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Sokoro

What do you think of the "boomer" meme?

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What is this crap anyway? Is that someone who mainly uses Boom source port?

I use GZDoom, does that make me GZDoomer?

 

I think most of the young people are just too young to even appreciate doom...

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When used sparingly and appropriately, I think the term can potentially result in both frivolity and amusement. Anyway, we've already had several discussions about this exact topic recently, and I'm not exactly keen on seeing it spring up again so soon. 

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I think the boomer meme is adorable, albeit really played out. When I think "boomer" I think vaguely political Facebook dad who just wants to grill, unbothered and untainted by the deviancy of the internet. I realize I'm alone here but that perception has stopped the meme from ever getting old. Although seeing people use the boomer meme disparagingly is just weird, I always thought it was wholesome.

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Interesting.

When I think of Boomers, I think of the generation who were born into comfort and luxury due to the New Deal then proceeded to gut social programs and collectively pull the ladder up behind them. But I guess the meme is more about old fogeys being confused by technology and neglecting their spouses. Which is funny I guess.

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2 hours ago, Bucket said:

When I think of Boomers, I think of the generation who were born into comfort and luxury due to the New Deal then proceeded to gut social programs and collectively pull the ladder up behind them. But I guess the meme is more about old fogeys being confused by technology and neglecting their spouses.

It’s really all of the above, as I understand it. Benefitted from the New Deal in youth but trying to destroy it and anything similar in old age, fear of all things new, technology = scary, wife bad.

 

 

My parents are literal Baby Boomers (born in the 50’s) but thank fuck they aren’t boomers in terms of

mentality. I see lots of other millennials talking about how they can’t stand seeing what their moms and dads post on Facebook, and I’m just thankful that I can’t relate at all (and not just because they barely use FB). 

They never forgot what it was like to be young and poor even after they no longer were, never sold out on their beliefs they held 40 years ago. They always vote with the needs of minorities, the environment, and the working & lower economic class in mind, even though such votes won’t really benefit them directly. 

Plus, they’ve always had a generally “emperor is wearing no clothes” mindset when it comes to politicians and corporate power in general. I’m so glad I have the parents I do rather than some generic run-of-the-mill self obsessed, self interested boomers. Oh, and they’re still married. Just makes the fact that they defy all the shit the supposedly “family oriented” politicians say even funnier, to me anyway.

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I personally think it’s stupid when used as an insult and anyone who uses like that might want to rethink why they find it to be so funny. People are almost always using the word Boomer the same way people would use words like f*g and the like before that was more accepted as not being the right thing to call someone, regardless of if they’re gay or not. They’re using this regardless of your age or if you’re actually a baby boomer. So what’s the difference other than one word hurts more to hear than the other? They’re being used for the same damn purpose!
 

Soon enough, these individuals will realize they sound really stupid calling everyone they disagree with online a boomer, and they’ll pretend they NEVER used such words against someone when Boomer is labeled as ageism, which I promise you... it will eventually get to that point, and they’ll look for a new word to use as an insult instead, and the cycle will continue until we are all permanently muted forever.

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10 hours ago, Sokoro said:

I think most of the young people are just too young to even appreciate doom...

Not necessary, I'm 16 and I think it's just amazing how Doom created such an awesome community, and that it helped to define the FPS genre. I also find fucking awesome that the source code was released, and I've seen a lot of awesome stuff that has its bases on it, from source ports, console ports (Unity and others) and a ton of terrific proyects, mods and wads made by you, the community.

 

Seriously, Doom is an awesome game, and I appreciate the game. I also have enjoyed the two months that I've been here.

You are a wonderful community. Man I almost cried when writting that XD

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4 hours ago, Gerolf said:

 

I hear what you’re saying here, but I think there are some fundamental differences. Gay people were and still often are on the receiving end of oppression, whereas the ones who write all of the laws and run pretty much every single aspect of the government are boomers (in the literal sense). So the fact that one is an often oppressed group and that the others aren’t makes it pretty different, imo.


Additionally, boomer is usually treated more as way of thinking, it’s almost like an ideology. There are 20 year olds who think like “stereotypical boomers”, for example. Being gay is not an ideology, so again it’s pretty different. Making fun of someone’s political and social opinions seems a lot more acceptable (to me personally) than making fun of someone for their traits which they have no control over. I’m comfortable critiquing a persons ideas, but I’d feel like garbage for critiquing their identity or their physical attributes. This is just my stance in it of course, I’m sure plenty out there would think I’m dead wrong on this.

 

Calling someone a boomer tends to be like the opposite version of calling someone a communist in a derogatory way, if you know what I mean. It’s an (admittedly very lazy) critique of their thoughts and politics, not a critique of arbitrary attributes (despite someone’s birth year being exactly that). On that note, one thing I can say with confidence is that using any stupid derogatory remark in an attempt to simply silence opposition is, well, stupid - but I also think it’s inaccurate to pretend these terms are all the same.

 

I do tend to agree with the prediction that the term will soon be considered ageism.

 

And, like most offensive terms, using it will get people “cancelled”, which from my observations translates to it not having any sort of meaningful impact on their career, number of fans, amount of income etc. (seriously, I know this is a side note, but all the fear mongering I see about people “being cancelled” these days is so dumb, especially when those who are “cancelled” still have just as much reach as ever). Not saying this in support of attempting to silence people by “cancelling” them, I’m against that as a rule of thumb, I’m just annoyed by how long it’s taking people to realise “being cancelled” means sweet fuckall, lol.

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I agree with you, Doom Kid. I think I should’ve elaborated a little more in my post. No, I’m not meaning to look like I’m comparing homophobia with being called a boomer, definitely not trying to undermine the issues homosexuals have faced for so long. It’s also hard for me to explain what I’m trying to say, but maybe this will help (and these examples aren’t too far fetched, think they have been seen in action on DW a few times now): 
 

“I like anime over live action” -haha ok f*gg*t/fucking weeb, loser, etc. 

 

“I like the original Doom games over the new Doom games” -haha ok boomer


and that’s all they have to say. 
 

To me, it feels very much the same in instances like these. It’s not meant to be nice or funny to the person that it’s directed towards, and it offers nothing to the conversation besides possibly leading to a heated argument. 

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Pretty sure boomer sprang up as an insult by modern-FPS players towards arena-FPS players on 4chan's /vg/.

 

People make "generals" on /vg/, and there's limited space. As soon as a thread passes page 10 (IIRC) they're deleted. So there's lots of rivalry between various generals. If a general starts losing users or a certain posting speed, it risks falling off page 10. In this environment, the term "boomer" sprang up. It's related to the use of "boomer" in pop culture, but different, since obviously within videogame contexts, "boomers" don't refer to babyboomers, but to millennials.

 

There's also some skill jealousy since good arena-skills do translate to good modern-FPS skills if you account for the more down-to-earth arsenal, more focus on hitscan, slower movement speed and health regen, but the reverse isn't quite true.

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I don’t like it because it became such an annoying meme that’s misused by precocious internet kids. I remember someone on Reddit splaining that “Boomer” comes from the 2008 housing boom which is why it means people who are in their 30s and 40s. Completely unironically. This was in defense of someone pointing out how stupid their usage of the term was in that particular context. So much to unpack. Thinking the term boomer comes from the 2008 housing collapse, thinking a “housing boom” is a phrase that means destructive collapse when it would always mean explosive growth, being so self-assured about this idiotic understanding.

 

That really sums up the kind of person who uses the term “boomer”. As a millennial, my parents are boomers because they are Americans born in the time range of the post WWII baby boom. The people who use the term maybe have baby boomer grandparents and seem to think the phrase describes anyone over 25. Then they’ll say “boomer is a state of mind”. No, it’s a word that has a meaning. Being an idiot who doesn’t know what words mean doesn’t change what words mean. It’s not being prescriptive with language it’s just not being precociously illiterate.

 

Also Tumblr/Twitter passive aggressive, melodramatic, all lower case biting cynicism is so eye rolling and tired. Yikes. Wow. I have lost the ability to can. You guiseeeee. It’s just such garbage and has turned online discourse into the propaganda machine it is today. Everything is about shutting down dissent with “takes”, which is now a strategy that is actively weaponized by bad actors across all platforms where a few anonymous quips can dominate and derail a discussion.

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I don't mind it at all. In fact, I really like how it was used to shut the mouth of all that "this generation sucks" crap.

 

The problem is some kids appropriated the term and now use it in circumstances not related at all with its original purpose.

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4 hours ago, insertwackynamehere said:

Then they’ll say “boomer is a state of mind”. No, it’s a word that has a meaning. Being an idiot who doesn’t know what words mean doesn’t change what words mean. It’s not being prescriptive with language it’s just not being precociously illiterate.

If a lot of people start using the term in that way, it becomes a colloquialism. If I hear thousands of people use the term boomer to colloquially describe a particular mindset, and then I use the term that way myself, it does not then make me illiterate - colloquials and slang are perfectly valid from a linguistic perspective, or else we could say confidently that Shakespeare, who came up with a lot of slang, was no wordsmith after all, which in my opinion would be wrong.

 

Not disagreeing with the overall point you’ve made, especially the tendency to shut people down with “hot takes” (another colloquialism!). Just wanted to put it out there that terms come to develop new meanings over time, it’s generally how language evolves (or devolves, depending on your perspective).

 

Also the guy who thought it had something to do with the 2008 housing boom is just an idiot. But, if thousands started using it that way....

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Can someone explain me what do you mean with "boomer", I actually never heard of that meme.

18 hours ago, :[Lol 6]: said:

Boomer, the L4D one?

And being serious, that's the only boomer I've heard of.

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There is a particular kind of obliviousness demonstrated by middle-to-upper class folks of a certain generation, who don't quite seem to have grasped that the areas of housing, employment and education have worsened dramatically for a lot of people. There's a widespread perception that Boomers have climbed up a ladder that has since been withdrawn.

And it's not just perception. Millennials really are worse off than previous generations. So I can imagine that generates a fair amount of resentment.

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8 hours ago, insertwackynamehere said:

Being an idiot who doesn’t know what words mean doesn’t change what words mean.

 

Merriam-Webster hasn't gotten this memo.

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On 12/31/2020 at 8:38 PM, Sokoro said:

I think most of the young people are just too young to even appreciate doom...

 

You'd be surprised how many young people i've seen in the Classic Doom community (outside of here), I've gotten into doom since I was 10.

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i hate the boomer meme. [along with other memes, like that gosh awful "nobody" meme.]

these memes are just overdone garbage that were not funny to begin with [makes me think of family guy nowadays]

*sigh* i miss the bed intruder song.

 

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Oh also one year ago people kept saying “boomer flu yay finally boomers will die” which was gross and these same people would then go on to say “leaving your house ever literally murders old people” only a few short months later. It’s a shibboleth word for people who are basic as fuck but in an internet dork way.

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8 hours ago, HLRaven said:

 

You'd be surprised how many young people i've seen in the Classic Doom community (outside of here), I've gotten into doom since I was 10.

Man, I was like 6 years old when I first played doom, and it was the Snes port. Yep, SNES, cuz I didn't have a PC to play.

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23 hours ago, :[Lol 6]: said:

Man, I was like 6 years old when I first played doom, and it was the Snes port. Yep, SNES, cuz I didn't have a PC to play.

i was also about 6 when i first played doom, i played it on DOSBox on my dads laptop. i loved it

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