It most certainly is the leading cause of this trend. America pre-1968 was not an angry place. Forget the 50’s. Lots of things were better in pre-1968 America, no matter what the decade.
And don’t forget three things:
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The 50’s didn’t invent racism.
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Racism was not ended (to the degree that it has been ended) by hippies or other counter-culture types. Much progress on racism had already been made by 1968 - thanks largely to demonstrations conducted by well-mannered, well-dressed and dignified black people demanding their rights.
What was ended by hippies and other counter-culture types were adult styles of dress, behavior and music; almost nobody on drugs; and the family unit.
- The trade-off hasn’t been close to worth it. Whereas in pre-1968 America black people had to ride in the back of the bus, they now have to deal with an environment rife with drugs and crime and the glamorization of almost every type of negative attitudes, whether they be misogyny, thug life, and anti-education peer pressure. And they have to worry every day of their lives that their kids are going to be drawn into drugs, criminal activity, or be shot in the crossfire. I would absolutely hate being a black parent in American society today.
And where once people were expected to “legitimize their love with a piece of paper” before starting a family - a practice scorned by the counter-culture - now they are free to hop unconcernedly from bed to bed, creating millions of kids who are forced to grow up without adult supervision and
doomed to live their lives spent either in prison or flipping burgers.
Drug-related crime has infested every school and every part of town, and millions of lives have been ruined and/or lost because of it.
Our schools are impotent and fail utterly to educate our kids properly. This is due in part because kids are growing up without discipline at home, without discipline at school, and the federal government has essentially taken over our school systems.
And everybody is pissed off about everything and everybody else, and it gets worse with each passing year. In pre-1968 America most people accepted that - to put it into today’s parlance - “shit happens.” There will always be bad things in life. If you’re going to get into a snit every time you spot one of them (or think you do) and start calling people names because they don’t agree with you about what to do about them, then you’re going to have constant anger flowing from both sides.
I’ll take pre-1968 America over the one we have now any day, and I’d solve the problems of that time in the same way they were dealt with up to that time. Blacks were emancipated and civil rights legislation was passed, and women got the vote, all without fucking up everything that was good about American life at that time. And I have no doubt that civil rights and women’s rights would have continued to progress just like they had up to that time.
The problem I have with liberalism and the reason I blame so many things on it is that it’s essentially an adolescent mindset, and therefore faulty to begin with. Who thinks the “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” attitude is cool? Who is rebellious and has a problem with authority? Who thinks manners and the need for civil behavior is bullshit? Who favors the blatant expression of sex and vulgarity in the media and in public and ridicules people who disapprove of it? Who wants to have all its needs provided for but not be told what to do? And who is prone to endless fault-finding and thinks they have all the answers?
Each one of these characteristics is typical of adolescence, and each one is typical of liberalism. Certainly you don’t find them much in conservative circles. And just like you’d expect from turning the rudder of society over to a bunch of willful, hedonistic, fault-finding, idealistic, know-it-all adolescents, some things will get marginally better but most will get fucked up beyond all repair. And in my opinion that is exactly what has happened to this country since the days of the counter-culture revolution, and it’s the reason I blame liberals and liberalism for everything that has gone wrong since.