Yes. It was actually boring. I wish it was boring again and the President, no matter who he or she is, wasn't up in my face every freaking minute. I could go weeks without hearing about the President back then. Now he's omnipresent.

Remember how it was such a big deal when the President was gonna address the nation? It hardly ever happened it was awesome

The want to annoy you so that you vote him out to make the coverage stop but it's the media that's the real enemy. I wonder how we can target them beyond just boycotting their channels and websites. Their advertisers perhaps? But there's quite a few to keep track of.

Or when the 6pm news came on so you could see what happened today? Fuuuuuuuck the 24 hour news cycle full of crap sensationalized stories and pundits.

Wait, so you'd rather not hear about the corruption of your government? That doesn't sound like a r/conspiracy view. Either that or you'd rather be young and ignorant again. I could go for that as well.

I’m so old I remember when loved ones could walk you right on to the plane, and I remember ashtrays on the arm rests and people smoking in planes...high school was smoking pot and drinking beer, no zombie drugs...no cell phones, no internet/social media....we used pagers and finding quarters to use a pay phone was the most stressful thing we faced. This was the age of Tupac when you’d have to go to Tower Records and get the cassette tape....CD’s were the most advanced technology when they came out and you’d have to buy a CD player and those were luxury items....if you had a question about history you’d have to use an encyclopedia or go to the library. Such amazing times I miss it so much.

Man, those were the days.

I went to a fairly fancy seafood restaurant a few nights ago for my Dad's birthday. It's one of those places that hasn't changed since 1983. It has a piano bar with a dude playing songs from the 40s, and there's a glass chandelier.

We were sitting there for 10 minutes when he commented that it feels so different without the think veneer of blue smoke filling up the room. The lighting never changed, but the atmosphere was so different. This is a guy who stopped smoking a decade ago because of lung issues, complaining about the lack of smoke in the air. It made me miss it too. Kinda funny if you think about it, cause it obviously better without the smoke, but man... that atmosphere.

Exactly. I miss taking off early from work and landing at the bar on a Thursday while being able to light up as the bartender passes you that insanely inexpensive beer. Smoke in the air most definitely added a certain ambience to things. Especially a jazz bar haha

I'm Canadian so they've done their best to hammer down on us smoking for a long time now, but I smoked for a few years back when I was in my early twenties... I quit for a while until I went to Europe and you could smoke wherever you wanted. Something special about being able to sit at a bar with a few strangers and everyone is smoking and drinking and watching sports. The ritual is important, and the ritual is stronger when smoking is involved.

New Brunswick here, I feel ya hahaha

Can’t even vape indoors

do it anyways. fuck them, its hard AF to get caught vaping. I blow the vape inside the toilet paper holder things (the industrial ones) so it dissipates without being overly visible from the top of the stall.

but these fucking slavedrivers don't even want you to have a smoke break when work is dead and there are no customers for hours these days. its stupid.

I always went out back and smoked cigs/weed whenever I wanted. made sure to look for jobs with inadequate security because of it.

fuck yeah bud the rules vice keeps getting tighter need to disregard their bullshit

I get bitched at for using my vape in bars today its bullshit.

if you care about your health your not about to go out drinking anyways.

but I'm still the guy that offers drugs to everyone and says fuck the law.

and now that I vape I just do it in the bathroom. go ahead and try to stop me

If you want to feel like this again go into a Kmart I swear I went back in time lol.

Long John Silvers?

The vaccine schedule was less traumatic and autistic kids didn't exist. and in my day no one got a PARTICIPATION Trophy. Pesticides still sucked and lead was in every thing.

Man, I honestly HATED participation trophies...I would have rather got nothing than that mocking, green "PARTICIPANT" ribbon.

when I was a kid they started giving us full on trophies and I was like fuck -- I sat out 90% of the game why do I get a trophy for being a failure?

Participation trophies aren't because of kids. It's the parents. They want their kids to be special.

I do not miss waiting for the paper every morning to find out how bad my Indians lost the night before.

And you didn't have to wear a seat belt if you didn't want to. If you weren't driving a car there was no need for id. Your signature meant something. You could shoot fireworks on the fourth of July in the backyard or at the lake. Now the bans are county wide. So many freedoms have been slowly chipped away one at a time. When I was a kid you could buy the ingredients for gunpowder at the drug store and nobody cared. Dayquill and spray paint weren't adult only purchases.

As a kid my grandpa did buy the ingredients to gun powder, I think when he blew up the basement is when they sent him to a special school.

I did too. Just wasn't stupid enough to contain it for an explosion. Just burned it openly for a flare.

I'm sure the explosion was on purpose, he was not a good kid. He also disassembled the first TV that they got and crashed a car when he was little. With some of the stuff he did I am amazed he even lasted past 20, some what surprising is he is a microbiologist who never graduated middle school.

That sounds cool minus all the cancer smoke.

Oh, payphones! My mom and I had a system where when the time came and I couldn't find quarters for the payphone, I'd call Collect and instead of saying my name I'd say quickly "MomPickMeUp!" and it was a free call.

This!

"Will you accept a collect call from 'Bob Wehaddababyitsaboy'?

Or you ramble off the pay phone number so she could call back....

How about not being able to call relatives out of state because it was long distance and too expensive!

In the late '60s, not only could you smoke on the plane, but the stewardesses (try saying that now) told hijacker jokes during the 'safety briefing'.

honestly CD overtaking cassette was only a matter of time. it was long known to be the future of data and recordings because of its capacity...

it was around since the 80s... except the laser technology was very expensive then -- as were the digital computer-esque chips required to process the data.

Kids in high school still smoke pot and drink beer, bud.

Die Hard would be totally different if they made it now... first 5 minutes of the movie ya got Bruce Willis smoking on a plane with a handgun strapped to his hip.

Shit you could carry on planes back then?

Nothing beat being a grungy teen mallrat in the 90's Mall sub culture was like nothing these kids have ever experienced. That's when you kids now couldn't buy "cool" clothes aimed at your cliched demographic but you had to learn and adapt your own style. Endless sleepover with friends filled with hours of prank calls and never getting caught. Now, I wouldn't even recommend it. Food even tasted better.

Prank calls! Such fun...remember when *69 and *67 came out? It was so high tech

Prank calls were seriously half my childhood. We'd call and say we picked up a couch off their curb and that the 100 dollar bill for it was in the mail. Holy shit people would get heated

My favorite was calling someone at like 4am and ask them what time it was then reply "Good, that's what I got too. Thanks!"

😂

Thats fucking brilliant lol

We used to call people at 4am using the soundboard for Bill Lumbergh from Office Space where he would say "Hey Peter what's happening? I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday." We would look up people in the phonebook named Peter, and a few actually went along with it.

That's pretty cool. We did it straight Jerky Boys style.

While you were doing that the US government was bombing the shit out of people somewhere. I was carefree because i was ignorant.

The best was pranking 1800 #s, calling credit card companies when you're 13 and broke and fucking with the lady trying to get you preapproved.

You guys should like these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGYUSXmOTQ

Prank calling was how I entertained myself in the winter months in the 80's. Fucking *69 fucked it all up though.

Nowadays if you prank call people there is a chance you will get someone who happens to be on the wrong combination of psych meds and trigger the next national tragedy....

this is more "it was nice to be a kid" though. Although I guess it's way different today considering 5 year olds have smart phones

try 1 year olds with tablets

and elsagate

They say food had more minerals and vitamins, nutrients than they do now

That trend has been remedied with cover crops and no-till, no-chemicals farming, but most farmers are too brainwashed by Monsanto and popular dogma to change right now.

Is this true?

If you bend the facts the right way.

Early to mid 90's fashion was garbage. The Seattle grunge look was in, and you could spend as much as you wanted on designer flannel and pre-shredded jeans.

I'll take the tight, midriff exposing clothes of the early 2000s over that crap any day.

Watch reruns of Charmed. Those jeans have a 1" rise....I couldn't believe I forgot about the low rise "better hope you waxed everything" jeans.

As a chick, I much prefer flannels. I really don't care whether or not they give dudes boners.

Oh, and in the Seattle area now, the girls are definitely sporting the midriff trend again.

Oh, and in the Seattle area now, the girls are definitely sporting the midriff trend again.

But now it's midriff with flannel and yoga pants and high boots. Not that I'm opposed.

Charmed

I'm totally down with late 90s and early 2000s fashion. It's just the early to mid 90s that I detest.

Your childhood was great, I know, I lived it, but kids today have great childhoods too, you're just an old man shaking his cane on his stoop because you don't understand the way thus generation is growing up, the same way your grandpa didnt understand why you didnt have a job at 9 years old.

LOL man I'm not that old. And no I don't hate younger Generations I just I just feel a little sorry for them because they will not get to experience some of the simpler freedoms that older Generations have and with that being said more more is taken away each generation just like you said even my parents who grew up in the 70s and late 60s had more freedom than I did and at the same hand they did not just like the generation now they have more and less freedoms all at the same time. But hey when you get to be the old cranky man with a cane like I am you can sit back and reminisce also it's just a great feeling.

I have a feeling we are the same age. It's up to us now, as the parental age people to instill that sense of confidence and independence in our children.

But the things they're doing arent any worse or better, our kids have instant communicating, instant knowledge, they are part of a global community with universal access (for now.... net neutrality etc..) that its up to us to protect, because this freedom of information is what will make our children the next greatest generation.

The majority of children today are not able to just hang out with their friends riding bikes and exploring wherever they want to go. It's all planned, set days and pickup times. They're using electronic devices and not letting imaginations run wild.

You can say 'instant communication' and 'instant knowledge' is better but as a kid I learned a lot more from spending time with other kids on the street, park or forest.

All the planning is usually the parents though.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-man-ordered-to-stop-letting-his-children-take-city-bus-to-school/article36180815/

Looking back at my childhood, I have no idea how my parents did it. Was born in the early 80s and by the time I was 8-9 years old I was just parading around town with my friends, riding on bikes all over the place and had to be home by dark. Would physically go knock on my friends doors without calling because we didn't really have cell phones at the time, at least not easily accessible ones until I was in high school. I would get into all sorts of shit that my parents had no clue about and as long as I was home by dark they didn't give a shit, sleepovers all the time and playing video games. I'm sure kids do similar shit nowadays but if I'm being honest, it's going to be hard for me to let my son have that kind of freedom when he's that age because the world seems so fucked up now that we have such easy access to information. I've sat and contemplated so many times, when should I let my boy go off with his friends and do shit by himself? When do I give him a cell phone? Who do I trust to watch my kid? Who's house do I let him sleep over? I haven't even reached that point yet as my son is only 4 but I lose sleep over it sometimes and I still have years to go before any of it is going to be a situation. Fuck, now I have anxiety great.

Sounds pretty much like what I did as a kid and my what my kids do right now. I mean why not? I don't have proof, but I would be surprised if it wasn't actually safer now for kids to do their thing than it was for us in the 80's and 90's.

Totally depends on where you live

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if it's safer now as well, the instant access to information distorts reality a bit though, considering every bad thing that happens is going to be plastered all over the net. So as a parent with one kid and no experience raising any children I get anxiety when I am constantly reading terrible stories of pedophilia, murder etc. etc.

While they may not be common occurrences, I'm still going to have those things in the back of my head when I let my son go do stuff with his friends. I imagine once he gets older and I think he can be more self sufficient I'll be a little less concerned but I think I'll always have some sort of anxiety about his safety because he's all I got really.

Now days people consider it rude to just show up at their door without calling or texting first.

seems so fucked up now that we have such easy access to information

You nailed it. It's how you perceive the world. Turn off the news, stop using social media and just look around. The world is a pretty nice, safe place to live most of the time.

Definitely, I actually don't use social media outside of Reddit with the exception of keeping in touch with family on FB once in a blue moon but I am constantly keeping up with news be it local, national and international which usually consists of chaos and destruction. I think it just puts irrational fear in people including myself, though I'm not really concerned about myself just my child and even without the constant fear mongering I'd still be concerned just not to the degree that I am currently. Hopefully some things will change between now and the time he's wanting to go out and do things on his own but I truly doubt it.

We still get to experience awesome, crazy shit with the homies, don't worry about us. Always cringe at the "fun" things I hear 80's/90's kids talk about. It's all relative.

I'm a millennial and I feel robbed of the potential childhood I could have had before 9/11

Watch the show The Goldbergs if you want a taste of it, it was awesome and I miss it. I wish my kids could have grown up in that era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43fM2wdu5A

I'll check it out. It's just the constant fear that everyone has now. That and the smart phone apps and social media that distract. Most people I know my age don't even have hobbies. Instead of facing their fears and confronting the truth, they passify themselves and each other with nonstop agenda driven distraction. If they faced the fear they are essentially unaware of at this point because of how tptb have conditioned it, the possibilities would open up and they'd feel comfortable perusing whatever passion they have.

I know, makes me wonder if things now, aren't as bad as we think and we're headed towards even darker times. :( I try and stay positive but this sub doesn't help.

If hilldog weaseled her way into office, I would say we have a long dark road ahead. But I believe that with the recent exposure we've seen, the last two years of events, times are changing. There are forces of good inside working to expose the Empire. Just keep paying close attention.

Will do, from afar in Canada, I constantly get distracted with sock patterns lately though.

The day after election day, I had sudden and unsettling realization that I had forgotten what hope felt like.

Hahaha when Hillary managed to steal the primary unscathed, I lost all hope and then the last two weeks of the election brought it back.

When Donald Trump stole the election, and the Republicans held the Senate thanks to gerrymandering with "surgical precision," I had that sinking feeling that we were in for a rerun of the George W. Bush era -- only this time, we started out from a much worse position. Things are turning out worse than expected. The guy sitting in the stolen Supreme Court seat may be the deciding vote in the Wisconsin gerrymandering case. There, 48 percent of the population get to control over 60 percent of the legislature.

Other than that, yes, HRC played dirty in the primaries. If Hillary had taken office, we would have been guaranteed little to no progress. With Donald Trump in office, we will be treated to slipping deeper into the George W. Bush hole -- and we never got out of it.

Yes! This. I would say this show is 94% accurate to my life. This is how is was and i totally miss it!

Lol bullshit. That's moral relativist garbage. Kids today have empty, vapid, non fulfilling lives where they are marketed to in 360 degrees almost 24/7. They have been dissected and analyzed to the point of being made a fetish, or a commodity. Even some of THEM realize it.

Seriously, what an absolutely retarded fucking thing to say.

To anyone interested in what I meant: watch these documentaries:.

The Merchants of Cool, and its follow up, Generation Like.

Also, bonus: Consuming Kids.

Thanks for the documentary suggestions.

They the younger think they have it good, we know we had it better..

I was listening to a podcast the other day and a guest talked about when he went to a highschool recently and as he reflected on his younger days with the students, the idea of 'selling out' came up, and how that was a real barb to throw at another musician/artist/whatever, calling somebody a 'sell out'. The kids he was talking to didn't understand the concept. They all wanted to sell out. They all strived for enough Instagram followers to sell corporate goods through. The dreams of each individual kid, more or less, was to 'sell out'.

How bout that.

everyone wants to sell out but me. I hate my generation, their values, their belief systems, and everything they do. Even with no career and less education I believe myself, as a hermit who takes fully oppositional stances to everything in society, is the superior human intellectually and morally if not physically.

I legit would love to go to war with them economically and socially. I would love nothing more than starting huge arguments and debates with current musicians, marketers, corporations and 'artists'/actors that would do nothing but shame them, put them down, and make the claim that they are lesser human beings without any level of talent and complete whores.

I would tell them if they were more than cheap whores, they would say no to contracts, and sacrifice their careers instead of selling out. that money and popularity amongst retarded brainwashed fools was no indication of success, and that the best thing that could happen for the world was if they failed and the competitors that DIDNT succeed took their place out from under them and totally replaced them,

leaving them homeless on the street and forcing them to restart life in the service sector at minimum wage.

Tame your ego man. Get that shit under control at least before you get out of high school. Such a pretentious and pessimistic view of the world will make you narrow minded.

long out of high school. only gotten more pessimistic with age..

honestly the world is a sad, dark place to me, I wish I could just stop waking up most days. I'm very tired.

its quite possible I just project that I hate everything since I don't want to be here anymore really. especially sober like I have been.

I just want to be numb until I die, and not care as things go to shit in my own life and all around me

Man that sucks, I could wish for you to feel better but I doubt that would mean much. I also can't give you much advice since I've never been through that type of shit either. All I can say is try. Everyone is given a pile of shit when they are born and it's their job to eat it and find some sort of pleasure in it, but the people who try the hardest usually figure out how to enjoy it.

Found the neckbeard!

not a neckbeard either. I hate them and hipsters too.

I literally hate everyone equally. I'm an equal opportunity supremacist

ponyfags r kewl tho.

jk they are totally the biggest losers

Also. Watch the movie Kids.

moral relativist garbage

W.T.F. Don't have a cow man.

No, I think the kids that are growing up now, in a world where the government is trying like hell to brainwash us into gutting the second amendment with Machiavellian psyops is a worse time. A time where the kids are being approached by the system asking them to consider other genders, etc... these times suck.

Kids today have merely ok childhoods but then fall off a cliff when they hit their teen years. Teens today are under such incredible pressure that didn't exist when I was growing up in the 80s. I had my first job when I was 13 and then I paid for my college with various part time jobs and graduated with no debt. There wasn't even such a thing as student loans back then. People worked their way through college. That was the norm. That is just not possible in today's world. I can't imagine having to sign a mortgage sized student loan at 17 just to go to college.

I don't hate the younger generations. I feel sorry for them. I don't have kids of my own because I saw the writing on the wall 20 years ago. That great sucking sound that Ross Perot warned us about happened. The future we were promised was sold down the river and never materialized.

The pressure is real. I'm going to homeschool, because fuck that noise. Scientific education isn't everything. Kids need space to grow, even big kids.

Scientific education isn't everything.

...as if there's any 'science' being taught any more; it's all 'feels' and the test scores prove it.

Common Core and standardized testing is being sold as "scientific." It's all a sham, though, and you are perfectly correct.

Do you feel any resentment towards your parents for home schooling? It's something I want my daughter to do, but I don't want her to hate me for it.

Well! I didn't mention whether I was homeschooled myself. I was, and yes there are things that I wish had been done differently, but the gifts and benefits far outweighed the problems.

I am not a smart person, but homeschooling prepared me for the real world in a way that regular schooling never would have. I would have been the special needs kid, over-medicated and bored out of my mind. Instead, I started working a productive, well-paying job immediately out of high school.

When it came time to actually sit down and go to school, I started at Calculus and aced my way through all the hard science I needed in order to get into medical school, while working full time.

My parents were largely absent from my education from about the 8th-grade on. I learned to teach myself. It was a fucking terrible struggle. I still resent not have summers, all the things I missed doing as a teenager, and so on. Yet on the flip side, it gave me an iron will, a talent for self-teaching, and a huge edge over most other people despite (like I mentioned) not being a particularly smart person.

I think everyone finds something to resent about their parents. It helps give you the impetus to spread your wings and fly away and form your own household.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but honestly if I were to do it again, I'd say fuck the high school curricula and jump into community college at 16 and get a 2-year degree by 18. Then the world is open, you can do whatever you want, you are 2 years ahead of everyone else, and nobody cares about your lack of a high school diploma if you have a college degree.

Teens today are under such incredible pressure that didn't exist when I was growing up in the 80s.

Yep, and there are slimy psychologists/psychiatrists waiting to pounce on any teen going through usual teen angst, but label it something from the DSM to profit. How many kids are getting through school without one diagnosis or another these days?

I graduated high school in 1986 and there were definitely student loans back then.

I love this dopey response. Kids today are fat, stupid and wimpy.

You overlook two world wars and a miserable depression between them that things were anything but good for ordinary people even before those came along. My parents and grandparents understood more about the realities and hardships of life and how precious and beautiful it all was no matter how difficult or desperate it ever got and that's what they always tried their best to impress upon me.

When you don't have much you get really good at "making-do" as we called it. You don't have much of a choice but to get creative and inventive if you don't want to get utterly depressed and despondent in that kind of a situation and the interesting thing about that is that it comes with a great deal of satisfaction with whatever the small victories you can win in that battle and it only makes you more enthusiastic and determined to fight the good fight with it and win some more.

Children are innately curious and creative, you can buy all kinds of toys for a toddler when what you were actually given in my time would have been a glass milk bottle and a handful of clothes-pins that you'd tirelessly work away at trying to simply put them into it.

They make a nice klink when they go in, too. It's not the toy, it's the challenge, and that's where the "action is" not being amused or entertained but actively exploring and engaging with elements of the real world that is quite simply all around you and entertaining yourself with it.

I can't begin count how many trees I climbed up to the top of before I was 10 or how many times I walked atop the backyard fences from one end of the block to the other, not to mention any old block that I was curious to see the back as well as the front of the houses that were on it, just for the sheer deviltry of it and no one really to stop me.

Wasn't just me, either, but most of my friends and classmates that had the same kind of attitude about exploring just about anything. Dragged my bike under a barricade and down an embankment one bright summer day to ride straight down the middle of a five mile stretch of a freshly paved and flawless freeway before it had any lines painted on it or was open to cars. Cranking-up and coasting-away the likes of which you can't begin to imagine as I literally flew along it with the hum of the tires wind in my face and not a soul around. I mean I know I wasn't supposed to do it but how could I pass up an opportunity and an open invitation like that?

Never, ever, thought of myself as particularly daring or devil may care and yet I surely was by today's standards and no, no kids today are very likely to ever know that kind of freedom and exhilaration that's just there for the taking and being so attracted by it you're just drawn right into it without a second thought.

Prank calls every time my mom went to get the mail lol

I think people are really looking at the past through some rose-colored glasses here

O really.. Tell me about the CPS taking children from parents for letting them play outside. http://www.freerangekids.com/kids-play-in-backyard-while-mom-does-dishes-an-investigation-ensues/ This is the dystopian world now..

That link doesn't say her kids were taken. The neighbors called CPS, and CPS investigated. The source wasn't loading for me, not sure if there's more there or not.

What should CPS do? I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing the neighbor didn't call up and say, "Hey my neighbor's kids are playing outside in their fenced in yard." Would you prefer that CPS didn't investigate complaints?

What does it matter what I think? What matters is that the State monopoly of violence is held over the citizens and has become authoritarian and overreaching. These cases of overreaching authoritarianism are far to common.

You said they took her kids away, which isn't true.

Stand corrected, I recalled from memory the story and simply because i remembered wrong.. It was a threat to do so.. Thanks for the correction, I will tailor the comment..

I agree with the sentiment. I just think it's a tough spot for CPS, especially when we don't know the wording of the complaint.

You are obviously not reading the link I posted above.. And you obviously don't know the regularity of police and authority abusing powers.. If guess you are white, and male, under 30 and never arrested .. Now.. Off to check your comments to see...

back when I was young, if a boy came to school dressed as a girl claiming to be a girl and asking to be called by a girl's name, the kid would be sent home, not even allowed in the class with the other kids, and the parents would be investigated and probably downright arrested for abuse. I turn 33 this month. What's up

I remember how much issues it caused trying to use my own name. my name as everyone had called me all my life ended with y, but my parents had put a more formal in ending on the end of my name on the birth certificate just in case I ever ended up wanting to name a business after myself to make it sound more 'professional' with my parents insisting I use 'my name' and the school insisting I use my legal title.

Don't forget roaming the streets all night long going from friends house to friends house, seeing whos up.

Yelling through mail slots on the front door. " I SEE YOU ANDREW! LET'S GO, WE GOT STUFF TO DO!"

Yeah... the only way you'd know where all the kids were at is when you saw 10 bikes laid out in the front lawn.

Only knowing who was up by their room light, or the basement light where they would watch tv at night. Picking up friends one by one, and eventually trying to go over a girls house to hang out quietly in their basement.

My own kid days were in the 50's and 60's and far more enjoyably primitive and adventuresome than that, I can assure you.

Nothing was "fashionable" except that your clothes were reasonably clean and the holes were patched, not that we particularly cared. Rapid transit was a bicycle, most of which we re-built and refurbished from antique frames that virtually every home garage always had a few hanging around in that someone was glad to get rid of. Rims, spokes, tires tubes and chains were all cheap and easy to get and nothing could be anymore satisfying than finally pumping-up the tires and rolling-out and into a world that was a whole lot larger and full of so many more things than it did before that moment arrived.

The punishment for any of our petty crimes, routine trespassings, and misdemeanors we were discovered to have committed consisted of being kept in and confined to our rooms.

Freedom and liberty had a real meaning to us because we actually lived outside and barring bad weather and the setting Sun there was nowhere better to be than out and about. Our parents never worried or fussed. Their youth had been spent in the dog days of the depression where you were expected to make your own fun and games and enjoy being alive.

Nowadays you need a crowbar to pry the kids out of their rooms and the world outside is this big scary thing they'd never consider venturing out into alone.

We are raising our kids to live in a state of fear. The trouble started when people stopped minding their own business.

The trouble started when people stopped minding their own business.

Well said.

That was somehow beautiful but also a little bit sad.

There's a word for that feeling but I forget what it is.

Damn, it's on the tip of my tongue

Damn, it's on the tip of my tongue

Melancholy?

I think I was thinking of sonder, but that doesn't really fit does it?

Bittersweet

I remembered the word: saudade

wistful?

or maybe the Japanese phrase mono no aware is more accurate.

Saudade

what a beautiful word

I'm washed over in saudade, the beautiful Brazilian word which describes the melancholic nostalgia one feels for people, things, pleasures and times now lost.

On your fashionable statement. That really resounded with me. These days every business is vying for their portion of your paycheck. The amount of materialism makes me want to live out of a van and just travel the world.

it makes me want to spend money on drugs and not support the legitimate economy.

This is what bugs me about the legalization of drugs. I don't want to pay taxes on drugs thanks.

me either personally. I'm offended that they want to tax weed as 'recreational drugs/alcohol'. very offended.

that money should go to the growers, and the point of sales, and the state should merely benefit from people having excess funds with which to hire more people, invest in property etc.

but nooooooooo we can't have one of the PRIME BENEFITS of legalization, which is lower cost to the consumer because its a FUCKING PLANT.

even heroin should be cheap as shit -- I'm talking like 50 cents for a hardcore addicts single fix. but if they legalized that shit it would be twice street price and the crime would just continue and they'd say "SEE LEGALIZATION DIDNT WORK!!"

pompous sons of bitches who feel they are entitled to everyone elses money.

I'm not even against liberal social programs, in fact, often I'm for them. the question is where the money comes from -- and it shouldn't be this.

its like because they know people deal with high taxes on other shit they'll deal with it too.

and it also keeps the whole charade of 'drugs are for the rich, bust the poor!' going.

because these right wingers can cry and scream about drug use all they want, all the while their congressman is doped up or more likely on coke on the daily.

rules don't apply to the OWNERS, don't you know. they DESERVE the right to do what they want with their own money, they don't have to be 'productive' slaves like you.

and when prices are high and the substance is legal, it crushes street dealers who would sell at lower prices.

never once did I imagine i'd see marijuana legalized in some places, yet higher prices than on the street.

I'm kind of glad I can buy weed from friends, or even harder drugs at lower cost than the system would provide for non-insurance or prescription related purchase.

I wouldn't even be against a sales tax if it were legal,

but it would be the same flat sales tax as other non-essentials. there would be no extra easy money for the state just because they knew it would fucking sell.

Well this is just another product of the universal healthcare. Once they tell you how healthy you are legally allowed to be, they can also tell you what substances you can put in your body in order to maintain that legal level of health. This "right to healthcare" is fucking scary.

drugs were illegal without universal healthcare -- although I see your concern because if they were able to drug test you and get the results outside of HIPAA it would be a major issue.

It's not "legalisation" that's needed, particularly in the case of cannabis it's "de-criminalizing" it and restoring it to the rank and file of useful plants that anyone can grow for their own particular purposes and there's something like a few thousand of those besides smoking or eating it and getting a pleasant buzz for a few hours.

It's those "other" potential uses that caused the government to criminalize it in order to protect the status quo in the first place, not a few jazz musicians sparking-up in alleyways between gigs.

Henry Ford developed an organic plastic from cannabis oil that was lighter and about ten times stronger than steel and even went so far as to make a car out of it that he also used cannabis oil for fuel in before the law prevented that development to go any further.

There's also nothing that's made from cotton that can't be made out of hemp, but also made far better... longer lasting, softer, more durable and far cheaper all at the same time. The plant can be grown almost anywhere not just in the warm southern states, is virtually immune to insects and disease, and can be mechanically harvested and processed far easier and more economically on both a large and small scale, to boot. Some of it's medicinal properties were also well-known and starting to be further explored when the axe fell. So you can get some idea of the all the vested interests that wanted and needed to put a stop to any of that.

My dream is to get enough money to live high until I die. I think that's sad, but it's my truth.

ive been trying to be sober and I'm honestly miserable. no energy, don't feel like doing shit or have any motivation.

drugs help me WANT to work and not care what I do or be so judgmental on myself and everyone around me.

I dream of using hard drugs and injecting a lot, ive been clean for awhile but I really don't want to be anymore.

it just sucks getting physically addicted, not getting high anymore and being sick 24/7 when you don't have shit.

I personally would try to abstain from those drugs, but often times I'm not sure I care anymore. money and availability are the only things stopping me now.

Same boat. You can do it man. You just gotta accept the bad feels. I'm 2 years sober and I lost my smile, but i dont feel like shit all the time anymore. Still miss it. Not gonna lie.

"Legitimate", my ass, with everything concentrated in the hands of a few that are going to get your money no matter where you spend it or what you spend it on. Beneath that veneer of "legitimacy" are a handful of multinational monopolies that are determined to reduce us all to lowest common denominator and turn the clock back a hundred years to the very worst conditions and human exploitation that accompanied the industrial revolution and a society that's right out of a Charles Dickens novel in modern dress.

when I said legitimate, I meant legally sanctioned.

but I agree with you, it was kind of the point. id rather support the black market than the open one a lot of times at this point

You cant even go through a single day without 7 calls from some indian scam business trying to rip you off and somehow knowing what town your currently in and calling from it with a spoofed phone number,

confined to our rooms for a day or two.

What?!?! That's "challenging the child's autonomy", possible grounds for calling CPS today.

Well we weren't exactly bound and gagged but rather busy making enough noise and a nuisance of ourselves to be shown the door and sent on our way again with a solemn promise to stay out of trouble with our fingers crossed behind our backs.

Wow imagine that, half a century ago how did you kids really survive? I mean ne honest, without all of the domestic surveillance, militarized police, and muliticulturalism it must have been hell on earth! I can't even imagine how dangerous that must have been!

It was pretty "multicultural" in those post war years with all kinds of Europeans who left the wreckage behind and had their own kids here, just as my own, who were born here did right after WWII but we were all simply kids packed in together in public school classrooms who found each others different backgrounds curious and interesting which made most of us even more eager to befriend and get to know one another. It was strictly a working-class neighbourhood and we were all pretty much on the same footing. Any "new car" in the neighbourhood was something three to five years old in good shape. The only brand spanking new ones we ever saw outside of a showroom were strictly passing through on their way to somewhere else.

We also played lots of team sports in school which was a great leveller when the hero and winning goal scorer was black kid whose parents were from the Caribbean, or some tall skinny Scandinavian, or some little Italian dude who could run faster than anyone. We all had our brief moments in the Sun, laughed a lot and simply had fun.

I think culture is great. I agree with what youre saying. I just think the forced homogenization of worldwide cultures is worth questioning... What is multicultural about every add country having the same western culture

As long as you were white.

And straight, I remember that time being really homophonic, like the worst thing you could be was gay.

In the adult world, certainly, but the world of kids was far more protected and we were unable to get any real information about sex or sexuality besides gutter-talk and crude jokes, and with no way to separate the bullshit from the reality or know what to believe about anything associated with it until we were supposedly "old enough to know".

Since boys and girls were generally kept apart on opposite sides of the school-yards there was a distinct disinclination for either to really get to know or associate with the other until mother nature finally provided that change of heart in our teens. Two very different worlds before that with practically nothing in common with each other. Not quite, but almost disdainful towards each other.

Makes me jealous. I wish it were longer.

But do remember the paranoia of of parents is mostly warranted these days. Not a day goes by where some kid gets snatched and raped/murdered. People drive like bats out of hell did they can't even go out on their bikes without fear of being run over by some douche gong 80 on their way to get groceries. What can you do? This is especially amplified in large cities. I grew up in a small town but live in a city. I couldn't imagine letting my child free roam as young as I did.

Based on crime trends, paranoia is less warranted these days.

Crime has been going down since the early 90's.

Most crimes against children are committed by family members or adult acquaintances.

9/11 introduced 24hr national news coverage into most peoples homes where violent crime is disproportionately represented. While violent crime was historically high from the early 70's until about the year 2000, most news was local and so there was very little coverage.

I don't buy into it. I've moved from a small town to a city. Would you let a 7 year old free-roam a farm town in Nebraska with a population of 4,000? Ok, same question except with Los Angeles.

I'm not questioning your parenting but your perception that the world is less safe than when your were a child.

It's called "the victim psychology" and the statistics seem to indicate that people who are overly fearful and apprehensive about being victimised when they're out in the world actually do get victimised more often.

That their own demeanor because of their inordinate fear is actually recognised and makes them a target for those looking for an easy mark while people who appear to be more direct and self-confident because they actually are, are generally avoided.

I believe the victim psychology goes even deeper than that. This reality seems to be a shared hallucination and what you think or visualize seems to manifest in ways science can't account for. Constantly watching TV, the news and social media entrains the mind and re-enforces the reality that is being projected. TV's are everywhere. You can't even wait to get on an elevator without a TV there locking you into to their version of reality and control. Staying informed is good but there must be a balance. Unplug for a few days and the world starts looking brighter.

Again not the argument I was making.

It works both ways. The broader coverage and seemingly more incidents reported also encourages more of those incidents with the idea that many offenders are getting away them... emboldening those who were otherwise too fearful of getting caught to try. As a result it simply becomes more a self-fulfilling proposition.

For high profile incidents such as mass shootings I agree. For more every day crimes the coverage seems to be a deterrent.

The parental paranoia isn't the problem, it's making the kids paranoid and afraid of the world they have to live in that's bad for them and will be even worse for their own children one day if they carry that attitude about it through life.

Try as I might my own children are far more apprehensive about the world out there than I am and it's not me that's made them that way but their peers and their peers parents. I have a cell phone that I only rarely ever get a call on and never think to call anyone on because I've lived most of my life without one. I'm forever forgetting it or having the battery go flat which means absolutely nothing to me, but what a reaction that gets out them. Living dangerously? Not in my world, but it sure is in theirs.

You have to find ways to compensate for that and what it does to their self confidence and actually having to contend simply with rather ordinary difficulties they're bound to encounter in the outside world without freaking-out about them or making them worse than they'd otherwise be.

Giving your children a sense of freedom and independence doesn't require putting them in jeopardy or mean that you don't keep an eye on them, just not letting them know about that side of it anymore than you absolutely have to and not interfering with or embarrassing them about that or giving that away unless it's absolutely necessary.

Yeah.... That's all great, but I still wouldn't let a 7 year old cross a 8 lane interstate to get to a friends house, or hop on a bike and ride 3 miles through a bustling city. That goes for today or 50 years ago. Again, in a small town like where I grew up it's completely different.

I think some people seriously underestimate the size of some cities.

The city I grew up and still live in had a million people back then and about three million now and when I say "city" I mean that the cars didn't get up to more than 30 mph before hitting a stop sign or traffic light on every corner and the only major thoroughfares would square off about ten residential blocks by ten residential blocks that were all just a safe to ride a bike in, along, and through anywhere in that local neighbourhood today as they were back then.

You cross at a light at any of those major intersections and you'll find three other roughly ten block by ten block neighbourhoods that are all just as safe and you could ride your bike on the sidewalk for one block before turning off into any of them if those main thoroughfares looked too fast or busy to risk riding along them that far which was how we negotiated getting around between them when I was a kid. We were all street-wise and expert riders who kept most of our stunt riding to places that were safe to do it, not that any of the stunts themselves were exactly what you'd call "safe".

Yah I'm not going to read all that I'm not super interested in your opinion on this. I know what I'm doing for my situation which you know little to none about. Thanks though!

Wendy's JR bacons come to mind. Food in general just tasted better no matter where you went

Another problem that weed solves.

A couple months back my step-father and I stopped in a McDonalds, someplace neither of us had eaten at in at least 10 years. Tiny portions, that were somehow high calorie amounts and the food just tasted awful. The place actually looked dreary, and everyone there, customer and employee alike was just absolutely miserable.

Like holy fuck, I no fast food is glamorous, but you'd think we were attending a funeral with how everyone was acting.

Food was real then. Now nothing tastes as it used too. Everything thing that is processed is now a food like product. Freedom was nice

I can swear on my mother that Chips Ahoy and Oreos tasted a lot better when I was a kid grownup up in the early 90s. I know it's not in my head!

In an open field, Ned!

*quickly downloads "Mallrats"

"Clerks" too.

But not Clerks 2.

We used to smoke cigs while walking right thru the mall haha. Boy I'm glad you can't smoke in the mall anymore though.

This sounds like just malls being shitty these days.

malls are wounderful these days, no crowds to deal with. quick in and out, no unwanted conversations or eye contact... you just have to worry about if the store you want still exists or has been boarded up...

Oh my. All of the sudden I want a Josta and my World Industries skateboard.

Fucking Josta man! Fuck, I miss Josta!

I love this. I will add though that it depends on the people. It's very prominent this "societal acceptance," in my generation but me and the people I associated with had very similar childhoods, and teenage years as my parents and some similarities with grandparents.

I do agree I live in a different time and 90/80s were nothing compared to today. But not everyone in my generation is conformed to today's societal standards.

Nothing beat being a grungy teen mallrat in the 90's

80s mall subculture would like a word with you! We Gen X'rs invented hanging out in malls :)

This is true and we continued the tradition! But alas, it fell. We were no match for the rise of shopping online :(

Pics from a mall in the 80’s:
http://mashable.com/2014/12/02/80s-shopping-malls/

the dude with the skid row shirt made m my day

Tape World was the shit. I worked at Contempo, Merry Go Round, and The Limited....Yes, I graduated in 1992 if you can't tell ;)

91 here. The girls in front of Tape World remind me of me and my best friend back in the day. Malls were the shit back then...

Totally. Good times. I'm glad I grew up before the internet.

Remember 80s and early 90s MTV? Fuck...

soundboard/sampling software and skype fill this role pretty well

Worth it to be careful, or at least conscious of what we're doing, when talking down to the millennials, though. We have to realize it was we the parents who have raised them and we also created, or allowed, the current environment to take shape.

Very true and I'm really sorry if I sounded condescending or like I was shaming a gen. I have nothing against millenials.

No apologies, man. Through the awakening of consciousness and that whole journey, I've had to come to terms with very personal inner flaws, one of them being the degree to which I'd go to point blame at others so long as it meant I could disregard acknowledging my own self. I was a professional manipulator. So, now, whenever I see someone say something that could be taken the wrong way, I try to clarify. I guess I just care about what's fundamentally true. Not at all your 'fault'. It just happens :)

Congrats on your journey. I've come along way myself☺ I just have a habit of typing like I talk. In person, we wouldn't of even had this convo lol.

Great description.

Man, I'm 22 and this fucking SUCKS!

The only way you can relive it is through movies. Go watch Goonies or Adventures in Babysitting or The Witches or something that was made for 12 years old kids back in the 80s. See the freedom those kids had. Even Home Alone is above and beyond, when he goes shopping for groceries. You'd have CPA at that house in 5 minutes if Kevin McAllister walked up to a cashier trying to buy groceries.

I have seen all those 80's movies. I have older sisters, and plus I have some 90's in me. I really feel disgusted how we're living right now as a planet. Specifically, with the US. I don't know how to explain it but I grew up literally with 9/11 being the center major focus of our country which in turn is shit because I do see the freedom of pre-9/11.

In the movie Bill & Ted's excellent adventure in the end scene when they do their history report Billy the kid pulls out his pistol and shoots out a spot light. Nobody cared. That scene would never work in 2017. My god, a gun in a school. There would be 50 SWAT officers called in and 200 police locking the place down.

Understand that this started for you before 9/11. Things started quickly becoming militarized and sanitized for kids in school after Columbine. I watched it happen. One year things were normal, the next year life just started draining from the educational system.

I'm very familiar with Columbine, I guess I was just referring to 9/11 since I remember that the most vividly.

It was going down hill before 9/11. I don't remember when it was a great country. I grew up in the 80s/90s as well. The problems were all there, but nobody cared as much because their houses were still going up in value and somehow that made all the debt ok. You're nostalgic for a false memory.

My thoughts too, the cadre of those in charge hasn't even really changed.

The only difference now is that the same shit has intensified.

Yep!

Things were good in the 80’s then my parents became destitute in the early 90’s after the economy tanked

If "things were good" means "there were enormous inevitable systemic problems but they hadn't actually occurred just quite yet to people I know" then I would agree with you.

For some reason I suspect you hate the Clintons.

You're nostalgic for a false memory

isn't that how nostalgia works?

I grew up in the 90s and we had gangs and drugs everywhere.... now it's not even cool to be in a set.

Well, the political division really started in the mid-90s. If anything, 9/11 brought us together for a good couple months there

You remember jumping on a bike and riding throughout the neighborhood, into neighborhoods you've never been to before, down through the forest and through the creek on a legitimate adventure. You only see that shit in 80s movies now. I'm not sure how often that happens anymore. It's sad.

Yep. Like you and 8 friends walking into the woods with wood, nails and tools to build a secret fort in the most perfect tree. Today the kids call that DLC and it won't be available for release until August. Lol my favorite is what any teen considered a "private" phone call. Privacy was based on how far the phone cord could stretch. It was fun when the internet came out.

Too real, man!

But, remember how strangers would hide razor blades in halloween candy or hand out drugs to your kids? Don't talk to strangers because everybody is out to kidnap you!

Like you and 8 friends walking into the woods with wood, nails and tools to build a secret fort in the most perfect tree.

You realize kids still do that today, right?

They definitely don't do it as regularly. There are woods near my house, and it is remarkable to me that their aren't any foot trails through them. Kids in the 80s would go into those woods just to see who was hanging out, and there would be trails branching off into other trails, stashes of porno mags, bike jumps, etc. Kids doing that today are the exception rather than the norm.

If it makes you feel any better, i’m sure highchoolers get fucked up there still.

WE made the trails man.

I'm sure they do but in my area they don't anymore.

Unless you play Rust and that's all you do.

Lmfao kids still do that shit

Not just how far the cord could stretch but how well you noticed if your mom/sibling picked up an extension to snoop.

Or pick it up to knock your parents/siblings offline with dial up! Lol

and wireless phones could be intercepted over walkie talkies

At least it was your actual big brother spying on you.

weeew lad

I helped my neighbor kids built a tree fort this past summer. Two days after it was up they got a notice for violating the zoning codes and had to take it down.. I miss the 90s

Growing up our house was surrounded by empty feilds. It was so fun exploring and making bike ramps with dirt mounds. Don't get me wrong, we had rapists and creeps galore in that shithole town. Just far less fear porn so we lived a little more.

I was just thinking about all the scrapes and bruises I got from playing outside...seems like parents freak out much more now if their child gets a little bump from having fun. I also had a rollerblading Barbie whose rollerblades sparked when you wheeled them too fast and was a huge fire hazard. Good times.

seems like parents freak out much more now if their child gets a little bump from having fun

It might have something to do with the suspicion shown by hospitals/clinics when an adult brings in an injured child. And if a 'male' brings in an injured 'female', he might as well call the cops on himself.

Damn that takes me back. My best friend and I would dress up as ninjas and go on "night missions" on our bikes. We eventually leveled up to stealing the family van. Some great fucking times. Got chased twice by shotgun wielding weed dealers. Dangerous, crazy ass fun. Some of my favorite memories.

Lmao! Same for us and the apple orchards. Nothing like thinking your totally going to die as you slowly waddle away carrying 30 pounds of apples in every pocket and a full bookbag but dammit, you are willing to die for that apple haul!

Ehh I did the same thing with my friend when were growing up (born late 90s). Just replace forests with dirt lots because it's a desert. Riding our bikes all around, exploring the desert, door ditching people, prank calling, all that.

Bro Ctf in the woods was the shit

I remember me and my friends would get on our bikes and go to the woods and make trails and build ramps to jump. Once we decided to take our bikes up the mountain and found another neighborhood and decided to ride around. We’d get lost for hours and didn’t care cause we knew as long as we didn’t go home we couldn’t get yelled at for leaving without telling anyone haha. Now you can’t go anywhere without being within reach of someone else.

It was a great time to be alive.

You ever read the unabomber's manifesto. The shot is coming true.

It doesn't happen. Because noisy people call the cops on parents that send their kids to the park, yelling "neglect, and the internet got people knowing of every sexual deviant in the neighborhood. Parents are afraid of that.

Those were seriously my favorite days. I grew up in Southern California and the neighborhoods out here were awesome. Every one of them was different and had their own cliques, sights, sounds and smells. Kids rode bikes, got dirty, got lost for hours. They built forts, bike jumps, tunnels, rivers and monuments made out of whatever they could find. Dinner time meant five more minutes. Street football games meant using the lights as endzones. Video games were around, and they were awesome, but they were played with your friends in the same room. Sleepovers were the best thing in the world because you could stay up all night, sleep and then wake up and immediately do it all again.

I miss it so bad. I only mentioned a fraction of the things we did as kids.

Le wrong generation

9/11 was a coup that shattered the illusion of our carefree society and opened its' eyes to the realities of our leaders' imperial agenda.

Just yesterday saw this when reading Molly Ringwald's account of her troubles in the industry. The image of the 80s kid, the promise of a good future, the beauty, and then it emerges sue also had to submit, play the ugly game, sush and still getting her career stalled.

No, America wasn't the utopia we now remember. Racial tension existed, greed and corruption still created generations of nouveau poor at every bomm & bust cycle, it was all about the old boys's club no matter what, and the tendrils of global intervention to protect our interests were planted firmly in the ground. It's just that 2001 came and with the help of propaganda and technology the Plan laid its ugly face bare.

yeah I came here to say something like this:

Its funny because 2000/2001 is the time when 9/11 happened - but that was not the triggering event.

the event that pulled the trigger and changed everything was a couple years earlier when the internet went mainstream. In 1995 - the internet was an idea that only the goofiest nerds were using. by 1999 - everyone knew how to get online. But by 2001 - right about the time of 9/11 - the internet was mainstream.

Suddenly - we had the most horrific terrorist attack on U.S. Soil - and we had an incredible avenue to discuss it.

Once 9/11 happened - the internet went from being the way you emailed grandma and did crazy chatroom trivia sessions - to suddenly it was how people were getting their news on current events. Not always true or false - but suddenly everyone was given full access to read/consume countless hours of unverified information.

when the internet went mainstream

Exactly!

Which is funny, as the “web” was supposed to be a breakthrough in sharing knowledge and ideas. It’s devolved into fake news, agendas, and trolls.

Yeah. Its sad.....because anything is that way.

If you try to maximize freedom of information.....you also leave it open for bad guys to take advantage of it and use it for "evil" or selfish greedy purposes or to further their agenda

If you closely monitor it to keep everything 100% accurate and politically correct.....you would have a bland up to date encyclopedia style reference tool.....and there's not much interest in that besides researching for your high school term paper

Columbine fucked up quite a bit as well. People started looking at kids like time bombs and waging all kinds of unnecessary culture wars.

Eeeeeeehhhhhh progress was being made and we were on the verge of aone legitimate social justice that was actually wanted instesd of forced upon us.

Christian interference in society wss declinging to a halt, gays were being accepted finally, etc. Now it is being forced, and that always just makes resistence.

Uh, racial tension is worse than ever. It's still the old boys club, RE: DNC Clinton corruption. Things were better then. Now we're not even allowed to have "incorrect" opinions and if we do, we are Nazis. How fucking ironic is that.

i concede your point about kids being able to be outside on their own more to play but i disagree with the political divide point. Politicians have been this way forever, it is just more amplified with social media and a near zero time news cycle.

Yeah, it used to just be completely confined to inside the Beltway. If you worked on the Hill or in DC you could NOT escape politics, but outside of DC it was not a constant assault on the average person.

having lived in dc in the early '90s i agree inside the beltway. back then cspan was the channel always on in DC because it showed what was going on live in congress.

"I’m very glad I grew up in the 80s/90s."

I grew up in the early 90's and when me and my friends talk about the kind of stuff we used to do for fun we realized you would get arrested for it today... just kid stuff like playing roof tag or night time hide and seek at the school. Bringing a shovel out past the race tracks and building our own little BMX jumps... I drove by where we used to ride / play etc the other day and it was all torn down and fenced off... just empty property sitting.

A lot has certainly changed, especially the general disposition of the public.

That's when you kids now couldn't buy "cool" clothes aimed at your cliched demographic but you had to learn and adapt your own style.

lol, you're looking at the 90s with rose-colored glasses. Hot Topic existed in the 90s and other stores made millions selling flannel and skate shoes.

Unimaginable

No, it was not much better then. We had the various South American coups and there was much less awareness of the problems that we face then than there is now. People have more access to opinion and fact, but many of the "facts" are false.

While I agree with everything you've said here, not all of this can be blamed on 9/11 alone. The rise of social media and smart phones in the mid 2000's has contributed greatly to the degradation of American culture and community.

haha. that's the TLDR to my long ass post above.

9/11 wasn't the huge change. (it was a factor)

but the huge chance was the invention of the internet and then....smart phones....(and next - cryptocurrencies?)

If you buy In now, you still have time to get rich as fuck lol. Were still at least 5 years away from any mainstream adoption minimum, and that's being optimistic

im on it.

Bitcoin or something else,

The rise of social media and smart phones

This has a strong influence of the rise of total coercion, as perpetrated by the state and private companies, but it's important to consider the chicken and the egg, here. Most private companies have been enveloped by federal agencies, and it's not important which one controls the other, from my view. Those byzantine organizations in turn strongly focus the messages that are then magnified into hysteria via social media. People are really angry to the point of violence based on non-existent threats. And they're all non-existent. We have no legitimate fears now, outside of our neighbors who have been radicalized against some other segment of their own population.

As somebody born in the 80's this post really hits home. RIP America most specifically RIP my home sweet home New York. It died on 9/11.

No crazy drug epidemics....

You're joking right? Do you forget about the heroine and crack epidemics throughout the urban communities in the 70s and 80s? That was a terrible time. I'm glad we are treating this most recent drug epidemic as a tragedy and as a health problem, instead of a purely criminal problem. But I just wish we would have had the same empathy towards those addicted to crack in the 70s and 80s, instead of the zero tolerance, maximum sentences that were handed down which further tore apart communities.

That's when DARE, war on drugs and shit started. Miami was buried in coke.

Walmart fucked alot of that up too. Main Streets in small towns are shells of what they were in the 80s/90s. It used to be fun to go to several stores to find what you needed.

Yeah for real NAFTA fucked America up way before "9/11"

I remember as a kid main street in the small town I lived in was usually busy. My grandpa owned a bakery on main street back in the early 2000s. Last time I saw it everything looked run down, and the bakery was turned into a bar.

Do you use Amazon? Because they have just replaced Walmart.

I dont use amazon.

The perils of living in the Information Age...

Born in the late 80s. Yeah we played some video games, but man we used to be outside all the time. Fishing, biking, running, catch. I miss it sometimes.

just airports. used to be able to see your people when they walked off the plane, and you could walk someone all the way to the second they stepped on the plane

This so fucking pathetic. Every generation since the beginning of time has said some variation of this. This generation that you 'pity' will grow up with special snowflakes who will make this exact same post about how much better it was when they were young and so on and so on and so on. Everyone romanticizes their childhood, yours is not unique. I've got news for you:

"Also, we were nowhere near as politically divided. People just chilled. Now everyone is a fucking wannabe activist. And people were nowhere near as obsessed with celebrities. People were people. Now it seems like everyone puts on a fake personality and tries to be whatever the media is pushing."

WRONG You were just a kid and didn't notice it, but all that was there then too.

I like when people my age (40) bitch about music. Forgetting that when we were kids we had to listen to radio or physically own a copy of what ever we wanted to listen too. It was pretty time consuming and or expensive if you didn't like mainstream music.

Music now is fucking great.

I like when people my age (40) bitch about music.

i felt old the first time i heared someone saying Guns´n Roses and Nirvana is "Rock Classics" ...

I tripped me out when I started seeing teenagers wear the same shit I wore as a teenager.

Now that I think about it, I bet the Ramones and Nirvana have sold more tshirts than records.

Or who is AC/DC? Something to do with electricity?

Music is more accessible to listen to now which is great, but overall I'd say music in general is in decline. I would kill to see the smiths live in the 80s. Very few contemporary babds/musicians can compare.

I disagree. There are bands just as good as the Smiths. They might get lost in the sea of many bands that aren't, but they are out there. 30-40 years from now there will be somebody wishing they could have seen Vulfpeck or some other band that is contemporary today.

I mean I would have loved to see Bob Marley live, but I can also say that there is a ton of great reggae that I can go see.

I say its more of a mainstream dilution issue. Sure mainstream acts may not have has creative control as they did and they come off as generic, but there are some many different genres and self-trained musicians you can access online whose musicianship and passion shine through.

Very true. Bandcamp is a blessing!

well it's certainly changing more rapidly now. I am a few years apart from my sibilings / cousins and seeing how radically different their lives are growing up compared to mine is insane. I was lucky enough to grow up in an old school neighborhood in a fairly conservative cluster. Our hobbies were running around causing trouble, biking, playing out side, going in the woods, etc, we goof'd off non stop. It was a lucky, last vestige of what other people are describing

My parents complained we spent too much time in front of the TV. Their parents complained that they spent too much time in front of the radio.

Maybe every generation since the beginning of time was correct.

I used to run around the whole neighborhood as a kid, suburbs, nice neighborhood. I still live here, with my parents now and when my cousins come over my parents freak that their isn't someone outside watching them. I remind them how i used to play and they didn't know where i was half the time and at a much younger age. They stare at me in disbelief. I'd say anyne who watches the news every night is pretty good at living life in fear and allowing it to control them

high school dropout who can hardly read

implying a high school diploma is legitimate at all

I was about to agree with you bury then I remembered all the worries about getting kidnapped by satanic cults. Although, I guess maybe those fears were legit after getting into the whole pizza thing.

How did people know about that shit before pizzagate?

It was all the rage kin the 80s

I know about the Satanic panic, I meant what evidence led that to get started up and why has it been forgotten?

You got me. I think I saw something about it in one of those CNN 80s documentaries and it jogged my memory.

That’s why instead of playing outside and building social skills and long lasting friendships, you have to stay in and play your video games. Wouldn’t want those pesky kidnappers to get you.

Eh, this was already happening in the '90s. I was born in 1989, and my parents wouldn't allow me to play outside unsupervised and warned me about strangers/kidnappers. Most of my friends had the same experience. Our generation also had Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, and you can find tons of contemporaneous news reports from the early '90s (and even earlier) asking "Are kids spending too much time playing video games?"

Its why your government is spying on you and knows everything you do at all times.

This has more to do with the technology not being available at the time. Considering what the CIA/government has done in the past (Project MK Ultra, Project Mockingbird, the War on Drugs etc.) there's always been an effort to manage public opinion and police the populace, even if it wasn't through direct surveillance.

Also, we were nowhere near as politically divided.

Partially true, but again, the lack of an internet meant that opinions that fell outside the mainstream of acceptable thought (Overton window) simply had no platform. Leftists, libertarians, anarchists, socialists, right-wing individualists....those voices were rarely heard. You only heard from center-left and center-right, because those were the opinions elevated by the press. This created a false sense of consensus (and it was far easier to indoctrinate people without the internet, as well).

And people were nowhere near as obsessed with celebrities. People were people. Now it seems like everyone puts on a fake personality and tries to be whatever the media is pushing.

Not even remotely true. Fads had been engineered by corporations since at least the '40s, possibly before. Look how people glommed onto Elvis and The Beatles (or Sinatra, before them). During the '90s, periodicals like People and Us Weekly were huge. Entertainment Tonight was consistently one of the top ten highest rated syndicated television programs.

I loved the '90s, and have a lot of fond memories of that time. But let's not idealize them as a halcyon era, or gloss over decades of corruption. Most of today's problems existed then; it's just that they've gotten even worse over time.

Similar age as you, but I distinctly remember leaving the house in the mornings and being gone ALL day with my friends, getting up to all kinds of nonsense- 90% of which no parents were around for or aware of

I mean, once I got to 13 or 14, the same was the case for me.

The "kids used to be able to play outside!" complaint has been around for decades, though. I vividly remember being told by my parents (and friends' parents, and even a few teachers) that "We used to be able to play outside without worrying about [insert whatever here]!" very frequently.

Ever watch The Wonder Years? You know how it's the story of a kid growing up in the '60s, as told by his (then present-day) adult self in the late-'80s? Even they mention it, as the narrator once made a crack about how "this was back when nobody locked their doors, and you could play outside without worry."

So, "kids used to be able to play outside" has been a complaint for 30+ years; certainly, people have more reason to be worried now than they did then, but it's not new.

I'm talking from at least 3rd grade on though- we were always riding around on our bikes, in the woods, etc. I'm aware that this meme is probably recycled by every generation, but I do feel it's true to an extent. There are many instances throughout my early childhood that would probably have drawn police or CPS attention now.

Same with me, 89 here. Unless I was grounded, we were basically biking, scootering, and hanging out in the neighborhood. When we were like 6-10 we used to play hide-and-seek around a bunch of my neighbors property (like 4-5 houses, some of which didn't have kids). All of which was unsupervised (for the most part, we were within walking/biking distance to our houses usually). My brothers and I used to walk by ourselves to the nearby park that was about a mile and a half away during the summer when we were like 7. I agree, my parents probably would have had CPS called on them nowadays.

It genuinely makes me sad to see the change...how little time kids spend outdoors, how much time they spend on their phones/computers/iPads- i think we haven't even begun to realize the consequences.

ummm, when was america ever great and/or free?

Pre-Pilgrims?

Compared to the rest of the world? For most of its history.

there’s a lot of indigenous cultures that would disagree

Because they weren't American citizens

i’m sure a whole lot of africans and women at the time would disagree. or really anyone other than wealthy/powerful white men.

Well they'd be erroneously comparing a completely different time period to their modern day standards. I don't know what fantasy land you're comparing America in the 1700s to. Slavery was ubiquitous everywhere, not specific to America. There was no place more free at the time. Its foundation was the very essence of freedom from tyranny and a government that actually represents and serves the people instead of being lorded over by despots like everyone else was- and a lot of people still are today. Comparatively speaking, America has always been "great" and "free" unless you're comparing it to some ideal in your mind that doesn't actually exist.

By the way women's happiness has been decreasing more than men's. Feminism and "women's lib" have not been good for us.

Quality of life is better now, its actually safer by many metrics. Yes your data is being mined, but you don't need a cell phone. I got by just fine pre 9-11 without one.

Pre 9-11 I would have never discussed growing pot on the internet, now everyone is doing it.

If you put your phone or computer down for a while and go and interact with people in the real world you might see it is not as bad as you are being told it is.

Quality of life is better now, its actually safer by many metrics.

meanwhile everyone is fat now in USA and life expectancy is shrinking - compared to the other developed world. but thats not what media wanna tell you.

Don't know about that, the media is constantly telling people how bad sugar is. And I would like to see the #'s that show life expectancy is falling. I think you just made that up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

media is making that up

posts a link to CBS

That's not how this works. I'm not saying you're wrong, but you're just proving their point with that.

First of all, thank you for providing a link. I asked, and you delivered. Im kind of dumbstuck.

This information can be spun in numerous ways. But the way I see it is that life expectancy has risin for 22 years straight and then drops for one year. If it continues to drop for a couple of more years I think you can then say life expectancy is dropping, but in my lifetime it has still increased.

I'm American and not fat.. weird.

You are part of a dwindling minority.

What's weirder is that you don't know he's very clearly using a hyperbole. Stop.

Or that you didn't catch a whiff of sarcasm? No, you stop, silly goose.

If you can tell me how I'm supposed to know you were being sarcastic, just let me know.

What is wrong with you? Eat! Eat!!!!!! /my mother.

Safer doesn't mean better. People's self-reported happiness has been declining for decades, especially women's. Diseases of despair like suicide and drug addiction have been on the rise. The average high school student today reports experiencing more anxiety than the average psychiatric patient in 1950.

Didn't the early 90s experience the same thing? With nirvana and grunge becoming popular people were not that happy.

Yeah, I think people have been becoming more disillusioned and dissatisfied for a long time.

I'm glad we traded what we had for your ability to discuss growing pot.

That was just an example to show that we still have plenty of freedom. Does the government have the ability to record everything you say or do online or with your cell phone? Sure, but what does it matter? Its not really stopping anyone from doing as they please.

I disagree with you about the politics. Remember the 60s? Much more division than today. The protests back then were far more seriously a life threatening event.

The 60s was a turbulent time with the Vietnam war and the civil rights movements boiling over. Two Kennedys were assassinated and there were riots at the the 68 convention. There was peace and love and Woodstock but then Atlamont happened.

The 80s was good times though. No major wars comparable to Vietnam, Reagan survived the assassination, the economy was booming, and there were no riots until Rodney King in the early 90s.

he 80s was good times though. No major wars comparable to Vietnam, Reagan survived the assassination, the economy was booming, and there were no riots until Rodney King in the early 90s.

The economy in the 80's was not good, It was in a bad recession early on and unemployment was over 10%. There were also a lot of racial violence in 80's and just violence in general. Has everyone forgotten the start of the crack epidemic?

Most of the country was booming economically in the 80s and jobs were plentiful. Only certain areas were bad such as the rust belt. There was a lot of crime in the 80s but it wasn't racially motivated. It was mostly confined to inner city ghettos that have always been crime ridden and still are crime ridden in 2017. The crack epidemic was mostly anti-drug propaganda. Cocaine isn't going to kill you but the gang banger drug dealer might and of course the police will ruin your life if caught. This is when harsh mandatory minimum sentencing for drug use was just getting started. DARE and the failed war on drugs was worst thing to come out of the 80s. The war on drugs was just a euphemism for a war on poor people.

10% unemployment seems like an unattainable utopia to today.

Yup, I remember, I really miss the 80s.

I remember when you could smoke in most buildings and airplanes. Fuck cancer, but that's freedom, kids.

And you could smoke I shopping malls, can you imagine buying new clothes that smelled like smoke (and freedom)?

Aren't cancer rates higher now than they were decades ago?

Ah, now that's how you conspiracy.

From my general knowledge, I think right now that data on lung cancer in particular can swing to a few different interpretations. I'd say give it another 10-20 years, and we'll really see how much smoking contributed to cancer rates.

Speaking of lung cancer, there's a whole correlation vs. causation argument, because millions of people who smoke never get lung cancer and live to be 90. Meanwhile, millions of people who don't smoke have lung cancer.

Since you seem to be open minded about it, I spent some time digging deep into the scientific research. I believe that there hasn't been a single experiment where they were able to create an increase in lung cancer rates in animal models.

This article talks about the problem no one likes to mention:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17661225

Mostly all of the studies that point to increased rates in humans are epidemiological or cohort studies, meaning they gather a bunch of info from the wild population and try to sort out all the confounding factors. The problem is that the confounding factors are often assumed, taken for granted, or guessed at. Crude example, they'll disregard people who have high stress jobs but not people who are overweight...because everyone "knows" obesity doesn't cause cancer. Well what if obesity does cause cancer? Or obesity mixed with smoking causes so much stress to the body that cancer results?

Furthermore, there hasn't been a single study on the effects of PURE tobacco (without all those cigarette additives). In fact, the studies typically don't even mention what brand of cigarettes are used. I'd really like to see a pure tobacco study. I have a feeling we might see a parallel with the physiological effects of marijuana...another weedy plant traditionally revered as sacred and medicinal.

And even furthermore, there was a study in 1963(? IIRC) that suggested pipe smokers actually lived longer than non-smokers. Later studies claimed to reverse that finding...but if you look, you find out that ever since that first study, they've been lumping in cigar smokers with pipe smokers. Those two groups are not the same for many, many reasons.

And from the anecdote files, my girlfriend's father smokes like a chimney but he's going strong into his old age whereas one of his non-smoker, non-drinking friends died early in his mid 50's from, you guessed it, cancer. It's not proof of anything by any means, but it does make you think - about the irony at least.

We also live longer these days though right? Could be that we live long enough to see these diseases now instead of dying younger

No, overall life expectancy changes very little. You don't have as many people dying in infancy or men dying in wars, compared to 100 years ago.

The odds of getting every cancer is increasing over time. You are as likely to die from cancer now than you were in the 1970s. So where is all the funding going?

Nowadays people get the cops called on them for leaving their kids unattended to play outside. I used to go off into the woods with my friends from sunup to sundown with no phones or outside contact and our parents didnt bat an eyelid. If we misbehaved, we got spanked instead if losing our smartphone privileges. I used to say I was old enough to remember when Call of Duty was a WWII game, but now theyve come full-circle, so I lost out on that.

Who are these people who are so offended by children playing in the front yard? They apparently exist but no one knows who they are.

My personal experience: a neighbor called the homeowners association on us as kids after moving to a more upscale neighborhood because we were riding our bikes up and down the main road and cul-de-sacs a few streets away in our subdivision without parental supervision. Her reasoning was that we could be hit by a car or taken by a stranger. HOA told her there were no rules against it. Then she called because we were practicing chipping golf balls into a practice net. Then because we were skateboarding without helmets.

One weekend, she told the HOA that she had seen us (my brother and I) with her own two eyes throwing all of the furniture into our neighborhood pool after it was closed for the night. Which was funny, because we'd been out of town since Friday for a hockey tournament and had returned that Sunday evening. Basically she was an uptight homemaker who never let her kids do anything and didn't think it was right that other kids were out doing kid stuff.

She threatened to call CPS and my dad called her a cunt and I'm pretty sure he farmed her yard one night when he knew she was asleep, but CPS never contacted anyone.

Back when kids actually got out of the house. People stopped going out for Halloween after 9/11, anyone else notice that?

Had a ton of kids last year. But, we were in a new house so I think location has something to do with it.

I remember thinking how calm and peaceful it was. Little did I realize...

Maybe because your no longer a child you don't notice this? As you age things change.

Kids around me still play outside all day, but that being said when I was a kid I played videos games all day. It has nothing to do with terrorists. Kids will play games and have fun regardless of the year. How they have fun might change.

Other things you said about the airport, etc, is more agreeable.

However, I've never had an issue with going through security at the airport.

Everything seemed to change when OP turned 20. Pretty sure this drastic change in the world is really more about a drastic change in OP.

Yes but I was still on the prowl in early college when the big shift to social media happened right alongside the cops chasing everyone from 13 to 30 from dozens of hangouts all over the city and then issuing tickets to people who returned. They hunted us into the hills, woods and remote beaches until the critical social mass had dissipated. Everyone then transitioned to social media and people only went to their final destination and returned home. There was suddenly a lot less lingering of all sorts. Those fortunate enough to have arranged a private party in a house went there and otherwise went to a bar to generate tax revenue while the bar owners cynically played the music ever louder as we nodded at each other gulping beer. Then in just several years an entire new batch of young people entered the social scene who never knew that people used to wander around the city speaking with each other, meeting, flirting and hooking up. After they tamed us they were able to reduce the police force. There were so people outside and they had hooked up cameras everywhere in center to watch us as well as all of the roads entering and leaving the city. Then we stayed home since it was cheaper to buy from a store than to order in a restaurant. Who would want to be outside? There is nothing to do out there. That is for children.

... What?

Ah the 90s.. when Oreo's were Oreo's.

Death to Hydrox!

My British/Scottish dad (nearly 70yo) says 9/11 changed the whole world. He tells me about how the world just stopped and for weeks everything and anything felt wrong and out of place. He to this day despite everything I tell him believes it had absolutely nothing to do with the government or intelligence services. I think it's because the whole event would become a hell of a lot more scary to him if he believed it was an inside job.

Listen to douglas crottie spelling on his name about what happenend to building 7. He does dtm readings. Its what edgar cayse did.

No, I'm poor and black.

/r/morbidreality

The drug war was no joke then, or now for that matter.

I 'member

It's so true. Our country as we knew it died that day. And they got everything they wanted from the mass cover up.

I miss riding my bike with the homies all day until night

Same for me, i'm in Scotland. The world certainly changed after that day, for the worse. I try to explain it at times to younger folks but they don't get the difference.

They won't understand because they've been brainwashed their entire lives to think it has always been this way.

No. I was 7. I've lived practically my entire life under a cloud of fear generated more by media alarmism than by real threats.

When people call me a millennial, I tell them "No, I'm a 9-11 baby."

You poor thing. This is the same with my children too.

I was a child in the 1970s. So much fun then!

It doesn't have as much to do with 9/11 so much as increasing diversity. Read some Robert Putnam.

DO you remember watching Back to the Future II in 1989 and thinking that by 2015 we would really have at least something futuristic. It was 25 years in the future, 30 from the movie time period and the same as 1955-1985.

We've essentially gone nowhere for almost 40 years.

Take a look at a 1995 Toyota Camry driving around in 2017. 23 years later and it doesn't look as out of place as a 1972 Chevy driving around in 1995. That 95 Toyota gets better gas mileage than most new cars in 2017.

I'm living in what is called a modern house, and it's from 1962. In the 80s and 90s it was possible to travel from New York to London in 3 hours on the Concorde. Today that same flight takes 10 hours. We have gone backwards. Life in 2017 feels less advanced and futuristic than it did 20 years ago in 1997 when I first got broadband internet.

I feel like I've been stuck in a time warp since 2000, that is when the tech bubble burst. It's like everything stopped and we never moved the needle. Wall St stole the future from us and pocketed trillions that could have been used to advance society. I really find it odd that my nephew is essentially living the same exact childhood I had with the same movies and toys. He really wants an X-wing fighter from the new Stars Wars movie just like I did when I was 8. I seriously doubt my dad was asking for a hoop and stick like what his dad played with when he was 8 in 1955. I wasn't asking for 1955 toys in 1985.

Kids today have merely ok childhoods but then fall off a cliff when they hit their teen years. Teens today are under such incredible pressure that didn't exist when I was growing up in the 80s. I had my first job when I was 13 and then I paid for my college with various part time jobs and graduated with no debt. There wasn't even such a thing as student loans back then. People worked their way through college. That was the norm. That is just not possible in today's world. I can't imagine having to sign a mortgage sized student loan at 17 just to go to college.

I don't hate the younger generations. I feel sorry for them. I don't have kids of my own because I saw the writing on the wall 20 years ago. I wouldn't bring a kid into this world knowing that he would be living through on hell on Earth. That great sucking sound that Ross Perot warned us about happened. The future we were promised was sold down the river and never materialized. It will only get worse from here.

It will only get worse from here.

Only if that is the fate people choose.

This is true. Free will and the power our collective consciousness could turn things around.

The masses are slowly waking up which is a positive sign but it might be too little too late.

If time is a construct of this world but not other densities or dimensions; it is never too late.

Take a look at a 1995 Toyota Camry driving around in 2017. 23 years later and it doesn't look as out of place as a 1972 Chevy driving around in 1995. That 95 Toyota gets better gas mileage than most new cars in 2017. The most fuel efficient cars on the road are Geo metros from the early 1990s and they could seat 4 people unlike those stupid smart cars. We are being "demodernized." GM built the EV1 in the late 90s and then became the company that killed the electric car.

A 2017 Toyota Camry has a touch screen, but I do agree that older things back then tend to last a long time.

I'm apart of the younger generation (born 96) and a lot of people in my generation dress and listen to music from the 90s. There is so much nostalgia marketing now, was it like this before? I've heard people in the 80s dressed and listened to music in the 50s, but I'm not sure if they had video game reboots or remakes of every popular 50s movie.

Touch screen in a car is actually a step backwards. Have to take my eyes off the road to use it. It is just a distraction when before I could operate the controls without looking by feeling the knobs. Try using a touch screen with your eyes closed and see how useful it is.

Maybe old people who grew up in the 50s were still listening to their 50s music in the 1980s. As a child of the 80s I listened a genre called "New Wave" synth music. Think Rick Astley (Rickroll meme) Never gonna give you up. Why can't music still sound like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPYZpwSpKmA

The closest new stuff I listen to now is: Midnight, FM-Attack, FM-84, and Lebrock.

Lady Gaga and Bieber make my ears bleed like nails on a chalkboard.

Yes, the phenomenon of listening to older music and borrowing older styles existed in the 80s and 90s. It didn't generally go as far as back the 50s (although there was some), it was more 60s and 70s, although there was a swing craze in the 90s. I think it generally goes in 20 year cycles because yesterday's 20 year olds are today's 40 year olds.

Black kids were listening to rap songs that sampled and paid homage to Diana Ross, James Brown, Motown, etc. White kids liked the Beatles, classic rock, Pink Floyd, etc. People loved movies set in earlier times like Dirty Dancing and Back to the Future, and the shows like Happy Days and The Wonder Years. The 80s seemed to really usher in the era of the comeback and elongated careers for musicians. Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, Cher, etc. all reinvented themselves and made huge comebacks.

I don't think there were quite as many direct remakes and reboots of movies and TV shows but children will inevitably tend to enjoy whatever their parents have been watching and listening to in the house and adults will be nostalgic. Maybe the degree and intensity has changed with the more 24/7 entertainment cycle and so many more ways to experience entertainment inside the home and on demand but it was always there to some extent.

I'm homeschooling my future children. I will give them something close to the academic rigor I had in school, but without all the bullshit. I'll figure out the social aspect but that's getting harder.

School would have been a good experience for me but it was the worst. The social groups sucked and I never really fit in. We all had to overload with honors and AP classes and do tons of activities to fit in. Then there was the college marketing bomb, which forces us to make life changing decisions we were not prepared for, while we never learned how to do taxes or pay bills on time.

College was even worse but that's another story.

Good luck with their social lives and job prospects. You need rigor and exposure to other people to succeed.

Then there was the college marketing bomb, which forces us to make life changing decisions we were not prepared for, while we never learned how to do taxes or pay bills on time.

Thanks to the internet I've been able to educate myself. I was never exposed to much marketing thanks to adblockers and hating TV. I'd like to think I made the right decision in terms of college. The school I go to has decent OCR for CS and I have a nice scholarship so my parents can pay it out of pocket.

The social aspect is the only thing that worries me. But I know many school districts allow homeschooled students to participate in school athletics in their district. And there are other, private options like community sports leagues, YMCA, and scouts. And they'll probably socialize with strangers on the internet like I did (and continue to do so).

If they want a part time job when they're teenagers, it's easy to find one. And if they go to trade school or college when they're older, they'll be treated the same as everyone else in their field, homeschooled or not.

The social aspect is the only thing that worries me. But I know many school districts allow homeschooled students to participate in school athletics in their district. And there are other, private options like community sports leagues, YMCA, and scouts.

The latter will probably be the best option, but socializing daily is probably better.

They'll socialize with strangers on the internet like I did

Socializing on the internet is no substitute. If you want to see what happens when a kid only has internet friends all his life, take a look at /r/incels.

And if they go to trade school or state university when they're older, they'll be treated the same as everyone else in their field.

Maybe it's because I was raised differently but it's weird that state university is already the goal rather than just an option. /r/applyingtocollege probably just gagged a bit.

I grew up on the internet because I was extremely isolated by my parents. I know about incels. Some people might argue I am one. But I have a girlfriend who wants to get married and have children with me. If it wasn't for the internet I would have no social skills, or be able to do most of the things I do every day.

Part of this is that some of America's growth was sacrificed for or stolen by other nations. US standard of living has not improved much, but China's certainly has.

That is certainly part of the equation. Many Chinese middle class live better lives than America's middle class. They have more disposable income than Americans because their housing is cheaper, their food is cheaper, their transportation is cheaper, and their healthcare is so cheap it is practically free. Americans can hardly afford the basics without going into debt and our middle class is dying.

While many Chinese remain poor, a large number of people (millions) have been raised from extreme poverty to upper lower class or lower middle class. This was of course due to the efforts of the Chinese people. But, we did our part by buying their cheap garbage....

The cheap garbage thing is a myth. The cheap goods we started importing from China merely replaced the cheap junk we were already importing from Mexico. Remember when made in Mexico was a thing? I do. When Mexico lost its competitive edge to China they stopped exporting things to America and started exporting people in the form Mexican immigration.

Cheap Chinese crap didn't really hurt the American middle class until China started becoming more high end and taking jobs that required a college education. In 2006 I was working in a data server farm for a large insurance company when they announced they were shutting the whole operation down and moving to Hong Kong. It was mentioned even if we worked for free it wouldn't be worth it to stay in the US. For less than the cost of just renting the building and paying local taxes they could have a fully staffed facility in Hong Kong and still have money to spare. They left practically over night and didn't look back. Question is was that due to the efforts of the Chinese people being harder workers than Americans or currency manipulation by governments on both sides of the Pacific? I tend to believe it was the later. I blame the Federal Reserve more than I blame the Chi-coms for manipulating the currency to benefit the multinational oligarchy.

Maybe the rent of the building and the local taxes had something to do with it. It is hard to believe that the rent is higher in the US than HK, so that leaves taxes. US taxes do not seem that high compared internationally. Chinese guys probably work harder, but US guys probably work smarter, so a wash? Both sides are definitely manipulating the currency. I would guess that the Fed is more evil than the Central Committee but both are evil.

When 9/11 went down and they offered up the Patriot Act, no one was involved in politics very much. I had to call my senator and beg for them to vote no, but was met with a resounding no and if I was against it I was against protecting Americans. 9/11 was a very sad day for me, not because people died, but because I saw our freedom being stolen. I was no architect, but I knew when those buildings went down it was not because of an airplane.

When I think about the 90s it was a great time. Everyone was happy, all races and religions were intermixing happily.

When I think of today, it disgusts me as to how people act. They are terrible, blaming, hateful, and race blaming.

I remember being anywhere without worry of checking my phone or having to be near one. That's what I miss most, people had to find you out and about versus picking up a phone and posting on facebook.

Some of us got to see both sides

I also forgot to mention that social gatherings were found at Book stores posted to community boards and the internet was bulletin board systems.

O I member’

I remember RUNNING through an airport to catch a connecting flight. Running, laughing, and praying we'd make it! No one batted an eye. They all understood what you were doing.

lmao yes - flying was "fun" back then, even when it was for work or wtf, it was a little leisurely escape.

Yes, it was fun.

Like that scene in home alone 2 :)

Yes!

My life is divided in two, pre and post 911. Pre-911 things were colorful, post-911 things seem dull and grey. Words just can't describe the difference.

I would have traded a year of the good days for access to Tinder back in high school.

Haha but also - would it be worth it when your mom finds out, tells the guidance counselor and then you get a child porn charge for showing yr dick to some girl who only asked for it so she could forward it to her friends for joke material?

This almost just happened(the charge) to my friend's 13 yr old. Lesson learned for him, but seriously not as fun as it's cracked up to be lol.

Lol I was told the instant gratification generation has streamlined the reproductive/recreational equation down to a single bit Boolean (t/f) logic input 1 or 0, swipe right to like-left to oppress. Unconfused with the natural chemical comedown/imbalance following the rush of dopamine from an orgasm we entertain as evidence of love, these rascals swipe and smash, rinse-repeat, ad-infinitum. Moms has always been pretty chill so didn't worry about certain off campus extra curriculars being brought to the attention of GC!

Hope everything sorts out for the fella, I'm certain at 13 I lacked the maturity to responsibly possess a smartphone. My niece is like 9-10, has phone and tablet, and will have soon usurped my technological comprehension in a couple years.

I was 12 in 8th grade when this happened. Before 9/11, all I had to worry about was my parents coming home and abusing me. After 9/11 my C/O step dad finally was deployed consistently, his abuse was worse when he came back, but he was gone, and everyday I prayed he would die.

My mom, stressed out at suddenly being an only working parent, continued to take her frustrations out on me, to the point where she backhanded me with her engagement ring to the face, going to school with a big black welt. She knew all the counselors, so when I went to one for help, I was punished.

9/11 made my narcissistic parents even more abusive, parts of my life taken away before I even had the legal ability to make my own choices.

I never had a great, free life. The entirety of it has been spent having my human rights trampled on. This is why I'll always question authority, because all authority had taught me is that someone will abuse it. The few good ones who understand responsibility are an exception. Sadly, I don't believe there has been an administration that I've felt comfortable with. They always feels like a snake righting it's group to suffocate it's prey, just like at home.

I also had nparents. I feel you man.

As a Canadian, I remember crossing a border from US to Canada and NOT being asked to show a passport. On the first request my response was, "Really! Canada didn't have planes hit buildings". My mind was so use to my Country believing me when I answered their questioned correctly. Now, pffft!

After 9/11, the us government started harassing everyone who came into this country. Americans do a lot of traveling and everyone wants to come to America if they can.

So if America harasses citizens of other countries, those same countries (like Canada) can harass American citizens who come into their country. Eventually, everyone treated every traveler from every country like dirt. It's an inevitable race to the bottom.

True this. Government for the people is being taken too far.

It was building up in the 90s though - US sponsored genocides, NAFTA(most dramatic decline in US production took place in the late 90s), warcrimes(like bombing that aspirin factory to "get back at BinLaden"... I mean how many times), media consolidation/censorship, the birth of the regulated internet.. anti-rave laws FFS.

The one thing that's markedly different in my mind about post-9/11 US is the complete absence of counterculture. People simply no longer have the time or energy for it, and when they attempt it it's SHUT DOWN. And look where we are now. Still children playing Pokemon and getting nostaglic about "real hip hop" which was always just mainstream pop. I really do feel sorry for kids these days. Literally the only place they're allowed to act out and be creative is 4 Chan.

Not just in the United states but in all Western countries.

R/“conspiracy”

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God i do. The rock and hip hop of the 90s will never be matched. What a glorious decade

I ‘memba

America was still wealthy from the Reagan tax cuts

TEFRA?

America was already declining long before Reagan, and he and Bush raised as many taxes as they cut. The factories were still closing and jobs were leaving.

What changed? People started living on credit. Big banks started speculating property and borrowing against their future value with inventions like equity loans and credit default swaps. So the illusion of wealth began and that took another 20+ years to collapse.

Your wrong from the very beginning. You honestly think 9/11 made kids stay inside? Well it didn't, that would be the internet and technology. I bet you blame Blockbuster closing down on 9/11 also, and not on Netflix and video on demand.

I played video games before 9/11 and still played outside with my friends after 9/11.

And I remember people being just as obsessed with celebrities, if not more. Everyone got excited about awards shows and watched them, now barely anyone gives a shit about them.

Life was not "great and free in America" before 9/11. That's silly.

What does seem to be true is that in the 80s and early 90s, more parents were willing to let their kids play outside alone.

But the change in parental attitudes about letting their kids play outside is real. However, that likely has nothing to do with 9/11 and everything to do with fearmongering involving the threat of strangers and pedophiles wandering the streets.

Parents are more paranoid but abductions and rapes are at historic lows. But people still think we're in the alums of Bangkok or something.

I honestly don't see what's wrong with the modern world. Everything is in a perpetual state of hyper-connectivity. You can access nearly anything you want or need so long as you have the mental fortitude and educated skill set. Obviously not everyone is this fortunate but if we're talking ideals, then it's as good as it's ever been.

Sure there are anal people who think their opinion matters above all, but you can choose to ignore them because you live in America. Imagine if you lived somewhere that forced you to play along...because such places exist..or they kill you.

I thoroughly enjoy my days in this country, and wakeup grateful for all that I have. Yes there's a lot of evil but if you are decent, people will return the gesture. We are not a barbaric species anymore. We need to accept that finally.

Hassle free flying, no texting and driving, no cameras anywhere, no speed detection radar / lasers, happy hour drink specials, no seat belt laws, cars were simple to repair, even economy houses had solid oak floors and best of all a bachelor's degree was a passport to a decent job.

Why wouldn't you wear your seatbelt anyway?

I wear my seatbelt but would prefer that it’s my personal choice not another excuse for cops to pull people over. The government telling me what’s best for me is a very slippery slope.

I feel you on that, same way with motorcycle helmets. I was just curious why someone wouldn't wear one.

Sometimes I won’t wear my seatbelt if I’m going down the road even though I know most accidents happen right near your home. Sometimes you just feel like nothing will happen to you. It’s the “Ehhhh it’ll happen to someone else, not me” syndrome.

After seeing some videos of people bouncing around their cars like rag dolls during an accident though I’m more aware of it.

I'm a delivery driver so I'll often jump in my car, drive down 1-2 blocks, run out, deliver food, run back, and do the same thing again. It's impractical to expect me to have my seatbelt on at all times. Oh, and parking enforcement is a nightmare for people like me.

There are bigger cyclical trends at play (Steve Bannon like the book The Fourth Turning for a reason), but the Patriot Act, soon to be beefed up by The Liberty Act (what a fucking joke of a name), is truly a final-stage coup by a desperate corporate Deep State run amok.

Gay people didn't exactly have it better...

My entire generation is a slave to pleasure while I'm over her being the kid who rants about conspiracy to strangers.

Not really. I was a sophomore in high school when it went down, and it never really registered to me because I had more important shit to worry about like being physically and mentally bullied on nearly a daily basis.

a back in my day post, ahh

I wish I had grown up pre 9/11 I was born in 94, so I've been a part of the 9/11 generation. Just watching old films and seeing what airports were like is unimaginable to me.

They're just waiting until those of us who remember are dead and then they can finish the job.

Pepperidge Farms Remembers....

Sometimes I think about how absurd the whole situation was. If there were a radical group out of Canada that attacked us in a similar matter and then sought refuge in the caves of Mexico, would we invade the entirety of Mexico. In the process of going after this extremist group would we have 100,000+ civilian casualties.

The fact that we declared war at all in this situation when this group (technically) wasn't the military of another government stinks to high hell. Shouldn't we have just sent in the seals and marines to wipe them out with some SPEC OPS group?

These guys apparently came from Saudi Arabia and were hiding in Afghanistan (I won't even get to the actual illegality of the Iraq war)

IDK. I hate war and the military industrial complex in general. Mission Accomplished 2003.

this is one of the dumbest threads ive ever read on reddit... just people longing for the 'golden days' which every generation has done since the beginning of time

"slave to pleasure"...nail meet head

Yep. How did we get here? I’m someone who was never able to experience your america but I believe it was bc of government and that’s why I became political.

Never have had cable and always wanted to be a part of a solution to a problem that I’ve seen to have inherited.

not only america

Great post, OP. I remember. Feel bad for kids/young adults today. They have no idea what they missed.

I feel like people are less obsessed about celebrities today. Maybe it's just me and being born in 1990 but I feel like the general population is more awake to real issues rather than 80s/90s where all you had was TV fed shit then the internet happened and it connected us like never before. Everyone I talk to knows most or have heard of the "conspiracy" theories surrounding our government so that's a good thing not a bad. Sure life used to be more carefree but you were also more ignorant to the real workings of those in power. That's why censoring the internet is one of the biggest things the elite want to get under control because the spread of information is letting us see their workings and they don't like it.

ITT A bunch of dumb old fucks romanticize the past and tell at clouds

I was born in 1993 so I don't have the best recollection, but I do vividly remember being able to ride my razor scooter all over the hartsfield-jackson airport in 2000. Pretty sure there's no way that would work without being arrested or shot nowadays.

This is all a good thing. It's leading to awakening and inevitable revolution. In the 90's, we were slaves too. Problem is nobody knew it yet.

The 90's economic boom allowed the boomer generation to finish off the millenials' opportunity for financial gain

Ironically enough, I see the same boomers working at Walmart because their pensions dried up. I guess they took too many vacations instead of investing in their grandchildren.

Guess who stole their pensions? Boomer and Gen X wall street guys.

I was a senior in HS when 9/11 went down. It's been a really unfortunate path that our country has been on, and makes me believe that the perpetrators of the attack may have actually succeeded in their objectives.

Everything was way more relaxed in the 80's and 90's

I think we are headed for a correction though. I believe everything is going to mellow out and it will be fun, carefree and relaxed like the 80's as a response to this crazy politically correct sjw prison planet we are in now.

Much like the 80's was a response to all the fucked up serious bullshit war etc...of the 60's and 70's - Around 1978 - 1995 things were fucking dope in the U.S.

Let's get back to that. Fuck this stressed out bullshit we are involved in now.

80's style party fun ahead!

Pros and cons. Kids don't get out doors as much do to mass media paranoia. They also have access to the entire history of the world in the palm of they're hand complete with gps, camera and connection to the greatest innovation in mass communication of all time. I'm glad I didn't have social media when I was in high school, but I don't miss traveling miles to the library to read some ancient scrolls telling me what a hero people like Cristopher Columbus was. When I was in college I knew a guy who got lost skiing in the back country. Turns out he fell headfirst into a tree-well, got stuck and died. Not sure if he froze or suffocated and I can't help but wonder if he had had a cell phone if he could have wiggled out of his pocket and called in his location. Also, I think there are a lot of important stories that are being exposed thanks to mass media. Overall worth the trade off to me, but I do feel very lucky to have grown up before the internet blew up.

Agreed, but you could argue that knowledge these days isn't legitimate knowledge. I know a ton of people who are simply a database of google searches. Seems to be no such thing as fact checking these days.

GPS isn't good and having "access to the entire history of the world in the palm of their hand"...? Yeah, that's what they're using it for.

I remember I went to Mexico with my birth certificate and a driver's license. I went all the way to Yucatan. I spent a week in the jungles and saw the Mayan ruins and stayed in the villages. That was back in 1990.

I wonder how easy that is to do now?

Coudln't agree more. I caught the back end of this era. Born in 92' and remember times without cell phones, roaming the streets with friends, etc; the country was a lot less paranoid. I always joke with my buddies that we just missed the glory days. Thankful though that I was able to experience it while it lasted. Things definitely shifted after the dial up days of the interernet. This new age of smartphone addict has completey ruined social interaction.

America can only return to greatness with great leadership....i am sad for America

i think your democracy is broken ......certainly failing you now

I blame the internet. It was fine when I hated that one kid down the street but now I hate people I have never met and are across the country. Internet is a double edged sword for sure. Its a great place but it also brings out the worse in people.

Computers and Robots taking jobs. AI is evolvong so fast in 30 years we will be controlled by it and kids will look back and say, remember in the 2010s when everything was great?

On a related note, does everyone remember what an hellish wasteland the planet was before 2015 when net neutrality didn't exist?

Yeah but unfortunately that was still a false freedom

Not entirely. My personal projectile vomiting of the Kool-Aid^® came about in 1992 on discovering the truth about incubator Girl™. It was the effective end of my military career.

https://i.redd.it/y3yrhq8yuflz.jpg

One thing that made 9/11 different than other big disasters in history, is that it was covered from all angles and immediately uploaded to the internet. We've been watching that footage over and over since the day it happened.

I think the downfall came after Columbine, too. Schools are like jails now.

thanks for this. good to know there are still people out there with a head on their shoulders.. truly tragic to watch what has been happening over the last few decades though

We used to be able to brag to the infrequent visitors from the old Soviet Union that we could just get on a plane and fly to anywhere we wanted. Not any more, we are all grown up now, we have our very own secret police force, even.

Flying has become such an unbearable nightmare that seems to get worse and worse with every year. Before 9/11, flying was fun. It was something families looked forward to as part of the vacation. Now it's just the hell you have to go through to get wherever you're going. It's so sad that current and future generations will never know any different and think that it has to be like this and think that this is normal and acceptable.

Or it could just be that you were a child throughout the 80's and 90's and therefore didn't concern yourself with politics or serious things? If you're an 80's child that means 911 happened around your early 20's which is when people typically start dabbling in political awareness anyway.

Um... I was born in 1989 and 9/11 happened when I was 11. I think you’re missing some years there.

I assumed OP spent a significant amount of their childhood in the 80's. The time before you have the ability to form lasting memories doesn't really count as growing up the 80's the way I took OP's meaning.

That’s true if OP was early 80s they’d be closer to or in their twenties. It’s always bizarre for me to think about 9/11 because while I was in the area I was too young to think about the political side of it.

I definitely remember the insane amount of security that popped up everywhere right after, kinda freaked me out actually. It was right after I started seeing people getting questioned on the streets and arrested and whatnot. I mean it always happened but it was just a lot more often, not to mention I started getting walked everywhere after that when before I was trusted to get to school on my own and whatnot. That was a blow to me preteen ego lol.

Both you and OP have good points.

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

-Chuck Palahniuk

The 90's were excellent if not solely for the end of the 80's crimewave, specially for citydwellers like my family. Also the economic boost, internet (Napster FTW), and end of Cold War were nice too.

Eh it wasn't that free. 9/11 was a big turning point, but columbine was a big shakeup too. So was that Oklahoma City bombing.

After 9/11 though you pretty much surrender your privacy to board a plane. Then this country kind of turned into a weird one where you get accused of being anti American when you question these wars. Now we've got everyone talking about football players not standing during a national song. That's still all over Facebook.

And on that subject, Facebook just as well took away a lot of freedom. It's great for keeping with with friends and family, but it's terrible because now employers and government people get some insight into what would otherwise be a private conversation.

I miss air travel being fun, spacious, full of mediocre food and generally fun and exciting. Now I feel like herded cattle anytime I try and go anywhere.

Yes, and I miss the 80's 90's.

You'll be free in the VR that Zuckerberg is building for us. A boundless world for you to explore. You'll never want to leave.

Never.

Kids sit on their phones because phones are fucking awesome. Not because we got 9/11'd lol.

I do agree with your point though.

Lol you obviously didn't grow up poor and in a bad community.

Those were still the good ol' days, it got worse there too.

The thing is, there have always been people oppressed but nobody cares about those who are facing it, only about themselves.

Ah yes, the joys of surprising loved ones as they came right off the plane... I'm glad I actually have those memories.

Along with that comes shit-memories of recent. One of which took place at my hometown small airport (pop 50,000) in the middle of nowhere. Bags had to be swabbed along with a crotch sniffing dog before being checked. Then the 300lb woman running the scanner had to dump out my entire carry on bag so she could publicly shame me (while I am shoeless and beltless) for forgetting I had a bottle opener in one of the inner pockets.

Le sigh. I do indeed miss the old days. Terribly so.

It won't take long at all till we truly recognize the pre/post 9/11 period. Just like AD/BC in a way

A 17-year old asked me a few months ago what the Internet was like before algorithms. Before that I had never really considered that kids today haven’t experienced life without a computer algorithm telling them what to read or do online their entire lives.

Honestly, we live in such a fucked up world now it’s insane. The technology that was supposed to free us has turned us all into mindless drones.

I thought smart phones were going to put tools for educating the masses directly into everyone’s hands, instead they’re used as surveillance, mind control, and propaganda.

Did you answer the 17-year old's question of how the internet worked before algorithms?

I was around for the early internet and basically before going online I had to think of a topic that interested me and I had time to think about it for a while as the modem dialed in. Then I would type a topic in a search engine or go to a Usenet group on that topic. Chat-rooms were also very big before social media took over.

Yeah, I told her about how you had to actually search for things. Go to forums, blogs, and websites. Use RSS readers, etc. Before that, chat rooms, IMs.

It wasn't all that great. We still had Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Kids being kidnapped was huge in the 70s and 80s, especially by vans. The corruption was there, the crime was insane, the crack epidemic wasn't fun. You were just too young to realize how shifty our country was, and still is.

Bringing cartons of cigarettes, gallons of tequila, Cuban cigars, and prescription drugs up from Tijuana. Accidentally flying across the country with joint roaches in my coat pocket. It was great.

But I like my vidya games

I see kids playing outside all the time.

Honestly I dont remember much before the GOP went off the rails during the Clinton years and then came the Bush family coup in 2000 followed by years of war.

Well damn. More oldfags than i expected here, warm greetings to all of you.

Kids can't even walk to school for fear of being kidnapped. Hell we were riding our bikes to school in 3rd grade w/o even a helmet.

Outside of airport security, I don't think we can blame 9/11 or any of that. That was all starting to happen prior to 9/11.

I dunno, before 9/11 I had to be home by 9, Alannis Morsette was all over the damn radio, I couldn't watch South Park at home and weed was next to impossible to get. Truly some dark days.

An entire generation has been lost, many who would frequent this place. God bless those able to get out of the fog and think for themselves.

Read up/research the phenomenon where people all over the world had visions and dreams prior to 9/11.

I was one of those people. I know, I know..."How convenient, here on r/Conspiracy" but it's the truth.

I'd never ever believed in such things before. I was a definite "scoffer" of such phenomena. A "mocker" if you will.

But I did indeed experience something very odd, a vision, and I'll never forget it. I honestly don't want to go into it here as it will take so much time and I don't want to type that much. Suffice it to say the news reported a man who had the exact same experience the night before his wife boarded one of those planes that crashed.

The odd thing for me was, I didn't know anyone in NY. I lost no family members. It affected me personally not at all.

But going on, yes, the world has changed. I've noticed that things have gotten worse and worse. I honestly believe it was a sign, the beginning of the end.

Research "Yitzhak Kaduri". Seriously. Pay no attention to what the Jews say, they have a reason to deny, it would implode their religion. Good luck, guys. Shit's coming.

I knew some guys from a town called Chilliwack who had a cycling club. They wanted to get t-shirts made, but didn't like they layout, so to even it out they became the Chilliwack Communist Cycling Club.

They used to cycle across the Candada-US border wearing the t-shirts with their birth certificates for ID, with zero hassles.

Here are some carefree videos of what life was like before 9-11. Look how happy and chill they are. 1. 2

i was too young to remember.

9/11 was a massive turning point in our nation's history. I can't put my finger on how exactly everything changed or the cause besides towers falling, but things are so much different and much worse than pre-9/11 times.

It's almost like the government sacrificed hundreds of people in order to make life miserable for the country in exchange for wealth or something.

I know, I know... sounds stupid, but meh, I just don't know anymore.

*thousands

Yeah, I couldn't remember exact numbers, so I thought I'd play it safe and not overestimate.

Was it around 2000?

The Zionists took control of America when they killed Kennedy. Nothing has been the same since.

When you can pay your rent, life is great and free in America.

I'd say the advances of the smartphone share alot of how much our culture has changed as well. The powers that be must have been tickled pink when we invented this device that tracks everything we do and we were happy to give away our rights to privacy all in the name of " being connected". Sorry guys I don't feel connected , I feel watched.

Honestly, I think the internet had as much if not more influence over the changes we experienced since the 90's than 9-11. Internet is great, but like any other tool, it can be used for good or evil, and TPTB have taken full advantage of it. Not to say 9-11 wasn't a big part of the changes, but the explosion of the internet played a major part as well.

Not how I remember then. I remember the US government pumping crack into to my city to fund their black ops in south North America. I guess things have gotten better since 9/11, since now the government has a super cheap source of heroin. And at least those addicts sleep sometimes.

What would be the average age on this subreddit

Yes I remember not being able to get weed legally, not having a choice of an electric car or cheap solar panels, was reddit even around than?

I remember that video cameras filmed at a frame rate faster evidently than any camera surrounding the Pentagon on 9/11.

People in the United States have been targeted/trained to separate as fast as possible (eliminating the power of the group threat) since at least after the Great Depression when socialist populism broke out in massive numbers for the first time.

You leave my video games out of this.

If anything you are approaching them wrong though, they are more mundane chore simulators to prime the cattle for work

Holy shit. I wonder if thats why theres a huge initiative for suicide prevention in young teens? Maybe because they have never really experience the "freedom" of riding your bike to the mall to play arcade games or played throughout your neighborhood with your friends? All they know is social media and school activities. Who knows. Maybe its something else.

There were shitty things about the past too. Don't get so nostalgic you forget, that's just as bad.

Memberberries

I remember sneaking out at night and bike riding dark, deserted streets and letting your imagination run wild, going out on secret missions.

I mean... kids still do this lol maybe not as much but..

Kids should still do this. They just need to be properly educated on the warning signs of a male predator. Girls have it much worse though, sadly. I used to ride without a light in pitch dark, never had an accident, nobody ever fucked with me. This is out in the country tho.

9/11 was the end of an age for the US. As a nation turns to Empire to make ends meet, they have to oppress and control the populous more and more. Its part of human nature. The top of the pyramid gets bigger and and more incompetent as time goes one.

I think since JFK was assassinated America has never trusted our government again

Actually America was divided back in the late 30’s Into the early 40’s. Know your history.., many Americans wanted white only America and had nazi American rally’s up until WW2.

There was no internet so it sucked.

Im 33, live in San Diego, I see kids outside everyday all riding bikes, scooters and even “hover boards”.

All ages from 3 years old to 12 and even a few parents outside all playing in the streets.

Theres a basketball hoop every 6 houses, built one myself, but I like to toss the football.

Just depends on the neighborhood I guess.

I remember bringing my very own bottle of water into an airplane. Ahhh the good ol' days.

You think 9/11 caused kids to play video games? How self centered do you have to be to think that? How about all the rest of the countries that have this effect? You think population in finland is somehow influenced by 9/11? Get a grip dude

/r/lewronggeneration

damn these comments are making me sad to be alive.

i swear to christ you fucking people and your "kids today dont know what real fun is" if you had the same shit we do today you wouldnt have played outside either, get off your high horse

It wasn't pre-9/11

It was pre-smartphone

Lets be honest here. the "internet" was what was more free pre-9/11. You can do all the same things you can pre-9/11 and post-9/11.

It's when EVERYTHING changed. Which is why the LEFT, RIGHT & MIDDLE need to unite on getting the TRUTH.

another fucking post complaining about "the new generation". what the fuck does 9/11 have to do with going outside? do you really think people would be outside all the time if it wasn't for 9/11?

This is false. America was still a great place to live for the few. Now its not and people want to pretend it started with 9/11.

9/11 disenfranchised the blind. There were plenty before that living with the horrors of the American empire day to day.

yeah I came here to say something like this:

Its funny because 2000/2001 is the time when 9/11 happened - but that was not the triggering event.

the event that pulled the trigger and changed everything was a couple years earlier when the internet went mainstream. In 1995 - the internet was an idea that only the goofiest nerds were using. by 1999 - everyone knew how to get online. But by 2001 - right about the time of 9/11 - the internet was mainstream.

Suddenly - we had the most horrific terrorist attack on U.S. Soil - and we had an incredible avenue to discuss it.

Once 9/11 happened - the internet went from being the way you emailed grandma and did crazy chatroom trivia sessions - to suddenly it was how people were getting their news on current events. Not always true or false - but suddenly everyone was given full access to read/consume countless hours of unverified information.

haha. that's the TLDR to my long ass post above.

9/11 wasn't the huge change. (it was a factor)

but the huge chance was the invention of the internet and then....smart phones....(and next - cryptocurrencies?)

I have a feeling we are the same age. It's up to us now, as the parental age people to instill that sense of confidence and independence in our children.

But the things they're doing arent any worse or better, our kids have instant communicating, instant knowledge, they are part of a global community with universal access (for now.... net neutrality etc..) that its up to us to protect, because this freedom of information is what will make our children the next greatest generation.

Eeeeeeehhhhhh progress was being made and we were on the verge of aone legitimate social justice that was actually wanted instesd of forced upon us.

Christian interference in society wss declinging to a halt, gays were being accepted finally, etc. Now it is being forced, and that always just makes resistence.

Looking back at my childhood, I have no idea how my parents did it. Was born in the early 80s and by the time I was 8-9 years old I was just parading around town with my friends, riding on bikes all over the place and had to be home by dark. Would physically go knock on my friends doors without calling because we didn't really have cell phones at the time, at least not easily accessible ones until I was in high school. I would get into all sorts of shit that my parents had no clue about and as long as I was home by dark they didn't give a shit, sleepovers all the time and playing video games. I'm sure kids do similar shit nowadays but if I'm being honest, it's going to be hard for me to let my son have that kind of freedom when he's that age because the world seems so fucked up now that we have such easy access to information. I've sat and contemplated so many times, when should I let my boy go off with his friends and do shit by himself? When do I give him a cell phone? Who do I trust to watch my kid? Who's house do I let him sleep over? I haven't even reached that point yet as my son is only 4 but I lose sleep over it sometimes and I still have years to go before any of it is going to be a situation. Fuck, now I have anxiety great.

We still get to experience awesome, crazy shit with the homies, don't worry about us. Always cringe at the "fun" things I hear 80's/90's kids talk about. It's all relative.

And not just on Facebook!

im on it.

The rise of social media and smart phones

This has a strong influence of the rise of total coercion, as perpetrated by the state and private companies, but it's important to consider the chicken and the egg, here. Most private companies have been enveloped by federal agencies, and it's not important which one controls the other, from my view. Those byzantine organizations in turn strongly focus the messages that are then magnified into hysteria via social media. People are really angry to the point of violence based on non-existent threats. And they're all non-existent. We have no legitimate fears now, outside of our neighbors who have been radicalized against some other segment of their own population.

Uh, racial tension is worse than ever. It's still the old boys club, RE: DNC Clinton corruption. Things were better then. Now we're not even allowed to have "incorrect" opinions and if we do, we are Nazis. How fucking ironic is that.

But not Clerks 2.

I agree with the sentiment. I just think it's a tough spot for CPS, especially when we don't know the wording of the complaint.

Yeah, I couldn't remember exact numbers, so I thought I'd play it safe and not overestimate.

Was it around 2000?

But, remember how strangers would hide razor blades in halloween candy or hand out drugs to your kids? Don't talk to strangers because everybody is out to kidnap you!

Good luck with their social lives and job prospects. You need rigor and exposure to other people to succeed.

Then there was the college marketing bomb, which forces us to make life changing decisions we were not prepared for, while we never learned how to do taxes or pay bills on time.

Thanks to the internet I've been able to educate myself. I was never exposed to much marketing thanks to adblockers and hating TV. I'd like to think I made the right decision in terms of college. The school I go to has decent OCR for CS and I have a nice scholarship so my parents can pay it out of pocket.

Bitcoin or something else,

For high profile incidents such as mass shootings I agree. For more every day crimes the coverage seems to be a deterrent.

Kids should still do this. They just need to be properly educated on the warning signs of a male predator. Girls have it much worse though, sadly. I used to ride without a light in pitch dark, never had an accident, nobody ever fucked with me. This is out in the country tho.