Excellent post, I had not put the pieces together to see that shared underlying belief that neatly explains the overlap between granola types and rabid conservatives. It perfectly demonstrates how deeply reactionary and individualistic the “hippie” movement is at its core despite all of the surface level posturing to pretend otherwise.
I used to wonder what the hell happened to make the “progressive” free love generation 180 into a bunch of miserable reactionaries but it seems that it wasn’t much of a pivot after all. A little strategic dismantling of any actually effective organizing (and assassination of key leaders) was all it took to let people lapse back into a comfortable, self serving position that upholds their class interests while still being nominally progressive.
Yeah. The hippie movement was a tiny, tiny segment of one generation and they were hated by most of American society. And their idea of free love wasn't "love is love", it was more "i (mostly men) should be able to fuck whoever I want without taking on any responsibilities at all."
Worth remembering there were tons of actual radicals - the panthers, the weathermen, the rainbow coalition, sncc, deacons for defense, countless others. The hippies were kind of trash but there were lots of solid people too.
Related; now that the Xers are hitting their 40s and 50s I finally understand why all the good music was on the "alternative" rock radio station back in the 90s. I always used to think "alternative to what?" And it turns out it was the alternative to dipshits like Musk
Excellent post, I had not put the pieces together to see that shared underlying belief that neatly explains the overlap between granola types and rabid conservatives. It perfectly demonstrates how deeply reactionary and individualistic the “hippie” movement is at its core despite all of the surface level posturing to pretend otherwise.
I used to wonder what the hell happened to make the “progressive” free love generation 180 into a bunch of miserable reactionaries but it seems that it wasn’t much of a pivot after all. A little strategic dismantling of any actually effective organizing (and assassination of key leaders) was all it took to let people lapse back into a comfortable, self serving position that upholds their class interests while still being nominally progressive.
Yeah. The hippie movement was a tiny, tiny segment of one generation and they were hated by most of American society. And their idea of free love wasn't "love is love", it was more "i (mostly men) should be able to fuck whoever I want without taking on any responsibilities at all."
Worth remembering there were tons of actual radicals - the panthers, the weathermen, the rainbow coalition, sncc, deacons for defense, countless others. The hippies were kind of trash but there were lots of solid people too.
Related; now that the Xers are hitting their 40s and 50s I finally understand why all the good music was on the "alternative" rock radio station back in the 90s. I always used to think "alternative to what?" And it turns out it was the alternative to dipshits like Musk
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