As a Gen Xer I'd like to add my own takes here. Because the generations have diffent experience and most are lousy.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and heard a lot of promises. Around the later 80's it started to become apparent these weren't going to hold.
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https://bsky.app/profile/gwensnyder.bsky.social/post/3mlelfs2ue22m
As an Xer I got to see about one economic downturn a decade, and of course got hit by them. There were assorted mideast wars that of course all backfired on us eventually. And of course the usual trickle-down economics.
I divide Xers into two kinds - survivors and shattered. You learned to make it or it broke you. The divide is very stark right now among Xer crowds.
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So we Xers are about 45-60 if I judge the defintion right. We got to watch our jobs vanished, housing become an investment become a collapse. We watched banks bailed out when we weren't. We got a lot of promises in the 80s that didn't pan out.
Yeah, a sliver did well. But most Xers I know are very, very cynical.
Oh and we've got retirement coming up. How's that looking?
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At least in the Bay Area I meet a lot of Xer activists. It makes me think of how much past and current rage is there, but it's behind a facade we built because we kept getting kicked in the guts by the economy every decade and we kept going.
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StevenSavage (he/him)