The sad thing is what they really miss is reasonable restrictions on industry and capitalism, a viable chance to support a family on a single full-time salary, and upward mobility, but rather than getting mad at the greedy capitalist assholes that have stolen these things from them, instead they let these exact same greedy assholes trick them into thinking that minorities and disempowered peoples are somehow the ones stifling progress.
The yearning for better days isn’t inherently wrong, it’s the conclusions they draw where they go astray.
You’re exactly right - the problem is that the people who always talk about the good old days are the ones who are yearning for a more white and more male world. And they don’t really care that those days weren’t good because of the whiteness and maleness; they were good because unions were strong and taxes on the rich were high, etc. which bolstered and strengthened the middle class.
You aren’t exactly wrong, but it is a little bit of what you say and what’s in the cartoon.
As a gay elder-millennial I have experienced almost the entire narrative of what these folks consider the bad new days they fought against and what the good old days should be like.
Literally they want me not to exist. They don’t even necessarily hate me, but they just don’t want me to be represented in any form they have to deal with.
I think the same is true regarding women’s rights and people of color to an extent.
Nudge Squidfish has a captivating account of growing up in the Midwest c. 1970. Yeah, he could get on a bus from Columbus to Nashville with no money and no contacts, and somehow make it. Even for teenagers, all drugs except alcohol were at least tolerated, if not flat-out legal, and STDs were not a thing (he claims). But still there was a lot of racism, plus constant violence and fights everywhere, and God forbid you came out as gay - the kids would smash your head right in. Lots of teenage pregnancies. Also, you couldn’t have sex at home, apparently it was actually illegal for your parents to “enable” it. So there had to be a lot of sex in public places - there was a forest in Columbus nicknamed “Finger Forest” because all the couples went there to… you know…
The sad thing is what they really miss is reasonable restrictions on industry and capitalism, a viable chance to support a family on a single full-time salary, and upward mobility, but rather than getting mad at the greedy capitalist assholes that have stolen these things from them, instead they let these exact same greedy assholes trick them into thinking that minorities and disempowered peoples are somehow the ones stifling progress.
The yearning for better days isn’t inherently wrong, it’s the conclusions they draw where they go astray.
You’re exactly right - the problem is that the people who always talk about the good old days are the ones who are yearning for a more white and more male world. And they don’t really care that those days weren’t good because of the whiteness and maleness; they were good because unions were strong and taxes on the rich were high, etc. which bolstered and strengthened the middle class.
You’ve nailed the part where people (including people in this thread) are talking past each other. I’ll repeat it for those in the back:
We can have both.
You aren’t exactly wrong, but it is a little bit of what you say and what’s in the cartoon.
As a gay elder-millennial I have experienced almost the entire narrative of what these folks consider the bad new days they fought against and what the good old days should be like.
Literally they want me not to exist. They don’t even necessarily hate me, but they just don’t want me to be represented in any form they have to deal with.
I think the same is true regarding women’s rights and people of color to an extent.
Make no mistake, the extreme ones want you dead and the less extreme ones that don’t will stay silent.
Nudge Squidfish has a captivating account of growing up in the Midwest c. 1970. Yeah, he could get on a bus from Columbus to Nashville with no money and no contacts, and somehow make it. Even for teenagers, all drugs except alcohol were at least tolerated, if not flat-out legal, and STDs were not a thing (he claims). But still there was a lot of racism, plus constant violence and fights everywhere, and God forbid you came out as gay - the kids would smash your head right in. Lots of teenage pregnancies. Also, you couldn’t have sex at home, apparently it was actually illegal for your parents to “enable” it. So there had to be a lot of sex in public places - there was a forest in Columbus nicknamed “Finger Forest” because all the couples went there to… you know…