The phrase “Okay Boomer” and its siblings, like “Boomer Remover”, referencing Coronavirus victims, bemuse me more than anger me.
What does annoy me is the hypocritical arrogance of generations oh-so-sensitive to any perceived slight that political correctness sensors are hair-triggered.
Except, I guess, when it comes to ageism which is a form of good old-fashioned (pun intended) bias: an attitude that causes you to think about a group in a way that is unfair or different from the way you treat other people.
In my 39 years of high school teaching, each and every year, we discussed how teens are stereotyped. You know: all teens are promiscuous, pot using, know-it-all slackers. As someone who dealt with teens every day, I knew better than that.
Apparently that lesson, judging from social media, did not get through some heads.
Let’s try a bias test. But, before we do, let me unequivocally state that the following examples are not meant to be funny or meant to demean or are in any way reflective of my mindset.
Is it okay to call AIDS, “Gay Remover”? Tay-sachs disease, “Jew Remover”? Sickle cell anemia “Black Remover”? No. No. No.
Without running disrespect dials into the red, is it “okay” to dismissively say, “Okay Woman”? “Okay Muslim”? “Okay Millennial”? No. No. No.
It is easy to stereotype groups we don’t have much contact with. Which I believe is the case with “Boomer Remover” which supposedly originated with tweens. I am going to generalize here and guess that most tweens couldn’t explain what a “Boomer” is and are just reflecting what they hear from their parents.
I see a lot of posting about how the Boomers have had their chance and ruined everything because they are selfish and need to step aside for new, much younger leadership. Or Bernie Sanders (pre-Boomer).
And then only 20% of Millenials and Gen Z get out and vote to make that happen.
At least the Boomer generation acted. See The Vietnam War protests or Stonewall. “Taking it to the street” has given way to “time for Twitter”.
Well, good luck. In 40 years you’ll be old. Or dead.
If you are still breathing, maybe you will be annoyed by the hypocrisy of generations behind you.
Okay Old-lennials? Okay GenZZZZers?
The Q-View 