Strange but true

[MisterTinkles]

Just recently I realized some things that have "switched over" from one extreme to the other.
I graduated high school in the 80's, so its been about 30 years or so since....but things do take a little time to get even more screwed up than they already were.

So Im speaking of what was "the mode", "the way", or "the thing" in the 80's has pretty much become opposite from what it was then.


ANOREXIA was the big health problem then. There were TV movies about it, there were "starvation clubs" in schools, it was all over the news several times a week. Even a musical star, Karen Carpenter, died from anorexia.
OBESITY is the big health problem now. Almost everything in American foods is either grease, sugar, or starch. Nobody exercises anymore. Candy is EVERYWHERE. I mean really....isnt it child abuse when your 10 year old weighs 200 pounds???? Or your husband is confined to the bedroom, because he's too obese to get thru the door???

Compact cars were being pushed on the public to get people to cut down on gas consumption. Cars were getting smaller and smaller, until the "Big 3" said "to hell with it" and started making economizations in the engines and started making "luxury" sized vehicles again.
Trucks, SUV's, and "gas guzzlers" have become the norm now, simply because nobody cares anymore. The more economical the engine gets, the bigger the vehicle gets, which still is the same as having a big gas guzzler.....because it takes the same amount of fuel to haul a larger vehicle with an economical engine, as it does to haul a smaller vehicle with a large engine.

Healthcare Insurance was a choice then. You did not have to have it. A lot of hospitals and clinics, and Doctors offices still had "pay as you go" plans.
Healthcare Insurance is no longer a choice in some places, even if you cant afford it. And if the new laws pass for the health reform in 2015, ANYONE who holds a job will be REQUIRED to have personal healthcare insurance or get fined for it...whether your company pays for it or not.

People used to get to know each other before they jumped into anything.....sex or relationships.
People now jump right to sex, then move in together and find out they ARENT compatible, then break up and wonder what the fuck happened.

The police used to be concerned for the people. Actually DO what they are paid to do with our tax money.....help us out when needed and protect us.
Now the police are nothing more than thugs, criminals, and murderers. They want nothing more than to get a "free" paycheck for doing nothing, and still getting the chance to kill, maim, and destroy people for their own ego's. Who is going to protect us from the police?

[JimmyDalton]

Good to know how time changes almost everything.

Very long time ago, my grandma said that women would no more be ashamed being naked...

Are there any other change of trends regarding gender issue? Like men nowadays dress less open than they did, and women vice versa?

[pellaz]

HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
hospital fees for my recent broken arm was around $10,000.00 dont think you would like to pay that out of pocket.

POLICE
Denver city police in the 1980 were extremely corrupt. Much of the police force was out in the evenings robbing houses and business. They have stopped that practice in modern times.

PEOPLE
lets talk about gay men. the 1980's was pre HIV. I bet they spent the time to get to know the partner.
Ssame sex marriage becomes the standard not the exception gay culture will change again

[Wade]

Perspective is everything.

[Pix]

I'm not so sure...I see as much anorexia (and other eating disorders) as I've always had. OTOH, I also see more obesity...though not as much as claimed since too many use the very faulty BMI system to determine who is obese (I consider it a scandal of science that the BMI is still used by some doctors today). School food has remained as fattening as ever (if anything it's less fattening now as at least the soda and candy machines have been removed from many schools) and seems to involve that kids are no longer as physically active due to less space to play in outside (endless development), helicopter parents constantly worrying about a thousand menaces (menaces that I don't think are worse today save in areas hit hard by economic recession but plenty of authors & talk show hosts draw in viewers by terrifying parents so many have gone from too naive to too paranoid) that want to keep them inside, and social media aggravating the trend even further (so instead of meeting outside somewhere kids meet online, including to game). Without exercise, and with the school food intentionally made fattening to make them fit for military service (this was decades ago and schools are only changing now), it's bad for them, and doesn't help that a lot of fattening food is also cheaper so they're encouraged to eat it outside of school as well as encouraged not to be physically active.

I think cops have always been thugs (though not all of them, and as a general rule cops are as laid back, tense, corrupt, easygoing, virtuous, etc, as the communities they patrol with cops who don't meet community standards either fired or transferred to where they do fit in more). However, the last 10 years has had the government training all cops to view everyone as the enemy which thus exacerbates the already "us vs. them" mentality many had (typical of any gang) and encouraging them to act more like an occupying army (with all the weapons and toys that go with that) so that they're encouraged to act ABOVE the community rather than part of it, so I do think it's gotten worse than it had been...but still wasn't that good before. Plus new laws and SCOTUS decisions also enable bad police conduct, too. And don't get me started on the tasers...

Of course with the internet it's a lot easier for stories of bad cops to spread, too, whereas before they tended to be local matters quickly forgotten rather than national news so that now bad cops anywhere are news we see. (Btw, wonder if Houston stations now play that movie based on the 70s cops who basically gunned down a runaway teen for sport and then threw a gun from the evidence room down by the kid's corpse and said he'd drawn it, though a PI hired by the parents proved it was registered as evidence and not been in their victim's possession...it would play on cable, but local stations when I was a kid always played a different movie. Seems pointless now.)

Health care was a lot different then, too. As best I recall, Carter tried to reform health care to be like Canada (not to be confused with Romneycare/Obamacare) but then Reagan replaced him and privatized it by giving it to Wall Street so that hospitals went from being small business to corporate where numbers on paper mattered, and that radically changed health care and its affordability in the years to come. Back in the 80s many could "pay as you go." Not so much these days. 'Course the law suits (and some absurd practices by the DEA) don't help either but I think Wall Street gouging and unethical practices are more to blame for it all.

[VileKyle]

[MisterTinkles]

People used to wait their turn, now they just CUT in line.

People used to walk single file down hallways, sidewalks, etc...now they walk shoulder to shoulder, blocking anybody else who is walking down the same...AND they dont fucking MOVE!!

People used to wait until other people exited an elevator before entering, now they just SHOVE themselves into an elevator without even letting people IN the elevator exit first!!

People used to wait their turn, excuse themselves, or ask for assistance when needing something where someone else was standing. Now they just SHOVE themselves in front of you without saying a goddamned word!!

If it were legal to shoot lousy fucking mannerless morons, Id have half the douchebags in Dallas dead and buried by now.

[trialbyerror]

Morning Tinkles... It's around 07:30 on Sunday here... don't ask....

Your OP

In both of our countries, back then, it was said "there would be a black president in office" before legalising same-sex partnerships

Well guess what?

2 switches right there!

A black president and legalisation of same-sex partnerships mile:

Nice post