When did you start noticing and worrying about all this crap?

[Armstead]

Am curious about when you became aware of issues, and started caring about the implications if all the GOP and the Corporate State?

Was it a gradual process, or did something specific shake your tree?

For me, being one of those Baby Boomers, and growing up in the Soviet Republic of Massachusetts, I sort of grew up with a liberal bent, and in my late teens and early 20's fancied myself as a Socialust (although a moderate one)....I also started noticing in the late 1970's how corporations started either mating with each other or swallowing up others and thinking "This can't be good to have this much concentration of wealth and power."

I remembering with some friends one around 1979, and one of them saying "Mark my words. America will be a totalitarian state within our lifetimes."...My response, still having a basic faith in our system, was "No way. We won't go that far."

Over time, I became more moderate (pragmatic) but remained a staunch liberal and progressive. I also kept getting annoyed and worried as the concentration of corporate wealth and power continued unabated -- with no attempts by anyone in the political system seeming to raise any challenges or even questions......

And I found that even though my views remained fairly moderate, within the political spectrum I was feeling more and more like part of a political fringe as the moved further and further right, under both parties.

I still have a basic instinctive faith that America will maintain a balance and that somehow the pendulum will swing in a better direction.

In the last few years, I must admit, my friend's warnings come to mind -- and I'm finding his predictions seeming less far fetched.

[eleny]

1. Born in 1946 and started becoming aware in high school. Civil Rights started it for me

If memory serves me right. :blush:

[Armstead]

3. That's going back a ways..

I was still a young whippersnapper during the height ofvthe civil rights movement, but I can remember the changes that occurred before during and after.

[eleny]

12. I went to DC to march in August of '63

So, awareness had to start happening before that.

[Armstead]

32. I went on a cub scout camping that year

So I guess my awareness was still pretty low.

[eleny]

34. I was 16 so probably a little older than you. First year boomer, I guess

:hi:

[roguevalley]

39. 1963 when kennedy was murdered. hope went out the window then

and it hasn't come back.

[starroute]

48. Born in 1947 and got politically aware in the late Eisenhower years

I guess it was about 1958 when I first became aware of political scandals and foreign policy blunders. By the time I was 12, I was reading Mad Magazine, which certainly helped. And my father was involved in the local reform Democratic club, which was actively fighting Tammany Hall -- I handed out my first campaign literature in 1959.

I can't say I had a very sophisticated grasp of these issues until I got into high school and began reading the New York Times every day -- but even that would have been the fall of 1960.

When you have a family that discusses these things over the dinner table, political awareness starts early.

[eleny]

72. Then you remember the Stevenson ""red" scare of 1952

My dad belonged to a clothing workers union in NYC and was always involved in the bargaining for their piece work wages at the various Brooklyn shops where he worked as a pocket maker since he came to America in the '20s from Lithuania. The folks voted for Eisenhower but were FDR Dems who never trusted Nixon.

Two seriously important events that I remember like it was yesterday that were broadcast over our classroom speakers at Bishop McDonnell HS on Eastern Pkwy in Brooklyn were the Cuban Missile Crisis (a friend & classmate was from Cuba)and the Kennedy Assassination. But it wasn't until I was 16 that I became actively involved and then that was in civil rights. Of course, the college years and after were dominated by civil rights, women's rights and Vietnam.

P.S. Mad Magazine was a staple in our house introduced by my brother. Dad never got the point but my mom was great and allowed it. My two favorites way back then were Little Lulu and Mad Magazine. :D

[Armstead]

82. Little LuLu....Now there was a subversive

[ixion]

2. born in the sixites, raised by an elightened mom

thus I was exposed to that particular truth at a very young age...

[stevedeshazer]

4. I started having my doubts as far back as the Nixon years.

My Dad was a WW2 vet. He loved Eisenhower, but distrusted Nixon.

By the time I was getting to draft age, he outright despised him.

The resignation of Nixon gave me hope, but then the eighties and the Religious Right Reaganites started us down the road to hell. Despite Clinton, or perhaps because of him, it's only gotten worse. Many times, I thought the pendulum would swing the other way.

Now I REALLY have doubts. My sense of hope has faded to anger. Despair is just around the corner, but I can't let that happen.

[Armstead]

9. Sometimes it has seemed like a tape loop..The GOP gets in...

......blows it through ineptitude and or corruption, gets booted out for a while...but always returns, usually in worse new forms.

I try not to let it trigger despair though....I find periods of apathy are a good break from worrying about it.

[Scuba]

5. Right after returning from Southeast Asia, 1974....

...and first heard of this thing called "Watergate". Turns out it had been a big deal at home for over a year, but the Stars and Stripes never mentioned it.

[AndyTiedye]

6. I Have No Faith in the "Pendulum"

There is no limit to how far they can drag the country to the right with their control of the Tee Vee (and by extension, that portion of the population disposed to believe whatever the Tee Vee says).

[DJ13]

7. When I voted for Mondale in 84

[woofless]

8. I was 16 in 1968

and Viet Nam woke everyone up. I served in the military then worked for corporations for 35 years. I have been aware and vocal all that time to no apparent positive effect.

Woof

edit:sp.

[Justpat]

10. When Reagan was elected.

He is the reason I became a political junkie.

[Armstead]

11. That was certainly a wake up call

[nashville_brook]

35. that's my era too.

[TuxedoKat]

68. Me too

When he was elected I knew something was really going wrong in the country. About six years into his "reign" a friend visited from Spain and said to me, "What has happened to my America?" The last time she was in the US before was when Carter was president.

[intheflow]

13. I watched the PBS series on Vietnam in 1983.

I was 19, and had recently married and had a baby, moving from suburbia to the local projects. Both becoming poor and going on welfare and watching the clusterf*ck of Vietnam unrolled before me like a blood-soaked rug radicalized me to the left.

[al_liberal]

14. Ever since the first time I could legally vote at 18.

Since that vote the only loser has been Kerry. I loved Clinton and was beside myself when W was appointed. But I've been among the "far retarded left" left ever since I was a child and my union working father went on strike multiple times (my mom didn't work). My family has been on welfare several times over the years. I was the very first person in my family (including extended) that received a college degree, all due to my union working father. I fear those days are long gone now and we are going back to the days before WWII when people were nothing more than textbook inputs to production. Nothing more than lines on the balance sheet.

[wildbilln864]

15. sept/2001!

that's when I started following closely.

[tnlurker]

16. Watergate did it for me

When I was 12-13 years old. I found out how crooked Nixon was and how the government at all levels did not really attack or do anything about the corruption problems. Each new leader that was elected was either already corrupt or quickly became that way after being elected. By corruption I mean not holding true to American values and the government that we learned about in school.

You get the school book version and compare it to the real world American government and they look nothing alike if you scratch the surface, if you look beyond the superficial.

[socialist_n_TN]

17. Looks like a lot like you except that I was a Marxist.........

(Trotskyist more specifically) in the late 60s/early 70s. I DIDN'T get more conservative as I got older though. I pretty much stayed the same, at least philosophically, through the 80s/90s, but because of the political climate, I wasn't very active. Voted and advocated, but not much else. Then I noticed during the early Aughts that the louder we talked and the more we were ignored by the Bushies, the more support we would garner from the people, so I got louder and STAYED louder.

This last overreach has not only notched up my activism, it's also radicalized me even MORE than I was. I have always been an anticapitalist. Now I'm a RABID anticapitalist. And with every power grab by the exploiters and their toadies, I get MORE rabid.

[Armstead]

23. I've become a rabid miderate socialist

I've found that over the years, by basic views have been consistent, but my level of emotional involvement waxes and wanes.......I'd get overloaded, then complacent/apathetic until something stirs me up again.

I've been more towards the rabid side...but in moderation, of course. :)

[socialist_n_TN]

27. Of course.......

:) That might be temperment, ALTHOUGH I'm normally a pretty laid back guy. However, I get REALLY pissed when people try to take away my rights.

[Armstead]

29. Actually, I'm laid back.....But I have a contrarian streak and like to stir the pot

I'm usually very easy to get along with....But when I get into a political discussion Mr. Hyde takes over.

Sometimes, when I've been with people of the left, I'll argue for moderation.

But at other tines, when I'm with people who are moderate (or conservative) I'll argue from a more radical position.

I think I inherited that from my mother...

[Initech]

18. November 2000. Bush didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, but he got elected anyways.

By elected of course, meaning a 5 - 4 Supreme Court victory.

[Armstead]

24. Yeah, odd how that happened wasn't it?

[costahawk1987]

59. Same here!

Plus, the way the media covered the coup (and 8-years of Bush bullshit) taught me all I needed to know about them. I got rid of cable and don't even own a converter box. The trusty, dusty 19-inch is only used for movies these days--VHS, no less.

[Earth_First]

19. As a servicemember and college student at the time in 2001, it didn't take long to wake up...

I couldn't get my DD-214 fast enough.

[Golden Raisin]

20. Kent State.

Literally "warning" :sarcasm: shots fired over the bow. That was my first electrifying jolt. Then Watergate. I have a friend (boomer age) who grew up in Soviet Russia. After moving here she constantly talked about how she saw increasing and foreboding signs of fascism taking root and growing here in the USA. I sort of half listened to her back then but she seems to have been absolutely correct.

[lutefisk]

21. 1.Reagan 2.Clinton impeachment 3.Junior Bush 4.Wisconsin 2011

Those have been the real "wake-up calls" that raised my personal alert level (which is just about at the top of the scale right now).

[Sherman A1]

31. About the same, but it started more for me

with Vietnam & Watergate.

[lutefisk]

60. During Vietnam and Watergate, I felt the media were still with the people

That begin to slip away during the Reagan election/hostage situation in Iran. Once the Clinton impeachment crap started, I feel the mainstream press was finally in full corporate whore mode, with very few exceptions.

[Sherman A1]

63. My thinking was more along the lines of

trust in government. I agree about the media slowly (or quickly in some cases) becoming a completely owned subsidiary of the corporate/government during the times you cite.

So we pretty much see things the same way.

[MilesColtrane]

22. Seeing the Vietnams War on TV and the military draft...

made me want to understand how politics worked.

I was 10 years old and damned if I wanted my brother or myself getting killed.

Of the two parties, the GOP seemed the one to really want the war to continue, while the Democrats fielded two Primary candidates in 1968 who were against the Vietnam war.

The GOP seemed to me to be the party of money and corruption.

This early conclusion was confirmed when the Watergate crimes and Nixon's involvement with them became news.

I missed being able to vote against Reagan in 1980 by a month, but I knew his folksy bullshit was hiding a treacherous agenda that most people had bought into.

All I can say is, don't be discouraged. The arc of history is long and the political tides of this country move slowly.

No matter what you may think of Obama, it is important to get him reelected if only for his Supreme Court appointments.

The Court is the last check and balance that is not directly influenceable by corporate money. {That is, once an appointment is made.}

Congress will never clean itself up, and barring a couple of Constitutional amendments to fix things quickly, the only hope in beginning to reverse the damage done lies in the judicial branch.

[Armstead]

26. I was Grade A prime chuck draft meat for a while....

Fortunately I had a low draft number in the lottery. But it had an effect on my worldview.

[Urban Prairie]

25. Learning who the "establishment" was is when I first became aware of the GOP and the Corporate State

Unlike some of my peers, I did not become a "Big Chill" hypocrite in the Reagan era 80s, and embraced Gordon Gekko style, "greed is good" capitalism, and/or sucked up to management. I of course paid dearly for my stubborn rebelliousness by never being promoted, although I was offered the opportunity to become so only once, but turned it down. I proved to management several times with several companies that I worked for, when I was temporarily put in charge of certain departments w/o actually being officially promoted, (very long stories) that treating employees with respect, honor, sincere gratitude, and fairness worked much better, increased productivity, and greatly improved morale, than their tried and untrue old style methods, which included their usual intimidation, implied or direct threats of termination, demotions, suspensions, and/or discipline.

[hollowdweller]

28. Born 60 so aware of politics all my life but US going down the tubes? REAGAN

One of my earliest memories was hearing my mother cry upstairs and it was because JFK was killed.

The 60's were really turbulent times.

There was way more racisim and stuff in the 60's.

Now people are more accepting of differences and in that way it's better.

But really starting 1980 I had a distinct feeling that our gov't had sold out the people to companies and that we were in a race to the bottom.

Sting operations where the cops lure people into committing a crime and busting them for it started then.

Drug testing in the military.

Yeah that was the beginning of the end for the US middle class.

[Armstead]

53. Ronnie sure did set some bad things in motion

[rug]

30. The Diem assassination got my attention.

[nashville_brook]

33. 1982

fall of my junior year of high school. but, really -- i grew up in political family. people who came from nothing. people who fell out with the Catholic church. "big" issues were always part of our "conversation." it was a rite of passage to develop your own awareness.

[upi402]

36. 1978 actively

The 60's were eye opening. Turns out the hippies were right.

[spanone]

37. around 1966

[LadyHawkAZ]

38. After Tiananmen Square

which King George I ignored as much as possible, then turned around and left lip prints on Deng's rear end (and nearby areas). I was 17.

[justabob]

40. election 2000

I paid attention before then, and always kinda knew things weren't adding up quite right, but I wasn't too worked up about it. That election, and having to read about it via the Guardian UK, is what made me take a much more critical eye to what is going on.

born 1970... for some context

[bemildred]

41. 1968. nt

[madamesilverspurs]

42. Had my suspicions in the 60s.

Confirmed with Nixon, solidified with Reagan. Had my TV on, listening to the news at work, William Bennett was talking about trashing education. Game over.


-

[KT2000]

43. When Rupert Murdoch

started buying up US media.
I realized that corporate control of the media was the beginning of the end.

I remember telling my boss about this and he said "I don't know what you are talking about."

I'll never forget that.

[Armstead]

52. Yes, it's amazing that more don't care that freedom of speech...

Has been bought up by the Murdochs of the world.

[GReedDiamond]

44. The year was 1968...

...I was 13, I was concerned about the Viet Nam (undeclared) War, as there was a draft and I would eventually (soon) have to deal with that shit.

Not to mention, as a resident of a Chicago suburb, I saw what happened at the Democratic convention that year (I know, "the whole world {was also} watching").

The events surrounding the Democratic National Convention in '68 were a disgrace and an intentional police riot/attack on the real democratic process.

Additionally, the assassinations which took out Bobby and Martin, and, later, in '69, the hits on Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, were nothing more than extra-judicial executions carried out by the PTB in Chicago.

It's been spiraling downward ever since, and Reagan accelerated the process, but the pace has dramatically picked up since the unelected, now war criminals, Bush & Cheney, fucked up everything (intentionally), on behalf of their corporate masters.

In other news from 1968, one good thing I will say about that year: there were tons of fucking great musicians releasing the best music ever. 1968 is my pick for best year ever for pop/rock music!

[Art_from_Ark]

66. I remember 1968 like it was yesterday

That was one year that made a biiiiig impression on me. The best of times, and the worst of times.

And I will agree-- 1968 was absolutely the best year ever for pop/rock music! One of the reasons why I lost interest in contemporary music in the 1970s was that it didn't match up to 1968!

[Liberal_in_LA]

45. Not until the foreclosure crisis and the bail out of the banks.. at that point it became

painfully obvious how far things were stacked in favor of the corporations.

[Thunderstruck]

46. The 2000 "election". I was 35 and a uncritical bot. Oh, I watched the news and

followed current events, but I never questioned anything. Until bush stole the 2000 election. That woke me up.

[DenverDad]

47. In my mid-thirties, just before the 2004 election

When I started receiving right-wing emails from my wife's stepfather. I started to check them out to see if there was any truth to them.

I was so excited to find out that they were full of misinformation and couldn't to send my in-laws an email with the true facts, and the sources to back them up, until I realized that they probably didn't care about the facts. That they were more than happy to believe the lies, because it backed up their hatred and ignorance.

I still receive the emails, but now I do respond with facts and sources, just in case something may resonate.

[Armstead]

81. Interesting

Wonder if they ever do actually think about your responses

[shanti]

49. sorry to say

i only became interested in politricks when *ush was installed in 2000. it was so in your face, that i just had to notice! before that, i was busy raising kids by myself, so it was off and on, but there's been very little to cheer about in the last 40 years. now i'm retired and able to be involved more, so i do. oh, and i'm 55.

[Armstead]

51. Well, hopefully the current excesses of the GOP will wake others up too

[JANdad]

50. When we could not find the

WMD's...saw the lie for what it was and began to follow the money.

[Luminous Animal]

54. 1968 at age of 10. It was clear to me that the powers that be were hell bent on fucking us over.

And the powers that be have proved this time and time again.

[Lugnut]

55. When JFK was murdered.

I was 18 and fresh out of high school. That shook me to my core. When Nixon was elected I was stunned. I couldn't believe that a majority of voters put that slimeball in the White House. I liked Gerry Ford but he lost me with the pardon. I knew the country would never heal as he said it would and it never did. Jimmy Carter was the breath of fresh air that I needed to even involve myself in politics again. Reagan was the kiss of death.

At that time my brother-in-law told me to fasten my seatbelt. He predicted that the have-mores would exert their power to ensure that the have-a-littles ended up as have-nothings and worse. And here we are.

[Armstead]

75. Richard Nixon sealed the deal for me

His negative campaign and all its backers made clear that the GOP had crossed over into craszyland.

[Skip Intro]

56. The 2000 "selection."

I've gone full-bore conspiracy now.

9*11, and what followed, what is still following...not the same world, is it?

I find myself losing interest in the day to day events. Find myself more likely to say, "whatever's gonna happens gonna happen." Feel we are very near some major breakdown.

[Forkboy]

57. Gradual for me. I wasn't focused on parties at first, and regret that I ever did focus on party.

My introduction to politics was the "No Nukes" movement in the early 80's, and at the time I didn't even consider one party or the other all that much. I only cared about the issue. I got sidetracked into caring about party in the late 80's and into the 90's, but feel no such allegiance anymore. I side with who I think is right, and that's not always Democrats anymore (though never Republicans, who could fuck up a wet dream).

[Armstead]

74. It's too bad the conservatives have a party they can generally rally around....

....while liberals and progressives always have to struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the often inconsistent behavior and messages of the Democratic Party.

[Xicano]

58. Iran-Contra

...

[Ramulux]

61. 2007

I basically got into politics and current affairs by way of conspiracy theory and alternative news stuff. I saw things like Zeitgeist and Fahrenheit 9/11 and films by Alex Jones and it sort of scared the shit out of me. I was sort of a 9/11 truther and into all that Bilderberg/council on foreign relations/federal reserve conspiracy nonsense. As I learned more I began to understand how a lot of the conspiracies were just illogical exaggerations of real fucked-up problems that actually exist like globalism and war. I was always very liberal without realizing it in terms of all social issues, but the main thing that I developed by being brainwashed by all that craziness was an intense hatred of the government bordering on libertarianism at times.

I got sick of it after a while and as the election in 08 got closer I sort of willingly got caught up in the theater and entertainment of the campaign. I actually forced myself to believe what Obama was saying even though part of me knew everything he was saying was for show. I actually felt real happiness when Obama won and I felt like the system maybe wasn't as corrupt as I thought it was. That feeling went away by the time he took office after already going back on a few big campaign pledges and nominating some real scumbags like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner to his administration.

Since then I have gone back and forth from really far-left to just far-left in response to the insanity of this administration. I try to take breaks from all this craziness but its hard to ignore.

[astral]

62. Around 1982

I started hearing a very few individuals talk about the same thing: Agenda 21 and the takeover of America, the 10 region states that are supposed to have military from other countries coming in to police us while our soldiers are overseas not here to protect us, and the totalitarian world we would be living in.

I felt I was hearing something that did not exactly sound like a bunch of paranoid bullshit, although I rarely heard that anyone else knew this stuff, or would discuss it, or not think you're crazy if you mention it.

People have to understand this grabbing of our "wildlands" -- and designating them "Wildlands," is not some crazy environmentalist movement but part of the plan to remove us from ownership of property, or any rights to travel freely about even in our own nation.

I was really too young to get too stressed out about it even though I totally believed these people knew what they were talking about.

This was of course, for you younger folks who can't imagine such a thing: long before I ever had a computer, and loooong before I ever thought I could possibly ever WANT one, and, of course, even if I had a computer it would have been long before Al Gore invented The Internets! (. . . . oh, sorry, he wasn't a Democrat, was he?)

; )

[mmonk]

64. At the current dangerous level, 2002. I noticed the rise of the corporate state

in the 80's.

[Sky Masterson]

65. Bush V Gore

It was during that time that I realized my sisters had transmogrified in to Right wing Republicans.
I jumped in and have been addicted every since.

[vicarofrevelwood]

67. Regan Taxing Unemployment did it for me.

[Jazzgirl]

69. When JFK, MLK and RFK were assasinated.

I was 9 when JFK was assasinated and it scared me a lot. I liked to read so I read everything I could find, for years, on the assasination. I was truly terrified when MLK and RFK were killed then Watergate reared it's ugly head. Ugh.....I have gone from hope to despair. I remember reading Animal Farm when I was about 15 and thinking the US would never allow anything like that to happen.

[Cresent City Kid]

70. For me it was during the 1980 election campaign

I went to Jackson Square for a Jimmy Carter rally, and watched a sitting President get shouted down by 10 or 15 hecklers in front of a crowd of a few thousand. More disturbing to me was the ecomomic theory proposed by Reagan. Unlike today when we've had the theory installed as policy with proof it doesn't work, back then, at 15, I only had my gut telling me it was lunacy.

At the time, I was in a private catholic high school where my father taught, one that allowed children of employees free tuition. The day after the election there was like a second Mardi Gras. It seemed to me like the whole country was taking a hard right, and leaving me behind. In 1982, I managed to go to college for one semester before cuts to the Pell Grant left me little choice but to work at fast food places. I remember the glorification of the rich and the demonization of the poor, in contrast to the 70's when though it still sucked to be poor, at least it didn't have the stigma it had in the 80's.

Today, it's the same theory and misinformation to sell the theory, only it's more brazen. Reagan actually flinched when he caused budget deficits and raised taxes. Last year we couldn't get taxes on the rich restored to Clinton era levels, a 3% increase, with a Democratic President, the House, and 59 Senators. The only thing that has changed is how much further to the right we have gone.

[Armstead]

73. I can rememeber the shift to the zeitgeist in the early 80's and how fast it was

It was as if overnight, suddenly the accountants were in complete control -- and the accountants had a lot of whackadoodle ideas that people bought into in reaction to the problems of the 1970's.

A lot of similarities to today.

[handmade34]

71. around '67

Detroit Race Riots spilled over into Lansing where I lived:
http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm

started going to anti-war rallies 1969
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html

homesteaded and had kids but went back to school in 1990 and thus the discontent returned with a vengence...

I am very concerned for my kids and grandkids...

[raccoon]

76. Late 1960's, Vietnam and the draft dragging on and on and on. nt

[Drew Richards]

77. 1963 Dallas

12:30 p.m. Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas.

The world changed and the start of the publicly visible corporate power was exposed.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

78. +1 me too

[pinkkillersheep]

79. Health care reform

I'm 23 and have always been interested, to some degree, in politics. I remember being the only 6th grader in my very rural grade school who liked Gore. When I saw the way Tea Partiers were overtaking the health care debate, I started paying very close attention. And then, when I realized just how strong the health insurance companies were - like every other large industry - I started really worrying. Now I'm just down left terrified.

[Armstead]

80. That would have probably done it for me if I was younger

[SteveG]

83. When Nixon became President

Compared to the Republican Party today, Nixon was downright left wing, but he was to the right of the Dems and in the corporate pocket and inherently corrupt. It's only gotten worse, horribly worse, since then. I was eligible to vote for the first time in 1972, I voted McGovern. I have only voted for one non-Democratic candidate for President in my life, and that was John Anderson.