"boomer" thread

[Maireas]

You've hidden this evening's offensive, ageist thread, stereotyping "boomers". Will this be deleted? Can we have a robust response to ageism on MN?

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet

What a disappointment. This is @MNHQ response to ageism? 'Netflix and Avocados'.

Is it just this protected characteristic that that can be subject to free range prejudice or are the rest fair game now too?

Tbh the people I hear using the lazy boomer negative wouldn't have done the fraction of analysis or thinking that you have @WarOnTheSlugs .They probably wouldn't even recognise the detail.

So I don't think you can explain it away. It's a LAZY stereotype.

I don't mind Boomer as a description of age range but it is becoming a negative description. But in fairness it's hot on the heels of the negative use of Millennials as a judgmental description.

They had it first. All stereotypes are shit.

Hi Becky, I reported this post two days ago:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4881543-aibu-elderly-parents-do-not-care-about-their-impact-on-the-environment?reply=128732437

And was told it was being looked at. Since its still there, it presumably doesn't breach the guidelines. I'm struggling to see how that post is consistent with "Of course, downright ageism/misogyny (as the two often go hand in hand) isn’t welcome and we’ll remove such posts when reported".

There is no other content to that post to give the casual ageism a "context".

Actually I have heard the use of 'Millennial' negatively by younger people - some of the Millennials now have teenagers of their own. Their turn is next.

Spot on. Its the same kind of woolly thinking and lack of class analysis which plagues later waves of feminism and apparently results in posters expending their time on thousands of words of posts defending generalisms instead of the class analysis which can actually make a difference.

So long as people insist on policy by generalisation nothing changes - perfect politics for middle class liberals who are doing quite nicely out of the status quo!

Boomers - as a cohort - have been exceptionally greedy and selfish

Yeah. All those Boomers who lost their livelihoods under Thatcher when she decimated manufacturing and mining. Saw their communities ruined forever. Greedy selfish bastards.

All the Boomers who campaigned against nuclear weapons, campaigned against homophobia, racism and sexism. Campaigned to end the right of a husband to rape his wife, etc. etc. Bastards.

(perhaps we shouldn't have bothered and concentrated on feathering our nests instead...)

@C8H10N4O2 I also reported that thread, and was told (two days ago) that it was 'being looked at'.

I reported the other thread, the 'old man in a swimming pool' one, where a poster talked about old people 'playing the age card'. I hadn't even had an acknowledgment of my report so I reported it again. Again, no reply from MNHQ, and it is still there.

So, @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet my only conclusion is that ageism is now OK on Mumsnet, and no longer against talk guidelines.

Apropos of nothing I detest the 'Karen' slur.

It's seems it can be hurled at any woman of a certain age who stands up for herself or is assertive. It's a way of shutting older women up.

That's not what the original meaning was.

I won't let my kids use it, but sadly it's widespread.

I have been on MN for quite a few years now and enjoyed the varied and interesting discussion and often helpful advice. I am now seriously considering coming off it because each time I start to read a thread I find that a section of society that I happen to fall into is responsible for all the evils of the world .

I am a single mum (DP died), have a disabled child, am over 55, cannot work due to being a full time carer and I private rent. The irony is that I benefited from free university education, I had a professional career but hey, guess what, life happened.

I think that social media has turned a lot of people into nasty keyboard warriors who make sweeping generalisations and are not prepared to listen to anyone else's point of view. This has been exacerbated by identity politics and the inability to understand that just because you might share one particular view with someone it doesn't mean that you agree with all that they stand for.

I would be sad to leave MN as there are some very interesting and informative women on here but sometimes I think I would feel a lot happier if I did.

I also got a Blue Peter Badge in the 80s, so I guess we’re roughly the same age. In the same “cohort”.

I have VERY actively campaigned on at least 70% of those issues.

But, know what? They didn’t actually all just jump into my head fully formed. I was inspired by some amazing activists, writers and orators of the generation before me. The Baby Boomer generation.

And, more importantly, do you know why I was able to campaign on those issues? Because the generation before had already tackled some of the other big issues!

I can’t really imagine putting my heart and soul into housing policy, while ignoring the threat of imminent nuclear annihilation. Can you? And I can well believe that criminalising marital rape and domestic violence felt more pressing at the time than dealing with social care.

btw, i just reported it off the back of your link (after hiding that thread the other day because it was just too much)

the post has gone now

Excellent points, @feellikeanalien , and it would be a shame if you left MN because you feel that you fit into a targetted demographic. You can't help when you were born.

"Time to give up driving and downsize either way and let younger people have some opportunities"

From the "when are you old" thread. For this delightful poster, the above is when you are 60.

It would only be the equivalent of NAMALT if the overwhelming majority of that generation were very wealthy whilst no or nearly no younger generations had wealth. That isn't the case - a significant proportion of boomers don't own property after 40-50 years of work, a significant proportion of millennials and younger are on the property ladder.

The demographic most likely to be living in poverty is older single women, who were routinely denied higher education, paid less for the same work as men and excluded from workplace pension schemes. Most of the "wealth" of the boomer generation resides in property, which will either be used to fund care in old age (this is already the case) or passed down to those "avocado eating" millennials.

Winter fuel allowance is flat rate and universal which means it reaches nearly everyone in the target groups. The cost of means testing smaller flat rate benefits often outweighs the money saved. This was also true of means testing child benefit which was entirely ideological and made it harder to reach those really in need.

Class analysis is the only way to address this and most issues raised on these threads. Certainly rafts of cut'n'paste and made up facts which appear on these threads won't change anything because the crass generalisations just mask the issues in each group and lead to soundbite policy instead of targeted policy.

Interesting - at the time of posting the now deleted post was still up (I went to it for the link!).

Exactly this !
Where I work we now have flexible working ,enhanced maternity pay and leave which is beyond anything I could have dreamed off .
I have had to work my socks off ,battle with sexism and juggle working full time with (unplanned )single motherhood .
Sad that my opinions are now considered irrelevant just because I happen to be 56.

Thank you for verbalising what I tried to say on the thread about the WFA.
I am a very early baby boomer who worked full time as a single parent from the 1970s onwards.
I have a small annuity from a private pension (no defined benefit pension for me) which keeps my head above water (gross income before tax £16K.
I can expect much of my 'wealth' (mostly my house value) to go on care provision.

@C8H10N4O2 and @lenalemonade
excellent points, the struggle that many women had, and continue to have is often overlooked.

@WarOnTheSlugs

The Boomer Generation or more correctly Baby Boomer Generation covers those born after the Second World War 1946-1964.

If you did campaign to redesign the public systems we have like pensions and healthcare to make them sustainably funded, back when it could have been done 30+ years ago,

30 years ago was 1993 meaning someone eligible to vote would have to have been born in 1975, 40 years ago was 1983 meaning someone eligible to vote would have to have been born in 1965 - both dates outside the Baby Boomer Generation.

Someone born in the 1950's would be part of the Baby Boomer Generation and would have commenced working in the 1970's - you clearly have zero idea of what life was like then.

But not every Boomer generation person campaigned for those things did they? Saying we should be grateful because of improvements people made for themselves which carried through to the current day is madness. Are you grateful to the Americans because they invented the lightbulb?

Fighting against sexism doesn't have to mean marching and demonstrating - it was an everyday battle. Just standing up for oneself contributed to changing attitudes. Maybe some of my generation thought the status quo was OK, I worked with a few that did, but clearly the majority didn't or things would still be the same.

But every generation does that don’t they? I’m a millennial and my generation seems to be leading the charge with climate change and awareness of neurodiversity. I don’t think that means subsequent generations are never entitled to criticise us, or discuss pensions. I don’t expect profuse thanks either. It’s the cycle of life, I hope the world is a better place for my kids and grandkids than it was for me. Planting trees you’ll never sit under and all that.

Not all young people are poor either, are they?