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Perhaps "creation" was too strong a word. So no, it wasn't so much being imposed as it was a natural (albeit unfortunate) consequence of technology, which you p

Perhaps "creation" was too strong a word. So no, it wasn't so much being imposed as it was a natural (albeit unfortunate) consequence of technology, which you point out, and post-war sentiment, which you also point out! I agree with you, I'm just saying it wasn't a good thing. When there's so few voices, there's only so much they can say. > These earlier identities and divisions were eroding in favor of this shared one Shared by white people, for the most part. I'm not sure what you mean in your penultimate paragraph. "identities and divisions eroding" is only partly true, surely. You could certainly argue the opposite is true - see the women's lib and civil rights movements for examples of people fighting back against conformity.

iguy 6y ago
Note that I try not to say this consensus was either a good or a bad thing, only that it existed. It had pros & cons, and trying to weigh them up overall seems a bit of a distraction. I'm glad I don't live under it, although perhaps those who did were also glad not to live under earlier systems. But we don't get to choose when to be born, so we are not obliged to reach a yes/no vote. Right, the experience of black people was pretty distinct, 20s-60s-now, and those are really interesting stories. And there's a fractal of smaller group stories, too. But I think the story arc from hyper-partisan 19th C news-politics to Walter Cronkite to Twitter can be understood (to a large degree) before zooming in that far. Although once you do, then indeed, the present tendency to focus on smaller groups' stories does look like part of the same Cronkite -> Twitter arc.
- georgebcrawford 6y ago
  > But we don't get to choose when to be born, so we are not obliged to reach a yes/no vote. I wish more people thought this way. We think we're so smart! In off to bed, but thank you for the reply, I understand more what you meant now.

iguy 6y ago

Note that I try not to say this consensus was either a good or a bad thing, only that it existed. It had pros & cons, and trying to weigh them up overall seems a bit of a distraction. I'm glad I don't live under it, although perhaps those who did were also glad not to live under earlier systems. But we don't get to choose when to be born, so we are not obliged to reach a yes/no vote. Right, the experience of black people was pretty distinct, 20s-60s-now, and those are really interesting stories. And there's a fractal of smaller group stories, too. But I think the story arc from hyper-partisan 19th C news-politics to Walter Cronkite to Twitter can be understood (to a large degree) before zooming in that far. Although once you do, then indeed, the present tendency to focus on smaller groups' stories does look like part of the same Cronkite -> Twitter arc.

georgebcrawford 6y ago
> But we don't get to choose when to be born, so we are not obliged to reach a yes/no vote. I wish more people thought this way. We think we're so smart! In off to bed, but thank you for the reply, I understand more what you meant now.