• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

1985 vs 2015

Was America better off in 1985, or are we better off today in 2015?

  • 1985 was better overall

    Votes: 25 50.0%

  • 2015 is better overall

    Votes: 25 50.0%
  • Total voters
    50
Declan said:
Yet the formed in 1984 and released their first album in 1986, so I used the weighted average method in response to someone who praised Guns and Roses that didn't have their first album release until 1987
Click to expand...

You mentioned them before he gave his list of bands he liked. You mentioned them in post 122.

Declan said:
Please. One Direction is so much cooler than New Kids on the Block.
Click to expand...
 
tres borrachos said:
You mentioned them before he gave his list of bands he liked. You mentioned them in post 122.
Click to expand...

So I did. You really are not very good at smack talking are you? Bet you had a Joey poster instead of a Donnie poster on your wall.
 
Declan said:
So I did. You really are not very good at smack talking are you? Bet you had a Joey poster instead of a Donnie poster on your wall.
Click to expand...

No, because in 1988 I was 26 years old and married. This isn't about talking smack. This is about music in 1985 compared to 2015. Nobody heard of New Kids in 1985. And they were not a mainstream adult group. They appealed to teenage girls. I wasn't a teenage girl in 1988.
 
Declan said:
So I did. You really are not very good at smack talking are you? Bet you had a Joey poster instead of a Donnie poster on your wall.
Click to expand...

From what I know of tres the poster was probably Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy.:lol:
 
Last edited:
tres borrachos said:
I'm a lifelong Giants fan but even I appreciated the 1985 Bears. Sweetness, Mike Singletary, the Fridge, and Jim McMahon wearing his headband. It didn't get much better than them.:lol:
Click to expand...
I was in grade school at that time and a huge fan, I kept pestering my parents to buy me sunglasses like McMahon's. And when I finally played varsity football in high school I wore a headband and everyone on the team called me Mac even though I wasnt a QB. lol
 
Lutherf said:
From what I know of tres the poster was probably Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy.:lol:
Click to expand...

Them, and Parker Stevenson. When he & Shaun Cassidy were The Hardy Boys, I like every teenage girl was glued to the television for their show.

Willie Aames was also a very hot ticket. The boys in my school all had Farrah and her red bathing suit on their walls.:mrgreen:
 
PoS said:
I was in grade school at that time and a huge fan, I kept pestering my parents to buy me sunglasses like McMahon's. And when I finally played varsity football in high school I wore a headband and everyone on the team called me Mac even though I wasnt a QB. lol
Click to expand...

Yeah but did you write "Rozelle" across it?;)
 
Peter Grimm said:
Pretty simple question for discussion: Is the United States better off today, or were we better off 30 years ago in 1985?

There are a number of angles you can approach this from, and I'll leave it up to you to decide what's important to you.

Culturally? Geo-politically? Economically? In which era were people more optimistic about the future?

Which era was a better time to be an American?
Click to expand...

They had some badass movies in the 80s that are still great today.

The music was largely better in the 80s, especially in the alternative and punk scenes

The computers at the time were far more interesting (today they are so easy)

Civil unrest and crime were worse back then

Medicine was worse as well as health outcomes

My talents are more appreciated today than they would be back then and my earning potential is currently greater.

In the 80s, I would disappear for the entire day in the woods, today I am nervous about my kids being out of my sight

Education is better these days, especially in the category of dealing with special education

Society is much more precise and accurate about these days, we rely on data and standardization much more than personality and that is a good thing

I am too young to really compare the political stuff or culture stuff, except from a personal perspective, I was 6 in 1985.

all in all, I prefer today.
 
tres borrachos said:
We aren't talking about wars. And Korea wasn't during my lifetime. If you want to start a thread complaining about Johnson sending American boys to Vietnam, please do so.

In 1985 planes weren't being flown into buildings. In 1985 people weren't shooting up schools. You feel safer now. I was safer in 1985.
Click to expand...

I think you have some rose colored nostalgia going. As to school shootings in 1985:

Mass+School+Shootings.jpg

The murder rate in 1985 was almost twice as high then as it is today:

murderrate.png


If you look at the differences in the number of people murdered every year in the 80s and compared that to the last decade, the additional number of people killed every year in the 80s exceeds 9/11 by quite a margin.

There were also more deaths worldwide due to violent conflicts in 1985 than today:

AnnualDeathsPV2.jpg


You may have felt safer in 1985 but by any statistical measure you are safer today.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
I think you have some rose colored nostalgia going. As to school shootings in 1985:

View attachment 67180595

The murder rate in 1985 was almost twice as high then as it is today:

murderrate.png


If you look at the differences in the number of people murdered every year in the 80s and compared that to the last decade, the additional number of people killed every year in the 80s exceeds 9/11 by quite a margin.

There were also more deaths worldwide due to violent conflicts in 1985 than today:

AnnualDeathsPV2.jpg


You may have felt safer in 1985 but by any statistical measure you are safer today.
Click to expand...

Excellent. I'm glad you're much safer today. I was much safer in 1985. I knew people who were killed at work on September 11, 2011. I never knew anyone killed at work before that.
 
I think the US was better off in 1985, me personally am much better off in 2015,
1985 was an ugly year for me.
 
tres borrachos said:
Yeah but did you write "Rozelle" across it?;)
Click to expand...
I was gonna write something for one of my teachers since the faculty always watches Friday night games but I was too sceered. :cool:


tres borrachos said:
Them, and Parker Stevenson. When he & Shaun Cassidy were The Hardy Boys, I like every teenage girl was glued to the television for their show.

Willie Aames was also a very hot ticket. The boys in my school all had Farrah and her red bathing suit on their walls.:mrgreen:
Click to expand...
I think you went too far on the wayback machine for those people- they seem to be from the 70's more like. :2razz:
 
PoS said:
I was gonna write something for one of my teachers since the faculty always watches Friday night games but I was too sceered. :cool:



I think you went too far on the wayback machine for those people- they seem to be from the 70's more like. :2razz:
Click to expand...

Yes they're all from the 1970s. Some posters think women in the mid-20s had New Kids on the Block posters on our walls. Luther was smart enough to know if I was 23 in 1985, chances are I had posters of other people on my walls at a time when people have posters on their walls (when we're teens) .;)
 
tres borrachos said:
Excellent. I'm glad you're much safer today. I was much safer in 1985. I knew people who were killed at work on September 11, 2011. I never knew anyone killed at work before that.
Click to expand...

And you are certainly smart enough to know the difference between anecdotal accounts and statistical evidence. For example, on might know someone in Norway that was murdered. However, that would not change the fact that Norway is one of the safest countries on earth. Similarly, one might say they have never felt in danger living in Mexico, but that would not change the fact that it is one of the most dangerous countries on earth. Statistically you are safer in America today by a long shot than in 1985. You might not feel safer, but the odds of you being a victim of a violent crime or God forbid a murder victim is far lower today than then.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
And you are certainly smart enough to know the difference between anecdotal accounts and statistical evidence. For example, on might know someone in Norway that was murdered. However, that would not change the fact that Norway is one of the safest countries on earth. Similarly, one might say they have never felt in danger living in Mexico, but that would not change the fact that it is one of the most dangerous countries on earth. Statistically you are safer in America today by a long shot than in 1985. You might not feel safer, but the odds of you being a victim of a violent crime or God forbid a murder victim is far lower today than then.
Click to expand...

That's great. You feel safer now. I felt safer in 1985. I never worried about terrorism then. My mother didn't worry about her kids getting shot in school then.
 
Lutherf said:
From what I know of tres the poster was probably Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy.:lol:
Click to expand...

I have heard of one of them. That the other does not ring a bell which is probably is a testament to 1975.
 
Declan said:
I have heard of one of them. That the other does not ring a bell which is probably is a testament to 1975.
Click to expand...

Leif Garrett=what too many drugs can do to a child star
Shaun Cassidy=son of Shirley Jones & Jack Cassidy, and David Cassidy's younger half brother

Both were pop singers/actors in the 1970s. Both had great hair.
 
tres borrachos said:
Leif Garrett=what too many drugs can do to a child star
Shaun Cassidy=son of Shirley Jones & Jack Cassidy, and David Cassidy's younger half brother

Both were pop singers/actors in the 1970s. Both had great hair.
Click to expand...

I have heard of Cassidy. Wasn't he one of the Hardy Boys? The other one, nope, not that I recall unless it was 30 seconds on "I Love The..." on VH1
 
Declan said:
I have heard of Cassidy. Wasn't he one of the Hardy Boys? The other one, nope, not that I recall unless it was 30 seconds on "I Love The..." on VH1
Click to expand...

Yeah, Cassidy played with Parker Stevenson in The Hardy Boys. That was I think before his Da Doo Run Run days.:lol:

Leif Garrett was first in a dopey show called "Three For The Road". He was cute as hell in that. Then he got famous, sang some REALLY ****ty songs, and started doing drugs.

P1220191.JPG
 
tres borrachos said:
No, because in 1988 I was 26 years old and married. This isn't about talking smack. This is about music in 1985 compared to 2015. Nobody heard of New Kids in 1985. And they were not a mainstream adult group. They appealed to teenage girls. I wasn't a teenage girl in 1988.
Click to expand...

And little girls who just copied what their older cousins liked. :3oops:
 
americanwoman said:
Something wrong with that? :2mad:
Click to expand...

I suppose legally there is nothing wrong with that, but Donnie did go on to become a NYC Detective and Joey, well who knows whatever happened to him...
 
tres borrachos said:
That's great. You feel safer now. I felt safer in 1985. I never worried about terrorism then. My mother didn't worry about her kids getting shot in school then.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean there was not reason to be worried about her kids being shot at school then. Statistically kids were just as likely to be shot at school then as they are today.

Statistically, you were just as likely to be victim of a terrorist attack in 1985 as you are today. So if you felt safer it was for no reason.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom