Oh, that one wasn’t us. That was your side insisting on draconian sentences for drug crimes and then refusing to raise taxes to pay for all the new prisons we’d need. Given my druthers, I’d be locking rapists up for a minimum of twenty years, but I can’t because the prisons are full of people you sent there for possessing three grams of hashish.
Honestly, though, I don’t know why I bother. To you, everything bad is the result of liberal permissiveness. It’s not a political philosophy anymore; it’s a litany. Progress is scary, I know, and sometimes it has unfortunate side effects. One of them is creating a wacko fringe of people who stick their fingers in their ears and scream “I can’t hear you” when presented with the facts - and occasionally pause to decry such horrific, un-American activities like consensual sex and having long hair.
I’m trying to think of ways American society was better in the 1950s. I honestly can’t think of any. You can still wear 50s clothes if you want, with the added benefit that you don’t have to.
I disagree with Mr. Towers about the gun culture back then, but I wasn’t alive so I don’t know for sure. I think you probably saw rifles a lot more in the 50s as it was a more rural culture in most places; but people were still just as scared of handguns, especially in cities.
I won’t even bring up the ways it was worse back then. Help me out with the positives, SA. And don’t say “polite”. That’s another word for “euphemistic to the point of dishonesty”. Unless you agreed with every aspect of the status quo in the 1950s, you were either a liar or impolite. I prefer rudeness.
Oh, I realize this - it just makes no sense to me that SA thinks the exact same kinds of things that have led to the destruction of society (or whatever he’s claiming) have existed in this country forever were OK as long as everybody ignored them in public speech. From what I can tell, that’s what his rosy-colored vision of the “civility” in the '50s consists of.
I was around in the 50s and 60s. There was always trouble. We had gangs that fought each other for territory. It was not about drugs though. Of course guns were not involved. Fists and feet were the weapons . Teenagers have always gone through some times of alienation and confusion. But they were not shooting each other then. When a robber used a gun in a robbery it was a big story. We all whispered about it when we heard someones dad had a gun in his house. We were curious about it.
I don’t think crime rates really change much. Reporting gets better. When a TV station moved from Detroit to Southfield ,they reported an increase in crime in Southfield. It was just easier to get reports . They had more interest in Southfield crime after the move.
Drugs were mostly confined in the ghetto. Few even smoked dope then. But it took a while to escape and become common. Cocaine was unheard of. The drug of choice was booze, mostly beer and cheap horrible wine.
My parents always warned us to avoid talking to strangers. It was no big deal, but we knew there was potential danger when an adult showed interest in you. We heard many stories about alter boys. But there was a strange acceptance. Adults found it easier to pretend it was not really happening. Oh ,you know Father X. ,he is just a little different.
Yeah, but you’re concentrating on the negative again. He would have been politely killed, by people with short hair who took the time to dress up for the occasion, and the media wouldn’t have made a big fuss about it to upset everyone.
Back then gangs had style. The dance numbers alone were better than anything you get today. And when they disrespected the police, they always had a catchy tune to go along with it.
Please tell me I’m misinterpeting SA and he’s not saying that the racism of the “good old days” he’s so fond of was a fair trade for the “civility” of the times. Please.
I think you are misinterpreting. He’s saying that ending the “civility” was not a necessary component of ending racism. Thus, one can complain about the end of “civility” without saying racism is good.
