Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never understand this complaint. It's a US-based news source (The Atlantic) posted to a US-based news aggregator (HN). Why would you expect, or demand, it to not be US centric? You're more than welcome to post collections like this from non-US news sources on hacker news, if you wish.
Why would you expect, or demand, it to not be US centric? I, for one, would not. But "The World" in the title seems unwarranted. Just as it does for many "World Series" that only apply to the US, even if everybody deems American teams of sport X to be clearly above the rest.
50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
121–130 of 139 posts
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think everyone here would be super interested to see more pics/description of the Eastern bloc during that era. Post something cool!
Yes! It would be fascinating. I went to Moscow and Leningrad in 1986. Just buying things - you queue to point at what you want and then you get a ticket. You take the ticket to a second queue, to pay for the item and get a receipt. You join a third queue with your receipt to collect the item. I'd love to read more about that time, especially from people who lived there.
But as for receipts, we have this system till now at some stores, in car or computer parts stores, except that you write down item codes on a sheet of paper by yourself, or select them in a database, then you go to cashier to pay and get the receipt, and then you go and get the items from a guy that doesn't deal with money. Don't you have such buerocracy?
There were food supermarkets (универсамы) where you collected items into shopping carts and payed at the exit.
In 1986 there were just enormous queues and deficit of everything due to reasons out of scope for now...
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#123The racism those photos document is startling. Just 50 years ago? Though, in my private high school in Indiana, in 1999 I overheard kids more than once telling n *er jokes. I heard less overtly racists at the school saying things like "Yeah, it would be weird to have a black friend." These were the rich kids who parents owned the local businesses. I have a hard time believing the kids weren't getting it from the pare…
Wow, enlightened white people. We sure are good at patting ourselves on the back, aren't we? Reality check: in 1962, every American city, north or south, with a substantial black population had a thriving black business district and a commercial middle class. Example: Bronzeville in Chicago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas,_Chicago#Bronzeville Enlightened white people destroyed these worlds and the people who li…
And substantial portions of America were still "no-go zones" for non-white Americans, and had been for generations. You might want to look into the term "sundown town".
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't understand your contention here. You're claiming that integration ruined Brooklyn? Can you explain the mechanism? I don't see how public housing projects (widely regarded as a failure that cities are transitioning away from) have anything to do with segregation (widely regarded as an moral atrocity). Also, just because there's a lot of black people on the street doesn't mean a neighborhood is dangerous…
You're claiming that integration ruined Brooklyn? Can you explain the mechanism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing If you ever actually talk to anyone who was personally involved in the former, and they're being frank, they'll tell you that a primary concern was a rational fear for their physical safety and/or that of their families. Which adds up to the latter. W…
> If we could sit down together and watch WSHH for an hour, how exactly would we disagree?*
Out of curiosity, do you have any opinions on modern black culture that aren't based on videos you find online?
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#125The U.S. Centric View on the World in 1962. Except the Mongolian photo. How did it make there?
Or, the photos from Italy. Or the ones from Vietnam. Or the ones from Germany. Or Afghanistan. Or Algeria. Or the UK. Or Hong Kong. Or Cuba. Or Venezuela. Japan. Guatemala. South Africa. And the Mongolian one that you mention. So, OK, there was a bit of a focus on the US, and countries that the US was heavily involved in (like Vietnam and Cuba). But for you to claim that this is US centric except for the Mongolia pho…
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
You will almost certainly be able to spin up an emulator and feed it whatever.
People have learnt from the UK "Doomsday Book" laser disc problem. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project )
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting photos of life in Kabul in the sixties. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a... Quote: "A half-century ago, Afghan women pursued careers in medicine; men and women mingled casually at movie theaters and university campuses in Kabul; factories in the suburbs churned out textiles and other goods. There was a tradition of law and order, and a government capable of undertaking large na…
By three decades of war and Islam. The sad thing is, I don't see Islamic countries evolve much. They seem to have no drive to get better unless they have oil and are lucky at the same time.
(By the way, Afghanistan's history of being a warzone stretches back waaaaay further than just 30 years, way before the Soviets)
And Iran, that most favourite of whipping boys now that Afghanistan and Iraq are off the map. They were doing just peachy with a liberal, relatively secular, democratic government until Mossadegh kicked out Western oil interests. After that the gloves were off, and the Americans engineered a coup and installed a radical fundamentalist puppet instead. Turns out he wasn't so much a fan of America.
(though to be fair, the Shah kind of had it coming. He had a particularly nasty case of murdering political dissidents... though after Khomeini it became unimaginably worse)
Note: this is not to mean that the Middle East was not without its own problems. It would be entirely unfair to pin the blame solely on Britain and the US for the national failures that litter that subcontinent. That being said, where you see a dramatic failure of government, British or American interventionism is never too far away, and the current woeful state of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan (disregarding recent wars, i.e. And furthermore, traditionally Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are doing just fine for themselves. In fact, if you put all of these nations side by side, it seems that "crossed the US/Britain" is a greater predictor of misery than "is Islamic".
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right, of course - I'm glad to be corrected. What I really meant to say was that in 1962 there were no no-go zones anywhere in America, Crackerjack Peckerwood Creek in the deep back asshole of Alabama where no one without a mullet in a Camaro would want to go anyway excepted. (Alas, in 1962 there were no Camaros either.) Trust me, I went to high school in Howard County, Maryland, and I would be the last person…
So, basically, the only no-go areas in 60s USA (for african-americas) were in the middle of nowhere where hardly anyone wanted to go, but now-a-days, the people can't go into half of a large, populous city? I think you might have a rosy eyed view of the past… You know crime in the USA has actually fallen a lot recently?
He's talking about late 50s, early 60s. We're not there yet. (NYC used to be safer than London. Yes, same time.)
The late 60s had a huge crime jump in the US. The 70s were even worse. We're working back from that.
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're claiming that integration ruined Brooklyn? Can you explain the mechanism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing If you ever actually talk to anyone who was personally involved in the former, and they're being frank, they'll tell you that a primary concern was a rational fear for their physical safety and/or that of their families. Which adds up to the latter. W…
> Black America in 2012: http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/uncensored---video... > If we could sit down together and watch WSHH for an hour, how exactly would we disagree?* Out of curiosity, do you have any opinions on modern black culture that aren't based on videos you find online?
There are three kinds of blacks in America today - feral, traditional, assimilated. Traditional black people are the nicest people in the world and have the coolest churches. Unfortunately they're all over 50 and have high blood pressure. Assimilated black people are just like white people except for the little box they check when they want to get into Harvard. (Samuel R. Delany's memoir, The Motion of Light in Water, is among other things a wonderful evocation of the old "Jack and Jill" black upper class.) Feral black people need to be rounded up, flex-cuffed, laser de-tattooed, sent to boot camp for three months, and placed in the unconditional custody of traditional black people, who will know exactly what to do with them.
Is that enough stereotypes for you? A stereotype is a pattern you don't want to recognize. I think you'll find you recognize these patterns just fine, however.
Re: 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Black America in 2012: http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/uncensored---video... > If we could sit down together and watch WSHH for an hour, how exactly would we disagree?* Out of curiosity, do you have any opinions on modern black culture that aren't based on videos you find online?
The worst of everything tends to get my attention - doesn't it get yours? There are three kinds of blacks in America today - feral, traditional, assimilated. Traditional black people are the nicest people in the world and have the coolest churches. Unfortunately they're all over 50 and have high blood pressure. Assimilated black people are just like white people except for the little box they check when they want to…
No, because I'm not a bigot.
I'm absolutely stunned that your horrific rant hasn't been downvoted into oblivion.