I have an old book from 1973

[ck4829]

There's a passage in there that's kind of interesting, it is written in there that "The ideological climate in America has changed sufficiently in the past few decades so that it now seems to be only a matter of time until socialized medicine and a guaranteed income will be extended to all."

From The Nature of Human Values by Milton Rokeach.

It's just so jarring to see what has happened in that matter of time. Socialized medicine is considered to be radical and that's not even mentioning a guaranteed income, we've heard the "far left" label extended to them, but now it is extended to opposing school shootings and I am sure "not wanting to throw virgins into volcanoes to appease the job creators and the Dow" or "not wanting to put Muslims into camps" will be considered to be "too far left" in the near future too.

We've gone from politics being the idea of giving healthcare and an income for all to legislators getting in twitter fights with high school students who survived shootings, just think about that for a second.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. That was before the major demographic shift that saw the US on the track to majority non-white

and also before 30 years of right-wing propaganda in the form of Limbaugh and Fox News et al. But the reason the US doesn't have socialised medicine now, and that conservatism has been so successful, is mostly because white Americans are generally way more racist, as a group, than most liberals want to admit.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. A lot has changed since then.

[ck4829]

3. Yeah. I guess it's just shocking to see the decline of the political culture laid out there.