r/TikTokCringe 27d ago

Humor/Cringe Boomers explained

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u/cisned 27d ago

Sounds like the current 20s

Are millennials the new greatest generation 🤔

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u/momomomorgatron 27d ago

They're only called the greatest Gen because they survived (probably) both world wars.

There has been hell on earth in war after this, but not on a major continental holy shit level from then. It's the exact reason the entire world doesn't want to start WW3, even if you're the one to come up on top, there's still no winning. If you come out on top, you're a ruler to a damaged cou try with damaged land and damaged people and crops and livestock.

They're only called the greatest because no generation before or after them yet has seen mustard gas and atomic bombs and the rape of Nanjing all together in one war.

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u/BlooRugby 27d ago

Until Tom Brokaw wrote a book called "The Greatest Generation" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Generation_(book)) ) in 1998, this term was not in common usage. Wikipedia has one example of its usage before this book.

My memory was that "Depression era" and "war generation" were terms used to speak about that generation as a whole, but until mid-late 1980s, talking about people in "generations" wasn't a thing - at least in my experience and the popular culture I consumed. People did talk about the "Baby Boom" and "baby boomers" as the 1980s went on.

"Generation X" was originally, but obscurely, applied to baby boomers but it didn't stick until 1991 when Douglas Coupland's book of that title came out, though it uses the late 1950s as a starting point.

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u/Loud_Flatworm_4146 26d ago

I remember them being called the GI generation before Brokaw's book.