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I move that the $500 for the Most Engaging Poster be donated to the Girl Scouts of America, in the name of the OP, Happy in Wyoming. The GSA is doing great work empowering the young women of our nation to become strong and well-educated, develop leadership skills, and grow to become respected and active members of their communities.
I only give charitable contributions to groups helping animals. When I die, that's where my estate will go.
Yep, and they were an absolute nightmare for anyone who did not, or could not, conform. That included Gay people, transgendered people, and even "odd" people. Being "different", in any way, was considered the most horrible thing imaginable: almost a crime. I know people in their eighties, who, even today, spend an enormous amount of their time, ridiculing others for lapses in conformity.
Those people seem to have no sense of morality, or of reality, outside what "everybody" is doing or saying or thinking. Consensus, in their world, IS reality.
I know a brilliant designer, whose "Greatest Generation" relatives have never acknowledged any accomplishment of his, and who have never said anything good about his homes (or his work on the homes/shopping centers/office parks of others). He goes into a depression whenever he has to see them, because in their eyes, all he is, is somebody who "sounds funny", "never found 'The Right Girl'", doesn't like Football, "Makes all these weird interiors" (they refuse to process that he's done internationally-published books on design, works for the richest people in the South, and has transformed an entire town - landing its shopping centres in Urban Planning history books). My Decorator and I have to ring-him-up, around holidays, because we know that "those relatives will have gotten to him, again.". You know that Carol Burnett sketch, when the "odd" son, who's a Pulitzer Prize winner, comes home, to Ed & Eunice & Mama, totally belittling everything about him?
Well, imagine being an "oddball" - any kind of "oddball" - in an era when EVERYBODY WAS LIKE ED & EUNICE.
And don't forget that, for many families, drunken brawls were the norm, because lots of the menfolk drank themselves into stupors, regularly.
If "The Little Woman" was "too nervous", or even suffered from migraines, she could well be committed to a mental institution, where she was almost certain to get shock treatments.
While abortion was forbidden, and birth control was virtually nonexistent, boys were under huge pressure, to get girls drunk (and into the back seats of cars). Otherwise, somebody might think those boys were "funny" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_and_Sympathy_(film)).
Too, don't forget that houses reeked of deadly Chlordane termite poison (as if the cig smoke weren't enough), and had plenty of asbestos around, too. And let's not forget all the Thalidomide Babies: https://www.google.com/search?q=thal...ih=871&dpr=1.2 (and all the babies born with birth defects from all that smoking and drinking and tranquilizer-taking - and from vitamin deficiencies caused by all that energy-filled sugar...).
Love this post about the good old days and Southern history, and much of it rings true to me.
I was always "different" growing up. More cerebral and introverted than most of my peers, always clumsy and uncoordinated with sports and such. Probably somewhere on the autism spectrum but managed.
Maybe the most critical thing I lacked was a strong religious faith, and boy, you were an outcast here if you weren't a person of faith, ESPECIALLY if you weren't a Southern Baptist. There were some northern ethnic Catholics at my school, and they were like ants under a microscope.
Some of that has kind of died down over the years. The economy really kicked the whole "moral majority" thing's teeth in. People are more tolerant (far different than accepting) and won't generally badger an LGBTQ person like they did a generation or more ago.
There are some things I miss - a lack of SJWs, slower pace of lifestyles, more organic social connections instead of faces buried in phones, etc., but it's important for the glasses to not get TOO rosy.
Unfortunately, this led to them "wanting to create a better life for their children". So they spoiled the heck out of the Baby Boomer generation, which became extremely entitled and selfish.
Yet, it's always the baby boomers who are blamed and trashed for being 'entitled and selfish'. Why is blame never put on their parents, you know, the people who raised them to become so?
BTW, I certainly was not spoiled. We were poor. We weren't the only ones, either. Not everyone's boat was raised by the aftereffects of WWII.
It's bad practice to lump together any group of people and assume they are a homogenous group. Maybe you're not old enough yet to have learned that lesson.
Lets be real here. Some generations have way more accomplishments than failures. The Greatest Generation sacrificed themselves for the greater good of the world. They were extremely altruistic and many dealt with extremely difficult times growing up.
Unfortunately, this led to them "wanting to create a better life for their children". So they spoiled the heck out of the Baby Boomer generation, which became extremely entitled and selfish.
That generation marched (some gave their lives) for the civil rights movement, equality for women, established the EEOC and the EPA among other things of note for which many benefit today. They also were forced to fight in a thankless war.
Women used to have it pretty dang good. Why would you want to work 45 hours a week and commute only to throw your kids (if you have one, maybe two) in a daycare, and by then you're too exhausted to truly interact with them on the weekends?
And it's not like anyone's hanging laundry out on the line to dry or scrubbing sheets in a metal wash basin. We have washers, dryers, dishwashers, microwaves, etc. Life is appliancely easy now so the drudgery is gone.
It's not like there's a lot to do anyway, which means more free time for family/elder care, church functions, organizing community functions (We need to hold those together right? At least that's what the politicians keep saying, but then wonder why it isn't happening), volunteering, or even just working part time to stay busy and socially interactive. Or heck, just garden! I would love to have an un-regimented life like that while my spouse went out and hunted down some proverbial bacon to bring home.
Remember when 1 man could support a family of 8 on just one middle class salary? I certainly see how my grandfather did it. Now it takes 2 adults working in many families and many people are struggling just to stay afloat.
And then how many women nowadays wake up one morning at 35 regretting not starting a family sooner? Career is all well and good and all.....but then what? What's the point? So lets say a woman makes it to "the top", but now she's childless, emotionally vapid, and has a contrived grudge against men....that's no way to live life.
What you mentioned are macroeconomic features / bugs, not anything related to women's rights.
Try to respect the older generation. The Greatest Generation were true heroes that created much of the wealth that exists today. Way, way worse things can be said about Baby Boomers, but I'll hold my tongue.
There were / are both good and bad people in the Greatest Generation, just like any generation.
This is the product of feminist brainwashing. Luckily, there is a bit of a backlash against feminism in my generation. I know women that ardently oppose that nonsense.
You won't find them in the sub-forum though. Many of these women created the problem to begin with.
What problem? Treating women equally?
The millennial women I know are completely on board with equality.
That generation marched (some gave their lives) for the civil rights movement, equality for women, established the EEOC and the EPA among other things of note for which many benefit today. They also were forced to fight in a thankless war.
How selfish of them.
Yep, just a slight matter in SE Asia ... only a few gave their lives ...
One of the great things about getting old and thinking about the good old days is that even though you think that you've seen it all, heard it all, and done it all, you just can't remember it all.
I move that the $500 for the Most Engaging Poster be donated to the Girl Scouts of America, in the name of the OP, Happy in Wyoming. The GSA is doing great work empowering the young women of our nation to become strong and well-educated, develop leadership skills, and grow to become respected and active members of their communities.
Good role models and mentoring are a needed plus for all young people at all places and all times, not just for girls as opposed to boys. It makes me sad to note the unstated sub-text here that girls are worthier than boys. Why don't you just write that men are slime?
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Why is blame never put on their parents, you know, the people who raised them to become so? 
