OK, Boomer

[ErrolTheDragon]

Explained for us in The Times today.
I'll put the link in second post for clickiness.

Enjoy.

If Andy Lewis was born in 1983 he is a millennial!

Y'all' and the use of 'folk' (more Americanisms) I also find incredibly sinister, aping an oldy worldy (or maybe AAVE?) type of speech as though to make whatever political point is being made seem wholesome.

"Y'all" and "folk" are not necessarily AAVE; they are Southern American English expressions, widely used in the South by everyone, whatever their race. Outside the South, they are probably used more by African Americans than others because of the early 20th Century African American migrations out of the South. So their use has become part of AAVE, but their origin and use in other parts of the country are not. They would more properly be described as regional.

Being of the Scottish persuasion I'm used to having singular and plural forms of you (ye/you/ya singular and youse plural) and have always liked the southern American y'all as it serves the same, useful in my view, function.

Not such a fan of Americanisation if the rich and varied forms of English spoken elsewhere so I'm a wee bit torn on it being used by wokesters in other places.

Arnold It's possible that "y'all" has Scots-Irish roots.

dialectblog.com/2011/02/15/the-remarkable-history-of-yall/

I came across this one today!

That's fucking nasty.

Folk is scottish everyday chat, also heard in yorkshire.

"There is nowt so queer as folk".

What is it with memes threatening death lately? Social media seems to have got completely out of hand.

Seneca thanks for the link. I can't say as I'm expert enough to know whether the Scots-Irish roots are correct but it's an interesting discussion. I love the way language evolves, diverges and converges and diverges again. It makes me sad when people try to limit and standardise it, takes all the fun away.

Has anyone read this article? It did open my eyes somewhat. Zac Goldsmith tweeted it quoting it as a "hate-filled rant" (where's our free speech gone again)?
www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/open-letter-greta-thunberg-jason-d-hill/

It is slightly off topic but it does tie in with other themes commonly discussed here.

What is it with memes threatening death lately? Social media seems to have got completely out of hand.

Not just sm. Am losing count of the number of times I hear "I will cut you" or "I will choke you out" etc said by movie/tv actors playing sane people during otherwise not especially murderous scenes. It seems to be the new form of banter, complete with crazy eyes and finger pointing. Funny it ain't.

Wherever the 'y'all' and 'folk' are coming from, it seems to be a very contrived attempt to make arguments sound wholesome and 'let's all just get along', usually when a very unreasonable demand is being made.

It's substantial in a way that little Greta haranguing members of the government is not.

Really?

Has anyone read this article? It did open my eyes somewhat. Zac Goldsmith tweeted it quoting it as a "hate-filled rant" (where's our free speech gone again)?

You read that article and didn’t think it was a hate filled rant?

I’m not a milennial or a zoomer, but Christ some of the attitudes targeted at this young woman who’s trying to make a difference are an utter disgrace, whether you agree with her approach or not.

I dunno. Part of me mumbles to me that it's karma. Having been one of those who didn't trust anyone over thirty. Until I hit thirty, of course.

Still, in the get-off-my-lawn spirit I've grown into, we did know who was over thirty. The kids these days don't even seem to know who the Boomers are. And I gather it's supposed to make you feel stodgy. Maybe it works on the three or four who were in the Young Tories at the time, but millions of us are old hippies. Your aim is just plain funny, kid.

I’m a Gen’ X married to a Boomer. We are both thinking we missed out here. I left school straight into mass unemployment, had to have loans to top up my (miniature) grant and DH has, in spite of degree and professional qualifications, never earned anything like the mythical ‘average’.

Nothing wrong with being a boomer. A snowflake on the other hand, now that would be something to be ashamed of.

And I gather it's supposed to make you feel stodgy.

Exactly that. And I suppose it’s more about attitude than accuracy.

I left school straight into mass unemployment
Current U.K. stats: 1.36 million unemployed,
1.8 million on ZHC / contracts that don’t state minimum hours, 2 million self employed people who don’t make minimum wage, and 55% of homeless families are working

Even under Thatcher unemployment peaked at 3 million.

had to have loans to top up my (miniature) grant

Sure but you weren’t paying £9k a year fees were you? I was annoyed because my sister and boyfriend etc got a grant and I didn’t, but I didn’t have to pay any fees - I’d be pretty pissed off I had to pay £9k a year for a degree too, especially when the people calling me a moaner got grants!

Denying the issues faced by young people today is why they’re all suddenly telling older people to fuck off, and I don’t really blame them.

Even under Thatcher unemployment peaked at 3 million.

Yes, but we don't have figures for how many people were earning less than minimum wage, whether self employed or otherwise because there was no minimum wage at the time.

We also can't compare how many people were working casual jobs and not claiming benefits as those figures were not compiled the way zero contract hours work is today.

Poverty wages were rife under Thatcher. Many people relied on seasonal work, mostly in the electronics industry in my area, these issues are by no means new.

Some on here told me to 'Get rekt boomer'. Was I supposed to be upset?

When I was a teenager at school in the 80s , a mild mannered RE teacher said my generation should never expect employment. We would be lucky to get it and keep it for any length of time.
Apparently I never had it so good.

DH (generation x so invisible) left school at 16. At 18 he was living in tighed accommodation (a shed with a bed) and earning £4K a year. He had to pay the full poll tax of £375 a year.

Most people did not go to university so did not benefit from free education or grants. If they were lucky they left school and did a YTS which paid the same as the dole.
There was no minimum wage. Zero hour contracts were called casual hours instead.

When I was a student in the early 90s another student friend of mine worked a night shift security job to top up his grant (and yes, we were lucky not to pay fees but fewer of us attended university).

He earned £1.50 an hour. For comparison I worked as a hospital cleaner at the time. Although we were employed by a private contractor we were paid NHS wages (the company made its profit by sacking half the cleaning staff). I earned £3.15 per hour, time and half at weekends and triple time on bank holidays.

This was the reality of not having a minimum wage. My friend was OK, he wasn't relying on the job to pay rent, pay bills, cloth his children. Many others on such poverty wages were.

My first job in the 80s was 99p/hour.