Being a mom who required our kids to EARN their pocket money - they did extra chores for cash. Regular chores are part of belonging to a family. My response to any argument of 'so and so gets an allowance' was that no one deserves money, that someone else has worked to earn, just because they are taking in oxygen. Safe to say I'm firmly NOT in the camp of enabling entitlement!
Said children grew up to obtain college degrees that THEY paid for and now hold solid jobs, live on their own, and manage quite responsibly as young adults. (yep - proud mom, thankful for God's grace and good kids!)
I tried something like that. Their mother wanted to be their friend and do homework for them, and now one doesn't have any ambition to expand, learn new things, and one of the others is content as a bar tender, despite being whip smart. Two of them are probably doing good. (Animosity towards me for the divorce), and one is trying to do her best and her game playing husband is finally stepping up and having a stable job while raising three great kids. Her inlaws live much closer to her than I do, and help out a lot out of convenience to her. If I lived that close, she'd be asking me more.
Thanks, Jenna, for putting into words my frustration with Boomers, other countries, illegal aliens, and my sisters and a nephew (who received huge help from me in the form of paying for the building of a barn and full college tuition but who have yet to say thank you or consider paying it back, but who never seem to have the change to buy me a coffee), and anyone else who feels entitled. Every American should be profoundly grateful to Trump for putting our house in order.
I keep hearing about "boomers this and boomers that". Seriously, people, there's way too many to lump us all in one descriptive - except when they were born!! Across the age group you'll find every good, bad, and meh personality that you'll find elsewhere.
I said something to that effect elsewhere in the thread. I also said elsewhere that social historians have written about the differing "personalities" of generations who share experiences, generational culture (rock and roll versus the big band music of an earlier generation, material differences with previous generations, and attitudes. And of course, not every person in a given generation is exactly the same. We name the generations because they do differ from one another in important ways.
That’s true. I generalize about artists, and teachers (and other union workers) as being liberals. Generally they are. It totally puzzles me why artists are, in my experience, mostly liberal.
I know very few conservative ones. I’m an artist but I think a business person first, I’ve made a decent living too. I’ve worked since I was 12, and did not get paid for chores. Though smack dab in the boomer years, I don’t fit the mold of boomer or artist.
Mary Ann, I follow you--this substack should have a button to allow us to buy somebody a coffee. Until such time, ~I~ at least step up and commit to buying you one. Only please, not one of those "Starbucks" gallon-monsters that appear to have "flexible" pricing that can easily require a person to ride the bus home. I mean a "coffee" coffee, if you follow. Unless you live near me. Then just come by the house and I'll just make it and it'll be a lot less expensive. A 'button' would be so much simpler. Maybe just post your nephew's address so I can write a letter, starting off, "Dude! WTF? Do you have a story to tell about a barn, and a college?"
Ah, my nephew. There’s a tale: he’s an extraordinarily successful hardware and software engineer who works as an independent contractor. The government of Israel is one of his longtime clients. Sadly, I don’t have his contact information, surprise, surprise.
I’d love an inexpensive coffee with you and all of Jenna’s subscribers. They are a special breed. Or should I say “brew”? ❤️
As a Boomer who worked all my life, I am curious as to how I have offended you. I usually dismiss broad generalities based on year of birth (or state of residence) out of hand, I think it is rich and powerful vs everybody else and always has been, but curious all the same. Was it the Dems who started carving up everybody into easily demonized groups? so they would fight with each other and not notice what the rich and powerful were doing?
I agree completely. I'm tired of being demonized because I was born at a certain time, although technically I am not a "boomer" because I was born before the war ended. It almost sounds like some people are following Saul Alinsky's advice in How to Create a Socialist State: "Divide the people."
I too am a Boomer and have Boomer acquaintances who've given the group a bad name. Some of us have some nasty habits and traits. Of the latter, the one that's most irritating to me is the tacit assumption that one is "self-made" when closer look reveals all sorts of "helps," and unacknowledged lucky breaks, along the way. Lack of humility.
Among bad habits are total acceptance of government narratives and marching to voting booths to elect designated cartoon characters for fear of being called a name. Lack of backbone.
I do think it's fair to criticize Boomers as a group because they as a group were responsible for giving power to a lot of "undesirables," and I do not think the criticism unduly demonizes individuals. If the shoe DOESN'T fit...
In my opinion, "white folks," as a group, have a lot to answer for where this country has ended up.
There actually is no point to criticizing Boomers as a group, IMO.
"If the shoe DOESN'T fit..." - bwahahaha! The Boomers had as much choice in who got the power as do all the other groups today. This has never been a democracy.
Just trying to point out that no offense was meant to you personally, but you seem determined. In my opinion, it is fair to say that Boomers have certain characteristics imprinted on them by the times they lived in; not all certainly, but large numbers of them. I'll go on to say the same thing about Blacks, simply because the phrase "Black culture" would be meaningless otherwise.
FFS, “white folks” have a lot to answer for?? You do realize conquest, slavery, cruelty are & ALWAYS HAVE BEEN the human condition? Still practiced in many countries to this day (yeah including trafficking of all sorts today in the USA). Judging people of the past for taboos of today is idiotic & totally unfair since standards & norms - however flawed - were of their place & time.
As a “white folk” I’m not taking responsibility, guilt or “reparations” for anything I didn’t do.
Why are “white folks” the easy punching bag? My “white folk” group all worked hard, raised responsible children (except one), vote, pay lots of taxes, and still serve in volunteer areas in this last quarter of life, and are now receiving the Social Security and Medicare benefits we paid into for so long as the only government help we’ve ever gotten. I’m sure a lot of C&C faithful fall into the same group—no matter how much melanin or lack thereof is in the top layer of their epidermis.
To say that "white folks, as a group, are not above criticism" is not the same as saying they are a "punching bag" which I take to mean "guilty of causing everything bad." You know, like Trump. I'm convinced that when you and I read the phrase "white folks," we are imagining different things.
I’m also a Boomer and decades ago was proud of it and what we ostensibly stood for: notably opposing the Vietnam War. But you made a good point, David. As a group (perhaps not as individuals) we were catered to by our communities and by advertisers in ways that no other generation ever was. It was only because we were so many. For example, manufacturers and advertisers quickly realized we were a market target. As a result, no generation before us had products for sale meant only for us: music, makeup, clothing, etc. Our parents grew up in poverty and economic insecurity because of the Depression and then WW2. It gave them a different perspective than ours because most Boomers grew up in prosperity and peace. The small town I grew up in turned itself inside out to cater to us. Every public program was for us. Compared to earlier generations, we were an entitled bunch unlike our parents who largely had to fend for themselves.
I agree with what you said Mary Ann, except advertisers didn’t cater to us, they sold to us and manipulated us. Just change cater to targeted. There’s an excellent utube video about the birth of advertising, one guy who started it all, I’ll ask my husband his name.
Speaking of programs, I just found out something, the Department of Education didn’t start until 1978, so maybe that only covered a quarter of boomers as I’m sure it took a while to get going, and they were maybe in high school by then.
You are right. I should have said "manipulate" rather than "cater." Boomers were (and still are: note all the commercials for home care, assisted living, pharmaceuticals) the single largest market for shaping as they saw fit.
So sorry, but I don’t mean you personally. I was specifically thinking about all the Boomers who have been out protesting Tesla, Musk, attending the Tim
Walz rallies, demanding the return of deported illegals, and who watch The View(the demographic who watches The View is Boomer women) and liberal media.
Not every Boomer is a narcissist, but many are as they revisit their hippie and college protest years and have forgotten that the Viet Nam era is over. We’re in a different war now. Someone voted for Harris and Boomers did in large part.
Ah, but by continuing to demonize people as a group based on nothing but year of birth, you have meant me personally. Anyway, I confess I sometimes wish that the Boomer-blamers (oh, I confess I now must see all the other age groups as whingers who always need someone to blame, I see that is allowed) get their wish and find out how well the Buttigiegs and AOCs mean for them. It is the mindset, not the year of birth. And how lovely to think that once the last Boomer is dead, there will not be any more narcissists!
Then maybe you should stop generalizing about us 'Boomers', please? As a person who was born in that time period, grew up in a working class family with a deeply traumatized father My dad was i WWII, wounded in the London Blitz, then again just before the Battle of the Bulge in Germany, and STILL sent back after D Day, to a village in Czechoslovakia where their unit had to run a psyop about there being US Army 'sharpshooters in the hills' in order to keep certain unsavory members of the 2 units of Russian soldiers (ALSO stationed in the village) from raping and murdering too many civilians. Most people could not get over such trauma, and it effects the families of those afflicted. My parents both had to work, and because my father was not well even years later, he used to sneak me in to his worksite to help hi
m with his janitorial duties starting when I was 13. And being the youngest, I also did most of the household chores (my older siblings moved out by the time I was 8), as well as babysitting frequently for nearly nothing for other broke families in the neighborhood.
So all us 'Boomers' were not the spoiled, privileged wilting flower-power babies you are painting us with that broad brush of yours.
Now if you'll excuse me, this grandma needs to clean the house and then go get one of her grandkids from school.
So you grew up in a situation where you had time to study and do well enough in high school, and to obtain funding for an advanced degree. That must have been very pleasant for you.
I think it is the divide and conquer thing that seems to work amazingly well. I just read a substack, I think it was, on the dumbing down of America, perhaps that?
Yeah, I wondered why boomers were thrown into that mix as a hardworking boomer myself. Finally retiring at the end of this year, age 67. I’ve paid my dues & funded tons of liberal lunacy via my taxes all those years.
Loretta, this is getting hilarious. And hey, come to think of it, I spent six years (age 6 through 12) in a place called The Southern Home for Destitute Children because my parents were so poor. I suppose I should have been kicked to the curb. My bad.
My dad's mom had that happen. She was left for years in a home for poor children whose parents couldn't care for them. Everything I've heard about her leads me to believe she was traumatized for life. This would have been sometime around the turn of the century, before the great depression.
I'm very sorry you had to go through that trauma, djean. I hope your family was able to bounce back well from the hardship you all went through.
Every generation has its “personality “ and shared characteristics. That’s not to say that every Boomer or anyone in a given generation shares their traits. GenX and Millennials and post millennials are all different from other generations, just as the WW2 generation was. Historians have written about it. Events affect groups in different ways. I know many Boomers who don’t share their fellow Boomers’ world views. But surely you have seen more Boomers than Millennials in the audiences of Tim Walz rallies and at the recent protests being held around the country.
Boomer here, and none of my boomer friends would go near Tim Waltz or vandalize any car, let alone a Tesla. (They're all DOGE fans!) All of them are hard workers who would never take a handout even if they needed it. And none of them like anything the Democrats have been doing for the last 20 years or so. So I don't think Boomers have a set world view at all.
Just look at the faces of the people in his audience. Or look at the videos of people who were protesting Musk a few weeks ago at rallies around the country. Also note that Trump got the youth vote by large margins. There are generational differences!
Mary, you may see a lot of aging boomer hippies from the 60's at those rallies, but the boomer demographic was huge and there are bound to be a portion open to that propaganda. My wife and I are retired military (me), 4yr veteran (her), and unapologetic MAGA / MAHA supporters. We have both red pilled friends and unfortunately blue pilled acquaintances. It's not the generational tag that counts but the behavior.
Absolutely nothing is wrong with Boomers. It's simply a group with shared experiences unique to them that forges bonds and often attitudes that makes them different from others born in other generations. Meanwhile, there are always differences between people within the same generation. People are making way too much of this and taking it personally. I also am a Boomer and a Trump supporter.
I couldn't agree more! Where is the common sense and moral well being of people in this country? What are people thinking when they believe they are entitled or someone else is entitled to something they didn't earn or work for? It's a pathetic way to grow a responsible society. As usual, Jenna, you're spot on! Love, love, love reading your stuff!
I'm damn near 70, my parents taught me that, there's no such thing as a free lunch.... Well,, until the government started handing out taxpayer dollars like nobodies business...
My WW2 dad loved the free commodities he got in the 70s. Especially the giant blocks of free cheese. He worked damn hard on a farm, though. They were great parents (tough but there for us) and stayed out our business after we were gone. My hubby and I knew social security would not be enough and I was a stay at home mom then went to college and worked so we saved and invested. Ran our last car 16 years. Now we can afford some nicer things. But we find we don’t need them as much now.
GK Chesterton said that the business of a man was to discover reality and once he does to pass it along. Trump has discovered from experience that too many politicians are fake, the FBI is fake, the media is fake, the CIA is fake, the State Dept is fake, our debt and deficits are fake, our allies are fake, the Democrats are fake, our trade is fake, our courts are fake, our wars are fake; and he is passing it along to the American people because he knows we suspected it was fake and now want to make it REAL.
Great analogy! The "I deserve because I have been taken care of my whole life and never learned to care for myself" defense is a perfect description of entitlement and our current at-home and geopolitical situation. It will take persistence to work out of this and force the entitled who truly believe they should live forever on someone else's hard work to adjust to the reality of simply 'it ain't so going forward!'
I go to a small church that took in a pregnant homeless 25 yr old . The boyfriend shot himself, she has the baby , preacher and wife let her live with them then they say as a church we just help . The church is now split bc half believe it is such a Godly thing the preacher has done and the other half wonders how long does the taking care of this woman last . Since then , she got pregnant again with who knows who , lives on food stamps and subsidies for an apartment with her two kids . Has a part time job but still relies on the church to give her money and babysit her kids . It is a never ending situation. She doesn’t even say thank you when someone gives her a check . You feel guilty for not helping but when does the giving end . She is not from here but you think she is going to move when she is being taken care of ?
Nope. That's not right. The church has put her on "life support," teaching the wrong lesson. "At a minimum," she should be required to help even less-fortunate people--and learn from THEIR ingratitude...
Churches in my area all support (aid & abet) illegal refugees from every part of the world, whilst the illegals all work under the table as well as receive government support which Canadians don't.
(Canadians fortunately receive free MAiD services. Medical Assistance in Dying.)
It seems to me that about 5 seconds after single 'baby-bird-broken-wing-mommy' was known to have enough spare time to date, she should have been instead taking on odd jobs or a second job. If I were in your church I would stop tithing until the church stopped subsidizing a woman who behaves like a whore (I'm assuming she got pregnant by consensual sex, please correct me if I'm wrong).
In 1969 (married in 67) we got our first credit card—JC Penney. As young adults after high school, the 5 of us were expected to clear out of the family abode around 18 yo. It was unspoken, but that was a different time. We also couldn’t wait to get the hell out. For the most part, we did. Some of us needed a little help now and then, but now the 4 of us left have made solid lives. I’m not saying it isn’t harder now to do that or even back then it was easy peasy, but you gotta make your own futures and buck up, buttercup. Europe needs a wake up call that is authentic and a big dose of tough love. I don’t want to cushion or pay for their bad decisions any longer. They are too comfortable having kings around or kneeling to conquerers at this point. The EU was an invasion of another sort, annd the globalists annd elites are taking the spoils and lapping up the booty while the rest are left reaping the whirlwind. IMHO.
Well said Jenna! I’ll add I have a girlfriend who enabled her narcissist husband to do just as you described, along with putting her into unnecessary debt. He was going to fall under the same judges “opinions” she kept him but got him on head meds. His narcissism has changed to zombie. He is manageable.
Yeah, my daughter has a house-husband too. He's too good to do anything other than his chosen profession, for which he is unqualified. Hurts my heart to see how hard she works.
Spot on Jenna! There are too many hangers on and it becomes generational. I often wonder how some people in the same family can go out and make something of themselves in school and work and others sit home and do nothing. I’m liking that Trump and his administration is trying to change all that.
As a gravy train provider and cat lover... well... spot on! Great article. I'm really tired of entitled humans wanting a "free" handout. Cats on the other hand, well, they get away with it because they are cute. Human females: warning, your cuteness fades with time! Other countries: sorry, it's time we stopped being taken advantage of! Big pharma: go s***** yourselves! Industrial Medicine: likewise, go s**** yourselves! Plundering Politicians: don't whine when you are finally cut off.
Being a mom who required our kids to EARN their pocket money - they did extra chores for cash. Regular chores are part of belonging to a family. My response to any argument of 'so and so gets an allowance' was that no one deserves money, that someone else has worked to earn, just because they are taking in oxygen. Safe to say I'm firmly NOT in the camp of enabling entitlement!
Said children grew up to obtain college degrees that THEY paid for and now hold solid jobs, live on their own, and manage quite responsibly as young adults. (yep - proud mom, thankful for God's grace and good kids!)
I tried something like that. Their mother wanted to be their friend and do homework for them, and now one doesn't have any ambition to expand, learn new things, and one of the others is content as a bar tender, despite being whip smart. Two of them are probably doing good. (Animosity towards me for the divorce), and one is trying to do her best and her game playing husband is finally stepping up and having a stable job while raising three great kids. Her inlaws live much closer to her than I do, and help out a lot out of convenience to her. If I lived that close, she'd be asking me more.
It takes a united couple to have a great house!
You can say that again, Justin! Otherwise they end up playing you against each other. 😔
They did! She would bail them out of chores I tried to have them do. (I didn't handle it well, admittedly)
I've been through similar, and it hasn't gone well with my daughter, sadly.
EXACT same story in my house.
Great momming!
I just have one thing to say to Trump - more and faster please.
Isn't that two things?
Typo: morefaster.
Sorry, since I started down this road, this works too and is more to the point:
trumpmorefasterplease.
Hey, add a hashtag to that. You just started something!
#trumpmorefasterplease
🤣👍
YES!
Thanks, Jenna, for putting into words my frustration with Boomers, other countries, illegal aliens, and my sisters and a nephew (who received huge help from me in the form of paying for the building of a barn and full college tuition but who have yet to say thank you or consider paying it back, but who never seem to have the change to buy me a coffee), and anyone else who feels entitled. Every American should be profoundly grateful to Trump for putting our house in order.
I keep hearing about "boomers this and boomers that". Seriously, people, there's way too many to lump us all in one descriptive - except when they were born!! Across the age group you'll find every good, bad, and meh personality that you'll find elsewhere.
I said something to that effect elsewhere in the thread. I also said elsewhere that social historians have written about the differing "personalities" of generations who share experiences, generational culture (rock and roll versus the big band music of an earlier generation, material differences with previous generations, and attitudes. And of course, not every person in a given generation is exactly the same. We name the generations because they do differ from one another in important ways.
That’s true. I generalize about artists, and teachers (and other union workers) as being liberals. Generally they are. It totally puzzles me why artists are, in my experience, mostly liberal.
I know very few conservative ones. I’m an artist but I think a business person first, I’ve made a decent living too. I’ve worked since I was 12, and did not get paid for chores. Though smack dab in the boomer years, I don’t fit the mold of boomer or artist.
If I was created in a mold, they broke it long ago. 😂👍
Mary Ann, I follow you--this substack should have a button to allow us to buy somebody a coffee. Until such time, ~I~ at least step up and commit to buying you one. Only please, not one of those "Starbucks" gallon-monsters that appear to have "flexible" pricing that can easily require a person to ride the bus home. I mean a "coffee" coffee, if you follow. Unless you live near me. Then just come by the house and I'll just make it and it'll be a lot less expensive. A 'button' would be so much simpler. Maybe just post your nephew's address so I can write a letter, starting off, "Dude! WTF? Do you have a story to tell about a barn, and a college?"
Ah, my nephew. There’s a tale: he’s an extraordinarily successful hardware and software engineer who works as an independent contractor. The government of Israel is one of his longtime clients. Sadly, I don’t have his contact information, surprise, surprise.
I’d love an inexpensive coffee with you and all of Jenna’s subscribers. They are a special breed. Or should I say “brew”? ❤️
"Brew."
(Definitely "brew." And I'm warming to the idea of standing you to a medium-priced retail coffee...)
😁
As a Boomer who worked all my life, I am curious as to how I have offended you. I usually dismiss broad generalities based on year of birth (or state of residence) out of hand, I think it is rich and powerful vs everybody else and always has been, but curious all the same. Was it the Dems who started carving up everybody into easily demonized groups? so they would fight with each other and not notice what the rich and powerful were doing?
I agree completely. I'm tired of being demonized because I was born at a certain time, although technically I am not a "boomer" because I was born before the war ended. It almost sounds like some people are following Saul Alinsky's advice in How to Create a Socialist State: "Divide the people."
Yep!
I too am a Boomer and have Boomer acquaintances who've given the group a bad name. Some of us have some nasty habits and traits. Of the latter, the one that's most irritating to me is the tacit assumption that one is "self-made" when closer look reveals all sorts of "helps," and unacknowledged lucky breaks, along the way. Lack of humility.
Among bad habits are total acceptance of government narratives and marching to voting booths to elect designated cartoon characters for fear of being called a name. Lack of backbone.
I do think it's fair to criticize Boomers as a group because they as a group were responsible for giving power to a lot of "undesirables," and I do not think the criticism unduly demonizes individuals. If the shoe DOESN'T fit...
In my opinion, "white folks," as a group, have a lot to answer for where this country has ended up.
There actually is no point to criticizing Boomers as a group, IMO.
"If the shoe DOESN'T fit..." - bwahahaha! The Boomers had as much choice in who got the power as do all the other groups today. This has never been a democracy.
Just trying to point out that no offense was meant to you personally, but you seem determined. In my opinion, it is fair to say that Boomers have certain characteristics imprinted on them by the times they lived in; not all certainly, but large numbers of them. I'll go on to say the same thing about Blacks, simply because the phrase "Black culture" would be meaningless otherwise.
FFS, “white folks” have a lot to answer for?? You do realize conquest, slavery, cruelty are & ALWAYS HAVE BEEN the human condition? Still practiced in many countries to this day (yeah including trafficking of all sorts today in the USA). Judging people of the past for taboos of today is idiotic & totally unfair since standards & norms - however flawed - were of their place & time.
As a “white folk” I’m not taking responsibility, guilt or “reparations” for anything I didn’t do.
Relax. Nobody has asked you to.
Why are “white folks” the easy punching bag? My “white folk” group all worked hard, raised responsible children (except one), vote, pay lots of taxes, and still serve in volunteer areas in this last quarter of life, and are now receiving the Social Security and Medicare benefits we paid into for so long as the only government help we’ve ever gotten. I’m sure a lot of C&C faithful fall into the same group—no matter how much melanin or lack thereof is in the top layer of their epidermis.
To say that "white folks, as a group, are not above criticism" is not the same as saying they are a "punching bag" which I take to mean "guilty of causing everything bad." You know, like Trump. I'm convinced that when you and I read the phrase "white folks," we are imagining different things.
I’m also a Boomer and decades ago was proud of it and what we ostensibly stood for: notably opposing the Vietnam War. But you made a good point, David. As a group (perhaps not as individuals) we were catered to by our communities and by advertisers in ways that no other generation ever was. It was only because we were so many. For example, manufacturers and advertisers quickly realized we were a market target. As a result, no generation before us had products for sale meant only for us: music, makeup, clothing, etc. Our parents grew up in poverty and economic insecurity because of the Depression and then WW2. It gave them a different perspective than ours because most Boomers grew up in prosperity and peace. The small town I grew up in turned itself inside out to cater to us. Every public program was for us. Compared to earlier generations, we were an entitled bunch unlike our parents who largely had to fend for themselves.
I agree with what you said Mary Ann, except advertisers didn’t cater to us, they sold to us and manipulated us. Just change cater to targeted. There’s an excellent utube video about the birth of advertising, one guy who started it all, I’ll ask my husband his name.
Speaking of programs, I just found out something, the Department of Education didn’t start until 1978, so maybe that only covered a quarter of boomers as I’m sure it took a while to get going, and they were maybe in high school by then.
You are right. I should have said "manipulate" rather than "cater." Boomers were (and still are: note all the commercials for home care, assisted living, pharmaceuticals) the single largest market for shaping as they saw fit.
Oh gad, you’re right! Lol! Almost every commercial!
I’m unable to open the Substack message! I’ll keep trying.
So sorry, but I don’t mean you personally. I was specifically thinking about all the Boomers who have been out protesting Tesla, Musk, attending the Tim
Walz rallies, demanding the return of deported illegals, and who watch The View(the demographic who watches The View is Boomer women) and liberal media.
Not every Boomer is a narcissist, but many are as they revisit their hippie and college protest years and have forgotten that the Viet Nam era is over. We’re in a different war now. Someone voted for Harris and Boomers did in large part.
Ah, but by continuing to demonize people as a group based on nothing but year of birth, you have meant me personally. Anyway, I confess I sometimes wish that the Boomer-blamers (oh, I confess I now must see all the other age groups as whingers who always need someone to blame, I see that is allowed) get their wish and find out how well the Buttigiegs and AOCs mean for them. It is the mindset, not the year of birth. And how lovely to think that once the last Boomer is dead, there will not be any more narcissists!
I strongly disagree that criticism of a group is necessarily criticism of an individual.
I have to laugh and end this interaction. Waste of my time. Blame away! See what that accomplishes.
djean, I'm having trouble putting up with her age-group bigotry as well.
Thank you for saying it, djean111! Plus you gave me a belly- laugh. 🤣
Then maybe you should stop generalizing about us 'Boomers', please? As a person who was born in that time period, grew up in a working class family with a deeply traumatized father My dad was i WWII, wounded in the London Blitz, then again just before the Battle of the Bulge in Germany, and STILL sent back after D Day, to a village in Czechoslovakia where their unit had to run a psyop about there being US Army 'sharpshooters in the hills' in order to keep certain unsavory members of the 2 units of Russian soldiers (ALSO stationed in the village) from raping and murdering too many civilians. Most people could not get over such trauma, and it effects the families of those afflicted. My parents both had to work, and because my father was not well even years later, he used to sneak me in to his worksite to help hi
m with his janitorial duties starting when I was 13. And being the youngest, I also did most of the household chores (my older siblings moved out by the time I was 8), as well as babysitting frequently for nearly nothing for other broke families in the neighborhood.
So all us 'Boomers' were not the spoiled, privileged wilting flower-power babies you are painting us with that broad brush of yours.
Now if you'll excuse me, this grandma needs to clean the house and then go get one of her grandkids from school.
Mentioning "Tim Walz" sums up your position perfectly. (Now please stop.)
Thank you. maybe she doesn't know what a boomer is. not getting entitlements here.
I’m a Boomer. And a retired professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. I taught American history for 34 years. So.
So you grew up in a situation where you had time to study and do well enough in high school, and to obtain funding for an advanced degree. That must have been very pleasant for you.
Wish I had an emoji for you.
I think it is the divide and conquer thing that seems to work amazingly well. I just read a substack, I think it was, on the dumbing down of America, perhaps that?
Yeah, I wondered why boomers were thrown into that mix as a hardworking boomer myself. Finally retiring at the end of this year, age 67. I’ve paid my dues & funded tons of liberal lunacy via my taxes all those years.
Boomers??!!
Loretta, this is getting hilarious. And hey, come to think of it, I spent six years (age 6 through 12) in a place called The Southern Home for Destitute Children because my parents were so poor. I suppose I should have been kicked to the curb. My bad.
My dad's mom had that happen. She was left for years in a home for poor children whose parents couldn't care for them. Everything I've heard about her leads me to believe she was traumatized for life. This would have been sometime around the turn of the century, before the great depression.
I'm very sorry you had to go through that trauma, djean. I hope your family was able to bounce back well from the hardship you all went through.
Every generation has its “personality “ and shared characteristics. That’s not to say that every Boomer or anyone in a given generation shares their traits. GenX and Millennials and post millennials are all different from other generations, just as the WW2 generation was. Historians have written about it. Events affect groups in different ways. I know many Boomers who don’t share their fellow Boomers’ world views. But surely you have seen more Boomers than Millennials in the audiences of Tim Walz rallies and at the recent protests being held around the country.
Boomer here, and none of my boomer friends would go near Tim Waltz or vandalize any car, let alone a Tesla. (They're all DOGE fans!) All of them are hard workers who would never take a handout even if they needed it. And none of them like anything the Democrats have been doing for the last 20 years or so. So I don't think Boomers have a set world view at all.
Just look at the faces of the people in his audience. Or look at the videos of people who were protesting Musk a few weeks ago at rallies around the country. Also note that Trump got the youth vote by large margins. There are generational differences!
In my High School Facebook group of more than 3000 members (all boomers) more than 90% voted for Trump. It's regional, not just generational.
That is also true.
Mary, you may see a lot of aging boomer hippies from the 60's at those rallies, but the boomer demographic was huge and there are bound to be a portion open to that propaganda. My wife and I are retired military (me), 4yr veteran (her), and unapologetic MAGA / MAHA supporters. We have both red pilled friends and unfortunately blue pilled acquaintances. It's not the generational tag that counts but the behavior.
Dick Minnis
removingthecataract.substack.com
NO I haven't.
This is getting really funny. Reminds me of when Hillary supporters used to literally count how many brown faces were at Bernie's rallies.
🤣🤣🤣
What's wrong with Boomers? I'm a boomer and I'm glad he's cleaning house!
Absolutely nothing is wrong with Boomers. It's simply a group with shared experiences unique to them that forges bonds and often attitudes that makes them different from others born in other generations. Meanwhile, there are always differences between people within the same generation. People are making way too much of this and taking it personally. I also am a Boomer and a Trump supporter.
+1 to boomers generally being a bunch of whiny entitled brats.
Your reference sounds more like "democrat" boomers, in contrast to conservative boomers. "Entitlement" clearly differentiates the two. https://midwestchick.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/img-18-7.jpg
What is even more concerning to me is that half of the country thinks what the MSM tells them to think.
I couldn't agree more! Where is the common sense and moral well being of people in this country? What are people thinking when they believe they are entitled or someone else is entitled to something they didn't earn or work for? It's a pathetic way to grow a responsible society. As usual, Jenna, you're spot on! Love, love, love reading your stuff!
I'm damn near 70, my parents taught me that, there's no such thing as a free lunch.... Well,, until the government started handing out taxpayer dollars like nobodies business...
My WW2 dad loved the free commodities he got in the 70s. Especially the giant blocks of free cheese. He worked damn hard on a farm, though. They were great parents (tough but there for us) and stayed out our business after we were gone. My hubby and I knew social security would not be enough and I was a stay at home mom then went to college and worked so we saved and invested. Ran our last car 16 years. Now we can afford some nicer things. But we find we don’t need them as much now.
You have not met my family, apparently. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Also had one family member that never did believe that message either.... Then she instilled in her four children about all the free lunches also...
Families are often the worst violators of the “pay as you go” plan.
And, of course, they're not free--at all. Now they're financed by debt and paid for by taxpayers yet unborn.
GK Chesterton said that the business of a man was to discover reality and once he does to pass it along. Trump has discovered from experience that too many politicians are fake, the FBI is fake, the media is fake, the CIA is fake, the State Dept is fake, our debt and deficits are fake, our allies are fake, the Democrats are fake, our trade is fake, our courts are fake, our wars are fake; and he is passing it along to the American people because he knows we suspected it was fake and now want to make it REAL.
Your essay was real and funny.
Great comment. A like isn’t enough …
Great analogy! The "I deserve because I have been taken care of my whole life and never learned to care for myself" defense is a perfect description of entitlement and our current at-home and geopolitical situation. It will take persistence to work out of this and force the entitled who truly believe they should live forever on someone else's hard work to adjust to the reality of simply 'it ain't so going forward!'
Add to this group those who borrowed money they never intended to pay back (student loans).
Exactly!!
I go to a small church that took in a pregnant homeless 25 yr old . The boyfriend shot himself, she has the baby , preacher and wife let her live with them then they say as a church we just help . The church is now split bc half believe it is such a Godly thing the preacher has done and the other half wonders how long does the taking care of this woman last . Since then , she got pregnant again with who knows who , lives on food stamps and subsidies for an apartment with her two kids . Has a part time job but still relies on the church to give her money and babysit her kids . It is a never ending situation. She doesn’t even say thank you when someone gives her a check . You feel guilty for not helping but when does the giving end . She is not from here but you think she is going to move when she is being taken care of ?
Nope. That's not right. The church has put her on "life support," teaching the wrong lesson. "At a minimum," she should be required to help even less-fortunate people--and learn from THEIR ingratitude...
Churches in my area all support (aid & abet) illegal refugees from every part of the world, whilst the illegals all work under the table as well as receive government support which Canadians don't.
(Canadians fortunately receive free MAiD services. Medical Assistance in Dying.)
I know this how?
The church gives her a fish instead of teaching her how to fish.
💯agree with you
Agreed.
It seems to me that about 5 seconds after single 'baby-bird-broken-wing-mommy' was known to have enough spare time to date, she should have been instead taking on odd jobs or a second job. If I were in your church I would stop tithing until the church stopped subsidizing a woman who behaves like a whore (I'm assuming she got pregnant by consensual sex, please correct me if I'm wrong).
🤷♀️we don’t know . The members who disagree have done exactly that … withheld tithe .
Betting the "mystery father" turns out to be the preacher. And the preacher claims it was an immaculate conception.
She should be cleaning the church
I feel like this article deserves a point-counterpoint response from the cat.
😇🤣😻
Do it!
In 1969 (married in 67) we got our first credit card—JC Penney. As young adults after high school, the 5 of us were expected to clear out of the family abode around 18 yo. It was unspoken, but that was a different time. We also couldn’t wait to get the hell out. For the most part, we did. Some of us needed a little help now and then, but now the 4 of us left have made solid lives. I’m not saying it isn’t harder now to do that or even back then it was easy peasy, but you gotta make your own futures and buck up, buttercup. Europe needs a wake up call that is authentic and a big dose of tough love. I don’t want to cushion or pay for their bad decisions any longer. They are too comfortable having kings around or kneeling to conquerers at this point. The EU was an invasion of another sort, annd the globalists annd elites are taking the spoils and lapping up the booty while the rest are left reaping the whirlwind. IMHO.
Well said Jenna! I’ll add I have a girlfriend who enabled her narcissist husband to do just as you described, along with putting her into unnecessary debt. He was going to fall under the same judges “opinions” she kept him but got him on head meds. His narcissism has changed to zombie. He is manageable.
What a way to live🥴
Yeah, my daughter has a house-husband too. He's too good to do anything other than his chosen profession, for which he is unqualified. Hurts my heart to see how hard she works.
I sure would be keeping the dude, but in two separate residents, two separate bank accounts, thus creating an environment from which he leaves!
Besides, more better on filing taxes as married.
(Yes, ‘more better’ just worked here.)
Spot on Jenna! There are too many hangers on and it becomes generational. I often wonder how some people in the same family can go out and make something of themselves in school and work and others sit home and do nothing. I’m liking that Trump and his administration is trying to change all that.
As a gravy train provider and cat lover... well... spot on! Great article. I'm really tired of entitled humans wanting a "free" handout. Cats on the other hand, well, they get away with it because they are cute. Human females: warning, your cuteness fades with time! Other countries: sorry, it's time we stopped being taken advantage of! Big pharma: go s***** yourselves! Industrial Medicine: likewise, go s**** yourselves! Plundering Politicians: don't whine when you are finally cut off.
Once again, well said! Love your analogy and analysis!
Great (universal) analogy ~ excellent post!
Thanks kindly. :)