Some news that would be completely mundane today but scary or shocking in the past.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 months ago

    “Man fired for criticising homosexuality”, or maybe “man imprisoned for refusing to hire black person”.

    People are thinking about technology, but in 1923 people were very familiar with breathtaking technological change. The complete reversal of some social norms, on the other hand, would be almost existentially disturbing to these dudes who believe in the great benevolent Christian empires, and in some cases thought ending slavery was a mistake.

    I have to wonder what the residents of the 1920’s third world would think. I’m sure there would be many interesting perspectives.

    • nnjethro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Those type of headlines upset way too many people today. It’s the point of the make America great again slogan.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I don’t think you realize how far tech has advanced in 100 years. Commercial flights didn’t really exist in their current form of scheduled flights between airports. Computers didn’t exist beyond mechanical ones that aren’t really comparable. Electricity was only in half of households in 1925. Telephone lines were only local and required manual switching by operators.

      Breathtaking technology in the 1920s has nothing on what we can do today.

      • Goblin_Mode@ttrpg.network
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        11 months ago

        I mean yeah but the point is that technological advancement was still a common occurance. Like, yeah a sensationalized article about self driving cars would blow some minds but to most i think it wouldn’t really make any bigger waves then basic cars already were at the time. How can they be blown away by the concept of self driving when the vehicle itself is so new and interesting you know? AI is so abstract that even today most people don’t understand it, 100 years ago it’d just be “another new thing” just like it is today… We are actually less accustomed to ground shaking new inventions so I’d argue that 100 years ago a lot of our modern tech would be less exciting given the regularity in which things were changing then.

        Social upheaval however is ALWAYS a huge deal, especially for the time. Bear in mind that Progressivism is a fairly new ideology in the States. For literally hundreds of years social change came at a snails pace and took serious, concerted effort. Nowadays we are on average much more open to change and accepting of diversity in all it’s forms, but there’s a reason everyone remembers the name Martin Luther King Jr., versus… Ruth Bader Ginsburg I guess?