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We are STILL living under the threat of being nuked (or being the victims of an EMP caused by another country); we STILL have many people living in poverty, not only in other countries, but right here in the U.S.; and the pollution is STILL bad (but just not as bad, I think).
We're certainly no longer looking at a 70s style massive US-Soviet exchange - number of warheads, yields and threat posture has all changed dramatically, and for the better.
Poverty - at least in absolute terms (nutrition, access to education etc.) has improved.
Pollution has improved markedly - unleaded gasoline, no CFCs, less acid rain, and there's also a much improved attitude. Although reading some posters on this board, it may be hard to believe.
Well duh.. ... I did. I'm specifically interested in the studies YOU found interesting. Don't need to be like that.. you mention studies, you'd better be ready to link them.
I no longer link studies because the people who DEMAND them never read them. In the next similar thread they pretend like no such studies have ever existed, and DEMAND them ... again. Only to ignore them ... again.
I've learned that people who don't bother looking up their own research aren't interested in actually learning anything.
But they sure like to argue and accuse and tell me that their ability to access research is somehow MY responsibility. /.shrug/
I no longer link studies because the people who DEMAND them never read them. In the next similar thread they pretend like no such studies have ever existed, and DEMAND them ... again. Only to ignore them ... again.
I've learned that people who don't bother looking up their own research aren't interested in actually learning anything.
But they sure like to argue and accuse and tell me that their ability to access research is somehow MY responsibility. /.shrug/
Hence ... google link.
Then don't participate or at the very least, don't put it on the table for discussion if you aren't interested in following up or discussing. You only have yourself to blame.
There are many studies.. some different conclusions. No point in bringing up for discussion if those involved in discussion don't know if they are talking the same study or even on the same page.
There are many posters that claim studies back up their claims but simply talking out of their rear ends. It goes both ways..
It wasn't long ago 1967, that many states would have banned my marriage and personal choice in who I choose to spend my life with simply because she wasn't my race.
It is a matter of perspective and personal experience. As many posters who actually lived through those times, the past may not have been as good as you make it out to be.
That's a bit revisionist. The 90's were not all that great, at least not like 60's and 70's. In the 90's were ok but by then neighborhoods were becoming fragmented. Participation trophies became the norm. Clintons were pushing outcome based education. Oh yeah and thats about when Clinton deregulated the banking industry which led to the chaos of the 2000's.
And also the deregulation of the media industry which is why only a few large companies are thriving today.
We're certainly no longer looking at a 70s style massive US-Soviet exchange - number of warheads, yields and threat posture has all changed dramatically, and for the better.
Poverty - at least in absolute terms (nutrition, access to education etc.) has improved.
Pollution has improved markedly - unleaded gasoline, no CFCs, less acid rain, and there's also a much improved attitude. Although reading some posters on this board, it may be hard to believe.
But gay people (for now, it would change if the GOP had its way) are allowed to live openly and people are no longer required to either be Christian or face societal ostricization. And in some states people can smoke weed legally. Around 40% of Americans cannot accept that reality which is why they are doing everything they possible can, regardless of how much damage it causes and who suffers, to turn back the clock 50 years.
Labor relations were better in the recent past (1950s - 1990s), and there was less inequality. The economy of this country really started tanking as soon as China joined the WTO and we’ve been faltering ever since. We’ve been trying to keep things going with ultra-low interest rates, but all that has done is inflate housing costs, which hits the young particularly hard. Throw in student loans, and you have a recipe for disaster for young people.
But socially, we are much better off today than during my childhood in the 1980s. I’ll tell you a little story: back in the late 1980s my father went “off the deep end” with religion, and it was socially acceptable. Everyone in my extended family thought it was just fine...a blessing from a literal invisible sky creature. That was the baby boom generation in rural western Pennsylvania (which is about one or two generations behind the American mainstream).
Today, the children of that generation, including those in my extend family, see that for what it is: literally crazy. Look at levels of religiosity among the younger generations...it is tanking. America is finally starting to exit the Middle Ages and join the modern world.
OP, do you really want to go back to the 1980s and before, when a significant portion of the Americans adult population was basing their lives (and votes) on ancient superstition? Look at the gay marriage ruling; that would have been impossible several decades ago when religion was much more powerful.
Because, of course, that was a different time when most U.S. residents were Euro-white (plain vanilla, if you prefer). It was a more cohesive time when most people, for the most part, had the same culture -- with regional differences, of course.
Now, of course, it was NOT a great time if you were not Euro-white and at least working class (blue collar or white collar), but if you were part of the prevailing culture -- yeah, it was pretty great for the most part.
(And, yes, I know that many Euro-whites would disagree with the above, based on their individual circumstances -- but if you did grow up up in a middle-class non-dysfunctional family in a suburb or small town and if you were Euro-white, heterosexual and Christian, it WAS pretty wonderful.)
Anyway, that time is gone and won't be back, so we -- speaking as a senior whose family did fit the prevailing culture of the 50's, 60's and 70's -- can either choose to accept (and possibly even be happy about) the diversity that is part of the U.S. culture now, or we can be bitter about it.
P.S. And, yes, I know that many women my age (and younger) say that it wasn't so great for women, but many women were very happy and content being "housewives and mothers". Of course, it goes without saying, that many women weren't happy and content not having much of a life outside their home and community.
So you admit it was better when whites dominated. Kind of a white nationalist post. I dont think that's the way you meant but basically you are saying it was better when poc were in the extreme minority and had no say. Why would that be?
You have this backwards. The PC snowflake brigade today have made it much, much worse socially.
You have no idea what it’s like to grow up in a community dominated by religious nut jobs. Comparatively, the “snowflakes” are a minor nuisance, like Ska music.
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