Are Boomers HEARTLESS?

追加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]I have this labeled sad grads, but really what it is, it's the eternal battle between boomers, millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z as older generations tell younger generations when something sucks for them, "Good, it'll toughen you up."

[00:00:18]>> Yeah. Over the weekend, or I guess last week, I'll say about 5 days ago, there was a high school in central Tennessee that had absolutely torrential downpour going on. This was an outdoor ceremony.

[00:00:30]School officials said they expected to finish the ceremony on the football field before another wave of rain went through the area, but the downpour arrived sooner than they thought. This is from CBS News. If you want to pull up that one and show them, this is one of them accepting their diplomas in the torrential downpour. Now, >> yes. And the reason that we're talking, [laughter] >> well, there's also admins out there. The reason we're talking about this you guys is because this story has absolutely absolutely blown up on the internet with a lot of debate on if this is good, bad, or whatever. It is absolutely insane to me. I look I just We'll get into the conversations around it, but look at this.

[00:01:12]>> This girl, this one's smart. Is I think it's a girl. I'm sorry. It's the far the shots far away. Um looks like they at least wore like a raincoat.

[00:01:20]>> Well, yeah, but they all look like they're wearing rain coats cuz it's Oh, the poncho. I see the poncho.

[00:01:24]>> Poncho. Yeah, >> it's absolutely. So, we have it on X here where she said, "Not my cousin's graduation going viral. Centennial High School administrators should be fired immediately."

[00:01:35]>> William's going to get like a cold and sick.

[00:01:38]>> It's going to be like that president who did the long um it was uh William Henry Harrison did a very long the longest in history speech when he got inaugurated died 31 days into office. And they say it's because it was like cold and there's no like that's not necessarily true. But you can see that they're like freezing. They're like rigidly walking.

[00:01:56]And of course a couple people have a poncho on, but at the end of the day, what's that actually going to do for you? Your hair is getting wet. You've got >> It looks like the diplomas are actually in like plastic.

[00:02:06]>> That's how most of them come. But that's not their actual diploma. That's like the thing you can put it in for safekeeping. You get it later. So that's just the picture.

[00:02:15]>> Been so long since I graduated. I don't remember when I >> Yeah, I got that at college as well.

[00:02:18]It's how I know. But we have it here from I can never say this guy's name.

[00:02:22]>> Kurt Schlickter.

[00:02:24]>> Schlicker. Um, he said, "Only a public school educator could be so stupid as to do this. Why do you respect teachers as a group?" But that's not even the part I wanted to talk about. the rhetoric that I think we should be talking about and where it's, you know, boomers, they're gonna claim it's the boomers going wrong from Lucy here who said, "Solid preparation to life after high school with like the party face emoji that poor kid."

[00:02:48]>> Look at it's literally the meme of the dude in the pool.

[00:02:52]>> Also, they're all so separated. Why are they separated?

[00:02:55]>> Yeah.

[00:02:55]>> Is it just to make it more like I don't know. I'm hoping that's not like a co thing because that's awful. But you can see this kid looks so depressed. He's just sitting there. Why is my life come to this? Now, I think maybe we should put a poll in the chat while we have this conversation. Do you think that this toughens up kids or do you think that this is actually quite sad and there should have been a backup and it's not toughening up kids, it's actually ruining which at this point in their life is one of the biggest days ever.

[00:03:23]>> Rainy graduation day.

[00:03:26]>> Is it um you know, are you saying let them suffer? Are you saying I feel bad for them? I personally do feel bad. I can't imagine. Mine was endorsed, but I can't imagine at this point. This is the biggest thing to happen in a lot of these kids' lives. I know looking at at it as an adult, you're like, well, you go through so many other things, right?

[00:03:46]You go through so many big events in your life. When you're 17, 18, graduating high school, that's the biggest thing you've ever done in your life. That is a huge achievement for a lot of kids. So to do this and really ruin Do you know how much makeup and hair and all of that they're doing for this? Because for them this is a huge moment. The pictures >> I saw a meme earlier where this guy or sorry I keep saying a meme. I saw an ex post where a guy said like I got into a like an he's like I got into like an argument with my girlfriend in the rain once and I thought we were having a romcom moment and she was just really mad or like no was it wasn't we got an argument like we he's like we ran under a gazebo after being caught in the rain and I thought we were having a romcom moment and she was just pissed.

[00:04:31]>> Um I mean I usually take that stuff in stride. I think it's funny but not everyone will. So, I liken this to the biggest moment of a lot of people's lives, which is their wedding day. If it rains on your wedding day, no one's going to say to you, "Toughen up. It's marriage can be hard sometimes. Buckle in. This is just how things go sometimes." No one says that to you.

[00:04:52]Everybody feels bad. There's money that goes into this. There is work that goes into it. There's makeup. There's hair.

[00:04:57]Everyone's dressed up nicely. Presumably the same thing for a high school graduation ceremony, at least for these kids. And you would never say that to somebody on their wedding day or their prom, anything like that. You will never tell them to toughen up ever. I know that for a fact.

[00:05:17]>> People always say like, "Oh, we'll always have a backup plan." That's why we got married inside because I'm not messing with that.

[00:05:21]>> Like, shouldn't the school have a backup plan? Like, >> I think they did and they still didn't go to it because they thought that they beat the rain. So, this is Centennial High School.

[00:05:30]>> Like, they just didn't want to set up a second venue. I have no idea what actually happened, but it's not like this came out of nowhere. As you can see, they they cited oncoming rain thinking they could beat it. So, they knew it was coming.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah, >> these people knew this was happening and they were so incompetent. So, the question is now, does it toughen them up? I've seen some people saying like, "Oh, get ready for the real world, kids." Like, you're just ruining like one of their best days. And to me, that is far worse than just getting I I don't get it. I feel very bad for those kids.

[00:06:02]I know some people have the toughen up, life is tough attitude, but like there's so many other lessons they can learn like out of a graduation than toughen up. like >> this has become like a I think the largecale debate between the the boot because this is going on right now on X because of the Door Dash debate which somehow continued into the weekend with Gen Xers into a I mean with boomers into a a smaller extent Gen Xers you know don't get your $5 lattes or your $7 lattes and you'll be able to buy a house one day and it ended up being a discuss us that we had because it ended up being one of those things where two things can be true at one time. Yes, people spend an inordinate amount of money on fast food and stuff when they could be doing uh better to be, you know, saving money.

[00:06:58]But it's also true that life has become prohibitively expensive for everyone in a way that wasn't true for prior generations. And the problem is is I think it falls back to a simple principle that most people don't take kindly to people complaining about their own circumstances. Oddly enough, people take very well to people complaining about other things. People take very well to critique of of society, but very rarely do people seem to take well to the idea of like my life is crap because this because at when when it's all said and done, we all have to figure out our own lives ourselves. And most of the time it just comes off as a bit indignant when you make it about yourself as opposed to the idea of making it about maybe larger societal issues. And I get that. But at the same time, people have the right to critique the way life has become as expensive as it is. The way the cost of homes has skyrocketed, the way that the wages have not grown with inflation, things like that makes perfect sense. But at the same time, depending on the day, you could get somebody in a completely different mood and they're like, "Gh, like figure it out."

[00:08:11]>> Yeah. And that's true. I see in the chat they're even very divided. They're saying, Some people are saying toughen up. Some people are saying, "Are you heartless?" I think that it's fair to say >> these are still kids. Like, give them their gradu That's like, "Give them their graduation."

[00:08:25]>> To say it's a little water. What are you worried about? First of all, it was not a little bit of water. That was a torrential downpour. Apparently, there was thunder and lightning in the area, too, which is a whole another safety issue if they're sitting on anything metal. Anything metal in the area and they're on a football field. So, I mean, that's a dangerous thing that could, you know, have affected all these kids or their families. And I just think that >> it's just it's a bit not even heartless.

[00:08:50]It's just a bit rude. People are going to take that mentality. But now it's all online, too. You have to think about that. when a lot of the audience graduated, I'm sure most of them it was not in the social media age or social media was still up and coming. Now it's on Tik Tok X, it's on everything. It's on uh Tik Tok, Instagram X, all of that whatever platforms. And that's that's one a bit embarrassing, but two, I'm looking at this as a female who like curled my hair on graduation day and did my makeup and I would have been very upset if it rained and you know, people are saying, you know, it's not the worst thing that'll ever happen. Sure, but and at at this point in their lives, it is like maybe not the worst thing. I don't know what they've gone through, but but I'm saying no, I'm saying that for them, >> this is something that is one of maybe the worst things that's happened. Maybe not in the sense of like No, I'm not saying it's like traumatic. I'm just saying that you look forward all of high school to graduation and then it like instead of being like, "Oh, we had to go inside cuz it rained. That kind of sucked." You got absolutely drenched >> and that level of rain, you were going to be like cold, shaking, >> like wet. And did you see how big like the class looked like it was? You're sitting out there for a very long time.

[00:10:06]This isn't a oneanddone quick thing.

[00:10:08]>> Plus, we just know they graduate anybody these days or they graduate with like third grade re like they they they passed me and that was in 2005. They'll pass me, they'll pass anyone.

[00:10:17]>> That's a different problem entirely. The problem here is that it almost felt like a weird humiliation thing where I would say, "Look, you can say why I feel bad for them. It's a life lesson. Mhm.

[00:10:30]>> They this is like their moment to get they're proud of what they have done.

[00:10:34]Their parents are proud of them. This shouldn't be a moment that is suddenly again no one would say it to you on your wedding day and presumably that's only once in a lifetime too like graduating high school. When you're 18 you don't think about oh well hopefully this doesn't happen in the future. Oh this taught me a lesson about being tough in the real world. No one's going to actually learn that lesson from this.

[00:10:52]They learn that lesson by going to college going out getting way too drunk and getting alcohol poisoning. That's how they learn to not do certain things.

[00:10:59]They don't learn it because it rained on their graduation day. So, I think I wouldn't say fire the entire administration, but there does need to be some kind of backup plan moving forward. So, that that's that's what I think is important here. Everyone's framing the discussion around the children. The children, this is not going to break teenagers. They're going to be fine. The better question here is not whether the kids are going to be okay having to graduate in the rain. The question is why are the teachers planning poorly, planning lazily and not being punished for their poor for poor job performance?

[00:11:34]>> Yeah. No, I get that too. Again, but that's a whole another conversation.

[00:11:38]>> This is because again, I don't know who did this, who made this choice.

[00:11:41]>> Sbud Bud says, "Toughen the f up." It's not about the kids. The kids are going to be fine. It's a question of whether the the people in charge that are supposedly uh doing good work. That's what we're talking That's what people are talking about all the time. Every day I open X and there's discourse around teachers needing raises, schools needing raises. If the schools can't even get their kids to graduate without getting them, you know, just just drenched in rain, then what are the taxes going for? I think it's less an indictment on the kids. The kids seem to be fine.

[00:12:12]>> It's how it how it happened to begin with.

[00:12:14]>> No, I'm sure that they're probably like there's probably that kid that was sitting there like with his head down.

[00:12:19]He's probably a little bummed out. It probably ruins graduation rain in his eyes.

[00:12:23]>> It probably ruins graduation day at least for You're not looking at it as a woman. You're not looking at as a woman in that video.

[00:12:30]>> I know, but you're not looking at as a girls who spent 2 hours getting ready for this and their parents were taking pictures and they were so excited. Well, now they can't take any pictures after unless they want to be drenched. They might look back in 5 years and think it's funny, but I I just I think that at that moment, we're looking at this years beyond high school, all of us. in that moment that is one of the most important things happening in their life. It is a ceremony of recognition. There should be some level of dignity to it. This goes for the indoor ones of people dancing too. I don't think they should be doing that. But cuz I know someone's going to be like, "Well, what about the dancing?"

[00:13:01]>> No, you didn't like that one either.

[00:13:03]>> Didn't like that one either. My point being there should be some level of dignity. And to say like toughen the f up. Mhm.

[00:13:09]>> I just if that was my kid, I would feel really bad for them because they were probably really excited to take pictures with their friends and finish high school and it's kind of like closing.

[00:13:19]It's the official closing of the chapter >> as the song Graduation Day by Vitamin C plays underated >> jam. It's again at 18 that's one of the biggest moments, one of the biggest ceremonies. It's a very big deal. I remember I was very excited and so to say like oh toughen up for them this is something that it's not even really them complaining but there's a lot of things that go into planning a graduation ceremony a backup plan should be number one that you have on that and to not have that this video is now causing a huge divide and it's causing a divide in our poll right now >> yeah it's actually insane that people say to toughen up to me because you know yes they are I wouldn't say kids I I It's not great. But at the same time, like there's no reason to be like, "Oh, we'll just toughen up for these kids.

[00:14:08]This is a big deal." And they're probably, at least the girls, maybe some of the guys, you don't get to take pictures with your friends. You don't get to now you have to go home and shower and get everything off you and peel off your >> There may be a bit of a gender a gender divide here because the guys are just going to approach this a little bit differently.

[00:14:23]>> But also, they're not 18-year-old, you know, kids going like graduating high school. you're looking at this as somewhere and it's posted online which is probably also another like oh man now that like everyone looks at me I look like a wet rat online and it's embarrassing and I just I probably wouldn't have even gone to mine if that if they did that because it's humiliating and I just I feel bad for the kids that were all looking forward to this >> and instead of actually taking care of their students one final time they just you know >> they don't care.

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