Why I don't like the word Boomer

Steinberg Lounge
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This post may viewed as offensive or inappropriate, so my apologies, and if it’s deleted, so be it.
Come tomorrow my anger may have subsided and I’ll delete it anyway.

I’ve now and again objected to the use of the word “boomer”, and I’ve been made fun of, in a light-hearted fashion, because of it.
But “boomer” is never a compliment, it is always derogatory.
Here’s a link to an example article, which has sent my blood-pressure soaring (it’s behind a paywall, but a simple VPN will go through - at least mine does):

Some samples from the text:

And the boomers, crusty degenerates in many cases – are resisting change. It’s old voters who want to maintain the status quo. They enjoy their mediocrity. Most are retired and just want to ensure those checks keep coming from the people who work for a living. Yeah, I know they paid into Social Security. They also had a half-century to fix the system and didn’t do it.
The Boomers have been the worst generation in American history, and one of their worst qualities is that they just won’t go away. Why do you think Congress is full of old people? It’s boomers who won’t quit. There’s a time to pass the torch, but these selfish seniors just keep passing rhetorical gas.
Young people, particularly young men, have had enough. They’re not going to be shamed. They’re not going to be intimidated. They’re not going to be suppressed. And there’s another thing they’re not going to be. They’re not going to be dead in the next 20 years like most of these Boomers are. Time marches on, and the people who ruined this country are marching to the cemetery.

I 've worked as a van driver, a bus driver, a forklift driver, and an emergency driver for the UK National Blood Service (which collects, processes and delivers - blood). I’m as working class and common as they come. I spent my first 23 years living in Bermondsey, the next 20 in Peckham.
And the majority of my generation are not much different.
The point is, there is good and bad in every demographic. You should take people as you find them, not just blame a whole generation for the actions of a few.

Going for a stiff walk to work off all that adrenaline!

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For what it’s worth, I’ll just point out two things, though there’s a lot to unpack there. From this guy’s Bio: “He is a frequent guest on Fox News, Newsmax, and elsewhere.” So consider the source and the company.

More importantly, when you see someone say they’re not “going to be shamed, intimidated, or suppressed” while simultaneously demanding that some other group of people must be shamed, intimidated, and suppressed, then it really shows the intent here. And it’s not like he doesn’t have the presence of mind to know he’s being the poster-child for hypocrisy; he just doesn’t care. He’s literally getting paid to stoke hate and foment anger so as to divert from his own failures.

I wouldn’t let it get to you, bruv. This is all part of the “plan.”

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There’s a conceptually simple work-around, which however requires quite a bit of re-training of natural human impulse, much like retraining ourselves to work around Cubase bugs. :wink:

Avoid clicking on, reading and sharing rage-bait.

The Internet has brought us amazing content and opportunity. But it also brought unprecedented information and psychological warfare. This includes the sowing of societal discord. A lot of stuff is written by agents or bots that effectively mount false flag operations. For example, an article pretending to be written by a member of a younger generation flaming boomers may actually be written by an agent of a foreign adversary, who is very much motivated to sow distrust in a rival country.

The sowing of distrust is an easy target between ethnic groups or between age groups or between genders or between pretty much any identifiable group. And we’ve seen how brutal things can become.

Or it could be merely some schmuck who knows how to get clicks, impressions, advertising dollars, scam victims and whatever other kinds of malfeasance are perpetrated these days.

Many of those “news and opinion sources” have become highly professional in appearance and infrastructure, so it’s non trivial to tell them apart from honest actors.

And even the traditional news and opinion sources have increasingly resorted to giving voice to click and rage bait.

What we read and share is arguably analogous to the food we put into our bodies. Except this stuff is food for our brains and emotions.

Consuming too much junk food will clearly ruin our bodies. And consuming too much junk “information”, rage bait - or even legitimate truth - but blown out of proportion, context and nuance will ruin our minds and emotional state.

We can’t stop the junk food for body and mind from being produced. We can however, stop eating it.

Great idea! And maybe tomorrow even do that walk instead of reading the rage bait :slight_smile:

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I just want to applaud @Thor.HOG and @Nico5 for providing two excellent replies and suggestions. Sometimes a like is not enough :wink:

@Googly_Smythe Looking at the bio and credits of the author it might as well be that he is referring to this after doing some intense research which meets the highest jounalistic standards:

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17466869217025134913452399237695393×558 38.9 KB

Good for you that you took a break. Don’t let this nonsensical article get to you. It’s not worth it!

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Yeah,
we probably were socialised in the same country around the same time. For me it’s the same: Everytime I hear the word Boomer, my first thought is that nice sweet dog and I fail to get a negative connotation for this word. If somebody calls me a boomer I just give a friendly bark.
Somehow I remember him with a brown and black fur, though, not white.

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Indeed. And thanks to all respondents.
And I’m back to my usual “calm and collected” state. :blush:
PS Never heard of the show. Dog looks cute, though. (I got through the 80s and 90s without a TV in the house.)

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At a certain point in their aging (usually teens/twenties?) every generation rails against the previous ones holding power at the time.

Surely boomers remember their own time in the sun, when some of their cohorts were saying pretty much the same thing, way back in the 60s and 70s, about their parents and older generations? “FThe Man”, etc.

And even less politely, as I’ve read.

So - don’t get bent out of shape, it’s just part of the cycle of life.

And perhaps be comfortable knowing that, though they don’t know it, the guys railing on Boomers now will have their own turn as some younger generation’s target - a nice opportunity down the road for personal growth and awareness for those involved :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:!

My two cents!

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That’s a great way to frame these kinds of posts.

I hate all these different ‘branded’ generations that are really just marketing creations that sets groups of people against each other.

Historically a generation referred a person’s position in their family tree & not when they were born. People in the same generation could be very different ages. The word was also occasionally used to refer to a group, often coming of age, during a period of time - like The Lost Generation. And that’s how the boomer label started off - describing the post-war baby boom. But while The Lost Generation only referred to a small group of intellectuals, by definition Baby Boomers included everybody born during specific years. This is really the first time there’s a collective name given to an entire age range.

This also happened at the same time that television was becoming the dominant media. The Howdy Doody Show was designed to act as a baby sitter while mom made dinner and overheard the sponsor’s ads. And suddenly all those mad men start thinking they’d like some more of that. So now every age range has a name. It also turned out that highlighting generational differences can goose some profits. sigh

I believe before The Greatest Generation was retroactively given their name, they were often referred to as Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30 - a rather unwieldy mouthful.

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Oh yes, but not because of their age or when they were born, but their position of authority.

If this refers to politicians, I’m still saying that about the current crop of young whippersnappers!
(In the UK they younger.)

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The whole of this topic in a nutshell.

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Hi @steve , can you lock this thread? I’m sorry I let my temper get the better of me.
If you can’t, no problem. :+1:

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@Googly_Smythe, we shouldn’t worry too much about all this. Each generation, including the Boomers, knew better than anyone what to think and do to save the world. This will be the case for future generations, or maybe not… Boom! …

It’s not specific to generations; each individual knows better than the other what to think and do to save the planet. This is mainly what we’re talking about today. Again, we shouldn’t worry too much, because the planet will be here for a very long time; as for humans, I don’t know… Boom! …

We must never forget that humans don’t learn from their mistakes; this was the case for past generations and it will be the case for future generations.

It’s the dance of life…