Amen sister! I had an intern recently- 22 years old, spent his senior year of high school and freshman year of college being pushed through the system without doing the work because of Covid. I have been working in my field longer than he's been alive and yet he was on his phone every time I was trying to teach him something. He subtly (and not so subtly), constantly told me that he knew more than me, and I had nothing to teach him. Oh well, his loss. I thought I knew everything too when I was 22. He'll learn, or he won't. My job was mentor, not friend. Thank you Bridget for writing exactly what I'm going through as a 40-something GenXer ❤️❤️
Know that feeling - I was showing a new employee something, and she started to clean out her purse on her desk. I told her I would get back to her, and that was her break. Then I walked away.
Great article Bridget. I think about similar things with my 20 something children going to no kings protests. I kept my mouth shut. Eventually they will learn that for socialism and communism to work you need a king.
I was born in 1970 in the Midwest. Some see us as fly over states used to bother me no longer does.... Keep flying do not stop here
Most of the content I consume is made by people 40+ years old, because that’s generally how long it takes to make it…and have stuff that I’m interested in hearing about.
I also want to enjoy the niche of my generation’s nostalgia bait. I want sly references to a season 10 episode of South Park.
It’s not a kids-get-off-my-lawn thing to recognize that the culture that I grew up in was better than it is now. Beavis & Butthead > 6-7
I also recognize that Gen Z is in a weird place where smart people who’ve been successful can’t give them life advice because none of use know where life is going. The only real advice is “No one knows what’s going to happen so everyone is winging it and older people are just hoping to secure a retirement before everything falls apart behind them.”
And this chaos is primed for charlatans and narcissists to step up and explain to these confused kids what’s really going on, using the traditional scapegoats.
At the end of the day, there’s no way to stop teenagers from being stupid. The politics of 20-somethings is equally laughable.
But if parents want to sit their kids down to watch Dumpster Fire, maybe it will plant a few seeds.
My son is Gen-Alpha. I'm doing my best to raise him as Gen-X-like as I can. We have long conversations in the car about life. I tell him to go outside in the summer. In couple of years I'll tell him to get lost, but not too lost.
I really hope he's more like me. I loved my grandpa's silly jokes & stories about the old days in my home town. I lost him this year at age 43 & it still wasn't long enough. Wisdom comes from others. I hope telling my boy that will sink in, but he'll be an idiot. Just like me, too.
When I entered the workforce 40 years ago I thought I knew everything. Of course I knew squat. Now I’m trying really hard not to be that person who says “but this is the way we’ve always done things.” Sometimes there’s a reason for that. Every generation thinks they invented the wheel and it’s hard to appreciate the balance between experience and new ideas until you have… experience.
I had a different read on Nick Fuentes. To me, the guy screams “daddy issues.” This was most clear during his interview with Patrick Bet-David, when PBD was basically trying to gentle-parent him and Nick was gazing up at him like a little kid who finally got dad’s attention.
I was born in the 1950s. I'm so sorry that I, a "boomer", invented Social Security, and then wickedly and selfishly made all the houses too expensive. When I was in my twenties, I couldn't afford to buy a house, either, even though they were giving them away back then for about fifty bucks apiece. But that was different. It was my own responsibility to get a better job and make more money, not the fault of people older than me, like it is today. But young people take heart--in just a couple of decades those in my age group will all be gone, and the people being born now in the 2020s will start blaming you for their problems and failures. I wish I could be around to see your faces when you realize how absurd and unfair that is.
Each generation inherits futile ways from those who came before. It takes some years for most to realize what that means and to know their own generation is bequeathing the same, especially, if your group has been taught they can make utopia on earth something real.
Excellent piece. Sums up everything! I am a late Boomer (in the Jones's boomer group from 1955 to 1964). We missed the 50's. I got my weed from my brother (picked the lock to his cabinet and took out "lids"--those $10 ounce baggies). Rode our bikes all over San Francisco--in the summer our Mother's kicked us out the house and we were gone all day. I have met some younger millenials and zoomers who do have it together. It is thre majority of my liberal friends who are insane. Keep up the good work Bridget!!
I've never heard of Generation Jones before, but that is what I am. I’ve always hated being grouped with the boomers who were formed by a very different culture than the one I grew up in. I don't relate to the cultural pivot points the boomers had. Thanks for the reference. It's nice to see where I fit into the mix of generations.
Tucker Carlson has changed so much in the last four years. First it was his story that a demon came to his bed and when he awoke his body was scratched up. Then it was him quoting scripture 20 times an hour, plus I needed a clicker to count the times he said the name Jesus. I think religion is a private thing. The endless over laugh and cackling. He also gets some weird guests as you mentioned. I do not know how he can relate to the young. I think Megan Kelly along with Candace Owen are in the same boat.
It's odd that both Carlson and Kamala cackle and both live in a made up headspace. Genuine religion isn't something put on as a display but it isn't only private either if it means something real to the person. Tucker is hard to figure and MK is impossible to understand at this point.
Amen sister! I had an intern recently- 22 years old, spent his senior year of high school and freshman year of college being pushed through the system without doing the work because of Covid. I have been working in my field longer than he's been alive and yet he was on his phone every time I was trying to teach him something. He subtly (and not so subtly), constantly told me that he knew more than me, and I had nothing to teach him. Oh well, his loss. I thought I knew everything too when I was 22. He'll learn, or he won't. My job was mentor, not friend. Thank you Bridget for writing exactly what I'm going through as a 40-something GenXer ❤️❤️
Know that feeling - I was showing a new employee something, and she started to clean out her purse on her desk. I told her I would get back to her, and that was her break. Then I walked away.
Okay, maybe I do have a tribe and it’s this. Good writing, Bridget!
One generation plants the tree and next gets the shade . But damn if this new bunch can’t stop bitching about how the trees got planted
Love this - it's so true, and I hope you won't mind if I use it from time to time. It's a fantastic take!
Can you blame them, some twisted trees out there
Great piece clearly summing up the nonsense we are drenched with.
Bridget , you and Sasha are my favorite podcasters, and I rate your two themes as profoundly true:
1) don't take yourself so damn seriously (you)
2) to thine own self be true (Sasha via Hamlet)
But I miss Scott Adams 😢
You are on quite the roll lately …
We should check if she's on roids. We've been hurt too many times. Is she a chuck Norris or a lance Armstrong, this is the question.
Great article Bridget. I think about similar things with my 20 something children going to no kings protests. I kept my mouth shut. Eventually they will learn that for socialism and communism to work you need a king.
I was born in 1970 in the Midwest. Some see us as fly over states used to bother me no longer does.... Keep flying do not stop here
Haha
Drank out of hoses and came in when the streetlights came on. I belong here. Thanks.
Most of the content I consume is made by people 40+ years old, because that’s generally how long it takes to make it…and have stuff that I’m interested in hearing about.
I also want to enjoy the niche of my generation’s nostalgia bait. I want sly references to a season 10 episode of South Park.
It’s not a kids-get-off-my-lawn thing to recognize that the culture that I grew up in was better than it is now. Beavis & Butthead > 6-7
I also recognize that Gen Z is in a weird place where smart people who’ve been successful can’t give them life advice because none of use know where life is going. The only real advice is “No one knows what’s going to happen so everyone is winging it and older people are just hoping to secure a retirement before everything falls apart behind them.”
And this chaos is primed for charlatans and narcissists to step up and explain to these confused kids what’s really going on, using the traditional scapegoats.
At the end of the day, there’s no way to stop teenagers from being stupid. The politics of 20-somethings is equally laughable.
But if parents want to sit their kids down to watch Dumpster Fire, maybe it will plant a few seeds.
My son is Gen-Alpha. I'm doing my best to raise him as Gen-X-like as I can. We have long conversations in the car about life. I tell him to go outside in the summer. In couple of years I'll tell him to get lost, but not too lost.
I really hope he's more like me. I loved my grandpa's silly jokes & stories about the old days in my home town. I lost him this year at age 43 & it still wasn't long enough. Wisdom comes from others. I hope telling my boy that will sink in, but he'll be an idiot. Just like me, too.
When I entered the workforce 40 years ago I thought I knew everything. Of course I knew squat. Now I’m trying really hard not to be that person who says “but this is the way we’ve always done things.” Sometimes there’s a reason for that. Every generation thinks they invented the wheel and it’s hard to appreciate the balance between experience and new ideas until you have… experience.
I had a different read on Nick Fuentes. To me, the guy screams “daddy issues.” This was most clear during his interview with Patrick Bet-David, when PBD was basically trying to gentle-parent him and Nick was gazing up at him like a little kid who finally got dad’s attention.
I was born in the 1950s. I'm so sorry that I, a "boomer", invented Social Security, and then wickedly and selfishly made all the houses too expensive. When I was in my twenties, I couldn't afford to buy a house, either, even though they were giving them away back then for about fifty bucks apiece. But that was different. It was my own responsibility to get a better job and make more money, not the fault of people older than me, like it is today. But young people take heart--in just a couple of decades those in my age group will all be gone, and the people being born now in the 2020s will start blaming you for their problems and failures. I wish I could be around to see your faces when you realize how absurd and unfair that is.
Each generation inherits futile ways from those who came before. It takes some years for most to realize what that means and to know their own generation is bequeathing the same, especially, if your group has been taught they can make utopia on earth something real.
Excellent piece. Sums up everything! I am a late Boomer (in the Jones's boomer group from 1955 to 1964). We missed the 50's. I got my weed from my brother (picked the lock to his cabinet and took out "lids"--those $10 ounce baggies). Rode our bikes all over San Francisco--in the summer our Mother's kicked us out the house and we were gone all day. I have met some younger millenials and zoomers who do have it together. It is thre majority of my liberal friends who are insane. Keep up the good work Bridget!!
I've never heard of Generation Jones before, but that is what I am. I’ve always hated being grouped with the boomers who were formed by a very different culture than the one I grew up in. I don't relate to the cultural pivot points the boomers had. Thanks for the reference. It's nice to see where I fit into the mix of generations.
Great post, and I'm probably twice your age.
Kudos...
This is too real. I'm happy I get to throw you a few bucks every month.
You can even be spiteful, money is money ;)
Tucker Carlson has changed so much in the last four years. First it was his story that a demon came to his bed and when he awoke his body was scratched up. Then it was him quoting scripture 20 times an hour, plus I needed a clicker to count the times he said the name Jesus. I think religion is a private thing. The endless over laugh and cackling. He also gets some weird guests as you mentioned. I do not know how he can relate to the young. I think Megan Kelly along with Candace Owen are in the same boat.
It's odd that both Carlson and Kamala cackle and both live in a made up headspace. Genuine religion isn't something put on as a display but it isn't only private either if it means something real to the person. Tucker is hard to figure and MK is impossible to understand at this point.