• grue@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Just how old do you think boomers were in the '60s? The generation didn’t start until the baby boom after WWII (hence the name), so the oldest were at most 25 years old at the end of the decade.

    The boomers didn’t join the Silent Generation in the role of civil rights reactionaries until the '70s or '80s.

    • criitz@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      The teens and young 20 somethings in the 60s were the counter culture. You know, “don’t trust anyone over 30”. So they were boomers.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly, which is why the comment I was responding to…

        Most boomers spent the 60s beating the shit out of Civil Rights protestors and spitting on children because their schools were desegregated.

        …was wrong.

        Edit: to be clear, I’m not trying to say the boomers were good people! I’m just saying that the person I replied to had his timeline off because in the '60s, most of the boomers weren’t adults yet.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s correct in the South and parts of the Midwest (this stuff happened in the 80s and 90s too).

          Still happening in a few southern areas.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Okay, let me try again:

            It was happening in the ‘60s, but it was the boomers’ parents – the Silent Generation – perpetrating it because the boomers were still mostly teenagers at the time. The boomers didn’t spend the '60s spitting on children; the boomers spent the '60s being the children who were spit on.

            • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              There is no miscommunication here. We understand what you’re saying. Do you think that kids weren’t bullying each other? Those black kids walking into a formerly white school were NOT welcomed with open arms by their classmates.

              Sure, the Boomers learned it from their parents, and probably weren’t nearly as bad as the Silents, but they were still pretty racist as a whole.

    • key@lemmy.keychat.org
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      1 year ago

      People just like using “boomer” as a euphemism for “old.” Same type of person as those who have used “millennial” as a euphemism for “young” for the past decade plus.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And boomer seems to be just any white person with grey hair. It’s not even referencing a specific generation. It’s just a catch all for ‘all the old, white people I don’t like who have the right to vote for things’