Do boomers think "silly" is an extremely offensive term??

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Imagine calling them a silly goose.

They think everything is an offensive term. From Google: According to a study published in Psychology and Aging, older generations, including baby boomers, are more sensitive than younger generations.

Ya think?????

Boomer pride can’t take anyone demeaning them, even if that disrespect is imagined. I think they project this hard because they feel like they’ve lost relevance with friends and family and in society in general.

Getting it back means taking ridiculous stands and treating anyone younger than them with the same disrespect.

Your mom's not British, is she.

Currently discussing abortion with a Boomer on another sub. Can confirm - they don’t like being called silly.

Now I have a new innocuous weapon to wield.

Gonna say it with a lisp and just watch people's faces turn red.

Thilly gootheth!

Honestly it just sounds like you struck a nerve while she was maybe feeling a bit absent minded and she took out her frustration at herself on you.

well I have the urge to use that word as often as possible now

That’s so weird! I Think of “silly” as a cute word that I use for my dog when he’s doing something…well…silly.

One interesting thing - I looked the word up on etymonline and they have a graph of its usage over the years. It’s at an all time high now, but it hit an all time low right around 1980. That’s when boomers would have been at the height of their young - mid adulthood, and the height of their power. Coincidence?

I remember being called a silly little girl, with that tone that implies more than just goofy age-appropriate behavior. You know, the one people use when they're trying to demean a young adolescent still being a little childish. So, I think they fill in the blanks after "silly" and assume you're doing the same thing to them.

(Some, for the idiots who have to have everything spelled out for them) Boomers can dish it out but they can't take it. It's the narcissism.

Boomers think anything done or said without their explicit written permission is extremely offensive.

No idea. Maybe they think you are implying something childish?

Had a Boomer teacher in 2nd grade that thought the word Belly was vulgar. I think it may be that some people get really weird hang ups on certain words.

Well, that's silly, innit?

My boomer dad gets angry if I say “what’s up?” In a text message and my boomer mom gets mad if I say “what?” If I didn’t understand what she said.

Lead poisoned reaction

My mom sure would. She takes any opportunity to find grievous insult in the most innocuous of situations.

She probably thinks it's another way to say gay

The word silly used to mean feeble minded. Before that it meant you were to be pitied. Before THAT it meant that you were pious. AFTER that, it means happy, goofy.

Words have amazing histories and this is one of them.

Your mom was probably just born in 1602 and she looks damn good for age. Maybe you should tell her.

In a heated argument I would laugh if silly was used , context is everything

My grandma absolutely lost her shit when my little sister accidentally turned on rabbit ears on selfie mode and they showed up on grandma. Her and grandpa yelled at us for hours and refused to take a family photo. That was the last time we saw them, they live very far away, and we don't have any pictures from that time because the felt so demeaned by these silly rabbit ears. The generational clash was so intense and we could not see eye to eye about this. It's very sad.

I call people "silly" when a much stronger term is warranted, but I don't want to use that language.

To them it means they're ridiculously incompetent.

To us it just means light-hearted, whimsical, fun, and playful.

For people who always complain about how people get offended all the time, they sure do get offended a lot.

It can be. It was used against me as an insult. "silly" really meant that I was basically dumb as fuck, or so immature they were surprised I hadn't tripped myself into traffic, and other things along those lines. It doesn't happen often but every now and then my wife will call me silly and mean it in genuine terms, but she knows how much it hurts me, and she'll apologize at once.

My grandmother, silent generation, was like that about the word silly. She told me it was the slur for retard before retard was offensive. Don't know how true that is...

I don't. Sounds like your mom, I've never heard anyone get upset about it.

I'm not sure, but I lost a boomer friend for calling a sexist thing her son in law did stupid. I know they don't like stupid. So I wouldn't be surprised if some over react to silly. (and I don't like to say overreact in most situations, but silly as a horrible put down, yeah that's overreacting.)

In her day silly was used against women in pretty cruel ways. Now it seems well silly. Maybe ask mom why it upset her so. You weren’t calling her stupid and worthless. Maybe she heard that tho.

Boomer women are deeply insecure.

“Silly” is a word often used to describe children’s behavior. It probably makes them feel as though you’re demeaning and infantilizing them. Gotta say though…. Such an overreaction is pretty silly.

My mom flipped her shit when my dad lovingly called her a nerd. He apologized profusely and she insisted that it was the most offensive thing she had ever been called, which now makes him believe that he called her some kind of slur, despite my wife and I assuring him she’s lost her marbles. But god forbid he listen to his children above his narcissistic wife.

Call them other things then. I'm sure they would be much more comfortable with being called stupid, idiots, dunces, dumbasses, dimwitted, etc.

[Image] 

This makes sense why my gran gets upset when I say her jokes are silly

One of the times I got beat the most badly growing up was when I called my dad silly

I forgot what the context was, I think he said something goofy and I said he was being silly in response

Anyway, that experience lends me to believe boomers have a massive thing against being called silly, so I guess I agree with OP

Your mom is a psycho

I think etymologically it meant something like the R-word slur, but few of us are 400 years old or literate enough to know that

Your mom is a psychopath, thats why silly

That’s…strange. I haven’t come against the “silly” conundrum with a boomer yet.

I have no problem with it. Can’t imagine why she does.

Idk about manic, but definitely very unreasonable.

Not as far as I know 😕

Yeah, I think they see it as deeply condescending. they may have been called a “silly little girl/boy” with condescension, and they have associated that humiliated feeling with the word “silly”, when the context and tone should actually matter to whether or not someone calling you “silly” is disrespectful.

I also just think it implies a person made a mistake/is being irrational, and while nobody likes that, boomers would definitely hate it just like any other perceived personal criticism

My boomer boss will point out something about a person that seems like a harsh criticism but then immediately follow up with "they're so goofy and/or silly". I'm just confused. He must think it means something that it doesn't because of how bothered he got.

Snowflake

STAN! What did you call your friend?! Don’t you ever call someone a silly goose! You call him an asshole like you’re supposed to!

Interesting. I told a boomer on nextdoor one time that he was being silly and he absolutely lost his shit... so I guess it is extremely offensive to some of them?

Boomer

8:44 am

I'd appreciate if you weren't so rejectful of my posts. Let's disagree agreeably.

Me

11:22 am

I have no idea what you mean. Please explain.

Boomer

11:32 am

Calling my posts weird or silly. And then persisting.

Me

12:25 pm

Should I fall in line with your thinking and way of doing things?

Boomer

1:26 pm

I wonder if rejectfulness is something that you think works within group process.

Me

3:58 pm

When was the last time someone fell in line with your thinking when you called, "weird" or "silly" or were insinuating?

Boomer

9:57 am

Praying for you, (me).

Me

10:30 am

Excuse me?

Boomer

10:42 am

You still resent me. If I did something to offend you we should work thru it.

this is new to me

I didn't refer to a guy I was serving at Waffle House as "sir", and he got pissed. After he commented on my "lack of respect", I took a deep breath, did my utmost best to perform an exaggerated formal bow, and said "I do so regretfully apologize mi' lord" while looking up at him. Him and his wife immediately walked out in a huff, but she left me a very generous tip. They hadn't even gotten drinks yet!

She's probably getting a little forgetful. She had a senior moment, and she's embarrassed. Just my guess at why she's being so sensitive.

My grandmom (older than boomers, born 1920s) thought it was one of the worst insults. I remember her implying that saying someone was silly indicated you thought they should be in some kind of care. Not capable of functioning independently.

I haven't looked it up to see if the word was used more than way in her time, but I'm sure I've seen it in books from that period used lightly as currently.

I'm not a boomer, and I wouldn't be super offended by "silly," but when I was a kid I had parents who insisted that "stupid" is a bad word and the word you should substitute is "silly." So to a certain degree, someone calling me silly still sounds like a euphemism for stupid. I understand that other people don't necessarily mean it that way, so I wouldn't react in a dramatic fashion or anything, but I still wouldn't particularly like it on a regular basis.

Would she prefer "stupid" or "idiot"? Or even AH, not for buying the wrong buns but for her way too over the top reaction.

My mom absolutely has her boomer moments but at least in this scenario she would have been rolling her eyes and laughing at herself. (Not to say she's not easily offended and God help us all if you accidentally hit one of those buttons, because Boomer is as Boomer does.)

It's all about control. They are in control, you are to be praising them and doing whatever they say, nothing "silly" about it. Lol

Wow. Lol

I think it’s because silly could be condescending in the way you might be to a child

Boomers see being miserable and overly serious as a key part of life. People should never be happy or have fun. Look at how mad they get about other people living their lives - "oh, noes, a gay person is over there and happy! I gotta lose my shit over this!" So, being silly is an insult because it implies a sense of humor, going with the flow, and even child-like wonder and happiness at existence itself. Boomers (and the far-right they are associated with) hate all that. They want to be angry, miserable, and offended and they want everyone else to feel the same way.

My boomer mom used silly as a synonym for gay, as in "My silly cousin David" or "Your friend Max, the silly one". Even used it to reder to my son when talking about him to his cousins.

Maybe it's in the vein of goof in Canada. Call someone a goof elsewhere, they're silly, goofy, eccentric, in Canada the word goof is shorthand for pedo

Wow never heard that one but not surprising. My step mom lost her shit when I told my niece, who was like 3 at the time "You're so weird!" It was a game we played, we'd call each other weird all the time and she'd cackle like a banshee. It was cute as shit the way this tiny lady would say "no YOU so weeeiiird unka!" Unka being uncle. My step mom lost her mind screaming "NEVER call someone weird that's just so offensive! Gay people are weird, trans people are weird! It's insulting!" In that moment I knew where her priorities laid. Dad left her a long while back and she's dead now (unrelated I promise)

“Oh, I’m sorry. I apologize for calling you silly. What I meant was if you don’t go get the right bread, we’re going to put you in a nursing home”

In British English it means “stupid.”  I doubt that confusion was the issue in this case, though.

"Oh, mom, you're such a fuckup."

Yeah, maybe that's better. 🤷🏼‍♀️

My mother (b. 1941) took pride in her silliness lol. To her it was a compliment. We loved her for the silliness and sheer joy she put into it.

Unsure if this is a boomer thing, I once interviewed to au pair for a family and the mom got really upset I said “your so silly!” To her toddler.

Depending on the location, “silly” is just a condescending way of calling someone an idiot, stupid, dumb, dotty, daft or mentally challenged. Just replace “silly” with any of those words, and you can probably see why.

Times and slang change and the intensity of the slang changes too. So I can understand why they may have gotten as mad as the hatter. 

Silly has been historically used as an insult that indicates someone can’t handle serious things. That was particularly a section comment. “She’s just a silly girl” was a phrase used talk about a female who was “flighty” and could only be frivolous. This might be the context they’re taking it in.

My Gen x wife and I were weirded out when she called something a senior leader at her work did silly.

He lost his shit and said she had created an "unsafe psychological space" for him by doing it. Filed a complaint with HR.

He is a older millennial.

So this is not a boomer thing at all.

Boomer is silly herself. LMAO! If there is a situation, funny, I will say silly if it is a friend. Not a stranger.

Boomer here. It’s just your mom.

This is a wild slap of nostalgia. My mom always told us how lucky we are bc her mom wouldn’t let them say silly in the house. She said that they equated silly with calling someone crazy

If I had to guess it's because silly is seen as childish. Being called childish is considered a huge insult to a lot of people.

Awwwww sounds like she had a lil lead-based moment. So cute!

And then in the same breath they'll rapid fire spit out the n word

That’s fucking silly

I have noticed that the meanings of words have shifted a bit here and there over time. I remember my boomer aunt slapping my cousin for calling her "weird". In the boomers teenage years, "weird" was a slang for homosexual, it was as bad as saying fa**ot.

Silly Rabbit! Tricks are for kids.

My mom says that silly = gay and that's why you shouldn't call people that.

Now, that might be her own little weirdness, but I have a sneaking suspicious that at least a few of these old fucks might agree with that position, and that's where this reaction comes from...

Such snowflakes

I heard a new one yesterday in my very small rural English shop. Boomer lady (who is clearly mad as a hatter) drops a packet of buttons and before picking it up she shouts 'oh, bottom burps!' In a super angry, very loud way ad stamps her foot. I asked her if she was okay and she completely ignored me, I dunno what happened to that generation to make them so god damned weird.

Am boomer. If someone said I was silly about something I’d think it was fine - and probably true. 🤪

It's not a boomer or not-boomer thing.

Some people find the word silly insulting, some people find it innocuous.

It's nothing to do with what generation they are.

Anybody who goes off like that does so because they're INSANELY insecure, and fear they'll only get the respect they deserve and offer others.

...I call my toddler "silly goose" instead of "crazy."

i purposefully use silly to avoid using far more colorful words as i thought it was totally harmless but i guess not hahahahaha

My grandmother, who is older than a boomer, calls women "silly women" as a misogynistic insult.

I called my husband a silly goose once and he looked at me like I had just insulted his ancestors. We aren't even boomers.

It’s not a boomer thing/ it’s a YOUR MOM thing. She is really strange. Does mental illness run in your family?

Maybe she was upset because she is worried her mistake is a sign of Alzheimers or some other age related degeneration. You drawing attention to it set her off.
Look after your mother, you only get One.

I believe Truman used that word to describe Martin Luther King's protest marches in the racist South. A VERY BIG negative on his legacy. He predates the boomer era bigtime.

Never heard of this being so offensive to boomers. I’m curious to how she responds next time if you call her “goofy.”

Sounds like your mum was called “silly” by someone repeatedly in her childhood and it really triggered her to hear you say that. And what your coworker said is something I often say, because I have a tendency to call myself names when I mess up and I’m working on not doing that. If someone around me messed up, I wouldn’t called them stupid or an idiot, so I should be kinder in my self-talk as well.

My mom is 71. She's never had such an issue with the world "silly." She would be just as shocked as you guys at this reaction.

not a cultural thing, just people itching for a fight

Called my grandpa a silly billy he got mad like stop being silly then

When I was a kid, silly kind of meant gay. Maybe they're thinking of that? 

That's a bone specific to your mother, I've never heard of anyone getting torqued over it from the depression era through to the current generation.