Dear Millennials,

Do you ever wonder why Boomers are so infuriating? As a GenXer I’ll try to explain, but I’m not expecting you to pay attention because we’re invisible and we mumble a lot. I’m used to being ignored. Nonetheless, let us plow forward into generational wisdom.

Here’s the crux of it: we all had shitty apartments and low paying jobs once. It’s nearly a universal experience to be young, poor (or broke), wondering what the hell you are going to do with your life, and resenting your elders for not taking your struggle seriously.

My generation, a swath of defeated post-post-War, over-educated idiots, was young once, too.

In the words of a wise philosopher:

Every generation thinks they invented sex. And every generation is completely wrong.

So, there are all those things.

But there’s another, bigger problem. Y’all are 100% correct.

Your generation is poorer (or broker) than every modern generation before you, because you have been forced to weather the deadly combo of student debt and shittier jobs.

That’s not to say some generation, we’ll call them OG Millennials, back in 1897, didn’t have the world’s worst ramshackle apartments and got work in mines setting off dynamite for a living. They definitely had a terrible time of it, too.

Meanwhile, Boomers — not all, but many — will never grok you on this, because they believe you will grow out of it and, one day, look back at GenZ and wisely and sagely tell them to just calm the F down.

Yes, you are getting screwed in this economy and many Boomers don’t care because they are sitting on dry land while you are floating adrift in choppy seas watching a coming tsunami. These same people don’t care about any other generation besides theirs, any other sports team besides theirs, any other country, etc.

And all those railroad workers and miners in the 1800s who could easily lose a hand or foot with no disability to rescue them would also mock your pain.

But in a way, I sympathize because I, X, also squint in wonder and disappointment at Boomers.

Boomers are all-knowing. They heard about the coming tsunami and read about it in the news and it’s not like they don’t know.

But you are right there in the thick of it.

The world really is coming to a fast-approaching end. We GenX peeps might seem quiet and cynical but in reality we are watching and waiting. We see how desolate it all is — we knew it when Ronald Reagan, the great beast of the apocalypse now, ascended to his throne. Our response? Cross our arms and wait.

We’ve been knowing a day of reckoning will come.

Anyway, you two pissed off generations have more in common than you realize. For example:

· You are marching in the streets for social justice

· You are bringing actual changes to society

· There are a hell of a lot of you

· You are living in a time of great social upheaval

· You’re very loud

To sum up or as you say TL;DR — Boomers experienced what you are experiencing: failure, poverty, confusion while in their 20s. They don’t get how bad our American economy objectively is because it’s been a long, slow decline and every last one of those fortunate mother frackers got everything good from their Greatest Generation parents and got spoiled.

They just figure you’ll do what they did, move to Florida when you get old, without really thinking through that Florida will mostly be underwater.

On the brighter side, at least someone is paying attention to you.

Love and peace,