NewsWire
from Social Intelligence
You're OK Boomer.
In recent months, the phrase “Ok boomer” has taken off among Homelanders and late-wave Millennials as a way to brush off criticism from older generations. It isn’t meant to describe age, but an attitude: condescension from those who complain about young people and dismiss the issues they care about.
All their lives, Boomers have been the generational aggressor. When Boomers were young, they raged against their parents' authoritarian "mindset," their mindless "conformity," and the vacuity of their "soul crushing" civic accomplishments. Having dispensed with the G.I. and Silent Generations, Boomers later on began to turn their sites on younger generations. In the 1980s and 1990s, they sometimes made Gen X their target--telling them, no, they really weren't "worthy." But Gen Xers took care to stay off anyone's radar screen, and when attacked, replied so viciously ("Die, yuppie scum!") that most Boomers kept their distance.
More recently, Boomers have started to lay into Millennials--ridiculing these coddled and precious "snowflakes" for everything from participation trophies and adulting classes to safe spaces and avocado toast. For the most part, the Millennial response is to stay polite and change the subject. Any direct rebuttal seems futile since Millennials have learned that Boomers simply never tire of arguing. Sure, some Millennials do get nasty. But most figure that so many Xers (and even Boomers themselves) have started to blast away at Boomers that following suit themselves would just be piling on.
So instead of direct and passionate rebuttal (that's just so Boomer!), what Millennials have perfected is the art of parody, satire, and classy off-beat humor. Think of the "Old Economy Steve" meme that circulated back at the depths of the Great Recession, making fun of Boomers for how few economic obstacles they have faced in their lives. Or all the Millennials who delight in mimicking opinionated Boomers on Facebook. (See "Millennials Parodying Boomers Online.") And now here comes a new meme emerging on TikTok--"ok, boomer"--as if to say (with an eye roll), have it your way. You win the argument. You always win the argument.
In its own commentary on the new trendlet, the NYT opines that "‘OK Boomer’ Marks the End of Friendly Generational Relations." But I think this misses the point. Millennials have learned to deflect and defuse Boomer aggression without becoming unfriendly. (Homelanders may become even better at this than Millennials.) And that's something that Boomers themselves were incapable of doing when they were kids.