I think the story of a lost decency is frankly, a complete myth. Was decency the norm during the 1950s when black people were excluded from political involveme

I think the story of a lost decency is frankly, a complete myth. Was decency the norm during the 1950s when black people were excluded from political involvement and/or lynched? What about in the 1970s with the fights over Vietnam? Was it decency when gay bars were raided and beat up by cops on a regular basis? Was the Gingrich revolution decent? What about in 2012 when people put up signs about not “re-<slur deleted>“ because of Obama? The past was only civil/decent if you’re either viewing it with rose tinted glasses, or if you’re (purposefully or accidentally) very tightly constraining your analysis to very specific in groups. In fact, if you read historical narratives you’ll discover that for any given lost “decent” time, you’ll find people of that era hand wringing over the loss of decency and civility, and pining for their own lost decent time! Coincidentally everyone seems to put this lost “decent” time to be right before they began paying attention to the way people treated each other in public[0]. This of course doesn’t mean that violence and sectarian strife don’t vary; they obviously do. But the idea that people were once decent to each other in a way that doesn’t exist anymore is not really supported by the evidence, and frankly seems more like a “kids these days” type of statement; common but without merit. 0 - To paraphrase a boss of mine “they just happened to make the best music right when I was the most emotionally vulnerable. What a coincidence!”