Lately, I’ve seen quite a proliferation of memes using images like this. ^ A society purposefully and relentlessly conditioned by corporate propaganda is a society quite receptive to the alluring appeal of the “good old days” hype. Like all myths, its mere existence makes other illusions easier to swallow.
DDT didn’t and doesn’t weaken eggshells, when used according to directions. Pittsburgh area native Rachel Carson (who has a bridge, Sixth Street, named after her) came up with that theory. On the surface, her idea that our pollution gets into the water then the fish that mammals eat which are then eaten by humans thus causing everything heath problems, isn’t a bad idea on the surface. But it’s not true.
But what bothers me about what she wrote in her book, is that DDT wasn’t banned in the USA (nor did SJWs discourage 3rd world countries )until AFTER we finished using it to kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Good enough for the USA, but not people who had and have no way of defending themselves against the problems.
Black people in the South started migrating North in 1901, for jobs. Northerners did what they could to help them.
When we say “The Good Old Days”, we are referring to jobs. But now, we can bring back the jobs without the pollution we had back then.
👿 😡 😖 I’m tired of seeing the same lies and half truths, regurgitated over and over again. And actual truths, in attempts to make white people feel guilty, and everyone else angry.
Correction. Ninth Street Bridge is named after Rachel Carson. Sixth is Roberto Clemente, Seventh is Andy Warhol. I feel so ashamed. I’m just gonna go stand in the corner for a few minutes.
Spot on once again Mickey!!! Just like our own personal lives. Even if we wanted to go back, it doesn’t exist. Just lessons from it to apply moving forward.
Amen, Kim! Just yesterday, I was telling my friend Alicen Grey about this post. She shared similar thoughts and inspired me to take my closing words and apply them to my personal life, too!
The Bigotry experienced by Blacks, Indians and others was everywhere, but it was also sporadic. Not everyone was a bigot, and a lot of white people went out of their way and even risked their lives to help others. The good done by those people (including the white people who fought for the North in the Civil War) never gets mentioned. All some people want to do is point fingers.
When you point one finger at someone else, you point 3 more back at yourself. So look at the positives that were done. That’s the only way to make (or keep and change to) better.
Lately, I see and hear a lot more lies and half truths. It’s frustrating, but I’m not angry because I hear them. I’m angry because young people hear them. They believe the lies.
Climateactionnowblacklivesmattermakelovenotwarpolicebrutality. It’s all a blur to me at this point, and I know it’s not true. But it’s difficult to convince young people to believe otherwise.
Every single one of us is vulnerable to swallowing lies. No one is immune. I find it helpful to prioritize opening my own mind more and more. Be a role model.
Bro. You have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Jim Crow. Look it up. Indian schools look it up. Racism was--and *is* institutionalised. You don't need to feel bad about it as a non-brown person, but you sure as federal overreach better get it through your fucking head that bigotry against anyone other than white people was (and to a degree still is) a matter of policy if not law. Indian "schools" where children were punished for speaking their languages or living their culture. Jim Crow. Segregation. All of it. Yea: good people are everywhere. But that does NOT obviate the real and true and provable nature of institutionalised racism.
When you downplay the horrific history of racism and violence against non-European people on this continent you reveal yourself to be either privileged to the degree of blindness or disingenuous altogether. Or perhaps both. My great aunt was the daughter of freed slaves and spent a good bit of her childhood as a sharecropper in Virginia. I'll take her personal account of what she experienced as a black woman over any mealy-mouthed bullshit from a white man who says it wasn't all that bad. Fuck sake. Read a book.
I won’t be feeling guilty or read up on things done to other people, WHEN I ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I’m not going to type everything in my brain. So you fuck off.
Mate? Ok, Aussie. You worry about what happens Down Under. I’ve learned a lot more about history since I graduated from high school, than I learned from grade school to 12th.
I'm not Australian, friend. I live in Appalachia and I'm a farmer. Spent quite a bit of time in the UK in my previous life and picked up some slang as a consequence. Careful with those assumptions, mate. Tricky little bastards those.
Great. I’m in PA, where we sent guys to help free the slaves, though it was more complicated than that. Careful with those assumptions, about what other people know about history.
Brother, I'm not saying you don't know anything about history. I'm calling bullshit on your counter narrative that somehow, because there are virtuous white people, bigotry against non-euros wasn't all that bad. If you're truly a student of history, even on a cursory basis, you'd know that's hardly a defensible argument. Jim Crow LAWS existed, alright? It was governments enshrining racist philosophy as policy. Redlining existed. Indian schools existed. These are facts of history that absolutely contradict and correct your stated position. Either accept that or don't, but I won't waste my time with pointless debate over wtaf happened to my Black ancestors. In my lifetime it was ILLEGAL for me to be married to or involved with a Black woman. Thank god we can't be sent to prison nowadays for simply falling in love. Chew on that. There was a time when YOUR government made Love illegal.
Do I feel guilty for being of European descent? Hardly. Guilt is a useless emotion. It serves only to keep us from being accountable and honest. But I'm also not ignorant enough to say that because my progenitors weren't slavers that somehow I walk through the world absolved of the past present or future problems of humanity. All humans are my sisters and brothers. Every. Single. One. An injustice to anyone is something I need to take personally and seriously because I am called to LOVE my fellow human being. Yeshua bar Yusef gave us two commandments: love god, love each other. That's what counts. I won't let anyone convince me otherwise.
Enjoy your day, friend. I hope it's as beautiful in the north as it is in my corner of the blue ridge.
I think it was the comedian Doug Stanhope who said that the good old days only seem good to you because you were young. "It's not the time that you lived in that was good, being young is good!" These days now will be a generation's Good Old Days one day, and that's not a good thing or a bad thing - it's just how we are
I hear you but one of the points of my post is that by romanticizing the past as "the good old days," we may neglect the crucial need to do better now.
The “good ole days” when life was simpler ran at a slower pace.. simple pleasures .. like conversation… walking in the country.. listening to nature .. eating foods rich in minerals .. all gone and replaced by fast food.. instant gratification.. the bit that gets left out is gratefulness.. everyone seems to lack appreciation for the simple things..having many toys of distraction makes attention spans shorten..try going one weekend off grid.. no phone .. no internet.. no music.. just walk in open countryside by a river .. reconnect.. that which is missing is free.
EXACTLY!! The problem is we're conditioned to be dependent on industrialism and it's scion technology. Don't tell me I can't get lost in the goddamn woods for a day (or six). Yes: I'm using a smart phone. But I can put it down. Just like I can jam on my back porch with some neighbours, enjoy a fire of an evening, plant a garden, walk the dog, and enjoy the paradise that is my patch of planet earth.
The choice isn't between nostalgia and modernity. The choice is between humanity and technology. That is the choice. The Divine or the devilish. It's not a choice limited by the timeline.
That’s why I don’t watch the national news coverage. Local news, once or a few times a day. Check a few apps. I should read the Bible more. I can trust that.
Msybe when we wish for "the good old days", many of us are remembering the good memories made when we were young - as a way to relieve ourselves, momentarily, of the nightmare we are living in now!! That's what I mean when I use that phrase..
I hear you, Marlene, and (obviously) people can use this phrase as they choose. But, in the context of my post, I'm positing that the nightmare you speak of is partly due to us misreading the past.
Yep. Just as there was no "greatest generation". I am not an American. I know my "polite" forebears interned people, sterilized people, turned away people seeking refuge...because they were somehow unfit to be part of the society that had grown up to cover that if the earlier inhabitants
I really appreciate this post, Mickey. There was a time when nostalgia was treated as a mental disorder. As a guy in a mixed "race" relationship (I don't generally use racist terms like race, but it's necessary in context), I have absolutely zero desire to go back to a time when we could get arrested, tried, and hauled off to the pokey simply for falling in love. It still blows my everloving mind that our relationship was illegal in my lifetime.
DDT didn’t and doesn’t weaken eggshells, when used according to directions. Pittsburgh area native Rachel Carson (who has a bridge, Sixth Street, named after her) came up with that theory. On the surface, her idea that our pollution gets into the water then the fish that mammals eat which are then eaten by humans thus causing everything heath problems, isn’t a bad idea on the surface. But it’s not true.
But what bothers me about what she wrote in her book, is that DDT wasn’t banned in the USA (nor did SJWs discourage 3rd world countries )until AFTER we finished using it to kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Good enough for the USA, but not people who had and have no way of defending themselves against the problems.
Black people in the South started migrating North in 1901, for jobs. Northerners did what they could to help them.
When we say “The Good Old Days”, we are referring to jobs. But now, we can bring back the jobs without the pollution we had back then.
👿 😡 😖 I’m tired of seeing the same lies and half truths, regurgitated over and over again. And actual truths, in attempts to make white people feel guilty, and everyone else angry.
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To paraphrase Bruce Lee: If you empty your cup, you can taste the tea I am offering.
Correction. Ninth Street Bridge is named after Rachel Carson. Sixth is Roberto Clemente, Seventh is Andy Warhol. I feel so ashamed. I’m just gonna go stand in the corner for a few minutes.
I believe the technical term for this is «phantom nostalgia», by an analogy to phantom pain felt in amputated limbs.
Indeed, we're so often chasing phantoms of every variety.
Spot on once again Mickey!!! Just like our own personal lives. Even if we wanted to go back, it doesn’t exist. Just lessons from it to apply moving forward.
Amen, Kim! Just yesterday, I was telling my friend Alicen Grey about this post. She shared similar thoughts and inspired me to take my closing words and apply them to my personal life, too!
And what's wrong with that.
What do you mean?
The Bigotry experienced by Blacks, Indians and others was everywhere, but it was also sporadic. Not everyone was a bigot, and a lot of white people went out of their way and even risked their lives to help others. The good done by those people (including the white people who fought for the North in the Civil War) never gets mentioned. All some people want to do is point fingers.
When you point one finger at someone else, you point 3 more back at yourself. So look at the positives that were done. That’s the only way to make (or keep and change to) better.
"Ears to hear and eyes to see — both are gifts from the LORD." (Proverbs 20:12-13)
Absolutely.
Lately, I see and hear a lot more lies and half truths. It’s frustrating, but I’m not angry because I hear them. I’m angry because young people hear them. They believe the lies.
Climateactionnowblacklivesmattermakelovenotwarpolicebrutality. It’s all a blur to me at this point, and I know it’s not true. But it’s difficult to convince young people to believe otherwise.
Every single one of us is vulnerable to swallowing lies. No one is immune. I find it helpful to prioritize opening my own mind more and more. Be a role model.
Bro. You have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Jim Crow. Look it up. Indian schools look it up. Racism was--and *is* institutionalised. You don't need to feel bad about it as a non-brown person, but you sure as federal overreach better get it through your fucking head that bigotry against anyone other than white people was (and to a degree still is) a matter of policy if not law. Indian "schools" where children were punished for speaking their languages or living their culture. Jim Crow. Segregation. All of it. Yea: good people are everywhere. But that does NOT obviate the real and true and provable nature of institutionalised racism.
When you downplay the horrific history of racism and violence against non-European people on this continent you reveal yourself to be either privileged to the degree of blindness or disingenuous altogether. Or perhaps both. My great aunt was the daughter of freed slaves and spent a good bit of her childhood as a sharecropper in Virginia. I'll take her personal account of what she experienced as a black woman over any mealy-mouthed bullshit from a white man who says it wasn't all that bad. Fuck sake. Read a book.
I won’t be feeling guilty or read up on things done to other people, WHEN I ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I’m not going to type everything in my brain. So you fuck off.
Your reply speaks volumes. You have zero credibility on this topic so, maybe you could take your own advice. Cheers, mate.
Mate? Ok, Aussie. You worry about what happens Down Under. I’ve learned a lot more about history since I graduated from high school, than I learned from grade school to 12th.
I'm not Australian, friend. I live in Appalachia and I'm a farmer. Spent quite a bit of time in the UK in my previous life and picked up some slang as a consequence. Careful with those assumptions, mate. Tricky little bastards those.
Great. I’m in PA, where we sent guys to help free the slaves, though it was more complicated than that. Careful with those assumptions, about what other people know about history.
Brother, I'm not saying you don't know anything about history. I'm calling bullshit on your counter narrative that somehow, because there are virtuous white people, bigotry against non-euros wasn't all that bad. If you're truly a student of history, even on a cursory basis, you'd know that's hardly a defensible argument. Jim Crow LAWS existed, alright? It was governments enshrining racist philosophy as policy. Redlining existed. Indian schools existed. These are facts of history that absolutely contradict and correct your stated position. Either accept that or don't, but I won't waste my time with pointless debate over wtaf happened to my Black ancestors. In my lifetime it was ILLEGAL for me to be married to or involved with a Black woman. Thank god we can't be sent to prison nowadays for simply falling in love. Chew on that. There was a time when YOUR government made Love illegal.
Do I feel guilty for being of European descent? Hardly. Guilt is a useless emotion. It serves only to keep us from being accountable and honest. But I'm also not ignorant enough to say that because my progenitors weren't slavers that somehow I walk through the world absolved of the past present or future problems of humanity. All humans are my sisters and brothers. Every. Single. One. An injustice to anyone is something I need to take personally and seriously because I am called to LOVE my fellow human being. Yeshua bar Yusef gave us two commandments: love god, love each other. That's what counts. I won't let anyone convince me otherwise.
Enjoy your day, friend. I hope it's as beautiful in the north as it is in my corner of the blue ridge.
I think it was the comedian Doug Stanhope who said that the good old days only seem good to you because you were young. "It's not the time that you lived in that was good, being young is good!" These days now will be a generation's Good Old Days one day, and that's not a good thing or a bad thing - it's just how we are
I hear you but one of the points of my post is that by romanticizing the past as "the good old days," we may neglect the crucial need to do better now.
The title of your post was "please don't fall for the good old days myth", I think I got what you meant and I wasn't disagreeing with you
The “good ole days” when life was simpler ran at a slower pace.. simple pleasures .. like conversation… walking in the country.. listening to nature .. eating foods rich in minerals .. all gone and replaced by fast food.. instant gratification.. the bit that gets left out is gratefulness.. everyone seems to lack appreciation for the simple things..having many toys of distraction makes attention spans shorten..try going one weekend off grid.. no phone .. no internet.. no music.. just walk in open countryside by a river .. reconnect.. that which is missing is free.
All that simplicity is still available to us.
EXACTLY!! The problem is we're conditioned to be dependent on industrialism and it's scion technology. Don't tell me I can't get lost in the goddamn woods for a day (or six). Yes: I'm using a smart phone. But I can put it down. Just like I can jam on my back porch with some neighbours, enjoy a fire of an evening, plant a garden, walk the dog, and enjoy the paradise that is my patch of planet earth.
The choice isn't between nostalgia and modernity. The choice is between humanity and technology. That is the choice. The Divine or the devilish. It's not a choice limited by the timeline.
That’s why I don’t watch the national news coverage. Local news, once or a few times a day. Check a few apps. I should read the Bible more. I can trust that.
Msybe when we wish for "the good old days", many of us are remembering the good memories made when we were young - as a way to relieve ourselves, momentarily, of the nightmare we are living in now!! That's what I mean when I use that phrase..
I hear you, Marlene, and (obviously) people can use this phrase as they choose. But, in the context of my post, I'm positing that the nightmare you speak of is partly due to us misreading the past.
I do ty for giving us food for thought.
Yep. Just as there was no "greatest generation". I am not an American. I know my "polite" forebears interned people, sterilized people, turned away people seeking refuge...because they were somehow unfit to be part of the society that had grown up to cover that if the earlier inhabitants
Thank you so much, Jaye, for getting it! 🙏
I really appreciate this post, Mickey. There was a time when nostalgia was treated as a mental disorder. As a guy in a mixed "race" relationship (I don't generally use racist terms like race, but it's necessary in context), I have absolutely zero desire to go back to a time when we could get arrested, tried, and hauled off to the pokey simply for falling in love. It still blows my everloving mind that our relationship was illegal in my lifetime.
Amen, Dean...thank you for sharing and understanding. 🙏 I appreciate you and I also appreciate the word choice of "pokey"!
I'm old timey 😂
🥰