All the boomers in my life are being revealed to be so much less intelligent than I thought. Were they always like this? Is it their age? Is this going to happen to me?
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I have noticed many ruin relationships right at the end making their funerals a relief. I think a lot of folks feel at around 50 they have "arrived", trust in their own "wisdom" and become overt and open with criticism of a world they dont get. They reject empathy and give up working on themselves.
Remember, even the cranks have actual wisdom from lived experience that is timeless. Our job is to not give up on them. We have to understand that their experience is of a world that you don't really understand, and likewise, they don't really get the lived experience of today.
have you heard the "boomers were exposed to lead in more significant numbers" theory? i don't fully ascribe to it but it is certainly a piece of a much larger puzzle. i generally think the anti-communist propaganda they were baked in is a bigger issue
Also, a lot of "boomer" women got caught in the 2 decades where docs refused to give anyone HRT for menopause, and let me tell you, the rage, lack of empathy, hair trigger temper that comes with estrogen debt is very real.
I’ve been getting the sense lately that they’re losing all the knowledge they once were able to retain, probably through lack of practically applying it.
But I’m also realizing that many of the things they used to talk with such authority about, they were actually just bullshitting.
I remember being a great fan of old people who spoke out with zero fucks to give, even if I did not always agree with them, as long as they did not seem to hate us kids. And to hell with old people convinced that no one younger than them could possibly know shit.
I think it's just the way it's always been. They're just people, and people on average are, well... average. Were you, like me, one of those kids who couldn't /wait/ to be an adult because adults clearly were smart and knew everything and had it together?
No. As a kid I was smarter than many adults around me. I couldn't wait to be an adult so they would be less able to control me.
The ones I'm talking about were the exceptions.
Ah, right on. I thought I was pretty smart as a kid, but I thought I was smarter than my peers and not the adults around me. It wasn't until I got older (and went to therapy) that I was like, damn, these are the people I was looking to for advice/guidance?
Age takes it out of us. I’m well into middle age, and feeling dumber than I used to be.
It’s also driven by choices.
Bombarded by a lot of new information you can never keep up with as you start getting slow and tired, you have to choose what new things you will learn and ignore the rest.
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Also, a lot of "boomer" women got caught in the 2 decades where docs refused to give anyone HRT for menopause, and let me tell you, the rage, lack of empathy, hair trigger temper that comes with estrogen debt is very real.
But I’m also realizing that many of the things they used to talk with such authority about, they were actually just bullshitting.
The ones I'm talking about were the exceptions.
It’s also driven by choices.
Bombarded by a lot of new information you can never keep up with as you start getting slow and tired, you have to choose what new things you will learn and ignore the rest.