Things we consider normal now

[Rogar]

The guy was talking loudly into one of those newfangled cell phones, and the conversation was something along the lines of, "Hey Joey, watcha doing? Me and Lucy are having dinner at Biaggio's. Blah, blah, blah." I said to DH that if I were the woman with him, I would get up and walk out if my dining companion was so rude and so disinterested in talking with me that he had to chat with a friend on the phone.

And from my Luddite perspective, the common conversation hasn't changed much since cell phone introduction.

Yoga was once fringe or new agey and is commonly accepted now. Organic and meatless alternative foods, women athletes (has a ways to go), brewpubs, and access to a world of information, disinformation, music, and video entertainment. Shopping from home, working from home, big houses and small yards. Xeric landscaping. A somewhat general acceptance of human caused global warming and zero carbon emissions theories or facts. Cremations. Masks in public places.

[happystuff]

Access to the world. Growing up it seemed that I only heard about "rich" people going on trips to countries on other continents. Now even *I* can go international! LOL

[JaneV2.0]

Mass shootings, creeping fascism...

A library and a music collection you can put in your pocket, then use it to call home.

That one's house would cost ten times a living wage, and take at least two people working to support.

That said, I wouldn't want to relive our crusty past.

[littlebittybobby]

Okay----Paying Bills By Phone. A better way than the time-consuming process of writing checks, licking envelopes, putting stampsa on them after locating all that stuff, and getting it all in the mail. Yup. I still do a little o' that, but not nearly so much. Hope that helps you some.

[LDAHL]

I think we’ve become a more fearful culture than we were three or four decades ago. Look at all the panics and counter-panics driven by Covid.

We fear competition more than we used to. “Equity” has come to replace equality, with equal outcomes being more important than a level playing field.

More and more, we even fear words, with self-appointed cultural gatekeepers trying to proscribe various words they claim make them feel afraid. It’s like the Thought Police version of broken window theory.

[frugal-one]

I think we’ve become a more fearful culture than we were three or four decades ago. Look at all the panics and counter-panics driven by Covid.

We fear competition more than we used to. “Equity” has come to replace equality, with equal outcomes being more important than a level playing field.

More and more, we even fear words, with self-appointed cultural gatekeepers trying to proscribe various words they claim make them feel afraid. It’s like the Thought Police version of broken window theory.

Apparently you are the self-appointed cultural gatekeeper….. knowing and using “thought police” and “broken window theory” concepts.

[Rogar]

Fortunately I don't know what the broken window theory is and am not sure about who the thought police are.

Fear has taken different forms through the decades. Cold wars and hiding under desks, Cuban missile crisis, run away inflation in the Reagan years. The war on drugs. Fewer medical remedies. A financial meltdown. I guess we did have a pandemic.

[littlebittybobby]

Fortunately I don't know what the broken window theory is and am not sure about who the thought police are.

Fear has taken different forms through the decades. Cold wars and hiding under desks, Cuban missile crisis, run away inflation in the Reagan years. The war on drugs. Fewer medical remedies. A financial meltdown. I guess we did have a pandemic.

Yeah, that "broken window theory" is one o' those ideas similat to the ol' Domino Theory, that essentially means "one bad thing leads to another" and more laws and carte blanche enforcement is justified. But if a little is good, then more is better and too much is just right! Right? That has a tendency to happen, unless there is pushback. So, the cagey psychopathic public official (such as Dennis "BTK" Rader)is careful to exercise caution, and only pick on vulnerable individuals. They also had a city dept careerist in SFD. who selectively bullied property owners for years, until one night at his home he was arrested for a domestic fracas, in which he held a loaded pistol to his wifes' head. See? But no--The BW theory is not necessarily true, OR a real theory, but is what you might at best call "conventional wisdom" or a "heuristic approach" to problem solving. Yup.

[iris lilies]

Broken window theory is/was popular in fighting urban crime back 20+ years ago. My neighborhood really bought into it.
it just describes breakdown in an urban fabric such as the lowest level of crime would be littering in the street. Three to have tons of litter invite more neglect. A broken window. A broken window invites. Why neglect because people think no one is paying attention, so another couple of broken windows take place. Then graffiti. Then more graffiti. Then muggings. Then house break-ins… it all escalates.

that is an interesting analogy. LDAHL.

[iris lilies]

Fortunately I don't know what the broken window theory is and am not sure about who the thought police are.

Fear has taken different forms through the decades. Cold wars and hiding under desks, Cuban missile crisis, run away inflation in the Reagan years. The war on drugs. Fewer medical remedies. A financial meltdown. I guess we did have a pandemic.

Thought police are especially rampant on university campuses and they patrol social media platforms as well. I would say those institutions are the most populated with thought police but Lord knows they’re everywhere.