When do you think America was at its worst?

[Captante]

Based on the list of choices in the OP, Trump and his flunkies take the prize easily with only the Great Depression era even coming close.

Overall however it's a close call between slavery and the deliberate GENOCIDE we committed against native Americans.

 

[cytg111]

I see greenman is standing proud, finally.

 

[Captante]

I see greenman is standing proud, finally.

I guess he's decided to toss what minimal credibility he HAD in the crapper.

Biden inherited the mess we find ourselves in today. Beyond any role he might have had as Obama's VP in shaping our "current reality" he's not responsible at all and claiming otherwise is just ignorant.

If 'murica ends up fascist in the near-future you will have Donald Trump to thank for it.

 

[woolfe9998]

Fringe Lunatics of the world are now totally empowered and (their theories/conspiracies/movements) are essentially immortal now thanks to the existence of the internet.

We are absolutely never going back to that world where the scattered crazies just live in obscurity under their rocks and in their cabins in the woods, crying that nobody out their is reading their mail-order pamphlets.

This is just one of those "moments of the era" that we can point to that defines our passage into the next state of human history.

May be true. What I actually said is that I see no reason for it to change. Not that it couldn't change. Throughout human history, ideas, both good and bad, ebb and flow. After WWII, Europe became a lot less anti-semitic than it had been before and during the war. This includes the various insane conspiracy theories which are the core of anti-semitism. And after the Oklahoma City bombing, the American militia movement shrank by 2/3's, until it started coming back during the Obama admin. It takes things like wars, genocide or mass casualty terrorist attacks to affect changes like this. We may even have to live under a fascist dictatorship for awhile before we collectively realize that we'd rather be a democracy again, and shake it off.

Which is my way of saying, that if it's going to get any better, and it's a big if, it's going to have to get a helluva lot worse first. Currently there is nothing jarring enough to the public conscience to snap us out of this, which is why I currently see no reason for it to change. Because nothing in the ordinary course of democratic elections and daily news coverage of politics can make it change. It's going to take extraordinary and catastrophic events. A good counter-factual example would be, where would Trump and the far right be right now had those insurrectionists actually executed Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and 20 other members of Congress that day?

 

[Tsinni Dave]

The current war on observable reality, facts and general decency put Trump on top for me. Deeply flawed asshats just lettin' that fact free asshattery flow disgusts me to my core.

 

[Captante]

A good counter-factual example would be, where would Trump and the far right be right now had those insurrectionists actually executed Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and 20 other members of Congress that day?

Those traitorous bastages would have gotten the civil war they thought that they wanted.

It's still VERY likely to happen in the next two years too..... I suggest against getting "comfortable".

 

[UNCjigga]

I mean, I wasn't around during McCarthyism, Jim Crow, the Dust Bowl, Trail of Tears, Andrew Johnson's term/Civil War, etc.--so from my personal experience, Trump's America is America at her worst.

 

[hal2kilo]

Ms Smith's 7th grade English class was absolutely America at it's worst. We had to read horrible books about horrible, f'ed up people, books so bad that they caused brain leprosy and then we had to discuss said garbage with Ms Smith, who, due to said brain leprosy, loved every page. Reading Lisa, Bright and Dark made us want to throw the author, John Neufeld, through a plate glass window.

You had Ms Smith too in 7th grade! I became familiar with the name nemesis when I had that b..... for a teacher.

 

[hal2kilo]

Based on the list of choices in the OP, Trump and his flunkies take the prize easily with only the Great Depression era even coming close.

Overall however it's a close call between slavery and the deliberate GENOCIDE we committed against native Americans.

But bu bu it was my long lost ancestors who did all that stuff. Why look at me? /s

 

[NWRMidnight]

I see greenman is standing proud, finally.

Sad part is he doesn't even realize that the majority of what he is blaming Biden for after only being in office for 1.7 years, is mostly directly caused by Trump and his policies while in office (leadership or lack there of). Of course Greenman has never been keen on facts. He likes to go on feels and what his master tells him to believe.

 

[sportage]

No Cuban Missile Crisis?
I guess that doesn't apply. But as I remember a lot of adults were pissing their pants. We literally did not know if morning would come, or we would be fried in our sleep. Those were some nerve-racking days indeed. But just imagine if Trump had been president? Hard telling where we would be now, or if we would be at all?

Practically speaking, would have to be the great depression. Sure, things seem bad now or during covid or even 9/11 but during the great depression people were actually starving and homeless unlike ever before. We may hate Trump and terrorist and Marjorie Taylor Greene but at least most of us are still eating and going to work.

And oh... Vietnam and the draft was no picnic either....

 

[eelw]

Scary thing is, as bad it’s been from everywhere these past 6-7 years, I don’t think rock bottom has been hit yet.

 

[Muse]

Worst how? Economically or morally? I think right now might work for the latter. Trump onwards.

 

[Muse]

Scary thing is, as bad it’s been from everywhere these past 6-7 years, I don’t think rock bottom has been hit yet.

Things can always get worse, it's axiomatic. There's a Bottom Below:

And if you want a movie for this, there's Bad Lieutenant. I saw it in 2006, a couple days ago I ordered the Bluray Special Edition. It's about an NYC cop for whom there is no bottom. Not for people with a weak constitution. One of the great great performances (Harvey Keitel):

 

[eelw]

Worst how? Economically or morally? I think right now might work for the latter. Trump onwards.

Politically because of MAGAtards. Socially because of MAGAtards. Economically because of large corporations price gouging. Environmentally with all of these 1 in a 1000 year events back to back to back. And yeah Covid ain’t going anywhere until people act responsibly

 

[Homerboy]

We ignoring the whole slavery thing? Or the native massacre thing?

That's pretty much still going on though...

 

[Muse]

No Cuban Missile Crisis?
I guess that doesn't apply. But as I remember a lot of adults were pissing their pants. We literally did not know if morning would come, or we would be fried in our sleep. Those were some nerve-racking days indeed. But just imagine if Trump had been president? Hard telling where we would be now, or if we would be at all?

Practically speaking, would have to be the great depression. Sure, things seem bad now or during covid or even 9/11 but during the great depression people were actually starving and homeless unlike ever before. We may hate Trump and terrorist and Marjorie Taylor Greene but at least most of us are still eating and going to work.

And oh... Vietnam and the draft was no picnic either....

Either side of the Great Depression were horrific events, WW I and WW II. Both featuring unimaginable horrors. I'm not sure what's worse: widespread poverty/depression or unimaginable violence. We might be getting both in the not distant future with uncontrollable environmental collapse thrown in.

 

[Amol S.]

I am not sure if everyone here even realizes that if it were not for Woodrow Wilson, Trump would not have been as racist as he was. Woodrow Wilson was the one that unofficially spread the KKK all over the nation. If Wilson was never president, racism would not have been as bad as it became during and after his presidency.

 

[nickqt]

I am not sure if everyone here even realizes that if it were not for Woodrow Wilson, Trump would not have been as racist as he was. Woodrow Wilson was the one that unofficially spread the KKK all over the nation. If Wilson was never president, racism would not have been as bad as it became during and after his presidency.

I think your grasp on history and objective reality is very tenuous and based on whatever snippet of history or fact that you literally just read about 5 minutes prior to posting.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

American History? Reconstruction.

We had one shot to fix so, so many fuckups in American civilization and society and we blew it. The wound was open, prepped, ready to be cleansed and sutured... and instead we took a giant shit into a gaping wound and left a festering mess that plagues us to this day.