4 ms·

> The US is so weird right now. The weirdness started in 90s. First it was cultural (TV in 90s, Jerry Springer et al). Then it was electoral (hanging Chads any

> The US is so weird right now. The weirdness started in 90s. First it was cultural (TV in 90s, Jerry Springer et al). Then it was electoral (hanging Chads anyone?). Then it was constitutional (Patriot Act). Then it was psychological (all those spooks running various "alt" Q etc.). And now it is lobotomy time. Took almost 3 decades but here we are.

ncr100 1y ago
I speculate it started in the 1950s. There was a move to make Business about numbers over People, per my Grandpa's "Back In My Day" speeches he used to give me. He blamed the MBA (no offense to MBAs) for encouraging money-over-people thinking. This then leads to GOP appearing to value winning political power for itself over building a healthy society, in my view.
- ta1243 1y ago
  Probably around the time your Gradpa started paying attention (post ww2). The 1920s and the great depression were hardly non-weird times.
  - ncr100 1y ago
    Ya possibly! He and rest of my family of that era were deeply impacted by racism, ideological weirdness as you put it. Immigrants, refugees. Makes me sick seeing what the GOP and their racist base are doing today. Wishing I had the balls to join in some legal actions against those turkeys.
- axus 1y ago
  The GOP voters (and maybe even the politicians!) have a different view of what a healthy society requires. Supposedly keeping womens' sports genetically pure, punishing pro-Palestinian speech, and deporting lots of people is very important for a healthy society, and justifies their behavior.
bhouston 1y ago
> The weirdness started in 90s. I think this is mostly just an artifact of when you starting paying attention in your life, discounting what happened before, you are likely around 50 years old. Remember there was the Vietnam war casus belli that was faked, the student protests and shootings, and Nixon spying on his opponents and before that there was the red scare, the Hollywood black list and segregation in the South. I think weaving together complex set of events like this is too much like the mistake people make in a lot of "evolutionary just so" stories. The degrees of freedom are too large and it is hard to establish true causality in a realm of potentially infinite causal links just by conjecture. I think it is easier and more productive frankly to see what levers and pressures one had right now on the government and then try to influence those. I think government is always in tension between opposing forces and you'll align with some and against others depending on your background, disposition, position in society and your particular perspective of kinship.
- yubblegum 1y ago
  Certainly true. Plus, I 'arrived' in America in '79 at a tender age when everyone wore k-mart suits (in two colors: egg shell, and powder blue /g). > Remember there was the Vietnam war casus belli that was faked That's not weirdness. We did that back in the day in Cuba and the Spanish-American war. Weirdness in this context is a nation changing its character, in a "weird" way.

ncr100 1y ago

I speculate it started in the 1950s. There was a move to make Business about numbers over People, per my Grandpa's "Back In My Day" speeches he used to give me. He blamed the MBA (no offense to MBAs) for encouraging money-over-people thinking. This then leads to GOP appearing to value winning political power for itself over building a healthy society, in my view.

ta1243 1y ago
Probably around the time your Gradpa started paying attention (post ww2). The 1920s and the great depression were hardly non-weird times.
- ncr100 1y ago
  Ya possibly! He and rest of my family of that era were deeply impacted by racism, ideological weirdness as you put it. Immigrants, refugees. Makes me sick seeing what the GOP and their racist base are doing today. Wishing I had the balls to join in some legal actions against those turkeys.
axus 1y ago
The GOP voters (and maybe even the politicians!) have a different view of what a healthy society requires. Supposedly keeping womens' sports genetically pure, punishing pro-Palestinian speech, and deporting lots of people is very important for a healthy society, and justifies their behavior.

bhouston 1y ago

> The weirdness started in 90s. I think this is mostly just an artifact of when you starting paying attention in your life, discounting what happened before, you are likely around 50 years old. Remember there was the Vietnam war casus belli that was faked, the student protests and shootings, and Nixon spying on his opponents and before that there was the red scare, the Hollywood black list and segregation in the South. I think weaving together complex set of events like this is too much like the mistake people make in a lot of "evolutionary just so" stories. The degrees of freedom are too large and it is hard to establish true causality in a realm of potentially infinite causal links just by conjecture. I think it is easier and more productive frankly to see what levers and pressures one had right now on the government and then try to influence those. I think government is always in tension between opposing forces and you'll align with some and against others depending on your background, disposition, position in society and your particular perspective of kinship.

yubblegum 1y ago
Certainly true. Plus, I 'arrived' in America in '79 at a tender age when everyone wore k-mart suits (in two colors: egg shell, and powder blue /g). > Remember there was the Vietnam war casus belli that was faked That's not weirdness. We did that back in the day in Cuba and the Spanish-American war. Weirdness in this context is a nation changing its character, in a "weird" way.