Imagine If People Today Had To Endure What People Went Through During WWII...

[utahjeepr]

1/3rd of today's Americans would have praised the Japanese for bombing Pearl Harbor. Another third would want to wait it out as "neutral" and surrender to whoever won out. The last third would be screaming that "We gotta fight. Not me of course, I've got terrible case of athlete's foot from my glory days, otherwise I would."

[BoringGuy45]

1/3rd of today's Americans would have praised the Japanese for bombing Pearl Harbor. Another third would want to wait it out as "neutral" and surrender to whoever won out. The last third would be screaming that "We gotta fight. Not me of course, I've got terrible case of athlete's foot from my glory days, otherwise I would."

And which one are you?

[AndyLate]

My father likes to bitch about my generation and my adult children's generation. My grandfather bitched about my dad's generation. I'm willing to bet that my great-grandfather bitched about my grandfather's generation. It's a story as old as time.

There is simply no avoiding the fact that we 1st worlders are surrounded by things that make our life easier than it was even 30 years ago. This also holds true for generations. My grandfather used to load supplies into a horse drawn wagon, travel 30 miles, and live rough for a week to cut fence posts. My dad and brother buy them at a co-op. We commonly lost power for a week or two in the winter (1970s-1980s). It takes a severe storm for my folks to lose power for a few days now. My great-great grandfather would say "what's electricity?" My dad remembers when a lot of families did not have telephones. Today even our poorest citizens have smartphones.

I don't see SteyrAug's OP as an attack on our current generation. It is a fact that we as a nation are accustomed to living a really good life. We are used to having a huge variety of consumer goods - necessities and luxuries both. Most of us have never experienced real shortages or sacrifices. It's not a criticism, it shows how well off our nation is.

It is also obvious just how devastating it would be to us all if we had to live through a time like WWII.

Andy

[1168]

I’m sure they were all great and all, but plenty of people stayed stateside to do the Charleston and knock up everybody’s girls while resisting coastal blackout ordinances. Also of interest, murder rates plummeted in the wartime US, and rose again after the war. It was at quite the peak prior to the war.

All I’m saying is they weren’t as perfect as the stories they told you growing up. The thought that previous generations were much better, sometimes to the point of being infallible, is among the most bizarre and easily disprovable opinions I often encounter.

Edit: I saw AndyLate’s post after I hit send, and he makes solid points.

[jsbhike]

I’m sure they were all great and all, but plenty of people stayed stateside to do the Charleston and knock up everybody’s girls while resisting coastal blackout ordinances. Also of interest, murder rates plummeted in the wartime US, and rose again after the war. It was at quite the peak prior to the war.

All I’m saying is they weren’t as perfect as the stories they told you growing up. The thought that previous generations were much better, sometimes to the point of being infallible, is among the most bizarre and easily disprovable opinions I often encounter.

Edit: I saw AndyLate’s post after I hit send, and he makes solid points.

A couple of post war examples include someone who wore shorts during the 1970's to early 80's griping about lack of inseam length now and griping about things they currently see on TV with the insinuation of being totally new and unheard of after hearing tales about paying to go in carny side shows where apparently being close enough to potentially smell and touch the abhorrent visual made all the difference.

[SteyrAUG]

I don't see SteyrAug's OP as an attack on our current generation. It is a fact that we as a nation are accustomed to living a really good life. We are used to having a huge variety of consumer goods - necessities and luxuries both. Most of us have never experienced real shortages or sacrifices. It's not a criticism, it shows how well off our nation is.

Andy

Just for clarification, it was an observation of every generation dealing with the current situation. Lots of boomers being just as entitle minded as millennials. As a country "we" (meaning both young and old) used to manage some things better.

[jsbhike]

Just for clarification, it was an observation of every generation dealing with the current situation. Lots of boomers being just as entitle minded as millennials. As a country "we" (meaning both young and old) used to manage some things better.

In all honesty though, a lot of the bad crap we are dealing with now had it's origins in the 1930's. If the PR campaign on that generation was in the ball park we likely wouldn't be wading through the fall out from then now. Pointing to the 60's as when everything went to hell and teenagers & 20 somethings as the main culprits is interesting considering the average elected official age has always seemed to be 40+.

[SteyrAUG]

In all honesty though, a lot of the bad crap we are dealing with now had it's origins in the 1930's. If the PR campaign on that generation was in the ball park we likely wouldn't be wading through the fall out from then now. Pointing to the 60's as when everything went to hell and teenagers & 20 somethings as the main culprits is interesting considering the average elected official age has always seemed to be 40+.

I have no disillusions about the "greatest generation", some of them really sucked. The decade before they were bankers foreclosing on depression victims, bootleggers or fanboys of vicious gangsters who killed cops in numbers that would make BLM extremists orgasm.

When the war started some were isolationists (which I can understand) but some were avid supporters of Hitler, Mussolini and others who believed in law and order even if that meant a police state. It was our government and the UK who pioneered eugenics, Hitler learned from us. And even when we finally had skin in the game, grandma who bakes cookies was a vicious, self centered whore who actually wrote "Dear John" letters to those serving in the Pacific and other hell holes like Bastogne simply because she wasn't getting regular johnson deliveries and the guy down the street showed her even the slightest interest.

But with the scumbag contingent of society (which always seems to exist) noted, in general terms most people managed to endure and accept social hardships better than most people seem to be able to today. Obvious exceptions exist, I'm sure combat vets gleefully navigate covid problems because it's a walk in the park compared to being shot at.

All that said, it is ironic that the greatest generation provided us with possibly the worst generation (60s radicals) and it's probably a case of them making sure their children wanted for nothing (and didn't) and then those children growing up to believe "they" could make the world a better place because certainly "they" were more enlightened, educated and thoughtful of others than their parents ever could be.

[utahjeepr]

And which one are you?

I'm the guy acting all morally superior and talking shit on the internet. Couldn't you tell?

[Groyper]

We aint THAT people/country anymore & havent been for decades.
Our youth today would VASTLY support just about any enemy on Earth, as long as they were against America.
So would one entire political party.
The ENTIRE media.
ALL academia.
And most other countries.

And remember, that the "Greatest Generation" got suckered in to saving Communism from getting its face kicked in, then came home, and overdosed on post war materialism, allowing the Communists to infiltrated all areas of life, including Media, Education, Law, etc, and then did nothing but bitch about it afterwards.

Supporting a Communist loving Marxist degenerate(FDR) getting suckered into fighting to save the GREATER of two evils, then allowing that same evil to infect and ruin your nation does not make a generation "great", nothing more then a slogan giving by Tom Brokaw needing a title to sale to self centered Boomers and their parents.