re: Despite Everything You Think You Know, America Is on the Right Track

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Interesting. In the former, local, county and state officials/government looked the other way

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Exactly what DAs are doing right now.

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And I have yet to see families bring the kids out to sit on the sidewalk and take in a nice carjacking.

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Maybe they should just twerk while an ambulance is trying to help someone.

You rattle off bad things as if they defined the country. There was racism, there were also a lot fewer single moms with multiple baby daddies. Just because we don't lynch white or black people any more doesn't mean everything is better.

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But current events should probably be more important to current people than a Minnesota atrocity committed >100years ago.

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Some people like to chew on certain aspects of the past like a cud, or define everything through the lens of race. We are better off in some ways, worse off in others. The overall trend doesn't look good right now unless perhaps you're part of the group the government favors.

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You rattle off bad things as if they defined the country. There was racism, there were also a lot fewer single moms with multiple baby daddies. Just because we don't lynch white or black people any more doesn't mean everything is better.

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There was vast ugliness in the country for centuries. We are better than we used to be. Of course that does not mean we are perfect or that there isn't bad ugliness to deal with seriously at present. But most things are better.

This is like when boomers decry people wearing shorts and other informal clothing in venues they didn't used to as somehow the fall of civilization. Just because everyone was wearing hats and sport coats in breadlines in the Depression doesn't mean the Depression was better.

Upon reading the article the author makes a very strong case for the title of his short essay.

He mentioned early on that he is writing about America's subjective opinions vs America's objective measures.

Objectively using real data buttresses his point that America is on the right track in a broader national analysis.

Subjectively we all measure where we are socially, politically, religiously by our own internal biases and lived experiences.

In a globally connected news infrastructure, information passes at the speed of light and trying to pall park an assessment about near future events is similar to reading your own palm to discern future world outcomes.

The Atlantic?

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I'm trying to buy a house

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Not a smart move right now, keep renting.

Contrary to what a BANK will tell you, a home that you live in is a liability, not an asset.

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Some people like to chew on certain aspects of the past like a cud, or define everything through the lens of race.

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Nah. What really happens with EVERY generation is they clutch their pearls and wish it was "like the old days". That's why I'm depicting the old days as not so hunky dory - and it was along many more lines than just race.

Pedophilia is another one. All of this shite that is coming to light now about the Catholic Church was the de facto norm for decades/centuries...and back in the day, society was actually MORE tolerant of it than they are now. On the frontier and in rural settings, child abuse was rampant. AMERICAN kids worked in filthy, dirty factories at very young ages. etc. You can leave race entirely out of this and list quite the picture of ugliness.

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The overall trend doesn't look good right now unless perhaps you're part of the group the government favors.

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Like with all predictions, people have a recency bias and like to take the very recent past and project it indefinitely into the future. MY prediction is that we are at or past peak demand for "extreme political speech and/or wokeness" and are in for an era of relative blandness and moderation over the next 5-10 years.

But even failing all of this, people seem intent on wanting things to be bad. I ask you all again: how bad is your daily life really? I personally NEVER notice a difference, no matter who is president. What I see is American citizens living together and helping each other in small ways every single day. My suggestion is to turn the fricking news about Portland, Oregon, off and go live your lives with your loved ones. Who gives a shite what those crazy frickers do?

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For all the hand-wringing about social media, the old-timers seemed to not be so hot themselves when it came to media...literally, happily posing in front of murdered bodies.

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So the number of views on social media of criminal behavior isnt the same to you?

You seem to be off in your ability to contrast historical limitations

Those people wont have turned out for that lynching, if they could have just watched in on twitter. You get that right?