Why baby boomers' grandchildren will hate them

[progressoid]

For decades, Americans could remember previous generations with reverence. The Greatest Generation freed Europe and established the liberal world order. The Silent Generation helped them build post-World War II prosperity and battle international communism. And the baby boomers had their moments, mostly long past: marching for civil rights; speaking out against an endless war; revolutionizing the culture. But when their children and grandchildren look back at the boomer legacy, “reverence” is not the word that will come to mind.

A new Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll gauged how U.S. teenagers feel about climate change. Nearly all — 86 percent — believe in the near-unanimous conclusions of the scientific community. Fifty-seven percent of teens say climate change makes them feel afraid. Fifty-two percent feel angry. Forty-three percent feel helpless. Only 29 percent feel optimistic. Anger, fear, helplessness: These are the sorts of feelings so many of the nation’s recent leaders — and those who elected them — will increasingly elicit.

...

Young Americans will face the challenge, because their parents and grandparents did not. They will do so with little time and a cash-strapped federal Treasury that the baby boomers fleeced to pay for tax cuts and retirement benefits. The Post poll found that about a quarter of today’s teens had engaged in some form of climate activism. Others have not done much, but they will likely demand more as the problem gets worse and their political power grows. Generational change will bring policy change.

...

What is the point of politics — of life, even — if not to leave a positive legacy for future generations? Not every issue so clearly implicates such big questions, in part because not every issue offers such a clear distinction between right and wrong, responsible and irresponsible, reality and reality denial. But climate change, the greatest self-imposed long-term threat facing humanity, offers that clarity. Today’s youths will curse their forebears for failing to accept the truth.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/17/why-baby-boomers-grandchildren-will-hate-them/

[msongs]

1. todays youths drive cars, use energy guzzling electronics, eat dead animals

they arent changing much at all

[Kaleva]

11. Which shows they don't actually give a shit about climate change.

[BlueStater]

19. Didn't you use your laptop or your phone to type that post?

[maxsolomon]

30. Energy use isn't bad in and of itself, quibbler.

Personal virtue isn't going to save the Earth either. ACC requires structural change that can only come from govt leadership.

To whit: the Seattle City Council is considering banning new Natural Gas installs. It isn't sexting teens that are freaking the fuck out about it. It's Olds, calling for "kicking all the Socialists" out.

[Kaleva]

40. The abolitionist, women's right to vote, civil rights, and anti-war movements were grassroots

[maxsolomon]

42. What's your point? MSongs is saying kids are hypocrites for eating meat and charging their phones.

If every GenZ kid got off their phone and became a vegan today, the planet would still be fucked by carbon emissions.

Eventually, the Federal government took action in every one of those cases. It takes citizens to make their government act.

[Kaleva]

49. Your comment: "ACC requires structural change that can only come from govt leadership. "

Governments rarely lead. Mostly they react to what people demand.

And in the examples I provided, many people felt so strongly about their cause that they gave up much, some even lost their lives, in fighting for what they believed in. You really can't expect the government to take serious action if it appears that a majority of citizens really don't give a shit.

[maxsolomon]

57. Electricity providers have monopolies.

You can't just go off the grid because they burn coal - particularly if you're a renter, or not wealthy. That's the kind of Govt action that's needed. We're in a straitjacket in terms of the virtue we can demonstrate - everyone uses kWs.

Kids eating beef burgers instead of impossible burgers, or charging their phones with a portable solar panel isn't going to phase out a coal-fired electricity plant. That's the EPA.

[Kaleva]

58. Back in 2013, my monthly budget for electicity was $39 a month

As you can see, I wasn't exactly wealthy back then but my electric usage was minimal.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1128&pid=1785

Here's a link to my budget from earlier this year. Despite the passage in years and increases in electric rates, my costs didn't go up and I attribute that to switching to LED lights.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/11284277

[Act_of_Reparation]

62. You certainly know a lot about history.

[brush]

41. Exactly. This is a somewhat naive and silly post that can be argued ineffectively about any...

generation just as you point out. Fossil fuel use was in full flower before Boomers were born and Boomers certainly didn't invent plastic that's clogging up the oceans. And where are the demonstrations by Millennials and GenZers against trump and the cowardly repugs going along with Russians to help trump steal the election? And while were at it, why aren't they in the streets about the monthly-occurring mass shootings (beginning when older Millennials were in school) enabled by the NRA?

I left out the GenXers as their youth/prime activism time passed quitely and uneventfully.

[Blue_true]

48. Today's youth are more likely than boomers to live in cities and take mass transit.

They are also less likely to smoke.

[lordsummerisle]

53. Well it's good the animals aren't alive while they're being eaten n/t

[virgogal]

2. I am not a Boomer but the headline to this article is so

ridiculous I couldn’t continue reading.

[whathehell]

27. Thanks, I agree.

In truth, most people don't hate their grandparents.

[Newest Reality]

3. Well, then...

No, no, and no! That would be their delusion, then. That article is way off point and just continues a false narrative. It is the failure to see through the veil and deal directly with the Military Industrial State and its Oligarchical Elite that are now very close to finalizing full ownership of all land, resources, capital and means.

It is more likely that those grandchildren will be living in a corporately controlled, Feudal Serfdom that was and is being fashioned for them by our National Oligarchy. How many of us has totally agreed to things going the way they have and were not just responding to the way the system was working us?

By that time, there will be nothing that they own and their only concerns might be the social credits that the technocrats have put into place. They will be lucky if they have survived the decimation of large parts of the population by then and able to spend all of their time serving Feudal Lords an their families who not only own everything in the World, but have erected safe enclaves of luxury for themselves.

Though most everything will be AI and automated, those grandchildren will fill in any gaps that robotics cannot provide and they will be chattels of the wealthy in a new form of unbreakable slavery for as long as what is left of culture survives.

I am sorry, that article is pure mythology and is typical of playing false dichotomies with the people. This one is pitting generations against each other in order to divert attention from the truth. I don't buy into that anymore. They make it sound like Boomers were plotting something and that the massive transfer of wealth, (and welfare and exclusive welfare to corporations) to a small number of people is their fault in ways other than being totally bamboozled and failing to see the truth of it.

So, the only fault I can say really contributes to what those generations will get is the ongoing ignorance that prevails.

[Triloon]

9. thanks, saved me the trouble of writing the same response.

The article is garbage, right from the first sentence. "For decades, Americans could remember previous generations with reverence." HA! The author never heard of the Generation Gap I guess.
And the scientists that have produced all we know about climate change? Boomers.
I could go on and on.. It's outrageous. And I know I'm too easy to outrage. Hell, I've been outraged for over 50 years, just like most of the boomers I know.

[Newest Reality]

15. Cool!

Well, thanks for adding some points to it.

I bet we both could go on about it, it seems. In fact, one could even write a book to refute that nonsense in the article.

[DBoon]

18. Boomers created the modern environmental movement in the 60s and 70s

nt

[PufPuf23]

35. Yeah what Newest Reality said Thanks. nt

[Act_of_Reparation]

63. The world as it exists...

... exists by the tacit consent of those most able to change it.

If the world is a shitty corporatist kleptocracy, it because the people with most political capital (i.e. the Boomers) allow it to be a shitty corportatist kleptocracy. And if the X-ers, and my generation after them, continue the tradition, it will be on us as well.

That's how culpability works.

[LisaM]

4. Generational bashing is wrong. It's the greedy people in any generation and unfettered capitalism

that's to blame (I'm not against capitalism per se, but I believe in strong regulation).

The writer must have missed the long and informative article in the New York Times Magazine a number of months ago, discussing how Anne Gorsuch (yes, Neil's mother) and the Reagan administration dropped the ball on climate change legislation - and did it deliberately. And they were not Boomers.

Baby Boomers like Al Gore and John Kerry were determined to fix it - but were mocked for lacking charisma and not running good campaigns - even the Green party, or so-called Green Party, I should say, because they ran a candidate against Al Gore, about the greenest candidate ever - got on board with the mantra that there was no difference between Bush and Gore. Al Gore would have been tremendous at combating climate change. Al Gore, the Boomer.

Of course there are people from pre-milliennial generations who contributed to climate change - and there are still people who do, the rideshare generation whose cars are creating huge traffic jams in cities like San Francisco, the single-serving coffee people who need a new pod for every cup of coffee - the people who spend all day charging their devices but somehow don't think that electricity could come from coal-burning plants, the people who use Amazon Prime on a daily basis - I could go on, but what I'm really trying to say is that we are all in this together and always have been. So let's not make it about generations, let's make it about consumerism, and the forces of market capitalism, and the propping up of oil states at the expense of alternative forms of energy that's been going on since the 1950s. Quit the circular firing squad. I am a (late) boomer. I ride the bus. I make my own coffee at work in our espresso machine so I won't use cups at Starbucks. I walk to the grocery store. I cannot remember the last time I took a trip in the car by myself - when I do go in the car, it's always as a carpool. We are in a too-small apartment because density is supposedly good for the environment. I don't have kids, so luckily no one can train my grandchildren to hate me, but articles like this stick in my craw.

https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-millennials-climate-change-generations-2017-7

[Hortensis]

5. Mine know who I am and, since they're neither mean nor stupid,

aren't going to be hating me.

Big NO to fake equivalences of good, responsible citizens with those who brought us to this. Those absolutely include feckless nonvoters, of course.

But I expect my grandchildren to be educated and to also understand other big factors, including runaway change from new technology, massive social anxiety, the explosive growth of productivity, and with it new classes so unimaginably wealthy that democracy is both an insult and continual problem for them.

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." Nancy Pelosi quoting Justice Louis Brandeis to the nation at the opening of the 116th congress.

[maxsolomon]

43. Young people know that the chance to stop ACC has largely passed.

And it was the short-sightedness of those who put Republicans in power instead who bear responsibility.

It's not you specifically, or your specific grandchildren.

[Hortensis]

46. That's not the message of the OP. It's a grave insult

to all to come, you know, not just all of us now. We need higher standards and expectations, and that can start with realizing there are always a lot of decent, responsible, and intelligent people. Going low is not the only option.

[sheshe2]

51. This.

[Skidmore]

6. Quite a tantrum

young Stromberg threw there.

[Guilded Lilly]

7. Pfffft. (The above posters stated well how I view this WAPO article)

[hunter]

8. I'm a far left Democrat and radical environmentalist so maybe not...

... unless everything turns to fascist shit and they have to disavow me before they run.

My own ancestors didn't come to the U.S.A. for the opportunity, they came here because their European homelands were becoming shit holes of intolerance and authoritarianism and they really didn't want to die.

If our grandchildren know how to build a sonic screwdriver or a light saber from scratch, and they are always kind, they will be fine.

Every one of us, all our ancestors survived long enough to reproduce, going all the way back to the beginning of life and earth. What are the odds? Love them or hate them, it is what it is. You take the reality you inherit and make the best of it you can.

[Celerity]

10. I expect this OP to be lit up due to so many Boomers around these parts, but the Boomer legacy

has a fairly decent shot at being a poor one. I never prejudge people at all, but as a collective whole there will more than likely be a historical reckoning. Especially for the RW ones.

No offence meant to any individual person here.

[LanternWaste]

12. Your indictment applies equally to all generations.

As progress happens, the potential to exploit it at the cost of stewardship merely increases. Hence, all things being equal, each generation will increase the exploitation. There is no objective reason (only faith) to believe that will stop.

[Celerity]

16. the generations who are coming after the boomers (especially the ones not in the US)

are much more environmentally aware and more tolerant on a social level overall, with the exception of the RW and the white nationalist ones, who are happily fewer in number in many, if not most Western nations.

[The_jackalope]

13. I don't hate my grandparents

I don't hate my grandparents for setting the world on its self-destructive path of consumerism and fossil fuel use before and after WWII. That path was set in stone long before we boomers came on the scene. We could no more stop participating in our society on its terms than could anyone else in history. As others have said, boomer-bashing is an utterly reprehensible false narrative. But hey, so long as someone else can be blamed, we can sleep a little more soundly.

I'm 68 years old, and I feel angry, fearful and helpless in the face of onrushing climate change and the crumbling of civilization. Thank god I don't have any children or grandchildren who will be cast into the maelstrom.

[virgogal]

24. I'm a generation before you and have a much more hopeful attitude towards the future.

Civilization is not crumbling and we will cope/adapt to climate change.

[The_jackalope]

25. Good luck! nt

[Thyla]

14. By this reasoning our Grandchildren will hate us too...

[CrispyQ]

17. More divide & conquer BS, while the 1% siphon off our treasury & raid our future. -nt

[ooky]

20. Think I might leave my grandkids a letter.

Don't blame me. I was one of the Democrats.

[GeorgeGist]

21. They might also hate their parents ...

and their friends for not bothering to vote.

BTW 45% of Boomers voted for Hillary.

[maxsolomon]

31. So, 55% voted for Asshole?

Not a compelling stat.

[Act_of_Reparation]

64. Yes, X-ers, Millennials, and Gen Y didn't show up to save you from yourself.

Clearly they are the villains here.

[sinkingfeeling]

22. So, fossil fuels and clean cutting forests have only been

happening since 1945. Who knew? And paying into SS and Medicare (since its beginning) is 'fleecing the Treasury"?

P.S. The first Earth Day was in 1970. The Boomers were in their 20s and 30s.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

23. As a GenX, you know the generation everyone keeps forgetting..

, we, as a whole also carry some of the blame.

We kinda created the monster known as trump.
And my generation was warned about global warming. We didn't know all the ends and outs at the time, but we got warned and didn't do much about it.
We thought the world powers was going to blow the whole place up so didn't really listen.

[maxsolomon]

33. GenX doesn't have power to effect change.

How many coal plants do GenXers own?

It's Boomers and the generation before them that do. The Rex Tillerson and Koch generations.

[randr]

37. Sorry, but Rex and the Kochs are not boomers

They are the generation we boomers have been fighting all our lives. We are getting a bit tired and need some help. Know were we can find any?

[maxsolomon]

44. "and the generation before them"

every generation has its rich assholes.

mine has Bezos.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

38. Still, we were the ones with first warnings.

And there are some in my generation, like myself, that do feel guilty for not paying attention.

[lunatica]

26. All generations pretty much despise all previous generations.

And each generation believes they invented sex.

[TheRealNorth]

28. It's not a good idea to paint with such a broad brush

But if I were to pick the "greed generation" it would cross across the latter half of the Boomers and Gen X.

[maxsolomon]

45. so you'll do it anyway, then.

LOL

[Cartoonist]

29. Proud to be a boomer

We were just kids, but we sounded the warning on the environment long ago. We also ended the Vietnam war and drove Nixon from office. We had fantastic music thanks to the Beatles who changed the world.

[scarytomcat]

32. I agree ... We have dropped the ball.

Getting sent to a useless war didn't help. Or had war declared on them for smoking pot.

[DBoon]

34. "if your children figured out how lame you really are, they'd murder you in your sleep"

-- Frank Zappa

Born 1940, referring to a prior generation

[randr]

36. They are giving their coddling genx parents a pass

Must still be tied to the tit.

[emmaverybo]

39. It is the baby boomer generation that brought us the environmental movement on a wide scale.

Also, the women’s movement, anti-war movement, gay rights movement; died in vast numbers in the Vietnam war; joined in the civil rights movement, worker’s rights movement, veterans’ rights, and anti-nuclear proliferation movement.

[Blue_true]

47. I am a middle-late babyboomer.

I am ashamed of my generation. They have enabled everything bad that has happened to us (Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, Trump). The 60s protest movement was largely a way to get laid, it did not change America or the world.

[customerserviceguy]

50. Uh, the Baby Boomers who supposedly "fleeced"

the Social Security System were the ones who saw their payroll taxes raised dramatically after the early 1980's tax reform that cut benefits in the process.

This screed sounds like a call for generational warfare. Trump's job is to divide and conquer, why is the Washington Post involved in this nefarious business?

[Mariana]

54. You may not be aware of this

but younger people have had to pay those higher payroll taxes, too. Most of them have paid the
"dramatically" raised rate from the very first day they started work, and most likely will pay it their entire working life.

[customerserviceguy]

56. Yes, yes they will

And I would imagine that the tax rates will go up if we actually get to a fix that prevents the trust funds from going insolvent in 2035 or whatever.

We saved it the last time, somebody else is gonna have to save it this time. Or, you can just let us get by on two-thirds of a Social Security check until we die, as punishment for being a part of such a large cohort. Our size saved the system, too. If you didn't have to share a bedroom with more than one sibling, thank your baby-boomer parents for having the ability and willingness to use birth control, while you damn their generation for not having enough kids to help shoulder the burden of coming FICA tax increases.

I'll admit, I didn't pay it for my whole working life, just when I actually started to make some decent money, that's all. Odd jobs in college really didn't collect that much from me, and the low paying jobs I had until after the 1980-81 recession was over didn't have me contributing terribly much, either. Oh, and we had a hell of a time trying to find good paying work for the first ten years we were out of school, too.

[Mariana]

60. Then, please don't talk like only Boomers had to pay the higher tax.

The Baby Boomers ... were the ones who saw their payroll taxes raised dramatically after the early 1980's tax reform that cut benefits in the process.

The reality is that the tax was raised on everyone, and that younger people have paid proportionally more of their income into the system than you did.

[customerserviceguy]

61. True

but we've been paying it for thirty years plus. And your generation will be paying more, that's the thing with a hand-to-mouth system. From the beginning of Social Security to that early 80's tax reform, politicians gave away benefits for votes.

I just bristle when I read about how the baby boomers are "fleecing" the system. I should have been more accurate, thanks for the correction.

[dawg day]

52. "The Greatest Generation..." NOT remembered with reverence universally-

Many of us remember rather the parents who went through a depression and a world war and were shaped by the traumas... and also had us children early before they matured. Parenting then was expected to be more "strict" (read: brutal) and punishment could be very physical. In fact, many of the punishments the "GG" parents inflicted on us would be considered child abuse now.

If your boomer parents or grandparents whipped you with an electric cord, or drowned your baby kitten in front of you because it cried too much, well, probably you would think of that as abuse. We thought of it as "What Dad Is Allowed to Do to Us."

And if you want to go back to a world where there was a draft for all young men, where women were barred legally from many professions, where universities could refuse to admit people of color and women, where abortion was illegal and marital rape was legal, where there were "colored" restrooms and water fountains, where there was no environmental movement, well, yeah, keep hating on the boomers, because they helped to change all that.

There are now THREE generations after the Boomers. Once they stop blaming others, maybe they can take over and make great things happen. I'm rooting for you!

[pansypoo53219]

55. they never experienced normal weather. ever.

[NickB79]

59. When you're running on pure rage, facts won't matter

All the posts here about all the good things older generations have done for the environment mean shit. You don't get the point.

When the planet's ecosystems are crumbling and global civilization is collapsing (and it will be by century's end), the anger in the young will trump any logical debate. Societies want scapegoats, and we will be it, regardless of our enviro cred. You driving a Tesla today won't mean jack to a guy born into a world of mass extinction, mass starvation and perpetual economic depression.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it gets bad enough in some areas that the old are treated the same way the Jews were treated in 1930's Europe: pogroms and "Night of Broken Glass" purges.

If this doesn't seem possible to you, you don't comprehend how bad climate change will be at current rates.