Also flying to Vietnam for a government paid vacation when they were 18 years old.
this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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Shhhh, the primary social media population wants to believe life was a breeze until they came along.
There was no oil crisis, no cold war, no economic crash in the 80s, no housing shortage in the 80s, no rampant crime!
The 70/80s where glorious!
/Sssss
We didn't start the fire
I definitely enjoyed myself, more in the 80s than the 70s (which seemed largely like the record industry still trying to milk money out of the 60s).
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Life has always been a struggle, but it truly feels hopeless being 20 something given the current state of the world. There's some days where I spend 80% of the day consumed by suicidal thoughts.
It was kind of a breeze in comparison to now, no? My dad bought his first house for $37,000 when the average salary was $15,000. I just bought a house and couldn't find one within an hour for under $420,000... The average salary around here is apparently $55,000
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It's also forgetting the Korean war, and several smaller wars in between (Panama, Honduras).
Vietnam was bad, but don't forget so easily that we only just got out of the longest running war the US was ever been in, and it wasn't Boomers or Gen X fighting in it. It spanned two generations. Now, because there US just can't not be involved in a conflict, we're casting about trying to find a good enemy; I think the next one will be with a developed country. We've realized that we don't do so well with insurgencies, so maybe Russia or China. Or, maybe India and Pakistan will finish everything for us! They both have nukes, and China isn't just going to sit there while they trade nukes across the border.
Anyway, it's a little depressing that y'all have already written off the 800,000 veterans who fought in Afghanistan as being unworthy of notice.
If you want to nitpick in that area, US soldiers in the Middle East over the past 30 years have all been enlistees, average age around 30. The average age of US soldiers in Vietnam was 19, most of whom were drafted. No American high school students since 1973 have had to watch lottery balls on TV decide whether they get sent to war.
The Korean War “ended” in 1953 the oldest boomer would have been 7 year olds, about half of them were the right age for Vietnam but even with that only about 2.7m served in some capacity for the Vietnam war with a lot in non combat roles there were 76m baby boom era so less than 4%
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A lot of boomers missed Vietnam as even in 1975 some boomers were only 11 years old
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Yeah, my mother was able to earn a bachelor's degree (iirc? either that or an associates), paying for it by working as a cashier at McDonalds.
The fucking eighties, man.
My anger as I approach my thirties, unable to afford college even when I was working full time (before I lost my job), can not be overstated.
You can still do that if you live in a first world country... Yes, I'm implying what I'm implying.
Lemmy, every 5 seconds:
guys are you aware the united states sucks
guys
guys
I don't think you're aware
the US sucks
guys
listen
hey
the US sucks
did you know that?
guyssssss
like, yes, I get it, we suck, but also it's exhausting being unable to emigrate anywhere and being constantly reminded of how much suck I get to endure for the rest of forever.
And dint forget, no matter who you voted for you're still a dirty American and FUCK YOU for existing at a time when your country sucks more than usual. It doesn't matter how you voted or what your beliefs are.
And also if you can't move out of the country it's your fault for not..... Something. I guess.
And also depending on what community you're in, SUPER FUCK YOU for deciding to leave your country instead of fixing it.
And of course, as we can already see, every single shortcoming of your country is CLEARLY your fault or at the very least you deserve to be punished for your country being shitty in any way, whether it started long before you were born or not.
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https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-370.html
https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-1980
Boomers weren't the ones who elected Reagan, they were at most 35 at the time.
That's the president that started to fuck things up and it was just the same as usual, older people being more conservative, younger people not showing up to vote.
I will not stand for this Nixon erasure
Both your links gave me 404 errors
They were almost all able to vote in 1980 at 16- 34, and made up a large portion of the population then in 84 they were all able to vote and saw what actions he took the previous election and voted for him more…
Copypaste for you:
How Groups Voted in 1980
| 1980 | Group | Carter | Reagan | Anderson | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL | All Voters | Pct. | 41% | 51% | 8% | |
| SEX | Men | 51 | 38 | 55 | 7 | |
| Women | 49 | 46 | 47 | 7 | ||
| RACE | White | 88 | 36 | 56 | 8 | |
| African-American | 10 | 83 | 14 | 3 | ||
| Hispanic | 2 | 56 | 37 | 7 | ||
| AGE | 18-21 | 6 | 45 | 44 | 11 | |
| 22-29 | 17 | 44 | 44 | 11 | ||
| 30-44 | 31 | 38 | 55 | 7 | ||
| 45-59 | 23 | 39 | 55 | 6 | ||
| 60 & over | 18 | 41 | 55 | 4 | ||
| INCOME | <$10,000 | 13 | 52 | 42 | 6 | |
| $10 -14,999 | 14 | 48 | 43 | 8 | ||
| $15-24,999 | 30 | 39 | 54 | 7 | ||
| $25-50,000 | 24 | 33 | 59 | 8 | ||
| >$50,000 | 5 | 26 | 66 | 8 | ||
| UNION HOUSEHOLD | Yes | 26 | 48 | 45 | 7 | |
| No | 62 | 36 | 56 | 8 | ||
| REGION | East | 32 | 44 | 48 | 8 | |
| Midwest | 20 | 42 | 52 | 6 | ||
| South | 27 | 45 | 52 | 3 | ||
| West | 11 | 36 | 54 | 10 | ||
| PARTY | Democrat | 43 | 67 | 27 | 6 | |
| Republican | 28 | 11 | 85 | 4 | ||
| Independent | 23 | 31 | 56 | 13 | ||
| POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY | Liberal | 17 | 60 | 28 | 1 | |
| Moderate | 46 | 43 | 49 | 8 | ||
| Conservative | 28 | 23 | 73 | 4 |
Notes: Survey by CBS News and the New York Times. Sample of 15,201 voters as they left voting booths on Election Day, November 4, 1980. “Don’t know” and “other” responses not included.
And then in 1984 they voted for Reagan even more
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Spend all of their own parents inheritance, leave nothing for their own kids, talk about how they had to work their way up from nothing.
I wouldn't call it peacing out, there's quite a lot of not-peace for that