Wednesday, May 11, 2005

1600 dead soldiers

But hey, that's not important. The only thing that is important is that the Baby Boomers be able to continue being the same lazy, self-indulgent spongers that they've always been, preferably by stealing money from veterans and young parents and their children. Dead soldiers? What do the Boomers care about dead soldiers? The Boomers are in their 50's now, for cryin' out loud, it's not THEIR sorry butts on the line!

- Badtux the Cynical Penguin

Comments:

Oh waaahh! Baby boomer does what baby boomers are best at doing.

The rather earnest generation before the Boomers, who had been born in the Great Depression and grew up with the background of WWII, were at the vanguard of the Civil Rights movement and created the environmentalist and women's rights movements.

The Boomers, meanwhile... well, they got stoned and screwed a lot. They couldn't even run an anti-war movement worth a **** even though it was their own sorry asses on the line. It wasn't until the Army got filled with their sorry asses and became completely incompetent at doing anything other than smoking dope and porking the native women (and, occasionally, the native livestock) that Nixon was forced to withdraw the troops from Vietnam because, well, they just were too damned stoned to fight.

So yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that things started going to hell about the time the Boomers came of age and started pushing American politics around. All they have ever cared about is their own sorry butts, and they're just continuing the tradition when they cut spending for schools, the environment, maternity programs, and other stuff that's not of use to them anymore...

Insulted by that indictment of a generation? Oh waaahh!!! Do you want some cheese with that whine?!

- Badtux the Realist Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 10/5/05 11:19 PM  

Hi, love your blog, but as a boomer myself, I can't agree fully. Many of us were in the forefront of the anti-war , civil rights movements. I was very conservative, but grew up (as has my mother). Many of us are now revolted by what this generation's politicians are doing. BTW, I didn't start smokin' 'til long after I was out of the Navy.
No way I'll stop reading you. Again BTW, what generation are you in. I just need a little reference. Thanks
# posted by Anonymous : 11/5/05 3:51 AM  

Seriously, you flightless birdbrain, you used too broad a brush. And if you're trying to be the Rude Pundit, there is one already. Yeah, Bush is a Boomer, but so are the people who are anti-Bush. The environment-rapers are Boomers, but so are the environmentalists. You missed on this one.
# posted by DBK : 11/5/05 6:12 AM  

Maybe we have different definitions of "Baby Boomer". I use the generally-accepted definition which applies this term to the generation born from 1946 to 1960. This generation started reaching college age in 1964 -- which, incidentally, is when the Civil Rights movement started losing steam and self-destructing, to finally come off the rails entirely by 1968 when the last of the pre-boomers left college and entered the workforce. (Yes, I know there's still a "civil rights movement" in America, but it is no longer a defining force of American life).

The Boomers also faced the issue of the war in Vietnam. Their actions protesting this war were totally ineffectual and actually extended the war by making it politically impossible for Nixon to withdraw the troops before the 1972 elections (he would have lost the mouth-breather vote, which would have castigated him for "giving in to a bunch of hippies and Commies"). "Hanoi Jane"'s actions are typical of the sort of ineffectual and counter-productive posturing that typified the anti-war movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's. When she went to Hanoi in July 1972, what she did was put a stake in the heart of the Democratic candidate for President, and insure the re-election of Richard M. Nixon. The whole anti-war movement, other than the traditional suspects (the Friends/Quaker anti-war movement, for example) was full of examples of such counter-productive activities, indeed, they were the rule, not the exception. The myth that the anti-war movement got us out of Vietnam is just that -- a myth. Nixon ran on a platform of getting us out of Vietnam in the first place in 1968, remember?

As for which generation I'm a member of, I'm a member of one of those generations betrayed by the Boomers, who saw our older brothers and sisters going from "fighting the Man" to BEING "The Man", go from talking brave words of peace and justice and even taking action (albeit ineffectual), to "I'd do something, but it'd disturb my comfy little life of masticating and defecating and fornicating and accumulating shiny baubles of no import." I'm a member of the generation that, betrayed by our elders who went from at least paying lip service to the good of the nation, turned to the "Reagan Revolution" and became good College Republicans.

I'll note that during the anti-war protests that I observed prior to the Iraq war, I saw a lot of young people, but the number of people with grey in their hair was quite small. After all, who wants to use up some of their vacation time at the office in order to spend time with a bunch of unruly youngsters? And you could get billy-clubbed or tear-gassed, and even jailed, which would REALLY mess up your retirement plans, oh woe! I saw some true believers of the Boomer generation out there, but their numbers are small, and their peers... well, their peers are at home, and apparently don't care enough to do anything other than ineffectually whine. Which, come to think of it, is what they're best at.
# posted by BadTux : 11/5/05 9:27 AM  

Problem is, flightless, you make the mistake of thinking that there is something really different about one generation and another.
# posted by DBK : 11/5/05 10:34 AM  

As I agree with you about 95% of the time, I will continue to read you. Unlike you, however, I learned in grade school not to generalize - especially an entire generation. I spent 1968-72 in the Navy, was spit upon and cussed at daily by the hippies along Imperial Beach, Ca. while walking to work and back. I have been doing all that I can to bring progressive dems back to power, and to rid our country of what passes for republicans these days.
Probably 80% or more of Viet Nam era vets will tell you that Nixon was a lying, scheming piece of shit - so watch your historical revisionism. And do not claim to speak for, or generalize, my generation. We, like any generation, can't be neatly pigeon-holed. Especially by a penquin with hate in his soul.
# posted by badgervan : 11/5/05 12:26 PM  

Hummmmm, this post looks mighty familiar.........

OH, look, another wingnut suddenly has to use his brain cells and he decides to leave. Damn, if I had a heart it would.....

No, on second thought, it wouldn't.

Oh well.
# posted by Rook : 11/5/05 7:21 PM  

Hmm, I think my little throw-away snark needs a bit more, uhm, thought and consideration paid to it. Some of the issues you've brought up are important ones (such as, "are the Baby Boomers any different from any other generation?"), and meanwhile my dismissive summarization of the Boomers as the generation of sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, and Enron needs some serious examination. I think this topic deserves a full-blown essay that is more than just snarky dismissiveness of an entire generation, and will expand upon it sometime next week (there's another one coming up about the nature of power in Bush's America that takes first precedence... you might get some ideas about what's going into it if you look at some of my recent comments on DailyKos and Kuro5hin).

- Badtux the Now-thoughtful Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 11/5/05 11:43 PM  

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