I remember once reading a Frank Miller rant in one of the Sin City comics, where he was describing boomers as being overly liberal, like “social justice warriors”, referencing what boomers represented in American universities. I was reading it some 20 years after the comic was released, and it was quite funny because by then boomers were associated with being overly conservative and greedy real estate hoarders and short-term-profit CEOs, with complete disregard for everything else (not that this was anything new, it just felt like they had doubled down on the worst features of the previous generation).

I always viewed Gen X as a mix of cynicism and geek culture, and in those battles that arose online, mainly between Boomers and Millennials, Gen X was the “chill” gen. However, now that the majority of CEOs are Gen X, we are seeing an unprecedented mass surveillance and data-collection economy, like fucking Gen Xers want complete control over everyone. And yeah, I think Gen X is going to be remembered for that, just as Boomers are being remembered as completely out-of-touch greedy conservatives with consolidate wealth instead of for the cultural changes they led in the 60s and 70s.

It seems that in early Web 2.0, Millennials were associated with “social justice warriors”. Inclusivity and visibility seemed like very Millennial concerns, but when I see places like 4chan and 9gag, I realize it’s not kids there, it’s a bunch o resented people in their 30s and 40s, the Culture War is a very Millennial thing, it was industrialized, became a performance, and when in power, that generation will probably be remembered for hate.

It seems like we are not remembered for when our generation was the opposition, but for what it did when it became the establishment. What do you think?

edit:

The changes that increased the disassociation between wages and productivity came before Boomers had any control, they just managed to enjoy an economy before speculative markets became completely unrealistic and out of hand. If voting could do anything (talking about how Gen X is outnumbered by Boomers and Millennials), I guess Millennials would have already voted that companies can’t own housing and for progressive property taxation to stop the hoarding and make houses affordable again. Older Gen X was the last generation able to acquire property before current absurd markets. Millennials are the last generation to have a glimpse of what is “owning” stuff, although only superfluous things, so I don’t think Gen Z and α will have this attrition with Millennials - the Millennials equivalent of “Ok Boomer” will probably be about complaining about black and transgender characters on TV shows and not condescending outdated unrealistic speeches about wages and expenses.
However, Gen Z is coming to adulthood in a world where you own shit, everything is a subscription model you have to pay forever, and this economic model, even if you can root it before Gen X, is being developed, pushed, and becoming the standard by Gen X… so in this post I’m seeing a lot of Gen X people quite mad at this suggestion, but I’m sure Boomers that heavily identify themselves with the cultural zeitgeist of their generation are also quite mad at what “Boomers” represent in today’s politics… why do you think it won’t happen to you? “Ok Xer”.