These are strange days we are living in. Many stores and restaurants are closed and streets are oddly quiet. It is an eerie feeling to be out in a city normally congested with traffic with so few others around. Strange things are occurring these days on the internet as well.

This year’s novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has many staying home (except for those of us who still have to go to work). It is said that it is not too much more serious than the common flu for those who are otherwise healthy (although I have also heard there is some evidence it may be more dangerous than previously thought, potentially resulting in lasting lung damage even to the young and healthy). But it is of particular concern for those who are older or who have underlying health conditions that put them at greater risk. For this reason, a new meme has emerged on social media referring to the virus as the “Boomer Remover”, implying that it will kill many among the so-called “Baby Boomer generation”, and that this would be a good thing.

This is disgusting. I did not like last year’s “OK, Boomer” memes either. But this new meme is the worst example yet of a social media culture devoid of empathy and totally lacking in proper Leftist theory.

Have so many really forgotten that ageism is a form of prejudice and oppression? Or did they never even know? If that is the case then it is evidence that the Left these days really is in a sorry state for having neglected to teach such a very basic lesson.

The assumption behind the idea that memes like the “OK, Boomer” meme and this new, much worse meme are justified is that “Millennials” and “Generation Z” have a right to be angry at “Boomers” who are all wealthy and intentionally ruined the economy for the sake of their own wealth at the expense of younger generations. This is nonsense. While it is true that on average older birth cohorts do have more accumulated wealth and property, largely as a consequence of having spent more time in the workforce during decades of relative economic prosperity, it is not at all the case that all or even many of those who fall into the so-called “Baby Boomer” range of birth years (1946 to 1964) are wealthy. This is a false assumption begun by rich (white) kids based on their own parents and nothing more.

The truth of the matter should be obvious to anyone who has ever been to a Walmart store and paid attention to who it is who works there. It is typically a mix of the young who do not have the experience, or are perceived to lack the experience, to get a better paying job, and the old who can not afford to retire so must continue to work. They too can not get a better paying job. Discrimination based on age, including in hiring (and firing), is real and it affects the old just as much as the young.

That many in the so-called “Baby Boomer” birth cohort are far from wealthy should be obvious, but here are some numbers anyway. The poverty rate among those age 65 and over is 9.7% in the U.S. It is only a little higher, at 9.9%, for those 25 to 65 years of age. It is significantly higher, at 16.2%, for those under 18. But this primarily reflects the large number of children living in households below the poverty line (see here).

Furthermore, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which incorporates expenses such as the rising cost of healthcare, raises the senior poverty rate to 14.1% (see here). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses a different measure for poverty than the U.S. government and puts the poverty rate among the elderly at 23% in the U.S. (see here).

The poverty rate is only one descriptor of the wealth and income distribution, but this should be enough to indicate that the myth of a generation of uniformly wealthy “Boomers” opposed to generations of “Millennials” and “Generation Zers” oppressed by their elders is just that: a myth. Generational conflict is merely a (very poor) substitute for class conflict. The capitalist owned media promotes generational conflict with stories blaming “Millennials” for much of what they see as social ills, in particular the decline of industries that fewer and fewer people of any age group can afford to patronize. This is nonsense, but so too is the conflict from the other side that the capitalist media is also all too happy to report, including memes like “OK, Boomer” and “Boomer Remover.”

Conveniently forgotten in all of this are the voices of those who have actually experienced oppression. Have we so easily forgotten that it was the “Boomer” birth cohort who fought against segregation and discrimination in the Civil Rights Movement? The leaders of the movement were largely older, part of “the Greatest Generation”, but it was the “Boomer” birth cohort who provided the mass support necessary for the success of the movement. From the impression given on social media, however, one would think everyone born between 1946 and 1964 is white and that nothing significant happened in the 1960s when they were the same age as “Millennials” and “Generation Z” are today.

In fact it was in the 1960s that the United States came closer to a real revolution than it ever has in all its history, and much closer than it has since, long before internet memes existed. For all their tough talk on social media, those “Millennials” and “Generation Zers” who pose online as great revolutionaries are very far from achieving anything like what was accomplished in the 1960s by the “generation” they so love to disparage.

It should also be remembered though that generations as a social concept have no objective reality. They are defined by arbitrary lines drawn on distributions of birth years. Birth cohorts defined in this way can be useful for statistical purposes, like calculating the poverty rate by age group. And it is true that people born around the same time tend to have some similar life experiences, which can sometimes be a useful insight for social analysis. But it should not be forgotten that generations are no more than statistical or theoretical constructs.

The capitalist owned media would like you to forget this. They want you to see people of different ages from yourself as your enemies to distract you from your real enemy: the capitalist class. This is why they promote a fictitious generational conflict while ignoring the reality of class conflict.

Class does have an objective reality. In Marxist thinking, class is not defined by income or education, which would also involve drawing arbitrarily determined lines. Class is defined by power relationships. Those who have enough wealth that they do not need to work if they choose not to have power. Those who must work to survive do not. Those who own the means of production have power. Those who must work for them do not. Managers are given power over workers under them, but ultimately power lies with the owners, the capitalist class.

The Industrial Workers of the World is a radical anti-capitalist labor union. It allows anyone to join so long as they do not have the power to hire and fire. This is a useful way of thinking about class. Small business owners and management who have the power to hire and fire do not have as much power as the owners of large scale productive property, but they do form an intermediate class above the working class.

The case of the current coronavirus situation provides a useful lesson. It is not the case that older people are harming the interests of the young with regards to this virus. In fact older individuals are in greater danger from the virus, and if anything it is the young who are putting older people at risk when they are not as careful as they could be. Much more than this, however, it is the capitalist class and the politicians they fund who are putting everyone in danger.

I work at a Walmart Supercenter selling contract cell phones. Not a lot of people want to buy one under present circumstances. But my bosses insist we be here everyday anyway. For our trouble putting ourselves at risk of contracting coronavirus, the higher ups decided we would get an extra 50 cents an hour as a temporary “premium”. A whole $4 a day (before taxes). They were quite proud of themselves for this and acted as if we should all be excited about it.

I can not afford not to work though so I have to be here. As The Clash sang, “we have to work, and you’re one of us.” That’s as succinct a definition of the working class as any I know. One of my coworkers is in his 80s. But he has to work too. Because he’s one of us.

It is members of the capitalist class who decided that instead of providing us with good, affordable health insurance, we would just get an extra $4 a day. Because my employer offers insurance, I am not able to qualify for a subsidy on the Health Insurance Marketplace. Even though it hardly covers anything so is not worth the cost, it meets the minimum standards set by the “Affordable Care” Act. That was decided by the politicians whose careers the capitalists fund.

So I do not have health insurance. If I get coronavirus, I hope the treatment doesn’t cost more than $20 a week. Walmart claims to have set a limit on the number of customers inside the store at one time in order to help with practicing social distancing. This is a lie. The limit, if there even really is one, is set so high it has made no difference. The store is just as crowded as ever, parking spaces are still hard to find, and the lines at check out are as long as always.

My enemy is not my coworkers, no matter what their age. OUR enemy is our bosses. To put it another way, your enemy is not those struggling to get by on social security and meager retirements. Your enemy is not those who can not afford to retire so must continue to work into old age. But Martin Shkreli (born in 1983), the hedge fund manager who raised the prices of needed medications and was later arrested for fraud, is your enemy. He now claims if he is released from prison he will “cure COVID-19.” Even if he could, how much would he charge for this cure?

If we are going to move forward after the COVID-19 situation, it is going to take class solidarity and a recognition of who are true enemy is, not empty posturing on social media or misguided memes made by those privileged enough to see only their parents and their parents’ generation as their enemy. I believe many essential workers are learning this lesson. But I am not sure how many others are.