In recent times, media have taken a great interest in highlighting and even generating intergenerational fighting. One example is the focus on the “OK boomer” meme, a witty two-word comeback gaining popularity on the internet. “OK boomer” is a pithy, cutting retort millennials (those born between 1981–96) and Generation Z (those “Zoomers” born even later than 1996) give to those born during the baby boom (1946–64). The digital equivalent of an eye roll, it conveys that the speaker considers the person being addressed to be obtuse, stubborn and out of date.
Though it’s today’s youth who are frequently claimed to constitute “Generation Snowflake,” the phrase appears to seriously annoy many, well, boomers, and has generated a great deal of media takes, eager to exploit the meme while it is still fresh (e.g., Today, 10/30/19; NBC News, 11/7/19; NPR, 11/7/19; CNN, 11/8/19). Writing a long self-own in the New York Times (11/2/19), Maureen Dowd described her annoyance at junior colleagues “OK boomer”-ing her to display contempt. The Chicago Tribune’s Heidi Stevens claimed (11/4/19) the formerly fun phrase had turned nasty, and we had collectively killed it. Meanwhile, one Miami Herald columnist (11/5/19) exhorted his fellow oldies with “Get Over It, Boomers! Gen Z Hates Us–That’s the Natural Order of Things.”
But conservative upstate New York radio show host Bob Lonsberry provided undoubtedly the hottest take of all, claiming that “boomer” had become “the n-word of ageism,” suggesting that this sort of “bigotry” towards the older generation had become “acceptable.” He later deleted his comment after receiving a torrent of ridicule. Lonsberry had previously been fired from his job at Rochester, N.Y.’s WHAM radio for referring to local African-American mayor William Johnson as a “monkey.”
Bob Lonsberry’s since-deleted tweet (11/4/19).
The Washington Post (11/4/19) and the New York Times (10/29/19) attempted to describe the meaning behind the new phrase. For the Post, it “encapsulates an increasingly evident divide between Generation Z, millennials and their older counterparts” who “they perceive as out of touch.”
The Times claimed it “marks the end of friendly generational relations,” interviewing some of the young people who helped popularize the phrase, noting the teens “believe older people are actively hurting young people” through the ending of affordable college tuition and their failure to act on climate change.
It quotes one Zoomer:
Everybody in Gen Z is affected by the choices of the boomers, that they made and are still making.…Those choices are hurting us and our future. Everyone in my generation can relate to that experience and we’re all really frustrated by it.
While providing a range of takes, what all these stories obscure, with their focus on intergenerational strife, is the relevance of class as a fundamental divide in American culture. In reality, it was not boomers as a group who prevented meaningful action on climate change, nor was it they who increased college tuitions (FAIR.org, 4/5/17). Those decisions were made by a small group of people at the top of society–in corporate boardrooms and in high office. There is much to be said about how the media’s not-hot-but-perennial takes hide such decisions by pitting generations against one another (Extra!, 3–4/97)–with assertions that Social Security recipients are stealing from the young, and that slashing government budgets is a matter of generational equity.
But the current generational conflict narrative mainly serves to obscure the vast differences in wealth and power between those in the same age cohort. While the current generation is far worse off economically than previous ones, the National Council on Ageing notes that over 25 million Americans aged 60+ are economically insecure, with over a third of senior households broke or in debt at the end of the month. Therefore, by emphasizing age and not class, corporate media are effectively playing generations off against each other, allowing the rich to play divide and rule (FAIR.org, 1/5/16).
This is exactly what USA Today (11/7/19) did in its story about lack of career advancement among younger workers, headlined, “Millennials, Gen Xers to Baby Boomers: Can You Retire So I Can Get a Job Promotion?” This framed the issue as a fight between disgruntled young people angry at an older generation who refuse to retire, rather than one about the inherent structural inequalities of capitalism that inevitably leave the majority in subordinate positions, while failing to provide a social safety net sufficient to allow the elderly to stop working.
Millennials are killing everything
The discussion of the new boomer meme takes the place of–while of a piece with–complaints that millennials are ruining everything (FAIR.org, 10/10/16). One of the many things the young are destroying is the housing market, according to a host of articles. Business Insider (7/30/19) insists that the reason young people are not buying homes is not the out-of-control market, but because they “prefer to rent instead.” And if they do buy, they “don’t want” boomers’ large properties, “preferring smaller houses” (Business Insider, 3/28/19). The smaller the better!
Going further, the Daily Telegraph (3/29/19) claimed that young people don’t like possessing anything whatsoever, arguing the “sharing economy” is great, “allowing millennials to enjoy the benefits of owning” without the “bother” of buying, quoting one source who claimed “ownership nowadays just doesn’t have the glory it used to.” Quartz (8/27/19) claimed this shift had resulted in a new housing model in which the “customer” (i.e., the renter)—not the landlord—is king.” Given that high rents and house prices, crippling student debt and a faltering economy has resulted in nearly a quarter of those under 37 forced to live with their parents, that claim appears debateable.
And that is the problem. This genre of articles ignores, downplays or specifically argues against the idea that young people are often huge losers in the post-crash economy, and many have little to no hope of ever affording a home. But instead of discussing these structural factors, media instead prefer to explain the phenomenon as one of personal choice.
Sometimes, corporate media will blame the young for their own predicament. Picking up on a New York Times article (2/22/16), a very wide range of outlets, including Fox Business (2/25/16), CBC (2/25/16), Business Insider (2/25/16), the Daily Mail (2/25/16) and the Cut (2/26/16) all claimed that millennials were simply too lazy to eat cereal, thus crippling the industry.
A more likely reason for cereal’s poor performance with younger adults is alluded to in the Washington Post (2/23/16): Millennials are so overworked and time-pressed that they have forgone formal meals, instead eating and drinking on the go. Any of these articles could have used the news as a hook to explore the increasingly difficult structural and economic circumstances workers are under. But instead it was used to frame the young as feckless loafers, in a similar manner to how the poor are blamed for their own condition.
The New York Post got more than it bargained for when it published an article (10/26/19) complaining that millennials had killed the power lunch. Emily Kirkpatrick, a millennial Post employee, offered via Twitter (10/30/19) some alternative, undiscussed reasons why her generation might be abstaining from afternoon dining in Manhattan’s top restaurants. She noted that the Post does not provide its staff with lunch hours and that they are expected to be at their desks all the time, “so if you want to blame someone for killing the power lunch,” she said, “you might want to take a look in the mirror first.”
Dividing people by age rather than class has an intrinsic appeal to corporate media outlets owned by the wealthy elite of this country. While there are certainly genuine divides along age lines in Western society, they are all too often promoted in lieu of discussing more relevant class divides, effectively pitting the generations off against one another, leaving those responsible for the current mess laughing all the way to the bank.
ok boomer
Ok moron, keep licking those boots.
Ok boomer
Okay, Boomer.
Ok boomer
I’m a Boomer (73) and the word doesn’t offend me in the least. In fact, I think it’s really funny. My generation has been trashing these youngsters for years. But when they condense their frustration over climate change, regime change war and threats to water availability with a single word it’s ageism?Get.a.fracking.life! Work to fix our problems. And for God’s sake, stop whining when called out for the mess our generation is saddling on these young people.
Ok boomer
Well said sir! Every generation will be left with the merits and also the mistakes of those that came before us. Take the good with the bad, learn and do something about it. Humans are systemically insecure and are quick to run their mouths vs listening and thinking. The same problems we face now are only the same problems that we’ve always faced, they are just much more, myopic, in our face and biased these days. Take the internet down to limited capabilities and people would by default see the more pressing issues that we can affect as individuals daily instead of name calling. What do I know though? Libraries have been filled with information I’ve never pondered. Cheers
ok boomer
respect 100
ok boomer
Thank you finally someone who understands like everybody in my family laughs about it and I have A 90 year old great grandma it’s just a joke calm down. And never compare it to the n word the n word I terrible and quite frankly can only be compared to other racial slurs. I am 13 and I do think that we kind of need to calm down we don’t need to call someone a boomer just because boomer is a powerful word and only use it as a comeback thx
Wow the only nice Boomer in the World that understands why we say it. Hats off to you.
The baby boom generation which I am one of has benefited from low rent 30 and out working with pensions and health benefits one person worked and one stayed home and could pay for the entire family evidence from the market with four ones and pensions and stocks which is the same place upper class gets it from essentially free money and the younger generation will ever see unless they inherit it.
ok boomer
My Best friend wrote this with the union busting in Wisconsin and we are baby boomers and we asked where were they helping the lower classes when they were getting benefits
https://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/02/wisconsin-death-letter-blues/
ok boomer
The fact the people are equating this to a new n-word is NOT okay. There is no new n-word. Slaves are the reason america is such a prosperous country, and their treatment was horrifying. No word will ever hold the same power and derogatory meaning and people need to stop with this mindset. Just because you go through a slight struggle something has to be the new n-word. Why couldn’t people have just said they felt like it was a new derogatory word and leave it at that. Leave Black People alone damn it, haven’t people taken enough from them? They get horrible treatment in this country and now they can’t even take claim over the deragatory term used against them without people wanting in on it like its a fashion trend or something. Boomers have a lot of growing up to do to be as old as they are.
OK boomer
OK boomer
As a bonafide boomer I find that I enjoy great relationships with my junior generations including, my three daughters and the numerous, far younger people I associate with in the course of teaching and practicing yoga. I find them to be no different than people of any age: when given time to get to know you and allowed to know them, they are predominantly caring, thoughtful and involved people. As duly noted in the MacLeod article, differences among the generations tend to be class based, as opposed to age based. There are greedy, inconsiderate, ignorant people of all ages/generations, while the vast majority of people are essentially the same: individuals whose wants and needs are remarkably similar! It is the drawing of lines that has always been the obstacle to our success as a species. It matters not if the lines are the result of tribalism, nationalism, racism, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, et al. We’re all familiar with the list or, should be if we’re not. Until we can except one another as simply human, despite our many differences, all inhabitants of the same small planet, ultimately reliant upon one another for our present and future well-being, we will continue to be the source of our own despair. For it is more true now than ever that: we have met the enemy and he is us!
ok bonafide boomer
you are a true lad
Anytime we succumb to the lure of sorting “we” versus “them,” whatever the grouping, we create angst and division. Resist the temptation by asking oneself, “Does this build community?”
Ok boomer
Good start to your article but you failed to flush out the ways in which age division in class division are utilized in the media. I wondered where the second or third page of this article was? Was it supposed to end so quickly? Having it in like that made it seem as empty as the baseless accusations hurled against Millennials.
Ok Zoomer
Ok boomer
Ok boomer
The author’s observations are worth thinking about.
Yes, “NIMBY” is the new “N-word”; and No, all millennials are not destroying everything.
“NIMBY” is almost always used in a way that covers all single-family homeowners, including owners of color and/or who are poor. So, not only is it wrong because of it’s ignorant prejudice against many good people; “NIMBY” is also inherently racist, as well.
And, obviously, there’s no shortage of unbearably uninformed individuals of all ages spouting their nonsense. The problem is better understood that in some cities and towns, the local officials cater to the Trumpist “deplorables” and in other cities and towns (e.g., Eugene) local officials cater to the “we know best” SJWs.
Ignorant Ageism — in either direction — is a sign that the person espousing such views lacks sound evidence and cogent arguments to support his or her position.
The entire naming of generations is completely idiotic, illogical, and lazy. Anyone who types or says or thinks “boomer” or “gen x” or “millennial” is a dumb stupid idiot.
To a great degree you’re right. It’s hard enough to make meaningful generalizations about 3 people born in the same year, much less 30 MILLION born in a certain era. As a 70 year-old, I encountered certain benefits (ie; residual union power/influence in the job market leading to high wages, affordable tuition, etc) and downsides (ie; prime eligibility to be drafted into Vietnam War where classmates had been killed, lack of easily-accessible birth-control, high crime rates in the early 70’s, high inflation in mid/late 70’s, draconian druglaws, ‘pre-existing conditions’ in heath insurance, etc) during my life. I do 100% agree that some of the decisions made by voters during my era were short-sighted and stupid (eg; re-election of Nixon in 1972, ESPECIALLY the elections of Reagan in 80 & 84 and ‘W’ in 2000 & ‘04, and elections of conservatives throughout the government) and have (as was predicted) led to a lot of the problems that ALL generations now encounter in our economy. However, looking back at US history, this short-sighted selfishness seems to be a virtual norm in our country, and unfortunately I see many young people today espousing the SAME conservative political positions (in large part due to the MSM propaganda) that created this economy, so if they were magically in-power tomorrow, I have little-doubt there’d be much positive change a year from now.
So I have to agree with the author AML and others like Chomsky and the late Ed Herman, that this is primarily a STRUCTURAL problem of our economic system. While I believe that many casual voters tend to vote more conservatively as they get older, there are still many that pay attention, maintain some humanity, and don’t fall into that trap.
ok boomer
Ok boomer
These people in article photo are older than oldest boomer age (75). Not offensive to this boomer but a bit telling as to what is perceived. You’re right, wages are too low. College is too high. We all need to make sacrifices for climate change. I’m a diligent recycler and I hope you are. The world would be a better place without stereotyping from both sides.
I have no issue will people being called boomers and nearly all of the time, it has nothing to do with generational age gaps, rather pointing out the boomer mindset acquired from the privileges they got from the time when they grew up. Many boomers foist their thinking that Gen X-ers, Millennials, etc are lazy, not working hard enough and just need to suck up their financial situations that most boomers never had to face. One example is that college education was mostly free for boomers. I am almost 60, so I am boomer.
Also, please change the headline, as it is demeaning to black people by comparing a classist/ageist term to one used in racist terminology and oppression of black people. This basically makes it sound as if boomers are as oppressed, especially if they’re white folks, on the same levels as BIPOC folks.
“Is okay boomer the new n-word?”
Yes, because boomers were subjected to hundreds of years of slavery and bigotry.
Ok boomer.
THANK YOU
Did you even read the bloody article?
No boomer
OK boomer
Is it just me or is this article written by a boomer?
ok boomer
Ok boomer
Fuck it,
Ok Boomers, way to over exaggerate everything.
ok boomer
okay boomer
Best repartee to punks who growl OK BOOMER is GROW UP, NO BRAINER!
Ok boomer
ok boomer
Bruh you asking if one word is like another but you can’t even say the other word fjjdndjdndndndndnnf thank you Boomer.
Ok boomer
ok boomer
ok boomer
ok boomer #2
ok boomer
ok boomer
Okay, boomer.
ok boomer
Ok boomer
Ok boomer
OK BOOMER
OK BOOMER
ok boomer
Ok
ok boomer
ok boomer
ok boomer
When I hear “boomer” I think of the character on both versions of Battlestar Galactica.
geeky boomer
Ok Boomer
Bruh, if boomers hate ¨ok boomer” they need to grow up. its not millennials falt for boomers not being good parents…smh
Your kinda stupid it’s a harmless joke it’s not the n word you Dont say what’s up my ok boomer so it doesn’t mean the n word OK, BOOMER
Wtf the new end word “ok boomer” doesnt have 400 years of historical oppression and slavery attached to it and is offensive to say it does
ok boomer
Personally as a “boomer” I think this is very offensive to me and i am now being bullied and called a boomer wherever i go and it upsets me. I think they should make this word illegal and fine these filthy children for bullying us, if it weren’t for us they wouldn’t be alive today.
personally, as a “Zoomer” I find it very funny how serious “Boomers” take this word, you an adult is getting mad over a simple word that started as a joke and let me remind that you did this to your self, You are the blame because you “Boomers” made a big deal out of it we will use it more. And are you getting bullied by children and getting mad? and do you think that at some point in your life the government will make a joke illegal? a “joke” used by children? and if they made it illegal how do you think the government will punish children? they will punish you “Boomers” because we are children and I hope you know what “children” mean. Because of this comment, I’ve lost a lot of respect towards you “Boomers” and because of actions like this, I keep losing respect that I had towards you when I was 8. and so you know will use it more the more you give a reaction.
OK BOOMER
The “boomer” being addressed in “ok boomer” is smug, pampered, oblivious, primarily middle class, and conservative, not working class, struggling, and empathetic. It’s a reply to an insult that was made first – “you wrecked the economy by being poor and you’re poor because you’re lacking in X way.” The age divide sometimes does obscure a class divide, but the fact remains that that boomer cohort as a whole was handed opportunities that were denied to the generations coming after them (so far…there’s always hope that a mass movement can restore lost opportunities), caused by a rightward shift that many of them endorsed (tax cuts, social spending cuts tuition hikes, anti-union sentiment), then they added literal insult to injury to millennials, and now are deeply offended at the mildest rebuttal.
I didn’t see a like button… “Like”
OK BOOMER
OK BOOMER
Ok boomer
Ok boomer
why are all these dirty niggers spamming shit about boomers? shouldn’t you ppl be stealing bikes or something?
And that is why you are a Boomer. Ok Boomer
Ok, boomer
‘Boomer’ is NOT the new N-word of ageism.
You wanna know how I know?
Because we’re using the word boomer and we’re not using the n-word.
If you’re comparing the badness of two words and you’re not even saying one of them, that’s the worst word.
You cant say that BOOMER is the new n-word when you say Zoomer a fucking lot in ther
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