So boomer is a slur now?

Most of the assaults on the American way of life are coming from within the country. But that's really nothing new and since the "American way of life" is in a constant state of flux, it must be insanely confusing for immigrants.

But there are some things that immigrants still do when they come here. Many of them immediately form enclaves (like Dearborne, South Boston, Hoboken and Minneapolis) as they did in the 19th century. Back then there were more "no-go" zones in concentrated cities like New York where an Italian kid best not wander into an Irish neighborhood alone. I say that because I hear a lot of people complaining about that on different forums.

Stuff like "how dare they form a cell of their retched nation in the middle of America" when that is how things have been here for all of our lives today. Some of these enclaves dig in and stay. Others exist for a matter of months or even a few years before dissolving into "main society" or consolidating into another enclave (like Spanish Harlem has become when it used to be predominantly Puerto Rican).

Naturally they are not the same thing as reservations. Primarily because there's no government mandate or control involved. They also participate in infrastructure more locally, including public schools. So while they maintain their links to their culture, they are also assimilating. Until some of these enclaves assume the territory of entire states, the nation is not at risk of any sort of dissolution. And the immigrants are becoming Americans, like it or not. Their grandchildren will not have the same values they have, something a lot of Americans know all to well.

 

I read this in Ron Howard's voice.

 

The American way of life is to eat until you're fat, over medicate and spend money that you don't have. How dare immigrants come here with their perverted values.

 

And import that way of life. After all, there's money in it.

Btw, the majority doesn't stop eating when they've become fat

 

You posted a "yes/no" question and got 125 answers, 126 including this one. One would have thought that by now the answers "yes," "no," and "it depends" would have been exhausted. One would be wrong in thinking that.

It's a problem in the workplace when someone refers to a fellow employee as "boomer" in a pejorative or dismissive manner, unless that person's actual name or job title is Boomer.

Whether you give your uncle shit at a family gathering and tie your criticism to his being a baby boomer is entirely between the two of you, your host, and good sense.

Why a problem in the workplace, and not elsewhere? Well, in if you're in the US, age is a prohibited basis of discrimination in employment. Not all ages - only for people at age 40 or over. All baby boomers still working are over 40. The youngest boomers you will encounter in the workplace are all in their late-50s now or older.

Yes, you can criticize a fellow employee or subordinate and tie that criticism to the person's age in the workplace, but only until his or her 40th birthday. After that, leave age out of it. It's a violation of that person's civil rights. Different employing organizations tolerate varying levels of hostility in the workplace, but negative consequences follow for those caught connecting that hostility to prohibited bases of discrimination. The company is on the hook for your words in the workplace, unless they have policies telling you you can't do this, train you on those policies, and act swiftly to receive and address complaints. Consequently, you may think it's great to insult your oldest colleagues about their age, but you also may be suspended without pay, denied promotions or pay raises, or get fired for doing so.

Saying, "OK boomer" in a derisive manner in the workplace to someone who's obviously in their 50s or older is like saying "OK limpy" to a colleague on crutches, or using "OK Pedro" as a favorite insult for all of your Latino colleagues, other than those actually named Pedro. It's fine to criticize the work, or the idea, but you have to leave the personal characteristics covered by anti-discrimination laws out of it. If the person is over 40, and all baby boomers are, abandon reference to age in the workplace.

It's not difficult at all to understand. You don't have to memorize all of your colleagues' dates of birth, but if someone is 67 and you're using his age as part of your criticism, who is going to believe that you thought he was 39 or younger, especially when your slur put him well into his 50s?

 

It's interesting to me that some folks actually enjoy tossing out those kinds of insults and see absolutely nothing wrong with their bigoted assumptions about people regardless of which issue is being brought in for casual bigotry. Some of them are positively indignant and enthusiastically stand up for their "right" to be offensive, prejudiced or bigoted. Their victim is of course "wrong" for having the nerve to call them out or disagree.

 

I'd agree with that if "ok Boomer" was about ageism. It's not. It's a reaction (that part's important) to the negative attitude older generations have toward young people. If they never said we're all Tide pop eating crybabies in need of a safe space, there would never be "ok Boomer"

 

Oh please, it's a derisive term that's designed to insult people because of their generational positioning (if you refuse to acknowledge the obvious age issue here). As near as I can tell it's a "reaction" to being proven wrong and being unable to accept it.

As for the Tide Pods and safe spaces business, it's pretty obvious that kind of crap only affects a small number of people overall. Both are symptoms of people who cannot accept the cruelty that is the modern world. The farce about "safe spaces" is that none exist and any that are designated can be rendered unsafe by as few as 1 asshole!

Eating detergent is moronic on a level I can barely comprehend. What's next? Huffing gasoline? Oh wait, dumbasses from my generation did that.

Looking for an "acceptable" version of an insult, a delusion on its face, is still an insult. It's clearly a term of contempt. And once contempt slips in, the relationship is doomed.

 

I didn't say it was acceptable. But it's not the same as making fun of Latinos or the handicapped. You quoted a post which made that claim so I assumed you were agreeing with it. Perhaps I'm mistaken

 

Making fun of people is a kinder way of saying insulting people. So are "Boomers" the "good" kind of people to insult? Why is it worse for some than others? Simple, it's not.

 

French fried did refer to french style of deep frying stuff at the time. And Hamburg steak was chopped up beef from Hamburg in Germany

So you can blame immigrants for Hamburgers and french fries

Although cheese from a spray can is probably uniquely american

 

But making fun of someone for being old, young, handicapped, or a different race is unacceptable because its both arbitrary to who someone is as a person and because those are things people cannot change about themselves. Having a negative attitude in regards to an entire generation of people is a choice. Through dialog and education we could all learn from each other and about each other...bridge that generational gap. But when you refuse to respect young people enough to even make that effort, and instead make incorrect generalizations about entire groups of people, we are going to tire from trying to reason with you and respond with ok dude, whatever. Which is what ok boomer is. Also its amusing that boomers are literally being called what they are, and are taking offense to it. Then they say we're the snowflakes

 

This is what i thought after taking notice of 6-eyeds midget thread. It's suddenly ok if 'midgets' are the subject of keeping people as livestock jokes, but is it? Seems to me intent/motive matters: was it made in good fun or primarily to trigger and then have fun with those offended/outraged people.

We can blame immigrants for absolutely everything :-D

 

Ah, well, I do not use age as a measure of respectability. Respect is something people earn by not being assholes or dumbasses.

It's pretty clear that in this case " boomer" is not a term of endearment. It's a term designed to belittle and alienate. Which it does rather well. Your use of it as some sort of social revenge, is childish and simplistic.

 

I expect all you baby boomers to take your own advice and never say anything dismissive or negative against young people again.
Glad we cleared this up, guys

 

Get off my lawn.

 

Now that I have a lawn of my own, that's one I understand on a primal level
Young whippersnappers always be walkin on someone's lawn, damn

 

I thought that had to do with dog poop and those boomers not recalling anymore when exactly kids become potty trained.

 

Ok then...prove it. Prove that despite being raised by boomers and coming from a culture taught to revere our elders that this is ageism. Prove that we're saying what you say is irrelevant because of your age and not because what you're saying doesn't apply to me.

Lastly, I need solid evidence of a boomer coming up to a young person and going "hey, I dont get your music, but that doesn't mean it sucks" or "hey, I dont share your worldview, but that doesn't mean your worldview doesn't matter" or "hey, I dont know your life experiences but that doesn't mean your life isn't tough" and then being dismissed with "ok boomer "

You're free to think what you will of me and my generation. You're free to boomersplain it all back to me when I speak up. But that doesn't make your generalizations correct. Just hurtful