this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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I remember my childhood mostly as a happy, oblivious one, affordable food, the usual disagreements between liberals and republicans, but nothing unhinged (say taxes, migrants or abortion). At least it looks reasonable today.

Now it's like everything is unhinged: politics seem to be based on purely emotional reactions and the other side is hell bent on destroying the country: texas starts heavily gerrymandering to secure 5 extra republican seats at the next midterms? california starts lobbying for doing exactly the same and dismantling an independent redistricting commission texas never had.

When I was younger it seemed politics were more rational and cruelty never seemed to be the point of doing nothing. Now we execute people with nitrogen gas, meaning a conscious person has to breathe something he knows its going to kill him during 4 minutes. This is somehow not cruel and unusual. And nobody bats an eye.

I still don't get how populists can be so popular now, they simplify complex issues most people without a degree in the matter, cannot grasp. This includes me.

I'm now 35 and wonder if I'm already talking like an old person who misses his young days so hard. I see that in people in their 60s and hoped never to become one of them, but here I am. To a younger person I may look like one of those old guys who lives to rant.

Am I going to feel even more detached and depressed with each passing day?

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[โ€“] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 44 points 3 days ago (2 children)

In the 90s, as a kid in Quebec, I thought racism, sexism, homophobia were all things of the past. Boy was I naive.

[โ€“] GroundedGator@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Through the 90s and visiting various areas of the US, those things were always there but not discussed in the open. People would say disgusting shit to people they thought they were safe saying those things to.

We've come to the point where people will say they aren't racist but will still defend racist views and say racist shit but it's not all brown people, just certain ones.

We're probably about 6 months from having these assholes walk around with armbands.

[โ€“] fishy@lemmy.today 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm from the Western US, they basically told us MLK delivered a banger speech, some people matched on DC and the country was cured of racism. We're all 100% equal now!

Hearing my neighbor say "I've got nothing against black people, I just wanna own a few of em." made me skeptical.

in my opinion the civil war around 1800 did not actually abolish slavery. it just made slavery more efficient.

instead of killing your slaves through hard work (which means you have to buy new ones) you can just work them longer if they live longer, i.e. that's why working conditions improved. at the same time, slavery got renamed into "prison labor". it's essentially the same thing.