Their motto is literally whatever. It's unfortunate but I wonder how much they even try to properly inform themselves at this point.
Tbf, many have families and homes that require them to submit themselves fully to the brutal dick of capitalism and relinquish all else, unlike millennials and gen z. Because of that, I'm pretty sure if given the choice, gen x would absolutely prefer to fight to maintain the status quo as they're fully committed to it - that is to say, many likely believe "this is just the way things are" and things are only bad if you're lazy or you lose your government-issued bootstraps therefore fundamental change like we've never seen before isn't needed and is actually a radical position to hold.
It's a bit of a bummer since they have tons of experience and executive function skills later generations seem to lack/struggle with
gen x here. mortgage, kids, etc. more than happy to exorcize the poltergeist of late stage capitalism with a nice focused, deep burn - if I can improve the future for my kids (and, perhaps, yours) I am ok with personal pain.
I know this sounds trite, but my commitment is to a better future, not my mortgage. you later alphabet soup peeps need to show up at the fucking polls and vote. show the power you have. I promise, TPTB will start paying attention - because you are coming for them.
a coalition of generations is needed here. I propbably wont be here for the worst of climate change, so those that will... vote and put your ideas out there. I think there is more gen x support for you than you think.
As a GenX I'd say you're probably not too wrong about many of us but there's still many that are very anti-establishment. If you're unionised check out some of your most militant union folks, chances are they'll be GenX.
As for those executive function skills...my super late ADHD diagnosis would like a word if I remember/want to take my meds :/
Because during bad times the ones that make bad decisions don't survive or at very least are removed from positions of power.
It's more common for bad leaders to make the bad decisions that cause the bad times, and then either be deposed by violence or cling to power with violence, making everything worse. See Stalin, Mao, and also the entire history of sub-Saharan Africa after colonialism.
I'm certainly not a fan of American electoral democracy, but one can say that at least it's mostly peaceful and allows in theory the people to make a choice between qualified and vetted candidates. In "hard times" the mechanisms created by civil society to select competent leaders tend to break down. So rather than removing bad leaders from power in hard times, it becomes even harder to remove such leaders, and even harder to determine whether a leader is good or bad until after he's in charge of the army's salary.
The true people who create hard times are the rich. They do this through control of media narratives, financing, and buying up local stores in favour of soulless megastores!