Loftwings and Demons

The whole Boomer/Millennial thing is bad analysis because neither constitutes a coherent societal class.  Pretty sure Mark Zuckerberg isn't being oppressed by some Boomer janitor in Milwaukee or some Boomer farmer in China.  Likewise, I think even a basic understanding of history makes it pretty self-evident that nazis and fascism existed before Boomers came along and that many Millennials are fascists.  The fact that many oppressed boomers have already died as a result of their oppression does not give one license to further malign the ones still living by categorizing a retiree who can't retire in an oppressing class to a rich millennial who inherited their wealth.  White millenials WILL be racist unless they explicitly learn not to be from good role models, because our society is racist, much as millennials who are men WILL be misogynist unless they explicitly learn otherwise from good role models because our society is misogynist.  Additionally, both Millennials and Boomers are ephermeral, rather than persistent (they have only existed for a short while and relatively soon historically speaking both groups will cease to exist forever) and focusing on them in any analysis of ageism is going to result in mistaking unrelated specificities to general truths. 

Ageism against both the young and the old occurs, but important to this analysis is to analyze the physical constraints our bodies place on us due to our age, and the social contraints placed on the young and old that can be used to exploit those physical constraints, but can also place additional, not inherently existing, constraints on people.  I believe ableism is one very significant component of ageism, in that the physical limitations of the very young and the very old are often exploited by those in-between.  Additionally, relevant societal restrictions include being unable to approve most interactions with yourself without the approval of a parent or guardian.  For example, I recall that I celebrated my 18th birthday with great relish because I could finally sign my signature on documents without requiring the approval of a parent or guardian.  However, none of these physical or societal restrictions of youth exist for Millennials as a group, since nearly every single one of them is now a legal adult.  In fact, some of the oldest millennials, women in particular, may now even start to be suffering from that other form of ageism, where for example they may be considered 'too old' to work in their given occupation.  However, this is not an issue that millennials as a class suffer and it is certainly not being foisted on them by Boomers as a monolithic class.  The Boomers now being abused in nursing homes are not their class enemy.