Post-Brexit boomer blaming: The contradictions of generational grievance

Following the UK’s 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union (EU), a narrative emerged positioning Baby Boomers as ‘to blame’ for the result, which drew largely on a pre-existing claim that this generation is responsible for a range of contemporary social problems. Using cultural script analyses of the ‘Baby Boomer problem’, this paper considers the development of this narrative and its implications for the sociology of knowledge. A study of newspaper articles published around the time of the EU Referendum finds that the Baby Boomer motif is employed as a metaphorical shorthand for a range of ‘troubling conditions’ (Mills 1970), including economic crises, cultural conflicts, and political divisions. The escalating rhetoric of ‘Boomer-blaming’ pursued by claimsmaking organisations has sought to consolidate and extend a sentiment of generational grievance, which informs wider claims about a political divide between old and young. One consequence has been the weaponisation of the concept of generation: a development that threatens to undermine the value of this concept as a way of understanding social and historical change.