Pissing off a baby boomer at Home Depot

[TripletDaddy]

Triplet! Shame on you. You are obviously conflating my work of 'fiction' (the first post) with a general truism, that when I or anyone is falsely accused of something, we don't typically respond to the accuser with common courtesy, a point I made in a completely different post in the thread.

That info may come in handy in the future.

Thanks!

[RobinFinderson]

Gee Robin, what an amazing and insightful post and I am so impressed with your behavior but especially with your internal dialog. I am so glad you make these wonderful contributions to the board. How DARE anyone question you, even with a misunderstanding, especially someone from THAT generation? You are so special.

I thought it was an interesting story. I don't claim to be a saint, latter day or otherwise. As a general rule, the boomers bug me. Maybe I'm a bigot when it comes to baby boomers. As a generation they have taken far more than they have given, and we owe much of the predicament we find ourselves in today to their ineffectual leadership over the years. Maybe it isn't PC to point out the suckitude of that generation, but I'm no PC conservative wimp. I say it like it is about the boomers. Their sins will truly be visited upon all of us, for generations.

[creekster]

I thought it was an interesting story. I don't claim to be a saint, latter day or otherwise. As a general rule, the boomers bug me. Maybe I'm a bigot when it comes to baby boomers. As a generation they have taken far more than they have given, and we owe much of the predicament we find ourselves in today to their ineffectual leadership over the years. Maybe it isn't PC to point out the suckitude of that generation, but I'm no PC conservative wimp. I say it like it is about the boomers. Their sins will truly be visited upon all of us, for generations.

If only I were half as clever as you think you are. Whatever. Enjoy the bandwidth, apparently others think it is worthwhile. I'll leave you and them to it.

[SeattleUte]

Such irony.

No kidding. He might as well be issuing a diatribe against Hispanics and accusing them of making California insolvent. Who'd have thought our risident Yalie and Bill Moyers apologist was an ageist. Good thing he doesn't own a business or such admitted ageism could be used against him in a court of law. Really, though, boomer hate is pretty populist and passe. Even Time had an article on it, probably two years ago!

Personally, I tend to see a lot more good in America than bad. These days it's gotten so that if you do appreciate something about our country, from the ever more heightened sensitivity to liberty and racial or ethnic or age or sexual preference equality, to computer technology, to widely available fresh squeezed orange juice and fine wines, to technological breakthroughs in heart surgery and cancer treatment, to our being at the vanguard of Hatie's relief efforts, you have a lot of Boomers to thank. They are now of age to be and to have been for some time, the primary stewards of our civilization.

Robin expresses a lot of anger here; anger is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason. It's hardly ever productive or edifying, mostly it's usefully deployed only as a deliberate posture. Chronic anger, especially when expressed as resentment for one's one economic plight, can be like a disease. The board's reaction to the post is telling.

This struck me as particularly unfair:

I would also add that the epic generational battle, of which this confrontation was a minor skirmish, is most definitely an extension of my own disappointment in my parents, and exists primarily in my head. I've resigned myself to accept this crap-hole the boomers have left for us, and on most days I am content to simply twiddle my thumbs and wait for the lot of them to die. On most days, boomers are happy enough to merely run the government and own everything, but when some boomer gets up in my face at the home depot and accuses me of stealing, he isn't going to get a courteous response.

Here Robin sounds just like hippies I have known. The rage at mom and dad, the contentedness to twiddle thumbs, the sense of entitlement and center of the universe orientation. The funny thing is, that by the time most boomers were 35, hippies were passe, and the best of the boomers were through doing things like smoking pot and going to places like Burning Man (Burning Man is what hippies do, isn't it?). They were moving on to gigs at investment banks, law firms, medical practices, university tenure tracks, government, and software start ups.

Ironically, I bet Robin's got a lot more hippie in him than either of his devout LDS parents ever did!

[Drunk Tank]

FWIW, If someone had accussed me of stealing and I wasnt in the wrong, I'd be a little pissed as well.

The reason no-one at Home Depot questioned you probabbly has to do more with their pocket books. If you are detained for theft by one of the loss prevention employees, and they are wrong, they would most likely lose their job. There have been fairly large payouts by companies for false theft claims. I seem to recall the average being around $100k per claim.

[RobinFinderson]

No kidding. He might as well be issuing a diatribe against Hispanics and accusing them of making California insolvent. Who'd have thought our risident Yalie and Bill Moyers apologist was an ageist. Good thing he doesn't own a business or such admitted ageism could be used against him in a court of law. Really, though, boomer hate is pretty populist and passe. Even Time had an article on it, probably two years ago!

If it is acceptable to laud one generation as "The Greatest," then it should be acceptable to judge another generation by its cultural impact. I stand in judgment of the Boomers, not individuals. It just so happened that being accused of stealing by a boomer-aged man got me thinking about what a huge stain the boomers have been on this planet. It will be good to see what we are capable of accomplishing once they stop sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.

Personally, I tend to see a lot more good in America than bad. These days it's gotten so that if you do appreciate something about our country, from the ever more heightened sensitivity to liberty and racial or ethnic or age or sexual preference equality, to computer technology, to widely available fresh squeezed orange juice and fine wines, to technological breakthroughs in heart surgery and cancer treatment, to our being at the vanguard of Hatie's relief efforts, you have a lot of Boomers to thank. They are now of age to be and to have been for some time, the primary stewards of our civilization.

Time will tell. As the boomers continue to decline, I don't think they will be remembered as wise stewards. They threw a huge party, leveraging the world's good will and the position of privilege that the US enjoyed after it emerged from WWII, and they paid for this party with credit. The US became a huge producer of goods and services that the world needed as almost every other industrialized nation had to rebuild itself from the ground up. With the sale of our goods and services came prosperity, and innovation follows prosperity. Boomers enjoyed and rode a wave of unprecedented prosperity in all the history of the world. But the question of stewardship, isn't about what you start with, but rather what you do with what you have. There is no doubt that the boomers started out with every possible advantage in the world. How well did they do with their stewardship?

I think that we may have well reached a point in the history of this country when the government apparatus is no longer able to meet the challenges for which the government was invented. It may have lost the ability to govern. Again, time will tell whether this is the case, but if it proves to be the case, I believe that the reins slipped from the hands of the driver under the boomers' watch.

Robin expresses a lot of anger here; anger is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason. It's hardly ever productive or edifying, mostly it's usefully deployed only as a deliberate posture. Chronic anger, especially when expressed as resentment for one's one economic plight, can be like a disease. The board's reaction to the post is telling.

With the exception of one mistake, getting swept up by the excitement of being accepted into an ivy league school (and getting saddled with ivy league debt), the Findersons have carved out a happy little life by remaining largely untethered to, or by untethering themselves from, the causes and concerns of their boomer parents. The boomers sought security through material prosperity. We seek happiness through purpose-driven living. We don't resent our economic plight. We are both worker bees, either one whose job would have provided for a whole nuclear family during the working prime years of the boomers. What anger we have is not the result of our own 'plight.' We personally enjoy an abundance of material privilege. We get angry about classrooms where teachers are expected to teach 45 students at a time, where those 45 students are among the most needy students in the country. The country is failing in ways that folks who measure successful stewardship by the availability of wine and fresh squeezed OJ will never understand.

Here Robin sounds just like hippies I have known. The rage at mom and dad, the contentedness to twiddle thumbs, the sense of entitlement and center of the universe orientation. The funny thing is, that by the time most boomers were 35, hippies were passe, and the best of the boomers were through doing things like smoking pot and going to places like Burning Man (Burning Man is what hippies do, isn't it?). They were moving on to gigs at investment banks, law firms, medical practices, university tenure tracks, government, and software start ups.

Ironically, I bet Robin's got a lot more hippie in him than either of his devout LDS parents ever did!

I consider myself to be a type of hippie. I'm not very serious about it, which might be part of my cultural baggage, but really, very few people have the stomach for revolution. Also, I'm not very ambitious. I value my wife and my son, and I derive most of my happiness and sense of purpose from the love that we share. The 'serious' people can move on with their gigs at investment banks, law firms, and the like. We are pursuing a different project, one that makes us happy. We probably measure success in life very differently, which is the hallmark of a good hippie. That much we've got down pat.

Anyhow, having an opinion about the fecklessness of baby boomers isn't really all that novel, as you point out (and as Time apparently pointed out two years ago). I think people are reacting to the fact that I told an old man off and then blamed it on the fact that he was a baby boomer. What really happened is that I was accused of stealing by an old man, and feeling upset by the false accusation, I lashed out, and the whole thing later caused me to reflect on my generational disdain for boomers.

[myboynoah]

I think people are reacting to the fact that I told an old man off and then blamed it on the fact that he was a baby boomer. What really happened is that I was accused of stealing by an old man, and feeling upset by the false accusation, I lashed out, and the whole thing later caused me to reflect on my generational disdain for boomers.

If true, I was a bit shocked by your reaction. I'd taken you for a more easy-going type who would have responded to another human being's mistake by simply noting that the fixtures were yours, used to make sure you were getting the correct replacements. Who hasn't done that? Surely he would have responded with a "Oh, I see. I hate it when I get the wrong replacements." You would have then exchanged funny self-imporvement stories and your day would have been brighter.

No boastful confession here, no castigation here, no tortured justification by you here.

Next time, think "WWmbnD?"

[Surfah]

This whole thread is funny.

[Jeff Lebowski]

If true, I was a bit shocked by your reaction. I'd taken you for a more easy-going type who would have responded to another human being's mistake by simply noting that the fixtures were yours, used to make sure you were getting the correct replacements. Who hasn't done that? Surely he would have responded with a "Oh, I see. I hate it when I get the wrong replacements." You would have then exchanged funny self-imporvement stories and your day would have been brighter.

No boastful confession here, no castigation here, no tortured justification by you here.

Next time, think "WWmbnD?"

Exactly. The entire episode could have been over in literally seconds. Instead, he gets to come here, write a long diatribe, and then complain about narcissism.

[TripletDaddy]

Why would an anti-establishment ageist be shopping at a Big Box like Home Depot? Maybe after he left Home Depot, the character "RobinFinderson" rode his motorcycle over to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a pumpkin latte.

[RobinFinderson]

That info may come in handy in the future.

Thanks!

Always glad to load your pistol.

If true, I was a bit shocked by your reaction. I'd taken you for a more easy-going type who would have responded to another human being's mistake by simply noting that the fixtures were yours, used to make sure you were getting the correct replacements. Who hasn't done that? Surely he would have responded with a "Oh, I see. I hate it when I get the wrong replacements." You would have then exchanged funny self-imporvement stories and your day would have been brighter.

No boastful confession here, no castigation here, no tortured justification by you here.

Next time, think "WWmbnD?"

I didn't share this experience for the purpose of holding up my actions as exemplar. I shared the experience because I thought it was interesting, and I thought that some others here might find it interesting too. I would think that if my time here on CUF were indicative of anything, it would demonstrate that I'm not one to shy away from confrontation. Simply put, I think that the behavior of publicly accusing others of stealing should be discouraged. For reasons of personal safety, as well as to avoid insulting people with false accusations, I believe it would be best for citizens to report suspected shoplifting to the management, rather than confront the alleged thief personally. Whatever points I may lose in style, my choice was ultimately made to discourage the man's behavior. I may have been discourteous, but I think it is also discourteous to confront someone the way I was confronted.

The event served as a pretext for my rant about baby boomers, which was also offered because I thought that some people might find it interesting (maybe annoying AND interesting).

This whole thread is funny.

Funny and interesting. I agree.

Exactly. The entire episode could have been over in literally seconds. Instead, he gets to come here, write a long diatribe, and then complain about narcissism.

Apparently you find airing out your beliefs that I write narcissistic diatribes to be interesting enough to dedicate a couple of posts to that. Knock yourself out. I respond to your posts because I find it kind of fun and amusing. I enjoy writing diatribes about the failures of baby boomers. You enjoy writing critiques of my diatribes. It is all a more interesting way to pass some idle time. Enjoy!

[statman]

" ...Greatest Generation's sacrifices, and they have accumulated massive amounts of wealth and power by leveraging and sacrificing their children and grandchildren's future."

That really pisses me off about the "Greatest Generation" thing as well. All of the long-term economic problems that are piling up for us to deal with over the next 15-20 years are a DIRECT result of our "Greatest Generation" electing politicians who spent money they didn't have and passed the bill directly off to their kids & grandkids.

"The good old days" were funded in large-part by the bad new days...

[SeattleUte]

Anyone with a historical perspective would recognize that there is extraordinary (to use a word that, from a historical perspective, is wholly inadequate) good in the United States, and that the United States has never had more good than it does now. But I would never expect a lover and lionizer of socialism to have a historical perspective.

Robin, what you have done in this thread is no different than had you painted Hispanics with a broad brush of hate and laid all of California's problems at their feet. It's a shame. This kind of thing undoes all the fine and enlightened things you have said on this board. You carry a very angry little bigot around in your head. It's UGLY. You sound like Hitler raging about how Slavs and Jews (who "own everything and control government") turned Germany into a "crap hole". Or, Evangelicals in Uganda inciting people to murder with comments like gays have "homosexualized" society.

By they way, a platitude like "the greatest generation" IS an idiotic formulation, and you have expressed why that is so. But no one ever said Brokaw was a great intellectual, or, frankly, anything other than a populist himself. Now we see why it's racist to say things like blacks are naturally better athletes. It's only a small step from that to racism of the truly hateful and disparaging type.

[SeattleUte]

Why would an anti-establishment ageist be shopping at a Big Box like Home Depot? Maybe after he left Home Depot, the character "RobinFinderson" rode his motorcycle over to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a pumpkin latte.

lol I nominate this for admission to 3D's best of.

[Solon]

That really pisses me off about the "Greatest Generation" thing as well. All of the long-term economic problems that are piling up for us to deal with over the next 15-20 years are a DIRECT result of our "Greatest Generation" electing politicians who spent money they didn't have and passed the bill directly off to their kids & grandkids.

"The good old days" were funded in large-part by the bad new days...

Although "the greatest generation" and "the baby boomers" are different generations, I like the line in Talladega Nights:

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