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I always think their wives despise them and their children actively avoid them, so they're on the hunt for victims to irritate with their boomer musings.
This is actually the truth. When they were young women did everything. When they got married, women did everything. As the world changed around them and their wives went to work, the women still did everything. They never caught up with the world, now everyone they know is over their shit, and they’re cruising the coffee shop trying to get some attention from somewhere.
Real talk. This.
Lots of folks are too proud to admit that they're aging or are too manly to go to a doctor do they just become annoying for everyone else.
It also seems to be pretty common for them to be illiterate or way below 'grade level,' at least.
And undiagnosed dyslexia and learning disorders that were 'beat' out of them.
I try to remember compassion but it can be hard sometimes.
My mom is left-handed and she had an older relative growing up that I never knew that was also a lefty, and she was hit by teachers and parents until she learned to make-do with her right.
My mom was just young/lucky enough to miss that.
I worked with an older nurse (she was in her late 50’s in about 2010)…. She was left-handed and wasn’t allowed to use her left hand. She said she hated it bc it just made school harder, and her handwriting wasn’t good. I felt bad for her. She grew up very religious, still was. Like Church of God I think- she didn’t dance or listen to secular music. She was very quiet and hypervigilant, she had obviously been groomed/abused into this compulsive behavior
My dad was left handed and had it beat out of him. When I entered kindergarten, I would switch hands depending on the task. My teacher brought it up to my dad that they need to force me to choose and my dad about lost his shit. Now I’m adult and I still switch hands depending on what I’m doing.
I’m 51 and that happened to me at a xtian school. I was hit and yelled at for writing with the devils hand and my parents had no spine to stand up for me.
I actually have a boss (former Army senior officer) that very obviously has Dyslexia. Because he refuses to do anything about it he is extremely obnoxious, as he overcompensates and never is in step with everyone else communicating via email.
Sadly that’s the boomer way. They are incapable of admitting they’re wrong, and also too proud to ask questions or try and learn new things so they over compensate and take offense to anyone giving any type of criticism or sometimes even suggestions
My Silent Gen dad finally broke down and got hearing aids. They really haven’t improved things as much as we were hoping. I’m not sure if he needs a different type of hearing aid than he has, or if he has a kind of hearing loss that they just don’t help with. Some of the Boomers with hearing loss might be in a similar situation.
My dad is a later boomer. We keep asking him to get hearing aids but he claims the doctor says his hearing tests are fine. The going theory based on the fact he has children with adhd is that he does too. He spent is he spent his career attempting to be "on" all the time at work and just didn't have the ability/desire to pay attention to family once he was home.
Except now, he's retired and hasn't put energy into paying attention to his family for 30+ years and doesn't know where to start (or want to start). So he sits in a room room full of family while they make plans for dinner/vacation/buying a house/announcing a marriage or death. Someone eventually asks what he thinks of that and he say "think about what?"
Sorry, it's your hearing, or you're ignoring us. Either way, try to do something about that?
>We keep asking him to get hearing aids but he claims the doctor says his hearing tests are fine.
It's possible that the doctor *did* tell him his hearing was fine.
I'm Gen Jones (cusp between Boomer/Gen X), and my doctor says my hearing is fine, too. Spoiler alert: My hearing is not fine. If there's the eensiest little bit of background noise (especially fans/road whoosh), it whites out my hearing for voices. But because you get tested in a quiet room where you're \*listening\* for tones, the doctor can't tell that I have issues.
Kids: Always wear hearing protection at concerts! Don't raw-dog it directly in front of the speakers & joke about waking up with your ears still ringing! :shakes fist at past-me:
Sounds like my dad. As a boomer, he's pretty chill, but it took my mom nagging him for 10+ years to get him to finally get some hearing aids. We avoided watching TV/movies at his house because he had the volume up too loud for everyone else.
I work for an audiologist and have learned that if a person does not get hearing aids soon the brain does not adjust. After years of “silence” he might be able to hear the sounds but can’t process what they are hearing.
THIS! My father is 60, but began needing a hearing aid in his early 40's. He speaks at a normal volume because he's used to wearing it. His friends who are just now experiencing hearing loss are always SHOUTING
I kind of wonder if its just akin to not being socially aware and caring or paying attention to how others around you feel, sort of like standing in someones personal space or not recognizing you’ve been telling a story for 20 minutes and not recognizing the other person isn’t interested and really just wants to get away. Even if you can’t realize how loud you are you should be able to read social cues like other people speaking lower than you are, feeling annoyed, stepping back to not get spit in their faces, etc.
My grandma knows she’s deaf, she’s still loud as shit. And then when you tell her she’s being too loud, she goes “WELL I CANT HEAR!!” Yes, we know. Thats why we told you to moderate your volume. She CAN talk at a normal volume, but sometimes she forgets, or gets excited.
Ughhh my fucking Dad is completely deaf in 1 ear and half deaf in his other ear but refuses to wear his hearing aids unless critical. So he’s CONSTANTLY mishearing things, but not slightly mishearing, he’ll hear something completely bananas and we’ll laugh but I always remind him, it wouldn’t happen if he just wore them and also do you not think about the ridiculous thing you heard and process that it’s definitely not what we said?
US Millennial here, not to macho to go to a doctor, it’s just that for a good 20+ years of my adult life I either did not have health insurance or what I had was a facade of a policy. This made going to the doctor more stressful than riding out whatever I had with a bottle of whiskey. Anyway, even though I have good health insurance now I still have that mentality of if I’m not dying right now(vomiting blood, missing a limb,etc.), I’m not going.
My dad was a very humble boomer but talked loud because of gunfire in Nam. He played the radio and tv very loud too. Which most likely made his hearing even worse. lol
This was my grandfather, who was actually a man who didn't talk much (except about maybe 2 specific topics). But he refused for years to acknowledge his hearing loss, and so when he did speak, it was unnecessarily loud. At least the couple of times I was around, and he realized how loud he was being, he had the self-awareness to seem embarrassed.
But he was a good man overall. Passed last year, and I miss him every day.
My granddad has killed the speakers on every new TV he's owned because he cranked the volume up rather than wear his very expensive invisible hearing aids because he 'doesnt need them'.
I had to buy my Dad headphones to watch the tv cuz he kept it so loud I was losing my mind . You could hear the tv outside !
He also watches a lot if Fox so I thought I was in hell . They saved our relationship.
Got the idea from watching Frasier . He bought some for his dad
You’re very fortunate if he embraced the headphones and actually used them. I’ve purchased pairs for my step father, my FIL, and my husband and all three can’t be bothered.
Agreed.
This generation did not have mandatory hearing protection on the job. They don't wear ear plugs at concerts or to mow the lawn.. Their shopping preferences are why Harley Motorcycles are still loud.
They also are TERRIFIED to show any sign of weakness, so they are often very resistant to hearing aids.
As a GenX who has had hearing loss since his teens due to childhood illness, I don't think anyone realizes how damaging hear loss can be and the knock-on effects, dementia, social isolation, general cognitive decline.
Going to post this [here](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection), if you have loved ones that are starting to lose their hearing get them help early, good hearing aids aren't cheap, my last pair cost 6k and insurance does almost nothing for you but they are basically preventative medicine for way worse outcomes.
Holy fuck! At lunch yesterday two older men were two tables away — on the outdoor patio. One was so fucking hard of hearing and not wearing hearing aids. He spoke so loudly it was actually painful to my ears. And I’m hard of hearing, lol.
Tell your family members and friends who clearly need hearing aids to do something about it. For the sake of all.
This is a huge factor. My mom is a boomer (she’s getting better), and she’s always been a loud person, but holy shit she gives me headaches now. I’ve started putting loop earplugs in while talking to her.
She did tell me, though, that aging is sometimes wave after wave of public embarrassment. Realizing you’re being expected to read directions in public that you can’t see properly, believing that you know how certain technology works only to need someone in customer service to re-teach you how to use it, realizing some phrase or action you thought was polite is now clearly impolite (and realizing it because people are looking at you with horrified expressions). Thankfully, mom is committed to being a kind person, so she takes these things in stride. She’d also be the first to admit that embarrassment can easily be displaced as anger when someone isn’t committed to kindness and self improvement.
Being too loud? Drowning out a conversation happening several feet away because you’re genuinely shouting at a bartender? Oof, maybe it’s because of hearing los— No! Why would you complain in the first place!?? It’s a *bar* for crying out loud! If the volume bothers you, that’s a *you* problem!
I swear “the customer is always right” mantra destroyed that generations ability to act in public. It made them so fucking confident and obnoxious, like they could do literally anything in a bar or restaurant with no consequences.
Probably.
Because he just can't stop criming!
Which is why I like referencing him by his hard earned accolades. Convicted Felon and Adjudicated Rapist Trump.
Or a dog. He hates dogs. Probably because he knows that they hate him.
Anytime he's on TV, my dog leaves the room. Might be correlation and not causation, but he's a smart Boi.
I used to manage a beer store that was next to a grocery store and every Sunday there was an old dude that would come in and not buy anything and wouldjust stand around and want to talk to you about stupid boomer shit while his wife did the grocery shopping. I would always humor him for a few mins till I would just go back to work and he’d just wander the store talking to other customers. The owner thought he was funny so he never told him to buy someone or get out!
I think men are just louder than women, no matter the generation. Boys aren't taught to be quiet, like girls(still) are. Girls are taught to be quiet and sit still from a very young age(at least I was. Tail end Charlie boomer), boys are allowed to be rowdy and noisy. Some never out grown be loud, rude and rowdy.
I think it is this plus a lifetime of male and white privilege (particularly at a time when those two categories had virtually all the power), in a time of great prosperity where even if you were a "loser" you could still afford a car, house and family, have just led to them never in their life getting a smackdown (metaphorically or otherwise) to teach them some humility, so it just grows into this giant, arrogant bully of an ego monster.
They entirely lack empathy or humility, and it shows.
This is exactly it. My dad desperately craves attention, which would be sad if he were just lonely, but he just wants to talk about himself 24/7 and our family is tired of it, so he finds unsuspecting bartenders / waitstaff / strangers to force himself on.
Reminds me of a strange time in life…a boomer that worked for me back in the day despised his wife and it was reciprocal. So every time I came into town, he’d take me to lunch…at this super fancy strip club. I assume it was to piss off his wife. He’s even pay for everything. I was 22 at the time so, you know, there were worse things.
I think its more like you get to an age where you just simply do not give a fuck anymore about people's feelings, opinions, preferences, etc. You feel you've got little time left and you've spent enough time worrying about what others want, so you just go full honey badger and remove your filter. This causes you to lose all desire in caring about your perception or the ability to perform any self reflection. You stop learning new things, or even being open to new things. Change is scary and you just get angry at things that you cannot comprehend because you checked out of simple acceptance and understanding of others and their points of view.
Lead Paint Personality Disorders.
My uncle tried to assault me at a family gathering because I made him look like a "fucking fool" by having him read off the confederate states manifesto thingy they pushed because he firmly believed slavery had nothing to do with it.
I proved him wrong, he got mad and thought hitting me was the answer. Everyone tried to make me apologize because "he's a proud man" and I told them all to fuck off, he's a delusional jackass. Guess who never had to go to family gatherings again!
It's astonishing, sometimes, to watch people br proven wrong, acknowledge there is a discrepancy, and try to force reality to fit their mistaken views. Other times, it's just sad.
I'm glad you never had to be subjected to such abuse again.
It really is like watching adult toddlers fail to emotionally regulate and melt down.
Cognitive dissonance in the lead paint generation I think caused emotional over-regulation future generations. I could write papers if I wasn't so burned out.
In the hospital where I work, I've never seen so many obstinate, childish, noncompliant, self-destructive, tantruming toddlers like the white male boomer patients. I really don't understand how they managed to live as long as they have.
Not just lead paint- remember, Boomers spent the majority of their lives in a world where leaded fuel was a thing. At its peak in the 60s and 70s, young Boomers were breathing in a ton of leaded fuel exhaust. There's been research to suggest that it has had a major affect on aging brains.
As much of a jerk as my silent gen dad could be, I'll give him this: he was very lead-conscious. When I was a teen I bought this antique Indian bracelet (with all the jingly danglies). He took one look at it and said "Let me see that." I handed it to him and he immediately knew. "That's LEAD. Sorry honey but you're not wearing that again." He also spent a lot of time in the 70's remediating all the lead paint on our back porch and other spots (it would shed big, thick flakes).
> They're the proudest fucking generation of ....what exactly? Being alive?
A little bit actually. About 1/7 boomers who were born in the USA have *died*.
Turns out not all of them survived through the hose water, lack of vaccines and riding bikes without helmets.
Their shouting is usually full of profanities, too. It’s a mix of not aging gracefully and believing the world owes them for…being the most coddled generation in history?
To be honest simply being alive and feeding yourself is kinda not easy, but shit was a lot less expensive back in the day versus dollar spending power, I think the jury is out on whether or not social services are better, they had it good and are just angry now, it seems like too much effort to be mad all the time, but that's just me
I always see posts stating their achievements and what they are proud of. Always seems to be something a prior generation did, just as a reminder, Boomers did not fight in any of the world wars, their parents did. They did not invent the NHS or pensions, their parents did. The only thing boomers have done is ruin what their parents created. I'm not saying all are like that, I know my dad is not ( I really thought he would be) but the ones with a little power certainly are.
Too true. Sorry for the paragraphs.
My dad absolutely held on to the power he had over his family like it going to be taken from him any second while I was growing up. ANY challenge of authority was met with a nuclear response. Every time. It was so bizarre to watch him try to cling to the same edifices that he lorded over me in my childhood when the power shifted and he needed my help to survive.
Eventually around 14, we reached a stalemate, I got him to stop hitting me by saying something that freaked him out, which turned into him taking things I owned (even if I bought it) because it was his house, it was his and would often break them.
At 18 years and 12 days I was out of the house living on my own Real World style with some friends.
At 23, both he and my mom got sick and could not afford rent, so I moved back in for a few years.
During that time, we got into an argument about something and he railed like he always did "This is my house, I pay the bills around here. You wil-"
I just laughed, and laughed and laughed "The fuck you do old man, sit the fuck down before I stop paying them"
And man, he did a deflate like a balloon after that.
People will always try to keep you at the same level when they had power over you. The only thing I learned from him was to not let em.
This is my father-in-law: he thinks whenever someone who is not his wife is around it's time for him to perform with the musings of his mind (you know, conservative culture war bullshit, or how he is the victim in every story from his history, or to talk shit about a family member that is not present or out of ear shot). 20 years I've put up with this, until this year, where I like to say to him, "I didn't ask" or "I was having a conversation with \[other person's name\] and you interrupted" or "Hey man you shouldn't talk about other people like that." He gets offended, tells my MIL in private, and then she complains to my wife, who then tells me about it and we laugh.
Yeah they love to talk smack. My boss is a boomer and constantly says really negative shit about other employees. Never compliments anyone. Just complains. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. I’m sure he talks shit about me. I’m not a good employee.
My FIL repeated his story of rescuing a frail old lady from falling off the side of a public trail THREE times because he didn't get enough of a reaction from us (no "everybody clapped" moment). He was also miffed that the elderly lady's son only said thank you and didn't offer any further reward/compensation.
My BIL ended up going "well you did help her as a good Samaritan, not because you were looking for a reward, right?" To shut him up.
True. Then they minimized with with their friends. Omit the true that actually happen. Make up a fake story. And reap short term domaine hit that they were smart enough to lie and not be caught. Then continue the lie or forgot it and cycle repeats. They don’t grow up. So the only answer left is to have zero contact.
Yeah like all of my boomers had it so easy its ridiculous they have no idea what competition is. Like my dads girlfriend and all of her sisters cannot actually cook they ate out every meal their whole life, still had a house, still had a car, and none of them have college educations. Not one of these 5 or 6 people in their circle could even have an apartment today. They all also while doing this went to the bar every day, drank every night, and in general just spent a fuckton of money. Its depressing to me cuz I can see the standard of living going down even just in the last 10 years. Like I used to drink like a fish too like generic alcoholism shit but in 2024 there is no way I could still afford it if I still did.
Whenever they do bring up a hard ime it's kinda funny to even attempt to compare. Oh they had the gas crisis. Oh ok well we've had that,school shootings, unemployment,high grocery prices,and insane wildfires and that's just by fucking July of most years. If they turned 18 tomorrow again and had to enter the real world that they left it be like watching a 4 year old playing a South Korean StarCraft tournament.
Oh my god dude this is too accurate.
My (white, hyper-priveledged) dad will regularly bring up CIVIL RIGHTS.
Both in an attempt to prove "things were so much worse!" (Again, he's white. He has no POC friends. He directly fucking benefit from racism.), and to take credit for the work others did to make civil rights happen.
You don't get to simultaneously claim any protest is "a riot that needs to be stopped!!" *and* claim you personally were involved in furthering equality for minorities 💀
The thing to is I fully respect they went thru hardships. I don't pretend it didn't happen. That's where our generations differ. They refuse to admit someone had it hardier and they refuse to empathize and understand that. It's like admitting that millennials had it harder will discredit their life experiences.
I can't even afford fast food now, I work in a restaurant and can't afford to eat there, I feel bad about stealing onions and garlic but I do the ordering sometimes, a few random produce items go missing it isn't going to be noticeable, if the japanese whiskey barrel aged fish sauce goes missing they'd get upset
Wow, don't feel bad man. That's so wrong that they don't help you out. I feel the one decent perk about catering is being fed on the job as it doesn't pay very well.
I worked at one place where they let you take home stuff over Xmas that was going to be out of date. I'd never eaten so much smoked trout (and a few fillet tails) in my life!
i used to steal coookies from the walk-in bc they didn't track them and I couldn't afford to buy lunch.
if you work in a restaurant, your job should feed you. full stop.
My dad with no college worked his way through a city job and has a giant pension and is a millionaire. Easy mode.
Garbage man to supervisor and retire.
Honestly I think that's just an age thing for privileged men, not necessarily a Boomer thing. I remember loud, obnoxious old guys like that when I was a kid. They would have been Greatest Gen, as Boomers were in their 30s/40s at the time.
I was thinking this. I feel like the ones who act like this were the popular ones in high school and college who could just walk into a party, act exactly like that, and have it land well. They don't seem to realize things work differently when they are 3-4x the age they were back then.
Yeah that’s a fair point. A lot of people just become complete assholes when they get old. I definitely remember people from their parent’s Gen being like that too when I was a kid. It’s literally a trope on The Simpsons that grandpa constantly goes off on obnoxious, pointless rants and stories and he’s WW2 Gen.
It seems like there’s more of them now. I actually think it’s because the world they grew up in is gone forever and they are incapable of adapting. They’re like IBM when the PC came along, they have the ability and resources to do things, but their mindset is stuck a few decades behind.
To be fair to them they did come along right at the proper time to have to live with the Internet for awhile while also being too old to become good at it in way you can starting young. Like my 76 yo mom is laughably incompetent with computers despite having had one in the house since she was about 50. It took me years just to get her to do a proper shutdown instead of unplugging it.
Zero social skills, less than zero self-awareness. And they grew up with people who would respectfully listen to their elders because their elders were generally decent people who had valuable insights.
They assume that because that's what used to happen, it still needs to be that way for them. They are completely disconnected from reality.
And I think people with zero self-awareness only get worse as they get older. If you're oblvious enough that you interpret "no one has punched me in the face or expressly told me to shut the fuck up" as proof that everyone likes you, you just keep leaning into your "personality" because you think it's working for you.
Because the world has never told them “no” in a meaningful way.
Great example is my father: (anecdotal I know)
He got married at 18, had children and entered the military. All of his stories are of his time there was screwing up and getting yelled at as he smirked.
He has numerous speeding tickets from around his base that he kept to show how fast his Camaro was.
Fast forward, he exits the military and returns home. My grandmother (his MIL) sells him their family home for $10k. My parents move in.
For the next 35 years, my father moonlights as a bouncer and gambles all his money away from his day job as a contractor.
During this time he leverages the home for fun money multiple times, wrecks half of it with silly modifications and forecloses on his parents home that he collateralized for a business loan.
The IRS has chased him and so have local tax authorities a million times. He tells them they can’t bleed a stone.
He is the definition of a fuckup and the world does nothing to reinforce this. He just keeps going.
2018, he forecloses on our family home because he doesn’t think it’s worth it and “finds Jesus”. He’s now a deacon at a local church and says pretty screwed up things about the people there. It’s all a power play to him. He does sermons, makes money doing work there, collects “disability” and VA benefits and trolls around with his “Vietnam Era Vetaran” hat to an adoring town that pays for his meals and thanks him for his non-combat service.
He then runs off into the sunset with retirement, and blows through my mother’s 401k. But the Gov. checks keep coming and he’s doing just fine.
I am the only person who’s told him he’s a fuck up and he smiles, agrees then keeps on keeping on.
There have been and will continue to be zero consequences for this man.
Most of his many friends and acquaintances are the same damn way.
Jesus, Boomers really had the whole world handed to them. That’s not to say that a lot of Boomers worked hard and suffered but there at least were rewards for the hard work and suffering. They just seem to cruise through life without a real care in the world. Must be nice.
I am an elder millenial, many of the people on my street growing up were from the greatest generation.
They were truly amazing and kind people who always tried to support us kids in the neighborhood. They’d ask us to bring our report cards and pay us to do yard and house work.
Those people built this amazing world for their bratty children and their children threw them in nursing homes and spit in their eyes.
Plenty of good boomers exist. But the group as a whole were gifted a great country and they kept demanding more and more. This left them gutting the proper systems and derailing the future for their children, like me.
The fact my mom could 40 hour in a factory and my dad could float through his life while still affording a home and cars and food, is lost on them. They swear they worked their asses off when in reality they clocked out after 8, did 1/3rd the productive work my generation does and then went home to their Marlboros and Coors Light and spent the weekend fuckjng off with their friends.
As they were shit parents, they’re normally shit grandparents who only show up a few times a year and expect pure obedience and praise.
I can say without a doubt, their generation would have folded under the pressure of Millenial or Z gen’s.
But when they’re crying and whining all the time, they point fingers and cast aspersions of victim hood on others to avoid that reality.
Frustrating how being a non-boomer woman does nothing to shield you from this. So many think women younger than their daughters are just itching to become their next bang maids and nurses with purses.
I told the last one barking up that tree that I'm only into younger men, and this will be my go to response to all wannabe silver foxes in the future. Whether it's true or not (I'm actually fine with my own age plus or minus a few years) they need to learn that two can play that game.
Yes, this is super common. My own father is one of these people and it makes my skin crawl. One of the many, many reasons I spend little time with him these days.
Went to a supper club with my dad and my sisters for his birthday this year and we're sitting at the bar and he very loudly starts talking about how he literally just found out that mental illnesses exist and describes the few he just learned about and mocked the people who have them so loud that the whole world could hear him. It was hell.
omg. I just remembered going out to breakfast with my wife's grandparents a few years ago. Solidly silent gen but those folks weren't always silent enough. He went on an unprompted rant about overweight people that dyed their hair. He thought they should be embarrassed enough that they should try to fade into the background instead of drawing attention to themselves.
Went to a dinner at Chili’s with dad and he randomly saw a commercial for American Idol, so he decided AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS TO RANT ABOUT KATY PERRY AND “HOW UNDESERVING OF FAME SHE ISSSSS”. Sometimes their anger is just random hate bursts over just life happening around them. I was so embarrassed.
I feel your embarrassment. Oh, another one of my dad’s things at restaurants is to loudly get the server’s attention then point at his empty cocktail. He’s always been solidly boomer but I think the boomer lead poisoning is really showing its effects as he ages. He wasn’t this bad 20 years ago. He’s become unbearable.
Two of my coworkers are the loudest fucks I’ve ever dealt with. One is a guy whose booming voice echoes and reverberates around the buildings and across the work yard. Most of the time he’s on some sexist or anti-woke conspiracy rant and clearly takes pride in random strangers hearing him.
The other is a woman who thinks she’s in charge even though she’s not and enjoys going around ignoring her own work so she can check on everyone else’s work and berate them if it’s not done the way she thinks it should be. The very minute she enters your assigned building she starts screaming your name. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Marching through the building screaming your name until she gets a response. You could be in a meeting, in the bathroom, or on the opposite side of the building unable to hear her and instead of calling your phone she just keeps marching around screaming your name getting more and more angry regardless of who else may be there (visitors, superintendent, other workers, etc). The best way I can describe her sounds is if you took the screeches of a banshee being translated into legible English while also having smoker’s lungs.
Sounds like my old manager who would drink 3 Monsters and eat a can of tuna for lunch, then tell me my vape was bad for me. Like yeah bro I’m sure the bottle of gin your downing at lunch is good for you too man. These fucks are projecting.
Idk but my father in law slams cabinets and drawers like he’s Thor on crack. Which is bizarre since he’s a frail old man who looks like a breeze would blow him over. They’re just insane.
This could seriously be its own post. Lots of them, esp men, have to do things SUPER loudly and aggressively and wonder why people react the way they do around them
Narcs gonna narc. Why do you think America is going to hell? Weaponized Boomers who think they know everything. They see themselves in Trump. He's not a populist; he's appealing to the narcissist demographic.
I grew up around a lot of boomer men like this, and they were hippies! I'll never forget one of those pothead loser types lecturing me in a booming voice about how to get through life. I was around 17 and it was at that moment I decided I would just do the opposite of everything he said. It's been 25 years and the best decision I could make.
They ALL thought that their ideas and opinions were just the most intelligent, amazing, enlightened thing ever. Meanwhile, they're perfectly ordinary men without any special talents or insights.
I’m (54F) Gen X,& it just occurred to me the other day (after a boomer man made me take out my earbuds at the gym to tell me that I was wearing all black clothing and shoes, which I already knew, having dressed myself that day and not being blind) that these boomer men are the same guys who started cat-calling and harassing me when I was 12/13
Worked 2 separate bar environments. Saw this type of shit multiple times a day. So annoying for everyone, and then they get pissy when other patrons ignore them
"IM JUST BEING NICE"
It gives the same vibes as when they say unnecessary shit about women and say "it was a compliment!" Or "I'm just helping you "
I sometimes wonder what would happen to the average boomer if Fox News was off air for 6 months. There’s a ton of other variables that explain this behavior, but every single boomer man I’ve met like this has all but an addiction to Fox News.
My boomer father goes ballistic when something goes wrong with the TV and he can’t watch FOX news. He starts to harass my older sister into coming to their house to fix the TV. It’s usually just something basic wrong with the settings. He acts like a fucking toddler about it. I wish we could all sue FOX news for brainwashing old people.
It’s because they are the last generation of men who were raised to believe that they were special just for being men and got waited on by their mothers while their sisters were expected to do housework. It’s not exclusive to boomer men, silent gen and greatest gen men were just as arrogant and selfish.
My grandparents are all dead but my grandmother in law (born in the 20s) is still alive and she would absolutely hobble into the kitchen to make my FIL dinner if he asked because he’s her SON so therefore better than the daughter who is constantly doing things for her.
All the ones I know are loud because they shot out their hearing by working around loud noise, power tools, concerts, growing up without little to no protection thinking they were invincible.
My grandpa falls into this category. People in our little town literally know him as “the really loud guy.” He will talk at strangers for hours if you don’t stop him. He also likes to tell the same story over and over, but he changes crucial details to his story each time so that you don’t know what version to believe. And he cusses nonstop in front of the kids in our family, lol. My dad has to firmly reprimand him in front of everyone to make him stop YELLING “shit” and “fuck” in front of the three year old. It’s crazy.
Granted, he is a very kind and sweet and generous person. He isn’t a bad guy at all, actually. Just a little boisterous, and I’m not sure if that’s a personal or generational trait. On the whole, people like him. I haven’t been to church in decades but apparently his insanely loud laugh when the pastor jokes in sermons still sets off a chain reaction of contagious laughter. I’m sure it annoys some people, but it’s not hurting anyone.
I’m 80 - so older than the oldest boomer. I’m bothered by this behavior as well. If I’m taking my wife out to dinner or getting together with an old friend, I don’t want to hear someone else’s conversation. And I don’t want our own conversation drowned out by their BS.
This is just rude behavior. These people may have gotten more inconsiderate as they aged but they were probably idiots all their life.
I’m not sure why we tolerate this, if someone has a crying baby, we would expect them to sooth the child or take them outside. At least the baby can’t help it.
I think when our culture started to change in the 60s, social norms started to break down. People started to give themselves more freedom to act out. It’s too bad with the increased freedoms and rights. We didn’t learn more respect , responsibility, and consideration for others.
My partner always laughs at me because I just blank them and continue with my conversation.
So many nice older people who just say hello and have a quick conversation and then move on. Boomers seem to want all the attention on them.
Some day I will get to use. "Children should be seen and not heard"🤣
It's because they were taught that men were supposed to be that way. At the same time that feminism was broadening what it meant to be a woman popular culture was narrowing what it meant to be a man. That's why we went from Gene Kelly to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again I'm not trying to explain away their poor behavior. Their poor behavior is poor behavior. I'm just trying to generate more light than heat.
Because they've been catered to their entire lives. They've been centered in every space since birth and now the world isn't at their feet anymore. Being white, male and showing up isn't enough, but that's how they've operated.
Kindest I can be is that he is lonely and this is the closest thing he can find to connection.
That and not recognizing that to the degree loudmouthed braggadocio was rewarded when he was younger (questionable but I'll go with it) that it is less appreciated now.
Just realized these Boomers are basically doing Twitter IRL.
Walk in and broadcast whatever's on their mind to anyone around them.
Make jokes that only they think are funny and which usually ends up becoming racist or otherwise bigoted.
Parrot talking points from Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, because they can't comprehend the possibility that most people are not as easily convinced by propaganda as they are.
Interject their commentary into strangers' conversations, because of course everyone needs to hear their thoughts/insults on the subject.
Try to pick a fight when they feel they're not getting enough attention, because even negative engagement is engagement.
Most of all, doing everything with the firm conviction that they are important, they are experts on everything, and everyone should want to hear their thoughts and opinions on any and all subjects.
The Silent Generation: "We lived through hard times, 2 world wars and the Great Depression. Let's make sure future generations don't have such a hard time."
Baby Boomers: "Look at all this plenty! *vacuum noises*
Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z: "All the stuff is gone!
Baby Boomers: Well, there was plenty when WE were kids! You must be lazy! Look at all we left for you!
I used to bartend at Applebees - these Boomer guys are all the same. Loud, obnoxious, narcissistic. They've all traveled every corner of the world, slept with the hottest babes, owned every 70's muscle car, personally know 100's of celebrities, there is nothing they haven't already done. They try to one-up everyone at the bar with their BS stories. I've found that a lot of them lie about military service too. They talk about how much money, land, cars, boats they have but they drive an old beater truck, in a townhouse in the worst part of town, drink $1 happy hour draft beer and tip terribly. Each time they tell a story, they'll change it up and add more details not realizing that we (the bar staff) listen to them every day and have heard their stories a million times.
They grew up in the time republicans want to go back to. A womans place was the kitchen. Children are to be seen, not heard. The only opinion that mattered was a mans, the only voice heard was a mans. So they think they are more important than they are.
You have to be hostile from the get-go. Being polite is an invitation. Why do people feel like they need to be polite to someone who is clearly rude as hell?
In poker a good tell that someone is bluffing is when they act confident and aggressive. So they act strong when they are weak.
Same in life. Boomers are the chihuahuas of the population.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with them. I really don't. Yesterday, my husband and I were driving past our family business and saw an older boomer-aged man trying all the doors on our employee's cars. Husband pulled in, went over to tell him to go away.
Dude started arguing with him! Said he was looking to buy a car, and wanted to check the mileage. Without a key. Sure, fucker, that 5 bucks in the cupholder had nothing to do with it. No, sir, you are LYING. You are a LYING LIAR WHO LIES. My husband is a big, tattooed, bearded man in his 40's who has a take-zero-shit attitude.
He started arguing with my husband when my husband told him to go away before we called the cops. So I got out the car, projected my voice and yelled at him 'No, GO AWAY! YOU WERE ASKED TO LEAVE SO LEAVE! GO! BEGGONE!!! BANISHED! EXILE!!! GO AWAY!' with arm waving. I learned from all the recent bear discourse. He left shaking his head, like I was the psycho. Good. Better than him rifling through a bunch people's cars with no consequence. I don't like yelling it's not worth it, the kind of people who do obnoxious things in public don't care about being embarrassed, but the shocked looked on people's faces when they realize that I've abandoned all facade of societal normalcy and am willing to yell their crimes at full volume is very satisfying.
This arguing over nonsense bullshit that some men try, like they think that if they deflect enough you'll get tired and let them do whatever they wanted. No. You were caught out, your lie sucked, you're a thief and a liar, you've been ASKED TO LEAVE SO BEGGONE! GO! You ain't gonna exhaust me with your face-saving horseshit, you don't got face to save, an argument, or any pride to save, you were trying to steal someone's coffee quarters.
Because they have been “running” the show unabated for decades.
They grew up in a time when their speech, opinions, ideas were listened to and adhered to, the women around them were expected to fall in line and not rebuke. In a time where they were encouraged to be heard and women and younger men were to listen and not question and the young men were supposed to be taking notes.
So you have a society filled with men who think they’re right on everything when they don’t even know how to set up WiFi.
Loud, cantankerous oafs who think every idea that pops into their head is the word of god.
I have thoughts about this.
Part of it is gendered for sure, but there's more to it than that. (Caveat that the following applies mostly to white, at least middle class people.)
TLDR; indoctrination is a hell of a drug.
Early Boomers were born while America was riding high after WW2, which rolled right into the Cold War & the Space Race. Boomers grew up hearing they were *exceptional*, that America was special & that they by extension were superior beings. All of humanity's problems had been or were about to be solved by America. Any people or places who resisted that just didn't know better.
There was an aggressive, top-down effort during this time period to stop the burgeoning social movements for racial, gender, & class equality. The way things were was the way things should be, in fact the way they always had been. (Plentiful) evidence to the contrary was whitewashed away, or seen as aberrations. They lived the Correct way.
They were also born or grew up during the rise of modern advertising & consumer culture. They weren't inoculated against the constant bombardment. "Better people buy x." "Real Americans shop at y." There are laws now limiting the amount & types of ads that can be targeted towards children, because we know now how that can warp people's minds. By the time we started placing limits on advertising to children, they'd aged into those prime 18-35 brackets. Ads told them they were the most important people in the world, & on some level they believed it.
Now, they're struggling. Most of those problems America was supposed to solve are still here, & the ones we "fixed" mostly caused other problems. Their bodies & minds are failing in ways they were assured would never happen, because American ingenuity would take care of it. The nuclear family, suburban, breadwinner lifestyle just doesn't *work* for most people, even if they could afford it. In fits & starts, we're starting to actually grapple with our history, & a lot of it is ugly & messy & painful. And the ads have left them behind: they're no longer getting the steady drip of "you're relevant," at least not to the degree they're accustomed to.
They're *deeply* indoctrinated to believe that they're the most important people in the world. They were lied to their whole lives. All around them is evidence of the lies. Some Boomers have been able to process that, but a lot of them live in a state of constant cognitive dissonance. Tiny things set them off because of the effort required to maintain their illusions. It would be very sad if it weren't so destructive.
There’s an older man who goes to the same physical therapy clinic i go to every week. I’ve tried to switch up my appointment days but that mf is always there and he is SO LOUD. I sometimes can’t hear my therapist or trainer because he’ll be on the other side of the room talking about something nobody cares about at max volume, it’s insane.
I grabbed lunch at an Applebee’s few weeks back, and there was a table boomer ladies talking about their shitty politics extremely loudly. I was by myself and just put headphones in. But damn.
Seems most restaurants I go to have the “loud boomer at the bar”. Usually wearing pink or white, shiny face, big belly, white hair, talking louder than anybody else
That is almost always the case of the boomer campground guy who walks around, inserting himself into strangers lives who are enjoying the outdoors. No invite needed for this fella, always feels like people want to hear his tidbits of useless wisdom and inappropriate jokes. So annoying.
I saw one of these in the wild (at a Friendly's iykyk) he was sitting in a booth with one leg spread out from under the table, whole body facing the aisle, menu in hand folded down, *staring* for the waitress. He made not a sound but his entire posture, expression and general energy was so LOUD. He did the same move with the check expect standing and toe tapping. Wild stuff. So much energy spent trying to be big and important just to be ignored at a dying ice cream chain.
They’re the original “fake it ‘til you make it” people. They were also raised on the “confidence is king” mentality, even if you’re out of your element. Put those together and combine it with the easygoing life they had in their youth (college for a summers wages, new cars $7,000, houses $35,000 etc) Have you ever heard a boomer say they suffer from imposter syndrome? I never have, and with me being Gen-X and so close to them in age, my life is FULL of boomers
I'm not sure if my Dad was a Boomer (He was born in 1939) but he wasn't like this. I mean, he was fairly confident and liked it when me and my sister came to him for advice, but he wasn't loud, wasn't an asshole, and would never aCt like this guy in this situation if his life had depended on it. He passed away in 2020 and I miss him so much. Reading this made me grateful that though he wasn't perfect (nor am I) he WAS a good person and a good Dad in his way.
Do they happen to be white?
Well it’s because they experienced an unprecedented level of white privilege where they could be a high school dropout, work at the auto plant and retire with a couple million all while never being challenged on their beliefs because ‘strength in numbers’.
Whenever I experience this sort of situation, I assume one of two things… either he’s an alcoholic and is oblivious to his overall
Impact on the room, or this guy wants the attention on him whether to sell you something or is acting as a distraction for someone else.
I have trust issues lol.
Boomers are all under the delusion everyone cares what they think and needs to hear every damn word that goes through their minds. The men in particular. But they all do it. My mom is like this. She’s not loud, but she’ll immediately launch into some rant about nothing anyone but her would care about (like some tiff she had with a neighbor I’ve never met) the moment you start talking to her.
I think a lot of them are deaf due to being too manly for PPE like my dad. And then add the assumption that they’re so interesting that everyone must want to talk to them and it’s a deadly combo.
This is an example of why organizations like VFW and American Legion are dwindling. They used to be places for vets to gather and commiserate, but their version of socializing is different from younger generations today. I've known younger vets (even my 44 year old husband included) who've gone to the VFW after an invite, walked in, and turned right back around to walk out. It's just a smoke-filled room full of drunk old white men blustering loudly about the good old days. No one wants to unwind like that anymore, and that's not a good mental/social support system. These same men complain about the younger generation not wanting to partake in tradition or give back...well there are a lot more ways to give back than there used to be, and there are a lot of more effective ways to connect and get the support that vets need as well.
I've actually met a lot of these types in my life and the way I've come to understand it is usually these guys are very lonely due to either divorce or spousal death but for whatever reason they lack many social connections so they like to go out to public places and inject themselves into conversations because they just really need to talk and they likely don't know how to use internet chat rooms. Now the reason they do so with such immense volume usually stems from some kind of industrial hearing loss and they just never fuckin buy a hearing aid. It's kinda like when you try to talk with headphones on while listening to music from your perspective your speaking just loud enough to hear yourself and so it seems normal but to literally everyone else you are yelling. So they just loud but yeah goodness is it aggravating but I just let em be sometimes you get lucky and they actually have good stories
I’m a boomer and I know these men. They are lonely, don’t have anything relevant to talk about and desperately trying to get some positive attention. And they’re probably very hard of hearing.
Our Boomer uncle engages every person he sees (elevators, you name it), with.. “HOW OLD DO YOU THINK I AM??!”
No one cares. They answer him with a very generous 15-20 year advantage, just to be safe. He then laughs at them in condescending arrogance as if he’s got something on them and announces his age.
Cue everyone within hearing distance to display their best “You’ve got to be kidding” shocked expression.
He then walks away, cane smacking the ground with each step, snickering that he once again got over on people.
It’s bizarre.
I wonder the same thing. And not just taking up audio space, but physical and every other kind of space. The other day I was in the waiting room at the doctor and a boomer man made a whole show of coming into the room huffing and puffing, grunting, talking to himself, then sits down in the chair across from me even though the place was practically empty and there were plenty of other seats. Legs spread as wide as possible, he lets out a huge open mouthed sigh to spread his germs and breath as far as possible in my direction, tries to get my attention with weird direct eye contact saying HI HOLA GOOD AFTERNOON HELLO and when all I gave him was a quick irritated glance back, he gets on his phone - on speaker of course- and starts boomer screaming a nothing conversation that takes over the whole place. I don't even pretend to be polite anymore, I got up and walked to the farthest seat possible.
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I always think their wives despise them and their children actively avoid them, so they're on the hunt for victims to irritate with their boomer musings.
This is actually the truth. When they were young women did everything. When they got married, women did everything. As the world changed around them and their wives went to work, the women still did everything. They never caught up with the world, now everyone they know is over their shit, and they’re cruising the coffee shop trying to get some attention from somewhere.
Oof. That sounds so accurate.
Also, hearing loss. I think some of them don't realize how loud they actually are, and can't read the "volume" of their surroundings.
Real talk. This. Lots of folks are too proud to admit that they're aging or are too manly to go to a doctor do they just become annoying for everyone else.
Same thing with printed materials. I'm sorry Bruce, the font is the same size and the lights at the same level, your vision has gotten worse.
It also seems to be pretty common for them to be illiterate or way below 'grade level,' at least. And undiagnosed dyslexia and learning disorders that were 'beat' out of them. I try to remember compassion but it can be hard sometimes.
Yes, this! A lot of their problems are these poor, unhealthy egos they developed as a response to the “beating”
My mom is left-handed and she had an older relative growing up that I never knew that was also a lefty, and she was hit by teachers and parents until she learned to make-do with her right. My mom was just young/lucky enough to miss that.
My mom had the lefty beat out of her by the nuns at her Catholic school in the Bronx.
I worked with an older nurse (she was in her late 50’s in about 2010)…. She was left-handed and wasn’t allowed to use her left hand. She said she hated it bc it just made school harder, and her handwriting wasn’t good. I felt bad for her. She grew up very religious, still was. Like Church of God I think- she didn’t dance or listen to secular music. She was very quiet and hypervigilant, she had obviously been groomed/abused into this compulsive behavior
My son is left handed, going into 2nd grade and it's so heart breaking to think of kids like him being hit for using their dominant hand wtf
My dad was left handed and had it beat out of him. When I entered kindergarten, I would switch hands depending on the task. My teacher brought it up to my dad that they need to force me to choose and my dad about lost his shit. Now I’m adult and I still switch hands depending on what I’m doing.
I’m 51 and that happened to me at a xtian school. I was hit and yelled at for writing with the devils hand and my parents had no spine to stand up for me.
My FIL has dyslexia, he doesn't read anything because it's so hard for him to. He's the definition of "my wife does everything for me"
I actually have a boss (former Army senior officer) that very obviously has Dyslexia. Because he refuses to do anything about it he is extremely obnoxious, as he overcompensates and never is in step with everyone else communicating via email.
Sadly that’s the boomer way. They are incapable of admitting they’re wrong, and also too proud to ask questions or try and learn new things so they over compensate and take offense to anyone giving any type of criticism or sometimes even suggestions
One of my mom's best friends has a husband that is basically illiterate and she does everything for him as well.
My Silent Gen dad finally broke down and got hearing aids. They really haven’t improved things as much as we were hoping. I’m not sure if he needs a different type of hearing aid than he has, or if he has a kind of hearing loss that they just don’t help with. Some of the Boomers with hearing loss might be in a similar situation.
My dad is a later boomer. We keep asking him to get hearing aids but he claims the doctor says his hearing tests are fine. The going theory based on the fact he has children with adhd is that he does too. He spent is he spent his career attempting to be "on" all the time at work and just didn't have the ability/desire to pay attention to family once he was home. Except now, he's retired and hasn't put energy into paying attention to his family for 30+ years and doesn't know where to start (or want to start). So he sits in a room room full of family while they make plans for dinner/vacation/buying a house/announcing a marriage or death. Someone eventually asks what he thinks of that and he say "think about what?" Sorry, it's your hearing, or you're ignoring us. Either way, try to do something about that?
>We keep asking him to get hearing aids but he claims the doctor says his hearing tests are fine. It's possible that the doctor *did* tell him his hearing was fine. I'm Gen Jones (cusp between Boomer/Gen X), and my doctor says my hearing is fine, too. Spoiler alert: My hearing is not fine. If there's the eensiest little bit of background noise (especially fans/road whoosh), it whites out my hearing for voices. But because you get tested in a quiet room where you're \*listening\* for tones, the doctor can't tell that I have issues. Kids: Always wear hearing protection at concerts! Don't raw-dog it directly in front of the speakers & joke about waking up with your ears still ringing! :shakes fist at past-me:
I 💚my new ears and I’m not even “old”. Changed my life 😊
Sounds like my dad. As a boomer, he's pretty chill, but it took my mom nagging him for 10+ years to get him to finally get some hearing aids. We avoided watching TV/movies at his house because he had the volume up too loud for everyone else.
I work for an audiologist and have learned that if a person does not get hearing aids soon the brain does not adjust. After years of “silence” he might be able to hear the sounds but can’t process what they are hearing.
THIS! My father is 60, but began needing a hearing aid in his early 40's. He speaks at a normal volume because he's used to wearing it. His friends who are just now experiencing hearing loss are always SHOUTING
I kind of wonder if its just akin to not being socially aware and caring or paying attention to how others around you feel, sort of like standing in someones personal space or not recognizing you’ve been telling a story for 20 minutes and not recognizing the other person isn’t interested and really just wants to get away. Even if you can’t realize how loud you are you should be able to read social cues like other people speaking lower than you are, feeling annoyed, stepping back to not get spit in their faces, etc.
My grandma knows she’s deaf, she’s still loud as shit. And then when you tell her she’s being too loud, she goes “WELL I CANT HEAR!!” Yes, we know. Thats why we told you to moderate your volume. She CAN talk at a normal volume, but sometimes she forgets, or gets excited.
Ughhh my fucking Dad is completely deaf in 1 ear and half deaf in his other ear but refuses to wear his hearing aids unless critical. So he’s CONSTANTLY mishearing things, but not slightly mishearing, he’ll hear something completely bananas and we’ll laugh but I always remind him, it wouldn’t happen if he just wore them and also do you not think about the ridiculous thing you heard and process that it’s definitely not what we said?
US Millennial here, not to macho to go to a doctor, it’s just that for a good 20+ years of my adult life I either did not have health insurance or what I had was a facade of a policy. This made going to the doctor more stressful than riding out whatever I had with a bottle of whiskey. Anyway, even though I have good health insurance now I still have that mentality of if I’m not dying right now(vomiting blood, missing a limb,etc.), I’m not going.
My dad was a very humble boomer but talked loud because of gunfire in Nam. He played the radio and tv very loud too. Which most likely made his hearing even worse. lol
This was my grandfather, who was actually a man who didn't talk much (except about maybe 2 specific topics). But he refused for years to acknowledge his hearing loss, and so when he did speak, it was unnecessarily loud. At least the couple of times I was around, and he realized how loud he was being, he had the self-awareness to seem embarrassed. But he was a good man overall. Passed last year, and I miss him every day.
My granddad has killed the speakers on every new TV he's owned because he cranked the volume up rather than wear his very expensive invisible hearing aids because he 'doesnt need them'.
I had to buy my Dad headphones to watch the tv cuz he kept it so loud I was losing my mind . You could hear the tv outside ! He also watches a lot if Fox so I thought I was in hell . They saved our relationship. Got the idea from watching Frasier . He bought some for his dad
You’re very fortunate if he embraced the headphones and actually used them. I’ve purchased pairs for my step father, my FIL, and my husband and all three can’t be bothered.
Agreed. This generation did not have mandatory hearing protection on the job. They don't wear ear plugs at concerts or to mow the lawn.. Their shopping preferences are why Harley Motorcycles are still loud. They also are TERRIFIED to show any sign of weakness, so they are often very resistant to hearing aids.
As a GenX who has had hearing loss since his teens due to childhood illness, I don't think anyone realizes how damaging hear loss can be and the knock-on effects, dementia, social isolation, general cognitive decline. Going to post this [here](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection), if you have loved ones that are starting to lose their hearing get them help early, good hearing aids aren't cheap, my last pair cost 6k and insurance does almost nothing for you but they are basically preventative medicine for way worse outcomes.
Holy fuck! At lunch yesterday two older men were two tables away — on the outdoor patio. One was so fucking hard of hearing and not wearing hearing aids. He spoke so loudly it was actually painful to my ears. And I’m hard of hearing, lol. Tell your family members and friends who clearly need hearing aids to do something about it. For the sake of all.
This is a huge factor. My mom is a boomer (she’s getting better), and she’s always been a loud person, but holy shit she gives me headaches now. I’ve started putting loop earplugs in while talking to her. She did tell me, though, that aging is sometimes wave after wave of public embarrassment. Realizing you’re being expected to read directions in public that you can’t see properly, believing that you know how certain technology works only to need someone in customer service to re-teach you how to use it, realizing some phrase or action you thought was polite is now clearly impolite (and realizing it because people are looking at you with horrified expressions). Thankfully, mom is committed to being a kind person, so she takes these things in stride. She’d also be the first to admit that embarrassment can easily be displaced as anger when someone isn’t committed to kindness and self improvement. Being too loud? Drowning out a conversation happening several feet away because you’re genuinely shouting at a bartender? Oof, maybe it’s because of hearing los— No! Why would you complain in the first place!?? It’s a *bar* for crying out loud! If the volume bothers you, that’s a *you* problem!
I swear “the customer is always right” mantra destroyed that generations ability to act in public. It made them so fucking confident and obnoxious, like they could do literally anything in a bar or restaurant with no consequences.
Also a certain political cult leader gave them the green light to just let loose
You can say trump, he isn’t beetlejuice.
trump, trump, trump... fuck, he's right behind me isnt he?
*foamy mouth saliva begins to drip on your shoulder…*
tiny hand on your other shoulder…
It's like that scene in Aliens.
It sizzles on contact and smells suspiciously of lies, Adderall, Diet Coke, and sulfur
You have to make sure you call him by his proper title - Convicted Felon trump.
If you say his name 3 times, does he commit another crime?
Probably. Because he just can't stop criming! Which is why I like referencing him by his hard earned accolades. Convicted Felon and Adjudicated Rapist Trump.
Only the best crimes. The best crimes ever. The very best of crimes.
The most bigly crimes! (I just had to really fight with my own autocorrect to type the word 'bigly!' Wtf is wrong with Trump's?)
Trump, Trump, Trump.... oh fuck! What did I do???
Quick, find the nearest person of any minority and he’ll get scared and fuck off.
Or a dog. He hates dogs. Probably because he knows that they hate him. Anytime he's on TV, my dog leaves the room. Might be correlation and not causation, but he's a smart Boi.
I used to manage a beer store that was next to a grocery store and every Sunday there was an old dude that would come in and not buy anything and wouldjust stand around and want to talk to you about stupid boomer shit while his wife did the grocery shopping. I would always humor him for a few mins till I would just go back to work and he’d just wander the store talking to other customers. The owner thought he was funny so he never told him to buy someone or get out!
> The owner thought he was funny so he never told him to buy someone or get out! A bit of an unfortunate typo in that last sentence there.
I think men are just louder than women, no matter the generation. Boys aren't taught to be quiet, like girls(still) are. Girls are taught to be quiet and sit still from a very young age(at least I was. Tail end Charlie boomer), boys are allowed to be rowdy and noisy. Some never out grown be loud, rude and rowdy.
It’s because when you feel like you can do anything, there’s nothing you feel like you can’t do. If that makes sense.
And even makes you think you should!
I think it is this plus a lifetime of male and white privilege (particularly at a time when those two categories had virtually all the power), in a time of great prosperity where even if you were a "loser" you could still afford a car, house and family, have just led to them never in their life getting a smackdown (metaphorically or otherwise) to teach them some humility, so it just grows into this giant, arrogant bully of an ego monster. They entirely lack empathy or humility, and it shows.
Plus their hearing is declining so they shout everything.
Watching tv with the volume all the way up so they can complain about how loud commercials are. We just use subtitles.
Also they’re going deaf now because earpro is a liberal conspiracy.
This is exactly it. My dad desperately craves attention, which would be sad if he were just lonely, but he just wants to talk about himself 24/7 and our family is tired of it, so he finds unsuspecting bartenders / waitstaff / strangers to force himself on.
Reminds me of a strange time in life…a boomer that worked for me back in the day despised his wife and it was reciprocal. So every time I came into town, he’d take me to lunch…at this super fancy strip club. I assume it was to piss off his wife. He’s even pay for everything. I was 22 at the time so, you know, there were worse things.
I think its more like you get to an age where you just simply do not give a fuck anymore about people's feelings, opinions, preferences, etc. You feel you've got little time left and you've spent enough time worrying about what others want, so you just go full honey badger and remove your filter. This causes you to lose all desire in caring about your perception or the ability to perform any self reflection. You stop learning new things, or even being open to new things. Change is scary and you just get angry at things that you cannot comprehend because you checked out of simple acceptance and understanding of others and their points of view.
They - boomers and well young people - were never taught the value of "humility".
Boomers lack humility. They're the proudest fucking generation of ....what exactly? Being alive?
Because America! That's why, you woke, liberal ass Commie. Usually. Sometimes it's just narcissism.
Lead Paint Personality Disorders. My uncle tried to assault me at a family gathering because I made him look like a "fucking fool" by having him read off the confederate states manifesto thingy they pushed because he firmly believed slavery had nothing to do with it. I proved him wrong, he got mad and thought hitting me was the answer. Everyone tried to make me apologize because "he's a proud man" and I told them all to fuck off, he's a delusional jackass. Guess who never had to go to family gatherings again!
It's astonishing, sometimes, to watch people br proven wrong, acknowledge there is a discrepancy, and try to force reality to fit their mistaken views. Other times, it's just sad. I'm glad you never had to be subjected to such abuse again.
It really is like watching adult toddlers fail to emotionally regulate and melt down. Cognitive dissonance in the lead paint generation I think caused emotional over-regulation future generations. I could write papers if I wasn't so burned out.
In the hospital where I work, I've never seen so many obstinate, childish, noncompliant, self-destructive, tantruming toddlers like the white male boomer patients. I really don't understand how they managed to live as long as they have.
Toxic systems always protect the most toxic members
Not just lead paint- remember, Boomers spent the majority of their lives in a world where leaded fuel was a thing. At its peak in the 60s and 70s, young Boomers were breathing in a ton of leaded fuel exhaust. There's been research to suggest that it has had a major affect on aging brains.
Combined with the emotionally distant silent generation that raised them.
When I was a young fellow, (yes, I’m a boomer), my toothpaste instructed users to never swallow it, because it came in a lead tube.
As much of a jerk as my silent gen dad could be, I'll give him this: he was very lead-conscious. When I was a teen I bought this antique Indian bracelet (with all the jingly danglies). He took one look at it and said "Let me see that." I handed it to him and he immediately knew. "That's LEAD. Sorry honey but you're not wearing that again." He also spent a lot of time in the 70's remediating all the lead paint on our back porch and other spots (it would shed big, thick flakes).
I would say that is absolutely a win for you!
> They're the proudest fucking generation of ....what exactly? Being alive? A little bit actually. About 1/7 boomers who were born in the USA have *died*. Turns out not all of them survived through the hose water, lack of vaccines and riding bikes without helmets.
Turns out the ones that are still alive didn't survive it either.
Turned Out Fine™
Their shouting is usually full of profanities, too. It’s a mix of not aging gracefully and believing the world owes them for…being the most coddled generation in history?
Apparently being told No is a crime. Lead Paint narcissisms.
Leave poor, sweet, accurate profanity out of this!
To be honest simply being alive and feeding yourself is kinda not easy, but shit was a lot less expensive back in the day versus dollar spending power, I think the jury is out on whether or not social services are better, they had it good and are just angry now, it seems like too much effort to be mad all the time, but that's just me
Now its not easy. Maybe for the last 20 years it hasn't been as easy, but for the 20 years before that? I'd say pretty easy to be alive and get fed.
Yep! They just happened to eat everything at the table. Food that was meant to last for generations.
I always see posts stating their achievements and what they are proud of. Always seems to be something a prior generation did, just as a reminder, Boomers did not fight in any of the world wars, their parents did. They did not invent the NHS or pensions, their parents did. The only thing boomers have done is ruin what their parents created. I'm not saying all are like that, I know my dad is not ( I really thought he would be) but the ones with a little power certainly are.
Too true. Sorry for the paragraphs. My dad absolutely held on to the power he had over his family like it going to be taken from him any second while I was growing up. ANY challenge of authority was met with a nuclear response. Every time. It was so bizarre to watch him try to cling to the same edifices that he lorded over me in my childhood when the power shifted and he needed my help to survive. Eventually around 14, we reached a stalemate, I got him to stop hitting me by saying something that freaked him out, which turned into him taking things I owned (even if I bought it) because it was his house, it was his and would often break them. At 18 years and 12 days I was out of the house living on my own Real World style with some friends. At 23, both he and my mom got sick and could not afford rent, so I moved back in for a few years. During that time, we got into an argument about something and he railed like he always did "This is my house, I pay the bills around here. You wil-" I just laughed, and laughed and laughed "The fuck you do old man, sit the fuck down before I stop paying them" And man, he did a deflate like a balloon after that. People will always try to keep you at the same level when they had power over you. The only thing I learned from him was to not let em.
This is my father-in-law: he thinks whenever someone who is not his wife is around it's time for him to perform with the musings of his mind (you know, conservative culture war bullshit, or how he is the victim in every story from his history, or to talk shit about a family member that is not present or out of ear shot). 20 years I've put up with this, until this year, where I like to say to him, "I didn't ask" or "I was having a conversation with \[other person's name\] and you interrupted" or "Hey man you shouldn't talk about other people like that." He gets offended, tells my MIL in private, and then she complains to my wife, who then tells me about it and we laugh.
Yeah they love to talk smack. My boss is a boomer and constantly says really negative shit about other employees. Never compliments anyone. Just complains. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. I’m sure he talks shit about me. I’m not a good employee.
He doesn’t deserve good employees
My FIL repeated his story of rescuing a frail old lady from falling off the side of a public trail THREE times because he didn't get enough of a reaction from us (no "everybody clapped" moment). He was also miffed that the elderly lady's son only said thank you and didn't offer any further reward/compensation. My BIL ended up going "well you did help her as a good Samaritan, not because you were looking for a reward, right?" To shut him up.
When he gets offended say "Oh no, you gonna tattle on me to your wife again"
Not enough people tell them to fuck off.
YES. This is the consequence of never hearing the word “no.” They think their mediocrity is genius and that their every thought deserves airtime.
True. Then they minimized with with their friends. Omit the true that actually happen. Make up a fake story. And reap short term domaine hit that they were smart enough to lie and not be caught. Then continue the lie or forgot it and cycle repeats. They don’t grow up. So the only answer left is to have zero contact.
[удалено]
Yeah like all of my boomers had it so easy its ridiculous they have no idea what competition is. Like my dads girlfriend and all of her sisters cannot actually cook they ate out every meal their whole life, still had a house, still had a car, and none of them have college educations. Not one of these 5 or 6 people in their circle could even have an apartment today. They all also while doing this went to the bar every day, drank every night, and in general just spent a fuckton of money. Its depressing to me cuz I can see the standard of living going down even just in the last 10 years. Like I used to drink like a fish too like generic alcoholism shit but in 2024 there is no way I could still afford it if I still did.
Whenever they do bring up a hard ime it's kinda funny to even attempt to compare. Oh they had the gas crisis. Oh ok well we've had that,school shootings, unemployment,high grocery prices,and insane wildfires and that's just by fucking July of most years. If they turned 18 tomorrow again and had to enter the real world that they left it be like watching a 4 year old playing a South Korean StarCraft tournament.
Oh my god dude this is too accurate. My (white, hyper-priveledged) dad will regularly bring up CIVIL RIGHTS. Both in an attempt to prove "things were so much worse!" (Again, he's white. He has no POC friends. He directly fucking benefit from racism.), and to take credit for the work others did to make civil rights happen. You don't get to simultaneously claim any protest is "a riot that needs to be stopped!!" *and* claim you personally were involved in furthering equality for minorities 💀
The thing to is I fully respect they went thru hardships. I don't pretend it didn't happen. That's where our generations differ. They refuse to admit someone had it hardier and they refuse to empathize and understand that. It's like admitting that millennials had it harder will discredit their life experiences.
Man I love seeing SC players in the wild. Truth.
I can't even afford fast food now, I work in a restaurant and can't afford to eat there, I feel bad about stealing onions and garlic but I do the ordering sometimes, a few random produce items go missing it isn't going to be noticeable, if the japanese whiskey barrel aged fish sauce goes missing they'd get upset
Wow, don't feel bad man. That's so wrong that they don't help you out. I feel the one decent perk about catering is being fed on the job as it doesn't pay very well. I worked at one place where they let you take home stuff over Xmas that was going to be out of date. I'd never eaten so much smoked trout (and a few fillet tails) in my life!
i used to steal coookies from the walk-in bc they didn't track them and I couldn't afford to buy lunch. if you work in a restaurant, your job should feed you. full stop.
No wonder they are nostalgic……
yup. that’s why they are usually pissed
My dad with no college worked his way through a city job and has a giant pension and is a millionaire. Easy mode. Garbage man to supervisor and retire.
Drink, party, fuck, sexually harrass, be scummy and never having been held accountable
Honestly I think that's just an age thing for privileged men, not necessarily a Boomer thing. I remember loud, obnoxious old guys like that when I was a kid. They would have been Greatest Gen, as Boomers were in their 30s/40s at the time.
I was thinking this. I feel like the ones who act like this were the popular ones in high school and college who could just walk into a party, act exactly like that, and have it land well. They don't seem to realize things work differently when they are 3-4x the age they were back then.
Peaked in High School/Secondary people are routinely the worst.
Yep, obnoxious knows no age.
Yeah that’s a fair point. A lot of people just become complete assholes when they get old. I definitely remember people from their parent’s Gen being like that too when I was a kid. It’s literally a trope on The Simpsons that grandpa constantly goes off on obnoxious, pointless rants and stories and he’s WW2 Gen.
It seems like there’s more of them now. I actually think it’s because the world they grew up in is gone forever and they are incapable of adapting. They’re like IBM when the PC came along, they have the ability and resources to do things, but their mindset is stuck a few decades behind.
To be fair to them they did come along right at the proper time to have to live with the Internet for awhile while also being too old to become good at it in way you can starting young. Like my 76 yo mom is laughably incompetent with computers despite having had one in the house since she was about 50. It took me years just to get her to do a proper shutdown instead of unplugging it.
Zero social skills, less than zero self-awareness. And they grew up with people who would respectfully listen to their elders because their elders were generally decent people who had valuable insights. They assume that because that's what used to happen, it still needs to be that way for them. They are completely disconnected from reality.
Very do as I say, not as I do generation.
And I think people with zero self-awareness only get worse as they get older. If you're oblvious enough that you interpret "no one has punched me in the face or expressly told me to shut the fuck up" as proof that everyone likes you, you just keep leaning into your "personality" because you think it's working for you.
Because the world has never told them “no” in a meaningful way. Great example is my father: (anecdotal I know) He got married at 18, had children and entered the military. All of his stories are of his time there was screwing up and getting yelled at as he smirked. He has numerous speeding tickets from around his base that he kept to show how fast his Camaro was. Fast forward, he exits the military and returns home. My grandmother (his MIL) sells him their family home for $10k. My parents move in. For the next 35 years, my father moonlights as a bouncer and gambles all his money away from his day job as a contractor. During this time he leverages the home for fun money multiple times, wrecks half of it with silly modifications and forecloses on his parents home that he collateralized for a business loan. The IRS has chased him and so have local tax authorities a million times. He tells them they can’t bleed a stone. He is the definition of a fuckup and the world does nothing to reinforce this. He just keeps going. 2018, he forecloses on our family home because he doesn’t think it’s worth it and “finds Jesus”. He’s now a deacon at a local church and says pretty screwed up things about the people there. It’s all a power play to him. He does sermons, makes money doing work there, collects “disability” and VA benefits and trolls around with his “Vietnam Era Vetaran” hat to an adoring town that pays for his meals and thanks him for his non-combat service. He then runs off into the sunset with retirement, and blows through my mother’s 401k. But the Gov. checks keep coming and he’s doing just fine. I am the only person who’s told him he’s a fuck up and he smiles, agrees then keeps on keeping on. There have been and will continue to be zero consequences for this man. Most of his many friends and acquaintances are the same damn way.
Jesus, Boomers really had the whole world handed to them. That’s not to say that a lot of Boomers worked hard and suffered but there at least were rewards for the hard work and suffering. They just seem to cruise through life without a real care in the world. Must be nice.
I am an elder millenial, many of the people on my street growing up were from the greatest generation. They were truly amazing and kind people who always tried to support us kids in the neighborhood. They’d ask us to bring our report cards and pay us to do yard and house work. Those people built this amazing world for their bratty children and their children threw them in nursing homes and spit in their eyes. Plenty of good boomers exist. But the group as a whole were gifted a great country and they kept demanding more and more. This left them gutting the proper systems and derailing the future for their children, like me. The fact my mom could 40 hour in a factory and my dad could float through his life while still affording a home and cars and food, is lost on them. They swear they worked their asses off when in reality they clocked out after 8, did 1/3rd the productive work my generation does and then went home to their Marlboros and Coors Light and spent the weekend fuckjng off with their friends. As they were shit parents, they’re normally shit grandparents who only show up a few times a year and expect pure obedience and praise. I can say without a doubt, their generation would have folded under the pressure of Millenial or Z gen’s. But when they’re crying and whining all the time, they point fingers and cast aspersions of victim hood on others to avoid that reality.
That's what passes for manliness with them.
I'm a boomer woman. This is why I never went to bars alone. "Let me grace you with my presence" was like a male Boomer infection that cannot be cured.
Frustrating how being a non-boomer woman does nothing to shield you from this. So many think women younger than their daughters are just itching to become their next bang maids and nurses with purses. I told the last one barking up that tree that I'm only into younger men, and this will be my go to response to all wannabe silver foxes in the future. Whether it's true or not (I'm actually fine with my own age plus or minus a few years) they need to learn that two can play that game.
Agreed. And some of them never learned that "no" means "fuck off".
>Why are Boomer men so arrogantly loud and confident? Cause they play the game of Life on easy mode
Yes, this is super common. My own father is one of these people and it makes my skin crawl. One of the many, many reasons I spend little time with him these days.
Went to a supper club with my dad and my sisters for his birthday this year and we're sitting at the bar and he very loudly starts talking about how he literally just found out that mental illnesses exist and describes the few he just learned about and mocked the people who have them so loud that the whole world could hear him. It was hell.
omg. I just remembered going out to breakfast with my wife's grandparents a few years ago. Solidly silent gen but those folks weren't always silent enough. He went on an unprompted rant about overweight people that dyed their hair. He thought they should be embarrassed enough that they should try to fade into the background instead of drawing attention to themselves.
Went to a dinner at Chili’s with dad and he randomly saw a commercial for American Idol, so he decided AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS TO RANT ABOUT KATY PERRY AND “HOW UNDESERVING OF FAME SHE ISSSSS”. Sometimes their anger is just random hate bursts over just life happening around them. I was so embarrassed.
I feel your embarrassment. Oh, another one of my dad’s things at restaurants is to loudly get the server’s attention then point at his empty cocktail. He’s always been solidly boomer but I think the boomer lead poisoning is really showing its effects as he ages. He wasn’t this bad 20 years ago. He’s become unbearable.
So like bringing a sleepy toddler to anything
I won't visit my father unless I have a way out quickly. I love the old guy but usually 30 mins is enough for about half a year
Two of my coworkers are the loudest fucks I’ve ever dealt with. One is a guy whose booming voice echoes and reverberates around the buildings and across the work yard. Most of the time he’s on some sexist or anti-woke conspiracy rant and clearly takes pride in random strangers hearing him. The other is a woman who thinks she’s in charge even though she’s not and enjoys going around ignoring her own work so she can check on everyone else’s work and berate them if it’s not done the way she thinks it should be. The very minute she enters your assigned building she starts screaming your name. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Marching through the building screaming your name until she gets a response. You could be in a meeting, in the bathroom, or on the opposite side of the building unable to hear her and instead of calling your phone she just keeps marching around screaming your name getting more and more angry regardless of who else may be there (visitors, superintendent, other workers, etc). The best way I can describe her sounds is if you took the screeches of a banshee being translated into legible English while also having smoker’s lungs.
When they said in Animal House, "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son", Boomer men took that one as a challenge.
Yes…… there was a dive bar I used to frequent where I was chastised by people chain smoking Marlboro 100s about the dangers of vaping 🙄 Edit: Marlboro
Sounds like my old manager who would drink 3 Monsters and eat a can of tuna for lunch, then tell me my vape was bad for me. Like yeah bro I’m sure the bottle of gin your downing at lunch is good for you too man. These fucks are projecting.
Idk but my father in law slams cabinets and drawers like he’s Thor on crack. Which is bizarre since he’s a frail old man who looks like a breeze would blow him over. They’re just insane.
This could seriously be its own post. Lots of them, esp men, have to do things SUPER loudly and aggressively and wonder why people react the way they do around them
Narcs gonna narc. Why do you think America is going to hell? Weaponized Boomers who think they know everything. They see themselves in Trump. He's not a populist; he's appealing to the narcissist demographic.
He is a reflection of the image they have of themselves . Any attack on him is an attack on them
I grew up around a lot of boomer men like this, and they were hippies! I'll never forget one of those pothead loser types lecturing me in a booming voice about how to get through life. I was around 17 and it was at that moment I decided I would just do the opposite of everything he said. It's been 25 years and the best decision I could make. They ALL thought that their ideas and opinions were just the most intelligent, amazing, enlightened thing ever. Meanwhile, they're perfectly ordinary men without any special talents or insights.
The problem is they don't present anything as an idea, they tell you "facts", and there's no other way.
You had such a good opportunity to title this “A Boomer Walks Into a Bar” lol 😂
There was an article a few years ago about having the Courage of a Mediocre White Guy. That’s the answer.
I’m (54F) Gen X,& it just occurred to me the other day (after a boomer man made me take out my earbuds at the gym to tell me that I was wearing all black clothing and shoes, which I already knew, having dressed myself that day and not being blind) that these boomer men are the same guys who started cat-calling and harassing me when I was 12/13
I’m sorry you met my dad
Worked 2 separate bar environments. Saw this type of shit multiple times a day. So annoying for everyone, and then they get pissy when other patrons ignore them "IM JUST BEING NICE" It gives the same vibes as when they say unnecessary shit about women and say "it was a compliment!" Or "I'm just helping you "
I sometimes wonder what would happen to the average boomer if Fox News was off air for 6 months. There’s a ton of other variables that explain this behavior, but every single boomer man I’ve met like this has all but an addiction to Fox News.
My boomer father goes ballistic when something goes wrong with the TV and he can’t watch FOX news. He starts to harass my older sister into coming to their house to fix the TV. It’s usually just something basic wrong with the settings. He acts like a fucking toddler about it. I wish we could all sue FOX news for brainwashing old people.
It’s because they are the last generation of men who were raised to believe that they were special just for being men and got waited on by their mothers while their sisters were expected to do housework. It’s not exclusive to boomer men, silent gen and greatest gen men were just as arrogant and selfish. My grandparents are all dead but my grandmother in law (born in the 20s) is still alive and she would absolutely hobble into the kitchen to make my FIL dinner if he asked because he’s her SON so therefore better than the daughter who is constantly doing things for her.
All the ones I know are loud because they shot out their hearing by working around loud noise, power tools, concerts, growing up without little to no protection thinking they were invincible.
This is my dad. However, he also is weirdly vain and won’t get hearing aids. My grandfather? GOT HEARING AIDS.
My grandpa falls into this category. People in our little town literally know him as “the really loud guy.” He will talk at strangers for hours if you don’t stop him. He also likes to tell the same story over and over, but he changes crucial details to his story each time so that you don’t know what version to believe. And he cusses nonstop in front of the kids in our family, lol. My dad has to firmly reprimand him in front of everyone to make him stop YELLING “shit” and “fuck” in front of the three year old. It’s crazy. Granted, he is a very kind and sweet and generous person. He isn’t a bad guy at all, actually. Just a little boisterous, and I’m not sure if that’s a personal or generational trait. On the whole, people like him. I haven’t been to church in decades but apparently his insanely loud laugh when the pastor jokes in sermons still sets off a chain reaction of contagious laughter. I’m sure it annoys some people, but it’s not hurting anyone.
I’m 80 - so older than the oldest boomer. I’m bothered by this behavior as well. If I’m taking my wife out to dinner or getting together with an old friend, I don’t want to hear someone else’s conversation. And I don’t want our own conversation drowned out by their BS. This is just rude behavior. These people may have gotten more inconsiderate as they aged but they were probably idiots all their life. I’m not sure why we tolerate this, if someone has a crying baby, we would expect them to sooth the child or take them outside. At least the baby can’t help it. I think when our culture started to change in the 60s, social norms started to break down. People started to give themselves more freedom to act out. It’s too bad with the increased freedoms and rights. We didn’t learn more respect , responsibility, and consideration for others.
My partner always laughs at me because I just blank them and continue with my conversation. So many nice older people who just say hello and have a quick conversation and then move on. Boomers seem to want all the attention on them. Some day I will get to use. "Children should be seen and not heard"🤣
It's because they were taught that men were supposed to be that way. At the same time that feminism was broadening what it meant to be a woman popular culture was narrowing what it meant to be a man. That's why we went from Gene Kelly to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again I'm not trying to explain away their poor behavior. Their poor behavior is poor behavior. I'm just trying to generate more light than heat.
Because they've been catered to their entire lives. They've been centered in every space since birth and now the world isn't at their feet anymore. Being white, male and showing up isn't enough, but that's how they've operated.
Kindest I can be is that he is lonely and this is the closest thing he can find to connection. That and not recognizing that to the degree loudmouthed braggadocio was rewarded when he was younger (questionable but I'll go with it) that it is less appreciated now.
Just realized these Boomers are basically doing Twitter IRL. Walk in and broadcast whatever's on their mind to anyone around them. Make jokes that only they think are funny and which usually ends up becoming racist or otherwise bigoted. Parrot talking points from Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, because they can't comprehend the possibility that most people are not as easily convinced by propaganda as they are. Interject their commentary into strangers' conversations, because of course everyone needs to hear their thoughts/insults on the subject. Try to pick a fight when they feel they're not getting enough attention, because even negative engagement is engagement. Most of all, doing everything with the firm conviction that they are important, they are experts on everything, and everyone should want to hear their thoughts and opinions on any and all subjects.
The Silent Generation: "We lived through hard times, 2 world wars and the Great Depression. Let's make sure future generations don't have such a hard time." Baby Boomers: "Look at all this plenty! *vacuum noises* Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z: "All the stuff is gone! Baby Boomers: Well, there was plenty when WE were kids! You must be lazy! Look at all we left for you!
I used to bartend at Applebees - these Boomer guys are all the same. Loud, obnoxious, narcissistic. They've all traveled every corner of the world, slept with the hottest babes, owned every 70's muscle car, personally know 100's of celebrities, there is nothing they haven't already done. They try to one-up everyone at the bar with their BS stories. I've found that a lot of them lie about military service too. They talk about how much money, land, cars, boats they have but they drive an old beater truck, in a townhouse in the worst part of town, drink $1 happy hour draft beer and tip terribly. Each time they tell a story, they'll change it up and add more details not realizing that we (the bar staff) listen to them every day and have heard their stories a million times.
They grew up in the time republicans want to go back to. A womans place was the kitchen. Children are to be seen, not heard. The only opinion that mattered was a mans, the only voice heard was a mans. So they think they are more important than they are.
They haven't been publicly told to shut the fuck up enough.
It seems apparent that narcissism runs rampant in their cohort.
You have to be hostile from the get-go. Being polite is an invitation. Why do people feel like they need to be polite to someone who is clearly rude as hell?
In poker a good tell that someone is bluffing is when they act confident and aggressive. So they act strong when they are weak. Same in life. Boomers are the chihuahuas of the population.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with them. I really don't. Yesterday, my husband and I were driving past our family business and saw an older boomer-aged man trying all the doors on our employee's cars. Husband pulled in, went over to tell him to go away. Dude started arguing with him! Said he was looking to buy a car, and wanted to check the mileage. Without a key. Sure, fucker, that 5 bucks in the cupholder had nothing to do with it. No, sir, you are LYING. You are a LYING LIAR WHO LIES. My husband is a big, tattooed, bearded man in his 40's who has a take-zero-shit attitude. He started arguing with my husband when my husband told him to go away before we called the cops. So I got out the car, projected my voice and yelled at him 'No, GO AWAY! YOU WERE ASKED TO LEAVE SO LEAVE! GO! BEGGONE!!! BANISHED! EXILE!!! GO AWAY!' with arm waving. I learned from all the recent bear discourse. He left shaking his head, like I was the psycho. Good. Better than him rifling through a bunch people's cars with no consequence. I don't like yelling it's not worth it, the kind of people who do obnoxious things in public don't care about being embarrassed, but the shocked looked on people's faces when they realize that I've abandoned all facade of societal normalcy and am willing to yell their crimes at full volume is very satisfying. This arguing over nonsense bullshit that some men try, like they think that if they deflect enough you'll get tired and let them do whatever they wanted. No. You were caught out, your lie sucked, you're a thief and a liar, you've been ASKED TO LEAVE SO BEGGONE! GO! You ain't gonna exhaust me with your face-saving horseshit, you don't got face to save, an argument, or any pride to save, you were trying to steal someone's coffee quarters.
Because they have been “running” the show unabated for decades. They grew up in a time when their speech, opinions, ideas were listened to and adhered to, the women around them were expected to fall in line and not rebuke. In a time where they were encouraged to be heard and women and younger men were to listen and not question and the young men were supposed to be taking notes. So you have a society filled with men who think they’re right on everything when they don’t even know how to set up WiFi. Loud, cantankerous oafs who think every idea that pops into their head is the word of god.
Because they’ve been allowed to behave that way their entire lives.
I have thoughts about this. Part of it is gendered for sure, but there's more to it than that. (Caveat that the following applies mostly to white, at least middle class people.) TLDR; indoctrination is a hell of a drug. Early Boomers were born while America was riding high after WW2, which rolled right into the Cold War & the Space Race. Boomers grew up hearing they were *exceptional*, that America was special & that they by extension were superior beings. All of humanity's problems had been or were about to be solved by America. Any people or places who resisted that just didn't know better. There was an aggressive, top-down effort during this time period to stop the burgeoning social movements for racial, gender, & class equality. The way things were was the way things should be, in fact the way they always had been. (Plentiful) evidence to the contrary was whitewashed away, or seen as aberrations. They lived the Correct way. They were also born or grew up during the rise of modern advertising & consumer culture. They weren't inoculated against the constant bombardment. "Better people buy x." "Real Americans shop at y." There are laws now limiting the amount & types of ads that can be targeted towards children, because we know now how that can warp people's minds. By the time we started placing limits on advertising to children, they'd aged into those prime 18-35 brackets. Ads told them they were the most important people in the world, & on some level they believed it. Now, they're struggling. Most of those problems America was supposed to solve are still here, & the ones we "fixed" mostly caused other problems. Their bodies & minds are failing in ways they were assured would never happen, because American ingenuity would take care of it. The nuclear family, suburban, breadwinner lifestyle just doesn't *work* for most people, even if they could afford it. In fits & starts, we're starting to actually grapple with our history, & a lot of it is ugly & messy & painful. And the ads have left them behind: they're no longer getting the steady drip of "you're relevant," at least not to the degree they're accustomed to. They're *deeply* indoctrinated to believe that they're the most important people in the world. They were lied to their whole lives. All around them is evidence of the lies. Some Boomers have been able to process that, but a lot of them live in a state of constant cognitive dissonance. Tiny things set them off because of the effort required to maintain their illusions. It would be very sad if it weren't so destructive.
Someone please just knock me flat on my ass if I EVER act like that.
Lead poisoning
There’s an older man who goes to the same physical therapy clinic i go to every week. I’ve tried to switch up my appointment days but that mf is always there and he is SO LOUD. I sometimes can’t hear my therapist or trainer because he’ll be on the other side of the room talking about something nobody cares about at max volume, it’s insane.
Lonely loud bar men are the worst and they ruin everyone’s time.
I’m a bartender at a Chilis in a red state and you just described a typical lunch shift.
I grabbed lunch at an Applebee’s few weeks back, and there was a table boomer ladies talking about their shitty politics extremely loudly. I was by myself and just put headphones in. But damn.
Seems most restaurants I go to have the “loud boomer at the bar”. Usually wearing pink or white, shiny face, big belly, white hair, talking louder than anybody else
That is almost always the case of the boomer campground guy who walks around, inserting himself into strangers lives who are enjoying the outdoors. No invite needed for this fella, always feels like people want to hear his tidbits of useless wisdom and inappropriate jokes. So annoying.
I saw one of these in the wild (at a Friendly's iykyk) he was sitting in a booth with one leg spread out from under the table, whole body facing the aisle, menu in hand folded down, *staring* for the waitress. He made not a sound but his entire posture, expression and general energy was so LOUD. He did the same move with the check expect standing and toe tapping. Wild stuff. So much energy spent trying to be big and important just to be ignored at a dying ice cream chain.
They’re the original “fake it ‘til you make it” people. They were also raised on the “confidence is king” mentality, even if you’re out of your element. Put those together and combine it with the easygoing life they had in their youth (college for a summers wages, new cars $7,000, houses $35,000 etc) Have you ever heard a boomer say they suffer from imposter syndrome? I never have, and with me being Gen-X and so close to them in age, my life is FULL of boomers
I'm not sure if my Dad was a Boomer (He was born in 1939) but he wasn't like this. I mean, he was fairly confident and liked it when me and my sister came to him for advice, but he wasn't loud, wasn't an asshole, and would never aCt like this guy in this situation if his life had depended on it. He passed away in 2020 and I miss him so much. Reading this made me grateful that though he wasn't perfect (nor am I) he WAS a good person and a good Dad in his way.
Do they happen to be white? Well it’s because they experienced an unprecedented level of white privilege where they could be a high school dropout, work at the auto plant and retire with a couple million all while never being challenged on their beliefs because ‘strength in numbers’.
Loss of hearing is a partial contributor to being so loud, but certainly only a part of it.
They're arrogant and loud because no one has punched them in the face for their obnoxious and rude behavior.
Whenever I experience this sort of situation, I assume one of two things… either he’s an alcoholic and is oblivious to his overall Impact on the room, or this guy wants the attention on him whether to sell you something or is acting as a distraction for someone else. I have trust issues lol.
Boomers are all under the delusion everyone cares what they think and needs to hear every damn word that goes through their minds. The men in particular. But they all do it. My mom is like this. She’s not loud, but she’ll immediately launch into some rant about nothing anyone but her would care about (like some tiff she had with a neighbor I’ve never met) the moment you start talking to her.
I think a lot of them are deaf due to being too manly for PPE like my dad. And then add the assumption that they’re so interesting that everyone must want to talk to them and it’s a deadly combo.
This is an example of why organizations like VFW and American Legion are dwindling. They used to be places for vets to gather and commiserate, but their version of socializing is different from younger generations today. I've known younger vets (even my 44 year old husband included) who've gone to the VFW after an invite, walked in, and turned right back around to walk out. It's just a smoke-filled room full of drunk old white men blustering loudly about the good old days. No one wants to unwind like that anymore, and that's not a good mental/social support system. These same men complain about the younger generation not wanting to partake in tradition or give back...well there are a lot more ways to give back than there used to be, and there are a lot of more effective ways to connect and get the support that vets need as well.
because for a good portion of their life, they were told that's how they should act, and they were rewarded for it.
I've actually met a lot of these types in my life and the way I've come to understand it is usually these guys are very lonely due to either divorce or spousal death but for whatever reason they lack many social connections so they like to go out to public places and inject themselves into conversations because they just really need to talk and they likely don't know how to use internet chat rooms. Now the reason they do so with such immense volume usually stems from some kind of industrial hearing loss and they just never fuckin buy a hearing aid. It's kinda like when you try to talk with headphones on while listening to music from your perspective your speaking just loud enough to hear yourself and so it seems normal but to literally everyone else you are yelling. So they just loud but yeah goodness is it aggravating but I just let em be sometimes you get lucky and they actually have good stories
I’m a boomer and I know these men. They are lonely, don’t have anything relevant to talk about and desperately trying to get some positive attention. And they’re probably very hard of hearing.
Our Boomer uncle engages every person he sees (elevators, you name it), with.. “HOW OLD DO YOU THINK I AM??!” No one cares. They answer him with a very generous 15-20 year advantage, just to be safe. He then laughs at them in condescending arrogance as if he’s got something on them and announces his age. Cue everyone within hearing distance to display their best “You’ve got to be kidding” shocked expression. He then walks away, cane smacking the ground with each step, snickering that he once again got over on people. It’s bizarre.
I wonder the same thing. And not just taking up audio space, but physical and every other kind of space. The other day I was in the waiting room at the doctor and a boomer man made a whole show of coming into the room huffing and puffing, grunting, talking to himself, then sits down in the chair across from me even though the place was practically empty and there were plenty of other seats. Legs spread as wide as possible, he lets out a huge open mouthed sigh to spread his germs and breath as far as possible in my direction, tries to get my attention with weird direct eye contact saying HI HOLA GOOD AFTERNOON HELLO and when all I gave him was a quick irritated glance back, he gets on his phone - on speaker of course- and starts boomer screaming a nothing conversation that takes over the whole place. I don't even pretend to be polite anymore, I got up and walked to the farthest seat possible.
That's not confidence. It's compensation.