Pitchforks and Torches Angry

Most of what I post about babyboomers and Millennials is a lousy attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor. Occasionally though I am sincerely outraged (Sorry I missed this when it was originally published. Although this article will be relevant for eternity and I highly rec'd it being read in its entirety).

The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice.

Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.

I take little issue with what James Quinn articulated. In fact the only thing I have issue with is him giving too much credit to the "Greatest Generation". The name itself was given to them by the phony intellectual, Tom Brokaw, as they were once referred to as the "G.I. Generation".........The G.I. Gen has very willingly taken government handouts and we know they sure did a really lousy job of parenting.

Anyway, back to the boomers: presently they control nearly everything - -Congress, CEO positions, the media, et cetera - - without conscience they're setting themselves up to live their final wretched decades in comfort and leave us GenXsters and Millennials (yes, we're in it together) to mop up after their final cocktail party. I've always believed Gen X will be forever known as the ones who sacrificed for the future of Our Country, it's just infuriating to know that the silver-haired boomer driving the new Corvette in front of me today will never have lived up to his responsibility as an American citizen by leaving the country better than what he was born into.

Is there any PAC (or something like it) that is for the protection of Gen X and younger generations? Seriously, if you know of one please let me know. It would be nice if some group is out there to tell those in power "FUCK YOU, YOU'RE NOT STICKING ME WITH THE TAB". If there isn't such an organization I really need to look into what's involved in starting one. In the meantime if you have a Gen X themed blog please get this month old article out there.

I don't exactly feel threatened from this member of teh stoopid

Wow. This Millennial has yet to be chewed up by the grinding gears of corporate America. It's so cute to hear how positive she sounds when speaking of what a go-getta she is. And to think she didn't use "OMG" anywhere in the article!

We all have stories about a loss of our identity to a Gen X'er. Whether they squashed our ideas, sabotaged our projects, or just simply bad-mouthed us for no apparent reason, they can always find something to deter us from success. This is not true of all Gen X'ers, just like not all of us are lazy, spoiled brats. Not all Gen X'ers feel threatened by us; there's getting to be less & less every day. However our motivation and tech knowledge seem to make many of them squirm. We are their replacements; we are a threat to their job.

Gen X in Pennsylvania Ave and other assorted nonsense

On most days when I use 'the Googles' to find Gen X info I read both babyboomers and GenXsters attempting to claim President Elect Obama as one of their own. This is understandable since Gen X doesn't have much to claim as our own and the boomers will find a way to justify extending their 'legacy' even if the next preznit was born in 1985. Whatever, I suppose this will have to wait to be decided after the last GenXster draws a final breath and the future generations reassemble the history books.

So, here I present to you one person's opinion (keep in mind that "fair and balanced" does not exist in Latchkey Land):

It's truly great to see President-elect, Barack Obama, showing his technology savvy. If anyone is still in doubt, the November 2008 election was a triumph for Generation X. The effective use of technology to "get out the vote" and "energize the base" was critical to the Democratic party's win.

In unrelated nonsense:

I give the Millennial generation a lot of shit, but here's one dude that deserves the Medal of Freedom. If I was the judge in this case I'd throw out the charges against the 24 year old and lock up the other 2 for trying to incite a riot by intentionally botching a Dio song.

In my fucked up town if your brother loses one of your hats it's okay to stab him to death. Please folks, if you're considering moving to FL I'm hear to tell you that it may not be your speed. Just come down and spend your money at the beaches and Disney and don't fuck with the locals. Oh, and if you do vacation here please, please, please DO NOT be on the roads before 9:00 AM and between 5:00 and 7:00 PM. Traffic is horrible in FL cities and nothing makes me want to reach for my revolver more than when a tourist with a map on the steering wheel is contributing to my tardiness getting to work or going home.

Bring back teh evil

The January edition of Revolver has a story titled Death Metal: The Ultimate Extreme Oral History that I would have linked to had their home page not suck so badly. Proudly I'll say this Metal movement originated in central Florida during the 1980's spearheaded by the bands Morbid Angel, Obituary, Death, and Deicide. Being in a tourist state everything is overly homogenized and pasteurized to appeal to snowbirds and lame families that think Disney is really where it's at.

It wears on the cognizant locals and ya just want to burn all overly-commercialized shit down......enter the angry GenXsters from Tampa and Orlando: Death Metal filled a canyon sized void in hard music at the time. Hair Metal owned the airwaves for most of the 80's, Metallica torched their head-banging fans by giving us ballads and Seattle bands made guitarists ashamed for knowing scales. These Floridians couldn't be bothered with what was popular, they just wanted to bust ear drums and shred.


When these dudes wear pentagrams you get the sense they mean it.

Prick Alert!

A front page contributer from The Daily Kos just couldn't resist pointing out how relevant the babyboomers still are:

Based on the complaints of those pre-election Diarists, something is missing from all the critiquing.

Look at those Cabinet appointees:

Thomas Daschle, born in '47. Eric Holder, born in '51. Janet Napolitano, born in '57. And, possibly Hillary Clinton, born in '47.

Baby Boomers. Every one. Surely this will not be allowed to stand.

Listen, we knew you assholes weren't going to go away after this election cycle, but we still hold out hope that some day you assholes will just shut the fuck up. Now go play shuffleboard like an obedient elderly goon.

We so sexy

Congrats.....I suppose....to 40 year old Hugh Jackman for being People Mag's Sexiest Dude Alive. Let's hope this is the last time a GenXster will ever obtain this lame title because somewhere there's a Millennial Hollywood actor saying today that he "got screwed".

Yeah, we suck too.....

What ever happened to the class of '93?

So rebellious back in the day, Chicago's so-called 'alternative' rockers have gone on to indulge in the nostalgia they once defied.

H/T: JenX67

They're as bad as their parents

Saw this one coming- the Millenials are beginning to point their text messaging fingers letting us know how much more of teh awesome they are when juxtaposed w/Gen X.

The increasing youth vote has more to do with the replacement of the older Gen-X or "slacker" generation with the younger Millennial Generation, a post baby-boom cohort that now holds the political reins of the youth voting bloc.

At the 16th Annual California Policy Issues Conference in Los Angeles last week, Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, youth voting initiative that started 18 years ago in Los Angeles, said today's 18-24-year-olds - unlike the Generation X that preceded them - are very motivated to vote. "For the Gen X-ers, politics was so uncool," began Smith. "Now, everyone is talking about politics with friends and family."

This year marked the highest youth vote turnout since 1972, when a record number of young people went to the polls motivated by the Vietnam War and the draft.

I'm not going to falsely claim we were the most politically active generation, because we weren't. Yet to compare the actual voting #'s between generations is a false argument. You see Gen X is a teeny-tiny segment of the population smacked between the 2 largest generations in our country's history (babyboomers and millenials). Even if 75% of GenX voted in 1992 we couldn't have matched the voting #'s of this past year's 20 somethings.

Proven in mosh pits...

This is the greatest motorcycle helmet to have evvahhh been designed. Who cares if this even protects your noggin? When the ambulance shows up to scrape you off of the pavement how incredibly sweet would it be for them to find you wearing this? Now that's a way to check out. Fuck that dropping dead in your sleep shit.

Also comes in different flavors: Motorhead, Slayer, Kiss, Slipnot. Damn, I don't know which one I'll choose.

T.S.O.L. - Code Blue

..trying to come up with the most offensive song I know. I think I found it. (lyrics below)

I never got along with the girls at my school

Filling me up with all their morals and their rules

They'd pile all their problems on my head

I'd rather go out and fuck the dead

Cause I can do what I want and they won't complain

I wanna fuck I wanna fuck the dead

Middle of the night so silently

I creep on over to the mortuary

Lift up the casket and fiddle with the dead

Their cold blue flesh makes me turn red'

Cause I can do what I want and they won't complain

I wanna fuck I wanna fuck the dead

And I don't even care how she died...

But I like it better if she smells of formaldehyde!

Never on the rag or say leave me alone

They don't scream and they don't moan

Don't even cry if I shoot in their hair

Lying on the table she smiles and she stares

Veterans Day 2008

I was a lucky GenXster. Although my parents are boomers, they aren't dirty hippies as I like to intentionally generalize their generation as being. Above is a pic I scanned of my Dad's platoon in the 101st Airborne Division. After high school he volunteered (wasn't drafted) to serve as an infantryman in The Army. He spent 1966 in Vietnam and saw mucho combat.

As a kid I used to constantly get into my father's belongings. I put on his uniform, played with items he took from Vietnam, and always whizzed thru the pictures he had taken in southeast Asia. Oddly, somehow I just knew (he never had to tell me) there were 2 items that were off limits for my grubby, little hands to touch: his Jump Wings and his Combat Infantryman Badge.


(please read Army of Dude's post)

This Xster does not represent me

The Chicago Sun Times picked up this crap from Salon. Let us take it apart bit by bit.

Dear boomers: We're sorry for rolling our eyes at you all these years. We apologize for scoffing at your earnestness, your lack of self-deprecation, your tendency to take yourselves a little too seriously. We can go ahead and admit now that we grew tired of hearing about the '60s and the peace movement, as if you had to live through those times to understand anything at all.

Sorry? Is you nutz? We didn't roll our eyes at their 'peace movement' (aka: please God don't let them draft my ass into war), we continue to "scoff" at them for being sellout weenies for trading in their youthful beliefs when they were first able to pad their wallets and purses.

As our parents, you told us to tell you anything, to be honest, to come to you with our problems, but when we did, you were uncomfortable and dismissive. You didn't really want to know how we felt.

What generation is she from? A good portion of us GenXsters are from broken homes or had both parents working. I don't recall my folks having time to recognize when I had problems (I will never blame them for this. They both had to work hard to provide for my family). We are generally independent and didn't seek nor want advice from the parentals.

We doubted even the most heartfelt, genuine statements. We didn't want to be blind to our own faults, like you were, so we paraded our faults around, exalted in our shortcomings. The worst thing, to us, was to not see ourselves clearly. The worst thing was to not be in on the joke.

How is this a negative? We knew boomers were bloviating do-nothings, so we became realists and knew they were all bullshit.

WEK THEORY: the boomers knew they were unable to live up to the standards set by the previous 2 generations (G.I. and Silent) and they took it out on Gen X since they vastly outnumbered us. Again, nothing pissed me off more than when I was working at a bar serving drinks to boomers with no more formal education than I had. I was dismissed as a slacker, but those muthafuckas weren't hiring at their companies. I would have been happy to have had a "real job" with benefits, yet even my Ivy League peers were struggling to get by.

Just when we were starting to understand how to be a part of the larger world outside, Al Gore had the election stolen right out of his hands in Florida, and then the twin towers collapsed before our eyes. At first we felt moved to act for the greater good in the wake of that tragedy. But then the whole country seemed to implode in front of us, from our invasion of two sovereign nations to the rise of celebrity culture to tanning beds to McMansions to Guantanamo Bay to Hummers. It was so sad and pathetic that it was funny to us, even if it was only sad and pathetic to you.

Emphasis above courtesy of me. I feel like I'm Tommy from Goodfellas: "Funny how? Am I a clown here to amuse you? Amuse you!?" I didn't find anything humorous at all.....okay maybe the "rise of celebrity culture" and "McMansions", but that is all. There's a reason I've never heard of a single 9-11 joke- it's because there's nothing fucking funny about it. And I know there are varied opinions of the Iraq War. I get it. But to somehow even suggest that invading the sovereign nation of Afghanistan was wrong? Are you crazy? I think any sane person realizes there are quite a few people there that would be happier if the United States looked like the History Channel's program "Earth After People".

Nuff said. I need to wind down and go to sleep.

Please read "The Last GenXster Ever Born (LT. Nixon)" take on this trash.

The GOP's GenXster answer?

Damn. Obama hasn't even been inside the Oval Office yet and there's already talk of who will unseat him. Oh well, at least he's not a boomer.

Gen X: So not liberal

This is interesting. Sort of, at least. The hyperlink has the Presidential polling from the Daily Kos tracker (Don't give me shit as being a liberal partisan. Markos' tracked the races fairly accurately in '06 so he knows something 'bout crunching these #'s). Check out the 30-44 year old (all GenXsters) support for Senator McCain. It's well above even the really old bastards. I tried to copy it onto this post, but it failed like Limp Bizkit trying to sell out a stadium.

I have a few theories in regards to the GenXsters support of the Republican platform. First is the Republican's preaching (and no, I will not add the word "practicing" here) personal responsibility. None of the living generations have had as much self reliance as Gen X. There is no argument here: us Latchkey Kids have had to grow up much faster than the 'Leave it to Beaver' fucks and the Sweet 16 celebrating Millenials. Generally, we don't take things for granted and we don't trust anyone else making decisions for us, and we really don't trust government and we really, really don't believe Social Security will be around to help us after the boomers engulf it like Marilyn Chambers took all of John Holmes.

Nextly, is Ronald Reagan. Older GenXsters voted for him in tremendous #'s. The "Reagan Youth" have still retained their conservative "values" from his influence. Not that my high school was the microcosm of all young society from 1986 to 1990, but the conservative kids seemed to vastly outnumber the liberals. That entire mantra of people becoming more conservative with age seemed ridiculous to me since I thought most of my peers were right-wingers before we'd ever been to prom. Personally, I couldn't stand Reagan, but I have my reasoning: my grandfather, father and uncle were all Police Officers. When the crack epidemic hit the cities hard Reagan couldn't care less and told us to "just say no". The Police were vastly underfunded and did not have the manpower to keep the streets safe. Furthermore, Reagan fucked the unions. Yeah, yeah.....I know some people hate unions and always think of the corrupt On the Waterfront scenes, but the next time you have off on a Saturday and Sunday remember to THANK UNIONS FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE.

.....now back to your regular programming.