I just realized what’s happened to the US

both of my parents are boomers. We grew up in Maryland near Fort Meade, Maryland, where NSA is located. Both of them worked for the government: SSA, DOD, NSA. We were middle class. There were some financially scary times, but for the most part, both of them were employed and had good jobs (that’s another rant; the biggest lie younger generations were told was both parents can work and you can outsource raising kids; no, you can’t kids).

Both of them graduated from local high schools. They were told to get a good job and when you retired, the government would take care of you. Today, they’re both retired and in their 80s, and their pensions are ridiculous. They looked like geniuses in 2008 when the financial market took a shit. Today they’re retired in a southeastern state living their best life. They haven’t invested. They haven’t saved money for their grandchildren’s college. they don’t take us on family vacations. They don’t invite the family to gather around the table during holidays. I’m not saying they owe me any of that by any means, but when juxtaposed with how they spend their money, it seems…perverse, obscene.

they were told to get a job, buy a house, and you live the great American dream, and that was true for their generation. they’ve wanted for nothing and spent money like it would cause cancer if they held onto it. My father donates thousands and thousands of dollars to churches and charities. They go to church where they’re told what their morals should be. They watch Fox News to learn what their politics should be. In other words, they’ve always been told what to do, and by pure luck it actually worked out.

They told us get a college degree, work hard, save money, and you too will enjoy the American dream. I started mowing lawns when I was 11. I had my first job when I was 14 (I lied about my age, and they used someone else’s Social Security number). I worked all through high school and all through college and I got a great degree. I worked in corporate America for 30 years, but it hasn’t been easy. today, I do have some wealth, but the stress of all this gave me cancer 20 years ago, and my body is so fucked up I don’t think I can ever work again. but I haven’t given up yet. in contrast…

My father, horribly depressed, sits in his lazy boy every day, listening to Fox News, and opening boxes of shit that he’s purchased from Amazon or elsewhere. He sits there with his knife, opening box after box, surviving on the endorphins from opening another one. The item is inspected, appreciated, and then goes back into the box, which then goes on a shelf somewhere. He’s openly said, taunting, jeering, to my brother and me, “I guess you’re inheritance will be all this crap that I’m buying!” he’s literally argued with my mother for decades, saying he should be permitted to take out the maximum loan against the house because what good will it do to leave any behind? It’s callous, selfish, and nothing I could ever do to my children or the rest of my family. it honestly makes me sick.

so, it’s no wonder we see videos on Reddit of kids, trying to make their boomer parents understand that they can’t afford to buy a house. Shit, they can’t even afford rent. And the boomers just. Don’t. Fucking. Understand. Their feeble minds don’t get it. they were told what to do, they followed the instructions, and life‘s been good. And they cannot fathom how that’s not the same for everyone else.

Having always been told what to think, they’re happy to have Fox News continue telling them what to think. Fox pets their ego and reassures them their hard work is why they’ve had success, and everyone else is just trying to live off of government entitlement. And they cannot even see the tragic irony that they’re living off of government entitlement, and they don’t deserve it, and the struggling kids who actually do need it are demonized. and the propaganda algorithms have grown powerful beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I had no idea most citizens could be so easily manipulated. Even in the face of all we see on the news today, my father calls me brainwashed by my college, and an indoctrinated liberal (I honestly don’t know why I continue trying to create a healthy relationship with them).

So, I guess I finally understand it. Instinctually, they know we’ve done something wrong because we can’t sleepwalk through our careers like they did and have everything turn out peachy (and by instinctually, I mean that’s what Fox News tells them to think). They cannot understand why I’m so concerned about the country. I truly think Maga is so brainwashed they no longer live in reality. We all see it every day in our crazy Reddit videos, while they gorge on manipulative infotainment and call it “research“.

so, I guess I’m off to the north pole to stake my claim and hide from this world that’s losing its grip on reality, and hurtling headlong into madness. anyone want to join me?

TL;DR: boomers have never had to think for themselves and they won the lottery. And Fox News is happy to continue telling them what to think, and they love hearing how they worked so hard and did everything right, and love to sit in judgment, believing the rest of us are idiots.