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If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

radcen

radcen

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If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
 
Besides how a clown got elected President?

I'd say genetic modification/GMOs/Cloning.

Or why everyone is staring at a little chunk of glass and metal in their hands all the time.
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

How about those of us who lived in the 1950's? :)

Personally I would think the most difficult thing to explain to them would be progressivism and its power to disrupt, destroy, and control lives. The 1950's was still heavily populated with the WWII generation who were our community, state, and national leaders and who didn't see anything that America could not accomplish if we put our mind and hearts into it. But progressivism/statism/leftism/political class were still alien to our culture and what most people considered acceptable. I think it would horrify them.
 
AlbqOwl said:
How about those of us who lived in the 1950's? :)

Personally I would think the most difficult thing to explain to them would be progressivism and its power to disrupt, destroy, and control lives. The 1950's was still heavily populated with the WWII generation who were our community, state, and national leaders and who didn't see anything that America could not accomplish if we put our mind and hearts into it. But progressivism/statism/leftism/political class were still alien to our culture and what most people considered acceptable. I think it would horrify them.
Click to expand...

You've got a point.

People who lived in the 50s don't seem to understand progressivism. They seem to be very confused about it, as your post demonstrates.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

:shock: A Black Man was President :shock:
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

Certainly the internet and how fast and interconnected everything is
 
AlbqOwl said:
How about those of us who lived in the 1950's? :)

Personally I would think the most difficult thing to explain to them would be progressivism and its power to disrupt, destroy, and control lives. The 1950's was still heavily populated with the WWII generation who were our community, state, and national leaders and who didn't see anything that America could not accomplish if we put our mind and hearts into it. But progressivism/statism/leftism/political class were still alien to our culture and what most people considered acceptable. I think it would horrify them.
Click to expand...

That could be a good question in itself. My question presumes a time travel aspect where they are thrust ahead 60-ish years in a split second. But I like what you touch on, too: What changes have you watched unfold over time do you find the most fascinating?

ETA: Uh oh, thread coming... :lol:
 
Threegoofs said:
You've got a point.

People who lived in the 50s don't seem to understand progressivism. They seem to be very confused about it, as your post demonstrates.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Pretty broad statement on your part regarding those who lived in the 50's.

Why don't you tell us what you believe people who lived in the 50's are confused about progressivism.
 
Threegoofs said:
You've got a point.

People who lived in the 50s don't seem to understand progressivism. They seem to be very confused about it, as your post demonstrates.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

No we weren't confused by it at all. There was definitely some over reaction to it as evidenced by McCarthyism that was effectively ended when McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954. From that point on the normal live and let live attitude was the way it was for the vast majority of us. Yes, the KKK was still active but rapidly declining in numbers and power. Yes there were still segregationists and blue laws and all sorts of silliness that went on and were eventually discontinued during or by the mid 60's--ended not by progressives but due to the conscience and common sense of everyday normal Americans.

But most of the folks from that era would or do see progressivism as the sometimes well intended but destructive force that it is. And somebody from the 50's dropped unawares into 2017 in America would see that very quickly.
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

They would be surprised how perverted progressive policies have turned out and how bigoted their acolytes have become.
;)
 
AlbqOwl said:
How about those of us who lived in the 1950's? :)

Personally I would think the most difficult thing to explain to them would be progressivism and its power to disrupt, destroy, and control lives. The 1950's was still heavily populated with the WWII generation who were our community, state, and national leaders and who didn't see anything that America could not accomplish if we put our mind and hearts into it. But progressivism/statism/leftism/political class were still alien to our culture and what most people considered acceptable. I think it would horrify them.
Click to expand...

You don't really understand much about history, do you?

The New Deal programs put through by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression era (the 1930's) were the result of progressive politics... as was the United Nations (formed after ww2).
The beginning of the Progressive Era was 1890, and it was in full bloom by 1920. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were all progressive presidents.
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

I guess it would depend on who exacly it would be.

If it was some racist white knucklehead, then they'd probably have a hard time understanding that you can't just harass black people with racial slurs and get away with it scott-free. Or that black and white people can get married, and it's totally fine.

If it was a homophobic person, they'd probably have difficulty understanding how accepted homosexuality has become over the years by our society, and that we can even get married now.

And so on.

But I bet most would have a hard time understanding the technological achievements that we have made (Computers, cellphones, touchscreen technology, 3D Printing, video games, CGI, etc.)
 
Last edited:
1. that the USSR no longer exists

2. the high incidence of bi-racial children

3. point out that much of the world's knowledge is now accessible to anyone with a smart phone
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

The vast willful ignorance, bordering on mass mental illness, compounded by massive intake of brain chemistry altering drugs.
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

How to use a remote control....and an iPhone.
 
AlbqOwl said:
No we weren't confused by it at all. There was definitely some over reaction to it as evidenced by McCarthyism that was effectively ended when McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954. From that point on the normal live and let live attitude was the way it was for the vast majority of us. Yes, the KKK was still active but rapidly declining in numbers and power. Yes there were still segregationists and blue laws and all sorts of silliness that went on and were eventually discontinued during or by the mid 60's--ended not by progressives but due to the conscience and common sense of everyday normal Americans.

But most of the folks from that era would or do see progressivism as the sometimes well intended but destructive force that it is. And somebody from the 50's dropped unawares into 2017 in America would see that very quickly.
Click to expand...

No. Sounds like you're definitely confused.

Segregation was definitely changed by common sense. Liberals and activism had nothing to do with it- it was so easy to change! :roll:
 
radcen said:
That could be a good question in itself. My question presumes a time travel aspect where they are thrust ahead 60-ish years in a split second. But I like what you touch on, too: What changes have you watched unfold over time do you find the most fascinating?

ETA: Uh oh, thread coming... :lol:
Click to expand...

:) Now admittedly I was very young in the 1950's but my values and point of view were shaped by the WWII generation who dominated the 1950's. But there are so many things that have changed for the worse:

1. Religious faith, practice, and beliefs were encouraged in all aspects of America when I was a kid--at church, at school, in government, at concerts and all public gatherings. It would have been unthinkable to start a conversation intended to challenge or shake or destroy a person's faith as we see regularly on message boards these days. And any organization that presumed to sue somebody for a prayer or religious statement would have probably been rode out of town on a rail.

2. Family was terribly important and most kids, white, black, latino, Asian, Native American, etc. enjoyed having a mom and dad at home. Families accepted the responsibility to house, feed, clothe, discipline, and look to the welfare of their children as there were no government services to do that. The idea that a huge percentage of people now receive some sort of government subsidy or assistance, the huge number of children living in single parent homes, the prevalence of gangs and hoodlums and violence, would have been and are mind boggling (and horrifying) to those who lived in the 50's.

3. Those of us in the 50's were proud that we had the best education, the best manufacturing base, the best health care, pretty much the best of everything in the world or were fast approaching those goals. To see that all of those things have declined to such miserable levels is disheartening and gives rise to serious anger that so many would see that continue just to maintain a failed ideology.
 
justabubba said:
1. that the USSR no longer exists

2. the high incidence of bi-racial children

3. point out that much of the world's knowledge is now accessible to anyone with a smart phone
Click to expand...

My Dad passed away in 1992. As the Berlin Wall was falling, he turned to me once and said, "I never in my life thought I'd see this happen."

He was born in the midst of the Great Depression, became aware during WW2, and saw the whole Cold War, including the building of the Berlin Wall.
 
RickJames3000 said:
You don't really understand much about history, do you?

The New Deal programs put through by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression era (the 1930's) were the result of progressive politics... as was the United Nations (formed after ww2).
The beginning of the Progressive Era was 1890, and it was in full bloom by 1920. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were all progressive presidents.
Click to expand...

I will put my history education and knowledge up against pretty much anybody's when it comes to this subject. And yes, the seeds of progressivism began with Teddy Roosevelt and perked along pretty innocently until they exploded in the 1960's. But all the Presidents up to LBJ, and even Carter to some extent, were hardcore conservatives compared to a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Progressive policies back then were very different from the progressive think and total control that progressivism seeks to have today.
 
Threegoofs said:
No. Sounds like you're definitely confused.

Segregation was definitely changed by common sense. Liberals and activism had nothing to do with it- it was so easy to change! :roll:
Click to expand...

You can praises progressivism for ending segregation if you want to. I lived that era and I know how it really went down in most places that were nothing like the few hotbeds of violence that kids are now taught and think that's all there was. My little redneck ultra conservative town for instance desegregated long before there was any government mandate to do so and it happened without a single demonstration or angry word. That was happening all over the country. If the government had stayed out of it, segregation would have ended due to the steady pressure of Christians and others who were pushing for that to happen. And it would have happened without the riots and anger and violence that persist to this day and that has prevented a color blind society in which all see themselves as equals.
 
radcen said:
If someone from the 1950s were to suddenly appear in 2017...

...what do you think would be the most difficult thing to explain to them?
Click to expand...

Blacks demanding separate but equal doctrines be re-introduced and showing their support for Plessy vs Ferguson.
 
AlbqOwl said:
I will put my history education and knowledge up against pretty much anybody's when it comes to this subject. And yes, the seeds of progressivism began with Teddy Roosevelt and perked along pretty innocently until they exploded in the 1960's. But all the Presidents up to LBJ, and even Carter to some extent, were hardcore conservatives compared to a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Progressive policies back then were very different from the progressive think and total control that progressivism seeks to have today.
Click to expand...

Innocently???

I guess you've never heard of the labor unrest in the US from about 1880 until the 30s. Lots of deaths, lots of panicked Conservatives and wealthy calling out the National Guard.

Odd, since most people with solid history education understand it was one of the turning points of US history.
 
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