Anyone whose brain functions can see that society is declining. What was the point that we started going downhill?
Question of the Day, Jun 8
Anyone whose brain functions can see that society is declining. What was the point that we started going downhill?
Larry flynt obscenity trial.
To think that there is one single point is simplistic. Society is in constant evolution, and portions may be improving while other portions are decaying.
That said, some important inflection points would include Lincoln’s war of aggression, the so-called Spanish-American War, the US entry in WWI and creation of an expeditionary force, FDR’s election, FDR’s destruction of vast portions of our concept of federalism and legitimate authority, FDR’s outlawing of gold (see a theme here?), the internal mass migrations during WWII, the bad effects of the civil rights movement, the 70’s in general, Clinton’s election, and Obama’s election.
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971) which instituted “busing” of students for the purpose of desegregating our public schools and resulted in the end of the neighborhood schools, a system that was the basis for a cohesive nation with shared common values.
Many things went downhill from that point onward, not just education in itself but everything related to the cohesive neighborhoods that were the basis of American unity at that time.
About the time we started handing out shit for free….
LBJ.
Persnickety, simplistic maybe, true and accurate, absolutely!
When JFK was assassinated.
or
When the U.S. went off the Gold standard (1971)
It wasn’t a point, it was a process culminating in the Left’s dominance of popular culture, academia, government policy, and journalism. The free-wheeling moral environment that accompanied this transition gave the greedy on Wall Street license to work their own special magic on the ecomomy.
So we have arrived at fat ladies in stores celebrating their own farts. Way to go, ‘murica.
1913 was a very bad year.
Gayle, love that picture, but there definitely was a single point, even if difficult to determine.
I think the one I can remember is in he early 70s society started to approve and pay for teenage girls getting pregnant.That led to a lot of fatherless bastard babies who then grew up to be criminals and drug addicts.
April 9th, 1865. Appomattox, VA.
he birth of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
When the Bankers got together way back then. Or when the idea of Taxes was thought up.
I am torn between Ragman and Anonymous: the loss of the War of Northern Aggression and the year 1913 (Federal Reserve established, income tax instituted) are both local low points in a function that continuously flexes up and down.
LBJ’s War on Poverty declaration is another candidate.
I suspect that once the original intent of the Founding Fathers started dropping from SCOTUS decisions is yet another. Say, the direct election of Senators for a focus point.
But the latest losses are only recent failures in a long string of defeats for honesty, integrity and common sense.
Back in PA Mike
OK then. Television.
The 1964 Civil Riots Act which gave the Communist the wedge of Affirmative Action, Quotas, Diversity, Vote Fraud, Racist Gerrymandering, Busing, Dumb Down everything, the abandoning of the Civil Service Exam, College Entrance Aptitude Tests; Racist Educational/Training Programs, hiring and promotions; Sensitivity Training/Brainwashing, the Negro Job Corps, Federal Negro Housing, college Negro Sports Programs, Political Correctness etc etc. Southerners call it Reconstruction II.
Opinions… now… loading…
SOCIALLY: Many will argue Elvis’s (and his now iconic, gyrating pelvis’s) national TV debut in 1956 first on a program called the Stage Show, then later on Milton Berle and finally on the Ed Sullivan Shew.
ECONOMIC / POLITICAL: Some will argue Abe Lincoln (violating the Constitution / states rights etc) or Jekyl Island (birth of Federal Reserve creature) or the assignation of JFK or the “Nixon Shock” (petro-dollar / killing of the Gold Standard, etc).
MEDIA / FREE PRESS: For me, I began to really wake up to ALL of the bullshit during the Iran Contra Affair (seeing Oliver North testify, etc). Then, definitely Bork and Clarence Thomas.
And finally, in my opinion, it really went off the rails with the Clinton / Monica Lewinsky fiasco. This is when both the American media and body politic truly abdicated their responsibility to the Republic. This is also when the American political left, especially, bared their collective asses (pardon the pun) for all to see.
After Clinton’s “Depends on what the definition of “is” is and “I did not sleep with that woman, etc) – the cum-stained blue dress was torn away and blatent dishonesty, hypocrisy, dishonor and downright treason was exposed beneath. Yet it was all whitewashed by a sycophant press as they lulled the masses to sleep in subtle, near hypnotic, ways.
After that, there was no hiding. The agenda was unapologetically disclosed for anyone willing to see. Why the sheeple chose to sleepily embrace the “lullaby” will be a topic that will be debated by future historians long after the smoke and ash clear from the imminent throes and (Elvis like)gyrations of the Forth Turning.
That’s my take. Probally all a moot point now anyway.
I suppose what is needed now is…. a little less conversation, a little more action please…
5 secs after the ink was dry on the Constitution
December 23rd, 1913
The 1965 immigration act
Willie Clinton claiming that he smoked weed, but did not inhale. Look what that got us – a horrible, awful, chooming negro that admits to being a stoner (puff puff pass) in charge of the used-to-be free world. This country is like Joe Hardy in “Damn Yankees”.
There is no one thing. The nation was formed flawed and will shake itself apart as a result. The Forefathers created the most brilliant piece of legislature to ever be conceived of, kicking off the most free country the world has ever known.
Now the party is ending. Cheers everyone.
There are several posts here that I agree with, especially harry p, ragman, and anon. I think those are all points that the republic took a hard hit. As far as why do so many people act like they do today, I think its roughly correlated with two things. One, easy and cheap availability of the dumbest and most disgusting displays of humanity on hundreds of channels streaming into nearly every American household(not mine, I cancelled that shit soon after our youngest was born). As the different shows began competing for viewers, they began pushing the boundaries of decency further and further away from what most of us would consider acceptable, because thats how you get viewers. People began to imitate what they see on TV, and what used to be considered shocking gradually became normal to most people.
While this was just getting going, LBJs ‘great society’ began to grow the modern welfare state into what we see today. We began paying people to do nothing, and while doing nothing they would sit around and watch this same mindless stupidity all day, as would their children, and as each new generation comes in, they see how their parents act, and do the same thing, only it gradually gets worse.
So, short version, TV and welfare. A one/two punch.
1787, Philadelphia: Constitutional Convention.
http://garynorth.com/phildelphia.pdf
There is a pathway of incremental steps that got us here. In my opinion, if you could follow them back to the very first step from the constitutional path onto that first incremental step, you will have found what brought us here through FDR’s New Deal, Eisenhower’s military industrial complex (just because he WARNED about it doesn’t mean he didn’t profit off it), Kennedy’s attempt to do something about organized crime and Cuba and all of the underhanded manipulation in Vietnam that went on during the 1960s, Nixon and the gold standard, Watergate, Pentagon Papers, Gerald Lameass Ford which brought us Jimmy Carter, who for all intents appears to be a good man but a terrible diplomatic analyst. I’m sure you can take it from there, but really, it is backward we have to go and it may land us very close to that 5 seconds after the Constitution was signed harry p. suggested.
Our society left the tracks when JFK was assassinated. As those of you who lived through it with me will recall, MLK and RFK were next and connected to the JFK hit job.
Too soon to tell.
Too many good options to chose. The above are great, but I would add some of the following options to the mix:
1) When paleface landed
2) When the first blacks were imported.
3) When the decision was made not to seal the borders
4) when Social Security was implemented (and thus the greatest start of welfare as we know it)
5) when govt drones were allowed to unionize
6) implementation of income tax
7) Vietnam War
8) allowing the rise of Japan by not requiring it to fund its own defense at cost of several percent of GDP per year
9) rebuilding Europe via the Marshall plan
10) when US became world’s police state (redundant with Vietnam War I suppose)
11) allowing those on govt payroll/receiving govt monies to vote
12) allowing the first federal budget deficit
13) defined benefit pensions for govt drones
14) stopping Patton at Berlin
1913—Income tax amendment and Federal Reserve Act. See The Golden Pinnacle for a novelistic look at that time.
19th Amendment.
1913. Fiat money corrupts the very basis of all human activity. You reap what you sow. Immorality gets more immorality.
keep it simple folks…when women chose to eat like
little piggies and forgoe the bra and girdle…choosing instead
sloppy elastic waist slacks and crummy T-shirts and sweat
shirts. My mother would say “it” began with the ubiquitous
wearing of blue jeans. Then also, if you are only watching TV
waiting for the EBT card there is no reason to even get dressed.
Then again, only 1/2 the population are fat. BTW, fat people
are miserable and hate thin people. And anyone that has a
groomed appearance. Maybe the slobs hate themselves first.
On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion.
When you elected Ronald Reagan in 1979 – I was 13 years old then, and even I knew instinctively that he was an all-out fraud who would sell out the american populace to what I was later to know as the MIC.
(Still remember the morning after the election – hey, there were only 3(!) TV-programs in all of Germany, which normally started transmitting around 15:30 and stopped transmitting around 00:00, so breakfast-TV – to inform about the US-elections – was short of a sensation!)
btw, I liked “Fargo”, Season 2 very much – the actor who impersonated Reagan was really good 😉