https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/10/winsome-earle-sears-details-racism-shes.html

1) Gen-X either grew up or came of age in the Age of Reagan. As this crowd seems to be mostly Boomers, I don’t think I need to tell you just how dark and gritty the 60’s and 70’s were with the assassinations, the race riots, Vietnam, Watergate, the oil embargoes, malaise, stagflation, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

That ended literally within seconds of Reagan taking office. I think Reagan’s hand was still on the Bible when the hostages left Iranian airspace. Within 2-3 years the whole culture changed to one of unbound optimism. The economy was booming. Chrysler was running commercials “The pride is back!” with American flags everywhere. We weren’t just enduring the Cold War, we were winning it (Reagan’s “We win, they lose!”). Alex P. Keaton was the most popular character on TV. The Voyagers were touring the outer solar system, and the Space Shuttle was making outer space useful, beautiful, and elegant. We were the first (and, it turned out, only) colorblind generation.

Then the Wall came down, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and the future was so bright, we had to wear shades.

Gen-X didn’t just experience that era, we came of age in it. It defined us. The sense of optimism among us was immense. We thought that that was just the start, and we really had no idea that things wouldn’t just keep getting better and better forever. It was intoxicating.

2) We were the first hi-tech generation. We grew up with microwave ovens and cordless phones (our parents couldn’t listen in on our conversations). We were the first to take our music with us *everywhere* (the Walkman). We were the first to control our own TV viewing (the VCR). Our parents controlled the TV, but in general they didn’t know how to program the VCR, so we could still watch our shows, even in primetime. And that was before the advent of the culture-shattering of video streaming, so we all watched the same movies and TV shows. The VCR made that easier, so it helped unify our generation, not fracture it.

We were the first generation to play video games (Space Invaders, Pac-Man), not pinball. We were the first to have game consoles (the Atari 2600) and personal computers (the Apple II and Commodore 64). We were the first on the internet.

I had my Apple II on the internet 24/7 (not dial-up) in 1988 at the age of 19. Imagine going back home for Christmas and trying to explain to parents and family — who didn’t even have computers — what the internet was. What email and telnet and ftp and Usenet News were. What a chat room was. “You mean, like a party-line telephone?” Or the cultural phenomenon of having friends that I’ve never met. “You mean like pen pals?”

The early internet was a very different place than what it is today. It was a very optimistic and very libertarian place. Just about the opposite of what it is today, in fact. The optimism of the early internet combined with the wonders of the personal computer and the optimism of the Reagan era to drive our sense of awe and hope even higher.

It didn’t last. Bill Clinton’s BJ seemed to be the wrench that shattered the dream. I think we still have an innate hope that our collective dreams will still come true, but they’re buried under a pile of woke rubble. I still blame Ross Perot.

What defines the Millennials the way the above defines the Xers? I think it’s 1) coming of age in the age of the BJ and 2) the advent of the cellphone and social media. I think they really changed the culture, and not for the better.

See my comment on Bill Ayers in the Mayor’s Race topic:

https://thenewneo.com/2025/10/23/nyc-mayors-poll-tightens-if-there-were-a-2-person-race/#comment-2827221

Hippies influenced culture, then faded away. The New Left burrowed in for the Long March Through The Institutions and successfully changed the media, education and politics in America.

Quite so.

Being a Boomer is well-defined by cutoff years — usually 1946-1964.

Being a hippie is not well-defined and I can’t find any firm statistics. According to this article only 50% of Boomers even tried marijuana.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/353645/nearly-half-adults-tried-marijuana.aspx

Hippies were very visible and influential beyond their numbers, but as I remember things, comparatively rare against the general population.

When conservatives use the term, as D. Parker does, it’s as a stereotype for those of a certain age. For other conservatives it’s usually a term of abuse.

It ought to be noted that almost all the leaders of the hippie movement were of the Greatest and Silent generations.

And that makes you a Boomer. I’m an *early* Gen-Xer, and the Vietnam War had *no* influence on my life. It’s something I only learned about in school. I think the first time I ever heard about it was when the first Rambo movie was released.

Likewise with the Korean War. The earliest Boomer would’ve been seven when that war ended, so for a Boomer, that’s a school lesson, not a personal experience. Vietnam is to Gen-X as Korea is to Boomers.

I would caution conflating “hippie” with “Boomer.” The hippies were Boomers, but not all Boomers were hippies. The differences between the generations were much bigger than that.