Talking to Your Generation X Parents (or Grandparents) About: The 2024 Election
A Guide for Generation Z
This week’s Presidential election result has been stressful and upsetting for all Americans. For those on the losing side, there has been a tremendous amount of upset, feeling that their values and very sense of what it means to be an American have been betrayed.
And those on the winning side are even more upset for reasons that they can’t define.
Whether at Thanksgiving dinner, or between songs while driving in the car, or you’re on a discord server talking trash while beating them at Grand Theft Auto: Online, the subject of politics may come up, during which you will find your parents getting heated or even emotionally distraught. And nothing will make it worse than a big dose of intergenerational miscommunication.
Just remember that your parents are people just like you, but much much older and also not aware that you and your friends are making fun of them to their face with your impenetrable slang. Here are some simple tips to help you speak to the elderlyGen X’ers in your life.
Gen X, being fairly self-obsessed, needs everything framed in terms of how it affects them
While Gen X aren’t as narcissistic as a generation as millennials, they still frame everything in terms of how it affects them. Therefore, be sure to express your feelings in terms of a shared experience:
WRONG: “As a woman, I’m concerned about how restrictive birth control laws can affect my future.”
RIGHT: “As the daughter of the father of a girl, I’m concerned that birth control laws can affect our future.”
Gen X grew up unattended watching hours of bad sitcoms
And those sitcoms were written by mostly sad men with bad or broken marriages. So every emotional reaction has to be filtered, like those writers’ lives, through a thick veil of heavy sarcasm and bad one-liners. To wit:
WRONG: “Mom, I find the plan to build camps along the border for migrants frightening because I worry that may be where this country starts, not stops.”
RIGHT: “Gee, mom. Unless those border camps include volleyball and swim class, I’m going to pass on the old El Paso and make a run from the border.”
Gen X created an entire culture and language around the movies, TV show, and music of their youth
Therefore, when speaking to your Generation X parents or grandparents, instead of addressing current issues in the context of art, politics, history, or literature, instead “dumb it down”, or as your parents would put it, “elevate the discourse,” in terms of 60 year old TV shows.
WRONG: “I’m worried that we’re replacing one elder President in evident mental decline with another.”
RIGHT: “We’re switching out Grampa Simpson for Grampa Munster.”
Gen X thinks they’re first generation to get older while still staying young and hip
No really. Remember the Ramones shirt you were dressed in every other day of your toddlerhood? That was your dad being edgy and dangerous. Remember when your mom insisted on going to the Taylor Swift concert with your friends and knew the lyrics to every song?
Just… let them have this. They came of age in a global recession and… it’s just been a rough 50 years or so.