Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
OK Boomer? If Only . . .
Millennials* will sometimes say “OK Boomer” as a way to insult old people they deem to be outdated and irrelevant. The phrase is a slight at the Baby Boomer generation. This intergenerational teasing is fun because many of the Millennials had Baby Boomers as parents. As one author put it,
How did a generation that promised to “teach its children well” end up with a progeny so evil they could give Damien from The Omen a run for his money?
If you look at the leadership in our federal government you might be tempted to say, “OK Boomer” yourself, but there is a problem with that. Joe Biden is 78. Nancy Pelosi is 80. Mitch McConnell is 78. None of these people are young enough to be called Boomers. At a time when Boomers should be stepping aside and letting the super-cool Gen Xers take over, we have leadership that looks at Baby Boomers and calls them “kids.” I mention this because I saw that the average life expectancy of an American is 78.7 years. Perhaps if we have any actuaries out there they can let us know what the odds are that Joe Biden lives through his first term. The thing is, would politicians be more concerned about the future of this country if they actually expected to see a little bit of that future?
*For those of you who still think of Millennials as a bunch of punk kids waiting for their participation trophies, remember that the oldest Millennials will turn 40 this year . . . so they are technically a bunch of middle-aged folks waiting for their participation trophies.
Published in General
I gotta say as a person turning 40 this year that I never heard the term millennial used that way as I was coming of age near the turn of the century.
I’m not an actuary, but I can DDG. The life expectancy of a 78 year old man in the US is 11 years.
Gen X never got, and never will get, its day in the sun. Overshadowed by Boomers our whole lives then Millennials. Two self absorbed generations.
A lot of them only seemed to want to have enough future to see another Dimocrat (supposedly) “win” election.
They don’t seem to care what happens after that.
Ricochet is one big, sometimes contentious but happy family of liberals and anti-liberals who are united by their love of America.
When some one of us on one side expresses his side’s views, it’s always good for the other side to weigh in, just to maintain balance. In accordance with that, this:
We liberals don’t look at the world the way y’all do. In our way of thinking, the truth of an idea is completely independent of the date that someone expressed it, and of the birthdate of the person who expressed it.
I value many teachings of Moses, King David, and Jesus of Nazareth far more than those of the Ricochet representatives of the antiliberal Ricochet team who posted yesterday.
Da– straight.
But I don’t want to give any indication as to what generation I might be a part of
Uh, yeah. Those guys are alright.
Sounds like some classic Gen X angst, right there. ;-)
I refuse to be considered a Millennial, so be careful with those figures.
As for those old politicians, I sincerely hope (with the exception of Mcconnell) that they fall more in line with life expectancy, sooner rather than later.
Meh, you guys suck, too.
Now, THAT was funny!
At least our music has guitars and vocalists who could sing in key.
(but, yeah, Boomers had the better music)
We are used to it.
lol. Yeah, too true. They warmed up on us before saying all the bad stuff about you, Hammer. A little bit different stuff, but same “I’m afraid to acknowledge my age” bitterness.
I’m not pointing fingers at a whole generation, Boomers! Just having some fun.
I had to do a double take at your picture of the dad (I assume) giving his daughter a sip of beer. I thought someone got ahold of one of my husband and our daughter.
Best music of all predates the whole lot of us! Remember all the way back when everyone could read music? Not sure which generation dropped that, but it was a real loss.
I’m actually expressing the view of Solomon (I think?) “There is nothing new under the sun.” Human beings are all equally broken. GK Chesterton pointed out that people always think the previous generation sucks, and it turns out we all have sucked pretty much from the dawn of man.
Strolling through Twitter, Eric Weinstein has a pinned tweet to an interesting chart showing of the distribution of academic leadership (President or Chancellor) among 67 leading research institutions. 62 are lead by Boomers, 2 by Gen x, and 3 by the Silent generation.
A lot of kids get into music now, but they compose digitally simply utilizing sounds. That’s a positive, but without the instrumentation and theory, the ability to create will be limited.
One of the very early jazz labels was in my hometown. Got into our bones, or something, seemed like everyone played something (exhibiting EVERY level of talent, lol).
Plenty of generations sucked less than the boomers. They were the best cared for generation ever, and they led the charge and lead the charge to destroy Western Civilization. The ones who were noble and went to war were called baby killers. Those also all were at Woodstock, a drug fueled orgy. They fought the system and then grew up to be the system. Their behavior helped to destroy marriage, love of America, and all sexual morality. And now they will bankrupt Social Security. And they have been the ones to wreck the housing market. No Gen-Xer has ever been President. Boomers have controlled it since Draft Dodging Clinton.
Boomers have been the worst generation this nation has ever faced. And they are the ones who will destroy it.
That’s our fault, not theirs. I do feel like Trump’s mentality makes him X’s prez. That whole thing about actually solving problems.
I wonder if Boomers still don’t trust anyone over 30 and “hope they die before they get old”
My Millennial kids hate being called Millennials more than I hate being called Boomer (which I don’t really mind)
Ain’t détente wonderful?
Talk about time flying. Where did it all go?
Some said “OK Boomer” to me.
I replied “OK Tide pod”.
I think you can say “Checkmate” after that one. Well done.
To which the Millenials will protest that it’s Gen Z who did that. It’s still fun to rile them up.
This is sort of a problem in private industry too. Boomers get comfortable positions and stay there. Gen-X would work in same companies, but when there was a down turn it was often their positions eliminated first. Gen X had to switch jobs every few years and had trouble building up experience and contacts that the Boomers had.