were from the Greatest Generation who survived war, depression and a rapidly changing world. They taught me morals, the value of hard work, not to expect much from others and that emotions were to be expressed sincerely. I spent a lot of time with them due to my parents being involved with their own lives and am super grateful for the experience with my grandparents who gave me the tools to survive.
Very good point. I spent a lot of time with my American grandmother who grew up in the Bronx and was just allergic to any pretentious shit whatsoever. She was just the salt of the earth, no notions.
What a fun article! I'm mid-to-late Gen X, born in 1976. I've always felt some affinity with early Millennials (born early 80s, like my sister) and consider them honorary Gen Xers.
Also, I teach college students (God help me get out of this) and I can articulate the generation gap this way. I think Gen X and Gen Z both have serious "fuck you" energy, though they express it differently.
Gen X = Fuck you, we're going over here to do our own thing (start a punk band/punk scene, sneak out of the house to go to a rave, make a 'zine, get a part-time job, sell weed)
Gen Z = Fuck you...but you must take care of me! (seek protection via HR, make new rules & regulations, demand for others to be "educated")
I have a Gen Z son still in his teens and my husband has four Gen Z sons in their 20's. They are soooo chill. Very low maintenance. I think they are kind of split into the kids destroyed by their woke Gen X parents and those who were raised by the based Gen X, which I think we can all agree is the best generation. 🤣🤣
Yeah, I was going to clarify that I am speaking of the college students among Gen Z, not Gen Z in general. And even among the college students, there are some who have sought out real life experiences, such as getting a part-time job in high school or travelling on their own, and are so much more chill and less ensnared in the pseudo-ideology of higher ed.
That is not only hilarious but true! (PS I’m a Boomer) I’m just shocked and disgusted with the weakness that seems to be a source of pride with Gen Z. This explains it well.
I was a big fan of the X-Files when I was in high school, and therefore programmed not to trust the federal bureaucracy. Gen X’s politics was shaped by Waco, by Elian Gonzales, by Monica Lewinsky. By Heathers, by Liz Phair, by the Cosby show. We were the last kids to grow up with real, untrackable privacy. We walked out the doors of our houses without digital tethers, into the great wide world. I suspect we were the last kids to be truly bored.
How great were no digital tethers? I remember my friends and I couldn't wait to get our driver's licence, and at 19 took off on an 1130 mile (1819 km) 20 hour trip from Melbourne to Queensland. It was a trek. And a 4-cylinder secondhand Toyota probably wasn't the best choice (!!) for long, dry and hot, hilly terrain - though, in our defence we did get the car serviced beforehand. That was the extent of our prep.
I don't remember my mother objecting, I don't remember calling her once, and I don't remember her asking me to.
We got lost. We stumbled into remote aboriginal settlements. We'd left with about $300 each and ended up broke, and having to leave collateral in a restaurant our credit cards couldn't cover. We broke down a few of times.
We eventually limped back to Melbourne and the car sputtered its last breath 30 minutes from home. There was no panic or drama. We just got out and walked.
After 3 weeks of incommunicado, all my mother said was “oh, you're back”.
If it wasn't for missing Substack, I'd happily go back to no digital tethers. It made us far more resilient human beings.
We were the last generation to grow up pre-internet and remember what life was like before staring into a black screen all day. And I just tossed my Democratic Party membership card out the window like I used to chuck Parliament butts in the ‘90s. Gen X gets shit done.
Ah Parliaments. The greatest of all cigarettes. For us classy ones. Our aristocratic aspiring lips wouldn't touch a filter, just starched paper for us!
Born on this very day in 1962 - so I'm exactly 62 - I feel I must say that as a 'barely boomer' I relate more to Gen X. I certainly don't feel like an "arch-narcissist" but then, of course, I'm gonna' say that! Especially if I am one.
Same. I was born in ‘61 but I relate so much to everything Jenny describes here. Certainly more than to poodle skirts and milkshakes, or fringed buckskin vests and granola (I was gonna say dropping acid, till I remembered that nope, I’m actually quite familiar with that!).
And yep, I still smoke and rebelliously refuse to clean my house because no one can tell ME what to do, dammit! I realize that both these things make me more moron than mutineer, but so be it.
Happy birthday, Rachel. I had a sister who was born on this day in 1961. She was Generation Jones, just like you, a microgeneration between the youngest of the Boomers and the oldest of Gen X.
Another late ’61 baby, here. Definitely GenX, sorry, academic demographers. Poodle skirts??? I had a Halloween costume of one…. When I was 7!!! Give me a break - #notaboomer, FFS
My point is that plenty of “boomers” were around for that era, but I can’t relate to it at all. Nor can I relate to the hippie era because I was too young, even though I’m technically a boomer.
Gawd yes, SNL was so funny back then! I still miss Phil Hartman. As for the music: I was into alternative music, and just sort of assumed that my tastes reflected the future. I was so baffled by the nosedive popular music took in mid-90s.
I feel like the neglect & turnkey aspect that many Gen X folks dealt with has many of you conditioned to not taking yourselves (and your emotional whims) as seriously as later generations do (who were more likely raised to be the sun everything revolves around & made to feel far more important lol).
I’m a millennial but my parents were a bit older & were baby boomers. I feel like I got a Gen X latchkey-esque upbringing as that style of parenting was dying out. I’m honestly thrilled I didn’t get the modern child centric crap
What a kick this was to read—thank you! I'd argue even the moral flexibility requirements seem fairly minor on the scale of compromises typical for politics. Trump is not the cartoon villain so mindlessly sketched by the legacy media (ad nauseam). He is THE quintessential anti-hero, which makes him a perfect, bonafide hero for any self-respecting GenXer. Hence the poll numbers.
Very gen X here. If you aint getting accused of being a racist, misogynist, antisemitic and whatever the term is for calling someone a retard then you aint gen X.
I am absolutely loving the comments today. You guys are hilarious.
Love your Breakfast Club analogy - it’s like the last decade plus has been dominated by Principal Vernon-types on steroids, but the kids have escaped the detention room now and are running the halls again - Freedom!
Ok, so seriously, when it became clear that Orange Man Bad was in fact gonna take it, and take it hard, I laughed out loud and said, “Gen X finally had enough.” And then had to contemplate whether that makes us The Silent Majority of our era. (Does it?🤔😵💫) Fuck, yeah, it does.
We were silent for too long because we can’t be bothered to give a fuck because we know it is a corrupt as shit system. We were too busy defiantly going our own ways as usual cause nobody can be bothered to pay attention to us or our wellbeing for even two seconds in a row. Then we watched as things literally went INSANE. And finally said, We’re not gonna take it!/No/We’re not gonna take it/ANYMORE!
I wonder too if any generation has been positioned as X is. I have known intimately Americans who were born in the Victorian and the Digital Age. And we are the pivot generation. We were the first ones in the new world.
It hadn’t even occurred to anyone that if mom went off to work you might wanna have somebody check on the kids. We were tossed into adolescence post Sexual Revolution, smack dab into the middle of AIDS, and noone had thought to install some brakes on that car yet. The revolting date rape party that got Kavanaugh in hot water? That was Friday night nationwide, baby. They had cut us loose from waiting till you are married and in no way prepared us for
safety in the ensuing fuckfest. (Why did they have to beg us to wear condoms?! Think about it! 🤦♀️Why weren’t we wearing them? Cause they wouldn’t let us buy them. Holy fuck.)
And while we were off being our badass selves, we watched while the corporations took over the globe, commodified the counterculture, and then decided that wasn’t enough. No, whoever is behind the past few years of global chaos needs to not just demand obedience but take us over down to our very thoughts.
We paid attention enough back when they still had civics at school to know totalitarianism when we see it. And we’re archaic enough to think totalitarianism is not good. The spirit of individual liberty that built this nation, good and bad, and fueled our utterly unsupervised youths was not something we were willing to surrender.
So we said Back the fuck up. We got off of our defiant asses and voted. And the scary part is when today’s kids grow up and take over, they will have grown up with every single thing controlled and decided for them. And we are literally rewiring their little brains with technology, stifling their very breath with masks, and letting them scamper unattended through the deep woods of the internet, which is populated with wolves of a darkness we could never imagine. So who is the untended generation now? They look coddled and protected while we literally sacrifice them on the altars of our whims of free internet access, gender dysphoria, and untrammeled consumer capitalism.
Here’s the thing. Those of us who survived, did so with no car seats, no bike helmets, no safe spaces, no intervention no matter if we got beat or bullied or raped. And here we are, basically functional adults. And we got to the point of telling the whiners to shut the fuck up. And the mind control fucks to fuck off. But are we fiercely guarding our offspring, like the feral creatures we are? Do we rip out the metaphorical throat of those who lie to and damage our kids with casual glee and elitist disdain, so certain they know what is best for everyone else?
Okay. Thanks for the fantastic column. And for the space to rant as GenXish as I wish
Sara, you are a few steps ahead of me. I really did not see Gen X pulling for Trump. I did not see it coming. Not a single one of my friends from my teens and twenties agrees with me on this stuff, and we don't talk that often anyway.
But you are right over the target with how the kids of today are being raised. I say that we treat young adults like infants and young children like adults. We act like 23 year old women can't take responsibility for their actions or their emotions, but a 10 year old should have a book about blow jobs in the library.
I was super black pilled about our generation because I see parents my age transing their kids (I know at least two people from my former life in Brooklyn totally supporting the destruction of their teenagers minds and bodies), and I wasn't surprised because a lot of us still want to be 'cool' and 'edgy.' I didn't realise that on balance, most of Gen X was smart enough to know the difference.
great point about infantilizing young adults while simultaneously adultifying the kids, thank you.
And don’t forget the one thing for sure about the 10 year old reading the porn from the school library. It is absolutely imperative that they NOT talk to their parents about it.
This will just be our secret between just us. And let me show you what happens next….
When I first heard about the internet from a former navy IT guy who had a what we would now call a startup, my immediate first response was “how will we protect the children from every freak in the universe!?” But I did not foresee that it would literally destroy the very fabric of our society.
City people are a total different breed from the rest of the country. Gotta factor that in
I agree and yet I don’t. City folk can be so fucking solid. Cause you gotta have your shit tight to survive the urban jungle
Like I currently live outside one of the major cities in the country & im getting tf out of here to move to a more rural area to get away from these city people. More of them have been migrating out of the cities into my area & they have been changing things for the worse.
Cities are clearly filled with way more progressive blue in the face ‘my kid is trans’ types of people.
Like I know all about the Brooklyn people she talks about because they’ve invaded and taken over every area around me lol
Well like 57% of us anyway😜
Love this. You nailed it.
Yes, yes, yes about studying civics and having no use at all about the evils of totalitarianism, in all of it's sneaky forms.
Some of that is our inherent rejection of authority, but without the flower power hippy attitude, and some is the time spent with our Greatest Generation grandparents. They looked evil in the face and kicked its ass. They made sure we understood how easily freedom can be taken when leaders, elected or otherwise, start promising that they could fix all of our problems if we would just sit back and let them manage our lives.
How could I leave out that we were raised by The Greatest?! The reason all the adults we knew seemed supremely capable was cause they were. And the grown up movie heroes were literally badasses who had served in the wars of the mid 20th century.
Paging Matf Taibbi
Amen
God I enjoyed this rant! Thank you fellow Gen X bitch!!
"Then we watched as things literally went INSANE. And finally said, We’re not gonna take it!/No/We’re not gonna take it/ANYMORE!"
I'm really glad we finally snapped on all of the twisted sisters.
You funny. Man did I miss out on a great joke opportunity!👍🏻
This is such a great comment. It made me feel nostalgic and proud and defiant, all at the same time.
And it made me sad and angry for the coddling of the last few generations that has made them weak and fragile and unable to see (or stand) the world as it is.
Couldn't have said it better.
"It hadn’t even occurred to anyone that if mom went off to work you might wanna have somebody check on the kids. We were tossed into adolescence post Sexual Revolution, smack dab into the middle of AIDS, and noone had thought to install some brakes on that car yet. The revolting date rape party that got Kavanaugh in hot water? That was Friday night nationwide, baby. They had cut us loose from waiting till you are married and in no way prepared us for safety in the ensuing fuckfest."
This! Exactly this! And then, after all of this, they told us we were fulfilling our mothers' dearest dreams, not by giving them grandchildren, but by getting carted off for the legal abortions.
But sure, I guess they'll keep acting surprised.
OK. I'm rolling up in about an hour in the 1966 Plymouth. Becky's the only one who can take turns with me driving because the rest of you fucks can't figure out how to shift a three-speed manual on the column.
I'm bringing Marb Light 100s, Diet Pepsi, Wrigley's spearmint gum, and Vivarin. Jenny, you're on Corn Nuts duty. BQ (obviously).
Get in hosers.
I will pre-roll the joints since I can't drive stick. 🤣🤣🤣
I’ll follow you in my 1977 MG Midget with 4 on the floor. The cigarette lighter works and the dash has the burn scars to prove it!
On the column. Boss. (OK. I'm on the cusp, but worth it.)
I’m in! But will refuse the Diet Pepsi and instead want a big gulp of Diet Coke that’s only half full so we can add vodka to it that i stole from my parents. I’ll bring my clove cigarettes and aqua net. Let’s roll!
Pro tip from a grateful Boomer: That's called "three on the tree."
Brilliant article. Thank you for so succinctly capturing why Gen X is really the FAFO generation.
One aspect that may also have contributed to Gen X being so tough and less likely to be so self absorbed is our grandparents. My grandparents were from the Greatest Generation who survived war, depression and a rapidly changing world. They taught me morals, the value of hard work, not to expect much from others and that emotions were to be expressed sincerely. I spent a lot of time with them due to my parents being involved with their own lives and am super grateful for the experience with my grandparents who gave me the tools to survive.
Very good point. I spent a lot of time with my American grandmother who grew up in the Bronx and was just allergic to any pretentious shit whatsoever. She was just the salt of the earth, no notions.
Yes!
Yes yes yes. My grandparents were absolutely amazing silent generation stoic angels & my god were they a good influence
I am a late boomer (1964) r who was always super immature. We played Nine Inch Nails at my wedding. We are MAGA now, bitches!!
LOL 👏💪🏼
You are not a boomer. The whole gen X name came from Douglas Copeland, Generation:X -- tales for and Accelerated Culture. Douglas Copeland was writing about _his generation_ and he was born in 1961. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X:_Tales_for_an_Accelerated_Culture
Blah blah blah.
I see your lips moving, but all I hear is
Awesome. Happy Thanksgiving!
Back at ya!
this makes me happy. I never considered myself a boomer.
Great news! You're Gen X!
What a fun article! I'm mid-to-late Gen X, born in 1976. I've always felt some affinity with early Millennials (born early 80s, like my sister) and consider them honorary Gen Xers.
Also, I teach college students (God help me get out of this) and I can articulate the generation gap this way. I think Gen X and Gen Z both have serious "fuck you" energy, though they express it differently.
Gen X = Fuck you, we're going over here to do our own thing (start a punk band/punk scene, sneak out of the house to go to a rave, make a 'zine, get a part-time job, sell weed)
Gen Z = Fuck you...but you must take care of me! (seek protection via HR, make new rules & regulations, demand for others to be "educated")
I have a Gen Z son still in his teens and my husband has four Gen Z sons in their 20's. They are soooo chill. Very low maintenance. I think they are kind of split into the kids destroyed by their woke Gen X parents and those who were raised by the based Gen X, which I think we can all agree is the best generation. 🤣🤣
But yeah, I know what you mean.
Yeah, I was going to clarify that I am speaking of the college students among Gen Z, not Gen Z in general. And even among the college students, there are some who have sought out real life experiences, such as getting a part-time job in high school or travelling on their own, and are so much more chill and less ensnared in the pseudo-ideology of higher ed.
That is not only hilarious but true! (PS I’m a Boomer) I’m just shocked and disgusted with the weakness that seems to be a source of pride with Gen Z. This explains it well.
GenZ are either amazing or absolute train wrecks. This from someone who works with kids.
I was a big fan of the X-Files when I was in high school, and therefore programmed not to trust the federal bureaucracy. Gen X’s politics was shaped by Waco, by Elian Gonzales, by Monica Lewinsky. By Heathers, by Liz Phair, by the Cosby show. We were the last kids to grow up with real, untrackable privacy. We walked out the doors of our houses without digital tethers, into the great wide world. I suspect we were the last kids to be truly bored.
How great were no digital tethers? I remember my friends and I couldn't wait to get our driver's licence, and at 19 took off on an 1130 mile (1819 km) 20 hour trip from Melbourne to Queensland. It was a trek. And a 4-cylinder secondhand Toyota probably wasn't the best choice (!!) for long, dry and hot, hilly terrain - though, in our defence we did get the car serviced beforehand. That was the extent of our prep.
I don't remember my mother objecting, I don't remember calling her once, and I don't remember her asking me to.
We got lost. We stumbled into remote aboriginal settlements. We'd left with about $300 each and ended up broke, and having to leave collateral in a restaurant our credit cards couldn't cover. We broke down a few of times.
We eventually limped back to Melbourne and the car sputtered its last breath 30 minutes from home. There was no panic or drama. We just got out and walked.
After 3 weeks of incommunicado, all my mother said was “oh, you're back”.
If it wasn't for missing Substack, I'd happily go back to no digital tethers. It made us far more resilient human beings.
We were the last generation to grow up pre-internet and remember what life was like before staring into a black screen all day. And I just tossed my Democratic Party membership card out the window like I used to chuck Parliament butts in the ‘90s. Gen X gets shit done.
Love it.💅
Ah Parliaments. The greatest of all cigarettes. For us classy ones. Our aristocratic aspiring lips wouldn't touch a filter, just starched paper for us!
Clove cigarettes?
Ha, I can still taste that wacky filter!
Another one hit out of the park.
Born on this very day in 1962 - so I'm exactly 62 - I feel I must say that as a 'barely boomer' I relate more to Gen X. I certainly don't feel like an "arch-narcissist" but then, of course, I'm gonna' say that! Especially if I am one.
You are definitely more Gen X than Boomer. I can assure you.
And I forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY bitch!
Thanks bitch!
Same. I was born in ‘61 but I relate so much to everything Jenny describes here. Certainly more than to poodle skirts and milkshakes, or fringed buckskin vests and granola (I was gonna say dropping acid, till I remembered that nope, I’m actually quite familiar with that!).
And yep, I still smoke and rebelliously refuse to clean my house because no one can tell ME what to do, dammit! I realize that both these things make me more moron than mutineer, but so be it.
I'm so happy to have found my tribe 🤣💚🇺🇸
Happy birthday, Rachel. I had a sister who was born on this day in 1961. She was Generation Jones, just like you, a microgeneration between the youngest of the Boomers and the oldest of Gen X.
What is “Generation Jones”? Asking for a friend born in 1964 who declines to identify as a Boomer. (Not me — I’m definitely GenX.)
I never heard of them either!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
Apologies for using Wiki.
Who knew. That sliver at the end always seemed far more to have resembled Gen X both in experiences and outlook.
Surprised I'd never heard of The Jones's (thanks X.P. Callahan).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
Another late ’61 baby, here. Definitely GenX, sorry, academic demographers. Poodle skirts??? I had a Halloween costume of one…. When I was 7!!! Give me a break - #notaboomer, FFS
My point is that plenty of “boomers” were around for that era, but I can’t relate to it at all. Nor can I relate to the hippie era because I was too young, even though I’m technically a boomer.
Dude!
Poodle skirts?
I was born in 1958, so my childhood was all psychedelic imagery, interspersed with televised war/riots.
I am a boomer, but we wore jeans -- NEVER a poodle skirt!
Moron or mutineer. It’s a fine line we walk.
And happy birthday, Rachel!
1) SNL when everyone stopped, watched and laughed because it was actually funny
2) The Rocky Horror Picture Show - cult classic
3) Mortgage interest rates at 12% and no whining
4) A huge recession creating people who not only knew how to work but moved to uncool places just to have a job
5) Music that was actually good
When I saw the demographics on the win, I was so glad to see you all again. 😁 Thanks for reminding me in this awesome post.
I love this comment.
Glad to see you again too.🥰
6) Emergence of American exceptionalism in computer technology at Silicon Valley.
Gawd yes, SNL was so funny back then! I still miss Phil Hartman. As for the music: I was into alternative music, and just sort of assumed that my tastes reflected the future. I was so baffled by the nosedive popular music took in mid-90s.
I feel like the neglect & turnkey aspect that many Gen X folks dealt with has many of you conditioned to not taking yourselves (and your emotional whims) as seriously as later generations do (who were more likely raised to be the sun everything revolves around & made to feel far more important lol).
I was never a latchkey kid because my father worked from home, but my family life was adult centred, I was just along for the ride.
I’m a millennial but my parents were a bit older & were baby boomers. I feel like I got a Gen X latchkey-esque upbringing as that style of parenting was dying out. I’m honestly thrilled I didn’t get the modern child centric crap
We knew that the Baby Boomers would finish wrecking the rest of everything before it was our turn. There was no point in taking things seriously.
Dude!
We aren't all narcissistic control freaks wanting to run the world.
Some of us just want the government to leave us -- and everybody else -- alone.
Well then, Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you!
I actually love baby boomers so this comment is DOA with me lol
I was a latchkey kid, & I'm a boomer.
Once I was in high school, I just had to call my mom at work to let her know where I was, & then be home (& able to maintain) by 5:30.
In the parlance of our youngers, not to say betters, I feel seen...
I'm holding space for you Mark!! 😆
LOL (and that's because as a Gen Xer, I dunno how to leave an emoji on here with my laptop.
Emojis trigger unexplainable rage
Ahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha
What a kick this was to read—thank you! I'd argue even the moral flexibility requirements seem fairly minor on the scale of compromises typical for politics. Trump is not the cartoon villain so mindlessly sketched by the legacy media (ad nauseam). He is THE quintessential anti-hero, which makes him a perfect, bonafide hero for any self-respecting GenXer. Hence the poll numbers.
Really, what else should you expect from the first generation to earn a living skateboarding? We just DGAF what anyone else thinks.
"We refuse to stop saying retard."
I feel seen.
🤣🥰
You are welcome!
Very gen X here. If you aint getting accused of being a racist, misogynist, antisemitic and whatever the term is for calling someone a retard then you aint gen X.
Genuinely laughing out loud. Never gonna stop saying retard. Love ya buddy.
Badges of honor.