News Limited columnist writes “Baby Boomers Suck”: We’re shocked!

We’re feeling a little affronted on your behalf today having read a column in News Limited’s Rendezview that is all too critical of the Baby Boomer, and clearly looking for rebuttal. Entitled “Can I say it? I’ll just say it. Baby Boomers suck”, it is a tirade by 20 or 30-something journalist, Victoria Hannaford about how baby boomers are selfish. A letter was sent in to the columnist, telling Ms Hannaford how infuriated they were by parents who are “spending the kids inheritance”.

“I need your help before I divorce my parents. Every time they return from an overseas holiday or buy a new car they joke about “spending the kids’ inheritance”.

“I gave up on getting an inheritance years ago, but their selfish, self-obsessed attitude makes me want to scream…”, the letter reads.

They go on to say “Please believe me, it is not about the money, I just want parents who stop to consider that complaining about Caribbean cruises while I grind out a living is wearing thin….” 

Ha! The delightful soul never considered the fact that their parents made that living they are now spending by working through their kids’ childhoods, battling against 17 per cent interest rates and juggling old and young family members for decades.

In response to the letter, Ms Hannaford goes on and on in an animated and offensive way that is frankly downright demonstrative of the common attitude of the media towards the Baby Boomer today – the media person who is highly self-oriented is calling the Baby Boomer self-oriented. Laughable, isn’t it?

While I don’t even want to grace the article with your eyes, I can’t help but criticise some of its worst statements towards Boomers.

“…they’ve turned into the whingiest, most entitled, condescending and argumentative generation to have ever ruined a planet. And that’s just when they’re asking for directions and then disputing your advice (yes, this actually happened to me a few weeks ago)”

Umm, I’m out of words – did the author care to read her own condescension again?

“It’s not enough for them to have enjoyed free tertiary education, affordable housing and unparalleled acquisition of wealth. They want you to feel inferior while they swan about between their three properties, and pay attention as they deliver imperious lectures about fiscal responsibility and the younger generation’s obsession with flat-screen TVs”

Dare we ask how many flat screen TVs the journalist owns while complaining about not being able to spend her parents’ money?

I’m obligated to give you a link to the article to reference it as a source today, but don’t encourage you to give them the clicks. Instead let’s talk about the choice this journalist had when addressing this opinion of theirs, and the choice the News Limited editors made when pressing publish on their website on this antagonistic misrepresentation of a core reader base of their publication.

Do you feel this is a standard demonstration of the disrespect of baby boomers in the media today or a tongue in cheek kick up of stones?  How does it make you feel to read a major media outlet doing this to Boomers?