HBOT posters over age 50: Is this the craziest time period you’ve lived through?

[BrianNole777]

I was talking to my Mom (no pics) who is 75 years old and my Aunt (no pics) this weekend and they both said the last 5 years with covid/Trump/Ukraine/Israel wars are unlike anything they have lived through.

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

What's been your experience?

 

[Here_4_a_Day]

I was talking to my Mom (no pics) who is 75 years old and my Aunt (no pics) this weekend and they both said the last 5 years with covid/Trump/Ukraine/Israel wars are unlike anything they have lived through.

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

What's been your experience?

Bro, we are returning to normal....eras when America was great. It's a New Golden Age of prosperity and normalcy. The MAGA movement is systemically sweeping the scourge of crazy into the gutters and sewers of history!!

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

The last 9-10 years have been the craziest I’ve ever seen leftist drama queens act. They’ve always been stupid (unilateral disarmament protests, WTO protests, Earth Day celebration that trashed the south oval at OU), but they’ve really gotten batshit off the rails crazy these last ten years. It’s become apparent that these people suffer from some form of “neurodivergence”, giving credence to the term “libtard”. Fortunately, I live in a very red area where leftists know their place, and know how to STFU.

 

[BrianNole777]

The last 9-10 years have been the craziest I’ve ever seen leftist drama queens act. They’ve always been stupid (unilateral disarmament protests, WTO protests, Earth Day celebration that trashed the south oval at OU), but they’ve really gotten batshit off the rails crazy these last ten years. It’s become apparent that these people suffer from some form of “neurodivergence”, giving credence to the term “libtard”. Fortunately, I live in a very red area where leftists know their place, and know how to STFU.

Have you ever seen such divisions in the United States during your lifetime?

It seems like Americans are living in different realities.

 

[HawkMachine]

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

Try not to take this personal.

But your mom is a FOOL for the above comment.

Calling her a fool is being nice btw.

 

[artradley]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

 

[BrianNole777]

Try not to take this personal.

But your mom is a FOOL for the above comment.

Calling her a fool is being nice btw.

How so?

In today's times, people can't even talk about politics without arguing.

 

[BrianNole777]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

Yeah. Social media and cable news are huge now.

I watch MSNBC, CNN and Fox News and it's a completely different reality.

It's like two different countries.

 

[Hawki97]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

Solid post. To your second point - I keep wondering if there were this many stupid people around before the internet and we just didn't know it because they stayed in their holes. Or if the internet has made us all collectively dumber.

 

[alaskanseminole]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Have you ever seen such divisions in the United States during your lifetime?

It seems like Americans are living in different realities.

I think it was there since the late 60s, but only in the last 20-30 has the internet made it possible for the two sides to actually “engage”.

 

[Tenacious E]

I was talking to my Mom (no pics) who is 75 years old and my Aunt (no pics) this weekend and they both said the last 5 years with covid/Trump/Ukraine/Israel wars are unlike anything they have lived through.

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

What's been your experience?

I am 50. The craziest time for me personally was 9/11 and its aftermath. Growing up, yeah we hated Russia and there was the threat of mutually assured destruction, but this was the first time I had seen our nation devastated by foreign attackers. Also in the conversation was when the wall came down in Germany and the collapse of the soviet empire, but in a good way. That was a hopeful time. I would say our current state of affairs is the saddest, in terms of partisan vitriol. I try to be moderate and independent, but it seems the outer fringe on both sides largely shapes the conversation. I find the far right repugnant, so I probably seem like an uber liberal to many here.

 

[Igor Stravinsky10]

I am 50. The craziest time for me personally was 9/11 and its aftermath. Growing up, yeah we hated Russia and there was the threat of mutually assured destruction, but this was the first time I had seen our nation devastated by foreign attackers. Also in the conversation was when the wall came down in Germany and the collapse of the soviet empire, but in a good way. That was a hopeful time. I would say our current state of affairs is the saddest, in terms of partisan vitriol. I try to be moderate and independent, but it seems the outer fringe on both sides largely shapes the conversation. If find the far right repugnant, so I probably seem like an uber liberal to many here.

Great post. I'm also 50 and I agree with everything you said.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

Regarding the 3rd, people keep saying this but I'm not sure how true it is. Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, a few others seem to be shows that are at least as popular as the most popular shows when I was a kid.

The first 2 I agree with. Although I fear Trump is just the first of many. I feel like the dehumanization of people over the internet plus the ultra political 24 hour news networks has essentially led to this idea that you can just do or say anything about other human beings and it's perfectly acceptable.

Either that or people always where like this and they just don't care anymore. But we don't humanize each other anymore.

 

[Chishawk1425]

Solid post. To your second point - I keep wondering if there were this many stupid people around before the internet and we just didn't know it because they stayed in their holes. Or if the internet has made us all collectively dumber.

Yes

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

I am 50. The craziest time for me personally was 9/11 and its aftermath. Growing up, yeah we hated Russia and there was the threat of mutually assured destruction, but this was the first time I had seen our nation devastated by foreign attackers. Also in the conversation was when the wall came down in Germany and the collapse of the soviet empire, but in a good way. That was a hopeful time. I would say our current state of affairs is the saddest, in terms of partisan vitriol. I try to be moderate and independent, but it seems the outer fringe on both sides largely shapes the conversation. If find the far right repugnant, so I probably seem like an uber liberal to many here.

I will admit that 9/11 and the first few days after were probably one of the scariest times. For a few days we didn't know if WW3 had just started or what. I remember thinking at 19 years old that I might get drafted to fight WW3.

This has been a much longer burn of declining stability within the country.

 

[Tom Paris]

I was talking to my Mom (no pics) who is 75 years old and my Aunt (no pics) this weekend and they both said the last 5 years with covid/Trump/Ukraine/Israel wars are unlike anything they have lived through.

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

What's been your experience?

Once Sean Spicer came out after Trump's first inauguration announcing crowd size I knew this was going to be an uncommon presidency. Then 1/6 happened and for 24 hours I thought everyone would be on the same page and finally move away from MAGA...and now here we are. The last 8 years are unlike anything I ever imagined we could see in the USA. The next 4 will top the previous 8.

I'm 56.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

Yes craziest time.
It has all been exacerbated by social media (2012).

citizens united made social media companies in political branches. He who controls the algorithms owns our country. There is a reason Musk did what he did, he knew it.

 

[BrianNole777]

Yes craziest time.
It has all been exacerbated by social media (2012).

citizens united made social media companies in political branches. He who controls the algorithms owns our country. There is a reason Musk did what he did, he knew it.

How old are you?

How were there so many wars before social media, radio, TV, etc.?

I was reading about the Napoleonic Wars...basically a decade of wars in Europe before any of that technology.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

How old are you?

How were there so many wars before social media, radio, TV, etc.?

I was reading about the Napoleonic Wars...basically a decade of wars in Europe before any of that technology.

I'm not sure how the two are related. We're talking more about domestic struggles here, heavily over political power but also information and being able to tell truth from fiction.

Wars in the past were international struggles over political power. A lot of the Napoleonic wars centered around kings not wanting people to get the idea that you can overthrow a hereditary monarch.

 

[BrianNole777]

I'm not sure how the two are related. We're talking more about domestic struggles here, heavily over political power but also information and being able to tell truth from fiction.

Wars in the past were international struggles over political power. A lot of the Napoleonic wars centered around kings not wanting people to get the idea that you can overthrow a hereditary monarch.

Napoleon seized power after the French Revolution, though.

He made himself a monarch. This was all before social media, radio, TV, etc.

 

[Hendy hawk]

I was talking to my Mom (no pics) who is 75 years old and my Aunt (no pics) this weekend and they both said the last 5 years with covid/Trump/Ukraine/Israel wars are unlike anything they have lived through.

My Mom said the Vietnam era wasn't close to as crazy as the times we live in today.

What's been your experience?

75 myself and your mother is right on target.
Lots of fear for my kids and especially grandkids.

 

[Hendy hawk]

Have you ever seen such divisions in the United States during your lifetime?

It seems like Americans are living in different realities.

This. And HATRED is being used too much.
Everyone hates each other instead of a difference of opinion.

 

[Hendy hawk]

Try not to take this personal.

But your mom is a FOOL for the above comment.

Calling her a fool is being nice btw.

Please explain your thoughts.

 

[BrianNole777]

75 myself and your mother is right on target.
Lots of fear for my kids and especially grandkids.

I think America is like the Roman Empire towards the end.

I hope and pray I'm wrong.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Napoleon seized power after the French Revolution, though.

He made himself a monarch. This was all before social media, radio, TV, etc.

He seized power because the several iterations of the Republic that France tried before he did so was never able to bring any sense of stability to the country.

Napoleon was a successful general at this time, seized power, and was able to bring stability to the country. First by winning wars but also brought a great deal of domestic stability to the country. This was true for a while at least til about 1812/1813 when his failed invasion of Russia left him with few well trained veteran soldiers and everyone that he had beaten in the previous 4 attempts by foreign powers to remove him realized this was their chance to finally get rid of the guy and restore a hereditary monarch. A monarch France loved so much that when Napoleon landed back in France a year later not only would no one in the army shoot the man but they basically put him right back in power without a shot fired.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

I think America is like the Roman Empire towards the end.

I hope and pray I'm wrong.

Roman empire went through a great deal of political instability before it ended.

At the height of Roman power, emperors were being murdered by their bodyguards and replaced with whomever the bodyguards favored.

 

[Hendy hawk]

I'm 67 and lived through the Civil Rights / Vietnam / Women's Rights era. That was a crazy time, but this certainly feels worse. Even with significant and emotional differences of opinion, in my youth we all lived in the same reality and shared a common culture. I think it's worse now primarily because of these factors:

• First and foremost Trump. No President was ever so vile, so hateful, and so completely unbound by good conscious or untethered to civility or truth. No President has ever been so juvenile or preposterous in their behavior. When he is gone I am hopeful we can drift back closer to normalcy.
  
  
• The Internet has the ability to provide a wealth of information to every individual. Unfortunately it has been used far more successfully to spread disinformation. It has also herded us into separate groups, feeding each of us "information" that feeds our biases and puts us into our own political bubbles.
  
  
• The proliferation of entertainment outlets means we no longer have a common cultural experience outside of sports. It might have been silly back when everybody knew what happened this week on Gilligan's Island, but I believe there was value in that. Now we all live in our own cultural bubbles.

The crazy thing is that the issues of my youth were important. We were sending young men by the thousands to be slaughtered. We were fighting for social justice for black Americans and women. It was almost a side note that we had become aware of how much we were damaging our environment, and we took strong, bipartisan, measures to reverse much of that damage.

Now we argue about silly crap, and we hate each other over it. It's absolutely depressing.

I have a different opinion on some of your posts but this one is spot on IMO.

 

[BrianNole777]

Roman empire went through a great deal of political instability before it ended.

At the height of Roman power, emperors were being murdered by their bodyguards and replaced with whomever the bodyguards favored.

Every empire eventually crumbles, no?

The Roman, British, Ottoman Empires.

It seems like we're next.

 

[BrianNole777]

He seized power because the several iterations of the Republic that France tried before he did so was never able to bring any sense of stability to the country.

Napoleon was a successful general at this time, seized power, and was able to bring stability to the country. First by winning wars but also brought a great deal of domestic stability to the country. This was true for a while at least til about 1812/1813 when his failed invasion of Russia left him with few well trained veteran soldiers and everyone that he had beaten in the previous 4 attempts by foreign powers to remove him realized this was their chance to finally get rid of the guy and restore a hereditary monarch. A monarch France loved so much that when Napoleon landed back in France a year later not only would no one in the army shoot the man but they basically put him right back in power without a shot fired.

My point is the world has always been divided for thousands of years before social media came on the scene.

 

[Finance85]

Boomer.

Yes, it's the craziest time in my lifetime.
Vietnam was crazy, with protests never seen before.
The 60's was a crazy time, but I wasn't old enough to enjoy it.
The 60's also brought civil rights and desegregation.
The 70's was crazy, with Watergate, getting off the gold standard, cozying up to China, the cold war, an end to the cold war, disco music, and the oil embargo.
The 80's and 90's were relatively sane.
00's brought us 9/11 and the housing bubble crash, and the escalation of bitter partisanship.
2010's further escalated the partisanship culminating in Trump getting elected.
2020's offered hope with Biden, having a reputation as a moderate, getting elected.

Trump will undoubtedly offer good and bad. He's clearly ignoring 14A with the birthright citizenship order. He's outrageous with some of his thoughts on Canada and Greenland ad tariffs. Time will tell if he can solve the main issues of his term, starting with peace in Ukraine and Israel, inflation, new energy policies, securing the border, and restoring sanity around things like DEI.

If this board is an indicator, Trump has an uphill battle. For some people, he will never be able to do anything right. For some people he'll never be able to do anything wrong. Each of those groups offer no room for there to be anything else. Team politics are extreme, and all or nothing.

 

[Hendy hawk]

I am 50. The craziest time for me personally was 9/11 and its aftermath. Growing up, yeah we hated Russia and there was the threat of mutually assured destruction, but this was the first time I had seen our nation devastated by foreign attackers. Also in the conversation was when the wall came down in Germany and the collapse of the soviet empire, but in a good way. That was a hopeful time. I would say our current state of affairs is the saddest, in terms of partisan vitriol. I try to be moderate and independent, but it seems the outer fringe on both sides largely shapes the conversation. If find the far right repugnant, so I probably seem like an uber liberal to many here.

Can't disagree with what you said except you said we Hated Russia. I personally didn't Hate them but warry of them. IMO our country felt the way I have stated. The term Hate is used way to much now and affects a lot on how we react to things.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Every empire eventually crumbles, no?

The Roman, British, Ottoman Empires.

It seems like we're next.

Are we an empire? By most traditional definitions we are not.

A superpower yes but an empire no.

My point is the world has always been divided for thousands of years before social media came on the scene.

The world yes, but this is domestic division within a country that not long ago appeared to be pretty stable.

 

[BrianNole777]

Are we an empire? By most traditional definitions we are not.

A superpower yes but an empire no.



The world yes, but this is domestic division within a country that not long ago appeared to be pretty stable.

I think we're an empire. We have military bases in 80 countries.

We're also a post-Christian country now with 80% of Americans no longer attending Church each week.

That has something to do with our current situation, IMHO.

 

[Tenacious E]

Every empire eventually crumbles, no?

The Roman, British, Ottoman Empires.

It seems like we're next.

Perhaps a difference is that we are not an empire.

 

[Tenacious E]

I think we're an empire. We have military bases in 80 countries.

We're also a post-Christian country now with 80% of Americans no longer attending Church each week.

That has something to do with our current situation, IMHO.

We don't have an emperor. That we have bases in Germany, Italy, etc. makes them part of a United States empire? They are sovereign nations who tell us to eff off on the reg.

 

[BrianNole777]

We don't have an emperor. That we have bases in Germany, Italy, etc. makes them part of a United States empire? They are sovereign nations who tell us to eff off on the reg.

Thanks for your perspective.

 

[Flie]

This. And HATRED is being used too much.
Everyone hates each other instead of a difference of opinion.

Oh yeah and the hate comes out fast. You can share information that is factual (like literal facts vs alternative fakts) and people start name calling and hurling insults because they don't like the facts. It's not enough to disagree these days. Nope they need to own the opposition with "in your face" burns. That comes from the top.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Boomer.

Yes, it's the craziest time in my lifetime.
Vietnam was crazy, with protests never seen before.
The 60's was a crazy time, but I wasn't old enough to enjoy it.
The 60's also brought civil rights and desegregation.
The 70's was crazy, with Watergate, getting off the gold standard, cozying up to China, the cold war, an end to the cold war, disco music, and the oil embargo.
The 80's and 90's were relatively sane.
00's brought us 9/11 and the housing bubble crash, and the escalation of bitter partisanship.
2010's further escalated the partisanship culminating in Trump getting elected.
2020's offered hope with Biden, having a reputation as a moderate, getting elected.

Trump will undoubtedly offer good and bad. He's clearly ignoring 14A with the birthright citizenship order. He's outrageous with some of his thoughts on Canada and Greenland ad tariffs. Time will tell if he can solve the main issues of his term, starting with peace in Ukraine and Israel, inflation, new energy policies, securing the border, and restoring sanity around things like DEI.

If this board is an indicator, Trump has an uphill battle. For some people, he will never be able to do anything right. For some people he'll never be able to do anything wrong. Each of those groups offer no room for there to be anything else. Team politics are extreme, and all or nothing.

Ehh you make it sound too much like a personal thing when you say "he will never do anything right". I could tell you exactly what I want Trump to do to where I would say he was doing the right thing.

The difference is more of what we see as right and wrong.

The biggest problem with Trump is the only thing he really values is loyalty to him and making him look good. The entire reason he hates Fauchi and the WHO is that during COVID Trump put forward some scientifically invalid claims regarding COVID and Fauchi and the WHO said no to those things. Ivermectin doesn't cure COVID. If Fauchi would have said "Trump is right, take Ivermectin" and "Trump is right the summer will burn COVID away" than Fauchi would be up for confirmation to run DHHS.

 

[Sharky1203]

Definitely the last 10 years. It is not a one sided thing either. Both sides are off their damn rockers and have lost their minds.