Thread by @richterscale

This is so true--Gen-Xers grew up with casual racism and sexism EVERYWHERE in our world, but because it wasn't wearing a hood, we* could ignore it.

It was so bad that when we all become "enlightened" in the 90s, Friends seemed like an IMPROVEMENT.

(*those of us with privilege)

https://twitter.com/MisterCustomer/status/1313485122369458176

The Clinton years gave white liberals a sense of extreme smugness, a dust-off-your-hands, stand-back-and-look-at-the-completed-work feeling of having fixed the country, and maybe even the world!

Gen-Xers coming of age in this era became complacent if they could afford to be.

The Boomers did the same thing--many a 70-year-old will tell you that the civil rights movement fixed racism, so what do "they" have to complain about now? (70yo in question likely spent 1968 in a crewcut wondering why "they" were rioting.)

So how did Gen-X do in 2000, after 8 years of Clinton?

They were EVENLY SPLIT between Bush and Gore (a handful voted for Nader--and wtf 1% for Buchanan?).

And note: age 18-29 made up 17% of the electorate, while 30-49 was 45%. Ok, maybe there's some truth in the slacker thing.

It's really interesting to note that the older Gen-Xers in 2000 were *more likely* to vote for Gore over Bush. They had a bit more personal memory of the Reagan-Bush years.

Keep in mind that the candidates that year represented a continuation of the past two decades, regardless.

So it's somewhat understandable that white Gen-Xers, *none* of whom were adults prior to Reagan's election, would look at more of the same and think, eh, what does it matter, things are stable now, what could possibly happen in the next 12 months to disrupt this global balance?