For, like, 40 years between the end of WW2 and the Reagan Era, things were getting better.
And then for the next 40, things were so good that "getting worse" was a marginal thing that mostly affected younger browner people we don't care about.
Only now that we're headed squarely towards imperial collapse are people with some modicum of wealth and privilege feeling a pinch. And even then, the discussion is mostly around how to life-raft privileged people to safety. All the Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires think this includes them.
I don't want to argue with you. The populace getting to enjoy some of the empire's scraps doesn't exactly change the direction if you look at it from the outside, but pre Reagan there was some hope, I'd agree with that
The populace getting to enjoy some of the empire’s scraps doesn’t exactly change the direction
The quality of life enjoyed by people emerging from the Great Depression improved radically with electrification, modern industrialization, modern medicine, etc. Like, this isn't something you can debate in any practical sense. It wasn't unique to the United States, either. This was a boom enjoyed across the industrial world, from Soviet Russia to the Royalist UK.
If you're asking "Why did people put up with this?" its because their material conditions were steadily improving for a solid two generations, peaking with some of the highest quality of life enjoyed by anyone at any prior point in history. The subsequent peak and slide-off of these gains, combined with material stresses driven by climate change, racial/gender integration, and a new era of global war, is what is driving rejection of the current day regimes in the western world.
For, like, 40 years between the end of WW2 and the Reagan Era, things were getting better.
And then for the next 40, things were so good that "getting worse" was a marginal thing that mostly affected younger browner people we don't care about.
Only now that we're headed squarely towards imperial collapse are people with some modicum of wealth and privilege feeling a pinch. And even then, the discussion is mostly around how to life-raft privileged people to safety. All the Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires think this includes them.
Korean War 50 - 53
MKUltra 55 - 73
Vietnam 55 - 75
Malcolm X 1965
Martin Luther King Jr. 1968
Three Mile Island 1979
Ok, but now do infant mortality, life expectancy, and income inequality.
I don't want to argue with you. The populace getting to enjoy some of the empire's scraps doesn't exactly change the direction if you look at it from the outside, but pre Reagan there was some hope, I'd agree with that
The quality of life enjoyed by people emerging from the Great Depression improved radically with electrification, modern industrialization, modern medicine, etc. Like, this isn't something you can debate in any practical sense. It wasn't unique to the United States, either. This was a boom enjoyed across the industrial world, from Soviet Russia to the Royalist UK.
If you're asking "Why did people put up with this?" its because their material conditions were steadily improving for a solid two generations, peaking with some of the highest quality of life enjoyed by anyone at any prior point in history. The subsequent peak and slide-off of these gains, combined with material stresses driven by climate change, racial/gender integration, and a new era of global war, is what is driving rejection of the current day regimes in the western world.
Thanks for that comprehensive explanation.
Why do you include 3 Mile Island on that one? Literally no one died
I was just typing what came to my mind fastest and it kinda was a nuclear disaster during that time
Call me some kind of conspiracy theorist but I highly doubt MKUltra ended in the 70's