Considering increasing acceptance of things like gay marriage and fornication I don’t see how America is becoming “puritanical”. Maybe we no longer tolerate the absolutely selfish and hedonistic behaviour of so-called “free love” after AIDS.
They didn’t trust anybody over 30.
Then they became over 30.
[sub]Well it was a fun experiment while it lasted, wasn’t it?[/sub]
When students in my high school music class were caught smoking pot on a road trip, the chaperone gave a mild scolding on the bus. Nowadays, I guess the students would be suspended with marks on their record.
You cite the existence of extreme examples to support your contention that the country is more polarized than ever. My contention is that the middle is far larger than the edges, that the edges are what we hear about, that the overall degree of polarization in the country has not changed significantly, just the noise level at the extremes.
I am old enough to remember 1983 quite clearly, I remember what it was like. To say that these days are more (something) is natural because we are living in them, just as it is natural to say our culture is better (or worse) than all the others.
I think the 70s swingers and coke parties of which I have heard so much about will never be reached as an apex again. I hope. The sex has always been going on, and always will. But more discreetly.
Again, hype. Some people were partying down in the 70s, most of us not to that extent. It is like saying that the 90s were a period of pervasive violence and mayhem because of Waco, Oklahoma City and Columbine when the vast majority of the time people were mostly not trying to kill each other.
At a class reunion, I heard one of my schoolmates say (with a straight face) “Drugs today are a lot stronger than when we were in school!” When people are teenagers, they think they are invulnerable. When people are parents, they think their teenagers are fragile.
Yup. Conservatives blindly romanticize the 1950s. Liberals blindly romanticize the 1960s and 1970s. I was a young child in the 70s, and when people get nostalgic for that era, they conveniently overlook the stagflation and the skyjackings.
Everything has a price. Free love led to the AIDS epidemic. The (overhyped) permissiveness towards drugs led to the (overhyped) epidemic of addiction.
The OP sounds like these old guys who romanticize New York City in the 70s and 80s. Why were things “better” when Times Square was fill of prostitutes and homeless drug addicts?
And things have gotten so bad, you can’t even coerce a woman into having sex with you anymore:
What happened to you Gen X? You used to be cool, man…
I don’t have a clue how things were in 1983 as I was a infant 
Where in the USA in 1983 was marijuana openly sold with some thin legal fictions and police basically ignored public smoking? Some dispensaries are laid out like candy stores with touts outside to direct people inside, don’t have a medical marijuana card? No problem we can refer you to a doctor to get one. Can anyone name one real pharmacy that operates like this?
Cultures do change.
I don’t really see things as less permissive today. It seems way more acceptable to talk about your sexual preferences now in a public forum. Fifty Shades of Grey is a bestseller, porn stars are household names, etc. What would have to happen for us to be more permissive? To be honest, it seems like we’ve swung to the point where not being sexually active marks you as strange/bizarre.
I’d have thought that’s pretty obvious. Once that generation became the establishment, it became in their interest to preserve the establishment. Just like politicians will say whatever they need to say to get into office, and once they’re in, they will adjust their views to whatever gives them the most comfortable and cash-filled existence in power.
Thngs were so much freer and better back when I was a teenager (in the '70s). Now that the entire country needs to worry about their mortages, affording college for their daughters, and colonoscopy results we have become so much more puritanical.
(or maybe it’s just that I grew up and have other things on my mind than parties)
Actually, in some ways the 90s were a time of pervasive violence. The crime rate has dropped tremendously in the last 15 years.
The majority of Americans were victims or perpetrators of violent crime in the 90s?
This sounds like the setup for a good Onion article.
It’s my understanding that drugs are, in fact, stronger these days. Pot, at least. When I was growing up, “home grown” was sort of a joke. Apparently now it’s some of the best stuff you can buy.
Since I haven’t indulged in decades, maybe someone else can back me up on this.
Actually, the Victorians weren’t all that prudish as people think they were, either.
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.