Conversation

honestly, given the reactions that the phrase "OK, Boomer" have been getting in the media, you'd think packs of teens have been systematically targeting elderly people for brutal street muggings or something. but, no... it's just a phrase, and a mild one at that. why is it so upsetting?

because it's not rebellious or confrontational, which are things older people are used to getting from younger people. it's straight-up *dismissive*. and it's not something we, GenX, the first-generation children of the Boomers, ever had the chance to express.

our rebellion was taken away, repackaged, and sold back to us when we were too young to know what it was for or why it could be powerful. we grew up feeling helpless and hopeless, trapped in a world where we had nothing meaningful to say and nothing useful to do because Doom was Nigh--the ozone layer, nuclear war, the Y2K bug, politicians that hated us sending us off to wars for blatant lies. Boomers got to have their Swinging 60s--we grew up under the specter of AIDS. we were isolated from each other, so we never realized that we weren't alone. and when we were finally able to get our own voice out into the popular culture, we spoke obliquely of isolation, depression, inward-turned knives.