• gizmonicus@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    Language evolves, the meaning of words change. It’s a natural part of the evolution of language over time. You say hang up the phone or dial a phone number, don’t you? But you don’t literally hang up a phone when you’re done with it or turn a literal dial anymore. But they used to work that way, so we still use that language even though the original meaning is lost.

    I would argue that although this phrase originated from dismissing the opinions of actual boomers, it’s become a convenient shorthand way of calling someone out of touch with current social trends without having to adapt new phrases every time a new generation takes the place of the boomers as being out of touch.

    • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Not the same if it’s a subset of people and the direction is negative. Not cool.

      You want future generations attaching negatives on a subset like “trans” or “queer”, poisoning their history.

      Definitions of people should only contain those people, nothing else, period. Haven’t we already learned this from history?