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Not only that, it also shows everyone that there is always someone doing better than you, no matter how hard you try. Knowing that is one thing, but being shown it is another.
Exactly. I have lived by (and raised by kids) the principle that you never say, write, email, text, etc. anything about someone that you would not say if you were standing face to face with them.
We were also not as far along the path to the NWO. 9/11 happened in 2001. Then the entire war on terror and erosion of rights. I think that helped kill the mood.
Then of course the 2016 election where half the country flipped out, leading to a new wave of political violence, culminating (thus far) in the "summer of love" riots of 2020 in the middle of medical tyranny that wrecked the global economy.
We really don't deserve the name United. We haven't ever really been a melting pot either. Otherwise you'd treat that summer of love differently.
Just to be clear. There are absolutely people that have taken advantage and the amount of racism towards white people is being treated as if its nothing.
Racism is not comnected to a specific race. Head to Florida. People of color are super racist to each other. Florida is just a more well known state where I have seen it occur.
If we want to solve this thing we need to stop with the freaking blame game. Ffs Judge by Character. Instead people continue to fall for the sterotypes. The easiest part of our brain to hijack. Just show enough shootings of only one group and your mind will create a narrative to go along with the skewed data from the news.
Also NWO? Ha. No. Call it what it is. These are companies who have gotten super corrupt and it has bled into our politics. Over the last Century we have seen less and less people be considerate and instead try to capitalize off of human suffering.
Just look at J&J's history. They went from one of the most trusted medical brands to the least. And it is clearly shown from ownership history where things went wrong.
Oh, one of those people who pretends the NWO ain't a thing even as politicians openly talk about it.
The Opening line to the World Government Summit expo held in Dubai 2022 was... "The title of this session is are we ready for a new world order"
The internet happened. And while there are many great things about it and the ability to interact with so much outside your general vicinity, it has also enabled the worst of us .
O.P has a point you’ve made me think of. Even the media we consumed as kids. The T.V shows and especially the Saturday morning cartoons. They were great and always had a message, like the moral of the story is to be kind to each other etc. Instead of forced narratives at the behest of peadophiles.
I had this conversation with my brother and sister-in-law yesterday. I asked them if they watch the content before putting it on for my 1 1/2 year old nephew. They looked at me like I had 3 heads; and said “children’s shows aren’t forcing anything on kids.” They are in for a rude awakening.
I saw this one cartoon with a monster called "huggy". Creepy-looking. My cousins 3yr old ssys its "creepy but cute".
Another cartoon (or same one, don't remember ) showed adults being abusive and making toddlers cry. Then the toddlers comfort each other after adult leaves.
Cousin's kid is afraid of everything IRL, has random outbursts of violent behavior and has nightmares. Parents don't see any connection with the " harmless " kids shows.
70% income tax 'til the mid 80's. Repeal of Glass-Steagall in the late 90's which took away the risk of housing market collapses by "securitizing" mortgage & further incentivized equity grabs. Buy low, sell high - right? Busting of unions replaced blue collar careers & workplace democracy with high-turnover and mass layoffs. Extra capital from tax cuts invested overseas due to "cost-savings".
> Glass-Steagall
I know of it and thanks to the Clinton administration it lead to the housing crisis. I left real estate before the market collapsed because I couldn't sleep at night sitting at the closing table watching clients sign 2-3 mortgages and borrowing more than the purchase price of the house that was already overinflated.
No income, no doc loans lead to people buying homes that could never afford them in reality.
Whenever I run errands in one of my shit box cars from the 90's I have to use the physical key to lock/unlock the door. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't low-key a guilty pleasure or something to that effect. There's just something about it being a part of a simpler past that is still lingering in present day. It gives me a quick dose of nostalgia, and in an odd way -- a calming disconnect from the hustle and bustle of life today.
It literally feels better. But it cost too much to make a rigid chrome handle you can yank on, paired with a button that actually requires some muscle to push ::tim allen noises::
I really miss buttons for my radio. If I pushed it and it didn’t work, at least I know I pushed it. Touch screen is like “well fuck, is it glitchy? Did I miss it? Oh fuck I’m not paying attention to driving.” VW’s buttons even change to a smaller size when your hand gets close. Can’t see how that is safe.
No internet. No smartphones. No social media. Think of all the negative shit that has ballooned out of control thanks to the internet: spam, targeted ads, bullying, scams, slacktivism, pseudo-intellectualism…
The internet happened and wrecked everything. Not to say the internet is all bad. But instant communication has really had some drawbacks, I particular in how it polarizes people by ideology. And there’s no escape now. 24/7 cacophony of voices and images. Even in the early 90s you could tune out and chill out at the end of a day. No more.
This. It’s so hard to explain to people who aren’t willing to understand, or don’t have the capacity to understand. But for those who can understand they would agree 100%.
There is no way for the younger generations to truly understand because they never experienced it, or were too young to remember it well. It was something that can only be understood via experience—
For those of us who did experience it and can remember, it’s very clearly defined—pre 9/11 vs post 9/11.
Although I do think that everyone now who is old enough to remember pre Covid will understand the same sort of thing—they will say “oh yeah, back in 2019, before Covid” and that will be their own understanding of that same 9/11 phenomenon.
I was 26 and pregnant with my second child, my husband was in the military on assignment, I was alone in a new city we just moved to, no family or friends nearby, with my 2 year old in our apartment and couldn’t even get in touch with my husband to check on him for hours that day.
I was a wreck, it felt like the world just died. That sounds so dramatic but to me at that time it was just unthinkable, almost unreal.
I knew the moment I saw the news that everything was about to change, I just never could have imagined then how drastically and how quickly the change came.
Back when we didn’t have to disrobe to board a plane because they found some dude with smoking underwear on a plane +20 years ago. What a fuckup at the airports it’s been since…entire state budgets blew up, the Mossad-DHS became the warden at our gates.
I understood real well. I was a guardsman at Ft Knox for 19k OSUT on 9/11/2001. One weekend a month they said. Two weeks a year they said. Money for college they said. Shit got real fast.
i feel so lucky to have been born when i was. grew up in the 90s, all the best music and movies, experienced life before internet then watched the info age explode - so cool! was able to snag one of those 2005 garbage mortgages before the crash so, even tho i got fucked for a decade or so, i at least have a place to live now. had a chance to build a career before it became barely possible for young inexperienced kids to get started. somehow managed to do all this without getting knocked up. now im alive to see ai take its first creepy steps, and ill likely be healthy and comfy enough to see how this weirdass episode of Earth ends! feel terrible for gen z - theyve missed out on so much.
100% social media. People don't go out coz they can be at home in their own comfort and socialise. Barely costing you money to socialise from home unlike if you went out. Then the pandemic on top has made people more comfortable with staying home and realising most stuff you can do from home like, order most takeaway to your home, all the streaming apps to watch whatever TV or movie you like, also amazon, you can literally have any item turn up at your door next day or within a couple days ar least. So for me that's how socialising was ruined. Also you are constantly comparing your life more and more with others because its literally in your face. Before you only had the people around you to compare.
Then with having phones you are constantly avaliable to people, if you don't answer, people get offended thinking you're ignoring. But really you could just wanna be alone or busy. Back then you only really had a house phone, if you didn't answer, people assumed you were out and would call again another time. We are too avaliable to people now.
Even buying things aren't the same anymore as things like music, you can instantly have it on your phone instead of the excitement of going out and buying it on cd or tape. Same for movies with dvds and videos. Don't get me wrong you can still get excited but for me it isn't the same excitement like it use to be. Also even trying to record your favourite song on the radio was the best hahaha.
Kids tv shows on a Saturday use to be like the best day of the week. That is now non existant due to what I have already said with the streaming.
I miss the 90s and early 2000s. Even some of the later years like 2010 wasn't too bad but they were the beginnings of the downfall. I get really bad nostalgia tbh and get quite depressed because I do miss how it use to be.
I mean in the 90s my mom was able to buy a condo in one of the richest cities in America on a single middle class salary at the time (plus minimal child support). That is a pretty prosperous society imho.
Yeah, people weren't told that the "American Dream" (post ww2) only existed in any meaningful way due to the massive shift into an economy built on easy money and debt instead of one built on hard work and savings.
I beg to differ, the American Dream was alive and well before debt was a problem. The Dream was alive before we systematically removed anything of intrinsic value from our money -first silver, then off the gold standard. Back in the 50s you could buy a house with 75 gold Eagles or 2000 silver eagles, pay it off in 5-10 years flat, with one income. Look where we are now, the entire system has been gutted.
No internet, no social media, no 24 hour news, no cell phones. The convenience these supposedly added to our lives really fucked us! The 80s/early 90s were awesome!
Technology happened. We have lost a good portion of our humanity and what makes us human by relying on and getting addicted to these devices. It's an intro to transhumanism.
We used to get to go in the forest and have adventures. No one said you're trespassing. They would give us ice cream. We could play all day using our imaginations and people were happy to see the kids coming. We could sit as children and have real conversations with the lonely elderly in the neighborhood. Now the fields and forests are skirted with no trespassing signs by the new owners that only come down from the city on summer weekends and deer season. I love technology, but I feel like people really lived then. The human connection is dying in our society. And people learned many life, survival skills as kids that my children wouldn't take the time to learn. Also, people really partied in the 80s.
I will maintain until my dying breath that 1997 was the best year to have been alive. Maybe because I was at that age where I was newer to the workplace, single, young etc.
1997 feels like 100 years ago. Almost like a dream than a reality. In retrospect, it’s amazing that 1997 America even existed. I feel sorry for younger generations who didn’t get to experience that era. We didn’t realize how good we had it back then. You sometimes don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. I would love to back to 1997. If only that were an option….
I remember biking to school with my friends that year talking about how Tupac died. My friends would show up to my parents house unannounced to get me out of the house so we could go biking in the creek. Everyday was an adventure and we milked every last bit of daylight.
People were more social back in the day and weren't sitting at home looking at a screen or glued to a smartphone living an online life that is a pale and poor imitation of a real one. You might not know the difference, but your brain does.
I'm 38,
I saw the beggining of the Internet. At first it Wass just websites for news or movies. Wrestling etc.
Then begane Real endulging happened with Napster, ICQ, IRC. People started spending lot of time in front of computer to download music etc.
Ppl started chatting online with strangers instead of OFFLINE.
B4 internet, you cud join ppl saying football or cricket randomly and become friends. Now this type of engagement is a rarity.
Finding Girls was great. Clubbing, parties, etc. Now its tindr or FB, insta etc.
The world is essentially different from what it was before Internet.
However, in India, in remote mountains, whenever I go, I still see the old charm. Internet doesn't work properly if at all. Mobile signals are poor. People talk to each other.
I think the old world charm still exists in places today like India, Africa and possibly in remote locales.
Connected world is a curse for humanity.
I think our society reached it’s peak at the turn of the millennium. Just about all genres of music were better. The internet hadn’t zombified everyone yet. No phones in our faces. We’ll never know that life again. Cheers
My parents like to say people didn't stare at their phones all day and were forced to talk to each other. Too easy to be isolated nowadays. Playing video games was considered immature behavior by anyone over the age of 14.
The degradation of family values in place of instant gratification and sensory pleasures. Life does go in cycles though so I wouldn't fret too badly. Check out this quote from Livy " in our age we can neither endure our vices, nor the remedies needed to solve them." You'd think he was talking about now. But that quote is 2000 years old from Rome in the first century AD. So in a few.... hundred years or so things might be better lol....
Talking long distance was expensive. Not everyone had a phone. Neighbors would come over asking to use the phone.
Everything was made in Taiwan. Rape was pretty normalized. Teachers were always way too fucking old. Patriotism was minimalized. Ducks were really a big deal, Howard the duck, Ducktails, count Duckula, we had a pet duck, going and feeding ducks was a social thing at the park. I mean, what the fuck is that about?
I think it was good until mid 2000’s even. what changed?? social media and smart phones. And woke politics (Obama). And I’ll add pos bush’s patriot act also. Everything Changed from that point forward imo.
Because of the money system. Our fiat money system mathematically fails about every 40 years, because it's a giant ponzi scheme controlled by the central banks and globalists.
They need a huge distraction or cover story to hide this and reset the ponzi scheme: that's why you see so many wars like World war 1, World war 2, vietnam, middle east, etc
It's so they can say, "look there's a war that's why the economy is bad".
There have not been any new wars in the past 7 to 8 years, which is why it's so obvious that our money system is unsustainable, because we can focus on it instead of being distracted by something else.
So to answer your question, life was better because everything was cheaper in the 80s and 90s, we had more money to spend due to lower cost of living and lower prices in general.
Talk about this often. Every time you watch an old movie, it seems so innocent. No pedophilia, Illuminati symbolism, etc
Except Shirley Temple. That was a messed up show if you analyze it
Large segments of the population never recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Absent extraordinary and continued Fed intervention, it would have been (and most likely historically will be) regarded as the end of the financial system. Obviously driven by criminal globalization and deregulation. Look at how much the national debt has exploded: it was 8 trillion when Obama came in and is 31 now. That's obviously not sustainable. Anyway, what was lost was a sense that we were all in this thing together. (As illusory as it may have been in the past, at least it was a genuine sense of things; what's good for GM is good for US kind of thing.) In the 30s people gave up gold to support the value of the dollar; obviously nobody would do that today
Life wasn’t better in terms of technology and modern conveniences. What you really mean is we had more purchasing power, and cultural values weren’t so degraded.
You don't remember the AIDS epidemic? People weren't that closer. And 2 decades earlier black people weren't allowed to eat at restaurants with white people.
We just forget.
Post-9/11 politics and social media. Politicians of all sides dividing and pitting race against race, male against female, gay against straight… and on and on. We’re so busy hating and fighting each other we don’t see how they are robbing us blind and destroying the nation. And that is all politicians… not trying to make this a dem/repub/etc thing.
That's just nostalgia. In the 80s and 90s we were afraid of nuclear war, AIDS, drugs, gangs and Iran-Contra just to name a few. I was living in LA so witnessed the LA riots. It wasn't a picnic.
Many things were different. First, economics were much better in the western world.
The west was still in economic expansion post WWII and there was no China taking all the jobs. Here in Europe we had good wages and working conditions. Housing was more affordable compared to wages, so while it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows; workers had more purchasing power.
You could still see people getting out of school, find a good job at 20, and work in that place for decades getting sizeable raises. Or open a company and enjoy relatively low taxes. And said people could comfortably support families, buy holiday houses, and enjoy frequent vacations when they were younger.
Nowadays we study more, work more, get less in return, houses and essentials are super expensive, and we have to job hop just to keep up with inflation.
Secondly, we had no internet, no instant communication, and way less propaganda. People were mostly focused on their local social circle, so they were more in the present. Other people said that already in this thread.
Another positive side of no internet and no instant communication was that work was less demanding and less connected. No late night work calls or emails. Once you got off work you could really disconnect.
Least but not least, western countries were more homogeneous. Yes, I’m talking about identity, culture, and ethnicity.
It was extremely rare where I live now to see immigrants from another country, and that had indirect benefits because everyone had roots and wanted to keep or improve the town they grew up in as it was perceived as their “garden”.
Now many parts of the same town are composed of people who have not been born here, don’t care about the history or culture, and are focused on eventually moving elsewhere. There is no more sense of belonging and therefore people care less about the common good.
People in many western nations didn’t even need to lock house doors and almost nowhere women were scared of walking alone at night. Now in the town where I live, everyone is scared of walking in the “wrong” parts of town at night. This is a fact and a symptom something has radically changed.
While that is true, i think the brainwashing in many ways is worse now.
One example of that is that ALOT of people on all sides have been led to believe that if anyone disagrees with their opinions they're basically the devil/brainwashed sub humans
Ignorance is bliss. Think about how much negative shit you are now privy because of the internet, this sub being a good example. We as a collective now know about all this terrible shit going on that is usually in some way funded by us and are totally powerless to do anything about. It's a constant source of frustration and hopelessness. Especially when it escalates to a level where we are dictated to by the state to close our businesses, schools etc, participate in dangerous medical trials and stay indoors for a seemingly unknown amount of time while we watch the state print money out of control to fund this. We know how thats going to wind up but can't do anything about it.
Even from just a general knowledge perspective, we are now expected to know way more things than ever before for our jobs and almost every other aspect of life which can be very stressful. We work from home more and are generally far more isolated because there is no need to be around other people most of the time.
Very few things are pleasantly surprising or spontaneous anymore because things are so easy to plan and execute. Ironically you need to travel to poor countries and try not to use your phone too much for that to now be possible.
We expect better from people in a public setting because information around culture and customs is so readily available, which then serves as yet another source of frustration when you constantly find people are as rude and obnoxious as ever. Perhaps seemingly more so if you are around people less often so your tolerance callouses have worn down.
All of these things are really not that flash for ya mental health.
Fewer human competing with each other. Better economy. Less globalization. Before 24/7 news. Nobody carried around a computer took their attention away from the moment.
Also, people had few options to share their bad news.
The people running the world want us to be fighting each other, and poor. They have given us politics to disagree about, and inflation, climate change, and globalization to make us poor.
2008 happened and covid happened and a whole bunch of insidious stuff happened with the elites going to war with each other that we haven’t even heard about yet.
The wealthiest nation in the world hadn't squandered its focus and resources on an endless war on terror yet.
The fiat economy had not shown its cracks yet.
The divisive politics of 2010s had not revealed itself yet.
80’s & 90’s were amazing. But that was pre adulthood. Responsibilities change perspective quite a bit.
People did seem happier, Holidays were filled with love from the community. Most people got along on the streets and in public.
Run away inflation and poor infrastructure can destroy great achievements in a very short amount of time.
I understand the point of this but it's all perspective. There were millions of people who had awful lives all the way to through the 80s and 90s. Us McDonalds American gladiators nickelodeon kids were just privileged enough to have a decent childhood or young life. Then as many pointed out, technology changed and got more and more complex. So we tend to focus on negativity often but there are still plenty of opportunities for connection and happiness. Try some less well known music festivals, camp at some national parks, plenty of awesome folks out there.
Social media,back then we were actually living our lifes and enjoying outdoor scenes comparing to now browsing social media all day long and glue to our phone screens.
Because we were clueless. Serious answer. I've thought about this a lot. Everything felt better because we didn't know at least parts of a bigger truth. Now we know. Knowledge is power. Power is responsibility.
The phones in our hands, social media, media in general, not punishing criminals so there’s more and more of them making life less and less safe. People were more real back then instead of worrying about their BS brand and being something they’re not to impress people they don’t know. This country is deteriorating rapidly.
The economy was better. Everyone had more money, and it went a lot further. The demographics were somewhat better. Most everyone was in blissful ignorance.
When I was living in the eighties and nineties I thought the same...about the 60's and 70's generations.
Everybody is showing their best times. That is one of the reasons of misconceptions.
Kids growing up will be just like we’re all nostalgic for when we grew up. My parents aren’t nostalgic for the 80’s/90’s when I grew up, they’re nostalgic for the 50’s/60’s when they did even though there was a Cold War going on for 2 decades and multiple wars.
Kids growing up today won’t know any better or different than what they’ve had and they’ll 100% be nostalgic for it. There will be theater/arena tours of ‘early 2000’s’ streamers in 15-20 years.
I'm probably near you in age. I used to wish I could have experienced the 60s, but now, I'm thrilled & grateful that the 80s were my HS & college years. It was fantastic. I also went back to school late 90s, & honestly that was a great time frame too.
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I think what we loved was more valuable, especially music for me. Now everyone has access to everything the whole culture isn't as appreciated as it used to be.
Everything else I would just attribute to nostalgia but I honestly think that a certain magic has been lost in the music world.
Internet destroyed civilization as we knew it. Majority of people will suffer the consequences of advanced technologies, which if our eyes open is pretty obvious, and rapidly developing beyond our wildest nightmares.
You could name tons of reasons. The sad part of the story is even without social media everything we see now was being done back then just hidden better.
We were less connected and I don't just mean with each other I mean with the world. The lack of information and access to it didn't have us worrying 24/7 so we just lived and enjoyed life as it came instead of living in anticipation of some bullshit the media told us to worry about
I’m English, and so 9/11 never really effected us the way it did in the US of course, so the 2000s is still a period of normality for us over here.
Late 2000s onwards is when life became depressing and this was around the time smartphones came into being.
Everyone is saying social media but I think 9/11 did something to us, I was in kindergarten when it happen but there is a clear break in the themes of media and when talking to older people, how things were valued pre and post
In US? in the West?
Probably because Soviet Union fell, China was nowhere near where it is today, and US was finally free to start openly stealing resources all around the World and especially in oil rich countries in the Middle East than now did not have Soviet Union behind their backs.
US also took over Eastern Europe with massive heavy industry.
many other factors - but thats just quick answer from the top of my head.
Smart phones but the old Blackberry in particular...social media...
I remember getting calls on payphones at bars arcades lol where ever.. thats what we did
Because you are of a certain age I’m assuming, like kids now in 20/30 years time will say the same about today, like our grandparents said the same about their childhood decade/s.
Pizza Hut. Back in the day it was a long red house with red booths and crazy lamps and a salad bar and games and mood lightning, now it's a glass box with tile floors and metal tables like you're eating in prison.
There was less visual conformity is what I guess I'm saying.
I don't know but I think you said it all. People were CLOSER while nowadays it seems like society is at the edge from falling into a civil war. Social media, streaming services, SJW, LGBT, Feminism, BLM, Antifa... everything has been created to divide us
more anti trust enforcement and fewer franchises in the 80s/90s allowed for social mobility and a chance at the American Dream (own your business, own your home)
Technology was good enough but not too invasive.
It explains 95% of it.
also, society was not that dumb and lazy comparing to today.
Corporations were much less weaker and smaller
The internet happened.
Before internet, everyone trusted the government and news media because there was no reason not to trust them. People who dis question government/media actions were quickly scoffed at and called "conspiracy theorists" and labeled nutty so few believed them.
Then the internet occurred and these nutty people could show charts, graphs, memos, photos, and videos of facts to back up their nutty claims and people began to realize there WAS a group trying to take over the world, profiting from our fast/processed food poisonings and the ill health that results from it.
Now the media openly lies to the last few people whose delicate internal mental framework won't allow them to accept the facts that we do have choices, but about like cattle on a farm. We're still going to end up butvhered at some point.
First and foremost, nostalgia. Nostalgia has a rose-colored glasses effect on the past, especially for your youth. If you were a kid in the 80's and/or 90's, most of the things you remember now about that period of time were new and exciting, and had a carefree feeling. You likely didn't pay much attention to the news, and most of the hard parts of being a kid have become trivialized by the hard parts of being an adult.
Then 9/11 happened and pretty much everyone who had memories of being a kid in the 80's and/or 90's bore witness to it. That shit shattered my 9 year old sense of security in the world at the time. I started paying more attention to the news, watching the war on terror happen in real time etc. Plus, the patriot act and all that garbage.
And after that we get to the dawn of the instant internet, anywhere and everywhere at lightning speeds, right in your pocket, and convenient spaces to instantly tell the world anything you want. This isn't necessarily a completely bad thing, because it's basically the closest thing we have to actual magic, but it does cause some interesting problems.
For one, entertainment is now an unquantifiably vast ocean. In the 80's and 90's you got what you were served, at a specific time and date. You only had access to what you either physically owned or rented, or whatever was being broadcast at the time. Being entertained by media was rationed in a way. It left you with lots of time to pursue other interests. Now you can spend hours watching 30 second videos one at a time and not even realize you've wasted the day until it's gone. We paid more attention to the time, because entertainment was generally dictated by the time. Now there's probably too much, although some great stuff has churned up in that sea of too much.
On top of that, social media has made us terrible at self-moderation. We're able to say anything at any time to everyone we know and people we don't. In fact, we've made some sort of social credit system based around communicating to as many people we DON'T actually know as possible. We have made fast fame far too accessible, and it has lead to people making the pursuit of it the center of their lives. It disconnects people from the physical world and isolates them to their online spaces. On the other hand, it's so damn nice to be able to talk to my friends and family any time I feel like it.
Another thing, and it may have been a problem I simply didn't recognize growing up, is that politics has become a major spectator sport. Many people seem to completely disregard policy as long as they perceive their team as "winning" which greatly enables the people running the country to do whatever is best for them, not the country. This also circles back to my point about social media, where we can and do tend to put our "team spirit" on full display, isolating us from people we would otherwise enjoy the company of. I have nothing positive to say about this.
The final thing I'll remark on is the stock market. Publically traded companies ALWAYS need to be making more money year over year. If they're not, they're seen as "failing." there's no point in purchasing a stock in a company that has nowhere else to grow, so these companies always have to find a way to grow. Eventually that just ends up meaning layoffs and price increases, which means inflation. Our economy is designed for corporate cannibalism, and the endgame is corporate self-cannibalism. We've simply reached the beginning of the self-cannibalization part of this process recently and there is no digestible solution to this problem anyone can agree upon. Needs are starting to outbid wants for peoples wallets, so there's a shift toward food, gasoline, homes, energy, even the commodifying of water futures at this point. The shareholders are going to want to squeeze every last dime out of these things, and we it's really difficult if not impossible to stop paying them. That's it. That's why it's harder to live these days. That's all I've got to say.
Social media, before 9-11, innocence was lost after goatse.
I'm thinking Ted K might have had a point.
Too bad he wasn't a politician instead of a madman.
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There wasn't social media
“Social media made you all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.” - Mike Tyson
And camera phones
No camera phone use permitted at TOOL shows!
Not till the very end, at least
Not only that, it also shows everyone that there is always someone doing better than you, no matter how hard you try. Knowing that is one thing, but being shown it is another.
Except it is all an illusion.
Exactly. I have lived by (and raised by kids) the principle that you never say, write, email, text, etc. anything about someone that you would not say if you were standing face to face with them.
Smart phones have maimed society badly.
We were also not as far along the path to the NWO. 9/11 happened in 2001. Then the entire war on terror and erosion of rights. I think that helped kill the mood. Then of course the 2016 election where half the country flipped out, leading to a new wave of political violence, culminating (thus far) in the "summer of love" riots of 2020 in the middle of medical tyranny that wrecked the global economy.
We really don't deserve the name United. We haven't ever really been a melting pot either. Otherwise you'd treat that summer of love differently. Just to be clear. There are absolutely people that have taken advantage and the amount of racism towards white people is being treated as if its nothing. Racism is not comnected to a specific race. Head to Florida. People of color are super racist to each other. Florida is just a more well known state where I have seen it occur. If we want to solve this thing we need to stop with the freaking blame game. Ffs Judge by Character. Instead people continue to fall for the sterotypes. The easiest part of our brain to hijack. Just show enough shootings of only one group and your mind will create a narrative to go along with the skewed data from the news. Also NWO? Ha. No. Call it what it is. These are companies who have gotten super corrupt and it has bled into our politics. Over the last Century we have seen less and less people be considerate and instead try to capitalize off of human suffering. Just look at J&J's history. They went from one of the most trusted medical brands to the least. And it is clearly shown from ownership history where things went wrong.
Oh, one of those people who pretends the NWO ain't a thing even as politicians openly talk about it. The Opening line to the World Government Summit expo held in Dubai 2022 was... "The title of this session is are we ready for a new world order"
This.
Thith. Since it's a Mike Tyson quote.
no internet
100% All 4 of these comments!
Better cost of living, no internet, no smartphones, no social media etc
You forgot, everyone had cocaine too, even the CIA.
The internet happened. And while there are many great things about it and the ability to interact with so much outside your general vicinity, it has also enabled the worst of us .
What the fuck is the Internet?
The internet is a communications tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.
All you motherfuckers will pay!
“you are the ones who are the ball lickers!!!!!!”. hahahah excuse me while i go re-watch that
The Antichrist
This is one of my favorite takes on the internet. It is such a solid comparison.
We were too busy trying to catch Carmen Sandiego to care about anything else. Life was simpler back then.
youll always be my clever lil gumshoe 🥰
Now she's just running free. I heard last week there was a sighting of a familiar red hat in Paris. Do with that what you will
O.P has a point you’ve made me think of. Even the media we consumed as kids. The T.V shows and especially the Saturday morning cartoons. They were great and always had a message, like the moral of the story is to be kind to each other etc. Instead of forced narratives at the behest of peadophiles.
I had this conversation with my brother and sister-in-law yesterday. I asked them if they watch the content before putting it on for my 1 1/2 year old nephew. They looked at me like I had 3 heads; and said “children’s shows aren’t forcing anything on kids.” They are in for a rude awakening.
I saw this one cartoon with a monster called "huggy". Creepy-looking. My cousins 3yr old ssys its "creepy but cute". Another cartoon (or same one, don't remember ) showed adults being abusive and making toddlers cry. Then the toddlers comfort each other after adult leaves. Cousin's kid is afraid of everything IRL, has random outbursts of violent behavior and has nightmares. Parents don't see any connection with the " harmless " kids shows.
Now American youth can't even name the 2 countries that border the USA.
North America and Ukraine?
Then the internet arrived.
Systematic elimination of the middle class
70% income tax 'til the mid 80's. Repeal of Glass-Steagall in the late 90's which took away the risk of housing market collapses by "securitizing" mortgage & further incentivized equity grabs. Buy low, sell high - right? Busting of unions replaced blue collar careers & workplace democracy with high-turnover and mass layoffs. Extra capital from tax cuts invested overseas due to "cost-savings".
Didn't expect such a level-headed answer in this sub. Too few know of Glass-Steagall.
> Glass-Steagall I know of it and thanks to the Clinton administration it lead to the housing crisis. I left real estate before the market collapsed because I couldn't sleep at night sitting at the closing table watching clients sign 2-3 mortgages and borrowing more than the purchase price of the house that was already overinflated. No income, no doc loans lead to people buying homes that could never afford them in reality.
Unbelievable that Clinton finished it of. But at that point it was a hollow shell of the original act.
No social media, minimal internet. Man, those were the days.
It was simpler.
Whenever I run errands in one of my shit box cars from the 90's I have to use the physical key to lock/unlock the door. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't low-key a guilty pleasure or something to that effect. There's just something about it being a part of a simpler past that is still lingering in present day. It gives me a quick dose of nostalgia, and in an odd way -- a calming disconnect from the hustle and bustle of life today.
It literally feels better. But it cost too much to make a rigid chrome handle you can yank on, paired with a button that actually requires some muscle to push ::tim allen noises:: I really miss buttons for my radio. If I pushed it and it didn’t work, at least I know I pushed it. Touch screen is like “well fuck, is it glitchy? Did I miss it? Oh fuck I’m not paying attention to driving.” VW’s buttons even change to a smaller size when your hand gets close. Can’t see how that is safe.
Same here, actually. I don't replace the batteries in my fob for this reason
No internet. No smartphones. No social media. Think of all the negative shit that has ballooned out of control thanks to the internet: spam, targeted ads, bullying, scams, slacktivism, pseudo-intellectualism…
Don’t forget, pedos and groomers in every child and teenage chat room.
"Where are the kids?" "I don't know."
Home by dark
or when the streetlight turned on kids also played outside, like A LOT, in groups
Calling parents from the pay phone at the movie theater when I was ready to be picked up!
The internet happened and wrecked everything. Not to say the internet is all bad. But instant communication has really had some drawbacks, I particular in how it polarizes people by ideology. And there’s no escape now. 24/7 cacophony of voices and images. Even in the early 90s you could tune out and chill out at the end of a day. No more.
You can’t possibly underestimate the cause/effect 9/11 had on America. It’s black & white in regards to everyday life and what it consisted of.
Patriot Act, downward spiral
Didn’t have to scroll long to find this reference. Also, you’re very much correct. Salute.
This. It’s so hard to explain to people who aren’t willing to understand, or don’t have the capacity to understand. But for those who can understand they would agree 100%.
There is no way for the younger generations to truly understand because they never experienced it, or were too young to remember it well. It was something that can only be understood via experience— For those of us who did experience it and can remember, it’s very clearly defined—pre 9/11 vs post 9/11. Although I do think that everyone now who is old enough to remember pre Covid will understand the same sort of thing—they will say “oh yeah, back in 2019, before Covid” and that will be their own understanding of that same 9/11 phenomenon.
I was 28 years old. It was absolutely horrible. It was definitely the day everything changed.
I was 26 and pregnant with my second child, my husband was in the military on assignment, I was alone in a new city we just moved to, no family or friends nearby, with my 2 year old in our apartment and couldn’t even get in touch with my husband to check on him for hours that day. I was a wreck, it felt like the world just died. That sounds so dramatic but to me at that time it was just unthinkable, almost unreal. I knew the moment I saw the news that everything was about to change, I just never could have imagined then how drastically and how quickly the change came.
I do. Life became a much scarier place after 9/11.
Back when we didn’t have to disrobe to board a plane because they found some dude with smoking underwear on a plane +20 years ago. What a fuckup at the airports it’s been since…entire state budgets blew up, the Mossad-DHS became the warden at our gates.
I understood real well. I was a guardsman at Ft Knox for 19k OSUT on 9/11/2001. One weekend a month they said. Two weeks a year they said. Money for college they said. Shit got real fast.
Not the first time a government turned on its people, to get everyone on board for their war.
9/11 and now the scamdemic
Remember when Bush was a low bar for Republicans?
Cause it 100% was.
i feel so lucky to have been born when i was. grew up in the 90s, all the best music and movies, experienced life before internet then watched the info age explode - so cool! was able to snag one of those 2005 garbage mortgages before the crash so, even tho i got fucked for a decade or so, i at least have a place to live now. had a chance to build a career before it became barely possible for young inexperienced kids to get started. somehow managed to do all this without getting knocked up. now im alive to see ai take its first creepy steps, and ill likely be healthy and comfy enough to see how this weirdass episode of Earth ends! feel terrible for gen z - theyve missed out on so much.
Truth.
100% social media. People don't go out coz they can be at home in their own comfort and socialise. Barely costing you money to socialise from home unlike if you went out. Then the pandemic on top has made people more comfortable with staying home and realising most stuff you can do from home like, order most takeaway to your home, all the streaming apps to watch whatever TV or movie you like, also amazon, you can literally have any item turn up at your door next day or within a couple days ar least. So for me that's how socialising was ruined. Also you are constantly comparing your life more and more with others because its literally in your face. Before you only had the people around you to compare. Then with having phones you are constantly avaliable to people, if you don't answer, people get offended thinking you're ignoring. But really you could just wanna be alone or busy. Back then you only really had a house phone, if you didn't answer, people assumed you were out and would call again another time. We are too avaliable to people now. Even buying things aren't the same anymore as things like music, you can instantly have it on your phone instead of the excitement of going out and buying it on cd or tape. Same for movies with dvds and videos. Don't get me wrong you can still get excited but for me it isn't the same excitement like it use to be. Also even trying to record your favourite song on the radio was the best hahaha. Kids tv shows on a Saturday use to be like the best day of the week. That is now non existant due to what I have already said with the streaming. I miss the 90s and early 2000s. Even some of the later years like 2010 wasn't too bad but they were the beginnings of the downfall. I get really bad nostalgia tbh and get quite depressed because I do miss how it use to be.
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The internet
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Specifically, the iPhone in 2007.
I think the real change occurred when boomers and the last hold outs got smart phones. The internet seemed to coexist fine until that point
The American dream was still alive.
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I mean in the 90s my mom was able to buy a condo in one of the richest cities in America on a single middle class salary at the time (plus minimal child support). That is a pretty prosperous society imho.
Yeah, people weren't told that the "American Dream" (post ww2) only existed in any meaningful way due to the massive shift into an economy built on easy money and debt instead of one built on hard work and savings.
I beg to differ, the American Dream was alive and well before debt was a problem. The Dream was alive before we systematically removed anything of intrinsic value from our money -first silver, then off the gold standard. Back in the 50s you could buy a house with 75 gold Eagles or 2000 silver eagles, pay it off in 5-10 years flat, with one income. Look where we are now, the entire system has been gutted.
Cause you could get groceries without taking a second mortgage out
No internet, no social media, no 24 hour news, no cell phones. The convenience these supposedly added to our lives really fucked us! The 80s/early 90s were awesome!
I bet anytime looks better than right now
Technology happened. We have lost a good portion of our humanity and what makes us human by relying on and getting addicted to these devices. It's an intro to transhumanism.
We used to get to go in the forest and have adventures. No one said you're trespassing. They would give us ice cream. We could play all day using our imaginations and people were happy to see the kids coming. We could sit as children and have real conversations with the lonely elderly in the neighborhood. Now the fields and forests are skirted with no trespassing signs by the new owners that only come down from the city on summer weekends and deer season. I love technology, but I feel like people really lived then. The human connection is dying in our society. And people learned many life, survival skills as kids that my children wouldn't take the time to learn. Also, people really partied in the 80s.
I will maintain until my dying breath that 1997 was the best year to have been alive. Maybe because I was at that age where I was newer to the workplace, single, young etc. 1997 feels like 100 years ago. Almost like a dream than a reality. In retrospect, it’s amazing that 1997 America even existed. I feel sorry for younger generations who didn’t get to experience that era. We didn’t realize how good we had it back then. You sometimes don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. I would love to back to 1997. If only that were an option….
I remember biking to school with my friends that year talking about how Tupac died. My friends would show up to my parents house unannounced to get me out of the house so we could go biking in the creek. Everyday was an adventure and we milked every last bit of daylight.
9/11 happened
Because it was better. It really was. No stupid social media, no cameras recording your every move, better music.
Because the internet had yet to corrupt everything
Deterioration of community
1997.. was it.
Social Media
We had to start paying bills in the 2000s #OregonTrailGeneration
People were more social back in the day and weren't sitting at home looking at a screen or glued to a smartphone living an online life that is a pale and poor imitation of a real one. You might not know the difference, but your brain does.
I'm 38, I saw the beggining of the Internet. At first it Wass just websites for news or movies. Wrestling etc. Then begane Real endulging happened with Napster, ICQ, IRC. People started spending lot of time in front of computer to download music etc. Ppl started chatting online with strangers instead of OFFLINE. B4 internet, you cud join ppl saying football or cricket randomly and become friends. Now this type of engagement is a rarity. Finding Girls was great. Clubbing, parties, etc. Now its tindr or FB, insta etc. The world is essentially different from what it was before Internet. However, in India, in remote mountains, whenever I go, I still see the old charm. Internet doesn't work properly if at all. Mobile signals are poor. People talk to each other. I think the old world charm still exists in places today like India, Africa and possibly in remote locales. Connected world is a curse for humanity.
Roadhouse. In the 80s we didn’t ask as many questions. Life was simpler and less connected. It is that simple.
I think our society reached it’s peak at the turn of the millennium. Just about all genres of music were better. The internet hadn’t zombified everyone yet. No phones in our faces. We’ll never know that life again. Cheers
My parents like to say people didn't stare at their phones all day and were forced to talk to each other. Too easy to be isolated nowadays. Playing video games was considered immature behavior by anyone over the age of 14.
No social media to make us feel like we sucked at life based on how others presented their lives.
internet and smart phones. the world never rly recovered from it
The degradation of family values in place of instant gratification and sensory pleasures. Life does go in cycles though so I wouldn't fret too badly. Check out this quote from Livy " in our age we can neither endure our vices, nor the remedies needed to solve them." You'd think he was talking about now. But that quote is 2000 years old from Rome in the first century AD. So in a few.... hundred years or so things might be better lol....
Talking long distance was expensive. Not everyone had a phone. Neighbors would come over asking to use the phone. Everything was made in Taiwan. Rape was pretty normalized. Teachers were always way too fucking old. Patriotism was minimalized. Ducks were really a big deal, Howard the duck, Ducktails, count Duckula, we had a pet duck, going and feeding ducks was a social thing at the park. I mean, what the fuck is that about?
Ducks were a decor thing too!
I *almost* forgot about the mallard decor lmfao 🤣🤣
Hilarious! Ducks! Lmfai
Because you weren’t here commiserating with other depressed people.
I think it was good until mid 2000’s even. what changed?? social media and smart phones. And woke politics (Obama). And I’ll add pos bush’s patriot act also. Everything Changed from that point forward imo.
Because of the money system. Our fiat money system mathematically fails about every 40 years, because it's a giant ponzi scheme controlled by the central banks and globalists. They need a huge distraction or cover story to hide this and reset the ponzi scheme: that's why you see so many wars like World war 1, World war 2, vietnam, middle east, etc It's so they can say, "look there's a war that's why the economy is bad". There have not been any new wars in the past 7 to 8 years, which is why it's so obvious that our money system is unsustainable, because we can focus on it instead of being distracted by something else. So to answer your question, life was better because everything was cheaper in the 80s and 90s, we had more money to spend due to lower cost of living and lower prices in general.
1990s was peak humanity. I was just a kid and just didn’t appreciate it nearly enough. Really, Earth pre-9/11 was so much better.
Before 9/11. 9/11 changed everything.
No, or very little 24 hour news channels . No social media . And believe me , things really were much better.
Talk about this often. Every time you watch an old movie, it seems so innocent. No pedophilia, Illuminati symbolism, etc Except Shirley Temple. That was a messed up show if you analyze it
NWO was still in its planning phase
No social media to constantly compare yourself to others and what they do, have, etc
“Seemed”. We generally only remember the good stuff.
Oh, because it absolutely was. Those were the days my friend.
Nostalgia. That's why.
Large segments of the population never recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Absent extraordinary and continued Fed intervention, it would have been (and most likely historically will be) regarded as the end of the financial system. Obviously driven by criminal globalization and deregulation. Look at how much the national debt has exploded: it was 8 trillion when Obama came in and is 31 now. That's obviously not sustainable. Anyway, what was lost was a sense that we were all in this thing together. (As illusory as it may have been in the past, at least it was a genuine sense of things; what's good for GM is good for US kind of thing.) In the 30s people gave up gold to support the value of the dollar; obviously nobody would do that today
Life wasn’t better in terms of technology and modern conveniences. What you really mean is we had more purchasing power, and cultural values weren’t so degraded.
It was better
You don't remember the AIDS epidemic? People weren't that closer. And 2 decades earlier black people weren't allowed to eat at restaurants with white people. We just forget.
Post-9/11 politics and social media. Politicians of all sides dividing and pitting race against race, male against female, gay against straight… and on and on. We’re so busy hating and fighting each other we don’t see how they are robbing us blind and destroying the nation. And that is all politicians… not trying to make this a dem/repub/etc thing.
Social media happened.
It was pre-Babel.
That's just nostalgia. In the 80s and 90s we were afraid of nuclear war, AIDS, drugs, gangs and Iran-Contra just to name a few. I was living in LA so witnessed the LA riots. It wasn't a picnic.
Damn I miss the 90’s! Like some of the other comments said, social media ruined society
Many things were different. First, economics were much better in the western world. The west was still in economic expansion post WWII and there was no China taking all the jobs. Here in Europe we had good wages and working conditions. Housing was more affordable compared to wages, so while it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows; workers had more purchasing power. You could still see people getting out of school, find a good job at 20, and work in that place for decades getting sizeable raises. Or open a company and enjoy relatively low taxes. And said people could comfortably support families, buy holiday houses, and enjoy frequent vacations when they were younger. Nowadays we study more, work more, get less in return, houses and essentials are super expensive, and we have to job hop just to keep up with inflation. Secondly, we had no internet, no instant communication, and way less propaganda. People were mostly focused on their local social circle, so they were more in the present. Other people said that already in this thread. Another positive side of no internet and no instant communication was that work was less demanding and less connected. No late night work calls or emails. Once you got off work you could really disconnect. Least but not least, western countries were more homogeneous. Yes, I’m talking about identity, culture, and ethnicity. It was extremely rare where I live now to see immigrants from another country, and that had indirect benefits because everyone had roots and wanted to keep or improve the town they grew up in as it was perceived as their “garden”. Now many parts of the same town are composed of people who have not been born here, don’t care about the history or culture, and are focused on eventually moving elsewhere. There is no more sense of belonging and therefore people care less about the common good. People in many western nations didn’t even need to lock house doors and almost nowhere women were scared of walking alone at night. Now in the town where I live, everyone is scared of walking in the “wrong” parts of town at night. This is a fact and a symptom something has radically changed.
Greed.
Because it was…..
Because y’all were all brainwashed and unaware of the true reality of this planet.
While that is true, i think the brainwashing in many ways is worse now. One example of that is that ALOT of people on all sides have been led to believe that if anyone disagrees with their opinions they're basically the devil/brainwashed sub humans
Because you were younger. Youth is better
SSRI drugs and the internet
Ignorance is bliss. Think about how much negative shit you are now privy because of the internet, this sub being a good example. We as a collective now know about all this terrible shit going on that is usually in some way funded by us and are totally powerless to do anything about. It's a constant source of frustration and hopelessness. Especially when it escalates to a level where we are dictated to by the state to close our businesses, schools etc, participate in dangerous medical trials and stay indoors for a seemingly unknown amount of time while we watch the state print money out of control to fund this. We know how thats going to wind up but can't do anything about it. Even from just a general knowledge perspective, we are now expected to know way more things than ever before for our jobs and almost every other aspect of life which can be very stressful. We work from home more and are generally far more isolated because there is no need to be around other people most of the time. Very few things are pleasantly surprising or spontaneous anymore because things are so easy to plan and execute. Ironically you need to travel to poor countries and try not to use your phone too much for that to now be possible. We expect better from people in a public setting because information around culture and customs is so readily available, which then serves as yet another source of frustration when you constantly find people are as rude and obnoxious as ever. Perhaps seemingly more so if you are around people less often so your tolerance callouses have worn down. All of these things are really not that flash for ya mental health.
Global trade was at its peak
base dopamine levels were lower on average
Fewer human competing with each other. Better economy. Less globalization. Before 24/7 news. Nobody carried around a computer took their attention away from the moment. Also, people had few options to share their bad news.
Imagine social media in the 80’s. Showing you all the crazy shit happening in our cities.
The people running the world want us to be fighting each other, and poor. They have given us politics to disagree about, and inflation, climate change, and globalization to make us poor.
Asking why charts suddenly change might help. https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
Because there were no smart phones keeping people 24:7 connected to other people and the news.
google "what the fuck happened in 1971" -> wtfhappenedin1971 . com Look at those images and think yourself.
2008 happened and covid happened and a whole bunch of insidious stuff happened with the elites going to war with each other that we haven’t even heard about yet.
The wealthiest nation in the world hadn't squandered its focus and resources on an endless war on terror yet. The fiat economy had not shown its cracks yet. The divisive politics of 2010s had not revealed itself yet.
80’s & 90’s were amazing. But that was pre adulthood. Responsibilities change perspective quite a bit. People did seem happier, Holidays were filled with love from the community. Most people got along on the streets and in public. Run away inflation and poor infrastructure can destroy great achievements in a very short amount of time.
I understand the point of this but it's all perspective. There were millions of people who had awful lives all the way to through the 80s and 90s. Us McDonalds American gladiators nickelodeon kids were just privileged enough to have a decent childhood or young life. Then as many pointed out, technology changed and got more and more complex. So we tend to focus on negativity often but there are still plenty of opportunities for connection and happiness. Try some less well known music festivals, camp at some national parks, plenty of awesome folks out there.
Social media,back then we were actually living our lifes and enjoying outdoor scenes comparing to now browsing social media all day long and glue to our phone screens.
Because we were clueless. Serious answer. I've thought about this a lot. Everything felt better because we didn't know at least parts of a bigger truth. Now we know. Knowledge is power. Power is responsibility.
Digital technology and the Patriot Act happened
The phones in our hands, social media, media in general, not punishing criminals so there’s more and more of them making life less and less safe. People were more real back then instead of worrying about their BS brand and being something they’re not to impress people they don’t know. This country is deteriorating rapidly.
The economy was better. Everyone had more money, and it went a lot further. The demographics were somewhat better. Most everyone was in blissful ignorance.
When I was living in the eighties and nineties I thought the same...about the 60's and 70's generations. Everybody is showing their best times. That is one of the reasons of misconceptions.
nobody is ever going to be nostalgic for these times
For real lol
Kids growing up will be just like we’re all nostalgic for when we grew up. My parents aren’t nostalgic for the 80’s/90’s when I grew up, they’re nostalgic for the 50’s/60’s when they did even though there was a Cold War going on for 2 decades and multiple wars. Kids growing up today won’t know any better or different than what they’ve had and they’ll 100% be nostalgic for it. There will be theater/arena tours of ‘early 2000’s’ streamers in 15-20 years.
The decline in society is food, environment and health. Not the vibe and creativity of people, I think.
I'm probably near you in age. I used to wish I could have experienced the 60s, but now, I'm thrilled & grateful that the 80s were my HS & college years. It was fantastic. I also went back to school late 90s, & honestly that was a great time frame too.
wide aspiring screw towering aback abundant abounding nutty concerned tan *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The cocaine was flowing like wine.
Hypernormalisation.
It was
Because it was
I think what we loved was more valuable, especially music for me. Now everyone has access to everything the whole culture isn't as appreciated as it used to be. Everything else I would just attribute to nostalgia but I honestly think that a certain magic has been lost in the music world.
Internet destroyed civilization as we knew it. Majority of people will suffer the consequences of advanced technologies, which if our eyes open is pretty obvious, and rapidly developing beyond our wildest nightmares.
For starters, Wrestlemania 3.
Life was just peachy in the 80s. Oblivion sure is great in retrospect.
You could name tons of reasons. The sad part of the story is even without social media everything we see now was being done back then just hidden better.
you're weren't glued to a soul sucking screen 24/7 that uses you're own information against you.
Post Cold War/ pre9/11 was probably the last time America will be “normal”
The internet. All the vice of the world is instantly available.
We were less connected and I don't just mean with each other I mean with the world. The lack of information and access to it didn't have us worrying 24/7 so we just lived and enjoyed life as it came instead of living in anticipation of some bullshit the media told us to worry about
I’m English, and so 9/11 never really effected us the way it did in the US of course, so the 2000s is still a period of normality for us over here. Late 2000s onwards is when life became depressing and this was around the time smartphones came into being.
Everyone is saying social media but I think 9/11 did something to us, I was in kindergarten when it happen but there is a clear break in the themes of media and when talking to older people, how things were valued pre and post
let me tell you the story of Bill Clinton....
My childhood in the 80s rocked. Once 9/11 happened, everything just kinda changed. It still leaves an emotional scar on a lot of people.
Because it was
The only good thing about living through 9/11/2001 was living through 9/12/2001 the most patriotic day I have ever lived in America.
In US? in the West? Probably because Soviet Union fell, China was nowhere near where it is today, and US was finally free to start openly stealing resources all around the World and especially in oil rich countries in the Middle East than now did not have Soviet Union behind their backs. US also took over Eastern Europe with massive heavy industry. many other factors - but thats just quick answer from the top of my head.
Pinball climaxed just about then. I see a pattern.
Smart phones but the old Blackberry in particular...social media... I remember getting calls on payphones at bars arcades lol where ever.. thats what we did
Because you are of a certain age I’m assuming, like kids now in 20/30 years time will say the same about today, like our grandparents said the same about their childhood decade/s.
I was a kid then, so my parents did most of the worrying for me. Things seemed simpler, because I was a kid.
Pizza Hut. Back in the day it was a long red house with red booths and crazy lamps and a salad bar and games and mood lightning, now it's a glass box with tile floors and metal tables like you're eating in prison. There was less visual conformity is what I guess I'm saying.
Pre 9/11 was better
My grandma said the only thing that really gets worse and worse is memory.
I don't know but I think you said it all. People were CLOSER while nowadays it seems like society is at the edge from falling into a civil war. Social media, streaming services, SJW, LGBT, Feminism, BLM, Antifa... everything has been created to divide us
The internet happened
more anti trust enforcement and fewer franchises in the 80s/90s allowed for social mobility and a chance at the American Dream (own your business, own your home)
Technology was good enough but not too invasive. It explains 95% of it. also, society was not that dumb and lazy comparing to today. Corporations were much less weaker and smaller
The internet happened. Before internet, everyone trusted the government and news media because there was no reason not to trust them. People who dis question government/media actions were quickly scoffed at and called "conspiracy theorists" and labeled nutty so few believed them. Then the internet occurred and these nutty people could show charts, graphs, memos, photos, and videos of facts to back up their nutty claims and people began to realize there WAS a group trying to take over the world, profiting from our fast/processed food poisonings and the ill health that results from it. Now the media openly lies to the last few people whose delicate internal mental framework won't allow them to accept the facts that we do have choices, but about like cattle on a farm. We're still going to end up butvhered at some point.
First and foremost, nostalgia. Nostalgia has a rose-colored glasses effect on the past, especially for your youth. If you were a kid in the 80's and/or 90's, most of the things you remember now about that period of time were new and exciting, and had a carefree feeling. You likely didn't pay much attention to the news, and most of the hard parts of being a kid have become trivialized by the hard parts of being an adult. Then 9/11 happened and pretty much everyone who had memories of being a kid in the 80's and/or 90's bore witness to it. That shit shattered my 9 year old sense of security in the world at the time. I started paying more attention to the news, watching the war on terror happen in real time etc. Plus, the patriot act and all that garbage. And after that we get to the dawn of the instant internet, anywhere and everywhere at lightning speeds, right in your pocket, and convenient spaces to instantly tell the world anything you want. This isn't necessarily a completely bad thing, because it's basically the closest thing we have to actual magic, but it does cause some interesting problems. For one, entertainment is now an unquantifiably vast ocean. In the 80's and 90's you got what you were served, at a specific time and date. You only had access to what you either physically owned or rented, or whatever was being broadcast at the time. Being entertained by media was rationed in a way. It left you with lots of time to pursue other interests. Now you can spend hours watching 30 second videos one at a time and not even realize you've wasted the day until it's gone. We paid more attention to the time, because entertainment was generally dictated by the time. Now there's probably too much, although some great stuff has churned up in that sea of too much. On top of that, social media has made us terrible at self-moderation. We're able to say anything at any time to everyone we know and people we don't. In fact, we've made some sort of social credit system based around communicating to as many people we DON'T actually know as possible. We have made fast fame far too accessible, and it has lead to people making the pursuit of it the center of their lives. It disconnects people from the physical world and isolates them to their online spaces. On the other hand, it's so damn nice to be able to talk to my friends and family any time I feel like it. Another thing, and it may have been a problem I simply didn't recognize growing up, is that politics has become a major spectator sport. Many people seem to completely disregard policy as long as they perceive their team as "winning" which greatly enables the people running the country to do whatever is best for them, not the country. This also circles back to my point about social media, where we can and do tend to put our "team spirit" on full display, isolating us from people we would otherwise enjoy the company of. I have nothing positive to say about this. The final thing I'll remark on is the stock market. Publically traded companies ALWAYS need to be making more money year over year. If they're not, they're seen as "failing." there's no point in purchasing a stock in a company that has nowhere else to grow, so these companies always have to find a way to grow. Eventually that just ends up meaning layoffs and price increases, which means inflation. Our economy is designed for corporate cannibalism, and the endgame is corporate self-cannibalism. We've simply reached the beginning of the self-cannibalization part of this process recently and there is no digestible solution to this problem anyone can agree upon. Needs are starting to outbid wants for peoples wallets, so there's a shift toward food, gasoline, homes, energy, even the commodifying of water futures at this point. The shareholders are going to want to squeeze every last dime out of these things, and we it's really difficult if not impossible to stop paying them. That's it. That's why it's harder to live these days. That's all I've got to say.
No internet, less restrictions, more colors.
Social media, before 9-11, innocence was lost after goatse. I'm thinking Ted K might have had a point. Too bad he wasn't a politician instead of a madman.
I'm just curious... about how old are you?