Fell into a friend group of 3 other guys in school, who had all previously been friends before meeting me.
One of them had his parents get divorced shortly after I got to be friends with him. I still remember the way he told me. He played a tape recording of a TV show where a character (around our age) said, "My parents are getting a divorce."
While he pretended to take it well, this started a clear decline for him. He started acting up, he would have these freakouts when I came over to his house where he'd start physically fighting me for no reason, and he went from a straight-A student to falling out of the honors classes and barely scraping by on his natural intelligence in the regular classes. Needless to say, our friendship ended.
The second kid had always been in a single parent home. He was also smart, and did well in school, though not as well as the first guy. Unlike the first guy, there was no transition for him. He never knew his dad. In fact, he was ashamed of that fact, and used to make up lies about his dad calling him a lot and sending him gifts. I knew he was full of it, but I pretended to believe him so he felt better. Unfortunately, he also went downhill about a year after the first guy (they also had a separate falling out, prior to that). He started doing drugs, got big into the metal scene, and was just unrecognizable. He and I also stopped being friends.
The third kid was adopted, and lived in a 2-parent home with responsible parents. Unlike the other two kids, he was only of average intelligence, but was mild-mannered and fairly nice. He never had any decline, and basically stayed the same. He and I never had any falling out, but drifted away once we went to different high schools.
I remember thinking at the time that the lack of 2-parent home ruined the first two kids. One flipped out from his parents' divorce and suddenly had a lot less supervision than before. The other went along fine with only one parent, but eventually went astray because his mom was working all day and not around to prevent him from getting into trouble, nor did he have a father figure at all. Both of them were a mess by the time they got to high school. These were two smart kids who grew up in a nice upper-middle class neighborhood.
Real talk
It was called the civil war
you lost we won
the losers don’t evaporate
they and their inbred are alive and they can’t shut up
North Carolina and south, not sure, you’re still pissed with losing.
Still you continue. Backing Trump, backing Putin…..you continue to lose
WWI and II who was behind isolationism?
You inbreds
Lose, lose and still you lose
For the visibly dumb America is making bank off Russian aggression.
All partners are arming up. Ka-ching
Every move the Russians make set to hard drive.
Experience with no loss of life for the arms supplier
Its common to romanticize about the days of yester year and how great it was 40 years ago in much simpler times. All of our advancements get ignored.
Look at video from the late 70s and it might as well be 1920. Compare 1970 to now and its like a diferent civilization.
Can you imagine dropping a fully functional I Phone off in 1975? Some Star Trek level shit.
There's no question that technology and medical advancements have made life easier in some ways.
There's also been some social advances which are positives. Gay people can feel free to be out of the closet, and can get married. Domestic violence is taken more seriously. There's an awareness of sexual predators against children which was mostly ignored and swept under the rug until as late as the early 80s. Sexual harassment is now far less common in the workplace. These are all positives.
Unfortunately, some negative side effects have come along with all of this, making people sometimes wish for yesteryear.
Kids don't play outside anymore. You used to see it all the time, and now they're sitting indoors on their smartphones or gaming consoles. This is despite the fact that gaming systems existed in the '80s and '90s, yet you still saw kids everywhere playing outside.
And what is perhaps related, kids also aren't growing up. They seem to get stuck in perpetual early adolescence. They don't want to drive, yet in the '80s and '90s, every kid ran to get his license on their 16th birthday. They aren't moving out on their own. They aren't independent. The percentage of males 18-30 who didn't have sex in the previous year -- as low as 7% in 1989 -- now exceeds 30%. We have a generation of incels, and it's only getting worse.
What started as a well-meaning message of acceptance of gay people has morphed into the absurd modern gender ideology. This has led to previously unthinkable situations like men competing in women's sports (and an entire political party supporting it), as well as a dangerous epidemic of children "transitioning".
Comedy has been ruined. The attempt to be sensitive toward harmful racist/sexist/homophobic tropes ended up over-sanitizing comedy to where you're not allowed to make fun of anyone anymore, aside from white Christian males. Comedy was always about being offensive, pushing the envelope, and making people feel uncomfortable. That's not allowed anymore. Even Family Guy had a character remark, "We're living in a post-joke world."
There's much more. These are just a few examples.
I’ll trot out the old stand by
Easier access to porn does not make civilization better or happier Daly.
Its been many weeks now since I've smoked weed and you wouldn't believe the change in motivation and habits. I smoked weed in high school and then periodically throughout my life and let me just tell you that the shit being peddled today is far superior to what was being served up in the 80's. Add in the fact that its legal and you get millions of people with a daily habit that zapps them of motivation and focused thought.
This isn't the cause of the shithole but it for sure is not helping.
I can afford to be lazy and unproductive but its not a good idea and shouldn't be done every day. In case anyone is wondering it hasn't helped my poker game for shit.
Not so fast. Warning Team Retard: This essay has concepts that may be too difficult for you to grasp.
Welcome to Another ‘American Century.’ Also: We Suck
https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...risis-00153961
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