When did Gen X become more conservative than Trump?

OP, what happened ?

I’m so sick of these generation wars. The whole crux of the matter is stupid ass white people from all generations have been conned by mass media. For every sensible white republican that has left the Republican Party, Trump has picked up a low propensity white voter who gets their news from Facebook. It’s that simple.

We are really about to test if we can be a fully functional first world country with a non ethnic majority or similarly an ethnic majority of only 60%. It exists no where in the world. Let’s make history.

Well, we grew up with a media that did not like the counterculture. Hippies were portrayed mostly as insane, violent, drug-addicted thugs on TV and movies. Stuff like the Manson murders and Jonestown freaked people out about those who lived outside the mainstream. And it continued with pablum like “Forrest Gump”.

Feminists were regularly villainized and stereotyped in the media. AIDS was portrayed as a judgment from God. There was a Satanic Panic. People saw this and internalized it. I saw it in my peers growing up. They didn’t accept everything but in the end, the right won.

This guy attempts to explain Gen X's feelings of disaffection through an economic lens:

OP 2016 wants its thinkpiece back

FWIW

Yes, there’s a compelling case to be made that Trumpism is the first truly Gen X political phenomenon at scale. Not because Gen X created it per se (Trump is a Boomer), but because its emotional DNA—its worldview, its tone—is soaked in Gen X sensibility.

Let’s break that down:

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1. Deep Cynicism Toward Institutions

Gen X came of age watching Watergate, the Challenger explosion, Iran-Contra, and the slow, disillusioning decline of trust in government, religion, and media. Where Boomers idealized and Millennials professionalized, Gen X checked out—ironic, skeptical, distrustful.

Trumpism thrives on that distrust. It assumes institutions are corrupt, rigged, and laughable. Not to be fixed—just mocked or razed.

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2. Irony as Armor

Gen X is the “whatever, man” generation. Raised on MTV, Beavis and Butt-Head, punk rock, and indie films where the protagonist always loses, Gen X developed irony as a defense mechanism. They don’t believe in anything—but they’re very good at scorning what others do.

Trumpism doesn’t promise belief—it promises the pleasure of disdain.

That’s extremely Gen X.

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3. Anti-hero Worship

This generation didn’t grow up on Captain America. They got Taxi Driver, Wall Street, Fight Club. Gen X aestheticized the lone wolf, the angry outsider, the guy who knows it’s all a scam and doesn’t care if he’s the villain.

Trump is Gordon Gekko, Tyler Durden, and Tony Montana rolled into a sloppier package—but the energy is the same: “I’m not here to save the world. I’m here to win my own game.”

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4. Detached Nihilism Meets Digital Rage

Gen X was the last analog generation but the first to go online as adults. Many spent the 2000s in comment sections, forums, and early YouTube—the proving grounds for shitposting, trolling, and aggressive irony. That Gen X style of online anarchy birthed the tone and language of Trump-era politics: memes, sarcasm, decontextualized outrage, and contempt for earnestness.

It’s no accident that Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Elon Musk are all Gen Xers. They don’t push policy—they cultivate tone.

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5. A Rage That Isn’t Hopeful, Just Tired

Where Boomer anger was about change and Millennial frustration is about being locked out, Gen X bitterness is about having seen too much and not being impressed. It’s burnout as political aesthetic.

Trumpism offers a perverse form of control through destruction. That fits a generation that grew up being told they were slackers, then watched as every promise their parents made was broken or sold off.

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So yes—Trumpism may have a Boomer figurehead, but it speaks Gen X fluently.

It’s the ideology of “I told you it was bullshit. Now I’m going to light it on fire and laugh while it burns.”

Want this turned into a fake political commercial? Or like, a manifesto that starts with “I didn’t ask to be born in this country, bro”?

They are just corrupt. Nobody wants to be a good person anymore.

I’m GenX and liberal and wouldn’t vote for Trump, haven’t voted for Trump.

A lot of the bad Karen’s are gen x too

Gen X grew up during the so-called “Reagan Revolution.” It was cool to be conservative and see government as bad.

I’m Gen X and the 80s were a real nightmare to grow up in. Everyone thought you were the weird one because you didn’t want to see poor people thrown out of SROs or mental health facilities shut down. You felt like the girl in that one Twilight Zone episode.

When was Trump ever conservative, in any proper sense of the word?