OK BOOMER

[TPFKA@W]

Have you noticed this thing wherein all Boomers are now blamed for everything in the world and are wildly disrespected by the youngers? Even to the point of being physically attacked on the street?

Dunno about you other boomers but I wish I had had a tiny percentage of the influence it is claimed I must have had. The youngers do not understand how little control over what has taken place we had.

[Gob]

People, reasonably intelligent people, people who I like and are friends with, are actually arguing that; "only 16-30 year olds should be allowed to vote, as the election affects them the most."

Then you show them who they are handing power over their lives too...

GMB guests Sir Michael Wilshaw and Freddie Bentley clashed in a debate over whether kids should be taught about the Second World War.



The debate came after contestants on The Apprentice revealed they didn’t know when WWII began or ended.

Speaking to hosts Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway, The Circle contestant Freddie claimed that lessons on the topic could be ‘bad for their mental health’.

He said: “I don’t think it needs to be put to such young children.

“For their mental health to be told that this amount of people died for you is a lot.”

Former OFSTED Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw hit back at the comment, saying: “You mustn't exaggerate.”

Freddie defended his comment, admitting that he found such lessons to be ‘intense’.

He said: “I don’t think I am exaggerating. I remember learning it as a child and thinking ‘my God, it’s so intense.’”

The former OFSTED inspector said: “Children need to know that it is a dangerous world out there.

“They need to know that crossing the road is sometimes dangerous.

“They need to know that if they get too fat there are obesity issues.”

Agreeing with his points, Freddie argued that educating kids on the war won’t be useful in the long-run, saying: “Of course, but mental health is on the rise now.

“I don’t think encouraging death or telling people how many people died in a war is going to help someone in the future.”

The Circle contestant also admitted that he had no idea about ‘general life’ issues when he left school himself, saying: “There are so many problems in the world at the moment, like Brexit, that is not taught in schools.

“Climate change, which is a situation that I feel we should be aware of.

“When I left school, I felt like it hit me like a tonne of bricks, because I didn’t know anything about general life.

“I felt like I was going out to the world, completed my GCSE’s and I knew what I was doing in life.

“Then all of a sudden, it hit me because I didn’t know how to save for a mortgage.

“Instead of focusing so much on our history and holding onto our past, we could let it go a little bit, I’m not saying get rid of it totally, but let go of it a little bit and replace it with a subject that is going to be beneficial in the future.”

Asked by Kate Garraway whether lessons on the war ‘matter’ to millennials, Sir Wilshaw said: “It matters, as other major events in history matter.

“If somebody came up to you and said ‘on 12 December you will not be able to vote, we’re going to take the franchise away from you’, you’d be insulted wouldn’t you?

“The reason I mention that is because millions of people have died, 50 million people died in the Second World War, to fight facism to fight tyranny, people who wanted to take away people’s right to vote.

“That’s why people should know about the Second World War, the First World War, the conflicts that have taken place, and the fight for freedom that we enjoy.”

Video here...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Misheard lyrics, Gob.

"16-30 year olds should be prevented from voting"

[Big RR]

Then all of a sudden, it hit me because I didn’t know how to save for a mortgage.

Well, this certainly is an indictment of secondary education in Britain; he didn't understand that to save money you have to put a little of what you make aside? I am shocked to see what a crappy education he received, He probably wasn't also taught how to use a straw for drinking and to walk to a store if it's around the corner.

[Long Run]

He probably wasn't also taught how to use a straw for drinking

No, he was taught (indoctrinated) that using a straw destroys the environment.

Truth is, that while everyone genius to banal has a platform now (even us), it is unfair to characterize a whole generation by a few attention-seeking ignorant doofusses.

[Big RR]

Please--he said he wasn't even taught about climate change, so I sincerely doubt your suggestion. And who said it has to be a disposable straw?

But I won't argue with your observation that there are asses in every generation; my comments were only directed at this particular ass.

[TPFKA@W]

Gob I saw that and it is difficult to imagine that he is not faking things. Sadly I don't suppose he is.

I cannot recall being taught everything I needed to know as an adult in the 4 short years of highschool. It is absurd to expect it. Most of what I learned about adulting was by dint of a swift kick in the ass by reality.

[RayThom]

What goes around, comes around.

[BoSoxGal]

In fairness a lot of the boomers who railed against the system did grow up to get fat on it and now don’t want to pay taxes to help the younger generation access the same shot at financial security even though college and housing and everything else is substantially more expensive for those younger generations.

Boomers are getting old and will need to be taken care of by younger healthier citizens - citizens who want little things like a shot at home ownership or maybe to afford to have at least one kid, a few roses to go with the bread. That’s worth bearing in mind at the voting booth.

[Lord Jim]

"only 16-30 year olds should be allowed to vote,...

[RayThom]

Perhaps the most unusual motion picture I NEVER saw.

This tour de farce had to have been the biggest box office bomb in history, right?

[dales]

I have "Wild In The Streets" on DVD.

An interesting period piece to be sure.

Especially when the entire congress is given LSD.

A real hoot!

[Joe Guy]

I've never seen it but it can be rented for $3.99 if you have Amazon Prime. It's not on Netflix.

[Lord Jim]

Especially when the entire congress is given LSD.

Today that would probably be an improvement...

[Econoline]

Interesting take on this...

• Okay, Boomers.
  
  If you've been following my Twitter timeline for the last 24 hours, you know I've once again managed to offend at least two, possibly three, generations.
  
  This amuses me for so many reasons.
  
  It began with a snarky comment about the current faddish phrase "OK, Boomer."
  
  Some silly git jumped into my timeline with "I’m not rich, but making money from the stock market. Get over yourself clown."
  
  Get over yourself, clown. Heh heh.
  
  So, I "OK, Boomer"ed him.
  
  Why not? Because I'm nothing if not hip and with-it when it comes to the current trendy vernacular.
  
  Target of opportunity. My intention was the set up for a joke, "I know. But everybody was doing it and I just wanted to be part of it." Little Twitter humor. Maybe not the pinnacle of hilarity, but it seemed a fairly harmless way to shine on some random troll.
  
  Naturally, social media being social media, Boomers -- which are a large part of my audience, given that I'm a tail-end Boomer myself -- were offended.
  
  I find this utterly hilarious. Seriously. A Baby Boomer being offended at being dismissed as a Boomer is about the most ironically Boomer thing possible.
  
  There's a song from 1971, I'd Love To Change The World, by the British group Ten Years After and fronted by Alvin Lee. It begins:
  

  • "Everywhere is
    freaks and hairies,
    dykes and fairies,
    Tell me where is sanity?"

  
  Now, you listen to that lyric nowadays and you're outraged. Dykes? Fairies? Freaks? Hairies? Where is sanity? Man, that's bigoted bullshit right there.
  
  Except that wasn't Alvin Lee talking.
  
  That was the squares. That was Future Shock. That was the words of the Greatest Generation, puzzled and confused by their own children, the Baby Boomers, filling the streets with music and protest and sexual revolution. That was THEIR words. What is going on? Who are these people? Has the world gone mad?
  
  But the song goes on:
  
  

  • "Tax the rich,
    feed the poor,
    till there are
    no rich no more."

  
  THOSE are the words of the Boomers.
  
  

  • "Tax the rich.
    Feed the poor.
    Till there are
    no rich no more.
    
    I'd love to change the world
    But I don't know what to do
    So I'll leave it up to you."

  
  The song is a brilliant, brilliant snapshot of revolution, the voices of generations caught in between worlds.
  
  You see it right?
  

  • "World pollution,
    there's no solution,
    institution,
    electrocution
    
    Just black and white,
    rich or poor,
    them and us
    We'll stop the war!
    
    I'd love to change the world
    But I don't know what to do
    So I'll leave it up to you."

  
  I love that song so much and the more things change the more they stay exactly the same.
  
  And here we are, ten years after -- and how utterly prophetic the name of that long gone band, yes?
  
  Ten years after.
  
  Thirty.
  
  Forty years on.
  
  And here we are. OK, Boomer. We've grown old, we Baby Boomers. WE'RE the generation being rejected and dismissed now.
  
  I find that ironic. Hilariously so.
  
  Naturally not everyone sees it that way.

  "No. Because it always comes out of nowhere from some ass I'm not even speaking with. I'm not a boomer. They aren't paying attention. Just lobbing asshole grenades."

  
  That was a response to my comments. They're not listening! I'm not even speaking to them and they butt in anyway! They're just being assholes! And you don't even have to play back the news recordings of 1971 to hear my dad's own complaints about my generation. Makes me miss him even more, it does. sincerely.
  
  Another Boomer weighed in:

  "It's just an attempt at a belittling way to say 'Whatever' and walk away. It's a bullshit way to not have to have an actual conversation."

  
  Never trust anyone over 30, right?
  
  Remember that? I sure do.
  
  But this was the one that really made me laugh:

  "I am a left wing, bleeding heart liberal .. and I am a boomer. I fought for civil rights, women’s rights, environmental change. I marched against the Vietnam war. I continue to do these things. I am tired of being disrespected."

  
  I'm tired of being disrespected.
  
  Oh, I so remember the Greatest Generation, in their brush cuts and dark suits. The generation who fought Nazis across Europe and who built the rockets that took us to the moon and safely home again. Tired of being disrespected by dykes and fairies, freaks and hairies and I don't know what to do. Right? Oh, man. Like I said, it makes me nostalgic for 1971. Tax the rich, feed the poor, until there ain't no rich no more. Oh, god, the sweet irony.
  
  The truth of the matter is that we blew it.
  
  We did.
  
  You want respect from the next generation? Well, then you should have left the planet in better shape than you found it. Simple as that. And we didn't.
  
  I don't know if that's a unique failing of my generation. I suspect it's simply a matter of viewpoint a generation on, forever and forever as we roll on through history. You "Okay boomer" me? I'm not offended. I *am* a boomer and I'm ashamed, disappointed, that we didn't do better.
  
  I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do. So I leave it up to you.
  
  Those words from 1971 haunt me.
  
  I hope Generation X, and Y and the Millennials will do better than we did. I leave it up to you.
  
  But, I suspect thirty years on and you'll be right here with us, talkin' 'bout my generation.
  
  Or not.
  
  We can always hope.
  
  More than any other generation, Baby Boomers rejected the ideology of previous generations, everything from their music to their sexual mores. Never trust anybody over 30, right?
  
  

  • "Population,
    keeps on breeding,
    nation bleeding,
    Still more feeding economy
    
    Life is funny,
    skies are sunny,
    bees make honey
    Who needs money? Monopoly!
    
    I'd love to change the world
    But I don't know what to do
    So I'll leave it up to you...
    
    Oh yeah"

  
  Thirty years later, the current generation dismisses US.
  
  God is an iron.*
  
  And getting old sucks.
  
  

...from Jim Wright, on Facebook


* Science fiction author Spider Robinson wrote that, “God is an iron,” which seems to make no sense until you hear the explanation: “If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.”

[BoSoxGal]

Creator. A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh. ~ H.L. Mencken

[Econoline]

[Econoline]

Oh.

Took me a minute, but I finally got it (that the H.L. Mencken quote was in response to the Spider Robinson quote).

[rubato]

Those of us reaching and falling into retirement did have a lot to do with where the world is today. It is fair to criticize us for the forseeable failures anyway. But when you do you have to also mention the accomplishments; the advancement of women's rights, the civil rights movement, environmentalism, cleaner air, rivers that don't burst into flame, the end of the Vietnam war, the first generation to bring back endangered species (peregrine falcons, eagles, brown pelicans, sea otters) huge advances in science and technology; biotech, computers, the internet, we stopped and reversed the growth of the ozone hole

I'd say it is a mixed record. We did allow inequality to explode and we saw the growth of metastatic cancerous conservatism.

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

You boomers and we Gen Xers burned oil like there was no tomorrow, consumed cheap plastic crap and fast food burgers like there was an endless supply of resources and GREED. IS. GOOD.

But it’s not, and we destroyed the planet for human habitation. 11,000 scientists from across the globe just told us it’s too late to avoid terrible, catastrophic human suffering because we were gluttonous scumbags who didn’t think of our great grandchildren’s futures.

Ok Boomer, Ok Gen Xer is the least we deserve. I’m frankly surprised they’re not dragging us into the streets and shooting us, we fucked them so badly.