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by WizardAustralis 2119 days ago
Im in my mid 30s, I liked OK Boomer as a meme to let lose some emotion steam but then folks started to take it a little too seriously.

To dismiss ideas outright on age alone is just stupid.

1 comments

The idea that "ok boomer" is supposed to be dismissive of opinions and personal assertions based exclusively on age is a red herring.

It makes as much sense as asserting that the "Karen" meme is dismissive of women.

That was never the point, was it?

The "ok boomer" meme is dismissive of ideas that are forced onto others based on absurd appeals to authority and in spite of their lack any substance or support or rational basis. We're talking about the type of arguments that boil down to "shut up you little brat I know better than you just because."

Sure, that's the original context. It's just that "ok boomer" is very often used to dismiss an older person [older than the person responding] asking someone to do anything (or giving advice in anything). Just as "Karen" is very often just a coded "bitch", used when an woman [older than the person responding] asks someone to do anything
It's extremely disingenuous to try to assert that the "ok boomer" meme is used to dismiss questions or requests or opinions made by older people, or that the "karen" meme is used to dismiss questions or requests made by women. Its in fact a gross misrepresentation of what those memes are and have always been.
No it's not -- it's not my fault people are misusing the memes! They definitely are heavily used to dismiss in the manner I've described as well as being used in their correct original context. You might not like that people aren't deploying the internet memes the way you think they should be deployed, but it's definitely not disingenuous to point out that's what's happening. It's dismissive and mocking (for good reason!) but it's also something that's blown up, and when that happens the original intent and subtleties get rounded off or lost, so in many cases it's now used in any context, not just the ones where it was originally totally applicable.