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.
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.
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.
Right on!
Social safety nets were stronger and income inequality was lower, largely thanks to the post-war economy retaining a lot of its state planning towards full employment, and largely due to the expansion in safety nets under FDR as a response to the Soviet Union’s massive improvement in safety nets. Time was good, if you were a hetero white man. The US was also emerging as the clear imperial hegemon.
Reactionary rhetoric tries to turn the clock backwards, to when the contradictions of society weren’t as sharpened. It’s usually a petite bourgeois conception, but can also be a part of other classes. It’s the opposite of progressive movement, trying to move the clock forward into the next mode of production, socialism in the case of the US.
I think it’s pretty common when you reach a certain age to want to go back to a more nostalgic time for you personally. There’s a certain level of bias and rose tinted glasses to it, no doubt.
For instance, I myself would kill for it to be 1992 again.
This is a very surface level observation. For your father there might be more nuance to the sentiment.
While I also liked the 90s, because that’s where the most pivotal part of my childhood took place, I’d never want to go back. That was also the time where air pollution was insane, older kids bullied little children and drank beer on the playgrounds, there was dog shit everywhere, car stereos were constantly stolen, cars were put on bricks to steal the wheels, litter was everywhere, people smoked everywhere etc. etc. Fuck all that. I just wish we could go back to pre internet times. Maybe the beginnings of the internet. That’d be nice.
Buying a house, a car, a golden retriever, having a wife and two kids by the age of 22.
Removed by mod
A little later, maybe, but much the same… on the upside:
- we were optimistic.
- we were going to conquer space, and it was going to be real live humans, not semi-autonomous robots
- society (in the US and W. Europe) was (very) slowly getting more progressive.
- Hitler had been killed, and fascism defeated forever. Never again would we have another dictator; never again would we watch a country commit genocide against a people.
- life was slower. TV was the bad influence rotting kids brains. We didn’t have an entire industry focused on commoditizing us.
- computers were fucking incredible. The future we imagined coming from computers was very, very different than what we ended up with. For one thing, we didn’t imagine a single-minded focus of all software and computing power on commercializing every aspect of our life.
- no Facebook, no Twitter, no TikTok
- Income disparity was far less extreme, and class mobility was a realistic dream. You could imagine buying a nice house and raising a family on a single income. If you worked hard and had a little luck you could pass on some reasonable wealth to your kids.
- shit really was - in the aggregate - getting better all around. Technology was advancing and bringing amazing products; science was being discovered that you could basically wrap your head around. Lives (in the Western world) were improving (relatively, compared to previous decades) for most people, and all this happened at a pace that didn’t up-end your world every day, 365 days a year.
- you could get all the news you needed for a fairly rounded world view in a single newspaper, much of which you could read over breakfast. There was no information overload.
On the downsides,
- dad beat us with a belt as punishment
- we were having wars that were disrupting society. The draft was a real worry.
- we were constantly afraid that nuclear war could happen at any time
- commies were hiding under our beds
- minorities of all kinds were fighting for their rights, and fighting to get them enforced. It sucked to be gay, or black, or a woman (but it was getting better, slowly)
- most people didn’t have access to a computer, much less a PC until well into the 80’s, so you had to infiltrate University computer labs.
It was a slower world, with fewer consumer goods, fewer conveniences, and worse medical care. Everybody smoked, all the time. But slower was good, and - best of all - we didn’t realize yet that we were killing the planet; the world wasn’t ending.
I have a feeling it has to do with a lot of the things that you and I would consider societal progress.
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.
Boomers were named after the Baby Boom, not the economic boom.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers
There was also an economic boom, but that’s absolutely not where the name comes from.
It’s all the same post war boom. It all happened, and is named for the same reason. People didn’t suddenly have a lot of babies because they were on hard times. There’s nothing to nitpick here.
i completely agree. people felt the economic upwind and decided to have children because they could afford that.
If you were a straight, white man it was a good time to exist economically with a high degree of social cohesion. Oppression was worse, but it probably was much less visible to your dad’s sort of person.
And the economy was booming. My own dad went to college full time and worked 20 hours a week loading trucks in his 20s. On this salary, he was able to buy a starter house, marry his first wife, have 2 kids, and complete his degree.
It fucking sucked if you were literally anyone else though. Married women were barely better than property, and they frequently killed themselves to escape their husbands. Spousal abuse was common and not really looked down on in many communities unless you took things “too far” and sent them to the hospital. Being queer was just straight up illegal, and you’d be imprisoned and ostracized if you were caught. Racism was…worse to say the least.
While things might have been better in the past for a specific population or from a specific point of view, always remember that we have made substantial progress even in the past decade or two. Living in the past is a fool’s paradise.
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.
Because I could by my amphetamines legally and the doctor would give me a steady supply of heroin if I paid him under the counter
/s
Idk why people want to go back to the 1950s they sucked.
people that wax nostalgic for the 1950s are either:
A) folks who only see how advantageous it was for a white middle class cis straight man with a GI Bill, and just forget and ignore the rest of the reality of the era, or
B) folks that actively want to roll back civil rights for minorities, and would probably prefer the 1850s, if only they had pickup trucks back then.It was before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, before women could open their own bank accounts, and before no fault divorce was legalized. In other words, white men had almost all of the power, both politically and socially.
People who pine for the fifties are mostly white men, and it just means they are racist and/or sexist. That’s not the only reason, but it’s a big one.
Other than that, they just want things to go back to the way they never were.
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.
Bettergood wages
