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this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Trump stole the line from Ronald Reagan.
Michael Moore did a video where he asked a bunch of MAGats exactly when America stopped being great?
The ones born in the 1940s said it was the 1960s.
The ones born in the 1950s said the 1970s.
The ones born in the 1960s pointed to the 1980s.
Exactly. Things were "great" when you were young, healthy and didn't have a realization of the complexities of the world. Mostly because your folks were dealing with them for you on your behalf. Then your twenties hit and you're out in the world without that little cocoon.
Suddenly, everything is on you, your body is now on the downside. Of course shit was better FOR YOU, when you were a kid. The rest of the world, on the other hand, has been dealing with shit since long before that and will keep dealing with it long after your ass is in the dirt.
I would not be surprised if that kind of thing tracks across many, if not most, demographics, honestly.
"When were things better?"
If one is going to take a very egocentric, myopic, short-term, and provincial of things vs. the kind of view of say, historians, then most people are going to look back at their twenties with mostly rose-colored glasses on.
When were things better? When I got 15 boners a day, never got hungover, never had to consider my diet or frequency of exercise. Duh.
Look at old time media.
Originally, Mary Tyler Moore was supposed to be a divorcee, but the networks decided that was too controversial.
Star Trek's original pilot featured Spoke and a female Number One. The networks told the creators to drop one or the other.
1982 was the first major Hollywood movie where a Black character was never referred to as Black, they were simply allowed to be there like it was normal [An Officer And A Gentleman]
A lot of people have seen improvements over their lifetimes.
Yes, that's the more historic view. I mostly find Bill Maher incredibly exhausting, but when he points out how there is now a certain contingent that finds it so unfashionable (or worse, offensive) to be reminded that yes, things ARE measurably better in many ways for a multitude of things, I agree with him.
My parents were boomers. Both were leftists. My mother would always remind us what utter shit things used to be for women. For instance, applying for credit, or opening a bank account, without the approval of a husband or father, was not a guaranteed thing. Same thing for running a business. Then there is no-fault divorce. Not being fired only for getting pregnant. Being able to report sexual harassment.
I mean, you could probably fill a page of detailed info about how things have improved since the 1960s, just focusing on women.
It's especially fashionable on the left to talk about how awful America has always been and so on w/o acknowledging the progress. The right, of course, views that much of that progress as a net negative...
There is always work to do, of course, but when people don't acknowledge that improvements can and have been made, I wonder what kind of negative impact that has on those that would do that work. When you claim that things have always been terrible, the subtext could be taken as: "things will always be terrible and there's no point in spending any effort to try to change your situation".