part of the political issue is that popular understanding of mid century america is filtered through nostalgia-drenched popular culture, often through stories told from the perspective of a child or, if not a child, an affluent adult
Reposted from
jamelle
asterisk because i think we look at that period of stability deeply red rose-colored glasses. when people think prosperity they don’t think “family of six sharing a 1200 sq ft home living largely on canned goods and hand me downs” but that was the reality
Comments
For ex., most people's image of a 50s family is from advertising illustrations, not life.
Reality/fact is obscured in a golden haze.
It bugs me that people who didn't live in the 50s are claiming that people who DID are only remembering TV shows. Is that how THEY remember their childhoods?
We didn’t know what a two bath home was till I was in high school. Never had a new car - always used.
Life was worse for people of color. And I hear Gen Z saying “why can’t WE have that life?”
I am an elder in my generation of the family tree, I learned alot just hovering around the adults when they were talking and picking up on the random trauma drops.
The past is a rosey time if you are never presented the full picture.
I had food stamps to help.
Yet! We made it!!!Fuck the good old days..and what came after!!
Once Jello and easy-to-use gelatin became widely available, middle-class people went wild for it due to that association.
Which is why the flavour of those dishes was a second thought at best. They were a display of wealth first, food second.
We did such a good job of cleaning them up that no one remembers anymore. That's an *actual* American success story.
Check the Chart to see how Citizens no longer seem to have a say!
"Why couldn't everybody just do that?"
Because not everybody is white?
Because not everybody had a well paying Union factory job able to afford it?
Less and less as time went on
But man. Look at that home value
Could never afford it now
1. It was easier to get by on any job back then.
2. Inequality is more glaring now.
3. Social media shows us rich foreigners now.
*Plus all the methamphetamines and benzodiazepines
Oppression everywhere you looked.
Makes me wonder how long til we get a new Hays Code
We need more representation like that. Instead we have Kardashians.
The best comedies of the last few years focused on real people too like Abbott Elementary.
My Grandparents raised three children and their dog in a one bathroom 1300 sq ft home. Everybody was happy.
Rich with love.
And marriage equality didn't happen until 2015.
We rode our bikes to the store for vinyl records bought with allowance and babysitting $.
Spartan by today’s standards.
Same with clothing.
A few kids came from families with money but that was by far the exception.
We grew up understanding how it feels to be poor.
We also fought for women’s rights, reproductive freedom, civil rights.
Not all Boomers lost their way.
WE MUST GO BAAAACK!”
That’s the truth of it for them
It's a golden age that never existed outside of a poorly scanned magazine liquor ad that's been posted to Reddit!
I'm sure the men felt very masculine though, so there's that.
The top tax rate was 90%.
Also: full employment is easy when you have a draft removing able-bodied men from the workforce.
it's right there in the name
I also don't know why conservatives want to get rid of no fault divorce because wives be killing husbands all the time in the show.
…except for Lucy Ricardo and Alice Kramden.
I hated it as a kid, but didn’t remember why; but watching it again helped figure it out.
AC didn’t exist.
"an affluent WHITE MALE adult"
This was mainly due to high infant and child mortality rates, limited medical knowledge, poor sanitation, and the lack of antibiotics - RFK Jr’s ideal.
Beezus couldn’t win.
Even school taught it a little. It was a credit to a still strong democratic political culture that we “remember” it.
I think it makes sense that these two cultures would have similar types of postwar nostalgia.
We knew about the civil rights movement. Everyone watched the news, which was not politicized as it is now.
We also weren’t distracted by social media so we read newspapers and books, and listened to the radio.
It's no surprise that the Boomers want to turn the clock back to the 50s and 80s
This is absolutely correct.
It is entirely unique to Boomers.
And you should pick on them when you catch them doing it.
I also have no desire to see McCarthyism back in full bloom. Oh, wait, that returned after 9/11. Gotta have those off-shore villains to unite the people you're dividing on-shore.
I recently read a years-old review of it and it has suffered a great indignity: mattresses in the pool!
He said, "When do they think America was ever great?"
I responded "In the '50s"
That's when white men ran everything and Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver depicted a lifestyle that was provided by taxing the rich 91% and corps 32%.
Or as field hands. Or on the factory floor before workforce safety laws
And that's before we get to immigration & racism.
It lacks self-awareness and accountability, which makes a shoe-in for MAGA.
This is the *Great American Myth* that needs to be debunked and stomped on daily.
I got more.
She'd make sure everyone else got the best meat first, then chew the gristle and crack the bones to eat the marrow.
I am always surprised at how poor people looked in family photos until after about 1945.
They want to live in a fantasy that was marketed to their parents in 1952.
There could not be a more idyllic childhood than The Sandlot.
Beautiful weather, racial harmony, casual destruction of priceless memorabilia.
Glory days?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cjk0zst3Cs
This is like people in 2090 hearkening back to when people in the 2020s all lived in huge pristine homes with pleasant laughing multiracial families.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtGJMWYVCQ