'OK Boomer'

Carl Muecke illustration.

According to the New York Times, "OK Boomer" is the Gen Z/millennial declaration of war on the baby boom generation. Shannon O'Connor, who is selling T-shirts and hoodies with the phrase, said:

“The older generations grew up with a certain mind-set, and we have a different perspective. A lot of them don’t believe in climate change or don’t believe people can get jobs with dyed hair, and a lot of them are stubborn in that view." The younger generation is mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.

One problem, of course, is which boomers? The older cohort of this large and diverse generation got drugs, sex, rock'n' roll, and pensions. My cohort got the AIDS and STD scares, disco, and (if they're lucky enough) inadequate 401(k)s.

Is "OK Boomer" President George W. Bush or President Barack Obama (born 1961)? Such luminaries as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sir Elton John, Michael Jordan, UA climate scientist Diana Liverman, chess grandmaster and Trump nemesis Garry Kasparov, Stephen King (who also relentlessly trolls Trump on Twitter), Elizabeth Warren, and yes, Hillary Clinton are all boomers.

I was a loner and never much identified with my g-g-g-generation. But I hate today's "woke" ideology of forcing people into groups that can be made into neat packages of victims or villains. That includes generations. No room for individuals in that ideology.

It is true that many boomers have not acquitted themselves well in public life. (Think Dan Quayle). It's easy to connect the rise of boomers into positions of authority with the hollowing out of the American economy, rising inequality, stagnant wages for many, offshoring of jobs and whole industries, and — most unforgivably — failure to take action on climate change.

But they got plenty of help from "The Greatest Generation" and the Korean War cohort that followed them. Not only do majorities of them support retrograde policies but — unlike younger people — they vote. On a smaller but locally tragic front, they destroyed my lovely oasis Phoenix and as retirees consistently vote to keep Arizona a national embarrassment of reaction.

To be fair, the boomers didn't take us to the moon or win the Cold War. They gave us smart phones and Amazon.

Interestingly, the early boomer cohort was offered acclaim by opinion elites in the 1960s similar to the praise given the younger generations today. The first group was "the smartest generation in history." Today woke "influencers" fall all over themselves about how young people will save us. Of course many of the first group "sold out," went to Wall Street, became yuppies. People change as they grow older. A society of faces in devices changes the calculus. So does the power in the workforce for certain millennials (e.g. coders) that is far beyond what boomers enjoyed at the same age.

Some of these boomers famously parroted, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” It was coined by New Left activist Jack Weinberg (born 1940).

Donald Trump (born June 14, 1946, barely a boomer) appears to be cruising to reelection. How can this walking nightmare be happening? The only hope for preserving the Constitution and self-governance rests with congressional Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (born 1940).

The Democratic presidential field has proved itself remarkably inept at forming a coherent message that would carry the only election that matters: The Electoral College. Does anyone believe that dreamy Mayor Pete (born 1982) could even carry his home state of Indiana? Former Vice President Joe Biden (born 1942) should easily be the front runner based on domestic and foreign-policy experience. But he's a dead man walking because of Anita Hill, the bankruptcy "reform," and his own clumsy campaigning. Warren? Trump would devour her in debate (and remember, HRC won every debate on the facts, winning the popular vote by 3 million votes).

Matt Taibbi's unfortunate truth is worth repeating:

The average American likes meat, sports, money, porn, cars, cartoons, and shopping. Less popular: socialism, privilege-checking, and the world ending in 10 years. Ironically, perhaps because of Trump, Democratic Party rhetoric in 2020 is relentlessly negative about the American experience. Every speech is a horror story about synagogue massacres or people dying without insulin or atrocities at the border. Republicans who used to complain about liberals “apologizing for America” were being silly, but 2020 Democrats sound like escapees from the Killing Fields.

Ronald Reagan once took working-class voters away from Democrats by offering permission to be proud of the flag. Trump offers permission to occupy the statistical American mean: out of shape, suffering from gas, poorly read, anti-intellectual, treasuring things above meaning, and hiding an awful credit history.

The awful paradox is that the one contender that fits the "get off my lawn" stereotype of ignorant, angry, entitled, enemy-seeking, social-media addicted young person is...Donald Trump.

OK boomer? Don't fall for it. Generational warfare only benefits the destructive demagogues of whatever age group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Cal Lash]

GO GRETA

[Jacob Hughes]

https://twitter.com/itsdansheehan/status/1157929910880485376?s=21

This tweet sums it up best:

Why do millennials complain all the time?

idk man, we watched 2000 people die on live tv when we were ten and then literally nothing ever got better

[Skrapers]

OK Boomer just shows me how short sighted and spoiled the smug Millennial generation is.

A lot of them are young. They still have no real world experience.
A lot of them haven't worked more than in the service industry or office jobs.
Many of them only have the insular college social eco-system to call on for reference how to interact in society.

None of this provides them with the tools to function in the real world long term, and sends them home to live with their parents, which they're insulting constantly with this smug "OK BOOMER" motto of theirs. I wonder if they can see past their own nose to understand the very implications of this. The people they're hurting emotionally.

And I say this as an old Millennial.

[Cal Lash]

I dont think it fits but allegedly I am of "The Silent Generation"
but I am still alive and protesting as I always have.
See attached chart for who you are?
https://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/Generations.cfm

[Jerry McKenzie]

Another article to divide us against one another. WE of the RC are not fooled, but others are or at least make a buck off a tee-shirt.

[Roger]

I work with Millennials. I have several Millennial (adult) children. I'm rooting for them and trying to help them where I can. They want what everyone wants, but the obstacles are different than when I was young. The world is not the one of the Cold War. They have no memory of that era. They remember the eternal "War on Terror" and the eternal fear of school shootings and how every single election seems to have some sort of irregularity (starting in 2000). They saw the housing crash and how no one was held responsible. They saw a Recession that hasn't really ended. They have student loan debt that is unreal. They were sold on the idea of 'go to college' and ran up huge debt because they were encouraged to by parents, schools, teachers, leaders, marketing, etc.

Don't discount them. We have so much more in common with each other than we realize.

[Cal Lash]

What we have is the deconstruction of civil society till "survival of the fittest" brings humans to a dead end.
Will ole Roger and i live to see Arizona have 30 million folks and the planet 30 billion?
My 30 summer neighbors is back to its winter 300.
Welcome, Canadians, soil bankers, snow birds, Central Anericans, and the homeless camping in the desert arroyas and beneath the Mesquite trees.

[El Kabong]

"OK boomer? Don't fall for it. Generational warfare only benefits the destructive demagogues of whatever age group."

While I totally agree, I'm glad that, according to polls I've seen, a lot of millenials view climate change as a real crisis. A lot of boomers I know think of it as a problem for the younger people.

[Cal Lash]

iGen/Gen Z Greta Thunberg

"Scares some men silly"

I really have enjoyed Greta's in your face comments. However I have been informed that it's silly to take them serious since she is not yet 25.
I am glad my brain never got that old.

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/07/misogyny-male-rage-the-words-men-use-to-describe-greta-thunberg/

[Tyler]

Ok boomer.

The retort isn’t solely based on the age of a person, it’s based on a mindset. It’s for those who will never be convinced by science or someone else’s lived experiences.

I thought better of you than this shitty take.

[futureofwhat]

Young people are fed up with the mindset exemplified by cut and paste news headlines informing us that millenials are seemingly killing off every facet of American culture. Ok boomer seems like a fair, sarcastic retort against this endless cycle of blame put on younger generations for not meeting such arbitrary standards. Tyler is precisely correct in that “ok boomer” has more to do with a mindset than a person’s age. Young people mockingly use the joke against each other—you don’t have to actually be a boomer to be a target, but I suppose that if you are a boomer, the nuance is lost on you.

Like a lot of Gen Z culture, it was never meant to be taken seriously in the first place—but here we all are writing and responding to opinion pieces centered on a dumb internet meme.

[Jacob Hughes]

Well said, Roger (I’m a millennial).

[Ruben]

I would define the generations as:

Children of the depression - No stuff generation

Boomers - Stuff generation

Boomer's children - much more stuff generation.

Boomer's grandchildren - even more stuff generation.

Who provides all the stuff? China.

When the generations finally run out of "stuff" to acquire, then logically you move to standing in line 12 to 24 hours to get White Castle hamburgers. Fighting and killing in order to get a chicken sandwich at Popeyes.

Progress??

[Cal Lash]

Good points.
Was at Acadia Farms in Scottsdale yesterday. Crowd frenze, inconsiderate people hurrying nowhere, failing to stop and look, no parking, crazy drivers, freeways jammed.

[drifter]

Sounds like February in November. Did you stop in the Poison Pen while you were in the neighborhood Cal?

[Cal Lash]

I did.

[DoggieCombover]

I have a hard time with the credibility of someone sporting 1000's of dollars worth of tattoos, with their nose stuck in a $1000 phone, bitching about paying back student loans. And does anything scream "moronic" louder than a backward baseball cap?

[Cal Lash]

Devos

[Ruben]

Doggie,

I worked with a young man who would show up Monday morning with a sunburned nose and a sunburned triangle in the middle of his forehead. He complained about the pain and itching caused by his condition. Us older folks used to tell him that he could solve the problem by turning his hat facing forward. He would look at us as if we had just stepped off an alien spaceship. We gave up after several years.

[Cal Lash]

UV lobotomy

[George Justice]

You're right of course--but at the same time there's something true in a literary (if not literal) sense about a boomer identity that connects the otherwise dissimilar characters of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Both could simultaneously believe in a positive vision and act in villainous, self-interested ways. And I disagree on Warren. She will eviscerate Trump.

[terry dudas]

Rueben, re: the stuff generation - brilliant.

[Cal Lash]

But will she wun the electoral college?

[Cal Lash]

Win !!