Joey ... you live in Utah.
The point is a large group of people ARE "deeply Islamophobic, are against gay rights, think abortion should be illegal, supports asinine things like a border wall, favor things like the Patriot Act because they "have nothing to hide", and are completely OK with the government control their lives." but I don't think that's a generational thing - it's (as I already said) a question of upbringing & life experience.
The "radical" Boomers were no doubt always a minority of their generation, albeit a significant & influential minority. They were excoriated by their elders for being trouble-makers & wanting to change things. But Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Lindsey Graham, Gary Johnson - they are all Boomers. There really isn't a "boomer mentality". The life experience of Boomers is very different depending on geography, socio-economic class & other factors ... & I guarantee you that the succeeding generations will turn out with very much the same differences over time.
It is true that we are living through a disturbing time at the minute with a shocking retrenchment in attitudes. I can only hope that in the long march of history it will be seen as a temporary blip ...
I definitely agree about Utah, it's strange. It's more or less a theocracy, but for whatever reason, it has one of the more vibrant gay communities in the nation and welcomes refugees with open arms. While I draw on some experiences I've had here, I've really only lived in Utah for three years now. For 29 years of my life, I lived in Michigan, which had its own uniqueness.
I know geography and even life experiences are going to vastly alter my perception of things. But I still think the generation you're apart of has a bunch to do with it. For example, in Michigan, I was surrounded by people who worked in the auto industry or at the very least a supplier for the industry. Those who'd only ever worked at a place like GM couldn't understand why I just wouldn't graduate high school and go work on the line, ignoring college completely. It never occurred to them that in 2005 working on the line was vastly different than working on the line in 1965. You weren't paid all that much, benefits were so-so, overtime was limited, and there wasn't much in the way of a pension. For the life of these people, they couldn't understand why I needed college at all.
They also couldn't understand why I lived at home until I was 25 and more than once, friends of my parents told them they should kick me out so I could find out what real life was like. Nevermind I was paying bills, trying to save enough money to afford a place of my own, and going through three separate layoffs at different companies. The attitude of these folks, all of the boomer generation, completely baffled me. Just because they seemingly had it easy, it didn't mean that anything was easy in the late 2000's...especially in Michigan where the economy was crap.
People from the GenX generation completely understood where I was coming from though. Probably because they lived through the boom and bust times of the 1980s.
But branching out from my own experiences, all you really have to do to see the generational difference is look at elected officials. For whatever reason in America, younger people just don't vote and older people (primarily boomers) do. Whether it has to do with time, apathy, or whatever I'm not really sure. When they do vote though (along with minorities) we end up with a president like Obama. When they don't, like they typically do, we end up with a president like Trump. While I'm not an Obama fan, I can completely understand how someone would like him and his ideas. With Trump, I can't fathom any reason as to why someone would want him representing America in any capacity. But then I look at my dad. While I love him dearly, he thinks Fox News is the most honest coverage around and that Obama is a Muslim. He's also very against welfare and the Affordable Care Act, but gladly accepts his social security check and Medicare, which are welfare and social medicine.
I'm not sure what it's like in other parts of the world. I've only ever spent three months "living" in the UK while I did a study abroad and have only ever traveled to other countries for weeks at a time. I've probably spent the most time in Canada, but even then it was Windsor and that's just Detroit without rampant crime.
