Millennials and Gen Z think they invented 'OK, boomer'? Wrong. Gen X hated you all first Opinion: Millennials and Generation Z want credit for blaming everything on the olds. Never mind that we in Gen X were there first.

Jon Gabriel | opinion contributor

Looking at history, the young and old have rarely respected each other.

Socrates kvetched about kids’ “disrespect for elders,” as did the Old Testament. You wouldn’t have to command children to “honor thy father and thy mother” if it came naturally.

But today, a shocking new tactic has been deployed in the timeless war between generations. As baby boomers impugn millennials’ addiction to avocado toast or Gen Z’s worries about staggering college debt, the youth dismiss it with a casual retort: “OK, boomer.”

The phrase has popped up on social media for months, but this week it hit the big-time with long dissertations in The New York Times and the Washington Post.

Is 'boomer' the n-word of ageism?

Radio host Bob Lonsberry said 'boomer' is the N-word of ageism Radio host Bob Lonsberry said "boomer" is the "n-word of ageism" in response to the phrase "OK, boomer."

“There’s not much I can personally do to undo political corruption or fix Congress,” 18-year-old college student Nina Kasman said. “It’s mostly old white men boomers who don’t represent the majority of generations.”

To her credit, Kasman is making coin on the issue, selling “OK, boomer” merch on the internet.

Those “old white men” aren’t taking it lying down. A New York radio host claimed that “‘boomer’ is the n-word of ageism. Being hip and flip does not make bigotry OK, nor is a derisive epithet acceptable because it is new.”

The 60-year-old’s tweet went viral and earned approximately eleventy billion responses of “OK, boomer.”

Millennials, Gen Zers stole our gripes

Blaming the post-WWII generation for all the world’s ills is nothing new. Gen Xers like myself pioneered the technique in the '90s only to watch millennials and Gen Zers co-opt it for their own cohorts.

They’re even using the same arguments. We’re the first generation to have a lower quality of life than the generation before, college is too expensive and the climate is going to kill us. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

It stings a bit to see my generation skipped over, but we haven’t yet had the chance to lead. Every president since Clinton has been a boomer, as are the main contenders for the Democratic primary. Actually, Bernie is pre-boomer, born before Pearl Harbor was bombed and socialism was discredited.

Gen X never bought boomers' utopia

Of course, defining an entire generation by their caricatures is always overbroad. Plenty of hippie-era college kids voted for Nixon, just as many Gen Xers didn’t wear three layers of flannel and listen to grunge. (I preferred shoegaze.) The mass culture these groups spawned, however, helps define them in aggregate.

After the Greatest Generation survived the Great Depression and returned from a bloody world war, they sought a quiet sanctuary in suburbia, sparing their kids such pain. The boomers decided such a life was boring and inauthentic, and tried to replace it with a Summer of Love to usher in the Age of Aquarius. It didn’t go so well.

Gen X was sold the boomers’ failed utopia throughout our youth but never bought it. Our childhood was infused with the wreckage wrought by hippies and yuppies. Draft dodgers and dead rock stars were lifted up as idols while our kiddie shows toggled between LSD trips and eco-apocalypse.

Hey, kids, wait your turn to lead - and fail

We watched the failure of the War on Poverty, Nixon, Ford and Carter – not to mention our broken homes. It didn’t make us cynical as much as skeptical; institutions were expected to fail more than they succeeded, and we acted accordingly.

So, when these millennial and Gen-Z whippersnappers blame everything on the olds, remember that Gen X was there first. You don’t get to right all the wrongs until we’ve had our chance to fix things. Or, more likely, just screw it up in a new way.

Once your kids have the chance to mutter “OK, X-er” at our policies, then you can have your shot. In the meantime, get off our lawns.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Republic and azcentral.com. Follow him on Twitter at @exjon.