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HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
As a boomer (at the tail end, admittedly), I too have lived through all of these things. Plus the other thirty years of shit that happened before it.
The world threat that was the USSR and Mutually Assured Destruction. The Vietnam War, two Gulf Wars, and 9/11.
The “Troubles” in Ireland and IRA bombings in London. The Munich Olympics Massacre. The rise of global terrorism. The FLQ crisis. Kent State. Watergate.
Acid rain. Leaded gas and smog.
15%+ mortgage rates. The oil crisis. Wage and price controls. Multiple recessions. The Dot Com bubble.
Police raids on gay clubs. Racial slurs in everyday language. Massive gender inequality.
24" black and white TVs. It took a week to find out how your photos came out. Watching f@#$ing “Tiny Talent Time” on a Sunday afternoon because there wasn’t any else better on the other 5 channels (if that doesn’t traumatize you, nothing will).
You had to go to a library if you wanted to look something up in an encyclopedia.
Cars without seatbelts, crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, traction control or airbags.
F*CK me. “No experience”. Maybe just enough to know how much better things generally are today.
Kids always think that they know more than their parents…until they don’t.
kofe@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m taking a psychology of aging course that gets into the extreme cultural ageism against older adults, and man, I really can’t begin to explain how much it’s humbled me. We’re reading a book called “Happiness is a Choice You Make” by John Leland that I want to recommend to everyone now.
I do wonder if there’s a generational difference in how we’ve been exposed and take in information - along with younger adults and kids being more negatively impacted by the isolation of COVID - but otherwise, yeah, I was going to comment something similar. Throw in the AIDS crisis, satanic panic, and any number of other issues
The one thing I want to maybe disagree on is how much “better” things are today. In some ways, absolutely. In others, like stagnated wages, it’s not. I’m not too interested in doing a deep dive on it today but I’ll keep it in mind for a potential summer project