@somarasu If we give about 20 years per "generation" that means boomers born 1940s-60s, GenX 60s-80s, Millenials 80s-00s. So that sounds about right!

@mumpsimus
Ohhh right on ! :D
I thought it was all Internet hearsay

@somarasu There's a whole book with a theory about cycles of generations and how they are different (but in cycles) and relate to each other. I thought it was really interesting but apparently Steve Bannon loves it and thinks it justifies him presiding over an apocalypse so I'm having second thoughts about it!

@Shutsumon @mumpsimus I've just come to conclusion that 20 somethings are 20 somethings, period. No matter the era.

@OldandConfused @mumpsimus I remember reading a book about Cornish Folktales and it contained a ghost story that was narrated to the collector in the Victorian era.

It was hilarious because near the start the teller makes the observation that young people in every generation never listen to their elders and old people say the world is falling apart because of badly behaved young people because they have forgotten what they were like.

@Shutsumon @OldandConfused that's true! Never trust older people talking about what shits younger people are

@mumpsimus @Shutsumon I try hard not to, but yaknow, sometimes it's fun to make fun of people for doing the same stupid shit we used to do. ;)

@OldandConfused @mumpsimus obviously that's a paraphrase

@Shutsumon @mumpsimus Yes, that's exactly my point! Young people don't yet realize the old were exactly like them and old people either forget what it was like or resent it because of their own failings/issues. It's an endless cycle. I suppose being middle aged, I (we?) am/are a bit of both? Not sure...

@OldandConfused @mumpsimus I am fortunate I had a mother who took delight in being a hippy and a father who used to tell me about his escapades as a Rocker on Brighton Beach fighting mods. If anything they thought I was too well-behaved.

Unfortunately a lot of middle-aged people also seem to resent the young (and the Greatest Generation never really fell foul of that - perhaps because they'd been through real crap and were happy to see the Boomers being carefreeish.

@Shutsumon @mumpsimus I believe the WW2 gen spoiled their kids by massive overcompensation due to the sheer horror of their lives. Because, holy fuck the stories my grandmother would tell me about her childhood. She had no idea that the sheer awfulness of how she was treated was nightmarish abuse. My grandfather had some fun WW2 stories though and his dad came over from Italy. My dad would tell me how years later he realized how prejudice of Italians people were.

@OldandConfused @Shutsumon America basically started thinking people were worth taking care of after WWII because so many had fought for it. Also hella strong unions, shit like that. So there was lots of social/economic support for people. Boomers were born into this and benefited from it, but the right wing started tearing it apart in the 70s-80s.

@Shutsumon @OldandConfused (Today the only people that it is socially sanctioned for the American government to care about and provide for are veterans, because they "served their country." Well, back in the 40s almost everybody was veterans... and there was more social support for everyone... coincidence? Is America only allowed to care about the people who are part of its military? Has that always been the case?)

@mumpsimus @Shutsumon Oh hell, they don't even care about vets now. The treatment they get is, frankly, appalling.

@OldandConfused @Shutsumon Yeah, I very intentionally didn't say that the government actually *does* take care of verterans, only that it's socially acceptable to *want* it to. :\