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In reply to the discussion: America's current situation is just chickens from the '80s coming home to roost [View all]hatrack
(59,584 posts)Statement above would have ended up in the TLDR file.
We started the decade with James Watt, who said that it didn't matter all that much to preserve a liveable habitat for future generations, since "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns."
Near the end came James Hansen and the first, clear and unequivocal warning that something was very possibly wrong with the climate (and to this date, we're waiting for a real response).
And through it all flowed a river of death, as Sainted Reagan couldn't even say the word "AIDS" until 1985, when more than 5,000 had already died, and only then because an old Hollywood friend was dying. He wouldn't give a speech on the topic for another two years; at around the same time, "The Good Bush" spoke on the topic and was publicly jeered for calling for mandatory antibody testing.