Posted on 10/19/2022 4:39:50 PM PDT by libh8er
Look, we have heard all the jokes. We know how you talk about us. And now you are saying there might never be a Gen-X President (as if Donald Trump did some sort of credit to his generation in that role).
The thing is, WE DON’T CARE. You know this about us. Because we get it, and you likely don’t.
We have been described as some kind of neglected middle child between boomers and the Millennials, but we are not your mother’s Jan Brady (or our own, frankly). We were the first generation to experience a high volume of moms working outside the home, divorced parents and friends coming safely out of the closet. We were the last generation to have a technology free childhood and to learn patience waiting for Saturday morning cartoons or a favorite song to come on the radio.
We were the first generation to write papers on computers and the last generation to use typewriters. We were the last generation to know a time when a missed call was a missed call and the first generation to play video games. We were the last generation who spent a largely unsupervised childhood on dangerous playground equipment.
We were the first generation to grow up with the diversity of Sesame Street, the lessons in community from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and the brilliant bonkers of Electric Company.
We GET IT.
Our unique positioning in history gave us a perspective that some of you are still struggling to understand—and this spans ALL generations, not just those older than us. Because some of you who are younger than we are just don’t get what it was like BEFORE we came along and some of you who are older than us refuse to process new information, So let me break this down for you—we did a LOT of heavy lifting so you all didn’t have to.
And we’re exhausted.
You know that statistic that people love to quote (even if it is no longer true?) You know, the one about 50% of marriages ending in divorce? Yeah, well—that was OUR parents. So we “got” that marriage was a social construct and not a holy mandate WAY before the rest of you.
The first openly gay TV character appeared during our childhoods. Ditto for the first openly gay elected official. AIDS was first detected as we were entering our adolescence and sexual awakening years–we were the first generation to become sexually active with this specter over our heads.
“Roots” was first aired during our childhoods. We were the generation that grew up watching “The Jeffersons”, “What’s Happening”, “Good Times” and “Sanford and Son”. We were the first kids who grew up in a country with civil rights laws.
We were the first generation to grow up back when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Not that we took it for granted; we marched (yes, I personally) in D.C. in 1989 in what was at the time one of the largest political rallies in U.S. history..
We were the first generation that grew up knowing Mom could bring home the bacon.
We were the MTV Generation; our teenage years were flooded with images of gender fluid icons like Bowie, Boy George, Grace Jones and Prince.
We were the first generation that saw men and women enrolled in college in equal numbers.
We were the first generation to be taught about environmental sustainability from a young age – that’s recycling and land management to global warming. We are the generation MOST likely to consider sustainability factors when investing.
WE. GET. IT.
Our childhoods featured the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, Three Mile Island meltdown, the Jonestown massacre, and Iranian hostage crisis. We waited in the backseat of the car for hours just to get gas.
Our teenage years saw the Challenger disaster, Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
As young adults, we were in the cross hairs of Operation Desert Storm.
When 9/11 happened, we were most of the boots on the ground. We were many of the victims.
We were the last generation to graduate from high school before the escalation of school shootings began and the first generation to send our children into schools with this threat hanging over us as the norm.
Trickle Down Economics (the other big lie) destroyed the middle class before we even had our sea legs underneath us. We are the first American generation who have not improved on our parent’s financial situation because wages stagnated while inflation skyrocketed. We were the last generation to get an affordable college education.
Gen-X broke new ground in music (RIP Kurt Cobain and Tupac Shakur), comedy (Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Mindy Kaling), innovation (Elon Musk, Sergey Brin & Larry Page, ), athletics (Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Venus and Serena Williams), journalism (Julian Assange, Anderson Cooper), film and TV (Joss Whedon, Kevin Williamson, JJ Abrams, Wes Anderson) and where would we be without John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Robert Downey Jr, Christian Bale, Will Smith, Ryan Gosling, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Drew Barrymore and literally 100s of others of what will most likely be the final generation of true Hollywood stars.
And the children we have raised are groundbreakers–rejecting gender stereotypes, patriarchal rule and systemic discrimination in very loud voices. They GET that race, gender and even heterosexuality are social constructs.
We raised them this way because WE GET IT.
And while you were making those “you want fries with that?” jokes about us, we were quietly living up to one of the anthems of our youth: Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
We did it so quietly, you never even noticed. We barely noticed ourselves. Because we were just being who we are.
If you doubt any of what I am saying here, you can just Google it. Thanks to Gen X.
And now we can unapologetically say–YOU’RE WELCOME.
And if you don’t know why, it’s just because you don’t get it.
Gen X is the last generation which was not 100% miseducated like the Moronials and Generation zzzzzz
And now you are saying there might never be a Gen-X President (as if Donald Trump did some sort of credit to his generation in that role).
I read that and thought that she was saying that Trump was effectively a GenX president. He had sort of a GenX sense of humor and familiarity with the media. I see now that she was making a dig at him, even though he was the best president of this century.
Obama was sort of a GenX president. He was born in 1961, but had more in common with Americans born in 1971, 1981, or 1991 than with Americans born in 1951 or 1961.
So did GenX "get it" before the rest of us? Well first of all, "generations" only cover so much. Whatever your generation, you didn't do the things other people in your generation did.
Secondly, GenX did grow up with a lot of the ideas and social developments we are going through now. But they didn't necessarily want to take them any further. You could grow up with divorced parents and not want to be divorced yourself. You could have friends of different races and sexualities without accepting every racial and LGBT idea.
Did many Xer parents really raise their kids to believe that race, gender and even heterosexuality are social constructs? And do those kids really think that way about race?
I rented a car in Germany 8 years ago, and it was a stick, the memories flooded back.
China (the world’s largest car sales market by far) is about 65% automatics and rising.
59 here but yea, I was raised on most of that too.
I’m a Gen Xer and my friends and I were worried about others our age pushing political correctness in the 90s. And the boomers told us it would never amount to anything. You reap what you sow.
This person is what used to correctly be called a “useful idiot”.
I’d say she’s also a regular idiot.
outsourcing to China is what hurt the working class taking away its middle-class status. I won’t say destroy the middle class because it is still here and is mad along with those in the working class that 30 years ago would have been considered middle class... new moto for 2024 presidential election Make working class middle class again.
Is there a point to this screed? WTF?
This is the most pointless thing I’ve read all month.
Dear Kara Post-Kennedy,
Hate to see a fellow Gen-X so thoroughly indoctrinated by liberalism. How did you not learn that almost everything you hear, see, and read, is a lie, carefully curated to produce your “opinions” that you now preach like a good little drone? Do you remember Tiananmen Square or were you too busy marching for the “pro choice” movement? Where were you during the Clinton years how did that not wake you up to the rot and deception of liberalism?
Whatever, I don’t really care about your opinion much, because I actually do get it. Take your hyphenated name and your “white patriarchy gender social construct” liberal indoctrination and jam it.
I am in the middle of GenX. Some of the writer’s observations are true and some are a product of the state. Either way - not into generational wars.
Every generation has admirable features and ugly characteristics. It may be that the 15 to 25 year olds get us out of the crap that has been created.
My first presidential vote was for Barry Goldwater.
I’m totally embarrassed that the current occupant of the White House is a member of my generation.
Some trivia.
In 1968 the Democrats won 47% of the (21) to 29 year old vote, in 1972, they won 46% of the 18 to 29 age group, in 1976, after Watergate, and with the weak, moderate (and under suspicion) Ford, against what appeared to be a social conservative Democrat with a strong military back ground, the Democrats picked up 51% of the 18 to 29 year old vote.
My parents had a party line until the early or mid 80s. Rotary dial into the 90s.
Why do boomers get 20 years but Xers only get 15? Realistically at generation should be something like 25 years, but certainly no less than 20 years.
Those born in the late 60s and early 70s did. Can’t speak for those born after that.
We get hosed. Whatever, we’ve got Mtv...
:)
“And the children we have raised are groundbreakers–rejecting gender stereotypes, patriarchal rule and systemic discrimination in very loud voices. They GET that race, gender and even heterosexuality are social constructs.”
So if gender is a social construct, how come so many girls are getting their breasts removed and growing beards as a solution? Why use a biological “solution” for a social problem.
Sounds like this Gen Xer has both drunk the Kool-aid and mainlined it.
That is one silly Self-centered d-bag. Bragging about his/her own perceptiveness. (Mom must be saying, “My child is so cute and clever.)
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