33 at the end of the month. Kill me.

- I think the worst part is that we do, in fact, know it will get worse... But we were raised thinking we'd all live in big houses and be free of debt by now.

"We don't know why are all the younger generations depressed! They just need to buy less avacado toast and they can buy a house..."
-clueless boomers.
- First year Gen X-er here. We know why you're depressed. We went through similar things, believe it not. I often wish I could share how scary living through the 80s was -- often fearing a nuclear apocalypse, environmental decline, wars, riots and unrest all over the world, politicians who didn't give a damn or had no idea how to make things better. Nobody listens to you when you're in your 20s. It seems most now think the 80s were just like Family Ties. Not so.
  But this too shall pass. You can help make it better by getting out there and working with the good guys. Don't give up.
  
  Yeah there's definitely some rose tint looking back to the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Crime was ridiculous compared to the levels these days, just for a start. But it was just 'normal'. We've made a lot of progress there. Which is about to be undone as people get increasingly desperate.
  
  My parents lived in the mountains for much of the Cold War. We crowded around the radio daily to listen if the risk of the actual apocalypse was any closer. Several times we thought it was about to happen. Several times it really did almost happen.
  I hope we don't get to that point again. I really thought for most of my adult life that the USA's deep trade ties to the rest of the world along with other super-powers would ensure some level of stability and peace. And it did.
  Past tense.
  
  The important thing is to follow in the footsteps of our elders and obliviously cast shade on the next generation(s) (should they be so lucky to exist).
- Don't forget to stop buying those fancy Starbucks coffees.
- "Clearly it's the phones fault! The phones are to blame, not us voting in fascists and ignoring the incoming climate holocaust!"

Millennial about to turn 41.
I'm tired.
I'm not particularly fond of my fellow Americans anymore.
And I don't have an ounce of patriotism left.
This country can go ahead and fuck itself. Which it appears to be doing pretty thoroughly. Dumbest fucking country in the history of the world if you take into account its wealth and influence compared to its quality of life and happiness index.
Weighing how much effort/money it would take to get Canadian citizenship and whether I have that kind of energy left in me.
- At this point I think if anyone loves America they've bought into Republican brainwashing. I don't think I could love this country. Anything good has been stripped away.
  The best parts are the natural wonders and some of my best friends. My friends can come from anywhere and aren't beholden to their birthplace. The wonders are only wonders thanks to conservation, and Republicans want to strip mine Yosemite for oil and coal.
- Man, I felt this so hard. Every word of it.
  My only two cents beyond that, I fear Canada is too close.
- I’m an ‘84 baby like you and recently I’ve been trying to remember when the last time I actually felt national pride.
  I keep thinking maybe in the general upswell of national pride post 9/11 but that was probably mostly mob mentality and juvenile ignorance.
  I am proud to be a Minnesotan though! When I’m abroad in the country the other Americans I meet seem generally decent but it just doesn’t feel like home if I’m outside of my state.
  
  '81 baby here. My parents told me I'd jam along to Reagan's "Born in the USA" ads in my underoos with a tiny plastic guitar. I think that's the last time I felt national pride.
- Hey, you can always move to EU. Decent healthcare and stuff. It's not perfect by any means, especially now but it's so much better than the shit I see happening around. Makes me feel happy I was born here.
  
  very true but i don't want to put the burden on y'all, I want to bring the EU to my part of America and tell the federal government to fuck itself
  
  If I had money I would move. But if I had money, most of the issues would be solved in the first place.

It's not like this is a millennial thing:
2000-02: dot-com crash
1990-92: early 90s recession
1987: Black Monday
Mid-1980s: Savings and Loan Crisis
Early 1980s: Early 1980s recession
Mid 1970s: Mid 1970s recession
And you can keep going back. Also, the plural of crisis is crises.
- Masks off.
  This country has always been pretty awful.
  We just had a short golden age where we taxed the fuck out of rich people and were simultaneously benefitting from the spoils of a World War.
  
  I wish I could upvote this more than once.
  The economic boom the US experienced in the 1950s and 1960s was the result of:
  Pro-worker economic policies enacted during the great depression that were kept in place through WWII and remained in place until they started getting killed off in the 1970s and were fully killed off in the 1980s by Reagan.
  The top tax bracket being set at 90%.
  The US being one of the only countries that didn't have its infrastructure absolutely trashed during WWII.
  Even if the US went back to pro-worker, anti-oligarch policies, we're unlikely to see another golden age unless there's another world war that doesn't damage the US. When people talk about their grandfather supporting 4 kids as a plumber, that was wonderful, but it was never the norm.
  Let's see: !lemmysilver
  
  !lemmysilver
- 1987: Black Monday
  That one didn't really matter that much to regular Americans. Less than a third of Americans owned stock back then, and that crash didn't have an obvious cause from actual economic fundamentals. And the Fed managed to contain the liquidity crisis, as your linked Wikipedia page describes, so that the broader economy was largely unaffected.
  Recessions matter. Stock market crashes only matter when they are caused by, or are the cause of, an actual recession in the real world.
- Gen X here, and yeah.... "first time?" meme.
- Reading this list from Mexico: we used to have a disastrous economic crisis every six years, without fail, as the exiting president and their accomplices took everything that wasn’t nailed, and even contracted debt so they could steal even more.
  Compared to those awful decades, having no self-inflicted major crisis since 2000 has been sweet. Unfortunately, many of the people who caused those crises are in power right now, covering their backs. It’s a matter of time before the next one.
  I guess my point is: people will adapt, because they have to. Many will lose a lot, but somehow will survive. Things have to get much much worse before people can’t take it anymore.
  I wish your country reacts faster than mine did, and that it doesn’t fall back again like mine seems to be doing.
  
  Mexican here. I don't agree with you at all. To me, Mexico is finally turning into a democracy and, while things can always be better handled, things are turning for good after the horrible 2006-2018 period. About 2000-2006, yeah, it was an okay period. The president was a clown, though, but at least he was not an assassin en masse like Calderon.
  Don't bother replying to me. This is a message for the other people who reads your comment, so they know not everyone thinks like you do.
  
  That was when the PRI won every election right?
  From the outside, it's interesting how Mexico has gone from PRI only, to PRI and PAN flipping back and forth, to now Morena winning the presidency twice in a row.
- It's almost like the term for a series of crises is "history" or maybe "life". TBF, wanting to feel special is normal.
- Anyone who started investing during one of those early recessions or dot com bubble made huge amounts of money after a few years.
  Right now is also a great time to invest. Dont be scared and just buy stocks. None of this will matter in a few years and market will be back at its peak.
  It has happened 100% of the time so far. Sometimes it takes longer than 2 years, sometimes shorter, but market always goes up.
  
  Anyone who timed it perfectly, sure. Some people thought the market had hit bottom and it just kept falling.
  It has happened 100% of the time so far
  And everything that has happened in the past will definitely always happen in the future. Like, it's June 1990 in Japan, just buy the dip. The market always goes up. It's just a correction.
  
  Thanks Gen Xer, I'll take this advice and purchase :3

I’m about to turn 39. I just want a home or apartment of my own. Why is this happening? Why did the stupids get so powerful?
- Why is this happening? Why did the stupids get so powerful?
  This isn't unique to the modern moment. Your parents called their elders stupid. Alphas will call Millennials stupid. But if we want to get to the real disparity between ideologies - the reason so many people are getting MAGA pilled in the face of seemingly obvious disaster - it really does just boil down to our mass media poisoning our brains.
  Fifty years of misinformation, con-artistry, and industrial scale commercial fraud has given birth to a population that is simultaneously desperate for a White Knight to come save them and so steeped in cynicism that they accept idiots and assholes in power as the best we're capable of doing. Whether its Trump or Biden, Bezos or Musk, Wolf Blitzer or Alex Jones, there's this baseline understanding that "My guy might suck but the other guy is so much worse".
  And the deadliest poison of them all is the pride - the implicit assumption that you can't trust anyone but yourself because you're surrounded by morons. We're increasingly alienated from one another and exposed to manipulation by computerized algorithms A/B testing us for our biases. Divided from one another, with our hatreds toward The Other inflamed while our access to basic necessities increasingly gated, we're pushed into deeper and more vulgar polarized camps micro-managed by demagogues and other influencers.
  "The Stupid" is just the fear - of our looming poverty, of our dangerously polarized neighbors, of declining health and diminished free time. It's not idiocy, its anxiety. We're acting rashly because we all seem to know we're being boxed in for the slaughter and none of us trust anyone else to recognize that we need to work together to escape it.
- King Crimson's Epitaph lyrics, from 1969, sing:
  Well, knowledge is a deadly friend, when no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind, I fear, is in the hands of fools.
  
  I knew these wasn't going to well when I used Epitaph to see Trump winning re-election, King Crimson can't skip me past the next four years...
  Jojo references aside, I should listen to more of that band; Court of the Crimson King, which I listened to in order to try to better understand Diavolo's character, was pretty damn fire
- It's not the stupids, but the greeds first and foremost. You can look back at the greedy mf's that started every single thing and they weren't punished.
  
  The greeds get away with it because they keep shouting "HE DID IT!" and the stupids keep falling for it.
  One of my "favorite" examples of this was when Ronald Reagan murdered American Manufacturing jobs, causing mass layoffs and unemployment throughout the country, and a record high of people on welfare to deal with the job displacement... Causing the first signs of generations being born with lower standards of living than their parents.
  So people naturally tarred and feathered Reagan, he's remembered as a monster, and is the reason why the Republican Party is a faded memory that we only bring up when teaching school children about why we don't have a Two-Party System. That wacky Trickle Down Economics.... I tell ya, glad no one's dumb enough to buy that anymore...
  Oh sorry, that's what happened in the prime timeline, here reality doesn't run off of people learning from mistakes, this is a Murphy's Law Ruins Based Timeline where everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
  Here Reagan invented the folktale of the "Welfare Queen" to imply that black people were getting more than "their fair share" from this welfare, and that Americans would be doing fine if only this specific group wasn't taking more welfare than they should be allowed.
  A story that doesn't make any sense since if black people were getting more in Welfare, wouldn't Reagan be the one making that call? Ah but they thought of that, Reagan blamed a shadowy cabal of Democrats for getting the black people more then "their fair share" in a scheme to "overthrow whitey" in the name of "liberal guilt"
  A story that also shouldn't work as Democrats had neither the motive nor enough control over the government to pull off this little trick, but people are stupid, so they bought it hook, line, and sinker.
  You know our reality isn't the prime timeline, because none of this makes any fucking sense and it's only bad writing that lets people be this fucking stupid. I can see the person in the audience cringing at the fact this reality is self-aware and seems to think pointing out the bad writing is the same as doing better.
  I'm sorry audience, I wish I could join you as merely an observer who has the option to watch a better movie or read a better book, one not bound by this bullshit, but... alas, that is my fate.
  So if I die in the movie, I wake up in my trailer as the actress and enjoy the privileged life that entails? Maybe I'm played by a cischick with huge cans, that'd be awesome!
- Because our priorities are wrong
- Owning your own home is a privilege, which wasn't available to the general public until 19-20 century depending on a country. And it's still not available to many in some countries.
  You want too much.
  
  It's not a Privilege anymore, we have more than enough to provide housing for all in developed countries

I'm tired, boss

I'm on the oldest edge of Gen Z, 27 year old here.
I can maybe handle my parents promising a good life for me before rug pulling that. Well, I can't and that's one of the many reasons why I have mental health issues.
I don't think they could have predicted 3 economic crashes in my life before I turn the age they conceived me.
It's just profoundly sad that there are people who were raised for this planet and the planet has changed fundamentally in the last 20 years alone. The technology, the temperature, the expected job market, the ability to own even basic things, the political climate.
Most people on Lemmy were raised with a bright future that has been dimmed each passing year. The only light we have are those we are close to.
- A big reason why the old people don't get it, is that they see young people with luxuries, and don't realize that luxuries, like my high end gaming PC and addiction to junkfood.... Still costs less than three month's rent no matter how much I splurge
  
  I thought you were exaggerating but I calculated the cost of it... Damn, you're right.
  
  Plus quite a few luxuries are now necessary, like a good smartphone, laptop/computer and a car (in more rural areas).
  The few sort of luxuries you splurge on are what keeps you from losing your sanity

I'm an "elder" millennial.... I'm 40+.
Pretty much everything went to shit right after I got to the workforce. It was somewhat subtle at first, but it's only gotten far worse and far more obvious as time has gone on.
Kids? Nah bro. Have you seen the world? I don't want to live here, why would I subject someone that I care about to a life, living in this hellscape? Like all parents, I'm sure I would love my children if they existed and even though they don't exist, I still love them enough to not subject them to gestures at everything this.
I haven't gotten a meaningful raise since starting work. I was originally hired at basically minimum wage, a bit better than it in my area (ironically, my starting wage in my career is now below what minimum is now), and the only time I went up in salary is when I changed jobs.
With more than half a dozen years of experience (this is a while back) I was fighting for anything over $60k/yr (it gets worse), while housing in my area was skyrocketing above $400k for a modest home....
After the usual expenses of food and rent, I've been robbed blind by being given no choice but to buy things "as a service" and own fucking nothing. I've pushed back against it as much as possible and after years, I paid off my vehicle and absolutely, positively, 100% own this now 13 year-old car. Whoopee....
I've lived through everything from 9/11, to Trump... Twice.... And nothing has ever quantifiably gotten "better" without getting worse in some other way.
Better, faster, more capable computers? You're obligated to run software that spies on you. Better cars with fancy tech that makes them basically drive themselves? Only if you subscribe to activate the seat warmers for a nominal yearly fee.... Phones are more capable, better, faster, more connected and overall significantly improved? These are now devices used by companies to harvest every meaningful ounce of information from you, selling it to the highest bidders (multiple times, I might add), and giving you nothing for your contribution. Congratulations, someone has monetized your existence via an app on your phone.
Everything is worse. You never have time off work anymore. Even if you take vacation, the expectation is that if they call you, you'll answer, then you're working for free. But if you don't answer, then your job is at risk.
Fuck everything. This world sucks. I'm fucking sick of all of this shit and I'm mad as hell about it.
- Same position and age as you, except I got diagnosed autistic and ADHD at 33. Haven't been able to work in the one field I have any training in for decades, as that now basically means call centre work which triggers migraines (now known to be sensory overload).
  Can't afford to retrain, can't get disability to help with costs because of UKGov cycling disability claimants through tribunals to massage the statistics. I lose the disability, I lose my funding. I get the disability back plus back pay, but am still booted from university for not being able to pay in the mean time.
  G fucking G. I guess I just wait around until I die or get angry enough to commit an act of political violence that leaves a mark.
  
  I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years back... Just shortly before I turned 40.
  I'm lucky that seems to be the only thing my brain struggles with. After about a year and a half, I found a combination of drugs that works for me, and I've been doing ok, as far as my ability to think, concentrate, or focus at work goes....
  I'm in Canada, so we have similar issues with our social support programs. I know this because, while I got off light in my diagnosis, my brother has far more severe ADHD symptoms, and he has other medical complications that make treatments difficult at best. I won't go into his medical issues since that's not my story to tell, but from a high level, most of the problems root in the fact that he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in his mid-teens.....
  He's actually registered in the disability system and I've helped, or at least tried to help him navigate it and get to a point where he can do anything and get any support at all. Needless to say, I get it. Our system isn't super different from the UK system. Personally I think it's shameful that we give such a hard time to people with diagnosed disabilities, it's not like those disabilities are going to... Idk, stop being a thing? It's kind of a life long problem.
  I'm lucky in the fact that if I continue taking the meds, I'm more or less "normal". I have a steady job and I help my brother as I am able.
  None of this is to detract, compare or "one-up" your challenges. The purpose to saying all of this is that I get it, I emphasize with your situation. I hope you are doing better and that the UK disability system stops fucking up your coverage so you can get back to living your life.
  All the best, from across the ocean.
- One word for you. Antidepressants
  
  Here’s one for you: Empathy.
  
  Ha. I'm on them. The meds I take for ADHD are classifiably also anti depressants.
  What now, Poindexter?

I keep telling myself: could be worse. Could also be better, but could be worse 🤷😬
Not sure who I'm trying to convince haha.
- At least I'm not being boiled alive
  🤔
  
  Yet
- And it will be. Buckle up, comrade.

Stop crying, geez.
(You'll need those tears for your forties)
- I turned 40 in February. 😭
  
  Welcome to the club, friend.
  The booze is in the back.
  
  Im only slightly older, I got to experience life in the dotcom kaboom. My entire adult life’s been: this is a once in a lifetime thing every 5 years. I’m guessing this is what the 1870s were like with all the finance stuff and overall turmoil. Bit numb to it by now.
- I'm about to hit 50 and I'm still not done crying.
  
  To be faaaair, i never said when it ends

In the 2020s alone we had COVID, Russian Nazis, and now Trump Nazis. Oh, and we went past 1.5 degrees.
- Trump Nazis were 2015.

While being called lazy

Some of us millennials have been extraordinarily lucky.
I'm an old millennial but I avoided any personal impact from the 2001 recession by being in college, on financial aid.
Then the 2008 recession didn't hit me very hard because I wasn't a homeowner was a single childless dude who was flexible enough to just up and move wherever there was a job, across the country if necessary. I had a different job in a different state each year from 2008 through 2011, taking big raises with each move, then eventually back to school.
Then the 2020 recession didn't hit me very hard because my wife and I both had counter-cyclical jobs (I tend to be busier when businesses are failing) and already owned a home, allowing us to bypass much of the inflation of the post-2020 period with a fixed rate mortgage we had refinanced to below 3% in 2021.
Now, the 2025 recession is probably gonna hit us hard. But I've basically escaped the last 3, so maybe I'm due.
- Clearly you're the catalyst in all of this... Fate has been targeting you and each time you've skated throu..."GUYS! I FOUND HIM! GET THE PITCHFORKS, TORCHES, AND GET THE SACRIFICIAL BONFIRE READY! WE CAN STILL FIX THIS!"
  
  I'll start warming up the volcano.
  
  Clearly you're the catalyst in all of this...
  There is going to be a showdown, and then we are done.
  I've seen that Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, so I noe!
- Well, at least you aren't tying to sell us on "I made it this far alone with no help from nobody."
- I feel the same way. Im 1 phase removed, but have been very lucky in dodging them too.
  01 i was in high school, 08 i was in college with minimal expenses. I was paying $975 per quarter for room and board including 9 prepare meals a week and had enough school ships that my quarterly tuition was also under $1000, coupled with an engineering coop 1/2 the year, i came out financially ahead.
  Covid i was a salaried essential worker who had to work 3 days a week but still got paid full salary. That made the lack of available child care bearable. I also had a house that i purchased with 3.25% mortgage.
  This next one im feeling already. I moved for my wifes job this year, so that new mortgage rate sucks
- yeah, seems like the earlier you were born the better off you are going to be in the long run right now...
  
  No, if you look closer I actually managed to avoid the 2008 stuff by kinda being immature and "behind" by not being super set in my career path in my late 20's. My smart friends from high school and college were decimated by the 2008 recession. When I went back to school in the early 2010's, I basically got my law degree with a bunch of people who were younger than me, and got myself on the middle millennial track (despite being an old millennial).
  My delayed career progression, as a slacker in my 20's, saved my financial situation.
  And if I were even older, 2001 might have permanently set me back, too. Lots of late Gen X never really recovered from that.

Millennials were also the generation that got to watch the surface web turn into an abandoned mall.
Good times.
- Agreed.
  But I still debate whether or not unrestricted internet access as a older kid/teen was a good thing or not haha. I'm sure we've all clicked links we regretted or went to those sites (rotten, or other shock sites). If we didn't see all that shit growing up, would we be different? I'm not sure, but would be interesting to see some research on this (there may be some already, I haven't looked).
  Anyways, I recently found a great website for lemon-themed recipes. It's www.lemonparty.org, check it out!
  
  Ah yes, the site for learning more about trump's upcoming plans. Good share.
- Early 2000s internet was so good. I don't know that it's possible to go back there. You needed it to be a little bit wild west, you needed to say "Hey, if I click this website, am I going to regret it?" But folks were generally real (except apparently the girls I talked to in AIM chat rooms, but hey, I survived).
  
  18/f/cali is a mindset, not a statement of fact.

More than half of millennials are >=37 years old now...hell, the oldest are in their mid forties now
- I wonder how many of us have settled for being content with watching the world burn.
  
  From my own experience, it's mostly just the ones without kids that don't give a shit and have gone apathetic.
  
  I'll be 36 this year and I still live like I did when I was a student. I'm too worried about getting used to nice things and have been for the past 20 years that I simply just don't spend money on anything other than food and bills and people around me tell me I should spoil myself more and go on more vacations and blah blah blah and I just want to scream at them xD
  My life goal is to stay out of debt. You don't stay out of debt if you constantly fly around the world and buy expensive shit you don't need and replace your phone every three years or whatever I see some people do.
  The good thing about my lifestyle is that when the next economic crisis hits, I am used to live like a rat so I don't have to dial back too much compared to some people who treat their bankaccount like a Yolo slot machine.
  I sure do miss rotisserie chicken, though. That's one luxury I sadly got used to but whatever. Not the hardest thing to give up tbh and once in awhile you do get lucky that they are on sale to a reasonable price.
  
  As it always has been.
- And many of the "smart" ones still think economic market models are more accurate than reality.

I feel like I live in interesting times, and understand why it’s used as an insult
- GNU Terry Pratchett

Just wait til you're in your 40s...

I wish I was 35.
Also, "crises."

I'm turning 42 this summer. I'm considered an "elder millennial".
I'm tired, boss.
- I'm 46 this year, which apparently makes me a Xennial. I had the tail end of public hysteria around the cold war to deal with too.
  
  I'm 50 this year, which makes me a bit on the younger side of Gen X, and it weren't no joy ride for us, either.
  Boomers really robbed us all.
- Elder Millennial sounds like a main quest giver.

I had a discussion about this very thing with a Boomer, who proceeded to state they essentially went through more and including the shared recessions that myself as a millennial went through. Gas shortages of the 70s, wars, protests, etc, failing to grasp the point that was being made that their generation has had all the opportunities. They closed it out with, oh well maybe you should work harder and save more... yeah okay, hard to do that when I am overtaxed, inflation is on the rise, were likely entering Great Depression 2.0 thanks to Donvict, can't afford a house when a mortgage would be cheaper than renting where I am at, but sure yea I will just work til I drop with little living in between, that's the fix, its not the system, its me. Their "I got mine" attitude is astounding dismissive and part of the issue with their generation. Not all of them, some of them get it, but a large majority look at millenials and the younger generation as being lazy and that's why there is such a massive homeless population problem. Not that wages have not grown proportionally with the cost of living, its just that we don't work hard enough. I half joked that the greatest thing that could have happened was that COVID wiped a large swath of their generation off the map, it would save Social Security, free up housing, bring down the burden on healthcare, lower GOP voting base of angry bigot whites that hold on to the belief that America is only right if it is white, a large part of politicians that have made a career out of it would be removed ushering in a new more modern means of thinking into politics, and we might actually make some progress in this country. But nope, now we have angry Karens and racist Kyles who blame immigrants for all their problems rather than looking at the disparity between American generations.

The generation of "cake or death" seriously starting to consider the death instead of the chicken.

It's all good I just turned 30 and I finally have a job where I can break even with my finances. Now for the second job so I can use the next 30 years to pay off my debt. At this rate I'll be just ahead enough to get my retirement job with no social security. 😎
- The future's so bright, you gotta wear shades.

Yeah. I want to run for Congress in 2026 on a platform of "I can't trust you fucking fucks to not fuck up this fucking fucker any fucking more."
- Enough with the pretty words and speeches. Where's the candidate who's willing to just finally say what we're all feeling: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

I'm tired, boss

33, will be 34 not long after the Switch 2 launches....
At this point I welcome death, I feel like I've earned Valhalla at this point.

I graduated highschool, got out on my own, got 9/11. Then we had 2008 housing. Then we had corona. Probably some stuff I'm missing.

The cyclical boom bust cycle is on purpose. Can't make billionaire's richer if stock prices don't go down.

I just turned 33. I've had grey hairs since 29.
- You can't see the grey hairs if you shave your head.
- Grey beard hairs were sad but people said they made me look wiser. Grey chest hairs were weird. Grey pubes were kind of terrifying. The only properly colored hair on me is on my back now, and there didnt used to be hair back there. Its itchy.
  Life is all a big joke. Still wouldnt go back to being young though in the current world if a genie gave me the choice. eff that.
  
  It’s not all roses on the other side
  If I could go grey then I might not have to shave before going to the airport
- That's normal isn't it. Every hair on your head you can keep is a win
  
  And every hair on your back, shoulders and ass is step towards being Chuck Norris.
  
  Yes, I remind myself that each gray is at least there. I have a wonderful, full head of hair, and I never take it for granted by shaving it off. It's an insult to all of my bald and balding friends.

I’ll be 42 in a few weeks, I’m tired of living through these “once in a lifetime events” every 24-48hrs.
- "May you live in interesting times." -Wayne Gretzky

And yet we are the coddled, snowflake generation xD make it make sense. I feel worse for the younger generations, tbh. At least we got to spend our childhoods and teens relatively carefree, if a bit aimless and with the feeling of not being needed in society.
Young people and kids today are dealing with constant existential crisis. I guess the upside to that is that they won't have to deal with this aimlessness that we dealt with, but maybe it's better to feel aimless than to carry the future of our planet on your shoulders before the age of 10.
In the end, we are all dealing with the same problems right now and we can only do our best.
- The worst problem facing the younger generation is the widespread digital addiction we've built for them.
  Their insecurity over the economy and their future doesn't disappear, they don't turn off the TV and go outside and talk to friends and neighbors and friendly old ladies with life advice. They retreat to discord channels of carefully curated members who only agree with each other, they learn to turn off their thoughts by watching 30-second comedy skit shorts that have ASMR clips and Subway surfers insets with horrendously misspelled captions.
  Their anxiety and distress is going to be so, so much worse than ours (Speaking as Gen X) because there's no adult generation to look to and all their worst feelings only get amplified by the media they seek out.

Chaos is a Ladder.
But its a ladder that periodically collapses when you're halfway up and leaves you splayed out on the sidewalk in horrible pain and with five digit hospital bills.

Only to be enslaved by AI, and denied any respite.

Yeah. I’m gonna get fired for being room temperature one day.

“All you need to do to succeed is go to college!”
“Cool, how do I afford it?”
“Well yeah looks like the guy your mom married makes too much money for you to deserve any form of help. Try working more!”
“Cool, I spent the last few years burning myself out for a degree while working full time and supplementing with sex work. I’ll have nightmares about a motel for the rest of my life, but now I can have a full time job and work towards owning a house now? I even promised to be a teacher, that’s a job with a huge shortage right and I shouldn’t have just grabbed a cheap online BA because there are no requirements anymore?”
“Uhh, lol no we actually want unqualified babysitters. Better than being a gross tranny.”
The fact that my ex husband spent my thirtieth birthday with someone he gave $5k too, three months before kicking me out and emptying my bank account, the fact that I live in a state where even if I were cis the resources for survivors of DV are non existent, the fact that I don’t know if my drivers license is valid anymore….
I’m not even thirty three and I’m exhausted. I can deal with my life sucking or the world sucking, but not both at the same time.
- I wish i could give you a big hug. You deserve and need it.

Add a few more things for Millennials who were born in the 80’s.

"Unprecedented"

I feel this. My beard and hair have about half as much grey as the meme and I'm still a few years from 35. I want off Mr Bones' Wild Ride

Will be 36 this year. All I can say is: BRO! Wtf?! gestures vaguely

Will Smith is a bitch’s bitch

great recession and covid I know of. Whats the third one?
- Y'all too young to remember the aftermath of 9/11?
  
  I was sent to the other end of the planet because of it, I remember.
  
  I was counting 9/11 as the catastrophic event.
- I think they are counting right now as the 3rd, but we can't count this one because we might not survive.
  
  Nah, this is #4, #1 was 9/11

Double the inflation, unemployment and triple the crime for the 80s and 90s. Worked multiple jobs and ate powdered milk with puffed rice song with potatoes to survive. Waaagh

Realizing we're the generation "socialism or barbarism" applies to, but I'd rather not get killed.
- Why not both?
  
  Because I'm not 85 years old. If I was I'd sign up for the first available suicide mission against the oligarchy.

*Crises
Sorry. ❤️ I'm with you in the same boat.

Jokes on you! I’m 37! 🥺😢😭

I didn't just go through them... I got rekt by them

is this will smith?
- The famous millenial

Advanced capitalism. Crushing.

At least we didn't have to live through 2 world wars I guess? (except for all the places that had local wars... 😢)
- High probability for at least one quite soon unfortunately. Human leaders are evil.
- ...yet.

Now imagine being born in Europe around 1910
- Becomes firstborn of the king of England: were you saying, serf?

Still better than being a young adult in the 1910' or the 1940', so far.
- I think part of the problem is disillusion. Millenials in the west grew up in a period where it looked like tech was going to benefit society, and climate change was going to be addressed, and ethical consumerism was somewhat meaningful, and social mobility would still exist. We are having to downgrade our expectations and it hurts.
  
  Yeah, I remember pretty much 1992 on really well, and they were prosperous, carefree years. Everything was good (save some snags, nothing is 100%). We even turned the corner into the millennium and things were just great. I go into high school and we're just chugging along, the biggest problems we have are which cable internet provider to choose to download viruses on limewire.
  Then, boom, 9/11. And the world just hasn't seemed to have gotten its footing since then. And perhaps that was naivety and my 14-year-old perspective, but that seemed to be the turning point for me, where the unprecedented became precedented.
  
  Best part is, it's not only US lol. I am from EU, one of countries that back in 2000 were...let's say backwater (thanks USSR). I remember as a kid watching news about new tech, seeing the new, bold designs, getting hands on west tech, everyone talked how it gets better, ozone layer hole? BOOM, nobody cares cuz fixed, we can do anything!
  And then I grew up and and, except for internet getting faster and more bland, nothing happened. I love e-bikes, or EV overall but...don't take me wrong, it felt like this would be common by 2010. Games got so photorealistic that I turn to indie because if I wanted photorealsitic I'd go touch grass, I'd rather have...you know, the story and wordbuilding progress keeping up. The bold and rabid culture in the net shifted towards defeated and tired. Even news...once something that irked most politicians and was a thorn in the side of everyone for the joy of the public turned into some damned advertisement machine.
  Signed, defeated and tired
- Physically, yes. But the psychological warfare possible with the internet really hasn't been quantified.
  
  It's easier to delete an account than avoiding conscription and bombs. The mental health impact of social network is bad, but not comparable to world war times.

I didnt even hit 25 and already threw so much too!
- My 9 year old son has a speech disorder because his first year of school was spent in lockdown. Still very much in support of covid measures, but his whole cohort is being studied already.

This must be old because Millennials are over 35 now
- Millenial here, I turn 33 tomorrow.
- It's what, 1996 for Millennials? So we still got some youngins. God, to be in my 20s again... although there's definitely parts of it I don't miss.
  
  Yeah there are ages below 35
  And saying before 35 is true for all of us if we include 92, 03, 08, 20
  But it’s odd to just pick around the middle

Please, we grew up in the unipolar moment, the most stable period in modern history. The worst things we've had to face are the regular cycles of capitalism.
- This. It's a typical grass is greener mentality.

Nah, enjoy the time while you are in it. Wait until you are about to turn 60, fit and healthy by all indicators, and you still think your body is like 30... but it's not.
- ...and then your retirement starts disappearing.

33? You're a baby
- Average male lifespan being 72, 36 is the average halfway done with life point
  
  I know. I just meant to say they're still pretty young, I don't understand why all the downvoting. Haters gonna hate I guess