Many forget this. Many my own age and older, of the so-called Gen X crowd and it's extremely unfortunate. So let me give you all a hot cup of real history as lived by someone who didn't forget and in many ways is at the core of WHO I AM. This is what makes me a true Generation X guy.
It is what people truly miss, even if they don't precisely recall everything and often attach experiences to things failing to recall the underlining factors of "life back then." That is one of the actual issues with nostalgia when it focuses on the music, the styles, the quality of shows, and the good times they want to remember aside from the bad times. They forget a lot of those things are rooted in the very things I am about to cover in a general but relevant manner.
From the 1970s-1980s into the early 1990s, with a lot of it starting even before that, community for the benefit of all of the residents was the norm, not the exception. This was true even of various congregationalist churches. Yes, the start of the 1980s was the AIDS epidemic that became pandemic and unfortunately is still endemic. There were also the threats of terrorism, imposed Marxist socialism and communism and of course nuclear war.
There also was on the counter side of it a sense of hope, prosperity, opportunity, being yourself and not giving a shit if someone accepted your own spin on style. And there were a lot of styles. Some better than others, but we were young and unfortunately as we get older, we tend to forget a lot of things along the way, especially the more numerous the things over time. Sometimes this also means we convince ourselves of fallacies without meaning to. A few of us don't and recall far more than we care to.
Teachers didn't teach a bit of any religion, not even Christianity or one-sided politics. We did have the pledge of allegiance, fought censorship, stood up to defend our constitution and against actual racists and bigots including feminist ones, and while such Congregationalist Church schools also dominated, teachers didn't teach any particular religious identity either. Let's explore some of these differences:
Congregationalist Schools classmates were Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, Russian Orthodox and so on, including even atheists as well as Congregationalist.
Prayer in school was fine regardless your religion, such as during lunch time or before a meal if that was your thing, but being forced to pray under a specific church tradition along with the pledge of allegiance was what was being stood against as "Prayer in Public Schools."
It is what America was at the time, when communities were communities of people of diverse and Multiple backgrounds, colors, ethnicities, religions, no religions, and so forth and it didn't matter if someone was a Democrat, Republican or Independent.
Only isolated areas of racists (regardless their skin color) were openly mocked and laughed at as back wood morons because the general opinion was stupidity and racism were intertwined, and they were mocked rightfully on every front and not glorified.
If you acted like an idiot, you got called on it and Mainstream media was expected to get the facts before blurting out nonsense, and people lost jobs for failure to actually do Journalism rather than be a mouthpiece of some agency or big money anything. It's how a lot of crap got exposed in the first place.
What we lost over time:
We were no longer a nation of multiple isolated cells and "agencies" pushing racism who cannot stand difference within their cell. The majority didn't allow tax money to go to such things if we found out about it.
Those who got caught of such things often left the country and if big companies were found funding things that made fellow American and people in other countries sick, or caused unnecessary injury or death, there was a real outroar against such real injustice, not the BS we see thrown back and forth now.
The it all changed rather quickly for the worse:
A lot of this current crap really started as a mix of several things in this country. I noted a good part of it began when the strain of evangelical prosperity gospel pushing Nationalist Christianity came to the forefront starting more or less their own insane Holy War of intolerance.
It was these who also more or less started the whole Satanic Panic and actually promoted Satanism more than the stage act that was the "Church of Satan" and all the stupid stuff that spawned from that side of things.
In fact, the Satanic Panic actually did more to promote the nonsense of Satanism than against it that the gullible still get sucked into and then once they get screwed over act shocked about being screwed over by those running these "Satanic" groups and organizations.
The same mutually stupid movements feeding off of one another where and still are encouraging the ignorant in their huge cult-imposed isolation tactics through their various megachurches and inner occult manipulation of the general public, where those folks sucked into all of it, including politicians, seemed to decide that unless they didn't eliminate all other thoughts and views, then they were losing "Their God's Holy War." They started the more openly self-segregation themselves as well divisions into race-based cells.
Satanist, Racists, Evangelical Religious Extremists, and every other piece of society's garbage was on every talk show pretending to be reviled when in reality it was all being promoted playing a classic game of social engineering and subconscious assimilation.
It wasn't long after that, as I could see more clearly all of this garbage, that around 1995 we started seeing White and Black Nationalists returning back to the forefront spreading their poison, along with other garbage like Misandrist Feminist rhetoric adding more divisionary deceitful tactics on all fronts, including media, education, etc. Incidentally it was in those same times around the end of the 1980s and early 1990s the second wave of New Age garbage spewed forth as well.
That was followed by other groups pushing their own brands of race-based idiot-ologies and gender-based segregations and denials which is also based in occult ideology more than anything else and if you deny that, then you really are willfully blind and there is no number of facts that will help you to see this.
Constitutional Rights and Freedoms were already being dismantled:
From the so called second wave of Manic Panic with the whole 9/11 thing and the imposing of the unconstitutional Patriot Act that to date still hasn't been undone; we were all already being silenced on several fronts back then, as Americans, and it was also then that the demand to slap an ethnic or color distinction label with American at the end was being pushed the hardest, like African American even if you were not born and raised in Africa, instead of just American, or Mexican American, etc.
Oh, but if you said, "German American," or anything like that, you were "racist."
That "German American" part is an example of how easy a single sentence is used to shift one to a racist disposition and support instead of standing against it even if it is true that has and continues to occur. That is how the manipulation works. Making it bold and colored in different from the rest plays off basic human psychology.
I put this in there to teach you how easy it is to lead you to something else and when it's repeated a couple times elsewhere you end up engaging in racism without realizing you are being racist. The deceivers do this in every self-segregated community so that those raised with it carry on their hideous evil thinking they are doing good or the right thing
So many idiots have continued this narrative as tools, not independent thinking people even when such examples proving this when one actually takes a moment to think for themselves can readily see is true and more often than not, rather than admit the mistake, all have been conditioned to "deny it" which is dangerous to oneself, or refute it supposing they can never be caught up in such thing. We all have been. I have been. I have the courage to admit it and then stand against it from taking me down the same road back to that garbage no matter the pressure.
The point is, we all let the country get divided by allowing ourselves to be divided against ourselves. We well for the traps because we took the bait. No government official or Technocrat or Theocracy or technology or theology, or philosophy, or whatever will change that "for us." We have to begin with ourselves. We have to truly stand on our own and rightfully be cautious of those that are too complimentary because we often fail to see a false friends supports everything you do or say because they have an agenda of their own, while a true friend will call you out on their bullshit and let you do the same when you call them out on their own and you can both still remain friends without getting into childish petty emotional nonsense. It has to start with you and can only start with you. You cannot "policy" it out.
Far too many have become and got lazy about standing against the crap assuming it would "run its course and burn itself out" because of the "Laws" we had already established to oppose such things which eventual evolved and mutated into DEI and all the other crap occurring now. It's obvious that disposition was completely wrong, and a lot of people who spoke against it do serve a great big apology. The smart ones won't bank on waiting for it and simply continue to fight it within their own means.
Some of us do remember all of this!
Yes, indeed we do. We remember when everything was more analogue, computers were for governments and nerdy types working in laboratories on scientific things, while the rest of us were trying to make money, invest in the present and future, had hop for a healthier, better, brighter future and even talked about World Peace which really did seem to be in reach (and in many ways it was). No one talks about that now. And perhaps that's a problem in and of itself.
Those of us who remember this very clearly are the ones who are indeed rightfully appalled to see what's become of our discourse, and our loss of sense of community, in the last 30+ years.
I would like to hope that this new Amin will remember this process of descent into the crap we are drowning ourselves in and those few of us who do remember and want it to stop desperately for the good of all people, not some special isolated interest group.
If you want to know how most of us Gen X generation types actually managed to hold any clarity on these things as stated, it really isn't a secret. We stopped believing what the talking heads were saying on the monitor or TV and made efforts to help one another as well as ourselves out of our situations and didn't hesitate to jump on and stomp someone that was threatening us, especially if they were racists, anti-male feminists, or those trying to tell our kids everyone is really gay or bi or forcing any ideology on anyone, and most of all, we didn't all have to freaking agree on every damn thing and didn't fight over it.
We just chose not to agree and do our own thing.
When my time to leave this life finally comes, I hope to see more of the youth realize this quickly, teach each other to just accept who they are and not what everyone else demands of them, work hard to achieve things in life for themselves, their loved ones and so forth not at the expense of others, and that the best way to "fit in" is to stop worrying about trying to fit it.
You fit in being yourself even if it seems lonely for a while. However, how can you be yourself if you don't even know who you really are and have simply become the collective of what everyone else has said or demanded? The reality is you cannot. And here is a simple secret that isn't a secret on how to figure out who you actually are rather than what everyone else demands you to be:
Put down two pieces of paper or use a computer, or whatever and create two simple lists with one titled like and the other dislikes. Fill them in accordingly.
The ask yourself why you do or don't like such things and really think about it. Is it because it actually makes you feel good, or irritates you? Or is it mostly because everyone else expects you to like this and dislike that?
Then consider everything else along the same lines: music, clothing, style, shows, artists, even your sexual origination.
Is it all to fit in or is it all just smoke.
Then take time for a while and think of yourself as a blank slate.
Then remaining realistic within the actual limits of this physical reality you are in, design yourself.
Seriously, design yourself on how you would like to dress to express yourself.
Consider your mannerisms such as how you carry and express yourself if you like the classier or more flare, whatever. It's what you enjoy, really enjoy being and like about yourself.
Then when it comes to the things you honestly and deeply don't like about yourself, just stop caring about that, accept it and then let it go and focus back on the things you like.
This is not about finding yourself. This is about discovering and becoming yourself, and not the collective of what everyone else expects or demands.
You don't need force, and its better you slowly work yourself into this piece by piece and not try to jump out overnight. It's the same as taking your first steps as an infant. You rolled around. Eventually you crawled. Eventually you stood and developed your balance. You clumsily walked and then ran and eventually it was just something you do without really giving it much thought till you want to get up and walk or run. It's the same process. It is more or less similar to reinvention and casting the old self of all other external input into oblivious and becoming a new person under your own will.
Once that happens and if you are truly successful, you are truly free in yourself and in your mind. It is also when you truly can internalize that happiness does not come from "pleasure." It's what you choose to be or not be regardless the situation and also means you can gain more control over yourself by ceasing to give much of a damn about anything else you truly cannot change or control realizing the only thing you can change is you and how you choose to deal with or not deal with anything or anyone.
Then you can open your heart to compassion for others rather than the misguidance of the whole "love" thing. The reason is compassion is where the real caring about yourself and others and consideration of self and others completely comes in. Love is like pleasure. It's an illusion based on context because as one can love another person or a mere object, one can also love to kill and causing harm. That isn't how compassion works. In fact, compassion does not embrace the murderer or abuser. It rejects them.
So, to the younger generation thinking it's cool to take pot shots at Gen X and confusing us with "Boomers" and completely stupid and ignorant of these things from real history, here is a little bit of truth that transcends generations. Your current one will be judged also and as a warning, us Gen X types are the grandparents now. Gen X2 is coming and you better put your support behind them and remember what us "Old Farts" has said while you had us to get real guidance from than chasing after those who don't actually give a shit about you or whether you live or die.
