As a queer person (agender) with a conservative dad, I don’t get why he says he wants to go back to the 1950s. What was so special back then besides his reasoning that times were simpler? I feel like it would be harder for me then as a queer person.
Most people have an idyllic view of certain childhood years, usually around the ages 5 to 10 or so. It’s before you start to understand just how broken the world is, and your worldview gets more complex and nuanced.
Many people wrongly assume that the world really was simpler when they were that age. The truth is, the world was just as messed up–they were just blissfully unaware.
Next time your dad complains, remind him that we still have milkshakes and racism.
Unless you grew up in the '80s. Jesus, what a shitshow. Though I notice a lot of nostalgia for the '80s from people who aren’t old enough to remember it.
Yeah, there’s a reason GenXers are generally known to be cynical.
Agreed on all points, and also would like to point out most of the people who want to “go back” are not the ones who were oppressed during that time. It’s no surprise that the people who want to go back are mostly those who grew up in the white suburbs and small towns, where it was simple and easy.
The oppressed are conveniently left out of those conversations. Where were the black people, or the gay people during those times? They existed, but in a very simple worldview it’s easy to forget that.
Right on!
He was young.
Being young, is nice. Mostly because you don’t have to deal with a lot of the issues that e.g. a house, children and maybe the marriage is not as loving as it used to be.
So he misses being young, but instead of realizing that he was just young. He thinks about what was different and as your responses imply, he blames foreigner for the change. As you expressed that he thinks of you as just a girl, he is probably also sexist and the 50s were much more sexist as it still is.
In other words, culture changed, he didn’t and he is old.
It is because he has a mythical view of that decade.
He was younger…. He wants to go back to a time when he was young and free perhaps
It’s never about the real past for them. It’s about the fake shallow image of the past they yearn for.
The 50s, yeah, when ‘howl’ was published and every single adult was on meth qaaludes cocaine and a BAC that would today get you rushed to the ER for just about every waking moment. But thats not what they remember. They get the simplified idealized propaganda version, and like it. Everything is fantasy rp to them.
Same with the crusades, early america, and everything else they like.
I’d only be in it for the ability to buy a house, except that I’d share it with friends instead of getting married and settling down. I’m a bit too demiromantic for that right now.
Personally, I want to go back to the way in the 1950’s had livable wages where people could afford housing, food, and health services. I would also like to go back to an internet before corporations destroyed it with all their AI and tracking.
I want the economy of the 50s and civil rights for everyone.
Sadly, it seems like we’re moving the economy further away from the 50s and only bringing civil rights back there…
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We both know you know what was meant. Don’t be like a republican. Have a good day.
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Oh I know what you meant, exactly. It’s grade school history. It’s also the same take repeated endlessly on internet forums where pedantry and needing to spell out every single facet rule supreme. So I guess I’ll spell it out. “The economy refers to the fact someone was able to pay for a home, family, and yearly vacation on an entry level, high school diploma as the only requirement job. The civil rights and liberties people are stating as the one thing they didn’t want to bring to modern times.”
I’m going to assume you know why someone would want that without the abuse of minorities, immigrants, or third world countries.
Or you can just pull the same thing everyone else does and state, “A society like that couldn’t exist without that exploitation.” like the true unique free thinker you are. To which I say prove it. We’ve always had a rich parasite class that needed exploitation, those who are fine without being far wealthier than others are perfectly capable of doing fine without the exploitation, its the leeches that require it.
Ah it’s always the same with those ideologically blinded people.
Capitalism is inherently bad blah blah
Socialism can never work blah blah
It’s all bullshit. Capitalism does not matter, socialism does not matter. How we call it does not matter. What matters is that a society is healthy, sustainable and prospering.
The main problem of all theories is the confrontation with reality - each set of values or ideology is as much worth as the people who (supposedly) follow it.
In any system we ever built, there are greedy, corrupt, powerful people, who like shit, always somehow end up swimming at the top. And then everything begins to rot.
Could not agree more. I’m a democratic socialist. I firmly believe that the ideas of that ideology, properly implemented, can drastically improve the standard of living for a huge percentage of the population.
I live in a country where our democratic socialist party is fantastically corrupt, lazy and completely bereft of any motivation to do anything that doesn’t directly benefit themselves. Consequently, I don’t support them. Results over ideology is an important mantra no matter what you believe.
All socialism is democratic, “democratic socialism” normally refers to reformist socialism. The corruption, in that case, makes sense, as reformism is usually conceding to the status quo.
This is just you replacing sound economic analysis with vibes-based idealism, ironically you’re divorcing yourself from reality while claiming others need to see it better. A quick example is that socialism has resulted in far lower inequality while maintaining stable growth than capitalism has, yet you pretend they are the same in disparity. Connect with reality.
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Socialism was never implemented in good faith. Oh, you’re talking about the Soviet Union? Try to run a planned economy on a scale of a modern society. And tell me about equality and freedom where you gotta be in the party to have access to better stuff.
Or you are talking about China? Well, they are pragmatic and apparently learned. That’s why China is not a planned economy, but state capitalism. Sadly, it’s heavily authoritarian.
Capitalism and the idea of markets is not the problem. The problem is if it becomes an end in itself. So if you ask me, economically, the model that China is doing right now is right and obviously pretty successful. It is the rest I would rather not copy.
I neither want to live in a country run by oligarchs, nor by a self-serving elite of authoritarian bureaucrats. The rotten form of capitalism is the neoliberal dystopia we see in the west right now, the rotten form of socialism is what the Soviet Union was by the end.
You want a socialist revolution? Good luck. But please think about how to prevent just shifting the wealth and power from one group of bad people to another over the course of a few decades.
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there was literal outright colonialism in the 50s, white people don’t get this
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There were plenty of local jobs that paid better than jobs today do (adjusted for CoL) and needed less education etc.
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The 50s were objectively a time of prosperity and entitlement for the US. It’s literally why they’re called “boomers”, it was an economic boom. We had high taxes on the rich, people saw those tax dollars translate into quality public services like highways, corporate competition was high, education was affordable, housing was plentiful. It was undoubtedly the best time to be a while male in US history.
And then capitalism did its efficient best to buy up the govt and begin squeezing all that prosperity into their pockets. And here we are.
It’s literally why they’re called “boomers”, it was an economic boom.
It’s short for “Baby Boomers”, because there was a huge baby boom after WW2.
By that logic, there must have been a baby zoom in the '90s
Sorry, not following?
Just a stupid joke on the tendency people have to try to reconstruct etymology from the top down rather than bottom up, often using tenuous logical connections lol
Boomers are called that because they were born after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Zoomers are the generation of high speed rail and fast cars
Gen alpha are all chads due to the hormones used in agriculture
I think people who think the past was better are all white men, and it’s because they didn’t have to think about other people. They want to go back to ignorance.
He literally says that to you? The 1950s? Have you asked him specifically why? My mom had a great time in the 1950s and no way would she ever have wanted the world to go backwards to that time. She recognized, as she became older, how bad things were for her mom, for black kids (her school was segregated), for so many people.
The only reason I can imagine wanting to go to the past, is to try to make this future better, but I know better than to fuck with the timeline and can’t imagine I’d be able to do anything about it anyway.
well, for one, i think he said because something to do with white people. the same reason he likes europe. europe is primarily white people, he says, and segregation was still a thing in the 50s.
Europe is primarily white people
Hah, that’s telling. Just FYI, there’s been generations upon generations of racism and ethnic hatred here in Eastern Europe. I guess we have the advanced racists: the ones who don’t hate you for your skin colour, but who your parents were, religion and primary language.
I’ll bet that if your dad grew up here in Romania, he’d be complaining about those sneaky Szeklers trying to steal Transylvania and Roma people being subhuman.
Also, he seems the type to pine for Europe because “We’re all Christian!”. Trust me, you haven’t seen “Christian love” like state religions persecuting people of the wrong sect. Orthodox Christianity is the state religion here, and Protestants of all stripes get treated like heathens.
Have your asked your dad? What does he say? Did you tell him that you think it would be harder for you and ask what his opinion is?
Not saying you have to, just curious if you did how it went. I’m in a similar boat.
He just says times were simpler and i think something about segregation still being a thing. i haven’t told him because he just thinks i’m a girl.
Lol, so racism.
