Neolib is right there.
I’m partial to Turd Weighers myself.
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It also needs to be said publicly that a spirited disagreement on one issue doesn’t diminish my appreciation for you.
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“Free”-market fundamentalism has been around before and after the post-war economic anomaly, though. Neoliberalism’s supposed efficacy during the 1980s and 1990s is really a matter of fortunate timing, coming as it did at the closing stages of that period (the earlier stages of which also involved lots of regulation, taxation of the ultra-wealthy, and social programmes). If we’re criticising people for holding outmoded views, we have to somehow reference the historical period to which they’re clinging.
Likewise, and more so. So much for those who claim that BoingBoing is some kind of groupthink.
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I like how Swarbrick said it in such a quick, offhand way (properly dismissive to a heckler) and immediately continued her impassioned speech. I’m a fan!
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Maybe it’s just because I grew up in a rough area (and only relatively rough, there were far worse places), but I learned early in my life not to give out what you can’t take back.
You reap what you sow. The ageism goes back long before this, and was targeted at Millennials and zoomers. A look through old BBS comments will bring a few up, even by people who aren’t one-off trolls. If they complain then they are insulted for being offended by everything. Civility failed, so new tactics were found.
Is OK Boomer ageist? Yes, but no more than the ubiquitous comments about avocado toast, participation trophies, being offended by everything, etc.
I don’t like the ageism, but I can’t help the feeling of schadenfreude.
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And Greta Thunberg SHOULD be angry! So should we all! I think anger is a rational response here.
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The “participation trophies” comment about Millenials was always particularly galling, given that such awards were given out mainly because it was parents demanded them so they could brag about how great they were at bringing up such talented and hard-working kids. I don’t think any kid ever has been proud of getting a participation award.
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I think that needs a qualifier around the age of “kid”.
I spent 10 years coaching soccer at various levels. Any kids under 10 getting a trophy means something. Especially for those in lower competition levels (commonly Rec). This may be their only sports activity and getting some recognition can be the difference between continuing to play or quitting.
I loathe when people complain about “participation” trophies as a bad thing or a response to coddling parents. It is possible that some of it arouse from that but it is definitely not all of it (and IMO not at all why trophies exist for children).
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I got some actual participation awards for doing miserably on the President’s Physical Fitness test (AKA “LBJ’s greatest mistake”, as a similarly fitness-challenged classmate put it in later years) when I was in elementary school in the 1970s. Even at that age, most of my classmates knew it was meaningless.
I guess participation awards in general can mean something to some young kids, but I don’t think it’s the kids who demand them. So it’s a bit unfair to blame Millenials for creating the culture surrounding them.
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I agree. It’s not a millennial creation.
We coaches made it. We chose it because we see how it actually effects kids and gets them to keep coming back and playing.
It has (with all things) diminishing returns and after 10 it becomes less effective as you point out. Also high competitor leagues it becomes problematic as those players tend to be hyper competitive and it’s first place or no place.
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Kangaroos? They’re just a bunch if Wallaby wannabes!
OK wombat.
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Something changed this week. Something shifted.
The “Youths”- ie., The people under age 65, broke. They decided it was time to take charge. They decided enough of this tom foolery and we don’t need to take any more bullshit from the soon to be dead olds who are holding us back from saving the planet.
For the first time since Nov 2016, I feel… Hope.
Boomers are being boomers and lashing out with fear and anger because they are dumb and don’t understand, and that’s what boomers do when they don’t understand something and would have to think to figure it out.
If boomers were smart they would shut the duck up, sit down, enjoy your retirement, and let us take it from here on out. You’re in your sixties or older, for heaven’s sake, it’s what you are supposed to do. Instead, pretending that giving the white house to a tottering old senile dementia patient is a fine idea because you don’t want to accept that you are old and the world is gonna go on after you die.
You had your chance. Now, time for the adults to clean up your mess… And your diapers.
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I think we should classify people by odd and even birth years.
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Focusing on manufactured generational divisions won’t help us solve any of our multitudinous problems; it just gives us more petty distractions to keep us at one another’s throats.
I don’t care when anyone was born; I care about what they’ve done in that time.
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Yeah, right, all people born between arbitrarily set end years are the same, just like all people with a particular shade of skin are the same, and all people with a particular sexuality are the same.
Humans evolved to deal with groups of up to 150 people. Any more than that, and we can’t handle it very well. So we make grossly innaccurate generalizations which always lead to pain. Which shows in articles like this and their comments.
What’s the group name for crappy journalists?
I’m generation Prime.
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Boomers are now at least
6455 years old.
FTFY. Gen-x individuals born in 1965 are currently 54.
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OK Millennial! 
Those of us in the US born into gen-x share a different set of experiences that those in the population booms bracketing us. The point of the categories is not and never was to interpret all individuals in the class a identical Lego blocks. Rather, the point of the categories is to short-hand the contexts shared, or typically shared, by folks in the group.
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