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> Nothing much has changed. In the way you're referencing, the US was extremely divided in the 1960's and is extremely divided again now. The deep divisions mo

> Nothing much has changed. In the way you're referencing, the US was extremely divided in the 1960's and is extremely divided again now. The deep divisions mostly came later in the 60s. The early 60s was the calm before the storm. The Vietnam war was barely on anyone's radar in 1962 - there were only ~9,000 US troops there in '62 and these were being referred to as 'advisors' - the vast majority of Americans didn't even know where Vietnam was or that we had any troops there at that point. Kennedy had not yet been assassinated. The Civil Rights movement was in progress, but again, not on the radar for most Americans yet. Most Americans felt that the Soviet Union was the existential threat - not a lot of division about that at the time. Silent Spring certainly seems to have had some major impact at the time it came out - by 1970, eight years later, we had the EPA and Earth Day. Again, it's hard to imagine any kind of book or film coming out today that would have a similar impact on the culture at large since we now have a collection of subcultures each with their own preferred media outlets. In '62 you got your news from your local newspaper and the networks (mostly CBS & NBC at that point, with ABC as sort of the upstart) - while newspapers did often have a political slant, broadcasters mostly all had the same political slant (or lack of one) due to the fairness doctrine. > discussion were high yet still lead to our 2020's society being only marginally more ecologically responsible than the that of 1960's (if that). I think this has more to do with Reagan and the rise of the right wing in the 80s and into the current era. That led to backsliding on ecological progress that was made in the 60s through the 70s. Jimmy Carter was probably our most ecologically-minded president - he even began to sound the alarm on climate change towards the end of his administration.

swatcoder 3y ago
McCarthy's red scare, rising resistance to the oppressive Hollywood production code, Beat and motorcycle culture, Brown v Board of Education, the pre-1962 NY Times bestseller lists, etc all suggest deep division through the 1950's that would only crescendo during the Vietnam War and disperse for a while afterwards. Because TV was ripe and widespread at that point, you can also personally survey talk show and comedy/variety show material of the 1950's and early 1960's to experience the state of the culture. While the fairness doctrine did constrain what could stated by whom and with what kind of counterpoint, capitalists and comedians found plenty of ways to reflect the actual cultural tensions, which (like today) were not small and (like today) were on track to get further heightened.
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  McCarthy was roundly discredited by about '56. He was out of office by '57. By the early 60s he was largely viewed as an extremist. The election of 1964 (LBJ vs Goldwater) was very conclusive: Goldwater was easy to paint as an extremist - he only got 38% of the vote, it was a landslide for LBJ. (In reality, Goldwater, or at least the Goldwater he evolved into, was nowhere near as extreme as many in his party today - he was more of a libertarian and warned against having religious extremists control the party - the GOP did not heed his warnings)
oceanplexian 3y ago
Carter was repeatedly wrong about environmental issues, some quotes..“Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce.” “World oil production can probably keep going up for another six or eight years. But some time in the 1980s it can’t go up much more. Demand will overtake production. We have no choice about that.” The guy was both wrong and extremely unpopular and defeated by Reagan in a landslide. He was president during a period of unprecedented inflation, multiple geopolitical flubs, unpopular mandates (Like executive orders forcing everyone to set their thermostat at a certain temperature). Don't forget his other legacy, among others Corn-based ethanol, which is both worse for the environment than gasoline, subsidized by our taxes, and has a negative impact on food prices. Carter was a nice guy but a terrible leader.
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  It wasn't only Carter who thought we had hit or were close to hitting peak oil production. There were members of both parties who thought it likely. Also, you cite this as an example of him being wrong about an environmental issue, but that was more of an economic issue. I'm surprised you didn't cite his opposition to nuclear power as an example of where he was wrong on an environmental issue - yes, in hindsight we now know that wasn't the way to go, but we have to remember that in the 70s anti-nuke was the environmental position, while they were starting to know about climate change, they didn't yet have the idea that nuclear power (which was becoming increasingly unpopular) would be a good way of avoiding that. The other thing to remember is that Carter was warning that being dependent on foreign oil was bad for US national security. This was why he was doing what he could to get us to reduce our energy consumption. As for the thermostats, I don't recall that we were being mandated to turn down the thermostats in our houses and I was there. As for the inflation, he inherited a lot of that from the wartime spending expansion of his predecessors - Arab oil embargoes didn't help. And he did name Paul Volcker to lead the Fed even though in his interview Volcker told him that the only remedy would be to drastically raise interest rates. Volcker thought that he definitely wouldn't get the job (it was the year before an election year) so he was surprised when Carter picked him. So in that sense, Carter played a key role in killing the 70s inflation (which had been a problem even prior to Carter being elected - Remember Ford's WIN - Whip Inflation Now - buttons?) In the end, Volcker did what he said he was going to do. 10 year treasury rates hit ~15%. The economy swooned and it was a big factor in Carter not winning re-election, but that ended up killing the 70s inflation. He had the guts to pick Volcker even though it would not be good for him politically, but he knew that it would be the best choice for the economy in the longrun. Also in regards to inflation, it should be remembered that Carter was a fiscal conservative trying to reign in spending, but his own party faught him on this. It's why Ted Kennedy primaried him in the 1980 Democratic primaries: he considered Carter to be too much of a tightwad.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
> Jimmy Carter was probably our most ecologically-minded president Not disagreeing about Carter, but weirdly Nixon was perhaps just as concerned about the environment. It makes me think it was more of the Zeitgeist of the time — just as Star Wars, Ronald Reagan and wearing your patriotism on your sleeve became the Zeitgeist after.
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  Yeah, it was Nixon who gave us the EPA. But Reagan wanted to gut it about a decade later.

swatcoder 3y ago

McCarthy's red scare, rising resistance to the oppressive Hollywood production code, Beat and motorcycle culture, Brown v Board of Education, the pre-1962 NY Times bestseller lists, etc all suggest deep division through the 1950's that would only crescendo during the Vietnam War and disperse for a while afterwards. Because TV was ripe and widespread at that point, you can also personally survey talk show and comedy/variety show material of the 1950's and early 1960's to experience the state of the culture. While the fairness doctrine did constrain what could stated by whom and with what kind of counterpoint, capitalists and comedians found plenty of ways to reflect the actual cultural tensions, which (like today) were not small and (like today) were on track to get further heightened.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
McCarthy was roundly discredited by about '56. He was out of office by '57. By the early 60s he was largely viewed as an extremist. The election of 1964 (LBJ vs Goldwater) was very conclusive: Goldwater was easy to paint as an extremist - he only got 38% of the vote, it was a landslide for LBJ. (In reality, Goldwater, or at least the Goldwater he evolved into, was nowhere near as extreme as many in his party today - he was more of a libertarian and warned against having religious extremists control the party - the GOP did not heed his warnings)

oceanplexian 3y ago

Carter was repeatedly wrong about environmental issues, some quotes..“Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce.” “World oil production can probably keep going up for another six or eight years. But some time in the 1980s it can’t go up much more. Demand will overtake production. We have no choice about that.” The guy was both wrong and extremely unpopular and defeated by Reagan in a landslide. He was president during a period of unprecedented inflation, multiple geopolitical flubs, unpopular mandates (Like executive orders forcing everyone to set their thermostat at a certain temperature). Don't forget his other legacy, among others Corn-based ethanol, which is both worse for the environment than gasoline, subsidized by our taxes, and has a negative impact on food prices. Carter was a nice guy but a terrible leader.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
It wasn't only Carter who thought we had hit or were close to hitting peak oil production. There were members of both parties who thought it likely. Also, you cite this as an example of him being wrong about an environmental issue, but that was more of an economic issue. I'm surprised you didn't cite his opposition to nuclear power as an example of where he was wrong on an environmental issue - yes, in hindsight we now know that wasn't the way to go, but we have to remember that in the 70s anti-nuke was the environmental position, while they were starting to know about climate change, they didn't yet have the idea that nuclear power (which was becoming increasingly unpopular) would be a good way of avoiding that. The other thing to remember is that Carter was warning that being dependent on foreign oil was bad for US national security. This was why he was doing what he could to get us to reduce our energy consumption. As for the thermostats, I don't recall that we were being mandated to turn down the thermostats in our houses and I was there. As for the inflation, he inherited a lot of that from the wartime spending expansion of his predecessors - Arab oil embargoes didn't help. And he did name Paul Volcker to lead the Fed even though in his interview Volcker told him that the only remedy would be to drastically raise interest rates. Volcker thought that he definitely wouldn't get the job (it was the year before an election year) so he was surprised when Carter picked him. So in that sense, Carter played a key role in killing the 70s inflation (which had been a problem even prior to Carter being elected - Remember Ford's WIN - Whip Inflation Now - buttons?) In the end, Volcker did what he said he was going to do. 10 year treasury rates hit ~15%. The economy swooned and it was a big factor in Carter not winning re-election, but that ended up killing the 70s inflation. He had the guts to pick Volcker even though it would not be good for him politically, but he knew that it would be the best choice for the economy in the longrun. Also in regards to inflation, it should be remembered that Carter was a fiscal conservative trying to reign in spending, but his own party faught him on this. It's why Ted Kennedy primaried him in the 1980 Democratic primaries: he considered Carter to be too much of a tightwad.

JKCalhoun 3y ago

> Jimmy Carter was probably our most ecologically-minded president Not disagreeing about Carter, but weirdly Nixon was perhaps just as concerned about the environment. It makes me think it was more of the Zeitgeist of the time — just as Star Wars, Ronald Reagan and wearing your patriotism on your sleeve became the Zeitgeist after.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
Yeah, it was Nixon who gave us the EPA. But Reagan wanted to gut it about a decade later.