1979 was PRE RONALD REAGAN. Everything we are experiencing now with brain drain is directly correlated with the GOP takeover in 1980, mitigated by short bursts of Democratic supported educational initiatives
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As somebody already in high school and finally matriculating during his term, it’s difficult to recognize the country any longer.
Grew up with hippies protesting the killing of peasants.
Graduated to a country celebrating the killing of peasants.
Because Jesus.
We are over.
People look at what the boomers do and say "Ih, what happened to the loving 60s hippies?" But the truth is very few of that demographic were actually 'hippies' and not many were protesting college students. The vast majority were just HS educated consumerist cogs who had a pretty easy life.
I hate when apologists try to say "Thatcher wasn't evil, she was just like other leaders of her time." She and her friends gloried in the destruction of the protections that made ordinary workers more than 'disposable cogs for industry', and sold our precious utilities to foreign corporations.
I was a freshman in college in 1979 and was awarded a BEOG grant to cover what tuition my parents didn't cover. In 1980, my sophomore year, my grant was DENIED. I thanked fucking REAGAN and still do.
Yep. I was only 13 when he was shot but my political awakening was already in high gear. I remember thinking at the time how much more dangerous Bush sr would be because he had been head of the CIA
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Defunding Californias public free universities as governor was a first step. He made ketchup the required vegetable or fruit in school lunches too. I do recall no child left behind but I was out of school then and my kids weren’t yet born so I’m not disagreeing w/u
Yes! During my phd program, we saw graphs of racial equity gaps briefly close in all sectors (health, education etc) so Reagan cut EVERY SOCIAL SERVICE and the gaps grew exponentially. The Heritage Foundation (Project 2025) in the 90’s made it their mission to ensure only white Americans prosper
Sputnik scared the shit out of the country so it invested massively in education and science. Then Reagan’s Republican Party decided education was a private benefit rather than a public national security imperative.
He scared America with marijuana.
$3 trillion spent. 2+ million Americans incarcerated. Police militarized.
Americans voted.
Against the fascism.
Fascists resisted. Ignored the will of the people.
Churches supported it.
The United States of America is done.
Your vote means exactly jack shit.
At the end with Iran Contra he just claimed “ I can’t recall” remember ? Because I def recall. Heck Ollie North became the president of the NRA! Ffs the gop just suuuuccckkkks
It was also after Brown v Board of Education that neoliberal economics ushered in; which is laissez-faire, no regulation, trickle-down policies that Reagan exploited.
That not only ends public schools, it ends special education. For kids with disabilities, autism, ADHD, the gifted (who often have “behavioral” issues when bored), anyone not fitting a narrow tidy box.
Its this. This is also why Elon Musk is rolling back HIV payments to keep babies from being born with HIV. He doesn't want that to help black or brown babies. He wants them to die.
I’ve been saying this for years now, and my dad (mind you, he’s mixed) contested it. This April, he was like, “Yeah, you were completely right.” I think he didn’t want to acknowledge that his parents’ legacy would be so willfully and gleefully erased.
We can trace the lack of psychiatric hospitals back to him. Also the lack of affordable housing as his minions ran up the cost of housing with the S&L scandal.
As a European travelling to American cities, the effect of the lack of psychiatric care is probably the most immediately noticeable problem.
So many horrible things are directly caused by emptying mental hospitals in the streets.
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Grew up with hippies protesting the killing of peasants.
Graduated to a country celebrating the killing of peasants.
Because Jesus.
We are over.
Hippies were antitheists.
Thus their demise.
Or as you would be called today, a “satanist”.
$3 trillion spent. 2+ million Americans incarcerated. Police militarized.
Americans voted.
Against the fascism.
Fascists resisted. Ignored the will of the people.
Churches supported it.
The United States of America is done.
Your vote means exactly jack shit.
They're just evil.
What a depraved piece of human drek.
So many horrible things are directly caused by emptying mental hospitals in the streets.