I am sure other generations have felt this, but I am 52

[Chasstev365]

and cannot remember a time when tbe world seems more out of control.

North Korea nuke threat
Massive Hurricanes
Russian election tampering scandal
Ending DACA
The insanity of more tax cuts for the uber wealthy
A head of the EPA who wants no regulations
An Attorney General who is racist
Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacist are mainstream
A malignant narcissist as president

GOD HELP US!

[RKP5637]

1. Same here!!! So many issues, so much instability and a president who is clueless, all at once.

[madokie]

2. In a lot of ways

he's egging it on. Sorry bastard if ever there was one.

Peace

[RKP5637]

42. It's amazing. He's so totally clueless. Total ignominiousness!

[madokie]

48. Willful ignorance

makes him an idiot

[RKP5637]

51. Definitely!!!!!! n/t

[exboyfil]

3. We are too young to remember the craziness

of the 1960s, but I think that, from the history books, was a worse time.

I got to think things looked pretty grim from 1929 to 1945 as well.

[Lonestarblue]

33. Now is worse.

I lived through the 60s, and the decade certanly had its craziness. The Vietnam War was a constant worry, along with the race riots and burning cities. One of the worst times came in 1970 with the shooting of American college kids by American National Guard soldiers! Citizens killing citizens was truly frightening. But there was a difference then in our ability to rely on the media to tell the story. The government was not able to keep the horrors of Vietnam secret forever because of the media. The media was the downfall of Richard Nixon.

What frightens me more today than in the 60s is that we live in an era where truth has no value to many poeple, propaganda has replaced reality and the ability to analyze information, we have a government whose actions are driven by corporatists, and we have a Supreme Court that occasionally rules to benefit citizens (as in the right of gays to marry) but too often favors the wants of corporations over the rights of citizens (e.g., Hobby Lobby). Never in my lifetime have I felt that we are in real jeopardy of losing our democracy and that with right-wing armed militias we are actually in danger from our fellow citizens whose first response to disagreements is to open fire.

[RKP5637]

44. Very well said and that's the way I remember it too. n/t

[leftstreet]

43. There wasn't the loss of faith in law enforcement, institutions, etc

I think there was a sense of ... something... that there was a 'right' thing to do and Americans were a part of their own institutions and those institutions would respond

Don't really see that now

[RKP5637]

50. Agree so much. I don't feel a part of anything anymore and have an ever increasing distrust of our

institutions and law enforcement. So much of it today is them against the citizenry, and only money and corporations seem to count in today's America. It's pathetic. And what makes it really chilling is an ass like Trump becomes president. A total WTF.

[brush]

52. Also the media wasn't so corporate. They for the most part investigated and told us the truth.

And of course no repug propaganda/lies channel nor 24/7 right wing lying radio.

[leftstreet]

54. Can you imagine how the media would cover MLK today?

Can you imagine a Walter Cronkite interviewing Black Panther members, or reporting on Vietnam?

[brush]

59. It wasn't imagination. Cronkite did all that... how it was supposed to be done.

[RandomAccess]

68. This is worse by an order of magnitude

The craziness of the 1960s was due to an effort to move things FORWARD. What we're experiencing is pure destruction, and an all-out effort to move us backwards, AND to actually dismantle the U.S. government and weaken us as a world power. Whether Trump is consciously carrying out Putin's wishes on this is to be determined, but he's definitely doing so in a somewhat systematic way thanks to people like Bannon, Miller and somewhat less so, Gorka. Trump still talks to Bannon (daily, IIRC), and others like Manafort.

As for 1929 - 1945, those were bad times but in the case of the Depression, everyone knew it wouldn't / couldn't last forever, and the war was isolated. Those times didn't ALSO include global warming, the threat of nuclear holocaust (until the end, and even then by only one country), and so forth.

I'd go back to the 60s in a heartbeat.

[roamer65]

4. Similar age and I would agree.

I do remember some of the Vietnam War on TV, but not old enough to fully process it.

[TheMastersNemesis]

7. I Remember The War I Was Sent To It 50 Years Ago November 6, 1967.

IT WAS JUST LIKE YOU SEE IN THE MOVIES. One exception is that you could seriously get killed.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

83. Remember the fear all too well.

We still had the draft at that time - something many others here can't even relate to. I was in college, lost my deferment, went through the physical exam, and then lucked out a got a good draft lottery number. Had many friends not so lucky. Brother-in-law got hurt bad.

Thank you for your service. That was a very rough & divisive one for the whole country.

[Bleacher Creature]

5. I'm a little younger (but not by that much), but in the same boat.

I think you have to go back to the late 1960s, especially 1968, to have something comparable.

[bobGandolf]

6. i'm 63 and.....

The only thing that came close during my years was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was to young to realize how close we came to war.

[Sanity Claws]

13. but that lasted a week

We seem to have been on edge for months. Every day we wake up and learn of new calamities Trump has wrought in the previous day.

[bobGandolf]

74. I hear you..

.....I honestly worry every time I turn on the TV that I will find out he has started a nuclear war.

[FM123]

8. I feel ya. I am of your generation and I can not remember a time it felt like that either!

There is just so much coming at you so fast from all sides at ALL times - grip & grin is my go to position as I brace for impact.

[SummerSnow]

9. Im 52 as well, what I remember was those drills in school

during the Cold War.

[TNNurse]

41. I am older (68)

But remember doing this also. One big difference is that I thought it would help. Another is that there was a sane person in the White House.

[RKP5637]

53. Yep!!! And don't look at the bright light. n/t

[FLPanhandle]

10. You have to remember the late 70's early 80's too

Iranian hostages
Reagan elected
Trickle down economics
James Watt and the environment
Beginning of the AIDS epidemic
A senile leader of the USSR
Cold War

It was just as crazy

[SummerSnow]

49. Oh yes, I remember all of these as well.

[RandomAccess]

69. Id go back to all that in a heartbeat

I'm stunned that you think that time was "just as crazy." NONE of this was an existential threat to nation.

[oppressedproletarian]

11. We have reached the "cancer stage"

of our aging democracy. End stage?

On the other hand--"despair is not an option"!

[malchickiwick]

12. Looking back to the days immediately following 9/11...Things felt pretty damn outta control.

For days my three young kids kept wondering when/if their mom was coming home. She was a flight attendant and she'd been grounded about 1,500 miles from home.

But I agree, our current "president" makes the president we had then look like Aristotle.

I'm 48, btw, born in an incredible uncertain year: 1968.

[Freddie]

77. Can you imagine if 9/11 happened now??

Much as GWB was an idiot I was confident in his leadership at that time. Dolt 45 has destroyed the concept of the President being the leader of the nation in troubled times.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. I would add one (being old-fashioned)

The public's insane 24/7 obsession and mental/emotional saturation with non-stop garbage on social media.

[Duppers]

17. Absolutely!!

Combined with so much garbage entertainment.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

85. Yes, such as reality shows! n/t

[Willie Pep]

81. That makes things crazier.

I sometimes reduce my news intake to "detox" from all the insanity. Sometimes it is good to get offline and watch a good movie or TV show or read a good book.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

84. Yes!

I'm retired and have enjoyed surfing the news around the world for several years, but now it's just too much BS and conflict. I've got to learn some new habits - maybe no-computer days. Too much stuff that needs fixing around here anyway along with a pile of never-read books!

[Scarsdale]

15. The big difference this time

is the raving lunatic in the WH, supported by the majority of the gop. We had ADULT, serious presidents during most other dangerous times. tRump is absolutely clueless about EVERYTHING. He can not even load a truck with supplies properly. Handing a bucket to the driver of a pickup!!!

[Duppers]

18. +100

[annabanana]

16. At 67, I have the same feeling..n/t

[workinclasszero]

19. God help us indeed

To bad that 80% or so of people that claim to be followers of Jesus and lovers of God voted overwhelmingly for Trump and his fascist party who are leading this country off a cliff into fascism and possibly nuclear war.

See here:


White evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, exit polls show
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey November 9, 2016

Exit polls show white evangelical voters voted in high numbers for Donald Trump, 80-16 percent, according to exit poll results. That’s the most they have voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, when they overwhelmingly chose President George W. Bush by a margin of 78-21 percent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11/09/exit-polls-show-white-evangelicals-voted-overwhelmingly-for-donald-trump/?utm_term=.c29ea85fcfe7

[Honeycombe8]

20. I agree.

I am 63 and have never seen the country with as many crises simultaneously. I think most of it has to do with the administration, which in turn causes the admin. not to be working well with Congress, even with its own party. That is very unusual.

Some things in your list, though, are simply Republican agenda items, and whether it's bad or good depends on your point of view. Some things, though, are objectively bad and are crises, no matter the viewpoint.

[cwydro]

21. My parents lived through WWII in England.

I think they'd disagree.

We're very sheltered here.

[HipChick]

40. Agree....my parents lived through WWII too..

[Ligyron]

22. Things were going so well too.

Eight years of a sane Presidency and sane policy plus court cases encouraging for the most part with Hillary sure to be elected.

and now this disaster...

[world wide wally]

23. The most startling thing about all of this is how Fox News and other right wing media

have so brainwashed so many otherwise good people into being Nazi and Russian sympathizers in a sense. America has not even sold its soul, it has given it away.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. I'm older. Times rather dire, but have been much worse. USA still strong & will survive well

WW I
WW II
Duck & Cover and backyard fallout shelters
Kent State
Lynchings
Nixon
Great Depression

We are even now in much better shape than those times.

Resist, Persist, Triumph. We have won battles already against tRump and will win more. I predict we will win the war (I predict he will exit mid term one way or another).

Maintain perspective and carry on.

[Stuart G]

25. Well, Well..Well...Sept 1938..Peace in our Time,..... Neville Chamberlain ..??

About a year later...Hitler bombs and invades Poland....

Not a lot of people around from that era...some..not a lot


So, the world was more out of control then, then now..Although I wasn't around then..didn't feel that fear,I guess that the world really was more out control then, then now..Can you sense what that felt like?..

The so called..Great War ended in 1918..no more war...people said....about 20 years later the world seemed ...out of control, and it was...

8 years after 1938, that is in 1946..the world had lost 40 to 60 million due to another war..(Stalin didn't keep count, so we really don't know) I suspect it was more in control in 1946, after the war.. than in 1938 before the war

[a la izquierda]

26. I'm 40 and a historian.

I think the 14th century inn Europe and Asia was worse. Probably the 15th and 16th centuries in what is now Latin America.

[democratisphere]

27. Too many insane authoritarian rulers doesn't help.

[Demtexan]

28. I am 63 this is worst for me.

The 60's were a wild time but this is different.

We did not have crazy president like now.

The republicans were not in charge.

[sprinkleeninow]

78. Adding poisonous and destructive. eom

[tiredtoo]

29. And being 76

I can tell you I cannot remember a time when the world seems more out of control either.

[Soxfan58]

30. I've seen

People standing up for there healthcare, and winning
All races fighting back against hate in Charlottesville.
A overwhelming stand against racist in Boston.
Everybody helping everybody in Houston.
Our people are still great dispite our leadership. We need to take this energy and focus it all on 2018 midterms and 2020 Presidential.

[SunSeeker]

31. But her emails.

[kairos12]

35. The only things to survive a nuclear war: cockroach, syphilis, and some Rethug in his

million dollar bunker. Oh right, and tax breaks for the 1%.

[SunSeeker]

67. Yep. That's why Republicans don't give a shit. nt

[doc03]

32. I am 69 after reading some that say the Vietnam era, the Iranian

hostage crisis and 911 were worse, no way. Back in those times we didn't have an insane 71 year old with the mind of a 6 year old in charge.
It is scary when you have Republican Senators and Congressmen and Whitehouse aids saying the same thing.

[smirkymonkey]

36. +1000

This. I'm quite a bit younger than you, but the fact that we have a raving lunatic in office AND that nobody in power will do anything to get rid of him is the most frightening thing of all. It wouldn't be as scary with a sane, competent person at the helm.

[bigbrother05]

37. 65 yo here

Agree, but the craven politics we've seen since the Gingrich days is a completely new wrinkle. It seems that a win at all costs mentality has taken hold in some quarters and it taints the whole process. Both sides don't do it, but one side has poisoned the process to the point that progress is at a standstill.

[jmbar2]

34. In common: single person commanding insanity, underlings carrying it out.

Perhaps social media could become a tool to help people decide to not implement insanity.

I take great comfort from all the alt-gov sites that have sprung up after the election to resist, carry on in the face of insanity. They are real heroes. Ex: Alt-EPA who preserved research data by shipping it to Canada.

[FSogol]

38. If you are 52, then you should know this is no different than the Reagan years.

Replace "North Korea nuke threat" with "Central American Wars"
Replace "ending DACA" with "Closed Federal mental institutions and creating 1000s of homeless"

Everything else fits perfectly.



The Trumpy Admin is just a cruder, less competent version of the Reagan admin.

[RandomAccess]

70. This is WAY different than the Reagan years

How on earth was the Central American thing anywhere near the nuclear threat of North Korea??

I don't think the mental institutions is a very good comparison to DACA, which is racist to the core. Both are cruel, to be sure, but -- like comparing apples and pencils or something.

[yallerdawg]

71. Yeah, this is much like living under Reagan.

And Nixon? Unpresidented!

Back then, we had three networks and a local newspaper or two.

Even then, it was enough to gin up a nation!

Today - it's relentless and never ceases. The other night, stayed up until 2AM to hear what North Korea was announcing. Multiple cable news networks carried it live!

Saw a lot of commercials that night, I'll tell ya.

[still_one]

39. You don't have to go back very far. WWI, WWII, the brutality that led to the Civil Rights movement

where white supremacists were part of political system. The Cuban missile crisis the Viet Nam War, 9/11, etc.

The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, and so many injustices and atrocities that occurred during that conflict.

As for massive storms and natural disasters they have been with us forever. Again you don't have to go back very far, Hurricane Camille, Hurricane Andrew, and Hurricane Katrina.

[bobbieinok]

45. 77yo here

Spent 1961-68 on penninsula south of SF and in the student union watching on tv the Cuban Missle Crisis, JFK's assassination, the Tonkin Gulf resolution, interminable 'light at the end of the tunnel' talks, MLK's assassination, Robert's assassination, LBJ's resignation. Plus 2 friends from grad school going tto MS in Mississippi Summer in 64 and fearing they might be the ones missing in Philadelphia MS and feared dead.

I'm way too old to live though this shit again. None of us needs a darker and stupider replay of the 60s.

[RKP5637]

57. Yep, same here, a little younger. I remember much of that quite well. Often, I feel

like we're almost heading back to those times. Exactly!!! "None of us needs a darker and stupider replay of the 60s."

[Ms. Toad]

64. Ditto - at 61. n/t

[RKP5637]

65. It's getting like a deja vu! n/t

[Timmygoat]

46. I am much older

I can remember WW2, as a child seeing the prisoners of the Nazis, in camps, the piles of bodies and I can remember the horror of the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. the total devastation and the fallout, it was a time I never want todays children to see happen again. I was in the UK, and even without enough food to go around we still had Polish refugees in our area, we shared.
I feel like I am living in a second nightmare.

[barbtries]

47. i'm 62 and can only imagine

that it was during the time of WWII or the great depression that the world felt this dark and threatening.

the west is on fire, to add to your list

don't believe in god. what we need to do is bring the power of the people to bear and get out the vote, and get a government that is responsive, responsible, and sensible. i just hope that it's not too late.

[kimbutgar]

55. I'm 61 I thought things were bad with bushcheney but this is 100 times worst

[Norbert]

56. Prefer the 1960s hands down over trumpenstein

The bad in the 1960s/70s:

The Vietnam war
Race riots
The execution murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney by the KKK in Mississippi
Assassinations of President Kennedy, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X
4 Dead in Ohio
African American, Gay and Women's rights were near square one as far as evolving
The Cold War and the Berlin Wall

We had Nixon but also a Democratic Congress to keep him in check


The bad today

Three simmering wars and a pResident willing to start more of them
North Korea and an unstable leader vs the US and an equally unstable leader
DACA
ICE empowered
Harvey, the California wildfires and shortly Irma
A loose cannon AG
A loose cannon Sec of Ed.
A neutered EPA
A low and middle income with stagnant wages
A limp dick Congress that will not stand in the way of tRump
Putin getting the upper hand on the US a little at a time
The KKK and Nazi more empowered and people more than willing to look the other way
A pResident that; attacks the media at will, on a mission to turn back the clock, is doing on the job training but really ignoring most of the important points, his mental state is a grave matter of concern.

In the 1960s & 1970s we have the benefit of 20:20 hindsight. Today we really do not know where the current state of affairs will lead us, only that the impact will be great if it continues. I am nearing the end of my working days. I just hope I don't lose everything I have if the Great Depression II ends up happening. I hope none of us lose everything we have.

[sprinkleeninow]

79. I suppose you could say I'm 'retired'. That's what I check ✔

when asked on a form or such.

Husband has almost a year to go if that's what it comes to.
Who knew it could get so utterly crappy at this stage of the game?

We weren't looking forward to daily golf on the links or parking our derrieres on a sandy beach sipping a paper umbrella embellished drink.

We don't want much. But def NOT THIS. It's a sick joke. Not only the stress from uncertainty, but this rot steals precious TIME from doing things that count for more.

In spite of what I conveyed here, our household is carrying on!

"Fight the good fight" is sometimes mis-applied. However in this case, I'm exhorting, "FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!"

The peace that passes understanding be unto all.

~sprink
💗󾓦💪🗽

[Corvid]

80. Hard to compare this current horror show...

with the 60's.

For fifty years or so I thought that the 1968 election was as bad as it could ever get. I was at sea and was a short timer when I learned that the candidate that I planned to vote for was murdered.. then there was that convention in Chicago. Kinda took the shine of of the anticipation of becoming a civilian again. The election of 2016 took the shine of of everything.

In 1968 I was profoundly saddened but 2016 was soul crushing.

In 1968 there were but three network evening news hours and there were reasonable and thoughtful journalists. Chronkite and Huntley-Brinkly and Eric Sevaried (to name a few). Now the news is constant 24/7 and ranges from tolerable to batshit crazy. In 1968 we all watched the same truth. In 2016 there are many versions of the "truth".... just change the channel. Plus add all the variants "truth" on the internet.

Then there was the music. In 1967, at about this time of year, I was sitting in a bar in Sasebo Japan. The next morning I would board the ship and we would steam directly to San Diego. It was there that I heard "White Rabbit" for the first time. Music had been my comfort for many years since the Beatles had awakened me to rock(?). The music brought us together and held us together in a spirit of optimism (I know that that sounds strange) in troubling times. I was part of something larger and greater and more free.

I was also 23.

But where is the music now? It must be there but I think it must be smothered by "music" that does not speak to me.

And where is the comradeship? When I can get to a rally in this present I see many, many folks that I probably protested with fifty years ago. I see some young folks and I hope that there are more that I do not see and I hope that I am wrong. I hope that the young realize that it is their ox being fucked and that it is largely up to them to unfuck it. Get past the shiny diversions.

A week or so ago I stumbled across Melanie Safka on You tube. I watched as she sang "Peace Will Come".... I cried.

Peace

[Norbert]

82. Good post. Where is the music?

I'm always on the lookout for newer music. This has pointed me in the direction of Adult Alternative and Americana. Among some I like are the following, Feel it Still - Portugal the Man. Political song. In the video, a man in a turban casting aside a burning Info Wars Newspaper. Really pissed off the Infowars people & the National - The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness (my intertretation, the aftermath of 2016).

Jason Isbell is probably the best songwriter around right now. An Alabama boy who gets it. Try the Nashville Sound out. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Keep up the good fight.

[gademocrat7]

58. I agree with you.

We are living in a nightmare. I am 66 and have never had this kind of anxiety.

[Trust Buster]

60. Neither of us were alive for the McCarthy Era.

[syringis]

61. We feel the same here in Europe

GOP and the crapshit rad waste are guilty as charged.

America plays an important role on the international stage as a balancing and stability factor. Even with bad formers presidents such as Bush, Reagan, Nixon,...

Trump he has no shred of credibility left, if he ever have had any.

The position is now dangerously vacant allowing all what the world count of dangerous, childish, psychopaths, sociopaths, doing what they want.

It really scares me.

Trump is not only an American problem, he is a worldwide problem.

For decades, we are used to NK as a brutal dictatorship. Kim was not expected to be nothing but a dictator whistling in the wind, flexing muscles all for the show and playing as if he had the power to destroy the universe on he own.

Hopefully, until now, reasonnable leaders around the world and acting as leaders, have contained NK.

It's another story when it comes to Trump. Hate or love America, no one can deny that it is a democracy with strong values. It is certainly what is so shocking in Trump being president. He is so far from any of this values, have not the slightest idea of...well, anything. The world expect from a country with an undeniable aura of prestige, to have a representative president.
Instead, the oval office is occupied (squatted more like) by the most improbable man ever. A man who reached a real power that is totally unable and unfit to manage.

[HopeAgain]

62. You forgot our government compromised by a foreign power

Why do you suppose we aren't trying to secure our elections?

[hamsterjill]

63. I'm 58 and this is the worst I remember.

For me, I think it's the fact that it's been now over eight months of constant turmoil, upheaval and uncertainty.

I remember a time, too, when even if I didn't agree with who was in the White House, I still thought that person would overall do the right thing for our country. That ebbed somewhat with George W. because I simply didn't feel like he was very smart. I did think he had some smart people around him, and got a little comfort out of the fact that I felt like he'd listen to them when the chips were down.

Trump is a whole other situation. He has temper tantrums and his decisions are erratic and unfathomable. He does whatever he wants at the moment to impress his base. He doesn't give a damn about anything else. He's not in control enough to listen to anyone.

THAT, to me, is the real fear that I have of him. He is irrational.

[Mountain Mule]

66. I cannot recall a more dire time in our history and I am 66

Things be cray as our friend The Ferret would say.

[Cosmocat]

72. This is BY FAR the worse self induced wound this country has made

We put a CLEARLY narcissistic, angry despot in charge by choice (though elections, and to whatever extent there were the usual republican tricks and russian interference, a good 1/3 of the country WILLINGLY voted for the asshat and another 1/3 didn't bother to vote).

[rurallib]

73. At 68 it is the worst I can remember. The worst part is that it is all self-imposed

and all could have been avoided.

There is no leadership at any level of national government and little at the state level that is capable of dealing with the crisis that have been created by our leaders.

This is all on the Republican party. They are the ones who have pushed the agenda that have put us in these crises.

And let us not forget the wealth disparity and the Supreme Court that has put the wealthy in charge.

[haele]

75. My mom says the 1930's were particularly turbulent both politically and weather wise.

My grandparents left their extended family in Pennsylvania because of the anti-union/corporate landowner politics (Grandfather worked coal mines while he was in High School for "college money" and got disgusted at the way workers and their families were being treated) and the Midwest drought hit the country hard.

More and more people were beginning to believe it was the end of the world.

It took FDR six years to turn the economy around, and he was being fought tooth and nail by those who still had money and power who were trying to create a brave new world - between eugenics to drop the "excess labor class population" and fascism. Metropolis wasn't just a science fiction movie - the monied class and the technocrats believed that there was a genetic split in the population between an ignorant worker drone class of sub-humans and the real humans who were creative, resourceful, and intelligent.

Haele

[Bradshaw3]

76. How about we help ourselves

By working for Democrats, being united and taking over Congress, statehouses and the Presidency. Leave God out of it.

[Skittles]

86. I remember it feeling out of control

but having a racist buffoon acting as "president" makes everything much, MUCH worse

[raven mad]

87. I'm 63; my worst was the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I was 9, and living in Central Florida right near Cape Canaveral.

It's a damn sight scarier now; I'm VERY glad I don't live anywhere near a population base.