this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
382 points (93.2% liked)

Today I Learned

25519 readers
1160 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] stoly@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

My parents have everything. My grandparents were fairly wealthy and passed on. We have inherited nothing from them, it all went to my parents and we saw nothing of it. They have a nice new freestanding pool in their backyard and a fire pit, though. Oh and new cars. I was buying a home recently and had to take a down payment as a retirement loan. Not a cent from them to help.

[–] Garbagio@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

"We worked for what we have, and you can, too! Giving you anything would hurt your drive."

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

No joke they said nonsense like that. They forget that their own parents left them with nothing and they suffered. Fair is fair I guess.

[–] Garbagio@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Oh buddy, trust me, I wasn't just quoting your parents. The bitch was they'd say shit like that when I was a kid; like no I don't want your shit, I don't want to listen to how you plan to die, or how afraid you are that it's soon. I want to stay up late and watch Yu Yu Hakusho on Adult Swim. And then they wonder why their "wealth" isn't enough for me to stay around through their abuse and overall shitty personalities.

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like they've failed as parents, then.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I remember being 23 and asking my mom if she’d add me to one of her credit cards to help me with credit. I didn’t want access, just so that it would help my credit history. She refused by telling me that it was my responsibility.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Canadian parents were not much better, unfortunately.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

the Canadian way, trying to be just slightly less shitty than the US

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 252 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

I don't fault the boomers for spending "their" money.

I very much do fault them for, at every single step, insisting on legislature and behavior that makes the world actively a worse place from a climate and human rights perspective.

Keep your own money. A lot of kids would benefit from "earning their own way" and the fallacious bootstraps. But don't pull the ladder up behind you and piss on those below you.

Boomers didn't steal their kids money. They stole their future.

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I will also note that the way that generation made that money was part of the problem. They didn't conjure that money from thin air - there were always going to be consequences for the systems created where that money was made.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They were called the "Me generation" when they were young.

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago

They somehow successfully rebranded. Boomer might be a slur now but it wasn't always.

I feel like The Me Generation was a better name anyway, selfish pricks.

[–] running_ragged@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm going to take all the sacrifices my parents made to help ensure I have a successful life.

I'm going to have no problem getting a great job with, or without education.

I'm going to get into the housing market on a basic salary no problem.

I'm going to bring kids into this world, and make sure they earn their own way.

I'm going to shame them into leaving home as early as possible, make them rent for most of their life and wonder why they don't buy a house so they can make money on their investments.

Oh, by the way, i'll make a ton more money on other peoples kids paying my second, third investment properties mortgage off with their rent.

Then i'll live a glorious retirement, fully aware that my kids retirement is probably not going to happen ever.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 54 points 2 days ago

Yeah this right here. The attitude is what pisses me off the most.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

End of life care will vacuum up all of the money from every generation now.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Especially the boomers. The generations since them will prepare for this in some way. The boomers will just have all their wealth gobbled up by service companies.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 hours ago

The generations since them will prepare for this in some way.

Ahah, yeah, by legalizing suicide booths / EoL euthanasia, and then just actually doing soylent green.

Maybe not directly as food itself, but, decaying biomatter is good for compost, and we are gonna need a lot more composted topsoil in the next decades, as the climate collapses further.

[–] solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com 139 points 2 days ago (3 children)

And hoarding billionaires ruin everything for everyone. Class warfare, not generation.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You'll note they always use "average"(mean) rather than median savings/assets to mask that it's really a small portion of boomers that are living the easy life. Still better off as a whole than later gens but to your point, no warfare but class warfare. I read a recent book , "work, retire, repeat" looking at the life crisis that has been built with insecurity and poverty driving most people, regardless of age to work too much and work until they die. Your point is the best one; billionaires and their lobbyists and owned politicians are the real problem.

There are many boomers with nothing, who did not have or get a pension, who didn't or couldn't accumulate wealth through housing, who may not have gone to college because (and the article leaves this out) they didn't even need a degree to move up. The book mentioned above calls out that only 8% of people working past 62 are doing it because they really want to be and have a job they enjoy. Many are still working for healthcare, to service debt, concerns of future unknown/instability/inflation, social security being threatened, and also it notes they many keep working because they have kids or other dependents they see struggling in a tougher world and want to help/ensure they aren't another burden.

I'm not a boomer or discounting the relative advantages they had, but it's the concentration of wealth to the owner class/.5% that are by far the issue not an age group.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 8 points 2 days ago

The statistics these days should be split. One for the top 10% and one for the bottom 90%.

[–] YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I blame the billionaires, but I despise the bootlickers who somehow think the billionaires got there fair, and square through hard work and that we're all just jealous. It's infuriating. I don't hate successful people in the slightest. But multi-billionaires are parasites.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have to agree.

And actually, the pattern they talk about in the article happens in every generation, anyways. People's values seem to change as they get older. But I think they don't really change.

I think if you look into the issue, you'll find that a lot of people don't really have political beliefs. They just have selfishness and greed.

When they're young and poor, it manifests as left leaning because they want the government to give them money, and after they've accumulated whatever money they can, it manifests as right leaning because they still want the government to give them money.

[–] TeamAssimilation 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It’s not even generational. People with little money want money, people with more money want to keep it. There’s dirt poor boomers and greedy yuppies.

As other have said, it’s about socioeconomic classes, not age. Age is the distraction.

In fact, when a problem is presented as a us-vs-them dichotomy, it’s almost sure it’s oversimplified, and probably dishonest.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

IDK, as I've become older and wealthier, I've only become more and more liberal.

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Agreed - and have been donating a lot more because I’m fortunate enough to be able to.

[–] Steve@communick.news 98 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Baby Boomers had another name. For a time, they were also called the Me Generation.
They were the first generation to prioritize "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment" over any kind of social good.

[–] Trex202@lemmy.world 44 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Capitalism turned them from members of society into individual consumers

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I blame suburbanization more for that.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Dr. Spock fucked the world

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

To be fair, I read a while ago that the, "Great Wealth Transfer," was going to fizzle because of medical costs. Medicare doesn't cover long term care, so a lot of the wealth that Boomers would have left behind is getting eaten by the medical industry.

Still, they gutted the social safety nets for short-term stock market gains, so fuck boomers.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fuck rich boomers (and those who voted for them). There are a lot of good ones. No war but class war, etc.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

You have to remember that for Reagan's first election, all but one state went for him. The entire generation and their parents/grandparents voted for destroying social safety nets.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 points 1 day ago

I'm pretty grateful my dad isn't a typical boomer, despite being a Baby Boomer.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Just maybe might have something to do with the hitherto unseen mass phenomenon of adult children going no contact with, ghosting their parents.

Whole lot of narcissistic abuse on one side, whole lotta CPTSD on the other.

https://theweek.com/culture-life/no-contact-family-estrangement

https://justinthenickofcrime.substack.com/p/no-contact-why-millennials-gen-z

https://slate.com/life/2024/08/no-contact-parents-meaning-family-estrangement.html

Whole lotta Boomers can't figure out that they aren't entitled to their children's attention, love, or respect, that their kids are... conscious, sentient, independent human beings... after they spent their whole narcissistic lives negging their kids and inventing new problems for them, new standards to meet, more messes to clean up, whenever they feel 'unappreciated'.

Oh well, they can enjoy the housing crash they caused by fancying themselves as prudent investors, and then they can enjoy their golden years in an underfunded and understaffed elder care home.

It didn't have to be this way, but too many of 'em never listened to a damn thing anyone else said that made them feel insecure or unclever for even a moment.

(Most of the housing market run up, most of the purchased properties, both 08 era and now... actually were done by 'small landlords', self styled real estate investors. Yep, corpos did a lot too, but not the majority. Also, now the median homebuyer age is 61, the median first time homebuyer has gone up from 28 in 1980, to 38 now in 2025... the boomers literally, objectively are the primary responsible party for making housing unaffordable for everyone else. But hey, fuck them kids, eh?)

(... and thats all before going into generational voting patterns, and how by continuing to try to ride along with a system rigged in their favor, they have also literally doomed the planet and biosphere. Just a real bang up job.)

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This describes my boomer parents with scary accuracy. So fucking true.

[–] thax@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Ditto. Mine are now virtue signaling how anti-Trump they are when they always pedaled "voting for your wallet" and other Reagan-type bullshit. I don't blame them for being so obtuse, but god damn can it be frustrating to see the hypocrisies bubble up while they demand adulation.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

LOL mine too. They suddenly see the light and realize that they were terrible parents and now are so sad that many of my siblings are rampant MAGA types. Oh if only they knew then what they know now, dontchano.

[–] thax@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I hypothesize that insular "family values" is the time bomb that stoked their egos insofar as to blind them to the real machinations of this world, and now their minds are detonating into a cloud of dissonance, deflection, and denial. It's sad really, to witness the fallout of decades of propaganda.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I have felt sorry for boomers because of the endless propaganda. Only a few seem to have been able to see through it.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 44 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For everybody not from the USA: Due to the war, the US baby boom kicked off earlier and stopped sooner. So if you are talking about "boomers" in Europe, you are talking about different groups than boomer in the USA.

[–] minnow@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

Hence the article giving actual age demographics when it comes to the real details. Generational names are just a shorthand and they're never perfectly accurate. But age demographics don't have that problem.

[–] SupahRevs@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

I'm currently reading Bowling Alone. And this is pretty much the gist of the story. We will need a good generational shift to rebuild a society that looks to improve things for the next generation.

[–] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

no shit - they ruined it for all of us

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

You should see how the boomers treated their parents and the infirm. Just lock them up in a home and forget them.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Raised by them. Fuck em. Hope they rot.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Selfish people in general, not just parents

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The billionaires want the generations to fight. Divide and conquer.

[–] admin@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think this is true maybe not in the USA/West, but in my country for sure, most of the boomers I know, even though they have more and own more, are highly miserable in their personal life.

[–] SeraphimNova@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Can confirm selfish pieces of subhuman trash. No contact and happy. They can all rot.

load more comments
view more: next ›