Thanks, Phoebe, for posting this. After hearing about Saint Ralph's latest I thought my head was going to explode. Man, but am I ever so f'n done with that narcissistic asshole!

Wish somebody would throw his scrawny ass into a Corvair -sans seatbelt- and drive him off a cliff already.

Rec'd! BTW my little brother turned 41 this year. He calls himself an "aftershock".

Er, 42...

I read so many stories about how you're the ones who rebelled against the boomers with young Republicans clubs on campus, RushRooms, fighting against all things to do with liberal political correctness on campus, and adoration of all things Ronald Reagan. I've read that Anne Coulter and Laura Ingraham were the standard bearers for your generation. Your generation gave a failed media person called Rush Limbaugh his star status. I remember so many magazine cover stories about the cool young conservative kidz that were going to kick the liberal boomer's asses....

Just kidding, in order to say,

how does it feel being poorly stereotyped and pigeonholed by age?

The reason why Gen-Xers don't suffer from "white guilt" is that they're so uninformed of the nation's history they don't know they should feel guilty.

Slackers!

I think before I recommend this I need to know exactly who qualifies as an "old fart."

(I'm 47.)

What the hell, I'll recommend it anyway.

But only because of your avatar! ;-)

Ah Cripes. My heart is broken. Phoebe said that she is sick of me.

Phoebe Fay: A great many Boomers are egomaniacal idiots, but that is not necessarily because they are Boomers; rather, it is because they are egomaniacal idiots. That said, George W. and Ralph Nader shame Boomers for the same reason: although their ideologies are different, they share a sense that their ideas must be right because they cannot be wrong. It is a burden for the rest of us. We apologize for them, because they cannot or will not apologize for themselves.

That does it Phoebe, get off of my lawn, and another thing; back in my day we did not have all that Googley nonsense, and we had no need for Face books; we kept them in the front of our heads where they belonged. Oops, time to go; Matlock is coming on.

I'm gonna vote for Obama because he's the best candidate for the job and McCain the alternative is unqualified for the job and would be an utter disaster. There's no silly guilt about anything involved.

Oh dear, Phoebe Fay, you have got yourself in trouble over this one. I love your posts and I know where you're coming from (I am 53) but Ralph Nader no more speaks for me than does Dubya. We are a diverse group, us boomers, as is your generation. As others have noted, your age group adored Ronald Reagan and gave great fuel to the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush. They even voted for Nader in large numbers in 2000. But, I wouldn't paint your age group with such as broad brush. No generation is homogeneous. Nader is an ignorant and increasingly detached individual who is dredging up old nonsense and bullcrap with talk of "white guilt." Let's leave it at that. And everyone should excuse Phoebe Fay for her little rant. I was outraged as well, but not because he's old, just because he has proven he is stupid. Nader degrades his own good legacy. Very sad.

Early 70's gen x'r here and I'm just conversationally slumming. I'm still trying to figger out what the hell Nader's talking about. How does one "talk white?" I know he's an Arab-American, but Obama has talked about poverty, and race and bigotry and religion. Obama has touched on every third rail. What does Nader want? Methinks he wants into the discourse and the debate. I hope we Democrats block him. He does not mean the Democrats well - round three.

As for hating on the old folk, Phoebe Fay, don't. Have compassion. We too will be there some day. They're trying their best and it happens to be a diverse group.

I'm not going to say that the younger generation is post-racial or has moved beyond identity politics or anything grand and sweeping like that.

I don't know if it's a generational thing, but I can't stand the idea of "white guilt," either. I don't care that it was probably *my* ancestors who had slaves and someone else's who were enslaved; what I care about is where we are now, for the simple reason that's all we can have any influence on.

Which isn't to say my generation (whichever that is -- X? Why? Why not?) is free from guilt. Me, I have environmental guilt. So maybe what creates generational guilt is feeling powerless? Perhaps the reason I feel like it's a waste of time worrying about being born white, or upper middle class, or anything else, is that I see ways to correct those imbalances and social progress being made. I see ways I can help, in my daily life, by simple acts like applying fair hiring policies and treating all people with respect.

But the environmental issues we face right now seem insurmountable, so every time I get into my car when better planning would have allowed me to ride my bike or take the bus, I feel a twinge.

Well, that went off on a bit of a tangent, but I think I'll hit "send" anyway. Noone yet seems to be representing the perspective the post-X, pre-millenial generation. (Ah, according to wikipedia, we're the "XY Cusp," or "MTV Generation.")

I do have to throw out this anecdote about my 18-year old son who is enamored of Senator Obama. Once when we were battling it out about the respective merits of Clinton and Obama, he exclaimed: "Dad, if Obama doesn't win the nomination, you are going to break the spirit of a whole generation of young voters". My response was that that was the same argument that he had been making to me since he was a kid, i.e. he was going to stomp his feet and hold his breath if he didn't get his playstation, or his skateboard, and now his political candidate. That stifled him for a good 15 minutes.

Well, that's IT. Nader just lost the election.

I love these generational dust-ups -- and am intrigued with Strauss and Howe's theory that generations mold history as much as history molds generations.

But at what phase of an individual's life is his/her sensibility molded? Pre-teen? Teen? College? Are different generations' sensibilities molded at different stages? For example, Greatest -- young adult; Silent -- Pre-teen; Boomer -- Teen?

To the extent that your sensibility is in accordance with that of your generation, at what age was it set?

NADER IS AN INSURANCE LOBBIST AND A JERK AND HE HAS BEEN ARROGANT FOREVER.

He may be a whiney old geezer now, but if you look at his old TV clippings he was a whiny self righteous, priss in the 60's.

He has never been anythig but a tool and a fool.

Don't judge ols people by his standard, judge us by Steve Jobs and Paul Allen.

I am now officially sick of people who make broad generalizations in order to condemn people.

I am now officially sick of pople who paint their prejudices as a form of progressivism.

I am now officially sick of people who treat politics as a narcissistic game.

I would love to stay here and answer lots of these comments, but alas, I'm going to be away from the computer for the rest of the day.

A couple of observations. One, the comments have largely devolved into a defense of the sacred geezers and haven't really addressed the "white guilt" and identity politics aspects, which seem to me the more important point.

Two, don't expect me to apologize for making fun of old people. The way I figure, I can make fun of white people, middle-aged people and women because I am one. I can make fun of young people because I've been one, and I can make fun of old people because I plan to become one. (And as I've noted, I'm well on my way. I've had many spirited arguments with gravity and lost them all, and my knees have taken to making more snap, crackle and popping sounds than a box of cereal.)

Three, I love you all, even those of you who seem to have left your sense of humour at a peace rally in 1969.

The way that prejudice works is to assign characteristics to people because of the group one assumes they belong to. For example, a prejudiced person might assume that a critic is old enough to have attended a peace rally in 1968, simply because that critic objects to denigrating launguage addressed to old people.

One old guy named Gandhi advised those working for peace and justice to "be the change you want to see in the world." If it sounds familiar it may be because the slogan has been used by a recent political campaign.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be . . .

One benefit of electing Obama president is it will drive racists and regular Republicans batshit crazy.
Even the ones who don't think he's Louis Farakan's protege think he's a friggin communist.