Exactly. I'm still baffled, knowing that probably most of these people had parents and grandparents who fought against fascism, giving everything in many cases. I can only rationalize some of it thinking that maybe if they had been able to talk about it to their children better... I know that was a thing with that period, children being seen and not heard and presumably not interacted with much. And the failure with the post-Civil War is its own huge topic with plenty of signs that the only thing that ended was the actual war.

[–] unconsequential@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 days ago

I had so many discussions with my grandmother that my mother never had with her. The Silent Generation were humble in a way boomers aren’t. But you had to pry at them to get the nitty gritty stuff out. They didn’t like sharing the unpleasant. In that way they really sheltered their kids. They gave boomers so much while hiding them from their traumas. Ok it leaked out in “tough love” but they spared them from a lot of ugly they went through. They never wanted their kids to live that.

The Silent Generation wasn’t perfect but they carried on fighting for unions, broke knuckles on politicians and were the last bastions against fascism. I really think they thought if they didn’t put light on the shadows they would disappear, that their kids would be safe. But in doing so we lost something.