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The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,966 posts)

8. The late 1960s were pretty crazy.

Reply to DemocratSinceBirth (Original post)

Fri Oct 13, 2017, 03:00 PM

Oct 2017

It's easy to forget (or be unfamiliar with, if you weren't around then) the intense animosity arising from the civil rights and antiwar movements. There were riots in which whole neighborhoods burned down; protesters were regularly beaten up by police; there was Kent State; buildings were bombed; and RFK and MLK were assassinated. Some really, really ugly shit was going down; and people, including family members, became enemies just as now. I had screaming fights with my dad over the war, and I know a lot of other people who fought like wolverines with their families.

I think the divisions between the political parties is worse now than it was then, but the arguments between individuals with different viewpoints were just as intense and furious.

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Has America ever been as divided as it is now ? [View all] DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 OP

At least not that I can remember! imanamerican63 Oct 2017 #1

Civil War Not Ruth Oct 2017 #2

We were divided by geographical lines. DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 #3

War of 1812 against Brits Not Ruth Oct 2017 #4

each generation is so different - and it is hard to directly compare NRaleighLiberal Oct 2017 #5

brothers killed each other. we lost a full 2% of our entire population over the course of 4 years. unblock Oct 2017 #6

A Civil War is unfathomable because the divisions are ideological, not geographical. DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 #13

it is fathomable, at least in the sense that a convenient geographical border isn't a requirement unblock Oct 2017 #17

I think it's always divided Corvo Bianco Oct 2017 #7

The late 1960s were pretty crazy. The Velveteen Ocelot Oct 2017 #8

the cleavages got to be pretty four dimensional Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2017 #12

I think people were a lot more divided at the peak of the anti-war movement than today Sen. Walter Sobchak Oct 2017 #9

I was in junior high school and had teachers who favored Vietnamization who I didn't loathe. DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 #10

Is 60-30 "divided"? brooklynite Oct 2017 #11

That is actually a good point but the division is closer to 60-40 DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 #14

The advent of cable TV & the internet transformed sparks into a raging fire. VOX Oct 2017 #15

The latest data informs that the sharpest political divides are between large urban concentrations. DemocratSinceBirth Oct 2017 #16