“Dad, tell me about the good old days.”
“Well, son, back then marrying your brother or viciously murdering all of one’s children were considered crimes. In those halcyon days, adults didn’t go out of their way to see to the mutilation of children’s genitals. Men couldn’t get pregnant and women didn’t sport penises. Those were simpler times, son.
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“What’s more, hard work, confidence, promptness, customer service, and a clean-cut appearance were considered good things. People actually looked each other in the eye and shook hands by way of greeting. People didn’t spend all day staring at screens and agonizing over their number of likes and follows. Families shared meals together. Democrats didn’t hate their country and its longtime citizens. Merit and free markets were respected if not revered. College students were exposed to different ideas without needing safe spaces, cute puppies, and warm cookies to deal with them.
“People read books. Actual, physical books. Kids were assigned classic books to read as assignments in school! Books like The Great Gatsby, The Fountainhead, Animal Farm, and 1984. Students were taught how to print — and write in cursive. Children could tell time from regular old analog wall clocks. Some store clerks and cashiers could return the correct amount back to a customer during purchases without having to rely on the cash register or a computer. You see, many people paid primarily with cash.
“Moreover, there was not a single American town that was majority Muslim. Jews were not routinely ostracized and threatened. And I didn’t see much overt racism. Our flag and our anthem were respected.
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“And, if you can believe it son, there was no talk of an artificial intelligence, or “AI,” that could one day destroy us all.
“I know that this all sounds very hard to believe, but that’s honestly the way life was, all the way back… in the 1980s when I was a young man.”
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Image: Google ai-generated illustration