12 thoughts on “Some Boomers who are un-FIT”

  1. Paglia and Steve Jobs are/were clearly FIT material in my book. Even Andrews has a hard time criticizing them. There is nothing in her Paglia chapter, for example, which Paglia could not have written better herself.

  2. I suspect selection bias. Who is going to write a book about the quiet, faceless, anonymous boomers who accomplished as much or made as much money as any of those characters, but who escaped public fame and attention? The demand signal in the market for books – like many other markets – says write about famous people, and should we be surprised that the most famous are those most gifted and driven towards relentless self-promotion? To promote your own work, you cover the best at self-promotion. It’s like a surfer riding a wave from a boat’s wake.

    Jonah Goldberg made a similar, Levin-esque point about politicians:

    Readers of this “news”letter should be familiar with my view of what ails American politics. We have politicians who think their job is to be pundits and social media trolls. That’s literally why they run for office—not to get things done, but to become famous for complaining about what is being done.

    Ok, but just like it is really helpful to book sales to write about famous people, it *really* helps to be famous to succeed in modern democratic politics.

    • In general all stereotypes are true and false.

      Not all boomers are Boomers. Indeed, as you say, it’s likely a minority.

      On the other hand, Boomers occur far more often among the baby boomer population than any other comparable age subgrouping. At best, baby boomers are far more submissive toward Boomers and thus allow them to have the leadership positions. Regardless of the details, any institution staffed by baby boomers will end up with pronounced Boomer characteristics.

  3. As a millennial who loves to promote the Boomer/Millennial culture war, I will say that if people think boomers are good at self-promotion without results to back up their claims… just wait for my generation to take power.

    Self-promotion and faking lavish lifestyles is our bread & butter. I attended my undergraduate studies with two individuals who have Youtube/Instagram followings just under 100K and 1M. Spending any time on their pages you realize they have nothing innovative to say and the products they sell are just over-priced drop shipping… the latter with the larger following I guarantee has more social influence then I can see myself creating in any short to medium term.

    We are also the generation of “growth” stocks / companies that balloon to wild valuations and often dissolve before a tangible profit is ever achieved.

    If your fear is grandiose self-promotion I don’t see much of a light at the end of the tunnel when “Boomers” expire from this earth.

  4. I’m not sure her small selection of Boomers is enought to generalize about the whole generation.

    Arnold writes :

    Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Trump all were the center of attention while in office, and yet they made little impact on the direction of the country and were unable to achieve results comparable to building the Interstate Highway system or passing Civil Rights legislation.

    Not Bush II? The second Boomer President?

    I guess 9/11 and the unf’ingbelievable Iraq War are “achievements” on par with the highway system – but not in a good way.

  5. Arnold writes in the review: “Our political divisions are accentuated by different perceptions of reality. During the Trump era, readers of the New York Times or the Washington Post were fed the story that Donald Trump as a candidate and President conspired with Russia’s Vladimir Putin against American interests. At the same time, listeners of conservative talk radio were fed the story that the FBI and the CIA conspired with mainstream media to take down Mr. Trump against American interests.”

    In his effort to seem above partisanship, Arnold is trafficking in moral equivalence. The first story was false, and pushed by people who knew it was, and the second story was ultimately borne out by the revealed facts. Treating the two accounts as equivalent is misleading.

    • Don’t you have that backwards? Long time Republican prosecutor appointed by long time Republican operatives did indeed show conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and other crimes that resulted in a high number of convictions many of which were subsequently pardoned by the President who benefitted. And that was even after his close personal friend and AG put his thumb on the scale.

      • None of the convictions were for conspiring with Russia, mostly they were for perjury and whatnot. No, the Russia conspiracy was not true, and Mueller’s findings didn’t support it. Are we living in parallel worlds? Mueller poured cold water on this theory, and progressives fumed at him for it. Did I miss some other press conference he gave where he recommended Trump be prosecuted for conspiring with a foreign country to steal the election?

  6. Might the FIT game rules be reworked to award points for Wisdom, particularly operable influential wisdom as opposed to popularity?

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