I am not sure where you got the idea boomers came up with the name “baby boomer” — that was given to them by the previous generation. No one votes for these things.
The term “Baby Boomer” didn’t even start appearing until near the end of the generation. It first shows up in 1963, according to the source I found. Then it would’ve still taken time to show up in the lexicon. It’s not about voting for a label, it’s about using it and thereby accepting it and helping it spread.
If you can’t grasp it, just try turning the whole thing around. Imagine you were talking to an older person and they said “ok, junior” in a dismissive way. This is how I see “ok, boomer” being used.
Except that this is still divorcing the phrase from the context. You think younger people are just having a polite conversation with someone older and then just spontaneously say “OK Boomer” to them to be an asshole? I strongly suspect that’s a misrepresentation of how many conversations go. When I’ve seen it used, it’s because an older person may as well be telling them ‘ok, junior.’ It’s a dismissive response to dismissive behavior.
Again, that doesn’t mean there aren’t examples of people using it dismissively, unprompted by anything the other person does. But I don’t know what evidence there is that this is anywhere close to being the norm, especially as the phrase continues to fall out of popularity like most memes do.
And there are plenty of other kinds of power than economic. Power over the culture, for one example. We have a youth culture in the US and have had it for many years.
Power over the culture is shaped by economic and financial powers to a large extent, though. The relationship rarely flows in the opposite direction. Even today, a lot of the things that seem to speak to the youth are increasing in power and influence more because marketing firms and business interests adopt and exploit those trends and ideals in order to benefit themselves than simply because the youth are speaking out.
Young people do have certain advantages and privileges over older people. But the power that cultural influence provides them with is actually quite limited. In an industry like design it’s worth asking where the responsibility and blame should be for policies or tendencies that are discriminatory. Not only are there more older people entering the workforce these days than there were a decade or so ago, but management is often largely made up of older folks. CEOs in America are getting increasingly older, too.
With all due respect to you and your story, it sounds more to me like you feel resentment towards younger people on account of how you’ve been treated. I think it’s fairly clear that the real power, even on an issue like this, actually rests with the individuals and companies making these sorts of executive-level decisions for the workforce, who are not themselves youngsters. But even if we’re talking generally, Boomers made up half — yes, half — the employment gains in 2018 overall. Perhaps there’s a chance your experience, as frustrating and unacceptable as it is, is not a fair or accurate reflection of the broader distribution of power we see in our society and culture?
