The generation before them saw blood and death on a maddening scale. Conversely, the boomers saw their wealth and relative security constantly under thre
Did the older generation become more tolerant? They saw blood and death on such a scale that I think most of them just tried to make sure that would never happen again. Many of them returned to a world that was changing much faster than they could, but really only demanded that they knuckle down and work to keep things moving forward - consoled by the belief that those in power were doing what they could to avoid the end.
But Boomers grew up with enemies in the shadows, potential nuclear death at any time, a maturing propaganda machine and rapid advancement in telecommunications. When they were young they were hopeful and believed that kindness and love was sufficient to stop anything. But as they got older and had to participate in the machine we see the machine starts to feed their greed and paranoia.
Yes, neoliberalism definitely exacerbated the worst elements of their entitlement - but I think their move towards more regressive and racist beliefs is because they kept drinking from the same well - a well they kept pissing in. I think it was like a less focused YouTube algorithm - the more they triggered their greed and paranoia, the more that option presented itself, the more the propaganda machine spread it.