"OK, Boomer": Are Boomers Solely to Blame for Our National Decline?
(Rockaboatus) As the U.S. continues to decline from its once worldwide recognition of greatness and continues to swirl down the proverbial toilet bowl, many Americans point their fingers at the Boomer generation (born ~1945–~1964) as the source of all our economic and social woes.
Whether it’s all the wars and conflicts after WW2 that America has engaged in, the problems associated with funding social security, the rise and dominance of liberal social policies, rampant crime and homelessness throughout much of the nation, widespread racial discord, the decline of the U.S. dollar, and massive corruption among those in congress, Boomers are often blamed for it all — or at least most of it.
An array of memes mocking and disparaging Boomers has flooded much of social media as a result. TikTok, in 2019, helped to popularize the phrase, “OK, boomer,” a sarcastic dismissal of anyone born in that generation and the outdated ideas they might espouse. This has resulted in a generational conflict between Boomers and those of other generations, such as Generation X (1965–1980), Millennials (1981–1996), and Generation Z (1997–current).
Gen Xer, Bruce Gibney, has gone as far as to describe the Boomer generation as a “generation of sociopaths” in his not-so-subtle book, A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America (Hachette Book Group, 2017). The author argues that America was hijacked by the reckless self-indulgence of Boomers who had little concern for future generations of Americans, leading to the complete erosion of American prosperity. The boomers, according to Gibney, “have committed generational plunder, pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created” (Sean Illing, “How the Baby Boomers – Not Millennials – Screwed America,” Vox, 10/26/2019).
Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, has likewise stated that the baby boomers “grew up in an era when there was something close to full employment almost all the time. Wages were going up along with productivity, and productivity was going up very fast. Incomes were growing at the rate of 2 percent a year, something that we haven’t seen since. . . . The baby boom happened to get older at the same time that America adopted an economic model that was actually pretty counter-productive, which did not actually produce rising wages and incomes for people at a very good clip, that enhanced inequality” (Ben White, “How the Baby Boomers Broke America,” Politico, 10/26/2019).
My purpose in this article is not to justify all that the Boomer generation has done — whether for good or for bad — but to show that much of the criticism directed at them is both shortsighted and deeply prejudicial. For many people who blame prior generations for their current problems, it’s a convenient excuse and perhaps even an escape from having to face their own failures. We want to blame and condemn them but have little understanding of the times and unique circumstances that contributed to their outlook and motives.
This is not to say that Boomers have been right about everything because they obviously haven’t been (which generation is?). In fairness to Gibney and other critics, the Boomer generation has indeed been marked by excessive materialism and greed—ironic given that they grew up in the 1960s’ counter-cultural revolution. They have, seemingly, cared little about America’s future generations as they’ve exploited economic markets and resources for their own immediate gain. They have willingly supported a plethora of America’s unjust wars across the globe. Boomers have also been great advocates of the destructive liberal zeitgeist that has driven the nation into a cesspool of moral filth and degeneracy. The narcissism and self-entitlement of today’s Gen-Xers and Millennials is largely attributable to the poor parenting of Boomers.
Whether it’s feminism, gay rights, gay marriage, or Transgender rights, massive numbers of Boomers have backed it all. Boomers have also largely supported non-White immigration to the U.S., racial “equality” laws, including federal policies giving preferences to minorities over Whites. Boomers have, generally, been big supporters of Israel, a country that routinely commits humanitarian crimes against Palestinians and which has a political stranglehold on our nation’s congress. Many of these same Boomers are devout Christians who broadly support Zionism.
More examples could be given, but it does little good to deny that a great number of Boomers have contributed to our national decline, and the serious problems we now face both socially and economically. Despite this, some deeper questions and considerations must be addressed if we’re going to be fair to this subject.
Whatever fingers might be pointed at Boomers, are the Gen-X, Millennial, and Gen-Z generations any better? A whole lot of justifiable criticism could be directed at them too, but what would that really accomplish except pitting White Americans from different generations against one another? Gender confusion and racial self-abasement are far more common among the younger generations than the boomers. Every generation has both good and bad people among them, and the Boomer generation in this regard is no different.
The Boomer years, despite their failings, produced many good and decent people. There were great scientific discoveries and new technologies that were invented as well. A good many of those same Boomers were brave and honorable men and women. Yes, they fought in several unjustifiable wars, but would those of the Gen-X, Millennial or Gen-Z generations — given the same circumstances, influences, and worldview as the Boomers — done any differently? In fact, the Xers, and Millennials have also willingly marched off to fight our neocon-inspired wars.
The assumption by many to think Boomers had it easy is false. Most Boomers, I’m inclined to believe, struggled through life to make something of themselves. They worked long and hard and, thus, were rewarded for their efforts. If any generation of Americans had it easy, it’s probably those born during the Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z eras when the U.S. was at its pinnacle in terms of national wealth and innovative technologies.
It’s also important to note that Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z were born during the era of the Internet and, thus, had access to mountainous amounts of information about their own government and every conceivable subject under the sun by the simple touch of a computer key. None of this information was accessible to those of the Boomer generation until the mid-1990s when, on average, they were much older in age and settled in their beliefs.
Boomers, prior to the Internet, had to really work hard to find the kinds of taboo subjects labeled “conspiratorial” by today’s gatekeepers of information and acceptable beliefs. Many libraries did not carry dissident authors, and truth-seekers were dependent on snail mail to get the books and articles they wanted. Comparably few resources were available to them, and it was the rare person indeed who grasped the kinds of truths that we as dissidents understand today.
Most Boomers, I suspect, had no interest in such matters and probably were completely unaware that there was another side to almost everything they had come to believe about their government, its history, its many wars, and who or what group had come to control its national and foreign policies. This is what made the American champions on behalf of our people from “the Greatest Generation” (1901–1927), “the Silent Generation” (1928–1945) and the Boomer generation so great, such as Charles Lindbergh, William Pierce, George Lincoln Rockwell, Wilmot Robertson (pen name of Humphrey Ireland), David Duke, Sam Dickson, Jared Taylor, Kevin MacDonald, and many others because they stood against the rising tide of globalism, American imperialism with its warmongering abroad, and “racial equality” dogma that had gripped much of the nation.
Boomers, interestingly, were not as stubbornly obstinate toward racial realities as some claim. A good many of them rightly understood that Blacks and Whites were fundamentally different, and that federal laws enforcing “diversity” would only serve to exacerbate racial divisions throughout the U.S. This was common knowledge among most Americans prior to the 1970s, but that would change as the nation came under the spell of deceptive and revolutionary new ideas about race and “equality.” Republicans often campaigned on tough-on-crime policies, anti-abortion, and opposition to illegal immigration (sadly, not to legal immigration), but once in office they toed the liberal line and didn’t rock the boat.
There were circumstances, no doubt, that contributed to this national naiveté. Boomers grew up in an era when there was a greater trust among the American people toward its own government. It was a time of greater innocence (so to speak). The nation was racially homogenous, and there was generally a Christian consensus among most Americans in terms of right and wrong. Prosperity was increasing, and the living standards among Americans had improved greatly. The materialism, decadence, and degeneracy that was to be the mark of later generations had not fully taken root. White Americans were not yet conditioned to hate themselves, their country, and their race. That would come later in the 1960s toward the end of the Boomer generation.
When boomers were growing up, TV sets could only tune in to the three major networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC—all owned by Jews and spouting the liberal line. Most people got their information about national and world events from the nightly news which was generally skewed to promote only what the powers-that-be wanted Americans to know. The same could be said about America’s most respected newspapers which all adhered to the same liberal narrative. Alternative or dissident history books were a rarity too. Most libraries did not carry controversial dissident books that challenged the prevailing historical and political narrative.
Culture matters, and most boomers were programmed by the hostile, substantially Jewish elite that controlled the media and academic discourse. For the same reason Gen-Zers are much more likely than previous generations to have gender dysphoria and opt for sex-change operations.
Thus, it’s understandable why Boomers, including those of prior generations, were so trusting of their government and were so willing to fight in America’s unjust wars. They really didn’t know any better. Granted, a growing number of Americans were opposed to enriching the military industrial complex, especially during the Vietnam era. Yet most Americans still thought their government was trustworthy and had their best interests at heart. They still believed that what Walter Cronkite on the nightly news told them was reliable and truthful. Everything in their lives, so they thought, buttressed their most basic assumptions, their worldview, and how they interpreted national and world events.
Are we to believe, then, that the generations of Americans that came after the Boomer generation would have fared better had they lived during the same historical period? Would they have really been less materialistic, less greedy, and less self-indulgent as the Boomers? Would they have consciously thought of the plight of future generations of Americans and, thereby, curbed their desire to “pillage the nation’s economy”? I find this highly doubtful.
A sizable number of the older or “leading edge” Boomers (1945–mid-1950s) were supportive of ‘Jim Crow’ (1870s–1965) and ‘Sundown’ (1915–early 1970s) laws, especially in the South—laws that kept Blacks outside of White society. This is often cited as a clear example of where Boomers unjustly and selfishly exploited others for their own good. It was not until the social revolution of the 1960s that such racially discriminatory laws were rejected by most Americans, but over vigorous opposition in the South.
If anything, however, “leading edge” Boomers and especially those of “the Greatest Generation” and “the Silent Generation” were right to bar Blacks from their societies. This not only helped to keep miscegenation at low levels, but it prevented Blacks from destroying and making unsafe the grand metropolises that Whites had built.
This is understandably hard for many people to accept. Most people want to feel as if we are free of racial bias and accepting of all. Yet, when such harsh racial realities as the need for separating Whites from Blacks are ignored, it isn’t long before it leads to the demise of that same society. Isn’t this precisely what we are witnessing today?
Large numbers of Boomers and those of prior generations inevitably caved to relentless public pressure, including from the courts which outlawed all racial discrimination and prevented freedom of association based on race. Many of these same Boomers, consequently, went to the opposite extreme by fully embracing racial diversity, and voting for laws and social policies that ran counter to their own racial interests as Whites (e.g., racial quotas, preferential hiring for minorities, forced busing, unlimited Third-World immigration, etc.).
Yet, by giving Blacks the same freedoms as Whites—as well as granting them full access to White society—“leading edge” Boomers and those of the “Greatest” and “Silent” generations guaranteed the inevitable ruin of their once grand cities. Today, many American cities that only a decade earlier were considered safe places to live, are now as unsafe and crime-ridden—Detroit, Birmingham, Chicago (especially the South Side), Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Oakland. This is not the result of Amish farmers nor Swedish tourists, but of criminal Blacks who have been weaponized by the powers-that-be against the greater White majority. Blacks in America have been emboldened to commit skyrocketing levels of crime and violence while a weak, politically correct criminal justice system looks the other way.
Those who instituted ‘Jim Crow’ laws knew something about Blacks that the current generation is woefully ignorant of—namely, their inherent criminal proclivities and their dysfunctional families. Spending billions to civilize Blacks as our federal government has sought to do for the past five decades, has proven fruitless and a complete waste of taxpayer resources. IQ gaps and educational achievement levels have remained the same or gotten worse—despite repeated promises by social scientists to end the disparities, a reality that has now resulted in the push for “equity” because equal opportunity simply doesn’t end the gaps. Blacks have largely proven to be unassimilable to White societal expectations in terms of education and general standards of civility. No amount of funding, good will, or collective effort has managed to bring Blacks to parity with Whites in this regard. This is because the two races are fundamentally different, and every effort to make us the same is as futile as trying to place a square peg in a round hole.
It’s also important to note that the level of deception by our government only gradually increased as Jewish power took root. This didn’t occur overnight. Many Americans were unable to discern what was occurring to them and its cultural implications for the nation. The entire program was presented in the loftiest moral terms. Just as today, to dissent was to be a bad person in the eyes of the political, media, and academic establishment.
It’s argued by some that Boomers were guilty of promoting social changes that proved disastrous to Heritage Americans such as the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. The problem with this is that the average Boomer age was two years old, and no Boomer served on the Supreme Court at that time. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is cited as another example, yet the average Boomer was only twelve during that period. The same could be said about the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. The median Boomer age was only thirteen.
Thus, many of the societal and economic problems alleged against Boomers should more aptly be ascribed to those of the “Greatest” and “Silent” generations. It was, in fact, those of “the [so-called] Greatest Generation” that fought in WWII and, thereby, consolidated Jewish power which set in motion the creation of the State of Israel. Instead of blaming Boomers, then, perhaps we should blame the “Greatest” and “Silent” generations for all that has gone wrong? Yet what good would this do? Would those of later generations have chosen differently given the same set of circumstances and influences as those living during the era of “the Greatest Generation”? There’s no compelling reason to believe this, especially when one considers that human nature hasn’t changed.
Humans, regardless of what generation they are part of, are still dull-minded, selfish, greedy, intellectually dishonest, and indifferent about social and political matters. Prosperity and comfort are no guarantee that people will choose wisely and embrace the Truth. Quite the opposite, in fact, since wealth often tends to blind us to what’s truly important in life, and well-off people are largely averse to rocking the boat.
Although it’s true that some young people today have come to embrace racial realities that many Boomers have rejected (thanks in large part to the Internet!), there are still an alarming number of younger Americans who adhere to ‘woke’ and radical anarchist beliefs (e.g., Antifa) despite there existing a huge amount of information readily available that discredits such Leftist ideologies. What, then, is their excuse? In fact, young people are more likely to vote for leftist policies than their elders. And Hollywood and the media routinely paint the 1950s—a time prosperity and intact families—as the epitome of evil.
Millennials and Gen-Z may in fact be more culpable than the Boomers since they’ve had a long span of history to observe the destructive nature of liberal social values implemented during the 1960s. They could easily look back and see all that had gone horribly wrong. More information has been accessible to them from which to learn important social and political lessons than all prior generations. Will the generation after Gen-Z condemn them just as they had condemned the Boomers since they had fallen to a ruinous ‘woke’ agenda, one which has caused so much dissension, confusion and pain to the nation?
If one is looking to condemn prior generations of Americans for their failings, they can find plenty of reasons in the plethora of books and articles denouncing Boomers. Before doing so, however, they might want to first think long and hard about the role their own generation played in bringing about our national demise.
(Republished from The Occidental Observer by permission of author or representative)
