Boomers in the 80s and 90s were fucking depressed. They described their lives as a boring, soul-crushing existence where they did the same hollow shit day in and day out. They hated their bosses, they hated their jobs, their kids, their wife/husband. People had "Mid-life crises" where they tried to fill the void with "a fast car and a young hot fling." things capitalism told them would make them happy. It didn't.
Seriously listen to any media made by boomers when they were in their 30s-50s. It's all jokes about how fucking mundane life is.
Even at its peak, life under capitalism was hollow and soul crushing.
They were basically taught "as long as you keep your head down and play the game, we won't hurt you financially"
Sure, (if you were white and male) you had money, but it took everything else away. Community, friendship, family. Trapped them in a gilded cage. Having to watch their children having even that promise of financial stability ripped from them. And don't get me started on how terrible it was if you weren't a white dude.
I have to wonder if the "selfish, childish boomer" stereotype is something of a coping mechanism. Maybe some boomers are like that because thats their jokerfication.
I think our perspectives are being skewed here a bit by media. Media is generally made by very introspective people who think about their lives a lot and therefore tend to have more existential malaise. Well that's the sympathetic way of putting it, the less sympathetic way is saying they're kinda narcissistic and up their own ass.
So they all hated it cuz it was soul sucking. The less creative Boomers and Gen Xers I've meet have pretty found memories of the 80s and early 90s, they had cash, music and movies were good, there was coke and cars and women with big hair. They fucking loved it.
If you were hedonistic and not really interested in things being much "deeper" than that, it was a good time.
You have a good point here, but you have to wonder how many of the people who say they loved the era actually did. Someone who takes things at face value like that and doesn't discuss whatever introspective thoughts they have wouldn't tell a lot of people if they found their life underwhelming or empty.
My parents and their friends can't shut up about how great the 80s were.
Even older leftists I've met have expressed some 80s nostalgia. Heck I'll be honest, even as a child of the 90s there's some shit about the 80s that seems cool. A lot of my favorite movies and music came from the 80s, and being able to buy a house with a job you could get straight out of high school probably rocked!
I think maybe we're actually talking about the 90s more than the 80s here. In the 90s the cracks on the system started to show more and while things were still good for kkkracker middle class kids it was becoming clearly how a lot of it was build on bullshit. There was rebelliousness in the 80s but it was always more cartoony and bohemian.
I think objectively the 60s were the best decade to be alive for the average mayo (in any country not just US)
average female heights started declining after 1970 in every mayo country on earth so I think it's pretty clear that something happened then
I was young and the ideal age to consume 80s and 90s products and I especially fucking hated the 90s as I lived them
Well yes but you also are the kind of person who found and (very frequently) posts on HexBear. If you were a slop gobbling piggy you may have felt different.
I was a naive smug "the only reason people do bad things is they are not educated enough" liberal in the late 90s. Does that count?
spoiler
Getting tear gassed as a protester in the cool zone in 1999 changed that somewhat.
Wtf were you doing in the 80s? Coke?
High fructose corn syrup, mostly.