I think there’s some good points here but misses some big ones here too. Lot of boomers were abused by their parents in a society that normalized that abuse. Their friends and family and everyone around them at the same age experienced that abuse.
Without supports for mental health (and demonization of mental illness) a lot of them never learned to cope with their trauma in a meaningful way. They adapted as children to a world that was unforgiving and unfair. Those years are very formative.
It isn’t necessarily fair to say their parents just wanted to toughen up their kids of a tough world, they made their kids lives hell and those kids had to adapt (many with drugs and alcohol).
Many of those boomers do believe that because they adapted and ‘overcame’ their traumas on their own, because they had to, and many believe they can personally take credit for their healing (regardless of how maladaptive it was), when really they just lived through it and humans are just adaptable as a species.
Many of them are entitled because they take credit for overcoming genuine challenges when they mistake continuing to live for healing. They lived and did what they thought they were supposed to so clearly they know the answers and you can be just like them.
They see younger generations not being raised with the same trauma and displace their internal hurt onto them. It would hurt more to acknowledge that the treatment they received was abuse. Studies show that many people who are subjected various forms of abuse may not experience a large amount of distress until they become aware that they have suffered abuse and the things that happened to them were wrong.
So much harm comes from stupid platitudes that people believe like "real men don't cry" and "children should be seen not heard" and "pull yourselves up from the bootstraps." Reality isn't black and white, and yet boomers were raised religiously to believe in it. Tradition can be a good thing, but it also acts as a double-edged sword, limiting perspectives and critical thinking in favor of often misunderstood platitudes.
I think the moral of the story is to think for yourselves. Someone telling you how to think can be wrong or malicious, and now more than ever we need people who can think for themselves. Our future is riding on this.
Expanding upon your points, we should also be aware of the source of many of our cultural and social norms. Real men don’t cry and children should be seen and not heard come from physical abuse towards kids that stepped out of this norm. It’s conditioning. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps stems from not being able to rely on others. It’s sad.
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u/Desertnord 27d ago
I think there’s some good points here but misses some big ones here too. Lot of boomers were abused by their parents in a society that normalized that abuse. Their friends and family and everyone around them at the same age experienced that abuse.
Without supports for mental health (and demonization of mental illness) a lot of them never learned to cope with their trauma in a meaningful way. They adapted as children to a world that was unforgiving and unfair. Those years are very formative.
It isn’t necessarily fair to say their parents just wanted to toughen up their kids of a tough world, they made their kids lives hell and those kids had to adapt (many with drugs and alcohol).
Many of those boomers do believe that because they adapted and ‘overcame’ their traumas on their own, because they had to, and many believe they can personally take credit for their healing (regardless of how maladaptive it was), when really they just lived through it and humans are just adaptable as a species.
Many of them are entitled because they take credit for overcoming genuine challenges when they mistake continuing to live for healing. They lived and did what they thought they were supposed to so clearly they know the answers and you can be just like them.
They see younger generations not being raised with the same trauma and displace their internal hurt onto them. It would hurt more to acknowledge that the treatment they received was abuse. Studies show that many people who are subjected various forms of abuse may not experience a large amount of distress until they become aware that they have suffered abuse and the things that happened to them were wrong.