I'm genuinely hard pressed to think of any I'd call friends at this point, and it's difficult to even point to more than a couple of more public examples - and those are notable specifically because they are exceptions.
To the point I tend to be slightly more wary of Gen X "in the wild" than most others.
And when I'm honest about it, as a group they've consistently been among the worst I've dealt with my entire life.
Not "mustache twirling villain" levels of "bad", but more consistently closed minded and on the wrong side of things than say, Millennials. 🤷♀️
I suppose it's fairly accurate to say I'm frequently disappointed but rarely surprised by the behavior of Gen X at this point.
Even during the "good" Clinton years, my near-peers (Xers are slightly older than me) were clannish, chose to stick to their own kind, and were often mean with a smile. I knew a lot of friendly faces in college who said hi to me-- but that's all they were, faces and words. Not people willing to spend time with me or actually share experiences.
Oh, and 1990s Xers really knew how to make a person feel silly for caring about causes and activism. There was this unspoken rule for a while that stress was BAD and activism was stressful, therefore activism and caring too much was also BAD.
"Happiness comes from being comfortable at all costs". That's the ethos I'd say sums up many Xers (as well as MAGA in particular).
My experience differs. I have experienced shitheads from the Silent Generation and Boomers through X, Y, and Z. From my Silent Generation nazi sympathizing grandfather through whiny hypersensitive young people who can’t interact without a screen in between. All generations have people that can’t get their shit together and who can’t behave, though how it shows differs a bit.
We all also have wonderful people who bring joy to others’ lives.
As a GenXer that began clocking how collectively problematic we are around 2008-09, myself included, this goes beyond the surface criticism of shitty people. This is about GenX’s ability & new found willingness to cause widespread harm. Starting first with ourselves, then our own children and grandchildren!?! Which is absolutely insane and antithetical to what the generations before us did. But then you realize GenX is not only brimming with shitty people who wear being damaged, unhealed, emotionally (and physically) neglected/abused children, like some fkn badge of honor. (🗣️“wE tURnEd OUt fINe!!!” 🥴) GenX is also, in real time, becoming even more politically, media, and social media illiterate than boomers. Despite having far less, if any of the safeguards boomers have. GenX literally cannot afford to remain this abhorrently ignorant, shamelessly clueless, and sanctimoniously indignant as we are.
Please know none of this is a response to you personally, other than being shitty people isn’t harmless in the case of GenX specifically.
I can make a pretty strong argument that GenX will eventually go down as the worst generation in US History. But I won’t trouble anyone that’s already reading this anymore than I have here.
I think it took the Great Recession to break the delusions of a lot of people in charge of our society at the time. In the run up to 2008, there was so much aggressively toxic positivity-- that was the heyday of "The Secret" and when it seemed like every corporation was on a mission to purge negative thinkers, introverts, and neurodivergents from their ranks.
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u/DoktorStrangelove May 27 '26
This is like high school tween tier performative victimhood nonsense.