Times Change, Conservatives Don't

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#politicalcommentary #election2024

[@Waffletigercat]

If a group of people is trying to deny you access to information and learning, they are the enemy. Period. Always.

[@dynamicworlds1]

"free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

[@bsgnerd]

Religion, corporations and governments. If you’re an adult you get the truth. Anyone that is keeping the truth from you is your enemy and means you harm.

[@DoubleMrE]

I basically agree, but suppressing lies is not a bad thing.

[@andywomack3414]

@@DoubleMrE As long as you disagree with those "lies."

[@tomtrask_YT]

I never understood that notion that society owes you a k-12 education but the college you need for modern jobs? You have to pay that out of pocket. It's nuts and a society that thinks like that is not going to last long. All education is an investment in the future.

[@noheroespublishing1907]

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." - Maximilien de Robespierre

[@kentesdall308]

Iowa has been working on dumbing down Iowans for over 40 years and it has worked, they keep electing some of the worst governors, senators, and representatives on a regular basis.

[@Camcodrummer]

Absolutely.

[@nola281]

There's a reason the intellectuals and educated are the first to go in a dictatorship because they're the ones who would fight back.

[@Inappropriately-Appropriate]

Demonrats cannot help themselves!

[@patrisshajones4121]

They say that great minds think alike.

[@otakon17]

They went after MR. ROGERS. Mr. Rogers! The most wholesome, kindest man in the last 100 years(if you ask me or many others).

[@GSBarlev]

Kindness? Tolerance? Acceptance? How are your leaders supposed to exploit your fear of the Other when you are taught to love your neighbor as yourself?

[@natbarmore]

And a man of the cloth! He wasn’t just a kind, empathetic person, he was a strong, caring, moralizing straight “white” cis male pastor/priest [don’t remember his denomination] who spent his life ministering to several generations of kids, spreading Jesus’s message in word and deed and example. I have difficulty thinking of a better example of what conservative Christians allegedly consider a great person. Or at least used to profess as what their ideal was, until they got so hung up in rejecting anything that progressives endorse.

[@lisaahmari7199]

Exactly. Kindess and empathy, to Conservatives, only means weakness. Yet most of them call themselves followers of the guy who was supposed to have embodied kindess, empathy, turning the other cheek, refusal to blame others for ones misfortune, refusal to engage in revenge. Most of them worship capitalism and money, yet the say they fervently follow a guy who went on a rampage against money lenders. So pathetically hypocritical.

[@ArtSpencer-z1g]

Mr Rogers was "woke" to them and not a strong hateful and violent person that the GOP members adores.and looks up too.

[@EmeralBookwise]

@@lisaahmari7199: The problem is that when most conservatives speak of Jesus, they aren't really talking about the ostensibly historical figure who preached a message of peace and love, sacrificing his own life to absolve others of sin. No, they are more hyped for the supposed second coming, when "Jesus" returns as a warrior to lead the armies of heaven and cleanse the world of sin by force. It's like a bad movie sequel that completely misses the point of the original.

[@danielobrien9502]

Voting is like driving - "D" to go forward, "R" to go backwards.

[@Liberal.Linda.]

Exactly. Reminds me of the saying, "People don't become more conservative as they get older. They just fail to progess."

[@sherrybirchall8677]

Witty. Not accurate or true, however.

[@tookitogo]

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten more and more liberal as I’ve gotten older. (Not that I was ever conservative to begin with.)

[@JohnClarkW]

@@tookitogo I was libertarian when I was younger, and my observation is that my politics haven't changed much, but today I am viewed as a liberal, because the entire country keeps shifting to the right.

[@DecimatorPrime]

So instead of pro-gressing they're re-gressing or -re-tarding their positions, opinions etc.

[@SeasideDetective2]

Much of the time, aging people don't TRULY become conservative. They just become nostalgic for their childhoods, when their parents indoctrinated them with "traditional values" (mostly going to church and Disney films).

[@jimballard1186]

One of the things that drives me crazy about conservatives--the rank and file true believers, at least, rather than the cynical supremacists manipulating them--is how childish the ideology is. A desire to return to the past is understandable but it's also more than a little pathetic, because time doesn't work like that. Your two choices are to move forward creating something better, or live in a miserable, self-destructive delusion of being able to drag the past into the present.

[@Naris48]

For Conservatives, "moving forward creating something better" is moving back to what they view as the "better" values of the past were. For a lot of them they would actually prefer moving back to how things were in the 1850s. For them, that would be "better".

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

Conservatives: "We must retvrn!"

[@Echo81Rumple83]

they're better off living in a simulation world before they expire from either old age or disconnected from the feeding tube.

[@davidcameron648]

One of the things you have to remember is that 'Going back to the good old days' and 'Making America great again' conservative leaders talk about are just more dog whistles. They don't want everyone to have that middle-class lifestyle of a suburban house with a white picket fence and two cars they like waxing nostalgic about -- just certain people (white, conservative, heteronormative, evangelical Christian men and their families). Everyone else can go live in the inner-city and rural ghettos with no economic (or political) power to be oppressed under the boot of the police. They want the ability to exercise their 'God given' right to burn crosses on peoples lawns and blacklist (or imprison) their ideological enemies under the veil of 'Patriotism'.

[@alvinmiller9038]

Their nostalgia is for when the white man ruled without challenge. Everyone else (minorities, women, gays, non-christians etc) KNEW THEIR PLACE. That's what they want to return to. Basically to America's Jim Crow era 1950's. If republican politicians could get away with it. They would still be saying "Segregation now. Segregation forever".

[@Nealetony]

My brother tasteful put it this way. They used to have enough respect and fear of the people to call it rain when they pissed on our back. Now they are straight up pissing on our heads saying, "yeah and what the fu€k are you going to do about it?"

[@GSBarlev]

Your brother is a poet. He put it far better than I could.

[@ElJorro]

Vote!

[@sherrybirchall8677]

Exactly

[@Mythis1]

And their “news” media helps with brainwashing them to ask for more.

[@satinswan1979]

Imagine it, Kansas, 1997. My high school history teacher was asking, "Which is the party of big government that wants to meddle in peoples' affairs?" I answered, "Republicans." And he said, "No, it's the Democrats," and I responded, "Then why do Republicans care about what people are doing in their own bedrooms and trying to ban abortions?" ... Needless to say, that teacher and I didn't get along.

[@delucain]

Just look at the deficit under Republicans and Democrats. Who makes it go up? Raegan, Bush, Trump. Who makes it go down? Carter, Clinton, Obama. But somehow, the Republicans are still seen as the small government fiscal conservatives.

[@k.m.b969]

I love that. It reminds me of being the future leftist in a private very conservative Christian school always pushing back.

[@DardyG123]

Teachers are mostly conservatives.

[@Direwolf1771]

“Yes. The answer is yes. And it’s not particularly relevant. Because government’s job is to run shit. That overlaps with meddling at some point. The real question is where that line should stop.”

[@mistermoo7602]

What a stupid man that was.

[@scorinth]

Their entire belief system is based on one concept: The world _cannot_ be better than it is now; and major sacrifices need to be made to maintain even that. Let them into a position of power, and they'll show you how much worse things can get...

[@DavidBarkland]

Actually, I'd say it's worse than that: it's "The world _should not_ be better than it is now, and major sacrifices _should_ be needed to maintain that". Offer them solutions and they will discard them while desperately trying to cling onto any pretext for sacrifice regardless of how needless. Here in Sweden we don't have anything that can be maintained by sacrificing lives, so our conservatives have spent my entire life trying to find something, _anything_ to sacrifice others for. So obviously they've all failed to capitalize on the godsend that is the attack on one of our allies, Ukraine.

[@JP-JustSayin]

They are right about one thing... the world is a terrible place ... but conservatives are committed to keeping it that way. ... which means they are evil.

[@ramenbomberdeluxe4958]

This is the core of why it’s such an awful ideology. I’m so happy others are putting it into words like this, and I hope we can finally move on from the regressive evils of right wing ideology

[@Paur]

When I think conservative, I always remember that quote from Stewie on Family guy; "I don't like change!" Most everything about them is fear about the future and keeping their current "safe" feeling.

[@CorwinFound]

In my opinion that's more of a Neo-Liberal attitude. Conservatives actively want to go _backwards._ It's literally a hallmark of fascism (an inherently conservative ideology) that there is always a callback to some "golden age." Neo-Libs, at least up to a few years ago, talked about the "end of history." It's the idea that we are at the peak of what humanity can do and there is no further improvements to be had. That the game is just keeping the bad guys out and anything systemically negative, such as poverty, is baked into the cake and unavoidable.

[@GSBarlev]

There's a key difference between now and then, though: Republicans of the '90s shrouded their regressive policies in the cloak of "fiscal responsibility" and "balancing the budget." Nowadays, they don't even try that to hide their motivations.

[@Naris48]

I don't think Republican know what "fiscal responsibility" and "balancing the budget" means anymore.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@Naris48 Did they ever?

[@billyboy1093]

They may have preached fiscal responsibility but never practiced it.

[@alexhill1323]

​@@Naris48 They've never known what fiscal responsibility is. Republicans have overspent and ballooned the national debt every administration since Reagan. Democrats are the ones who pay it off. The money is getting spent either way. The question is whether you want it spent to help people or hurt people. It's really that simple.

[@pattonmoore]

​​@@Naris48... the vast majority of them can't spell "fiscal responsibility"...

[@dragonvliss2426]

As a historian and a former history teacher, every time the Maggats talk about "making American great again" I want to ask them, "when was America great exactly?" There were times when the US was more powerful internationally, such as immediately after WW II, when most of Europe was in ruins. But there has never been a time in history when the US had a perfect society or even a really, really great society without major injustices. Those of us who grew up in the days of "duck and cover" to save you from atomic bombs and legal segregation before the Civil Rights movement know we have come a ways, but there is still a long way to go

[@HocusPocus6969]

I’ve never heard a MAGAt give a coherent answer to that question. It is ALWAYS stammer and deflect.

[@SeasideDetective2]

I don't think the MAGA people truly believe that the past was preferable to the present or the future. If they really believed that, they'd as likely as not kill themselves out of despair. They'd gain more sympathy if they used a slogan that more clearly articulated what I think they really mean: "Make America better again," or "Make America pleasant again." (MABA and MAPA both sound more palatable than MAGA, don't you think?) What not only conservatives but also many liberals desire, I think, is (with all due respect) Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "obnoxious peace." He wrote that true peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice - but these days, I think many Americans would be satisfied just with the absence of tension. There are good reasons why Americans continue to feel nostalgia for the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Not only was the national economy a lot stronger during most of those years, but - except for the radicals, who were small in number - Americans generally agreed on basic political principles and policies. Someone like - for example - Rush Limbaugh would have been jeered at as a big fat fool, a bully, a pest, and a peevish and ungrateful jerk, since he claimed to love America even as he endlessly complained that it was not in line with his personal social preferences.

[@dangelo1369]

They know when. Back before "the colored people got all uppity." Despite the fact that very few of today's Republicans ever grew up in such an era.

[@wallacewallaby5782]

American kids STILL practice duck and cover, but now it's for active shooter drills which is an INSANE thought for anyone living outside of the US. It's not normal for kids to worry about that for even a second. It just doesn't happen anywhere else.

[@thatlittleextra9954]

Thank you!

[@altyrrell3088]

My father used to say, "there's no such thing as the good old days," and he was right. We've come so far. We have to keep struggling to move forward.

[@fisheyenomiko]

In the words of Billy Joel: "The 'Good Old Days' weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems." OK, YMMV on the second part, but the first part is spot on.

[@patrickdodds7162]

2020's: Conservatives (and Bill Maher) whining against "the woke" 2010's: Conservatives (and Bill Maher) whining against "SJWs" Spot on, Steve.

[@MeldaRavaniel]

1990's: Conservatives (and Bill Maher) whining about "bleeding heart liberals" (i grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and remember the song about the "liberal guy and liberal gal" in their yugo dying when swerving to avoid a baby duck in the road and getting run over by a semi truck; that was supposed to be funny. because they bought a climate conscious car, and that was dumb of them, and cared about causing harm, which was dumb of them...)

[@MahouSoju]

Bill Maher IS a conservative, even if he doesn’t believe it himself.

[@joshyoung1580]

Bill Maher is a small, puny creature. He'll only ever be a footnote in history, buried in some appendix somewhere. He's nothing,

[@christianc.christian5025]

I even heard Joe Rogan try to pretend that “the left” got Maher canned from ‘Politically Incorrect’… Rogan is a moron anytime he ventures out of a few arenas, but this specifically is just obnoxiously dishonest. Maher was fired for criticizing George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Anyone pretending “the left” was upset about that is either lying or dumb… 80% of the country (so basically all Republicans and all Democrats) supported it in one way or another. The 20% who didn’t were almost entirely leftist and libertarians.

[@TasTheWatcher]

1940's: Conservatives whining about "Cultural Bolsheviks"

[@dimitrioskalfakis]

PBS was the most informative quality channel in the states back in the 80s when i was there. it is sad that these fanatics want to destroy it.

[@mossydog2385]

An uneducated populace is easier to control. Conservatives want to rule, not represent.

[@kentesdall308]

The state of Iowa already forced Iowa Public Radio and Iowa Public TV to be soul funded by donations. Iowa government is totally against education, an educated populace is harder to rule. The Iowa population has decided the want to le lead around by their supposed betters.

[@monicawallace-jn8tl]

UNFORTUNATELY, they are trying to dismantle public education and libraries too…

[@brandontrammel4581]

Case and point example Mr. Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers was very much Christian man hell he was literally a pastor but even when not on the show he said he made a point not to talk about religion as not alienate people and demonize people who were different. His show almost got cancelled many times and he got death threats for having black hosts and going swimming with black people because conservatives/right wing thought you'd literally get contaminated. They hated Mr.Rodgers for having the look of a conservative but ironically actually following Jesus teachings. He was genuinely a good person and didn't look down on anyone and they hated he taught equality, inclusion, empathy, and understanding differences and understanding emotions. Again they wanted to take those shows like this or Ghost writer who was the spirit of literal slave who was killed when they found out he could read and the list goes on of amazing cartoons and shows like Arthur etc. They wanted to cancel because knowledge helps with understanding. That's why most college educated are left leaning. Lastly as stated without fearmongering and propaganda and lies they wouldn't have the power and control they want. They've never stopped they just dress it up in fancy suits with pseudo intellectual words.

[@EmeralBookwise]

It's not that Mr. Rogers had the look of a conservative. Religion didn't used to be exclusively associated with the right-wing in the US. The republican party are the ones who co-opted that look to hide their actual agenda of preserving entrenched power structures. Mr. Rogers was an afront to them because he was a living counter example to their lies.

[@mariyamwaniki]

I'm so tired of the turmoil. So many angry people willing to tear it all down. Trump is a bad person.

[@mossydog2385]

He's the product of decades of "it's us vs them" mentality....and they HAVE to indoctrinate people with a siege mentality because their policies are horrible. They want to rule, not represent.

[@unc0mm0n2]

Not just Trump. The Republican movement in America is full of awful people. Not jist the politicians ethier. Yes many of our families are also horrible hateful people.

[@doneestoner9945]

Dump is a evil person.

[@Naris48]

Trump isn't really the problem. The problems are all due to right wing organizations that support him such as The Heritage Foundation, The Federalist Society, CPAC, etc. and all his supporters and the people that vote for him. If Trump has been left to his own devices, by himself, then he would the incompetent nincompoop that he really is, without any real power, unable to accomplish anything. All of the people that support and vote for Trump are bad people.

[@fastertrackcreative]

The worse he is the more they like him. They'd vote for a literal demon if it said what they like.

[@SiriusMined]

The extra fucked up part of the Newt Gingrich is that he was a teacher. What kind of teacher tries to cut education?

[@kentesdall308]

There are oodles of them in the country right now, most teach in private bible thumper schools.

[@GSBarlev]

He was also outspoken about the Sanctity of Marriage... having divorced his wife while she was undergoing treatment for cancer (oh, btw, at the time he was sleeping with a congressional aide 23 years his junior).

[@travisboyle285]

A crappy one

[@lukedogwalker]

​@@GSBarlevwait, what? That is almost word for word exactly what Boris Johnson did. Boris Johnson, former British Prime Minister. That one. And what you've just described Gingrich doing is exactly what Johnson did! Is there some kind of script that these people are following? 🤯

[@GSBarlev]

​@@lukedogwalkerPowerful men with access to young women? I don't think there needs to be much more to it than that.

[@edwardmemwah1610]

There were conservatives in the American Revolution. They fought to keep the American colonies as the loyal subjects of the King of England. There were conservatives in the Civil War. They fought to keep slavery. There were conservatives during WWII. They supported the Nazis. Some legacy there.

[@mtn1793]

Right on man. Zero tolerance on zombies.

[@johnmguzman7491]

Was the American Founding Conservative, Liberal, or Libertarian? Thomas G. West’s important new book on The Political Theory of the American Founding provides a complete overview of the Founders' political theory. Have you read West's book?

[@SeasideDetective2]

There were very few Nazi sympathizers, at least in this country, just before and during the war. Other than Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, I can't think of any pro-Hitler Americans. I think most conservatives either just wanted to stay out of the war or wanted the Nazis and the Soviets to destroy each other.

[@TheMahayanist]

@@johnmguzman7491 It was radical. It was based on the French Revolution which was a radical revolution. So none of those.

[@unnamedenemy9]

​@@TheMahayanist that's backwards -- the French revolution was based (sort of) on the American revolution.

[@einienj3281]

I had a convo with one christian who is living in the past. He kept referring to old science, historical figures and old ideas and laws.. I told him that I don't live in the 1200-1800's and he should start living in the present day too.. he vanished after that..

[@StevoDesign]

Was he a ghost?

[@bbrigman9382]

Conservatives have ALWAYS been the same ... even when they were Democrats (note; The Southern Strategy), in fact, Conservative can be traced all the way back through the Civil War era ... as Southern Democrats. In fact, it wasn't until the Civil Rights movement that the parties went through a political re-alignment.

[@EmeralBookwise]

The realignment started well before the civil rights movement, going back at least as far as the great depression. The civil rights movement is just where realignment became entrenched.

[@seandobbins2231]

​@@EmeralBookwisewell, it truly started with the passing of the 19th amendment when Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, asked for it to be passed. The progressive sect of the party gradually grew from there. We call the civil rights movement when parties switched because that was the time when conservative democrats completely gave up on the party and began to switch parties over the following few decades.

[@RictusHolloweye]

The realignment explains two things: Why the US has two right wing parties and no left wing (because Republicans lurched to the right with their Southern Strategy while the Democrats didn't change all that much). Also why the more extreme right-wing party are the Reds (because they used to actually be left wing).

[@richardryley3660]

The primary reason Democrats have the reputation of being the party of the KKK is that no one in the South would vote for the party that "started" the Civil War. But the Republicans had not been Radical for a long time.

[@SwansingerLJG]

THANK you. So sick of people pining for the days of “reasonable Republicans.” They’ve never been reasonable, they were just more clever about being hateful and cruel. They just got louder and dumber and more obvious.

[@redjoker365]

I want to return to the days of reasonable Republicans. And by that, I mean Reconstruction. Send in the US Army to occupy the South and bring an end to racism and the glorification of the Confederacy, have them round up the KKK

[@adopequeenatyrantkingaboss8057]

Absolutely.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

The last reasonable Republican on the national level was Nelson Rockefeller (and even he went way overboard on drug laws when he was Governor of New York) and he left politics years before I was born, and I’m fucking 38! Vermont Governor Phil Scott seems reasonable, but sometimes I think that’s only because he’s forced to work with a Dem supermajority legislature.

[@dethtongue945]

We don't need to go back to 2015. In 2015 things were so bad we elected a narcissistic grifter who has literally spent every day of his adult life breaking the law to the office of President of the United States. My biggest regret is I won't live long enough to see historians call back to this time as the "What in the fucc were they thinking?" era.

[@MattMcIrvin]

I've always had a bit of skepticism that future generations actually will know better. Andrew Jackson was almost as nuts and ignorant as Trump and more racist and murderous, and historians put him in a high tier of great Presidents and saw him as some kind of icon of democracy for like 150 years.

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

I feel like the US basically peaked during Obama's second term.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

@@lyokianhitchhikerYou’re wearing nostalgia goggles.

[@abstract5249]

I wonder if that time will ever arrive. Unlike the past, we now have internet echo chambers that I think will ring on for decades to come, keeping conservatives trapped in their false reality. The Civil Rights movement was widely unpopular among conservatives at the time, but now everyone agrees it was a good thing. I wonder if the internet had existed back then, would we currently share this universal sentiment? Or would social media and alternative media have kept us divided on Civil Rights the same way we're divided on BLM and trans rights today? My point is, we're living in unprecedented times. It's easy to think that, one day, things will sort themselves out because the arch of the universe bends toward justice, but we shouldn't forget that nothing is inevitable. Good isn't destined to prevail. WE are the ones who have to make it happen.

[@Blgenx]

School house rock..was my favorite growing up. I remember all of them. “ I’m just a bill” I learned a lot as a kid from electric company etc.

[@MahouSoju]

An uneducated public is more apathetic and easier to control. It’s always been beneficial for them to cut education.

[@Finckelstein]

My favourite historical tidbit regarding this fact is the Hangul alphabet introducted in Korea in the 15th century by one of history's very few capable kings with the aim to increase literacy. It was a phenomenal success. So phenomenal in fact, his successor outlawed it because thanks to the increased literacy, the people learned how to better organize, which threatened the king's power. Knowledge is power. And the already powerful don't want competition.

[@WryKai6978]

So basically we're at the scene when Neo wakes up after his freakout, and asks Morpheus, "I can't go back, can I?" And he replies, "No, but if you could, would you want to?"

[@iamfromthewild]

I kind of had the same thought! Altho I like the added but would you want to go back part. That's a good point

[@joeeyaura]

Conservativism is all about not changing, its why when Bill Maher says.. "liberals have changes, I haven't".. yeah Bill Maher that means you have become conservative

[@tskmaster3837]

Contract with America? Yeah, I remember, the Speaker got turned into a Newt. "I got better." No he didn't, they didn't.

[@raven3moon]

Contract ON America

[@TheRealHungryHobo]

Conservatism has been about the same thing since at least as far back as the middle ages. The whole concept of Conservatives being "The right" was because when it came to the "Should we end monarchy?" debate, the people who said "Yes" were the progressives who sat on the left side of the room, and the people who said "No, Monarchy is good" were the Conservatives on the right - hence "Right-wing Conservatives." They've been about conserving power for the powerful for at least that long, but presumably there was a time before monarchy when they were griping about keeping some other system, or maybe their birth was truly just the death of Monarchy.

[@HeavyMetalMouse]

y'know, that framing kind of makes it make a lot of sense, particularly when you look at the alignment of conservatism with authoritarianism and fascist regimes. The thing conservatives are ultimately trying to conserve is the ability of a small number of divinely consecrated elites to sit atop a hierarchy under which everyone else must 'know their place' and pay tribute to those in power - coincidentally, this 'elite' generally includes themselves and people who look like them. The reason you don't hear much about 'conservatism' before the fall of monarchy was because *those were the people in power* - the kings and barons, the courtiers and aristocracy, the land owners. Anyone who didn't line up with that power structure was summarily enslaved, killed, enslaved *then* killed, or driven into exile (and then enslaved and/or killed), by Divine Right. At the end of the day, that is how they understand power, and that is why they want to be the only ones that wield it; they can't understand any political ideal where power is actually used to make the world *better* for the average ordinary people solely for the sake of that being a good thing to do. That is why their rhetoric comes down to accusing the left of the things that they themselves either are already doing, or totally would do given the chance; that is what they think power is *for*, and their message is "We need to do it to them before they do it to us, because we're the ones that are *supposed* to do it, and everyone else needs to know their place!"

[@AraAshmayne]

Great history lesson, thank you.

[@arcanineryu]

I literally just saw a bunch of big name right wingers in the online debate sphere talking about the benefits of monarchy and aristocracy and considering how it could be a good potential fix for the failures of American democracy because it was "older" and "lasted longer". And genuinely, nothing was a better example of how the right wing has always been fundamentally based on anti democratic principles which if allowed to progress to their natural conclusion, will abolish democracy entirely. And should never have been allowed to progress and gain the social and political influence it has gotten in America.

[@MattMcIrvin]

People have been telling me ever since I was a kid that "they wouldn't mind a dictatorship if the dictator was good." OK, you've got your good dictator. What happens when that SOB dies or goes off his nut? What do you do when his dimwit sybarite failson takes over? You can't just postulate that your dictator will be good and maintain that situation forever.

[@mattmorehouse9685]

Hell, thinking on the US Constitution it is, at best, lukewarm on democracy. Sure there's the House, but the Senate is same rep number for all states no matter their population size. The president is elected by the electoral college, and just expected to go along with the people's vote- unless they really feel that they don't like it. And then there's the Supreme Court. Those bastards are appointed for life so they can emanate their penumbras onto our laws and screw up whatever they like. After all, what are we gonna do, fire them? Then again the constitution was overwhelmingly written by slavers and one of them even raped his slave. (I'll leave it to the audience to guess who.) So I suppose we can't expect more.

[@TheKitsuneCavalier]

When PBS was brand new, Congress held hearings, because members claimed it had no value. There was one man who almost sing-handeldly saved PBS by speaking: Mister Rogers.

[@martinbaxter4783]

What I’ve been saying for a couple of years now. Trump normalized the expression of hate.

[@marticus201]

HATE THEM BACK

[@ArtSpencer-z1g]

To keep America great we need to make things better in the present and the future for EVERYONE. Going back to the past is not a positive agenda.

[@manyeyedcrow9391]

The scary thing is that they’ve been trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade for 50 years and they just got it. Their success only requires our lack of vigilance.

[@brianne8258]

40 years, I am so GD tired. We have had the same fight for 40 years. For my entire lifespan, the fights have been the exact f*$king same, and I am exhausted honestly.

[@Frommerman]

Yep. Justice can never really win in liberal democracy because even when you do get a win, the opposition is still out there and angry.

[@sentrysapper45]

Pining for "how things used to be" is a hallmark of the conservative thought process. Don't fall into that intellectual trap. I'm reminded of the chorus of "What Was so Good About the Good Old Days" by Thomas Benjamin Wild Esquire: What was so good about the good old days? Haven't we moved on from them yet? Aren't we supposed to grow and change our ways And weren't there certain good old lessons we'd do well not to forget? What was so good about the good old days? Can't we leave them back where they belong? For if we can't move on beyond the good old days The good new days won't last for very long

[@wirelesmike73]

It's always fascinated me how nostalgia can make the past seem so much better than it ever really was. I remember the cartoons, and the toys, and the games. I remember going to the malls and the game rooms. And, when I get my hands on those things today, and relive them now, I realize how crappy they actually were. The idea of them was always so much better than the reality. And, the best part about all of those things, as it turns out, was the social aspect of them. The shared experiences between like-minded people who wanted them to be as cool as we did. The friends, and the fans, and the communities who showed up at the same places to do the same things together. It was never perfect, but, the good times stand out against the bad because the bad was so often the norm. And, that's why those reminders seem so much better when looking back than they ever really were. The bad is harder to remember. Either because we try to push it back and put it out of mind, or because it all just bleeds together with the monotony of all of the rest of the everyday s--t and drudgery of being alive back then. And, yes... The Right was just as hateful, fearful, disrespectful, harmful, and obstructive as they are today, they were just more secretive about it and better at hiding it when they wanted to. Maybe because it was just easier to hide stuff back then. It was easier to keep secrets and harder to communicate because we didn't have the internet and social media. We didn't have 24/7 news and entertainment, or constant connectivity. We didn't have access to all the information and knowledge that we do today. It's not that the Right or the GOP have gotten darker in their pursuits, it's that the light has gotten brighter, and everything is easier to see. Keep the lights on. Vote Blue!

[@MattMcIrvin]

Sometimes, it's possible to see the things that WERE good about them. A friend of mine describes the video games of the 1970s and early 1980s as having about 15 seconds of gameplay, repeated endlessly. But sometimes they'd hit on 15 seconds that were bizarrely fun to repeat.

[@wcdeich4]

The Republicans did become more extreme in 1980 under Reagan.

[@user-ho1yn6ms7y]

And NPR receives less than 1% of its funding from the federal government….

[@Frommerman]

Yeah they're so stuck in the past they still think they can kill anything they want to by pulling funding. As if it was ever the funding making shit happen, rather than people.

[@mrtekbunny]

Elon is such a trash person.

[@CivilWarMan]

Even back in the day, I recall people derisively calling Gingrich's Contract With America the Contract On America.

[@oxbass2672]

Of course things really took a turn for the weird when Reagan gave the religious nuts a seat at the grown-ups' table and effectively turning the "Big Tent" into a carnival freak show. I don't think that Mad Magazine nor National Lampoon-- at their respective heights, with Ralph Steadman providing illustrations-- could have conceived of today's GOP. Their editors would have told them to sober up and try again.

[@Occam31]

Reminder: there is no such thing as a good professional Republican.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

I wonder whether their overtness about these things means they're getting WORSE at the game, not better? And he's right: we can only fix anything by going forward, not back. Everyone go watch the music video for "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes, and then you can thank me for a new favourite song. Just kidding, but in the video, the sky runs on a crank, and this old, old man controls the crank, and decides to try to crank it backwards. And he DOES, for a little bit, and gets back to being young, him and all his buddies sitting around him, and you watch the seasons go in reverse, but it's hard to turn the crank back, and he eventually loses his grip, and all the days and years go flying forward again. Don't turn away. Don't turn back. We can and should only move forward. Remember: what are CONSERVE-atives conserving? The past? Maybe. We can't do that, then. It's literally unreasonable.

[@HetareKing]

They're basically constantly adapting to whatever is "politically correct" at the moment. The term "political correctness" is often used as a thought-terminating cliche against vaguely the left, but it doesn't actually mean "not being an asshole", it means expressing something in a way that doesn't harm you politically. And what that is changes based on the political mood and the audience being addressed. Right now, being an openly nativist loudmouth instead of Mr. Serious Business is appealing to a large enough number of people to sway elections in their favour, and therefore politically correct (just not morally).

[@RoonMian]

You know what's ironic? My home country Germany has a very large very popular and robust public broadcasting company (nine actually, because federalism, but they join together in one big public broadcasting voltron) and you know why we have it? Because after WW2 the Allies, especially the USA, pushed for Germany to create a large publicly funded broadcasting agency because they saw what a horrible impact propaganda had. Do as I say, not as I do, I guess.

[@RoonMian]

Also, I disagree with your view of when reasonable Republicans died off. I'd argue they started dying in 1964 when Nelson Rockefeller lost the presidential nomination to Barry Goldwater and the dying was completed when Nixon adapted the Southern Strategy to great success and the Republican party realised that being right extremist could win them elections.

[@gigaus0]

'Some people want to go back to the way things were.' That's the point. That's always been the point with them. Sabotage, harass, attack; do whatever you can to make life so miserable, so crap that they're willing to roll over, give up, and go back to 'whatever' was a good time according to these guys. Same tactic of abusive spouses and stalkers; give me what I want, and I'll totally stop hurting you.

[@Hitoshura844]

Conservatives are most successful when they can package their policies as a return to that "nostalgic fantasy" of the past. As you said we should always be looking to move forward. We should try new solutions. Sometimes they won't work out, but we learn from them and we try again. That's how progress is made. If we went with the conservative method of progress we'd still be living in caves with a life expectancy of 20-30.

[@MichaelHaneline]

Didn't they also hate Mr. Rogers? EDIT: Guess I should've finished the video first, huh? Anyway, just the fact that Republicans hated Mr. Rogers tells you all you need to know. How do you hate MR. ROGERS?

[@wartgin]

Someday soon we'll get to the generations that were raised on the radio and TV programs that were busy emphasizing that you don't discriminate against someone just because they look or sound different. Hopefully the messages were subtle enough that they were allowed to watch/listen without their parents immediately arguing against them but I know they are there because I listen to the retro programs.

[@GSBarlev]

We're already there: _Sesame Street_ has been around since the '70s. And you see the effects-the majority of people really are more tolerant and accepting than they were decades ago. The issue is that a minority of children reacted to those shows with _disgust_ and, when they grew up, sought out other like-minded deplorables. And the mistake _Sesame Street_ and _Mister Rogers_ made was that they taught the majority of us to love our fellow human, rather than teaching us the hard lesson that we cannot tolerate intolerance.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@GSBarlev It's the first step. And at the same time as Sesame Street was on the air, prime-time cop dramas and such were reinforcing racist messages, usually implicitly rather than overtly. So we were getting mixed messages.

[@Kohlerstacey]

These are Gen X. We grew up on that. And yes, we are more accepting. And no, the message wasn't subtle. We had more freedom then.

[@LaughterOnWater]

Here is a list of key environmental legislation passed during Richard Nixon's administration: • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 • Clean Air Act of 1970 • Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970 • Resource Recovery Act of 1970 • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Establishment in 1970 • Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 • Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Clean Water Act) • Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 • Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 • Endangered Species Act of 1973 These are the same things today's Republicans are trying to reverse. So there was once a time at which "Republican" was synonymous to some extent with "Conservation". Enter Reaganomics, Christian nationalism.💩

[@glasscitytransparency4996]

One of my favorite things is when they say something like "They can't make the shows they used to make because the left ruined comedy..." Yeah. And they're right, because back when I was a kid a goofy guy on TV would do something goofy, and then he would say "Did I do that??" and then the laugh track would play. You can't do that on TV anymore. Because the left. The left! 😂

[@glasscitytransparency4996]

And then there was the one with the kid on it. Someone would do something and the kid would say "How rude..." and then the laugh track would play. You can't say "How rude..." On TV anymore, either. The left strikes again...

[@glasscitytransparency4996]

On that same show there was a guy. Someone would give him a hard time, and then he would say "cut" and he would make a motion with his fingers like he had some scissors, and then he would say "it" while pointing with his index fingers, and then he would say "out" and he would do the thing like an umpire with his thumb. The laugh track for that one would be enormous. Because comedy. Curse you, the left! CURSE YOU!!!!

[@bgw33]

Steve, thank you. 🎯👍

[@MrStephenLast]

I have seen examples of conservatives trying to ban the book 1984. I cannot help but think that they don't want people reading their playbook. I had to read that in 1995 in high school.

[@missinterpretation4984]

Yeah I’ve noticed they’re obsessed with the 50s and the 90s, both because that’s when they could be the biggest jerks with the least consequences.

[@Nealetony]

Its not we the people, its us vs them!

[@Frommerman]

"We the People" was written by a man who raped women he held as slaves. It's ALWAYS been us vs them, and it's NEVER been us in control.

[@G5rry]

It goes earlier. In 1969, Richard Nixon wanted to cut funding. This was when the famous Mr. Rogers speech to the Senate happened.

[@AlleniumProductions]

Steve: I love your Star Trek videos. I saw your last political video and enjoyed it very much. In this video, you hit the nail square on the head. Spot On! KEEP SPEAKING UP!!!

[@AlleniumProductions]

I liked this so much that I 'joined'.

[@jts8053]

"Getting back" to a normal (whatever that means) GOP wouldn't make them good, but there was a time when they had actual policies that DID something. Sure a lot of them weren't great, like cutting PBS funding, but along with those they'd at least propose their own version of infrastructure, or taxes, or education bills. Remember W's "No Child Left Behind"? It wasn't a great bill, and it was mostly intended to line the pockets of McGraw-Hill, but it *was* actual legislation with actual ideas. You are not wrong about the GOP generally being down on education, though. They do love and rely upon an uninformed electorate. The rest of the "Conservative Values" that they rail about is really for the benefit of the voters. Keeping them focused on who is using what bathroom means they aren't looking at things like the 1% being the real source of the troubles.

[@katiekofemug]

No Child Left Behind was intended to, and did, punish individual school systems that didn't meet the criteria with federal funding cuts and accreditation loss. In this way they 'cut the budget' without actually cutting the budget. Slight of hand is the GOP way.

[@MagnumEagle]

GamerGate in 2014 really felt like a dress rehearsal for all of the hateful rhetoric and cruel actions happening now.

[@emmamacfarlane8137]

I think a good way to look at it is that things are worse now not because the conservatives are worse, but because the conservatives have managed to do more cumulative damage over time now. We exist farther along the development of their regressive project. They were always trying to steer us towards the fascist dystopia they cream themselves over, but we’re closer to it now than we’ve ever been.

[@teresaturner7605]

We fell between the cracks of headstart and paid preschool in my house and I learned so much from Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers that I needed to start kindergarten in 1980. If Mr. Rodgers hadn't gone to a congressional hearing on PBS I would have been left behind instead of being equal to my classmates. I will always vote for PBS and people who support it

[@JaceeNova]

We have to remember history in order to see these patterns. Very well said.

[@v6math]

Happened upon your channel for the first time. Connections bring clarity; thank you for making them and for your calm, yet passionate reasoning.

[@BjornTheDim]

I know that you're not much of a gamer, but there's a quote from a late-90s strategy game that I live to keep in my back pocket for describing conservatives. "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."

[@BjornTheDim]

In case anyone is wondering, the game is called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It's part of the Civilization series, where a future humanity has been forced to abandon Earth due to climate change and political instability. Some of the quotes in the game are rather grim.

[@ImpactWench]

"What do you *do* with the *mad* that you feel?" Ideally, you'll become a pawn for me to manipulate into hurting the people I want hurt.

[@samrevlej9331]

4:44 Bolchegeek, a French KZbinr who analyzes cinema and pop culture (with an angle you might've guessed), once said something similar about nostalgia when analyzing the Fallout franchise and its satire of 1950s "utopian" way of life and anti-communism. To summarize it: the reason we don't live in these past societies anymore is because their social structures at some point failed to answer societal questions or issues and had to adapt and change. I think the reason some people are nostalgic of the mid-2010s is that they're about my age, early 2000s people, for whom this was their childhood or teenage years, and the world seemed less complicated and scary than now when we're entering adulthood; like boomers today missing the 1950s, or some Gen X missing the 1980s and 90s. But it wasn't better. I might've been a kid, but I remember my dad trying to explain to a 6-8 year-old why a lot of people were losing their jobs or sleeping in the streets in 2008-2010. Living in India during those mid-to-late 2000s also showed me what poverty was in a way I wouldn't have seen it living in Paris. Even then, the subprime crisis showed me no one was safe from capitalism. And the 2010s were the years of the war in Syria, when people became more and more afraid of immigration and the far right really surged in Europe. Climate change was already there and discussed, even if more people were willing to cover their eyes. The point is, yes the world might seem like it's going to sh*t now, but it wasn't better before; before is what brought us there.

[@justinb2824]

The struggle of collectivism vs. individualism in the country continues and probably always will. Individualism is part of what made this country great but it also comes with serious drawbacks if taken too far, like lack of empathy and unwillingness to help your fellow man.

[@Jcewazhere]

Last Week Tonight dropped season 1 and 2 onto their youtube channel. News from about 10 years ago. Almost every episode could be played today and few would notice a difference. Less Trump, but not entirely absent. They were after gay instead of trans people. There was still trouble in Gaza. Corpos were still too powerful. We've made some progress, but not enough.

[@moonrock41]

Yes, the way is forward, but you can look to the period in history known as the New Deal era and see how the GOP was forced to accept the premises of it to avoid utter political irrelevancy or worse. How we got from that (relatively) socially and economically progressive state to a new gilded age is an important story that needs to be told.

[@MattMcIrvin]

I think it was a confluence of things: 1. The New Deal coalition was a Faustian bargain with Southern (and other) white supremacists, and as such, the benefits to non-white people were sharply limited. The constituency for "social democracy for white people" was big enough to win and retain a majority. After World War II, the contradictions of American racism became too powerful to ignore, and the civil-rights movement and Great Society attempted to extend those benefits to everyone, and the white supremacists freaked. They'd rather have a rapacious New Gilded Age than share. 2. In the 1970s there was a kind of perfect storm of crises that made people generally feel that the postwar liberal consensus was a failed god: the Vietnam War, the oil crises, stagflation, rising crime. Much of this was actually happening under Republican administrations, but they weren't as overtly radical as what followed. All that allowed Reagan's people to say "it was all a mistake, tear it apart" and get some agreement even from ostensible liberals.

[@bernardkung7306]

Was it Galbraith who observed that much American fiscal policy was proposed on "the curious assumption that the rich won’t work because they do not have enough money, and the poor won’t work because they have too much"?

[@KoRntech]

I left the Republican party in 2000 I was 23, I never ever regretted that moment, I think I chose Republican because the guy a neighbor who was getting me registered was a totaly JA and just wanted to tick him off from his efforts to stop a public park for the community ya he was a card carrying Democrat but he didnt feel his wife should hsve to wirk harder to provide for some kids enjoyment especially if they came from Youngstown.

[@smileyp4535]

Wanted to be republican for spite reasons? Sounds about right tbh 😂

[@nola281]

Vote, vote early, volunteer as election workers. I don't want this to be the last free election. When i went to krewe du vuiex in 2020 their message was simple, you made it out here on a random Saturday night for an adults only parade, you have no excuse to not find time to vote in November. They even had voter registration forms for people who may have needed them.

[@MorganScott82]

Any movement to take things "back to how they used to be" is by definition a conservative movement. Biden saying "were going to get back to normal" is a conservative statement. In this country right now we have a center right party, and a far right party, arguing about how regressive they want their policies to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to vote for the less conservative party, but I can't delude myself into thinking they're the progressive party because they only want to turn the clock back 8 years instead of 50. Lets look to the future and think about how things could be, not back to the past and say we want to go backwards.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I feel much the same about Starmer in the UK. He says, simultaneously, to go back to 1997 and 1945. But we’re in a different situation to both, and hoping for some kind of hybrid repeat of events can’t end well.

[@tookitogo]

Hear, hear! It angers me to no end to hear republicans referring to the democrats as “extremist” liberals or “far left”, when by any rational measure they’re in the center at best. The US has never had anything remotely resembling actual far-left politics.

[@fizzysh4rk]

thanks for the heads up. i still long for pre-2015. but there's no going back and progress is the only way forward

[@mgailp]

While the conservative party has not changed, a few of us individuals can learn better values. I started moving away with the Every Child Left Behind act and have gotten farther and farther in the intervening years.

[@floydfreak-vn2uj]

Invest in the future and you'll have one. Live in the past and you'll be left there.

[@patrisshajones4121]

I do research on a variety of subjects including Authoritarian Rulership , Democracy and Education. Ask Google why do The Republican Politicians hate Education. The Red States have the least Education. Education can reduce Crime and Poverty. I agree with everything Steve Shives is saying. Because he's telling the truth. This man who is speaking should run for President.

[@cbbcbb6803]

People are always thinking that life can be fixed once and for all, and will never be tinkered with again. And people can be lazy. That is why people look to authority to fix things.

[@normanlennox4949]

It's been like this my entire life, and I'm sitting comfortably in the half-century crease. I've watched it all go down hill since at least Reagan, when I started being old enough to understand what was happening. It's not as bad, but worsening, here in Canada, too.

[@ncpsbh1504]

I hate that the conservatives have such a strangle hold at the provincial level, and the worst possible person will likely be PM with a majority government

[@SiriusMined]

I would say it's not 100 years but probably 70 or 80. Although they were still Liberal Republicans up through the 80s. Bob Packwood was the last one. EDIT: you are correct, around FDR

[@buckiesmalls]

Its right in the name.

[@matheussanthiago9685]

To quote the lyrics present on a movie that conservatives seem to love because the director misinterpreted the whole point of the material he was adapting: "... Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You'll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin' And you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin'"

[@richardryley3660]

That sprang to my mind too. I've already posted my choice of verse. Bob Dylan wanted to make it clear he was not taking about age. There was a generation gap, sure, but he likened it more to the difference between "aliveness" and "deadness". If you aren't changing, if you aren't growing, you are dead. You are lifeless. My concept of conservatism is that it should progress along with the times, but seek to slow change, to preserve the present. That can be healthy and prevent overreach. But if you're trying to go back to 30 years ago, or 60 years ago, you aren't conservative. You are reactionary. Get out of the way. You aren't needed or wanted. The living have things to do.

[@worshadar150]

Steve, I aggressively agree with you here.

[@RickyM63]

Yet again, a few edits & name changes & your eloquent speech would brilliantly sum up the UK General Election. I just hope we will set an example that right-wing politicians, fuelled by (the same) right-wing media moguls are not an inevitability. Good Luck to all of you in November - keep up the epic work, Steve.

[@spacelemur7955]

As a Boomer who left my GOP family background because of Nixon, * who remembers Reagan's arms for Iran to fund his Central American war as well as his selling off of public land to the rich, rollback of environmental legislation, the deregulation of banks and stock markets, and who moved student loans from the universities (3% simple interest) to the banks (market rate compound interest); * and as one who remembers W Bush who launch a stupid war against Iraq (and thereby unleashed Iran), who brother stole a fortune from the Silverado S&L, the deregulation of which bankrupted millions of people's saving and retirements while a select few pocketed all that money, the deregulation of utilities (eg. Enron and others), banking, housing loans al lead to a huge market crash in 2008---and these are just the low-lights of the top of my head .., Steve is correct: The GOP have always been conniving to get our savings and hold us in neoserfdom.

[@Sean-oy8xm]

New subscriber. Thank you. You are 100% correct. What we are seeing expressed by them today was always just under the surface all along. I know it well.

[@RictusHolloweye]

In the 1930s Australian conservative prime minister Bob Menzies expressed admiration for a certain German chancellor. I don't think it was due to any racial component of the chancellor's rhetoric. More likely it was because AH had outlawed unions, and instead the workers were being monitored to make sure they worked as hard as their bosses could drive them. Also because AH had invented the idea of privatisation, where organisations and infrastructure that had been built on public money could be awarded to private, rich guys for their personal benefit. Also because AH had left wing people fleeing for their lives (Menzies tried to outlaw the Communist party in Australia, but fortunately he needed public support for that, and he didn't have it). Nothing has changed. The conservatives still hate unions and want to keep workers powerless. They still want to syphon any wealth they can from the poor and divvy it up among the rich. They still want to suppress any opposition to their own power.

[@markstevens1729]

I simply refer to them as the “People of the Past.” There is no stasis, and you can’t force it. They stand against the force of nature and as such they will fail.

[@JarrodMiller-z7j]

I love your channel. Thank you for what you do.

[@EmeralBookwise]

I grew up on PBS, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Letter People, and so much more. These were the shows of my earliest and most formative years, even before the likes of He-Man, Transformers, and G.IJoe came along with their flashy action and marketing. Heck, I'm old enough to remember seeing news exposes about the dangers of those glorified half-hour toy commercials, even if I was too young to understand the concern at the time, but I digress. My point is, now that I've got a nephew, I've been prioritizing the PBS children's programing whenever we watch television together. He'll have the rest of his life to get distracted by the flashier more exciting corporate shlock, and that's not me trying to say I don't also enjoy the shlock any less myself... I just want to make sure my nephew gets as much of a good foundation first.

[@bsgnerd]

Steve saying what more of us need to know.

[@yensid4294]

We've had 2 major close calls with a 1929 era crash of our economy. The housing crisis was in 2008 for crissakes. How far back do we have to go for conservatives not to be a destructive force?

[@katalytically]

Amen, Brother! One defining characteristic of conservatives is that they don't like change.

[@marco12377]

...and yet some people are "undecided" as to who they will vote for.

[@OsirisLord]

If we want to roll the Republican party back to when it was good, we have to roll it back to the 1860s. Banning slavery really was the last time that they held a socially progressive policy as a core party platform.

[@j.martinez8282]

Great video. Would only add that in addition to all those positive things that Public Television tries to instill in young people is the one the right fears the most: critical thinking. Can't have people thinking for themselves now can we? Why it might lead to something like- gasp!- the 60s!! it goes all the way back to the Powell Memo: dumb 'em down t keep 'em down. To which i respond: vote 'em out to keep 'em out. See you in November, people.

[@Godless_Doc]

Conservatives change. They get more rabid. I’m almost 60 and get more progressive as I age.

[@Steve-ou8nw]

When they talk about "woke", what they usually are referring to is anyone giving the tiniest shit about another human beings welfare in any way.

[@BlackDogBlues4961]

Hey there Internet People, any other Beau of the Fifth Column fans here?

[@Weazel1]

Because the good ole days aren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems

[@fisheyenomiko]

[shakes fist] You beat me to it! But I'm keeping my comment up anyway.

[@richardryley3660]

"Keeping the Faith" by Billy Joel for anyone who wants the reference. 😂

[@rustyshackelford312]

I'm 35 and i have been paying attention to politics since i was 15 and I'm proud to say I never fell for the right's bs. I knew who they were from my political awakening. It also makes it hard for me to understand how if I could see it for what it was when I was basically a child, but adults even now still can't see it for what it is? My opinion of most people isn't too high because of it.

[@ComradePhoenix]

The last Republican president I truly respected was Eisenhower.