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Also, speaking as someone with 16 years of organizing experience under my belt, boomerism has been alive and well even in active movement spaces for some time.

I've seen: https://twitter.com/gwensnyderPHL/status/1191404943716048896

- a boomer professor teaching a "movements" class who decided she'd teach us movements with hands on experience... canvassing on behalf of a petroleum energy vendor to sign up locals for their more expensive "cleaner" energy program (2007)

- that same boomer professor get super mad when a few of us talked about organizing against that particular assignment (2007)

- boomer antiwar activists propose reinstituting the draft because unemployed young people in the middle of an economic crisis weren't paying enough attention to an 6 year-old war (2010)

- boomer economic justice activists shout down an invited panel of Occupiers to explain to them why Occupy should have just listened to them about what to do to fix the economy (2011)

- boomer socialist activists repeatedly try to infiltrate younger, more energetic organizations in an effort to siphon off and poach young members (2009 to date)

- boomer paid labor organizers refuse to engage in younger intersectional labor movements building student power, then attempt to co-opt student chapters as free activist labor without ever even engaging the movement that supported/helped build them (all the time)

- boomer labor leaders complaining about dwindling young member engagement while simultaneously creating two-tier contracts that preserved senior member benefits while fucking over newer members (all the time)

- boomer Dems scold, bully, and sideline younger activists for even gently pushing for more intersectional and economic justice-forward policy because they hadn't "paid their dues" yet (2014 to date)

- boomer feminists scoff at intersectional feminists' unhappiness with Hillary's history of neoliberalism, semi-veiled racism, and hawkishness (2008-2017, and still on occasion now)

- boomer Will and Grace-converted HRC donors who roll their eyes at trans and nonbinary and queer identities

- "My generation marched in Birmingham" boomers who never marched a day of their lives call BLM a bridge too far

- "our parents fought Nazis, your generation uses the word 'Nazis' too lightly" boomers who never fought Nazis but feel justified in lecturing me about how my energy would be better spent working on a low-stakes local state house race (2019)

"Ok boomer" refers to a very specific generational mindset- almost always white and middle class- that's about resenting younger folks for not worshipping boomers for co-existing with the civil rights movement or entertaining their fantasy of being geniuses who saved the world.

It's an expression of a frustration that's probably pretty much the same as the frustration boomers felt when Greatest Generation-ers who never actually served in any way demanded respect for being of the generation that fought Nazis.

I'm actually a huge believer in honoring movement elders and their wisdom and experience, but part of taking on the status of a movement elder is making the decision to step back from day-to-day operational leadership and step into the role of statesmanship, an advisory role.

In movement work, the boomer mentality has shown up as a refusal to make room for new leaders by training them, creating openings in operational leadership, and encouraging the succeeding generation to creatively lead in new ways.

It's not that older folks, boomers included, *can't* lead operationally-- it's that a big part of leadership is building and empowering the next generation of leaders so that they have the direct experience they need to lead wisely when the previous generation is gone.

The transition to statesmanship/movement elder status is super-important not only because it makes room, but because it creates a cohort of elders (advisors) who are respected and listened to for their wisdom.

As long as boomers stay operational leaders, they're peers.

The boomer mentality is about refusing to cede operational leadership roles or create space while simultaneously acting aggrieved that younger generations don't treat boomer operational leaders with the respect that should be accorded to elders/statespeople.

You can't be an operational leader (ED, House majority leader, presidential candidate, field organizer, whatever) & an elder simultaneously.

Elders are respected for wisdom that necessarily includes the wisdom of stepping back.

The boomer mentality is about wanting to be both.

Nancy Pelosi is a great example of boomerism at work (she's technically silent generation, whatever, it's about a mindset).

She's a very smart tactical actor, but has refused to build a back bench or develop younger leadership.

Simultaneously, she is *constantly* acting put upon and aggrieved that an organized base of younger folks who have been denied meaningful representation by the operational leadership of her party are now looking towards alternative operational leadership.

Pelosi refuses to open up meaningful operational leadership roles to rising leaders, holds her own operational leadership role with an iron grip, then complains about not being accorded the respect of an advisory elder-- the epitome of boomerism.

I'm in no way a fan of his AT ALL, but Ed Rendell is a really good example of a person who cannily made the transition from operational leadership to advisory elder statesman status while retaining and actually growing his political power.

If you want to see a really good example of how strategic this transition can be in a movement space, just look at James Mason.

He used to be a fringe Nazi party member, but his transition to an advisory role has given him a vital role in the accelerationist nazi movement.

Boomerism, at its core, isn't a matter of age. It's a failure of senior leadership.

It's a fear of letting go and a resentful unwillingness to honor the creativity and energy of rising leadership.

It's voluntary ossification, which is deadly in movement and political space.

The most successful fascisms in our world right now-- ethno-nationalism and accelerationism-- have avoided this trap.

Bannon (and to some degree Mason) has the practice of movement-building from an advisory elder role down pat.

Vibrant movements are intergenerational in both their constituency and their leadership.

Movements without intergenerational leadership die.

We need the wisdom of movement elders and the energy of rising generations and the grounding nature of those in family-building mode.

Anti-boomerism isn't about kicking boomer out of the movement-- it's about frustration with the way so many boomer leaders gatekeep their own operational leadership while demanding to be respected and listened to as elders.

Boomerism is having-cake-and-eating-it-too-ism.

So just maybe it's time for Boomers to do some introspection about the ways *they've* practiced systemic ageism and politically/economically sidelined an entire generation before whining about ageist discrimination.

Because last I checked, y'all are still running this shitshow.

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