Trump is the monster that the 80's created

[DSandra]

Trump is the epitome in a nutshell of the 80's mindset: greed is good, only care about yourself, the only thing that matters in life is money.

Just look at this MTV documentary from 1989, talking about the 80's, and it looks all too familiar...

skip to 11:28

Consequently also, this mindset from the 80's has contributed a great deal to destroying American society.

[d_r]

1. The 80s

From the baby boomer generation point of view. Not the pov of gen x who were kids then.

[misanthrope]

19. Not necessarily

Plenty of Gen Xers spent adolescence in the 1980s and absorbed the things noted in the video. Some pushed back on Reaganism while others absorbed it.

That's why the '90s unfolded the way they did, with an initial cultural wave moving away from the mainstream American mindset. Alternative music and lifestyles piqued interests. But then that, too became commodified and next thing we knew, neoliberalism ascended in the Democratic Party and killed hopes of regaining ground lost in the '80s.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Kinda hated the 80's myself......

Loved the 70's though......

[Yavin4]

3. Same here.

The 80s were the backlash to the 70s. People who hated dancing got a decade of their own.

[DSandra]

14. The seeds of the 80's were planted in the 70's

Milton Friedman's promotion of neoliberal economics, the corporate revolution, Ford and Carter's adoption of deregulation, the rise of the religious right, Thatcher.

[PatSeg]

38. Yes, I hated the 80's as well

Everything was so superficial and uninspired, plus a lot of the music really sucked. It was a decade of hyper consumerism and the movie "Wall Street" was often viewed as a how-to manual. It was also a time when homelessness started to become epidemic, thanks to welfare program cutbacks, unaffordable housing, and income inequality. So many people were only one or two paychecks away from living on the streets. The rich, however, did get richer. Thanks Reagan.

Like you, I much preferred the 70's. It had more character and substance, which was often reflected in the music. Best music of my lifetime.

[PatSeg]

43. You know

Watching some of this video I realize that music in the 1980's was altered forever because of MTV and the obnoxious, flashy videos. A lot of really good music got pushed aside or overlooked, because the high production videos dominated the music scene.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. I have said it many times, we started down the road to christofascist theocracy with Reagan.

[alittlelark]

30. +1000

[Raine]

5. Raygun made Trump possible

I absolutely HATE Raygun above all others!

[ZZenith]

6. Worst decade ever.

Cultural black hole. The idealism of the ‘60’s fell into the frustration of the ‘70’s which surrendered to the vapidity of the ‘80’s.

[DSandra]

9. The conservatives couldn't allow the people to demand to be treated fairly

They were obsessed with dismantling the power of liberals and keeping the rich white patriarchy structure intact.

[ZZenith]

18. Mourning In America!

It’s when the citizenry began to enjoy being lied to. There was never going to be a reckoning for the atrocities of the ‘60’s and it was easier to just give up and chase that dollar.

And here we are...

[WyattKansas]

7. I have repeated over and over again...

That tRUMP is only a cheap wannbe Gordon Gekko at best and a sleazy used car salesman at worst.
I was in high school in the 1980s and that has always been my impression of him. Nothing ever changed my view of him since then, only that he got more sleazy and faked everything.

I am completely baffled at how in the hell anyone who was around in the 1980s could ever think the asshole was a brilliant businessman and not a crook.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

15. i was a female apprentice carpenter in the '80's.

only working big fed projects while st ronnie gutted affirmative action.
i made it, but only cuz of that socialist unemployment insurance.

[misanthrope]

16. Same here

It didn't take long to learn what he was all about.

[cilla4progress]

8. Agree 100% with all comments

Such a disappointment after the 60s and 70s.

Wonder what the 2020s will bring

[DBoon]

10. my most hated 80s bumper sticker

"The one who dies with the most toys wins"

[tenderfoot]

21. Don't forget this obnoxious poster...

[mindfulNJ]

39. I actually liked that one

I took it as making fun of that mindset...maybe I was wrong?

[DBoon]

40. There was another one

"The one who dies with the most toys is still dead"

[BigmanPigman]

11. I watch Murphy Brown reruns and it all come back to me...yuk!

We have been dealing with GOP shit since before Reagun but he was the one who fucked us up for 40 years and counting.

[DSandra]

12. And back then the Religious Right did a deal with the devil as well

Reagan was no exemplary Christian.

"When leaders of an emerging Christian Right began campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980, some evangelicals expressed dismay at this seemingly incongruous alliance. Reagan, after all, was a divorced Hollywood actor who, as governor of California, had signed into law one of the nation’s most liberal abortion bills only thirteen years earlier. Why would evangelicals who wanted to bring America back to “traditional values” campaign for a candidate whose cultural and political background reflected the influence of the secular forces that they denounced? “It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right,” evangelist Billy Graham told Parade magazine in February 1981. “The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230616196_9

[BigmanPigman]

22. Have you seen this?

Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) Tweeted:
“Trump held a meeting at Trump Tower with prominent evangelical leaders, where they laid their hands on him in prayer. Afterward, Trump allegedly said: ‘Can you believe that bullshit? Can you believe people believe that bullshit?’”

- Michael Cohen https://t.co/mnZcYafpzN https://t.co/ulStycHBvi

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Raine]

25. I guess it's to Trump's credit that he KNEW it was bullshit

but his followers are so stupid and gullible they actually do believe it and he was able to capitalize on it, the dumb leading the even dumber.

[BigmanPigman]

27. Bingo... the "suckers" in tRump's world?

Looks like he has many and the con knows it. He said that "if he could hook Fux Ruse viewers he would be able to sell/con them and the evangelicals". He knows his market, that's for sure.

[JI7]

13. Nixon's southern strategy

[tenderfoot]

17. The only good thing about the 80's was the music that was only popular on college radio.

The end.

[misanthrope]

20. Great point

There was good stuff out there if you knew where to look.

[DBoon]

41. Yes

See avatar to the left

[tenderfoot]

42. Great band...

good times.

[jimlup]

23. I personally think that this sickness goes much deeper than any one decade

or generation. The sickness that is Donald Trump and MAGA is much deeper in American culture and his been boiling beneath the surface for a very very long time. Like well since 1619 in fact.

[radius777]

24. I don't know, the 80s (and 90s) also gave us alt-rock and hip hop,

and lots of other good stuff leading into the fall of the Berlin Wall, then into the 90s when Bill/Hill got in office. I'm a gen-x'er and actually look back at that time with some amount of nostalgia.

1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting your heart 'cause I know you got soul (brothers and sisters)
...
As the rhythm's designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhyme's
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you've realized the pride's arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
From the heart
It's a start, a work of art
...
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
...
What we got to say (yeah)
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be.

[moondust]

26. And it spread.

The 80s was the last decade of the totalitarian Soviet Union and the Cold War. The U.S. was the undisputed "leader of the free world." I think other countries that didn't want totalitarian communism may have seen Reagan/Thatcher neoliberalism as the new model for "free world" economics and tended to follow the leader (down the rabbit hole).

It was also the decade when globalization took off leading to the offshoring of many jobs to maximize profits for executives and stockholders. If someone other than greedy, anti-union, anti-government Reagan and Republicans had been running things they might have done more to protect the well-paying manufacturing jobs that gave so many American workers a shot at middle-class prosperity. And other countries might have picked up on that instead.

Welcome to the gig economy.



K/R

[SMC22307]

28. Trump was a monster before the '80s. But the '80s exacerbated it. (n/t)

[DSandra]

34. Not so, according to this video

[SMC22307]

37. As a child he threw rocks at a younger child in a playpen...

or something to that effect. Watch the Frontline documentary that features his stint at military academy and how he bullied his way to the "top." In the '70s, he and his father Fred were gobbling up properties (and discriminating against blacks) to dominate the market. Etc. I stand by my statement. Whatever "instinct" is in Trump has been there since birth -- very bad seed-ish. The '80s just made it worse and I don't trust a word coming out of his mouth in that video.

[gulliver]

29. It was called the "Me Decade"

I think it was essentially defined by cable TV. It was like the cubic root of the Internet and the cube of previous information streams.

[Trumpocalypse]

35. I always considered it the Al Franken decade lol

[Books_Tea_Alone]

31. Also the 90s-00s reality shows had a hand in creating him

I've said it again and again- Mark Burnett is fully responsible for packaging T.rump into a box with a bow and depositing him into the American people's living room each week. Then the idiot voters voted for their reality tv star. If it wasn't for The Apprentice he would have never been seen as a "successful" businessman after all of his bankruptcies.
To this day I refuse to watch any of Burnett's shows-past or present.

[DSandra]

32. I also blame Mark Burnett for helping Trump to fool America

Mark Burnett though had no shame promoting shows that glorified cutthroat sociopathic like behavior, including Survivor. Shark Tank also is weekly propaganda for capitalists. Mark Burnett is a scumbag.

[DSandra]

33. I saw the apprentice for awhile and Burnett did a very good job making Trump look competent

And even a good business leader.

I didn’t care for celebrity apprentice and was already getting tired of his crazy ventures, and birtherism is when I had it with him, when it exposed him to be a kooky right winger.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

36. I grew up a child of the 80s and have little love or nostalgia for them

Most of the mainstream trends were just cheesy and crass that don’t even seem charming today.

Big overblown hair, Reaganism, synth pop, hair metal, loud obnoxious clothing...It was all just a giant cringe.

The rest of my formative years were spent in the 90s which were IMHO a much more grounded and far less jarring a decade.

That’s not to say there wasn’t great music, movies, TV, etc. from the 80s. There was. Problem is it all got choked out by all the awful shit that dominated our collective attention.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all my favorite movies from the 80s were set in some time other than the 80s.