4 ms·

I think im general I believe that theory to be true, but that doesn't explain all the well fed boomers that went full Qanon. They have retirement accounts, own

I think im general I believe that theory to be true, but that doesn't explain all the well fed boomers that went full Qanon. They have retirement accounts, own their houses, a few nice vehicles out front, a boat, maybe a second property, etc. These people ended up being Qanon's bread and butter. From the outside in they seem in control of their lives, but maybe it's all a ruse.

api 5y ago
My father said something interesting to me once (he's a boomer of course): "Most people in my generation have this sense somewhere deep inside that they failed, but they're not sure exactly what they failed at." Hunter S. Thompson wrote extensively on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3iKBxJ9vQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3iKBxJ9vQ0 Only a small percentage of that generation were into the specific sort of counterculture Thompson was steeped in, but the whole cultural zeitgeist of the generation was wrapped up in various forms of either political or mystical idealism or a heavily marketed idea that scientific or technological progress would deliver giant miracles in short order. These people expected some kind of big, glorious future and they feel like it just didn't come. Nice retirement accounts and second houses was not "the dream." The dream was something bigger, an "ultimate triumph" as Thompson calls it, and they feel like they never quite reached it. Instead they got the 1970s when it all seemed to crash down in a wave of urban crime, drug hangovers, crazy cults, serial killers of the week, pollution, and stagflation. Keep on truckin'! A good number of them are still looking for "it." Apocalyptic evangelical Christianity with its rapture tapped into this. The unbalanced Internet techno-utopianism of the 90s and Singulatarianism tapped into this. Qanon's language tapped into this. I'm a young gen-Xer or old millennial depending on how you count it. As a rule my generation is a bit jaded on movements and idealism, partly as a reaction to what many of us see as the delusional thinking of our parents. I hope to leave the world better than I found it, but I don't expect some kind of shining utopia to rise from the waves. If we manage to solve the big problems of our era like climate change, sustainability, and wealth inequality, their absence will merely reveal other big problems that were building under the surface. Life is beautiful and fascinating but it's also a perpetual struggle against entropy.

api 5y ago

My father said something interesting to me once (he's a boomer of course): "Most people in my generation have this sense somewhere deep inside that they failed, but they're not sure exactly what they failed at." Hunter S. Thompson wrote extensively on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3iKBxJ9vQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3iKBxJ9vQ0 Only a small percentage of that generation were into the specific sort of counterculture Thompson was steeped in, but the whole cultural zeitgeist of the generation was wrapped up in various forms of either political or mystical idealism or a heavily marketed idea that scientific or technological progress would deliver giant miracles in short order. These people expected some kind of big, glorious future and they feel like it just didn't come. Nice retirement accounts and second houses was not "the dream." The dream was something bigger, an "ultimate triumph" as Thompson calls it, and they feel like they never quite reached it. Instead they got the 1970s when it all seemed to crash down in a wave of urban crime, drug hangovers, crazy cults, serial killers of the week, pollution, and stagflation. Keep on truckin'! A good number of them are still looking for "it." Apocalyptic evangelical Christianity with its rapture tapped into this. The unbalanced Internet techno-utopianism of the 90s and Singulatarianism tapped into this. Qanon's language tapped into this. I'm a young gen-Xer or old millennial depending on how you count it. As a rule my generation is a bit jaded on movements and idealism, partly as a reaction to what many of us see as the delusional thinking of our parents. I hope to leave the world better than I found it, but I don't expect some kind of shining utopia to rise from the waves. If we manage to solve the big problems of our era like climate change, sustainability, and wealth inequality, their absence will merely reveal other big problems that were building under the surface. Life is beautiful and fascinating but it's also a perpetual struggle against entropy.