US Politics Thread 2021-24

[August]

Bah, pure alarmist fear mongering is what that is. The world is no worse off now than it ever was and in many ways it is much, much better.

When I was a kid a world ending nuclear war was so likely and imminent that fall out shelters were everywhere. We had air raid drills even in elementary school where we practiced hiding under our desks and taught to stop, drop and take cover in the event of an atomic bomb burst like it might actually make a difference if it happened. Not sure about Arkansas but no Russian bombs or missiles were ever dropped on us.

Our rivers were choked with pollution, one the Nashua river winding through my home town was billed as the "Most Polluted in America". I guess that was no surprise given that our town prided itself on being the "Plastics Capital of the World" and we had the child cancer rates to prove it.

Hundreds of thousands of our troops were stationed in half the countries in Europe and the rest of the world locked and loaded just waiting for the big balloon to go up. Some, including my father, were off fighting and dying in a foreign war that seemingly had no purpose and no end. While back home factories were closing, jobs were going overseas, unemployment was skyrocketing, mortgage interest rates were through the roof, there were housing shortages. There was racial strife, social unrest in our cities that were plagued by crime and rioting in the streets. Our college campus' were hotbeds of radicalism and we had idiot leaders like Carter and Ford and crooks like Nixon selling out our country to the Chicoms.

Any of this sound familiar?

Our fathers and grandfathers generations, those who fought in that terrible world war 80 years ago had their share of hard times too, born during the first terrible world war and growing up in the Great Depression that saw millions become destitute to a degree that has almost been eliminated in this country today. They had to deal with deadly pandemics, Spanish flu, polio, diphtheria and a host of other diseases. They lived with rising crime, social unrest and more. Their fathers and grandfathers had similar problems and so on and so on back into the dim mists of ancient human history.

They all managed to deal with it and we will too.

Don't be like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling. It's not so stop trying to scare people. You aren't the only one who understands the concept of mortality nor had a brush with the grim reaper. Go out and get yourself some green bananas and feel confident that you'll be around to see them ripen and stop telling people they shouldn't be.

There's a Billy Joel song which applies here. I like this particular version because the video maker used the correct images of people and things to match the lyrics. It's somewhat dated now but it's still pretty applicable today. If we survived this then todays youngsters (meaning anyone under 50) can survive whatever is in store for them in the future.