# How much more puritanical will America shift? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223 "2012-08-11T22:46:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/41 "2012-08-14T15:02:23Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Seriously. Back in 1978 or 1979, a person could find any number of after-hour clubs, back-door bars, or just all-night parties every weekend. I can’t tell you the last time I heard of any of these happening. Has to be fifteen, twenty years or more. Just checked with one if our interns. Those still exist. **We** are not getting invited. May have something to do with being able to remember '78 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/42 "2012-08-14T18:49:14Z")
From the late 1970’s to early 1980’s it seemed like both _People_ and _Time_ (US) magazines always had at least one topless female picture, although sometimes it was very small. It wasn’t too long after Reagan took office that they stopped that (does anyone know the exact date and reason?) To me, that felt like the start of the puritanical movement. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/43 "2012-08-14T19:18:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There seems to be more pressure to conform these days. I mentioned schools bringing back dress codes. Even colleges are starting to monitor drinking and activities of their students. All reminiscent of the pre 1960’s days. > > I notice it more because I grew up in probably the freest period we’ve ever had. There were no expectations on how you dressed or conducted your life. I took a college class about 8 years ago and the teacher enforced a late policy. Miss three classes and get a grade drop. We never had rules like that when I went to college in 1979-1983. We were adults. If we wanted to waste our time & tuition by skipping class then it was our loss. Teachers weren’t our nannys. > > Funny thing, Baby Boomers are running America today. The same kids that fought the establishment. Staged Peace Rallys. Marched with Martin Luther King. > > What happened to these people? Where did their ideals go? I think to some extent it’s just your own nostalgia. I grew up in almost the same time period (I went to college 1980-1984) and my experiences were quite different. In particular, “sex was easy to come by”, from your OP, was not true for me, or for most people I knew. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/44 "2012-08-19T13:13:25Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > Hey, you don’t have to know anything about the thing you’re romanticizing, in fact it helps if you don’t. > > I’ve heard people romanticize the Depression! Because people weren’t so indulgent and stuff then you know. Just good old-fashioned trying not to starve to death like the Lord intended, they say from in their air-conditioned house in the suburbs. The '30s were actually pretty awesome. The Depression wasn’t of course, but that’s all anyone remembers. A lot of the good stuff was actually material culture, and never caught on because too many people couldn’t buy anything. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/45 "2012-08-19T15:56:42Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Where in the USA in 1983 was marijuana openly sold with some thin legal fictions and police basically ignored public smoking? You’ve used the term “thin legal fictions” twice now, but laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes are not “legal fictions”; they are regular laws, properly passed by elected representatives in state and local governments, and in some cases mandated by popular vote. The main dispute over such laws is the fact that they currently run counter to federal prohibitions on marijuana, and this jurisdictional issue has become a bone of contention in cases where the feds decide that they’re going to take action. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/46 "2012-08-19T21:21:51Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You’ve used the term “thin legal fictions” twice now, but laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes are not “legal fictions” . . . I’ll have to disagree, a little. I think the fiction is that mj is being used for medical purposes, when, in an awful lot of cases, it is being used recreationally. You can find a doctor who will write a “recommendation” if you simply tell him you have a headache. This is the “thin legal fiction” that some of us find troubling. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/47 "2012-08-19T21:28:48Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’ll have to disagree, a little. I think the fiction is that mj is being used for medical purposes, when, in an awful lot of cases, it is being used recreationally. You can find a doctor who will write a “recommendation” if you simply tell him you have a headache. This is the “thin legal fiction” that some of us find troubling. Some doctors also write prescriptions for pain medication too easily. It doesn’t mean that the laws allowing pain medication are “legal fictions”; it simply means that some doctors are acting unethically and possibly illegally. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/48 "2012-08-20T00:03:58Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Some doctors also write prescriptions for pain medication too easily. It doesn’t mean that the laws allowing pain medication are “legal fictions”; it simply means that some doctors are acting unethically and possibly illegally. Are there doctors who literally do nothing but write prescriptions for narcotics, and that’s their entire practice? No, I don’t think there are. Marijuana dispensaries sometimes even have things like neon lights of a marijuana leaf in their windows, for god’s sake. Do pharmacies have neon lights of a Vicodin pill? The marijuana recommendation business is VERY much wink-wink-nudge-nudge. It’s incredibly silly that this roundabout way of allowing marijuana is necessary. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/49 "2012-08-20T00:06:26Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > The marijuana recommendation business is VERY much wink-wink-nudge-nudge. I know it is, but that doesn’t mean that the law itself, and the rules governing medical marijuana, constitute a “legal fiction.” > [@Blackberry](#): > > It’s incredibly silly that this roundabout way of allowing marijuana is necessary. I agree. The stuff should be completely legal and available for purchase. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/50 "2012-08-20T00:58:41Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I know it is, but that doesn’t mean that the law itself, and the rules governing medical marijuana, constitute a “legal fiction.” I think it’s fair to call it a legal fiction that marijuana is only allowed for medical purposes. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/51 "2012-08-20T01:06:42Z")
I got busted by some county-mounties in a small city in Idaho in '79. We were just a little too incautious about it. They confiscated our weed (short of an ounce) and our paraphernalia, frisked us, and sent us on our way with a “stern warning”. In those parts, I have heard some residents say that they take your weed and a week or two later, you would be buying it back from one of their middlemen. In many parts of the country, statutes notwithstanding, weed was rarely a primary offense. ---
**Author:** ![gunnergoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223/52 "2012-08-20T05:22:16Z")
I was born in the late 40’s so I can speak from memory about the 50’s and later and to tell the truth, people were about as prudish or, alternately, without inhibition back then as they are now. The difference lies in the moral tone of the media and of our lawmakers. I don’t think that the Baby Boomers went conservative as much as the conservatives among them eventually became more politically effective than the liberals. This trend continued into the present day. Despite the Right’s constant harping about “liberal media bias” the fact is, the organizations that deliver the news to most Americans, are pretty much conservative in nature and have shaped national debates and focus of conservative causes more effectively than the news sources that are liberal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-more-puritanical-will-america-shift/631223.md?page=2)