Gen-Z is mobilizing. The weapon of choice? TikTok videos.
The lip-syncing app birthed a viral meme that has become a rallying cry for young people around the country: “ok boomer.” As in, ok, Baby Boomer.
As Taylor Lorenz writes for The New York Times:
“Ok boomer” has become Generation Z’s endlessly repeated retort to the problem of older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids. Teenagers use it to reply to cringey YouTube videos, Donald Trump tweets, and basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them.
Where did “Ok boomer” come from? What does it express? And is this any different than tensions between previous generations?
Produced by Morgan Givens.
GUESTS
Ronald Young Jr., Film critic and cultural commentator, Creator and host of “Time Well Spent” and the “Leaving the Theatre” podcasts; @ohitsBigRon
Evon Yao, Senior, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; @evonyao
Bhaskar Sunkara, Founding editor, Jacobin magazine; columnist, The Guardian US; author, “The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality”; @sunraysunray
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