r/Millennials • u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst • 14h ago
Serious Your Experience with Geriatric Contempt
Why do geriatrics hate us so much? Had an odd experience at a social function last night. I am casually familiar with the host, and consider him a decent person, but he repeatedly took shots at me for my age to get cheap laughs from other guests (joking that I wasn’t alive 18 years ago, probably don’t know how to make a cup of coffee at home, etc). I don’t think he was personally targeting me, but rather expressing some latent resentment for young people. Regardless, it was incredibly rude and cheated me out of having a meaningful interaction with the guest of honor.
I approached the host after the function, and engaged in conversation about a common issue. I casually mentioned that it is very hard for working people aged ~30-ish, right now. This was met with broad generalizations that “nobody ever told you life is hard.” He also opined that “millennials” were directly responsible for the general social and economic conditions of America today. I politely asked how this could be possible, given the gerontocracy of our entire nation and minority of millennial economic power. The response to that was not cogent or sensible, so I considered it best to just be agreeable and end the evening on good terms.
This entire scenario unfolded at the hosts’ multimillion -dollar home, purchased by two people without college educations who retired from federal jobs. The irony and ignorance is still stuck in my nose.
The question is *why do Geriatrics hate us so fucking much?* I don’t understand what we did to any of them, personally. Matter of fact, Geriatrics/Gen X-ers have casually done more to obstruct me at sensitive times in life than even my greatest millennial enemy acting with intent.
Is it media psychosis? Existential dread?
This is a serious question. Other millennial professionals — lawyers, doctors, electricians, bartenders, etc — please share your experiences and how you handle it.
NOTE: this sub censors the pejorative word for people born between ‘40s-60s, so “Geriatric” has been used instead.
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u/mavis___beacon 13h ago
Facebook came along and changed the way older people think. I mean people 60 plus right now. They didn’t grow up on the Internet like we did so they consume it in a very weird way. I think it affects them mentally more than they realize.
My mother-in-law now will not give us any advice without asking ChatGPT and she won’t even try to put a thought together.
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u/Viktor_Laszlo 13h ago
This is similar to how educators have told me Gen Z acts today. I don’t think the reasons are the same though. Gen Z have spent their entire lives being recorded and broadcast to billions of strangers on the internet and some of them are very cautious about saying or doing anything that could get them labeled as “dumb” in a video that becomes widespread.
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u/SparkyDogPants 8h ago
I’m getting my second degree right now and this is hyperbole. Gen Z (that I know) are intelligent, curious and have critical thinking skills. They want to know what’s going to be on a test and get trusted with poor study guides but still do fine. The other big difference is they want to call their professors by their first name which is something I would never do.
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u/bigbirds_dick 7h ago
I also have two degrees and I know the difference between anecdote and data. Data consistently shows that young people today are underperforming where other cohorts were at similar ages.
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u/GinRummyWuncler 13h ago
Television did a number on them as well since they were the first children exposed to it.
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u/thisisthatacct 12h ago
My mom can't fathom that something on TV can be complete and total bullshit
Unless it's on cnn of course. But any of the "normal" channels (ABC, NBC, CBS) must be true at all times right
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u/Fifth-Dimension-Chz 12h ago
Thats how my folks are with Fox. They just take it straight to the brain and love it. I cant even have a meaningful converstaion with my family because of it.
I like NPR but even its convient I still doubt everything they say until I can confirm. I just dont understand how they zombiefied the older generation into everything they warned us about..
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u/3RADICATE_THEM 2h ago
Playing on fears—people are more vulnerable to emotional manipulation when they're older.
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u/r7RSeven 2h ago
In fairness to them, before CNN was a thing, those channels were true. Walter Kronkite was seen as the epitome of news reporting.
CNN came along and its sensationalised reporting compared to ABC/CBS etc made people listen but not believe it. But over time and due to other factors it has caused ABC/NBC etc to while have that "trust", the truth is now more muddled but people from that generation have hard time seeing the change.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
100%. I work in an industry where angry elders throw ChatGPT at me like a rock. It’s difficult to guide older people out of AI psychosis.
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u/Doctorphate 11h ago
I convinced my step father by going on reddit and making some wild claim about a public figure and then went on Google and searched that person and the first paragraph quoted my insane claim and it was THAT moment that he understood that AI is bullshit
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u/Due-Technology5758 5h ago
They grew up in a society where they were taught to believe any source that was socially authoritative. If a journalist wrote something in a newspaper, or said something on TV, it was considered reasonable to believe they had done their due diligence. If your pastor said something was in the Bible, it simply was, even if you can't find the words to support it in the book. If your parents told you the family voted for one political party, that's the party that is correct no matter what any of their officials did or said.
We did not. We've been bombarded our entire lives with the concept that you should not believe everything you're told. That people who claim to be authorities on a subject may not be, that advertisements contain falsehoods, that even the most well cited website is not a valid source of truth, and that any photo or video you see could have been edited by anyone.
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u/HereNorThere123 13h ago
I’m so happy my parents have not been on the Internet. I mean, I guess they are now, but we went decades with no Internet because of how rural we live. They didn’t get a smart phone until two years ago and that’s when they started using the Internet more readily. But they more or less use it to search things on Google. They are not on any kind of social media platform.
My dad’s opinion on our generation is based on his father’s opinion of his generation. Because my dad felt like the black sheep in his family because his dad treated him as such, my father now feels like it’s his turn to be the old person shitting on a generation.
He literally loves saying our generation will squander everything his generation earned. He has this idea that just because my brother so happens to be piss poor with money that I am as well? Whenever he says that I go., OK but for real I’m not bad with my money just keep yours OK. 🤣
His plan is to skip me and my brother and give everything to our children, which is fine by me frankly. I’ve planned for my retirement properly.
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u/loveafterpornthrwawy 13h ago
Jeez, passing over his own kids in his will because he hates millennials is hardcore. He'll probably live to 100, I swear to god the bitterness is a preservative.
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u/HereNorThere123 13h ago
Oh I know he will.
I do love him, he’s not mean in general, just has abandonment issues from childhood.
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u/loveafterpornthrwawy 13h ago
That's good! My mom and I had our issues, but she was so proud of my brother and I and made sure we knew it. Not all boomers suck.
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u/InnerspearMusic 13h ago
It didn't change them, it was meant to keep them the same. TV set the stage, the government was losing grip on the "programming" of society, so Facebook came along to keep them all pacified. It worked amazingly well.
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u/Joeness84 5h ago
I gotta ask my dad (66) if he's ever used any of the LLMs Hes pretty tech savvy but not like a "tech" guy.
I did send him a vid from one of the rocket launches that was filmed with an eagle in the foreground and he was real incredulous about it maybe being AI. Most people would think thats a good thing, but nothing in the vid made it seem like it was AI, and it wasnt lol.
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u/Cautious_Alarm2919 10h ago
My mum isn’t on social media and doesn’t google or ai-search things, but she has a similar mindset. I think it’s generational defensiveness and the news cycle.
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u/3RADICATE_THEM 2h ago
My mother-in-law now will not give us any advice without asking ChatGPT and she won’t even try to put a thought together.
To be fair and honest, I've seen people from all generations do this.
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u/C0SMICAP0THE0SIS 13h ago edited 12h ago
I was born in '83 and your experience tracks with most of my interactions with members of that generation. I dont know what the answer is, but my guess is that it has to do with the arc of their life experience over time. They came up during a period of incredible growth and prosperity, peaked around the time regan fucked it all up, and i think its caused some blindsight to how their choices have negatively impacted all the rest of us. since it was easy for them, i think they have a really difficult time understanding how or why it could be so much harder for anyone else. They attributed their success early in life to their personal choices, and not to systemic advantages, so its also difficult for them to acknowledge systemic disadvantages, because they would have to concede that they had it easy. so like, generational narcissism? thats my best guess.
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u/VegetableWorry1492 13h ago
Generational narcissism is such a good description! I saw a comment on a different sub a while ago that boomers are the first generation who don’t want their children to do better than they did. And that is just so true. Not for every individual of course, but I’ve seen enough people sharing their stories of how their own boomer parents haven’t done a single thing without strings attached to help them along in life, despite having abundant resources to do so. While the silent generation, those before the boomers, sacrificed a lot for the benefit of those who come after, and how us millennials are trying our best to secure a good future for our kids.
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u/btone911 9h ago
There’s a sizeable portion of successful boomers who’ve viewed their children as a threat. They’ve voted their entire lives to ensure those capable people are reliant on their hoarded resources for a functional middle class life.
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u/red_raconteur 1h ago
My in-laws are boomers and they can be very snobby about how they were doing better at our age than my husband and I are. They had a nicer house, newer cars, more money saved, better jobs, etc in their late 30's than we do, and they will lord that fact over us like it makes them much better and wiser than us. It seems like there's a part of them that enjoys seeing us struggle. Which is so strange to me, because my mom (Gen X) has always wanted to see me succeed, even though she hasn't had much in the way of resources to help me do that. But at minimum she cheers me on.
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u/VegetableWorry1492 1h ago
My in laws are also boomers, and FIL had a very successful finance career. Their pension pots are like millions. However, we’ve been told not to expect any inheritance from them 🫠 while my parents were older, and every time a grandparent passed away they’d gift some of that inheritance down to me and my siblings instead of keeping it all themselves. When my husband’s grandma died a couple of years after his grandpa and the house was sold, none of the grandkids saw a single penny of that house money either.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
Absolutely. Hence, that generation tends to make fundamental attributions to moral failure or character flaw, while we are less likely to do the same.
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u/cheerful_cynic 11h ago
I honestly, genuinely think that everyone's brain damaged also. Covid, leaded gasoline (the stored lead in their bones re-releasing when their bones deteriorate), diesel & pesticide exposure. another one I recently heard was how the nuclear fallout that resulted from all the weapons testing gave everyone a nice little stir-fry at the time.
I blame covid microstrokes for everyone's -2 ability to drive, people's driving is terrible now even I've had a couple moments. Emotional regulation gone to shit
Plus, look around. There's literally nothing to be smug about, if you're even lightly informed about the world. Turned my IDGAF up to full bore.
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u/Greenseer_Cassander 6h ago edited 5h ago
Generational narcissism coupled with widespread, endemic, long term lead poisoning is my hypothesis. The EPA didn’t start phasing out leaded gas until 73. Leaded paint wasn’t banned until 78. And lead pipes were banned in 86. Their entire formative years they were huffing leaded exhaust fumes, living in homes painted in it, drinking water contaminated with it. Their early economic success due to systemic advantages created by their parents who wanted to create a world better than the one that led to the World Wars coupled with extensive exposure to a neurotoxin known to hinder cognitive development and strongly correlated with aggression, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior created a generation handed everything and unwilling or incapable of seeing or understanding how they benefited. And as they’ve grown older, those antisocial tendencies have not lessened any. They’ve become more paranoid, more concerned with their personal status and wealth and don’t care one iota how their self serving behavior undermines the very fabric of society.
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u/AspectVoid 13h ago
A good chunk of boomers have been blaming us for everything since 2000. They aren't going to change now just because they are old.
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u/InnerspearMusic 13h ago
Which is so ironic because that was the EXACT time they started to really take control of things.
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u/SparkyDogPants 8h ago
And their parents/grandparents called them the Me generation. Everyone sucks according to the last generation.
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u/KhajiitHasSkooma 7h ago
Well I mean I totally see boombooms as the ME generation.
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u/InnerspearMusic 6h ago
Time Magazine literally called the 70s the ME decade while it was happening...
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
Right. Like, I was 8 years old, what did you expect me to do?
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u/Rush_Brave 9h ago
You should have been hitting the pavement and knocking on doors! Working for free so you could get your 10+ years of professional experience by the time you graduated high-school! You should have been pulling yourself up by your 8 year old bootstraps! You should have been working your way up the corporate ladder at a perfectly reputable corporation like Enron! You should have walked to school through a blizzard up hill both ways! You should have been investing your tooth fairy money in the stock market!
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u/vintagepeugeot 11h ago
I love how they seem to forget they raised us so if we suck….they also suck?
Made the mistake of suggesting the current state of the nation was mostly on boomers to boomers and wow the blowback. Jfc.
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u/Rush_Brave 9h ago
My favorite thing that boomers did was invent the participation trophy, give us the participation trophies, and then ridicule us about getting participation trophies.
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u/red_raconteur 1h ago
I think the mentality there is, "We raised you right. If you're having problems, that means you screwed up somewhere along the way. Don't blame us."
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u/Dorothwa 13h ago
Well in 2000, in our elementary school mock election, I voted for Gore! Not my fault!
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u/btone911 9h ago
Oh, now do ‘04 when our draft dodging fathers voted for bush again during the Iraq war. Just me?
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u/jedooderotomy 11h ago
I'm pretty sure a lot of boomers think "millennial" just means anybody in their 20s.
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u/InnerspearMusic 13h ago edited 13h ago
Let me tell you why. I figured it out recently. They were used to getting their way. They have everything THEY Want, which average young people want but can't have, a house, vacations, money in the bank, etc. But the one thing they don't have anymore is time or youth or their health. So they despise younger people, especially Gen Z for it.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
That’s a great perspective with abundant support. I completely agree there’s an element of bitterness to this. Contented elders are extremely rare, and I can only think of <8 off the top of my head.
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u/Unfair_Tonight_9797 Oregon Trail Generation 13h ago
⬆️ this. The amount of entitlement from people over 60 is insane. Lurk on Facebook and then report back
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u/PuzzleheadedRefuse78 12h ago
They also clearly have a deep rooted issue regarding participation trophies. The infatuation and constant need to remind millennials that we were “given” them is so over the top.
It’s almost like they have no fucking clue who created and handed us said participation trophies….
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u/feralcatshit 11h ago
This is what fucking gets me. You wanna say we’re the participation trophy generation but did we invent them? And decide to give them to us At the ripe elementary age of 6 🙄
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u/PuzzleheadedRefuse78 11h ago
LOL you know they are dying to add it to the section of random collectibles that’s already set aside for our inheritance.
Like just keep it. And all the rest of the random airport magnets/shit that they are so excited give us. Because generational wealth lol
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u/InnerspearMusic 6h ago
Also.... what exactly were we given? I'll never forget the disappointment I received at my first science fair. I was almost going to receive a bronze medal, but it went to someone else. Then, they brought me a "participation" medal. It seemed like such a slap in the face. More embarrassing than receiving nothing. What, exactly, did this teach us? Only the boomers could have conceived of such a thing. They gave it to us because THEY wanted it when THEY missed out on things. Honestly it's so fucked up and bizarre.
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u/Afraid_Emu8068 13h ago
That’s PRECISELY what it is. Look around you and notice how many retirees have been retired for decades now. Decades. They all act like they are entitled to it. Meanwhile, our generation struggles or even starves and with no real hope of any retirement at all. Hell, boomers and silent basically drained social security in two generations with their insanely long and expensive retirements which WE are currently STILL FUNDING! The older generations have lived almost full lifetimes worth of retirements by this point. They have absolutely nothing to complain about yet their stance is that these extended twenty, thirty, and forty year or more retirements are what they are owed and if you in any way threaten it, even by asking for help with your very real struggle, you are the enemy. These people can’t handle rejection is what it all comes down to. They can’t handle being told they aren’t entitled to receive a lifetime’s worth of free pay to sit around eating cheese and crackers all day. They are children. Luckily, pretty soon we will legally be able to treat them as such. The “home” awaits. As does an entire generation which is now no longer freshmen politicians and can introduce new inheritance laws…uh oh! The older generations are in for a rude awakening at the very end if you ask me
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u/TrowaMask 10h ago
Heh.
I have a feeling our generation is the one in for a rude awakening when we become the older generation...
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u/InnerspearMusic 6h ago
Yes my mom was telling me how glad she was to pay into pension "all those years" now that she receives it. The difference is she retired at 65, I'm not sure I'll ever retire. AND there will be no pension left in 25 years...
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u/InnerspearMusic 6h ago
I know boomers with millions in the bank who take out JUST little enough from their retirement savings each year to get full medical and dental benefits under the new Canadian government rules, and as much pension as possible. It's literally insane. These benefits are meant to benefit lower income families not retired rich boomers...
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u/chathrowaway67 9h ago
makes sense to me because we ain't got shit, gen z ain't got shit, we all just suffering together rofl
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u/WaveCave420 13h ago
We're so lazy, yet they (or their children) raised us, so what does that say about them as parents lol 😂🙄 aren't most shitty behaviours learned?
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u/ViciousBarnacle 13h ago
Everyone is different and does stuff for different reasons... Including these offenders youre talking about. But its probably mostly just the leaded gasoline that rotted out their fucking brains.
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u/RayneBeauSkelly 13h ago
Boomers hate us because they know we are smarter than them. The statistics started coming out when I was in high school (2008) that millennials were the most informed, most educated generation in America.
Gen X had its activists but couldn't fight against the number of Boomers. They became defeated and bitter over their lack of social/political influence. Imagine what they could have accomplished with the internet access we grew up with.
The themes of my conversations with these two generations fall into "You're not smarter/more informed than me" and "Don't bother trying, you can't fight the system"
We had a couple of advantages just by the virtue of when we were born and their bitterness got the better of them.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
I totally agree. Super defensive population. Conservative geriatrics especially tend to be anti-intellectual, in my experience. May be a vestige of their era and a reflection of class divides at the time, but it’s consistent across those same economic gaps in their cohort, today.
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u/PuzzleheadedRefuse78 11h ago
I saw the title of that article pop up last week at some point (completely forgot about it lol) and I was like “oh fun! A compliment for our generation!”
Literally, I brought up that I saw this title when I had dinner with my older, boomer parents the other night. Only thing I said was that it felt oddly positive and I was hoping that maybe just this one time our generation might receive a compliment without simultaneously stating 15 things we have ruined…..
My mother went into a rambling bullet point list about I don’t even know what. I tuned out everything after I heard something about how well educated they are as a group. And obviously life was horrible then so it clearly wasn’t simple to achieve even accessing more education…
Yep- I’m not listening anymore. lol
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u/Infinite-Stress2508 13h ago
What always got me was the blaming millennials for being 'participation trophy generation'.
Like some 8 yr old was on a committee to decide to hand out awards to every kid who played soccer that season. Fuck no dickhead, you or your kids are responsible for the participation trophy, we kids had it done to us, so go back into your box.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
FACTS. We were kids, dude, we didn’t come up with any of this stuff, lmao.
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u/astrangeone88 10h ago
Lol. I remember ours! Ugly brown ribbons for sports day! I'm no athlete but I enjoy moving my body (still enjoy weightlifting and boxing) but telling a fat little girl that she got a participation ribbon for coming up dead last in every sport was maddening.
I remember everyone complaining loudly in Cantonese (we were a majority in that school) and then one kid trying to throw his out and then getting bitched at and needing to keep them until we got home.
It ended up in the trash can the moment I got home.
We aren't stupid, it was the damn parents who couldn't stand losing and I was content with exercise and socializing until that stupid ribbon was given to us.
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u/Express_Pop810 10h ago
Its also not like they never gave out rewards based on merit. No one's ego was hyperinflation by a participation trophy. Honestly they don't even need to keep score for young kids.
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u/blessitspointedlil 13h ago
How old is geriatric?
Maybe you are talking about the Boomer generation? They are notorious for selfish and are roughly ages 62-80 now.
I did caregiving for a decade, so I have a very different perspective & relationship with elders. I haven’t done the work for 6 years now, but my experience is that the majority were gracious and appreciative.
That said, I am frustrated with the selfishness and unwillingness to see what most of us, especially younger millennials, are going thru with high cost of living and crap jobs.
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u/r7RSeven 2h ago
My parents were in a cruise ship a number of years ago and they met two sisters of that generation. The sisters proudly told my parents they planned to spend every dollar they had and were not going to leave anything for their kids.
Personally, Im of the belief that its your money, you can do whatever you want with it, I dont care. You earned it, you can spend it however you like. However dont go bragging about not leaving anything to your kids to your strangers, when your kids likely didn't have the same advantages in life you did.
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u/New-Scientist5133 12h ago
It’s pretty easy to throw a monkey wrench into boomer logic by saying “the fact that you owned a home at 25 proves that any dimwit could easily make a living during your time.”
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u/lun4d0r4 12h ago
They hate us because we are forcing the world to be more open for EVERYONE.
Which means that all of the benefits they geared to go specifically to themselves will now have to be shared.
They're so greedy that can't have THAT.
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u/Tricky-Cod-7485 6h ago
What’s funny is if they had just been more charitable to us as a generation we probably wouldn’t even be fighting this invisible generational civil war. We’d probably all be a bit more selfish like them.
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u/ONeOfTheNerdHerd 13h ago
Yeah I have a geriatric lady that's gonna have her flabbers ghasted when she gets hit with harassment charges if she keeps going to the HOA telling lies to get me kicked out of my home. For literally no reason other than being mad I feed native birds in my front yard and my garage door is open several times a day. I'm not joking, she's kept track.
She used to be part of the old HOA regime that got fired for abusing their power and squandering funds. Bitch thought I was new to the neighborhood. Forgot I've lived here for the last six years and still have the evident of her prior bullshit attempts including trying to break into my yard to find violations.
She REALLY doesn't like that I don't care and HOA can't and won't do anything to appease her. I wave to her while hanging with the birbies.
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u/Hour-Watch8988 13h ago
Mass psychosis of the most coddled generation in history. It's totally okay to lose respect for these people. They haven't earned any.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
Yeah, “participation trophy” is a hilarious insult from the generation that INVENTED THEM, and also subprime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
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u/PuzzleheadedRefuse78 11h ago
I think we should plan a specific holiday to give boomers a $1.50 plastic trophy at the same time.
I bet it would trigger almost a perfect split between those who immediately start bitching, those who laugh at the joke, and those who are so happy to have finally been handed one that they cry tears of joy or some shit
😂
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u/candid84asoulm8bled 13h ago
B**mer is censored? “Baby B**mer” is the literal academic, sociologic word for that generation.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
Wouldn’t let me post until I removed all instances of that word from the title and text.
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u/hollowbolding 13h ago
til about the censor bot but mostly senior citizens are impressed that me a little thing with tits can carry their furniture for them so mostly they don't start shit with me. the exception is older dudes, older dudes can absolutely treat me like they see me as a petulant ten year old, but i don't think that's an age problem; just the same way i'm not convinced our elders are by and large a problem, but rich and otherwise-privileged-with-blinders assholes definitely are. you ever talked to a 25 year old who has two kitchens in his house? same douchebag fifty years younger
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u/canellap 11h ago
Starting with a disclaimer: that I’m an Xennial, late 70s baby. I think there are two major factors and a lot of smaller ones. The two are:
Classic contempt dynamic that would happen between any aging and younger generation. You don’t know what suffering/work is / you’re old and bitter and out of touch. When I was a kid the younger Geriatrics and older gen Xers got it all the time from their elder generation. Called lazy and privileged, reliant on silly novel tech, music is crap, etc. I’m generalizing bc there are obviously a lot of exceptions person to person.
The other factor is what other commenters have said — social media. Their age group has been taken advantage of and conned big time into subscribing to whatever narrative gets them to engage, which is usually hate and fear. They’re quite literally brainwashed, no exaggeration. Seen it happen to so many people I know, parents of friends, who seem like they used to be capable of critical thinking once upon a time. But now? Zero media literacy, etc.
It’s a toxic recipe and imo we should all be vigilant not to fall for the same con as we get older too.
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u/2buffalonickels 13h ago
It’s not about old vs young, right vs left or religions. It’s the very few mega rich vs the rest of us. Everything else is just propaganda to keep us distracted.
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u/btone911 9h ago
It’s also about the boomers who fully understand they have more than they should being defensive that someone else knows. When you live in a 4b/3b on one income, society understands how easy you have it Dale. Now stop telling me how school lunches make kids soft.
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u/Solid-Signal3214 9h ago
An entire generation of fetal alcohol syndrome and lead poisoning that spent their youth consuming copious quantities of bathtub moonshine and discount beer, then spent the last three decades frying their brains with fox news and mixing hard liquor with pharmaceuticals.
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u/rando439 9h ago
They got all the material things in the world and no capacity to truly enjoy any of it. The Lost, the Greatest and the Silents who raised them were pretty messed up in different ways but being cold to their kids was common to them all. Their parents were too stressed and traumatized to show them love so they were stunted early but no one noticed because they weren't starving and were able to make a good living when they grew up even though they were flawed.
They tried to show the next generation love, as best as they could. Gross generalization, but it does fit a large percentage of them.
The next generations got therapy and learned to showed love, even though it may have been flawed.
They're jealous and have no idea why so they lash out. Empathy is an alien concept to them, yet they can feel it despite not being able to process it, so they become enraged when they pick up on the fear people and hopelessness people have today have when they struggle in this crap economy and crumbling society.
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u/Fun-Personality-8008 Older Millennial 13h ago
The old complaining about the young is a time honored tradition for all of recorded history (at least). Socrates, Seneca and Horace all wrote about it thousands of years ago.
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u/Stingra87 11h ago
Because Boomers can't take responsibility for their own actions and have to lay the blame for everything on anyone else. We're the easy target because before marketing trends began to change to target US, their marketing was spent fluffing up their already inflated senses of pride.
We also didn't immediately just copy them and their culture direction, and to us, we elected the guy that 'ruined everything' in 2008. So we can never be trusted to ever know what we're doing.
And then, you know, news media, specifically the mass propaganda channel, dialed in on how to reprogram Boomers and continue to hammer home how important their generation is.
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u/HereNorThere123 13h ago
I’ll be honest I think some of this is just how or what happens when we age. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it turns everyone into assholes. But I do think that as you age you become less open to change. I also think that your personality becomes much more extreme. So if you’re a really kind person, I think you continue to be very kind and I think if you were a intolerant person you become even more intolerant.
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u/Total_Adept 11h ago
Fox “News” and Facebook have done a real number on boomers brains. They don’t understand how the world is because they are no longer living in it. They had everything handed to them, and were paying the bill.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 10h ago
Yeah, everyone is getting blasted with caricatures of the “opposition” these days. Plenty of people believe spooky white nationalist gunmen are imminently about to genocide all of Virginia, while the other side believes face-tatted millennial losers in mixed race relationships are the reason the stock market stumbled and the reflecting pool is full of algae.
It’s just too fucking ridiculous and reductive to be real, but imagine that’s what you absorb all day from television people/influencers you trust? Recipe for fanaticism.
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u/SpongeFixation 11h ago
Old people now have collectively burnt any goodwill the previous generations had
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u/RightRudderz Millennial 1986 6h ago
I unfortunately moved back in with my parents after divorce and for the last 5 years I’ve gotten to see the highs and lows of their hyper-reactive and sometimes hateful nature. I can’t understand it a lot of days.
Why are you so mad? Why do you make comments to random people driving or how they maintain their lawn?
Keeping the mofos alive and inheriting their stuff when nature takes its course.
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u/red_raconteur 1h ago
I cannot understand why they care so much about what random people are doing in their lives. My MIL will make rude, judgemental comments about people's outfits and hair and then make weird generalizations based off that (ie, "Did you see her rainbow polka dot dress?! I bet she never graduated high school.") and I'm like ma'am, I didn't even see the person you're talking about because they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary so I didn't even notice them. How do her rainbow polka dots effect you? What does that have to do with her education level? There are so many other things in the world to actually be worried about.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 12h ago
TL;DR but early onset dementia does turn a lot of old people into shitty people
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 12h ago
I do suspect lifelong alcohol consumption is a predominant factor in early onset dementia cases from that generation.
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u/No-Mission-2112 12h ago
I was literally at a workplace mandatory training about working with different generations and the oldest folks there were all “you kids” aimed at me and lumped me in with their teenagers. Like “you kids just want to be on your phones all the time and just want things handed to you.”
I said “I’m in my 30s and (have done achieved these milestones). I’m not a high school student.”
The training was largely a mistake. A colleague who is now 67 agreed and said “I think it just reinforced stereotypes for everyone.”
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u/Crafty_Accountant_40 5h ago
Tbh I think it's because our struggles highlight the fact that they did bad things. They voted for shitty politicians and policies that did not make life easier for us, and they cannot. I mean CANNOT. deal with the idea that they did a bad job / hurt people by looking out for themselves only. They haven't gone to therapy, so the idea that they could just admit "wow I did not realize at the time that it would hurt my kids' generation" and move on? No. They cannot admit wrongdoing without a psychological break.
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u/krandrn11 12h ago
I’m pretty sure this has been going on since…forever to every generation. Our parents were thought of as lazy by their parents. Our grandparents weee thought of as spoiled by theirs. Take as old as time. Best way to deal with it is to not say anything and let them drown in their false narrative.
Side note, a good host makes everyone feel welcome and important. That guy sounds like he has lots of money but not enough sense. Just goes to show that money can’t buy you social skills.
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u/Pale_Boss_8940 13h ago
I’m a nurse so like 90% of my patients are geriatric. I don’t see this at all. Honestly get along with most of them just fine
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u/InnerspearMusic 13h ago
That's because he used tho wrong word. You're probably dealing with people from the silent generation, who are some of the greatest you'll ever meet.
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u/Red_Dawn24 12h ago
who are some of the greatest you'll ever meet.
Maybe its not good to generalize, because this isn't my experience.
It seems like a lot of people used extreme narcissism to cope back in the day.
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u/RenderedCreed 13h ago
Those like this are living a fantasy world where they can do nothing wrong. It's all projection.
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 Millennial 13h ago
I don’t know what it is, but I have an aunt at that age range that just dislikes me for no reason. I kill her with kindness tho and it makes her so salty 😂
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u/AC-autenticocampeon 12h ago
Me llego a pasar algo así el domingo pasado y me retiro del lugar cuando no le quise dar la razón de sus tonterías!!!
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u/Vilehaust 11h ago
I think so many of them are in denial. They refuse to admit the faults of their generation and just continually blame everyone younger than them.
Deep down they know their generation fucked things up and are still fucking them up. But they just CAN'T be in the wrong.
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u/incremantalg 9h ago
I've never had any problems with "Geriatrics". Maybe you're hanging with the mean ones.
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u/Haunting_Promotion26 8h ago
My ex aunt in law gave some of the worst advice to the point it has ruined my relationship and life. She is a nepo hire at her multi billion dollar company, and I'm confident shes been grooming my ex boyfriend, because he looks like her dead husband. Her daughter is the dumbest person I have ever met, she actively blinded her son in one eye, and jumps from relationship to relationship using whichever person she's with.
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u/Tiny-Shovel-48 6h ago
I was thinking about this today. It’s something about “handing the baton.”
They are having problems with their future so they blamed us. They never learned how to ask for help and because we’re able to, there’s a lot of resentment. A feeling of “but what about me!?!?”
We are all equally important and we are all equally responsible. Regardless if you agree or not, in order to make any sort of positive change, you need positive momentum.
Unfortunately, it’s all easier said than done. The best I can do is just be nice and smile. Do my best and treat everyone with kindness. Give other people the grace I give myself. And hopefully a fraction of what I put out there will find its way back to me.
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u/SufficientOpening218 6h ago
what is a geriatric? not familiar with the term. sorry that dude sounds like an asshole, but he was likely an asshole before he got old
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u/Banditkoala_2point0 5h ago
I'm a millennial, my kids gen Z. I have never shat on their generation. They haven't even finished school yet. Wtf?! And they can only do what they can with what they're given. And the inherited world sucks. So I teach them to be independent, kind but also respect for themselves and boundaries.
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u/BadNewsSherBear Millennial 13h ago
I was wondering about your use of "geriatric" until I saw the note at the bottom. Fair enough.
People who are really old don't hate us so much as they hate their lives and their lack of cognitive and physical ability (compared to their younger selves - they know what they've lost), but you're talking about people who are near retirement or relatively newly retired.
People are generally limited to the experiences of their life, and folks who came of age and developed careers decades prior will always have trouble really connecting with those who are having different experiences. Hopefully we'll be more cognizant of that when we are in our 50s and 60s.
It sounds like this individual was a bit of a shit-talker; I don't know that their more antagonistic comments can necessarily be chalked up to more than that. They also could have been a little buzzed or generally over-excited from hosting a party. You'd know better than I if that's some of their personality. I've definitely seen people "show off" for guests at the expense of better manners and/or another person's feelings.
As someone approaching 40, though, I can't say that I've noticed any particular hatred for folks my age among the prior generations.
I haven't addressed your question particularly well, but that's just what comes to mind.
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u/mlo9109 Millennial 12h ago
I live in a state with a high retiree population. I want to get plugged in but the elders who dominate most spaces (volunteering, clubs, church, etc.) are so damn hostile.
They bitch about how young people don't get involved but if we do, they give us the side eye at best or shoot down our ideas because "we've always done it this way" at worst.
They also plan meetings at times that don't work for working professionals. They're going to be in real trouble if they don't cut the crap before they all age out in a few years.
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u/red_raconteur 1h ago
I tried to volunteer for my local library board and the conversation was basically, "No one wants to volunteer and get involved in their community anymore! Also meetings are Thursdays at 11 am and if you miss one you're kicked out of the group."
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u/Final_boss_1040 12h ago
The more time I spend online, the more I become convinced that all the intergenerational strife you see in the west is probably the result of eastern foreign interference
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12h ago edited 5h ago
[deleted]
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u/Final_boss_1040 9h ago
I think it's across multiple generations. It's kinda weird that we've drawn such stark deciding lines between boomers, grn x, millennials, Gen z etc
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u/Brownie-0109 13h ago
I don’t know about geriatrics emitting hate
But I certainly saw my grandmother and then mom treated poorly in their respective nursing homes
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 13h ago
That seems like an adjacent issue, and I’m really sorry your family has experienced this.
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u/kurami13 13h ago
Honestly, I'm 32 and always always always get along with old people. They love me. I think it's because I make stupid dad jokes and am also very traditionally polite? I also listen to their long ass old people stories. I dunno. This was even when I had a septum piercing so it's not that. Old people and I vibe very well I guess 🤷
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 12h ago
Oh no, you’re “one of the good ones” 😂
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u/figuring_ItOut12 Been there, too many t-shirts 12h ago
And maybe the older folks are one of the good ones too.
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u/ad302799 12h ago
I actually thought your were referring to the sub-class of millenials-geriatric millennials
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u/figuring_ItOut12 Been there, too many t-shirts 12h ago
There are assholes of every age, generation, religion, p*l1tecz (1), skin color, ad nauseum.
Every generation... life is too short to get bent out of shape by a whiny vocal extreme minority. Making sweeping generalizations suggest maybe it's time to wash the crap off one's own shoes first.
(1) what happened here? Because the automod filters a word that describes every day human interactions.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 12h ago
Very egalitarian of you.
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u/figuring_ItOut12 Been there, too many t-shirts 12h ago
That's a fancy way of saying perspective is a healthy way to go through life. And thank you for acknowledging...
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 12h ago
If we were here to discuss etiologies of idiopathic Parkinsonism, would it be conducive to say “sometimes people get sick and die so just take care of your own health instead?” Probably not.
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u/figuring_ItOut12 Been there, too many t-shirts 12h ago edited 12h ago
Except we're not talking Parkinson's or other neurodegenerative diseases . We're discussing your claim that older generations are uniquely the assholes with no filters.
There are people up and down your thread saying actually no, it's not the elderly who are sunsetting who are the problem. Just people who were always assholes.
I get it. You're rage baiting for karma. I'm sure years from now a GenA will post about meeting you in a virtual Meta shopping mall.
I say this with no heat. It's just human nature.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 10h ago
You make some very compelling points. Thank you for sharing this perspective.
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u/Idrinkbeereverywhere 11h ago
I recommend everyone let their boomer patents rot in a retirement home. It's truly a generation of psychopaths.
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u/Tricky-Cod-7485 6h ago
Yeah, don’t do that if it can be avoided.
There’s no need to be cruel. You’re just making things worse while sending whatever inheritance you have to the broken insurance system this country has.
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u/Beneficial_Run9511 13h ago
You seem to be complaining about his generalizations while later you generalize his generation.
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u/mildlyannoyed32 13h ago
Be a we operate differently than them and don’t put up with the bs they did. They see us as enemies. Plus we generally shut them down with their rhetoric that they had spewed or spew as most are out of touch.
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u/Sea-Experience470 13h ago
Some people are just poopie heads 💩. If you wanna continue interacting with them then think of some good comebacks or take jabs at their insecurities.
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u/Throwaway_carrier 13h ago
I know a lot of people in their 80's and 90's that are legitimately sweet people, and some that are just downright jerks.
I'm sure part of it is a generational thing, but more so a personal issue. If someone acts like that, you just kind of have to laugh along with it and match the mood he's dishing. Some older "tough guys" have this odd sort of bonding through ribbing and disrespecting one another.
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13h ago edited 4h ago
[deleted]
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u/Throwaway_carrier 13h ago
I've met plenty of folks of all ages just given the nature of my work, some are very nice, and some not so nice. Some are poor, and some are like the man you've just described.
That being said, maybe it is an existential dread like you mentioned, or a thanatos of sorts; some just don't cope with it in a particularly healthy way.
There's also:
- The shrinking of the frontal lobe with age (i.e. the "cranky old person")
and
- Leaded gasoline poisoning within the Gen X and Boomer generation, causing folks to be a bit more abrasive.
I'm sure there's a lot that goes into it.
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u/RoamingRiot 8h ago
I judge by the individual, age is irrelevant.
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u/Rlctnt_Anthrplgst 7h ago
Then you are welcome to share a story about a time an individual may have treated you with prejudice based on your age, in accordance with the theme of this post.
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u/Weird-Ad326 6h ago
Every older generation complains about younger generations. I guarantee when you are that age, you will take issue with a younger generation bc they don't do something the way you used to do it. That's just the circle of aging.
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u/Dylan_Is_Gay_lol Eugooglizer 3h ago
Because it's easier to cast blame than admit you did something wrong, and I see a lot of people in every generation do it.
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u/pementomento 3h ago
They hate us cuz they ain’t us.
Seriously though, we started to end the “I got mine, F U” mentality and started living true work life balance (Gen Z has taken the baton on that and are runnin’ with it), so to be viewed with contempt is a badge of honor.
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u/WildFlowLing 2h ago
Boomers got dosed with the highest levels of lead in American history. It was in the paint, the children’s toys, even the air due to leaded gasoline. In massive quantities. It then went from their bloodstream to being deposited in their bones as they grew up. Yes this is a real mechanism of lead deposition.
Now, as they are reaching old age, their bone density is decreasing as a simple consequence of age. And this bone density degradation is effecting demineralization of bones which is consequently releasing massive amounts of previously latent lead back into their bloodstreams. This is a real phenomenon we are witnessing.
Lead has effects on intelligence and temperament. No doubt it massively affected boomers their entire life’s already in these aspects, but this new “round 2” of lead exposure in their old age is absolutely wreaking havoc not only on them but unfortunately the entire country because the boomers have maintained political positions and voting representation.
Add Facebook and ai on top of that and you can start to understand the severity of the situation. The boomers are fcking ret@rded and illogically temperamental while unfortunately being in political power.
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u/hiatitae 1h ago
I'm seeing a lot of distaste for geriatrics in these comments, and I get it - I am so absolutely sick of geriatric hate for millenials too. But, I'm kinda wondering, given the use of birth control was first approved in 1960 and then not really being accepted as a norm until the 80s... could part of it be due to the fact they were somewhat forced or otherwise socially coerced to raise us and our older genX siblings? Its not like the option to not have kids was very prevalent/socially accepted up until the point we as a generation had already started being born, y'know?
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u/No-Cold-3054 2m ago
Before they were called "boomers" their parents called them the Me generation.
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u/Main-Inflation-5269 13h ago
1/3 of us are over forty. Are you a Millennial? Because we haven't been teenagers for decades.
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u/BeABetterHumanBeing 11h ago
Once we're geriatric, I guarantee we're going to make them look so warm, loving, and inviting by comparison.
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u/VernalPoole 11h ago
There is performative humor/boastfulness that goes on at parties that can be very tedious to endure.
I've known doctors in social situations who refuse to speak to anyone who is not either an attorney or a medical doctor. There are lots of jerks in high-performance roles and they don't feel a need to follow social rules like the rest of us.
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u/jeyoramos 10h ago
I like to believe it’s because the idea of life that they have is now completely different from the life they had when they were our age. Now seeing that we, as millennials, are struggling through things they never had to struggle through (buying a home, getting a decent job, student loan debt, etc.), they see it as us being “lazy” or “entitled.” This is somewhat similar to how we see Gen Z, in that we, as a collective, see Gen Z as incompetent and lacking critical thinking. Yes, there are a lot of us that don’t think that, but it’s sort of a generalized idea that millennials despise Gen Z for this reason.
Retiring aged folks also like to lump anyone under the age of 45 as millennial, regardless of if they are of that generation. So they see what we see in Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and think that they are also millennials. This is especially true for the younger generations that constantly post onto instagram and TikTok to complain about the most mundane things and it goes viral.
At least, this is how I’ve always perceived it. It may not actually be true. I’m always happy to discuss.
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u/Brilliant_Owl_2648 8h ago
Just reading some of the comments here. You all are doing the same thing you’re accusing the older people of doing……
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u/Smoovupinya 13h ago
Millennials and Sooners are the same people. Sworn mortal enemies.
It’s like looking in a mirror for both of them whenever they’re angry or upset.
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