Gen X (1965-1984) & Shit Posting

A self-caricature (2021)

Rumor has it that Generation X has had its generational years updated from 1965-1984 to 1964-1980. I call bullshit. Who decided this? According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies (Harvard University), Generation X is comfortably nestled between 1965 and 1984, where it should be and shall remain for federal census data. George Masnick, a Senior Research Fellow at the JCHS, explains the politics behind this little statistical gerrymandering trick. It's a redrawing of generational age perimeters to manipulate Millennial demographic and socioeconomic data. But honestly, repositioning Millennials (aka Snowflakes) between the birth years 1981-1996, and casting them as overly-sensitive 30-something basement trolls living off their parents and ramen noodles, it makes for exiting hyperbolic copy and a fabricated national crisis. 

But there's no national crisis that the Millennials have created. If you want a culprit, you'll have to dig through the deep and stinking piles of political rancor and religious dogma over the past 60-years. I promise, you won't be disappointed by the historic depth and breadth of cronyism and legislative corruption, should you proceed.

Oh, and...

I don't idolize anyone in political power (*flippin' the bird*). I believe that any person who holds an office, whether appointed or elected, is subject to the hard scrutiny of an ethical press and the investigative procedures of Congress. I favor neither the Republican nor the Democrat, but a transparent political system rooted in civil liberties, social and economic equity, and secular law. Party labels are deceptive monikers that distract from national issues and pull the public's attention away from any meaningful social progress in favor of derisiveness and hostile division.   

Furthermore, I love Millennials and I'm a proud parent of two Millenial daughters. For those Xers who bitch and lament about their Millennial (or iGen/Gen Z) children, they are a product of whatever environment you created for them to develop into the person(s) they are now. These Snowflakes have initiated social, political, and economic changes across the globe that will allow us to live and love in a safer and more equitable world. Isn't this exactly what we wanted for our children, to be better situated, to be happier, to be healthier, to be safer than we ever were? You realize that we, the former generation, will directly benefit from the latter generation's betterment and progress? Yeah, so shut-the-fuck-up.

And finally...

If you're shitting razor blades over the current political and economic circumstances in the United States, you can thank the Boomers (1945-1964) and the Silent Generation (1925-1944), the generations who've been voting and assuming political office since 1963 and 1943 respectively. These crusty fuckers still hold nearly 50% of all the elected and appointed offices across the three branches of government and the Federal Reserve. They ushered in the Reagan Era and Reaganomics, gave a platform, legitimacy, and power to the Religious Right, and just recently helped overturn Roe vs Wade. Fuuuuck! According to national life expectancy, both Biden and Trump should be dead.

I've come to realize that Gen X is the generational equivalent to the elderly and former Prince Charles of the British Royals - we're sandwiched between the youth and popularity of our dazzling children and the shadow of legacy and never-ending reign of our parents. 

Yep, fuck all.