The year 2019 was the year of “OK Boomer” (OKb). From The New York Times to the New Zealand legislature, OKb emerged as a pop cultural phenomenon. For some, this phrase represents a battle of the generations wherein Baby Boomers are fed up with the utopian demands of younger generations, while younger generations see Baby Boomers as stubbornly conservative and out of touch. Alternatively, some dismiss the generational warfare trope and demand we see society for what it “really is”—one defined by class warfare. By deploying theories of politics, ideology, and cultural change from Mark Fisher, Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Žižek, and Franco Berardi, we offer a theoretical framework through which the emergence and proliferation of OKb can be understood. We find OKb to be embedded within the logic of capitalist realism, where younger generations’ cynical usage of this meme represents a muddled attempt to cognitively map within 21st century postmodernity.

2019 年是“OK Boomer”（OKb）年。从《纽约时报》到新西兰立法机构，OKb 成为一种流行文化现象。对一些人来说，这句话代表了几代人的战斗，婴儿潮一代厌倦了年轻一代的乌托邦需求，而年轻一代则认为婴儿潮一代顽固地保守和脱节。或者，有些人不理会代际战争的比喻，并要求我们看到社会的“真实情况”——一个由阶级战争定义的社会. 通过运用 Mark Fisher、Fredric Jameson、Slavoj Žižek 和 Franco Berardi 的政治、意识形态和文化变革理论，我们提供了一个理论框架，通过它可以理解 OKb 的出现和扩散。我们发现 OKb 嵌入在资本主义现实主义的逻辑中，年轻一代对这个模因的愤世嫉俗的使用代表了在 21 世纪后现代性中进行认知映射的混乱尝试。