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Why is this surprising?

Kids, don’t do this.

Thus demonstrating the reason for the phrase's existence.
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Yeah, it's bigotry plain and simple. People who would never say "OK n$$ger" or "OK cracker" are tossing this term around to dismiss entire segments of the population out of hand.

To those who say "boomer is a mindset" - my racist cousin says the same thing about "n$$ger"

Is 'millenials are killing x' the same then? I haven't seen much outrage over that trend.
To paraphrase John Mulaney; If you are comparing two words and you can't even type one of them, that is the worse word.
ok boomer is much more similar to saying bitch than nigger. people say bitch frequently, but unless there is some context that makes it discriminating against women, it usually is considered to be non-discriminating, or at least not discriminating enough for most people to care.

the point im trying to make here is that, people should be against the use of bitch as much they are against the use of ok boomer if they want to be consistent

this is the most out of touch comment I've seen on HN
Age discrimination laws don't protect against having your feelings hurt, it's there to prevent real issues like firing/not hiring someone because of age. So no, the "news story" is crap and you won't be fired for saying this or have an issue unless you're a 20-something CEO with a penchant for poor decision making.
I mean you might but not because of the discrimination law. With at will employment being the norm in most places and industries just annoying your boss or more (office) politically connected coworker is plenty.
Not true. While hurt feelings isn't the legal standard, it doesn't have to rise to firing or hiring impact either.

The ADEA standards apply to age discrimination. The ADEA prohibits requiring people to work in a discriminatorily hostile or abusive environment. … The standards for assessing a hostile work environment claim under the ADEA are analogous to those utilized under [Title VII]. … Thus, the ADEA is violated when the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult … that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.

Citation: Murtha v. New York State Gaming Commission et al, 17-cv-10040, 2019 WL 4450687 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 17, 2019)

> that is sufficiently severe or pervasive

This is non-trivial standard to meet, especially if all your evidence is "they called me a boomer".

From the EEOC:

> It is unlawful to harass a person because of his or her age.

> Harassment can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person's age. Although the law doesn't prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that aren't very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

Seems to depend on how severe the behavior is.

In the state I live in, anything can get you fired. Being up for a raise can get you fired. So where's the news here?
Yeah... you don't exactly need to bring in a federal law to fire someone for saying 'Ok Boomer' in most of the US. Disrespectful, insubordinate, a bad fit, etc. there's no real need for bringing in the age discrimination law unless it's a superior doing it consistently.

Also trying to bring this up to a federal discrimination suit feels like peak Boomer to me. The whole counter-backlash to Ok Boomer is really reinforcing the stereotype it's lashing out against. Decades of articles saying every mildly declining industry is being 'killed by Millenials' or 'Millenials are X' and all it takes for Boomers to start playing federal discrimination cards is a two word clap back of 'Ok Boomer' is just chef kiss beautiful.

OK boomer.

...

Sorry, I couldn't help it.