[jayspell]

I grew up in Reagan's America, and I didn't find it paranoid or wretched. I remember a lot of optimism around the space program and the fall of the Berlin wall. There were great movies, great music, shopping malls, arcades, and we were united as a country. I find few, if any parallels, to the Trump years. Trump is the polar opposite of Reagan in terms of communication style IMO.

[SavantIdiot]

United? Being gay was a lot harder under Reagan and his moral majority, and his wretched politics around AIDS, and the rise of his Christian conservative warriors made any non-normative lifestyle hell.

[lindseymysse]

There was an open and aggressive disdain for anyone different back then. I am autistic as the average HN reader, and my home town was shockingly abusive to me. I tried not thinking about it for 20+ years after leaving that place, but now I look back at that period of my life and reel. The abuse they tolerated back then...