"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?

I didn’t see the original thread. Is the issue here that some people are purely going on their own experiences with the boomer generation, but also turning that into a massive generalisation and failing to acknowledge the good things the boomer generation have done or that not every one acts in the same way?

My mum is from the boomer generation, my dad paid for everything, including the house and her Masters. She didn’t have to work when we were little. She doesn’t appreciate any of it and we also generally have different views that I would describe as generational, such as her thinking that little kids should give up their seat adults ‘to show respect’. She also certainly didn’t fight against anything such as homophobia. I’ve also had experiences with people from the boomer generation feeling very entitled, being very rude, belittling young adults in work, and continuing to be very racist and homophobic.

HOWEVER, I also know that not all the boomer generation are like that, many of them are lovely people who have done a lot for our country and worked hard, so I don’t use some of my personal experiences to make huge ageist generalisations.

Here's an interesting and thoughtful Guardian article about David Willetts' book (the speaker that @5pot6pot7potmore was hoping to use as his/her Gotcha)

He makes some very valid points about generational differences, social change, social mobility, etc.

I have a feeling that @5pot6pot7potmore might have fallen for the clickbait title about "boomers robbing future generations" rather than actually listened to what he had to say, very little of which isn't widely known by anyone interested in basic social change.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/07/the-pinch-david-willetts

I think that's the point, @MariaVT65 .
You don't generalise. We know that not all young people are selfish, thoughtless, entitled. You get amazing people and selfish ones, in every generation.

gosh this is spot on. Maybe we should say all this every time it crops up in a thread?
My mum's generation couldn't even get a blooming Mortgage in their own name even if they out-earned their husband (my mum specifically there)

I think a lot of the ageist attitudes are born out of decades of ageist attitudes born by baby boomers at millennials (and most recently gen x).

If you just stopped buying avocados you too could buy a home in London. I did. I just worked really hard and was frugal and if you just weren’t so feeble minded frittering your money away on take away coffee you too could buy my house which was £70000 in 1985 and is now 5 million.

Oh it’s such a shame you are working and putting your kids in nursery at that age! In my days we would not have done that. These young ones wanting to have it all. At the detriment of the pooor children.

Specific my mum example: I have a much ‘better’ job than her working insane hours. She tells me how horrible her (teaching) pension is that and she only has £2000 after taxes etc. Her enormous five bedroom house is fully paid off. So this money (along with my fathers higher pension) is covering bills and petrol and is otherwise purely fun money. Feels she never has any money. I pointed out that I have significantly less than that after tax, NI, student loan and childcare and still have to pay for bills my MORTGAGE (which is nearly £800) and food and everything else for whole household.

And yes environmental concerns. Mum constantly makes comments about how she’s glad the temperatures are rising a bit as she doesn’t like cold weather and similar gems.

@MariaVT65"She also certainly didn’t fight against anything such as homophobia. I’ve also had experiences with people from the boomer generation feeling very entitled, being very rude, belittling young adults in work, and continuing to be very racist and homophobic."

You mean you don't know any racist or homophobic young people? Lucky you!

You're talking about an individual. The point is that it was the boomer generation who started the campaign against homophobia and racism. Who fought for legislation to combat it. Who set up places of safety for women who were victims of domestic violence. I could go on. The fact that your mother did none of these things does not make it any less true.

I was asked to fill in tax return in my OH's name as Inland Revenue would not accept the form I filled in as a married woman. It was quite amusing really as he was a student and I was earning!

This mainly describes middle class life. Its not about age (most boomers and gen x in MC jobs could describe being told to "stop buying" or "stay at home with the babies" by their elders).

Working class women have always worked before, during and after children.

So your Mum is your problem. Not every person the same age as your mother.

Your Mum's attitudes are abhorrent.

Thankfully mine had different attitudes. As I'm sure many others did/do.

Your anecdote is just that. Fairly irrelevant when used to try and prove a point about an entire generation.

Married in 1980, and I wrote to the Inland Revenue (as was then) that we didn't want to apply for the Married Man's Allowance. DH got a letter back from the IR thanking him for his wife's letter. Wihout much loss of time IR got a letter - from me - telling them I earn it, I pay tax on it, you write to ME about it.

Irritating as all the 'yeah but boomers really are toxic and here's why they deserve all the insults' are, they're illustrating our point perfectly.

Jesus Christ did you even read my whole post? I’ve clearly said that I know not everyone from the boomer generation is like that and the problem is making generalisations based on personal experience.

Nowhere did I say I have never known young people to be racist. You’re literally making stuff up now.

i reported a post for ageism and - MNHQ said they'll look at it and if i feel up to it to comment in the thread

we have to tackle it ourselves? FFS

@OneNameTwoNameThreeName that is your Mum. I'm not like that and none of my friends my age are like that. Your Mum makes assumptions about younger people but I don't. The point is you can't generalise.

Victim blaming innit.

You can be sure you'll be deleted if you do try and tackle it.

I've opened 2 threads just now. Brexit, and a pensions one.

Guess what sort of post is derailing both?

Sorry about your mum.

But laying all her opinions on everyone else in her generation is ageism.

@OneNameTwoNameThreeName Your mum would be stupid and insensitive and a Daily Mail reader whatever age she was.

tbh, i was born right at the end of the baby boom but i am culturally and in terms of lived experience Gen X so that is what i say i am.

I wonder if the Greenham Camp (I only spent the odd day there) would happen now? (I guess a near-ish equivalent are the Just Stop Oil or Last Generation folk?

My elderly widowed mum lives in the house my parents bought after i left home (military family, not much opportunity before then) and has an ok pension (from my dad) and so on. The idea that people are being nasty to her because she had some kind of "charmed" life makes me feel quite protective of her.

The Greenham Camp women were amazing.

I've had the same.

I wonder if reports of other types of prejudice get this type of response too.

In my experience not.

tbh i have been shocked at the reports of racism on here. I am worried I'm not seeing it in the way people don't see the ageism and will try to be better. Or maybe i don't hang out on threads where it happens.

Do people reporting those get told to handle it themselves too? blimey that would be shocking.

That's interesting given the prompt acknowledgement and removal of the ageist post that I had when I reported this morning.

I wonder whether it depends on which moderator receives the report?

I'd be pretty disgusted if MNHQ agreed with me that a post breached the guidelines but I was told to challenge it myself.

I've got the same.
Does that mean we've got carte blanche to challenge robustly? Only last time I did that (older man= paedophile) I was the one deleted.

But if policy has changed since Saturday then I'll lick my pencil and roll my sleeves up.

I've got 2 "we're taking a look" from the same HQer and 1 "maybe you could do it" from a different one.