The Culture War Against Baby Boomers

It’s generally considered bad form to frame the antagonism currently being directed to older adults in militaristic or combative terms. Words like “battle,” “fight,” and “war” are discouraged by most of those in the anti-ageism field; they prefer a more congenial approach in which people of different ages ideally come together to form a multi- or intergenerational society. By educating younger people about the value of older people, this line of thinking goes, ageism would logically go away; the underlying theory is that the members of one group are less likely to hate the members of another if the former simply gained a better understanding of the latter.

I don’t subscribe to this approach primarily because history has demonstrated it to be thoroughly ineffective. What I call the aging rights movement has been in play for more than half a century now, and there is little or no evidence to suggest that any progress has been made. If anything, older adults are hated more today than they were in 1968 when Robert M. Butler coined the term “ageism” to describe the ways in which one generation discriminated against another based on age.

Well, to paraphrase Malcolm X, chickens have come to roost. It is now baby boomers who are at the receiving end of ageism, as millennials and Gen Zers attack the older generation for their alleged sins. The 70 million or so baby boomers, who are currently aged 57 to 75, are routinely discriminated against as workers, consumers, and citizens, and I don’t see any tangible signs of this narrative being disrupted. Many of those involved in anti-ageism no doubt feel that they’re making a positive impact but I challenge them to produce a single study showing that ageism is less than it was in years past.

Conversely, women and people of color have made real gains in their own pursuit of equal rights since 1968. Why and how have these groups, as well as the LGBTQ+ community, achieved significant progress in their fight against discrimination based on gender, race, or sexual orientation? It was not by amiably teaching those in power about their value as workers, consumers, and citizens. Rather, it was by making their voices heard and, even more so, by pressuring heterosexual white males to accept them as full human beings.

In short, marginalized groups have in the United States historically realized the greatest success by recognizing they were in a kind of culture war with the dominant group and taking appropriate action. In order to defeat ageism, or at least make some progress, older adults—baby boomers, specifically—should thus consider taking this same approach. The prospect of financial or political repercussions has in the past served as a primary agent of positive social change—a valuable lesson we can learn from.

Need it be said, Americans in their later 50s to mid-70s are often treated unfairly as employees, under- or misrepresented in the marketplace, and, as the “OK Boomer” phenomenon and books like Joseph C. Sternberg’s The Theft of a Decade and Bruce Gibney’s A Generation of Sociopaths make clear, disparaged in everyday life. Boomers have always been criticized for failing to live up to society’s expectations, but the generation has recently reached a new low in the national conversation. Even the term "boomer" has become prime fodder for ridicule, something we certainly wouldn’t allow if referring to women or African Americans. (Can you imagine the uproar if thousands of men started wearing “OK Woman” t-shirts and hoodies?). Mocking any group of people based on their race, ethnicity, gender, ability, sexuality, or age should not be tolerated, as that’s just not the way we do things in this country.

Sit-ins may have gone out of favor, but there is much that baby boomers can do to trade upon the great achievements made during the women’s rights, civil rights, and gay rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Despite being disenfranchised in many ways, boomers possess tremendous clout as consumers and voters, and it is this power that they can and should leverage in order to realize their own equal rights as Americans.

70 million people hold enormous purchasing power, after all, especially given boomers’ collective wealth and lifelong propensity to consume. Rewarding those companies which have demonstrated age friendliness by supporting their brands and boycotting those companies which have not is one way we can create positive social change. Boomers also wield immense influence within the political arena, something they can effectively utilize to encourage elected officials to pass and enforce laws that protect the rights of older people. Making congresspeople, senators, and governors aware that your vote will go the age friendliest candidate come election time is a perfect example of democracy in action.

Like other Americans who have been treated unjustly, today’s generation of older Americans have the opportunity, and I think responsibility, to make their voices heard and take appropriate action. As they did in their youth, baby boomers should seize the activist day in order to make this country a better place for everyone.