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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
ModerateGOP said:
Just out of curiosity, why did you choose 1985? What's so significant about that date? Why not the volatile period of late 50s early 60s. That would be a better comparison in my opinion. Nothing really major happened in that year.
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Reagan and Gorbachev met for the first time that year to end the Cold War. That was a pretty significant event.
 
tres borrachos said:
I know my life will never be complete until I'm ahead of the international date line.;)
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You corrected me saying it was Tuesday when it is not... More intellectual coawardice?
 
Fearandloathing said:
Again I am referencing what was believed at the time. The US right was frothing that the US was losing the arms race and I and the US had every reason to do so. I tried numerous times to document USSR infiltration of the North American "peace" movement that was largely a front for anti-American propaganda.

In my recollection no one was saying anything much Soviet decline until much later when we were looking at the fall of the Berlin Wall which caught the CIA completely by surprise.
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As a frothing right winger at that time I can certainly agree that there was concern about the USSR nuclear capabilities. One of the biggest concerns, in fact, was that if their economy collapsed or they experienced massive civil unrest that the nukes would start flying. That's why we wanted the missile defense shield or "star wars" as it was more colloquially known. In fact, in 1985 I was stationed in Colorado Springs which, as I'm sure you know, was home to NORAD. We had no illusions about whether or not we were on a Soviet target list so as far as I was concerned the more space lasers we had the better!
 
ModerateGOP said:
True, but that's progress which again doesn't make 1985 seem so bad.
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1985 wasn't bad at all. It was a great year. My favorite year.

Maybe the OP watched Back To The Future recently, which dealt in 30 year sprints (1985 to 1955 to 1985 to 2015)?
 
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?
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Been reading some posts here and there, excellent thread and bookmarked for reading all the posts later.
 
Lutherf said:
As a frothing right winger at that time I can certainly agree that there was concern about the USSR nuclear capabilities. One of the biggest concerns, in fact, was that if their economy collapsed or they experienced massive civil unrest that the nukes would start flying. That's why we wanted the missile defense shield or "star wars" as it was more colloquially known. In fact, in 1985 I was stationed in Colorado Springs which, as I'm sure you know, was home to NORAD. We had no illusions about whether or not we were on a Soviet target list so as far as I was concerned the more space lasers we had the better!
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All agreed. However memory serves that we were not that aware of how serious might be the economic collapse. I was sent to Poland in 87n to cover Solidarity and their rise to power as a political force from a trade union. At the time my stuff was being shopped to US outlets as there was some surprise value in how much Soviet control was slipping, including a translated interview with two Russian soldiers who had not been paid in six months and were living on the grace of Polish families....interviews in which we were NOT asked to hide their identities....that was big news!

By the way, I have been to Colorado Springs and seen part of the set up....It was rather overwhelming in fact.
 
tres borrachos said:
No clue what "coawardice" is.

It's Wednesday where you are. It's Tuesday in the United States. That's cerebral, I know.
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Got me on a typo... ouch. That help your self-esteem a bit?
 
ModerateGOP said:
Just out of curiosity, why did you choose 1985? What's so significant about that date? Why not the volatile period of late 50s early 60s. That would be a better comparison in my opinion. Nothing really major happened in that year.
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Greetings, ModerateGOP. :2wave:

Well, Ronald Reagan was President in 1985, and people liked him, and were more generally optimistic about the future back then than they seem to be today. Everyone I knew had a job that wanted one, and we didn't have the racial and cultural divisiveness that we see today. Everyone just seemed to get along with each other. To me, it was an exciting time to be alive - that was the first time we went to the magical place called Disney World in Orlando, Florida!. I'd go back to that time period any day for a long visit with family members who are now gone, and much missed. :thumbs:
 
Fearandloathing said:
Your truth or real truth.

You "owned" looking like a fool in that exchange son
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Dude, you think it isn't supposed to look foolish because that was the entire point. The ownage is not in the day/date it was in the fact that she refused to be intellectually honest in the first place. The "ownage" is so stupid that it illustrates the true stupidity and that is of her being intellectually dishonest.
 
Ownage is when someone is so obsessed with your posts on a message board that he can't stop posting about them, and ownage is when you mean so much to another anonymous poster on a message board that the poster thinks he's scored a victory over anonymous message board posts about 2 posters in different countries being on different dates.

Thanks for the laughs! :lamo

Back to this interesting topic. It's been derailed enough by disagreements over how much money should be invested in poor cities schools and what day it is in New Zealand. Back to 1985! Sorry for my derailing, Grimm. I'll ignore the dopey posts from here on in.
 
tres borrachos said:
Ownage is when someone is so obsessed with your posts on a message board that he can't stop posting about them, and ownage is when you mean so much to another anonymous poster on a message board that the poster thinks he's scored a victory over anonymous message board posts about 2 posters in different countries being on different dates.

Thanks for the laughs! :lamo

Back to this interesting topic. It's been derailed enough by disagreements over how much money should be invested in poor cities schools and what day it is in New Zealand. Back to 1985! Sorry for my derailing, Grimm. I'll ignore the dopey posts from here on in.
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Don't derail a thread over the day then... all I did was to say what day it was. You argued that I was wrong. You were wrong. OWNED.

OWNAGE is when a person asserts they are correct when they are not and cowardly ignores that fact in an intellectually dishonest manner.

You are free to ignore me but what you are unable to do is to turn it around on me... it takes skills that you don't seem to be close to...
 
Bodhisattva said:
Dude, you think it isn't supposed to look foolish because that was the entire point. The ownage is not in the day/date it was in the fact that she refused to be intellectually honest in the first place. The "ownage" is so stupid that it illustrates the true stupidity and that is of her being intellectually dishonest.
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Dude?

Have a good life..........................
 
Bodhisattva said:
Nope. I live in the future and perhaps that is why it was so easy to OWN you. In New Zealand it is Wednesday at 11:59 am. Sorry... Wednesday. Message boards are a part of real life... I will gladly OWN you in that and up my OWNAGE points on you if you like.

OWNED.
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Since its Wednesday there can you give me the lottery numbers for tonight's drawing? Thanks! :mrgreen:
 
americanwoman said:
Since its Wednesday there can you give me the lottery numbers for tonight's drawing? Thanks! :mrgreen:
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When we move to the future we sign an agreement to not divulge it so as to avoid the "Back To the Future 2" Affect.
 
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?
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Hard to say, for many reasons.

No internet, only 3+1 TV networks in the US (ABC-NBC-CBS-PBS), a single 24 hour news channel, no treatment for HIV, Valley Girls, big hair. 1985 had a lot of downsides for many of the current generation.

However, the obesity rates were lower. Teens were more likely to be rollerskating at night instead of sitting at the X-box sucking down endless pizzas. Also we had a much more varied "Popular Music" genre, with everybody from Madonna and USA for Africa to Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie as well as ZZ Top, Miami Sound Machine and Kenny Rogers all existing on the "Pop charts" at the same time. In 1985 you could literally listen to "Top 40" and hear every genre there was from instrumental and jazz to rock and country. That sure as hell never happens anymore.

Of course, we also had the Cold War. Anybody honestly trying to look back with pure nostalgia can not forget that. The Iron Curtain was still around, and we often lived in fear that "World War III" could start at almost any time. John Walker was arrested for spying. The Los Angeles Night Stalker murders.

But the Titanic was finally discovered, giving a future career to then 11 year old Leonardo DiCaprio.

But then you have the ultimate worst disaster.

 
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