While reading an excellent article on Alternet, I found an ignorant comment responding to this article which pissed me off. What follows is the original comment plus my response.
Difference between so-called progressives and conservatives
The difference is simple: it is the difference between a world run by progressives (think of the 70s - we have been there!), and the 50s (a world run by conservatives, not neo-conservatives!).
The 70s: terrorism run wild - the weathermen, black panthers, Badder Meinhoff gang, the IRA, PLO, etc. etc. - crime gone wild - New York murder capital, cities going down the toilet, white flight, sexual mores out the window, rise of AIDS, STDs, broken homes, damaged people, etc. etc. Drug-addled zombies everywhere. Sure, you could strap on a pair of flares, walk two blocks from Times Square, and screw some strange woman against the wall. But it was also double-digit inflation, high unemployment, bad products, etc.
The 50s: social stability, safe streets and neighbourhoods, lots of jobs, great product design - in fact the best in the world, people looked healthy - few fatties, no AIDS, low drug abuse rates, net savers and richest in the world, people respected each other, people dressed well.
We sadly are now slipping back into the 70s. We are seeing the social and economic chaos of that time coming back. Sure, we have the funky squad now in the White House, but it is going to be hell for your average person on the street. Society needs a return to the values of the 50s, not the 70s.
My response was brief and to the point:
Simplistic and Misleading Comment
Sure, the fifties were great, just as long as you were a white, male, heterosexual, monogamous, married, educated, middle to upper class, attractive, able-bodied, mentally and physically healthy, non-intellectual, conservative, Anglo-Saxon Protestant.If you didn't fit all or most of these criteria, maybe not so much.
I came of age in the 70s and it was one of the happiest times of my life.
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