Okay, so…last time I wrote about Generation X, I talked a lot of sh*t.

Like. A Lot.

But…but… *dramatically raising a forefinger* …for good reason.

You Gen Xers are…kinda starting to act like Boomers. NOT ALL THE TIME, no, but from time-to-time your “we’re built different, even though we had the same childhood” attitude does come out.

That said, I’ve had some time to let my original rant marinate.

AND…

I stand by what I said.

Althoooough…my opinion/analysis has shifted.

Generation X, you were, for lack of a better term, the “original enemy” to the Boomer generation. You were the first generation the Boomers could throw under the bus if the economy dipped…or the stock market crashed…or a fast food attendant refused to serve them.

You, Gen X, were the original “damn kids.”

When MTV dominated television in the 1990s, who did the Boomers blame for the downfall of modern society?

Those damn Gen X kids.

When the political and social movements of the 60s and 70s failed to go the Boomer-distance, who were blamed for being “too skeptical,” “too nihilistic,” and “not voting in large numbers?”

Those damn Gen X kids.

When a long-haired Joseph Gordon Levitt started headbanging in a promo ad for Third Rock from the Sun, and my (quiet-at-the-time) Gen X cousin started grinning, who had Boomer family members clutch their pearls at the “audacity” of the youth?

Me.

Always…those damn kids are the reason for…(insert whatever cause here).

And as an elder Millennial who occasionally does it to Generation Z, I get it. It’s fun, you know…blaming the problems of the world on people who literally had nothing to do with them.

That said, what happened?

What happens when an entire generation is raised one way, then mocked by the same people for issues that didn’t stem from them?

They rebelled, and Gen X rebelled hard. They rebelled so hard, and became so different that the Boomer generation, and much of the world, forgot they even existed.

And then what happened?

People started doin’ it.

And more babies popped into the world, and those babies eventually grew up into the Millennial generation. And when we, the Millennials, became old enough to absorb the blame for the sins of the world, Gen X let out a sigh of relief.

And then, they did what anyone would do…?

The same thing anyone does after swiping two free samples of the new cheese from the grocery store. They disappear into the aisle, turn your shirt inside out, then come back for a third round, using a fake, Irish accent…

Gen X, in the late 90s-early 2000s, re-entered the world, as Real Adults, to regain the graces (and money) of the Boomer generation, and started siding with them through the use of lines such as…

“What’s wrong with these kids today?”

Or…

“Hey, at least we’re not Millennials,”

Or…

“Don’t look at me, I voted for Dukakis.”

But by then…the Boomers saw Gen X how the Kazoo kid saw us in 1989, or how parents typically see their middle child…

“Wait a minute…who are you?”

However, something interesting happened with the Millennial generation.

Sure, we resisted…put green and purple highlights in our hair, learned the lyrics to every song put out by The Offspring and System of a Down, got really good at GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the N64, tried to catch a boob or two on late-night Cinemax.

Until one day, the Boomer blame got so loud, that we, as Millennials, were like “Alright, fine, if it’s our fault, let’s fix it.”

And then…we invented Facebook, and Lyft, and countless other successful industries. We brought back the Nintendo 64, TMNT, and Jurassic Park. We’ve revitalized 90s music, destigmatized therapy and broke generational addiction. We returned to morality, started mocking degenerate behavior, faced our deepest insecurities, and pushed back against materialism.

Now, in 2026, the once-laughable idea of the Millennials course-correcting this Boomer-dominated world toward a much brighter future is starting to appear more valid.

And now…all of a sudden…certain members of Gen X is starting re-emerge from the woodwork to say things like…

“Oh, yeah, well as a 90’s baby born in 1975…”

Or…

“As a Xennial, I agree, the Boomers hated us.”

Or…

“We were the last generation before the Internet…”

To which I, an elder Millennial respond with…

“Really? Aren’t you’re the reason, Gen Z, your children, the most nihilistic generation to ever exist, is so quick to mock the Millennials while using the very technology that we helped create and normalize? Sure, you were on the sidelines, and weren’t as brutal, but at least the Boomers stayed on the field, you know?

And now, as the Boomers approach the final curtain, all of a sudden, we’re all buddies? Really?”

— Me, right now, following years of low-key snobbery.

IN CONCLUSION

I’m not mad at you, Gen X.

But you don’t get to sit on the sidelines, grumbling at both teams…then celebrate in the end zone.

And yes, I said it, the Millennials are winning.

That said, I will extend an olive branch…

You admit we’re the ones attempting to fix this mess…I will admit that your generation gave us a pretty killer soundtrack.

Because let’s be honest…

We weren’t raised in silence.