# OK Boomer! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162 "2019-11-08T01:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/41 "2019-11-08T13:06:07Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > The perception is that the world has gone to hell. I don’t think it has. The world is a pretty good place right now. I don’t think you realise how much the young think about things like climate change, the Sixth Extinction and rising income inequality, and are not in agreement with your Rosling-tinted glasses view of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/42 "2019-11-08T13:10:07Z")
Boomer in this context is only roughly an age group. It refers more to a set of attitudes, specifically right/center-right (including many “liberal”) people who hold obstinate views about politics. It’s not necessarily outright damaging views, but a particular set of views hostile to more fundamental systemic change, defending bad things as “just the way things are”, or stating exhaustion with things like queer politics (e.g. nonbinary people is a common one). Not all Boomers fall under “ok boomer” and some millenials will sling it at other millenials (or zoomers at other zoomers/millenials), rarely, if they’re viewed as having “boomery” attitudes. It is definitely somewhat “the olds are bad and ruining/ruined things”, but it more heavily refers to the set of attitude and norms generally most prevalent among boomers (and many Gen Xers) that created those conditions. It’s also meant to be snide and dismissive, it’s basically a tame form of agitprop. The purpose to to rile people up by being somewhat innacurate and firing it from the hip and things that vaguely look like a correct target. It helps spread the political message. Reasoned debate is important at all, but other forms of communication have their place esp wrt motivation, fostering solidarity among the likeminded, mobilization, and message spreading. Like it’s possible to both have nuanced views that you’re capable of defending **and** snidely dismiss the same argument you’ve heard 300 times and are sick of. One of my favorite illustrations of the mindset being targeted is this tweet: > ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/43 "2019-11-08T13:13:17Z")
OP: I’m not a college sports fan, so Boomer Sooner doesn’t ping. I don’t live in a box, so I get the reference, it’s just not an immediate connection. > [@Smapti](#): > > Ok, boomer. Noice! > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > It is handy isn’t it? I can understand the attraction. Did you guys stage this? I’m LOLing myself purple! I read an article about the exchange in question. My old inner GenX thought, “uppidy little punk”, but then my younger GenX chimed in with, “No, no…get his throat, girl! This is your world now, put that waster in a corner and get to it!” Boomers have jumped their shark. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/44 "2019-11-08T13:17:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I don’t think you realise how much the young think about things like climate change, the Sixth Extinction and rising income inequality, and are not in agreement with your Rosling-tinted glasses view of the world. The issues change, the youthful railing against the previous generation stays the same. If you are referring to Hans Rosling then yeah, I’m pretty optimistic in general but not blind to the problems. Like he said. > [@](#): > > "People often call me an optimist, because I show them the enormous progress they didn’t know about. That makes me angry. I’m not an optimist. That makes me sound naive. I’m a very serious “possibilist”. That’s something I made up. It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason, someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview. As a possibilist, I see all this progress, and it fills me with conviction and hope that further progress is possible. This is not optimistic. It is having a clear and reasonable idea about how things are. It is having a worldview that is constructive and useful.” The talks I’ve heard from him were never about things being brilliant, nor of disaster being impossible. Just a view of how things have progressed and how they could continue to do so if we put our minds to it. Seems a reasonable overall view to take. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/45 "2019-11-08T13:34:44Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Being gen x is weird. Boomers call us “millennials,” millennials call us “boomers.” So we get to fling crap at everyone. You guys really got caught in between, gotta grant it. And never mind how I’ve seen debate about whether lumping current _actual youths_ born \*after \*the turn of the millennium with the “millennials” label is fair or accurate. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/46 "2019-11-08T13:35:31Z")
honestly my view of the backlash against the Boomers is that it comes partly from the political climate ever, since, oh, maybe the Clinton presidency and the “Contract With America.” All leading up to where we are now. My crack about Trump above wasn’t strictly about who voted for him, but who does and still ardently supports him and think he’s “making America great again.” because the Boomers seem to think **THEY** are what made America great. Not that we were uniquely fortunate to take advantage of the fact we came out of WWII relatively unscathed. Not that our economic competitors were in ruins to varying degrees. Not that we had years of pent up demand for manufactured goods and now had the money and people (Boomers’ parents) to make them. Nope, it’s because the Boomers were just so star-spangled awesome that they feel entitled to force this country to stay the way they (incorrectly) think it was when they were kids. They were born on third base, brag to everyone how they hit a triple, and won’t go away. And appear to believe that if they can’t force this country to stay the way they want it to be, they’re damn sure going to fuck it up as thoroughly as they can for future generations. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/47 "2019-11-08T13:43:37Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Yes](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-07/-ok-boomer-phrase-says-more-about-the-kids-than-about-us-boomers). The author of that article is not a boomer. He was born in 1962; that’s way too late. That’s Obama’s generation: the one that doesn’t have an agreed-upon name. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/48 "2019-11-08T13:53:42Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > The author of that article is not a boomer. He was born in 1962; that’s way too late. That’s Obama’s generation: the one that doesn’t have an agreed-upon name. Eh. That’s late Boomer. Baby Boomers are usually defined as being born between 1946 and 1964, and Generation X from 1965-1980. It’s not a perfect system and, funnily enough, puts my sisters and me in different generations. But it’s close enough for government work. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/49 "2019-11-08T13:54:33Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Nah, we got a lot of things started, half assed it and got Reagan years comfortable while never noticing the dismantling of the world all around us. We got tired and a lot of that was due to intentional tactics to keep us distracted and we fell for it like the dog looking at your finger instead of what you’re pointing at. Doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of us still here who’re still pissed off over having our generation’s energy dissipated into mindless consumerism and pointless greed. If the younguns can find their voice and energy and get this party started I’m not gonna get all pissy because the “wrong” people accomplished the feat–the important thing is that shit gets fixed and I have no problem with those who have to live with the fallout being the ones who decide how they want things to go. That’s fair. +1 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/50 "2019-11-08T13:55:55Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > The author of that article is not a boomer. He was born in 1962; that’s way too late. That’s Obama’s generation: the one that doesn’t have an agreed-upon name. Nope, boomers go thru ['64](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers). ---
**Author:** ![BeagleJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5daacb/32.png) [@BeagleJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeagleJesus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/51 "2019-11-08T14:09:45Z")
I’m not a millennial but I love the phrase. Short, sweet and to the point. The Boomers have been fucking the world up for decades and now they want to turn around and lecture younger generations about what we should care about, how we should conduct ourselves, where we should focus our energies, etc…like we haven’t seen the results of their turn at bat. When you produce such poor results over such a long period of time no one has any interest in hearing your next nugget of wisdom, whatever it may be. It’s like getting a lecture on moral responsibility from a drug addicted, child molesting murder who cheated on their taxes. Boomers should do the world a favor and just retire so the rest of us can get started on at least trying to fix things. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/52 "2019-11-08T14:22:19Z")
I wasn’t sure where I fell, so I looked up gen x birth years. 1965-1979 from the first google result. That’s gotta be correct, because it was first, right? So I’m toward the earlier years of gen x. Now that I know I’m not on either side, I can choose sides. I’m going with the kids on this one, but I’m still going to vote for the oldsters next year. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/53 "2019-11-08T14:29:22Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > I’m not a millennial but I love the phrase. Short, sweet and to the point. > > The Boomers have been fucking the world up for decades and now they want to turn around and lecture younger generations about what we should care about, how we should conduct ourselves, where we should focus our energies, etc…like we haven’t seen the results of their turn at bat. When you produce such poor results over such a long period of time no one has any interest in hearing your next nugget of wisdom, whatever it may be. poor results in what way? is the world a better or worse place overall since the second world war? by what metric? > [@](#): > > It’s like getting a lecture on moral responsibility from a drug addicted, child molesting murder who cheated on their taxes. The main thing is you are keeping a sense of proportion on this, apparently the young these days are wont to hyperbole and exaggeration. > [@](#): > > Boomers should do the world a favor and just retire so the rest of us can get started on at least trying to fix things. And of course the next generation won’t be fixing the problems using the tools bequeathed to them by the previous generations will they? When the youth finally implement fusion, wind or wave energy as a means of clean energy production they’ll be inventing it from a standing start on an abacus. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/54 "2019-11-08T14:33:50Z")
I think hearing “millenials are stupid and lazy” for a decade from a cohort that could buy a house and raise a family with a high school education, that will enjoy full social security benefits but cut them for future generations, that caused the global financial crisis and started the Iraq War, that knew about global warming and refused to act, etc, will earn some deserved scorn against their elders. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/55 "2019-11-08T14:46:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Yes](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-07/-ok-boomer-phrase-says-more-about-the-kids-than-about-us-boomers). Wow…from your linked article: > [@](#): > > It wouldn’t be acceptable to baldly criticize older people simply for being old. This, from the generation that gave us “Don’t trust anyone over 30”! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/56 "2019-11-08T14:52:47Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I think hearing “millenials are stupid and lazy” for a decade from a cohort that could buy a house and raise a family with a high school education, that will enjoy full social security benefits but cut them for future generations, that caused the global financial crisis and started the Iraq War, that knew about global warming and refused to act, etc, will earn some deserved scorn against their elders. Yeah, but as I said previously, that has \*always \*been the case. It is a human certainty that elders moan about the kids and the kids moan about the elders. That has been true throughout history and only the relevant topics of complaint change (and even then not so much regarding clothes, hair, language and music). I have no doubt that kids in Carthage moaned about Hannibal with his fancy elephants dragging them into the Punic wars. The youth of today will be just fine and they will leave the world in better shape than they found it, at which point the youth of the day will give them shit about what they didn’t do…and so on…and so on ---
**Author:** ![BeagleJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5daacb/32.png) [@BeagleJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeagleJesus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/57 "2019-11-08T14:55:00Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > poor results in what way? is the world a better or worse place overall since the second world war? by what metric? > The main thing is you are keeping a sense of proportion on this, apparently the young these days are wont to hyperbole and exaggeration. > > And of course the next generation won’t be fixing the problems using the tools bequeathed to them by the previous generations will they? When the youth finally implement fusion, wind or wave energy as a means of clean energy production they’ll be inventing it from a standing start on an abacus. OK, Boomer ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/58 "2019-11-08T14:59:32Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > OK, Boomer But I’m not, nor do I decry the youth of today. Note carefully what I wrote in my last post. > [@](#): > > The youth of today will be just fine and they will leave the world in better shape than they found it What a piece of shit I am. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/59 "2019-11-08T15:02:00Z")
As another Gen X, I’m delighted that this pithy phrase is putting so many Boomers into a tizzy. And in case you haven’t seen it - a 25 year old NZ MP used it to shut up a heckler during a speech about climate change: > **[A 25-year-old politician got heckled during a climate crisis speech. Her...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/asia/new-zealand-ok-boomer-trnd/index.html)** > > A 25-year-old New Zealand's MP was giving a speech in support of the Zero Carbon Bill, when she shut down a heckler with the phrase, "OK, boomer." ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-boomer/843162/60 "2019-11-08T15:21:01Z")
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