- cross-posted to:
- futurology
- cross-posted to:
- futurology
- Boomers are having their last dance in charge.
- Gen X leaders are stepping up to replace the last of them.
- Younger leaders are taking charge of politics and corporate giants such as Boeing, HSBC, and Costco.
Even if Harris were Gen X, this would be premature.
checking the average age of the House, the Senate, and the Gubernatorial slate
Awww…
As a member of Generation X, I would say that it’s not going to be much better.
Just look at, say, Elon Musk as an example of the kind of people from my generation who get to positions of influence.
Most GenX are the product of the Neoliberal era, so have interiorized the whole “lookout for numero uno” idea of how to be in society and whilst commonly aware of things like Climate Change, they’re usually unwilling to inconvenience themselves for the sake of fighting against it, quite the contrary even (just look at how well SUVs sell), and similarly when it comes to Consumerism, they seem to be the most prone to wasteful consumption (the kind of people who replace their mobile phones every year or two).
In summary, Gen X generally are more well informed than Boomers but even less principled than them.
Elon Musk as an example of the kind of people from my generation
Elon’s an Afrikkkaner fratbro social media junky with $200B to his name. That’s just not the lived experience of most Americans.
Most GenX are the product of the Neoliberal era
They’re nostalgic for the 90s, because it was a time of relative abundance. They’re not all Chicago Economics School trade globalists with a hard on for abolishing the minimum wage and privatizing social security, because none of them stand to benefit from any of that shit.
they’re usually unwilling to inconvenience themselves for the sake of fighting against it
You’ve got a selection bias. The GenXers who fought the fiercest got crushed the hardest. Prisons are choke full of social revolutionaries who got swept up in the 90s/00s Law and Order era. Hospital wards are full of GenXers pumped full of opioids to treat work-injuries and heavy metal poisoning. Morgues are full of GenXers who died in the service sector job filling lunch orders during COVID or were wiped out in the AIDS epidemic before it was treatable.
Losing doesn’t mean you weren’t fighting. It just means you were outnumbered, outspent, and outmaneuvered. For every Kamala Harris or Ron DeSantis who climbed up through the bowels of the system to live in its head, there are thousands who got crushed under its feet.
Gen X generally are more well informed than Boomers but even less principled
The folks you’re seeing are simply the ones that made themselves useful to the ruling class. One thing the GenX crowd was right about - the Revolution wasn’t televised. It was a war fought and lost in the back alleys and the boiler rooms and the darkest cells of solitary confinement. If the GenX capitalist class is looking extra cynical, that may be thanks to all of their relatives and neighbors they had to stack up like cordwood to reach these heights.
Gen X isnt much better tbh. They grew up during the golden age of the boomer era where society had not started to breakdown yet. Some of them may have progressive views, but I bet it won’t be until millenials are in charge that we start to see meaningful change. Gen Z will really get into progressivism I bet.
The median age of the senate is 65. The article is just cherry picking.