Don’t forget the war on drugs

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    A lot of younger people simply don’t know that the age we all consider the golden age of middle class America (40s-70s) was so because we TAXED THE FUCK OUT OF THE WEALTHY. As we should.

    If we do not return to doing so, our quality of life is going to continue to decline indefinitely.

    TAX. THE. FUCKING. RICH.

    DON’T VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT DOESN’T RUN ON TAXING THE RICH.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      14 days ago

      Conversely, I think most of the county would rabidly support anyone who ran on that platform… Even most Trump voters

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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      14 days ago

      Not even the Democrats could do this with a Democrat controlled Congress and presidency

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    14 days ago

    The deinstitutionalization and movement to prison was something that began long before Reagan. Really goes back to the end of ww2 and Kennedy. though reagan definitely accelerated it by a great deal by decreasing budgets substantially and increasing incarceration rates significantly

    Reagan was a monster though. What a great day it was when he died

    • 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org
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      14 days ago

      For more information, lookup the impact of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on mental health services in the United States.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 days ago

        Yes, the massive fall of deinstitutionalization began in the 60s as indicated on my graph? And as I said it began long before him? I don’t understand what you are disagreeing with

        Even the incarceration rise started before him in the early 70s. He just is the one that turned this to a million with the war on drugs

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    I was here but barely too young to vote at the time (not that it mattered since he had so many people enthralled like trump has done). No, I will never forget how he (along with some others like Newt Gingrich) ruined everything, so just as I was getting started in adult life, things were already starting to go to hell and it hasn’t stopped since.

    Reagan really was the beginning of the end for this country, and though a couple times it looked like we might, we were never able to turn things around. And now here we are, experiencing the culmination of his work of turning America into a kleptocratic oligarchy.

  • Uranus_Hz@lemm.ee
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    13 days ago

    TBH, the mental hospitals were a mess and rife with abuse.

    But rather that invest money into improving them, he got rid of them by branding it “de-institutionalization”. Made it sound like he was freeing people.

  • toast@retrolemmy.com
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    14 days ago

    He was terrible, and perhaps worse: he was so popular. He got two terms, then his vice president got a term. So popular it seemed to be (to me) that he was the reason we ultimately got stuck with the “Third Way” democrats, which is when the working class was finally completely abandoned.

    He really screwed us all

  • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    13 days ago

    Not to glorify mental institutions, which are often vehicles of state oppression and state violence.

    Having both been homeless and in a psych ward, I preferred being homeless (granted I could sleep in public transit).

  • AidsKitty@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    It took many years before people found effective antivirals to help people infected with AIDS. No nation had effective treatment.

  • FunBun@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Reganomics. Trickle down economics. Only thing that trickles is piss and shit.

    formerly known as the horse-and-sparrow theory: the idea that feeding a horse a huge amount of oats results in some of the feed passing through for lucky sparrows to eat.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Almost every problem america has to date, you could blame on Reagan.

    And you would be right far, far, faaaar more often than you’d be wrong.

  • Triasha@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    And he sold those missiles because Congress had made it illegal to fund rape/murder squads in Nicaragua.

    The money was off the books and then sent to the death squads killing innocent farmers.

    Unlike Nixon, Congress was not willing to impeach, so Regan denied everything and only a few staffers were prosecuted.

    Bush Sr pardoned them.

    Republicans: not even once.

  • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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    14 days ago

    “National debt” obscures the practical consequence. National debt is just money that has been added into the economy but not taxed back out.

    It’s not necessarily bad to ramp up spending, if that new money has somewhere healthy to go. (Mega projects like Medicare For All or the Green New Deal would be prime candidates.)

    So where did it go?

    Well, take a look at Reagan’s reign from 81-89…

    There’s the problem.

    • stopdropandprole@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      precisely. the distribution of wealth is a more important indicator of economic health than simply looking at the national debt or total tax revenues. imo we need to increase taxes on the ultra rich, not because we need to reduce the deficit but because taxes prevent the obscene accumulation of wealth (and the resulting regulatory capture epitomized by modern American oligarchy).

  • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
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    14 days ago

    Did anyone else know that they recently made a film about this fucking filth?

    They were obviously trying way too hard to control the narrative of this fucking piece of shit, but to also spark some kind of patriotism in all those old fucks who fell for reagan’s bullshit lies, and now trump’s bullshit lies.

    I almost wanted to go and rip their little signs they had for this movie straight out of the ground. Ugh. Disgusting.