for example there were a lot of polio cases in the early 1950s yeah
if i had to guess the spike may have been related to the baby boom
but the most notable thing about polio in the era was that the vaccine was released *into the public domain* in 1955
this was miraculous
i havent had much success in finding data regarding womens mental health in the 1950s
s*icide figures might be most reliable as an indicator but unlike homicides there are more plausible issues here
a further issue is that these are not age adjusted, which matters
call it even
what is interesting is that mens suicide rates were as usual higher, but possibly noticably higher in the 50s
its curious to me that the dumb political cartoon ignores what I somewhat suspect was the most widespread mental health issue in the 50s that no one talks abt, PTSD
I dont have any proof of this but it seems likely reasonable to expect it may have been a problem, arguments about social reception and appreciation of warriors like those discussed in Sebastian Junger's _Tribe_ notwithstanding
I also have an anecdote
my great uncle was a sniper in Europe. reputedly a capable one. later in life he was an exceptional golfer.
when he demobilized he lived in a house down the street from his parents and for years would wake up in the middle of the night to run to his mother, screaming, to be held
so anyway thats probably under-discussed as a source of quiet misery for men in the 50s
no easy data on antigay sentiment
its plausible it was historically high though
arrests by entrapment were routine at least in public venues in major cities (and perhaps it would have been relatively difficult to meet in other circumstances, idk) archive.is/YlBFK
i dont know what life was actually like for gay men in the 1950s. obviously in a lot of ways "not great" but the closet was sometimes a polite mutual fiction
eg: my extended family was well aware that another of my great uncles was gay. they remained close his whole life
a related matter is that the country was at least in some ways relatively relaxed about transgender people
when Christine Jorgensen's reassignment surgery was announced in 1952 it was billed as a Miracle of Science and the Army said, yeah, ok, we'll change your name, no prob
the notion that american women "werent allowed" to go to college in the 1950s is risible
my maternal grandmother, born in the _1920s_, was a college-educated medical laboratory technician
this was in no way novel. america has had womens colleges for nearly 200 years
on the point regarding molestation i frankly have no idea how to obtain data on this matter and i honestly would prefer not to look
there are two deadly mistakes you can make looking at images like these
the first is to imagine that they were representative rather than aspirational; that things ever really were so uncomplicated
the second and in my opinion more corrosive error is to perceive the difference between the idealized images and an often rough reality, then go further to refuse not only the possibility of approaching the ideal; but further still denying its value, were it somehow attained
the denial of the possibility or value of things good and transcendent is a sickness of the spirit
im sorry (not sorry) to be a mystic about this but its the most efficient means of conveying the mentality involved in nihilist aesthetics
i guess the point of this thread is that i am once again asking you to eschew luciferian despair and the ensuing embrace of hell for fear that you might not attain some heaven
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i get it now, this is legit. reddit objects are objects recommended to _entry-level enthusiasts_ by topical subreddits because they work well to improve lives over baseline with a relatively low level of effort for a majority of cases
realistically there's no way to stop people from tacitly or explicitly allocating taxes and benefits on the basis of race and large portions of the country have interests in this happening or ideological commitments to doing so
the norms to which new immigrants are assimilating and young natives inculcated are immensely ethnically charged without any public and common ideal of transcending race for an american identity, an identity which frankly doesnt even exist anymore
the rheinweisenlager were a bunch of concentration camps in the original sense where surrendered wehrmacht soldiers were held for several months in 1945
the camps were run by the US, apparently, and that's important