Nostalgia for the 1950s is a peculiar phenomenon that affects both sides of the political aisle. The right has nostalgia for the strong family values, anti-communist ideologies and smaller, less intrusive government of that time. The left has nostalgia for the high tax rates and strong organized labor presence of the '50s. Yet you would not find many Americans in the 21st century who would want to go back to the Eisenhower years if they had a choice. After all, living standards were much lower than today and a lot of the basic freedoms and amenities we enjoy today did not exist.
Legal segregation was still in full force in the Southern US and many Northern states had de-facto segregation. Blacks had poverty rates upward of 80% in the '50s and there was not much opportunity for a black person to have a career beyond unskilled labor.
For women, there were few career opportunities beyond "typical" female ones such as nursing or teaching. About 1/3rd of married white women worked in the '50s, and for black and Latinx women the rate was considerably higher than that. Being a female was no picnic. Household chores were more time-consuming and tedious than today, without dishwashers, without clothes dryers, and many other amenities now taken for granted. Birth control methods were unreliable and abortion illegal in many places; women who got pregnant out of wedlock were socially shamed. Sexual harrassment in the workplace was common and brushed off as a joke, as was wife-beating. There were no laws against marital rape in most places.
There were no Miranda rights yet in the '50s and police procedures were primitive and brutish by modern standards. Third degree interrogation of suspects was a common practice and police departments, especially in big cities were often phenomenally corrupt. The appeals process for those convicted of a crime was limited and a death sentence generally meant speedy execution within a year; there was relatively little concern that the justice system might have gotten the wrong person.
The working world was difficult and dangerous by modern standards. The rate of workplace injuries and deaths in the early 1970s, when the OSHA was created, were about 4x what they are in 2021 and it is safe to assume the rate in the '50s was much higher than that. Air and water pollution were serious problems and many cities were blanketed by a layer of smog.
Medical science was primitive by modern standards; many illnesses and conditions that can be treated relatively easily now were fatal in the '50s. Cancer and childhood diseases claimed many lives. Childbirth also killed many more women than it does today. People born with mental or physical abnormalities were confined to state mental institutions; having such a child around was shameful for most families and they would seek to cover it up.
People forget about how much medicine has changed. Infectious diseases like mumps, measles, whooping cough, polio (early in the decade), scarlet fever, etc were still around. IIRC something like 200 kids died every year from measles. The prognosis for cancer was pretty grim, since chemotherapy had only just been discovered. We didn't know much at all when it came to the brain and mental health.
>look at an online collection of old death certificates from the 50s-60s
>man it was grim--children dropping of leukemia, mentally moronic children still being described as "mongoloids" on death certificates, women dying from childbirth, people getting killed horribly in car accidents that you'd walk away from now, untreatable cancer, rheumatic heart fever, house fires seemed to be a lot more common back then, etc
The advertisements and media from that time loved to push futurism and the jet/space age yet from a 21st century POV that time looks like the Middle Ages.
Life for the average American in 1955 was a lot better than it had been in 1905 or 1925, but it was also much worse than just 20 years later, to say nothing of this century--much is made about the economic woes of the '70s yet poverty rates in the '50s were a good 18% higher. So in the end, the '50s are romanticized far more than is necessary. We might look back fondly on the era of strong unions and relatively lower income inequality but the worse overall quality of life and widespread discrimination against women, homosexuals, and persons of color can be hard to overlook.
Blacks and women were objectively better off and more secure in every way and homosexuals should be exterminated before they cause more epidemics.
>Sexual harrassment in the workplace was common
Feeling up female underlings and coworkers at the office or factory floor with no consequences must have been based, we should totally bring that back.
Until her alcoholic PTSD-addled WWII/Korea vet husband or boyfriend finds out and beats the shit out of you.
>implying I’m not also a deranged vet that plans on going out in a murder-suicide
>smaller, less intrusive government of that time
The government was a lot more powerful back then. They regulated the economy similar to the way Japan or western Europe did. They directly provided jobs to GI's after WW2 through the GI Bill and also subsidizing heavy industry.
Guys you should watch Mad Men
>The government was a lot more powerful back then. They regulated the economy similar to the way Japan or western Europe did.
Back then there were a lot less regulations on everything, not as many letter agencies, you could buy a gun in a mail order catalog, etc. So you tell me.
no but what there were like the FBI got away with tons of bullshit because there was almost no scrutiny of them back then and that generation naively trusted authority. nowadays there's a new scandal at the letter agencies every month when something gets leaked to the Washington Post.
Tell me without telling me that you're not a woman and have never tried to sympathize with women's point of view.
Remember. It's only rape if you're an ugly gremlin as opposed to a 6'2" alpha Chad.
Ironically, many people in Eastern Europe long for the communist era for the same reasons.
Life was objectively worse in many ways when compared to today, but at least gypsies were kept on a leash, people were happy with the little they had and entire families weren't spread throughout Europe because of better job opportunities.
it's boomer who miss 70s and 80s when they were young and had functional dick. literally nobody in EE wants to go back to 50s.
Maybe not the 50s, but I've seen people "nostalgic" for the latter years of communism.
Reminds me of that post someone made about life in East Germany
After literally 25% of its population left for the west, it got manageable. Problem is that their leadership tried to make the entire industry focused around the heavy industry, right after the war, which destroyed any sort of services, so for almost a decade life was hard. After that, it got somewhat stable, but it was boring.
Sure, you've had work, you (usually) had enough to eat, and some sort of entertainment was provided to you. But nothing more than that. Your salary could provide you basic food items, but not much more than that. You were able to get a car, but you'll wait anywhere between one and up to ten years to get one, and you had no choice when getting it - they had an orange one, so you got an orange one. Entertainment had to go through a bunch of party controlled comitees to make sure it's "appropriate" (meaning it was in line with their worldview).
Some winters could get worse. At times, heat would go out, as well as electricity. More often than not shops were devoid of basic items and you had to sign up on a waitlist to get them. And of course, after some time Stasi was everywhere, so you would get more and more paranoid because they would torture anyone they believed to be subversive.
I wouldn't say it was poverty. It was the lowest, most basic, least luxurious life you could imagine. Enough to keep you at bay and stop from rebelling (at lest in most cases), but nothing else. Of course, it was a bit better if you were in the party, but only the highest echelons could afford an actual luxury - and sometimes, a bunch of oranges was luxurious. The only people actually longing for DDR are post-communist parties and old fricks that refuse to die.
you forgot where you wanted to date a girl but thanks to FKK shit she already knew what you had and was like "Nein. Walter's is bigger."
>people were poor
>some were perverts and committed crimes, no other society on earth has this problem
>they thought children shouldn't grow up without a father
>boomer women hadn't gone to college on their daddy's GI bill yet
>the s*uth
That was all that was wrong with the 50s? Coming out of the great depression and the world war it doesn't seem so bad.
I would think dying of now easily preventable diseases and cars that would horribly mutilate you in a low speed accident might be a thing too.
Most 50s nostalgia was peddled by boomers who were kids then and only had to worry about what they were getting for Christmas.
the left does not have nostalgia at all for the 50s. There was no exciting ethnic cuisine and they didn't believe in marriage equality. they were literally nazis.
>the left does not have nostalgia at all for the 50s.
If you're a working union man, there's a lot to be nostalgic for because unions were actually strong back then. But then those are actually blue collar people, not the kind of people you're talking about.
too bad unions back then were mostly controlled by organized crime
also they didn't believe in marriage equality
And yet, still in a better situation than they are now. At least unions could still get shit done.
nah not really. after they won the initial fight for improved wages+pensions during the New Deal era they basically sat on their hands and did nothing for the next 30 years until manufacturing jobs declined in the 70s onward. unions also did frick-all about workplace safety which continued to be pretty bad. and even then only blue chip companies like GM or General Electric had unionized workforces; most smaller employers were not unionized and job security, wages, and benefits were not as stable.
All of that's good you fricking homosexual
So many WWII and Korea vets with PTSD. There were no real mental help services back then and the culture of the time would have encouraged machismo and "sucking it up" rather than seeking help. All too many men became alcoholics or abused their family.
>repressed dictatorship
>lots of people lost family member in civil war or they were killed for wrongthink
>poor as dirt
>work in mine where you'll die of disease from inhaling mine dust by 50
>have like 8 kids because condoms make the Virgin Mary cry
nah frick living in Spain in the 50s
>Latinx
Fricking gringo c**t I'LL FRICKING HANG YOU FROM A TREE IF YOU SAY THAT SHIT SOUTH OF YOUR BORDER
don't give yourself a heart attack chancho
What would you in Spanish for a non-binary person, -e?