The prevailing narrative about Generation X is that we were the quiet ones. The latchkey kids who bridged the gap between the Boomers and the Millennials, occupying a moderate, slightly sarcastic middle ground. We were supposedly the generation defined by our apathy.
That narrative is now obsolete. The data suggests a profound shift is underway.
In the U.S., Gen X (generally those born between 1965 and 1980) has been identified as the “Trumpiest generation,” more likely to identify as Republican than any other age cohort. Across the Atlantic, the numbers are even more stark. According to YouGov, while only 19% of British 50-to-64-year-olds voted for the populist Reform UK party in the last general election, a full third of them would do so now. That’s a jump of over 70%—to be more precise, a 73.6% relative increase in potential support.
This isn’t a gradual drift; it’s a seismic realignment. The generation that put Tony Blair and Bill Clinton in office is now powering the populist insurgency. The obvious question is: why?
The Misleading Diagnosis of 'Internet Brain'
The common explanation points to a breakdown of the barrier between online and offline behavior. The theory goes that Gen X, while more tech-savvy than their parents, lacks the digital native skepticism of their kids. They’ve marinated in unregulated Facebook feeds and conspiracy forums for a decade, and now the vitriol is spilling out into grocery store checkout lines and doctors' waiting rooms.
This is the “Facebook conversation come to life,” as one journalist put it—a world where casually discussing political assassination becomes as normal as complaining about the weather. The rage, the paranoia about chemtrails, the anti-vaccine sentiment—it's all seen as a symptom of a mind poisoned by algorithms.
This diagnosis is plausible, but it feels incomplete. It treats the online bile as the cause of the radicalization. I would argue it’s merely the symptom—the noisy, chaotic exhaust from a much deeper, more tangible engine of anxiety. The internet isn’t creating the anger; it’s just providing a convenient and socially acceptable funnel for it. But what is the source of the pressure?
To find that, we have to look past the political polling and into the labor market data. Because while Gen X is getting angrier, they’re also getting pushed out.
The Economic Precarity Hiding in Plain Sight
Consider the case of Elizabeth Davis, a 59-year-old communications professional. Her story, documented by Business Insider in an article, Gen X Worries Gray Hair Affects Job Search, but Won't Dye It, serves as a powerful, if anecdotal, data point. After being laid off from a dream job, she submitted upwards of 500 applications. The results were grim: the few offers she received were for less than half her previous salary. During one interview process, a recruiter asked her if she’d ever considered coloring her gray hair.
This is the quiet reality for a huge swath of the Gen X generation. They are hitting their late 50s and early 60s, an age that should represent their peak earning years and professional influence. Instead, they are facing a brutal combination of corporate ageism and economic instability. They are old enough to be perceived as technologically obsolete (a perception Davis directly refutes) but too young to retire.
I've analyzed labor market trends for years, and this pattern of devaluing experience is a significant, and frankly inefficient, market failure. Davis notes that older workers possess the cognitive ability to "cut through the noise" and distinguish a real crisis from a manufactured one. Yet the market is advising her, via professional coaches, to erase 25 years of experience from her résumé to appear less threatening, less old.
This is the pressure cooker. The rage you hear at the bus stop isn't born in a vacuum. It’s fueled by the quiet terror of sending out your 500th job application and hearing only silence. It’s the humiliation of being told your earned experience is a liability. The populist rhetoric offers a simple release valve for this complex economic pain. It provides an external enemy—immigrants, the “woke” agenda, globalist elites—to blame for a problem that feels deeply personal and intractable.
The online world is like a vast, unregulated marketplace for blame. When your career trajectory stalls and your financial security evaporates, the algorithm is always there to sell you a simple, emotionally satisfying explanation for who is responsible. It’s far easier to get angry about a conspiracy theory than it is to confront the terrifying reality that the economic system you’ve paid into for 40 years may no longer have a place for you.
The Correlation Is a Causation
The political radicalization of Generation X is not a cultural mystery; it's a lagging indicator of their economic disenfranchisement. The two trend lines—surging populist support and increasing late-career job insecurity—are not a coincidence. They are fundamentally linked.
To understand why the supposedly chill generation is now enraged, you don’t need to analyze their social media feeds. You need to look at their résumés, their rejection letters, and the shrinking balance of their retirement accounts. The anger is real, but its source isn’t a meme. It’s the market.
