Mastodawn

When we talk about failed #generations and #boomers #Xers (like me...) we have to talk about this "experience will find the way" rhetoric. Pelosi, Biden, the Clintons and Obama etc have left a bereft generation of #Democrats in near total loss of power. Trampled on by #Fascists, soft, accommodating, wobbly. Yet they still think they are in a position to lecture to young people after historically epic failure.

Nancy Pelosi, it is past time to shut up and vote young.

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article314792097.html

ferricoxide Dec 18

So, #LinkedIn sent me a "jobs you might be interested in" email, this morning. I saw a listing for a "Linux System Engineer", but it had, what seemed to me, an oddly-low compensation-range. Given the range I assumed, "must be a really junior position that they're using an inflated title for," so morbid curiosity compelled me to click on the link. Found in the job-description:

About the job

Green Card or US Citizen - Direct Hire Fulltime - NO (Sponsorship, C2C, H1B, F1, OPT)

Location: 100% Remote, Pay: $85,000 to $90,000 - 1st Shift - On-call > Required based on team rotation.

Required Technologies:

• Linux Administration
• Support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL),
• Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL),
• Oracle RAC,
• Legacy Solaris with clustering.Now, up through the #OEL, it's like, "yeah, that could all easily be junior admin stuff". It's that last two lines that make me question the salary-range. I mean, they do say "100% remote", so maybe they're hoping to attract people that have expatriated to really low cost-of-living countries who are simply looking to keep their savings adequately padded? Because, otherwise, the worker-age for #Solaris experience, especially with clustering (they don't mention which clustering technology, but none of them are typically ones that junior "engineers" are likely to have a firm grasp on) is going to mean the people with those "required technologies" are mostly going to be #Millennials and #Xers. Irrespective of the technologies, those people are going to be a decade or so into their careers and looking for more than "median household income" compensation (for reference, when I was still doing Solaris w/ clustering, I was already breaching $100K …that was twenty+ years ago, so gotta adjust for inflation). You add #RAC to that equation, and you're looking at an even rarer skill-set (meaning demands for higher compensations-rates). So, I'm just really curious what kind of respondents they're getting?? One almost wants to write back to let them know, "the skills you're saying are 'required' mean your most likely candidates are all going to want considerably more than the compensation-range you're listing".

atopoeia-o Nov 4

My kids note that my gen #xers could go to any store and always find interesting, good if not awesome products. Computers, Audio, Software, Tech, Furniture, everything except food [which I think is now bett-tter].

Now we have nothing. We have shitty AI. We have crappy Internet product [really awful, bad shit man I mean what THE FUCK IS THE INDUSTRY THINKING?!!!] sorry for that.

Got carried away.
But the Internet is just an awful place, mostly.
Yeah what happened.

Anyway-
Good product. Buy old if you want it. Get stuff that can be repaired. There WAS bad product in the Xer generation. But we had great product. I mean really great product. I mean it was the pinnacle of democratized humanity. You can't dispute it. There's just no way.

So relish those swap meets+garage sales while boomers keep dumping their good stuff. Oke.

1337 $#!+ I did that Sep 2, 2025

This “sustainable abundance" is likely to rank up there with "effective altruism."

Oh and #Musk obviously had #Grok (or #mechahitler as grok prefers) write the #Tesla master plan.

Of course he did.

But the real answer is to hold accountable the billionaires who tricked #boomers and #Xers out of their money and their democracy. #sustainable #abundance #sustainableabundance #lol

https://www.theverge.com/tesla/769009/tesla-master-plan-4-ai-robotics-abundance

Tesla’s new ‘Master Plan’ sounds like AI slop

Tesla released its fourth Master Plan that was long on AI platitudes but short on real goals. It’s the latest sign that the company is bored with EVs.

The Verge

ferricoxide Jul 9, 2025

I would have far less to complain about #millennials and #zoomers budying up to Russia than I do #Boomers and #Xers. Millennials and zoomers didn't live through the Cold war.

Daniel Dvorkin May 24, 2025

Like many memes about #GenerationX, this is superficially appealing but falls apart the more you look at it. #Xers do a lot of self-congratulating on how #independent we are, but what that's translated into is more support for #Trump than any other generation, including the reviled #Boomers. We're cats.

ferricoxide Dec 4, 2024

I know that modern kids aren't allowed the kinds of independence most #Xers were (see news stories about "free range parenting" and associated legal problems that have resulted), but I feel like you never see kids on roofs any more. Who knows: maybe that's just because cable TV and then streaming remove the need for TV antennas that bored #GenX kids coopted for getting up on roofs?

https://youtu.be/hWwI36vC-2s?si=aWjyAGPGxYE9ovMG

Gen X Teens Lived the WILDEST Lives!!! 😂

YouTube

ferricoxide Nov 22, 2024

American #Xers were brought up with a lot less forgiving ideas of acceptable bodies than today's twenty- and thirty-somethings.

ferricoxide Nov 20, 2024

Dunno that we were lower middle class – both parents were college educated professionals – but I see almost all of this list in my upbringing.

That said, my dad had grown up very poor and my mother's family were very definitely blue collar. So, what went into my upbringing was heavily informed by theirs.

Though maybe this article is more indicative for younger people than #Xers?

https://blogherald.com/self-development/if-you-recognize-these-10-signs-you-probably-grew-up-in-a-lower-middle-class-family/

If you recognize these 10 signs, you probably grew up in a lower middle class family

I know firsthand there’s something unique about growing up in a lower middle class family. It’s an experience that shapes you, influences your choices, and leaves a lasting mark on your life. The signs are subtle, often overlooked, but if you know what to look for, they’re as clear as day. From the way we…

The Blog Herald

ferricoxide Nov 13, 2024

Wife and I are both #Xers. We had very different experiences of the 80s, however: she was very much an 80s girl (she participated in most of the things in this list; I saw most of it as nonsense and avoided the hell out of most of it. Maybe had I been her age (she's 3.5 years younger than me), I'd have felt differently about it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LdaC9Jx7TpE&si=NboxkkLPbOUSkwQO

22 Forgotten Fads From The 1980s

YouTube