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Millennials* will sometimes say “OK Boomer” as a way to insult old people they deem to be outdated and irrelevant.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.

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  1. Chris Oler Coolidge
    Chris Oler
    @ChrisO

    C. U. Douglas (View Comment):

    Chris Oler (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    No Gen-Xer has ever been President.

    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.

    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.

    Just motivated us to do our own thing. Worked out pretty well.

    • #31
  2. Robert E. Lee Member
    Robert E. Lee
    @RobertELee

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    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.

     

    You spelt ya’ll wrong.

    • #32
  3. Robert E. Lee Member
    Robert E. Lee
    @RobertELee

    Vance

    “OK Boomer”

    “OK Tide Pod”

     

     

    • #33
  4. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Robert E. Lee (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    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.

     

    You spelt ya’ll wrong.

    Hm.  You must spell it the Reb way.

    • #34
  5. Robert E. Lee Member
    Robert E. Lee
    @RobertELee

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Robert E. Lee (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    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.

     

    You spelt ya’ll wrong.

    Hm. You must spell it the Reb way.

    Ya think? 😊

    • #35
  6. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    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.

    Meh, you guys suck, too.

    Heh, heh.  I’m enjoying this conversation.

    • #36
  7. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Mark Camp (View Comment):
    In accordance with that, this:

    This was funny, too.

    • #37
  8. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Ralphie (View Comment):

    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.

    I thought that was the baby sitter.

    • #38
  9. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    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.

    When I first heard the term Baby Boom, it was a birthrate-defined term, and the end of it was considered to be 1957 when the elevated birth rate plateau began to drop to normal.  It has extended by almost a decade since then.  Even giving the boomers a time frame until 1965, the oldest of the Boomers did not reach the age of majority until 1966, and did not control the levers of power or society until 1985.

    I think what you’ve described here as being done by Boomers was actually done by their parents.  For your example of Woodstock, it was organized and financed by Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P. Roberts, only one of which was only marginally a Boomer, being born in 1945.

    The protests of the 60s were not organized by the participating youth, but by the likes of radical Leftist organizers, the younger of which were Bill Ayers and Bernardine Rae Dohrn, both of whom, again, were not Boomers.

    No-Fault divorce was recommended by the Uniform Law Commission in 1967, and California was the first state to enact No-Fault divorce in 1969.  The oldest Boomer was 24 at this time.

    The 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion was written by Harry Andrew Blackmun, born in 1908.

    None of this was the doing of Boomers.

    • #39
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