The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Conservatives love to wax poetically about the good old days typically referring to the 1950s.  The "Make America Great AGAIN" folks are typically talking about 1950s, as the time America was great.   And there were good and bad things about that era.  However, it seems like they oppose most of what made America Great.

In the 1950s: 

A high school graduate working full time at minimum wage made enough to support a family. Not wealthy, but not in poverty either.  That is no longer the case.  Yet any effort to raise the minimum wage is opposed by those longing for the good old days.

In the 1950s the very wealthy paid a much higher tax rate with the very wealthy having a top tax bracket of 91%.

In the 1950s, there were wealthy people, but the income disparity was much smaller.

In the 1950s, schools had fire drills, but none had active shooter drills. 

In the 1950s almost half of all employees were in a union, today about 1 in 10.

In the 1950s college was affordable (the barrier for entry was mostly academic not financial).

In the 1950s health care was affordable for the average family.

In the 1950s social security paid enough to retire on. 

But the same people who want to bring the 1950s back don't seem to want to bring any of that back. 

The 1950s also had some bad things.

Racism was legal. 

Sexism was legal.

No environmental protections.   

No ramps for the handicap. 

More drunk driving.

-----

So what exactly do you want to bring back from the 1950s?  Is it that June Cleaver took care of Ward?  But at the same time you don't want to bring back a society were Ward earned enough to support his family on a single income?  No reserved parking for those in wheelchairs?  Or is it the racism?   

I saw something recently that said people's references to "the good ole days" are to a time when they themselves felt comfortable. It isn't only white people, rich people, or people in power who say that.  Ironically enough I was having this conversation with an almost  60 year old black man last week when he brought it up. He's a project superintendent on a 25 million dollar project who served in the military and went to college.  From what he was saying I'm betting his interpretation of the 70 & 80s (his good ole days) in the south and yours would be completely different.

Yeah, there is no good old days in a traditional sense.  When you were young, you didn't know enough to be concerned about things that you should have.

Our best days are ahead -- our kids will have it better than we did.  We have it better than our parents.

Even with all the stupid bullshit setbacks, the advances in other areas more than make up for it.



In related news, I just saw the Northman.  What a shitty time to be alive.   Even the king had a shitty existence and everyone is terrible to each other.

In the 1950s, kids in rural area high schools brought guns to school all the time as they would go hunting before school.  Nobody freaked out and schools didn't go on lockdown.

In the 1950's, a teacher could give a student a hug without being accused of being a pedophile

In the 1950's, kids could bring asprin or cough syrup to school without being charged with bringing drugs to school

In the 1950's, kids were taught right from wrong and also taught to take responsibility for the accidents they caused

In the 1950s, sodas were made with real cane sugar, not that nasty high fructose corn syrup

In the 1950s, if you said something disrespectful to an adult, you didn't get your phone taken away.... you got the shit smacked outta you.  And when you did, Child Services didn't get involved.

I will assume you gave this response in good faith and respond. 


Those were single shot .22s and BB air rifles.  Not automatic* AR-15s.  This was an era where targets were of round circles or silhouettes of animals not silhouettes of humans.  This was an era where all rifle were hunting rifles not assault rifles.  I want that era back too.   I will make you this compromise that I am sure almost all gun reform advocates would sign onto and almost none of the gun industry lobbyist.   In exchange for a complete ban on all automatic weapons, you can have your school gun clubs back, I will even toss in to the deal a national inclusion of rifle shooting into the 7-12 PE classes.   

*Automatic = auto reloading refers to both semi- and fully-.


Extremely unlikely that a teacher would hug a student in the 1950s.  Based on what my mother told me the relationship between teachers and students were much more formal and distant than they are today.  My mom was in utter shock the first time she saw one of her teachers in a grocery store.

However, you do bring up a larger point.  Today there are considerably more protections to prevent children from being preyed upon by pedophiles.  While it was extremely rare to occur by a teacher in a day school.  It was extremely common in boarding schools and by clergy. Changes have been made to protect children.  Seems odd that you oppose protecting children from actual pedophiles while pretending that treating homosexuals equally will lead children to being venerable to pedophile. 

 

Kids are not "charged" (which implies criminality).  However, most schools have policies that require that children don't self-medicate particularly if the medicine requires a prescription or is not allowed to be sold to minors.  Most parents would prefer to provide any medication be dispensed by an adult and only after receiving expressed permission for the parent.  Having a first grader responsible of their own medication is highly irresponsible.  Also given how kids love to share and try new things, quite dangerous for the other children.  There are incidents were exceptions aren't made and should be. But this is part of a larger trend to keep children safe including car seats, bicycle helmets, and seat belts on shopping carts. I consider this a net positive.     


This is a non-sense statement.  Children are taught right from wrong and to take responsibility.   There has been some change in what is right and wrong though.  More people were taught segregation was right and integration was wrong in 1950 than in 2022.


This one I will agree with you whole heartedly.  For a while Costco was carrying a brand with real cane sugar, but alas like with everything else there it is no longer.  And in general food was of a better quality in the 50's with more natural ingredients and less synthetic crap.  So what government action would like to see happen? While *I* would love to see the FDA take a greater role in mandating better ingredients and adopt the food purity laws of the EU, I am pretty sure any regulation that was wide sweeping enough to mandate that real sugar be used in soda instead of corn syrup would be decried as "nanny state" by those most likely to praise the 1950's.


I am noticing a theme here about children.  The 1950s was better because child abuse was not as unacceptable.  I am gonna disagree with this one as well. 

Just going to address this one point. In 1985 it was not uncommon for there to be .222 Remington and .30-06 rifles in the windows of trucks in Sanford, Florida.  Both of which have been used by militaries and are the predesessor of the .223 or "assault rifle".  It was kind of odd since we could only hunt deer locally with shotguns but it seemed like everyone had one or the other.

Dave, you really think your kids will have it better than you? I think that is breeder mentality.  By the time they are adults women will no longer be able to choose if they have a baby. Some not even with exceptions for rape, incest (is that really different) or as some people propose, to save their own life.  You also will have antibiotic resistant bacteria running rampant. Glaciers will be melted. The one bonus is everyone can smoke weed to forget the shit show around them. In the 90's I decided there was no way I could bring a child into this world. Looking for things to improve for the next generation is a pipe dream. We fucked it up already.

Yes, I do and I don't even think there's a question.

Even with Roe, which is total bullshit -- people don't want that -- we'll have to fight and there'll be a backslide, but the pendulum will swing back.  And with that pendulum, there will be scientific advances in ways we can't imagine.  We could cure cancer.  There's no telling what will be accomplished.

And as fucked as it is to say, my kids are of a class that will be taken care of.  They have a family that will lay a foundation for them.  You could outlaw abortion tomorrow and my girls will still have access, because we have means and education to make that happen.  Granted, it will suck for others, but not for me or mine.  I gots mines.  This kind of draconian bullshit -- the fluctuations and abuses -- they hurt poor and disadvantaged people well before they'll even get to my kids.

All this terrible shit that's happening and stressing me out isn't stressing me out because it hurts me.