Opinion of the 1970s?

[Thunderbird is the word]

Culturally a freedom decade, more sexual freedom then at any time before or since.

[ScottieF]

Best decade for music and movies, bad decade for politics (though not as bad as the 80s).

[Mr. Smith]

Freedom Decade.

[Thunderbird is the word]

Best decade for music and movies, bad decade for politics (though not as bad as the 80s).

Agreed

[OSR stands with Israel]

Worst decade since the 1930s.

80s had better movies , had much better tech advances, was far better for sports, the economy was far better, and the country had a better foreign policy. Also Reagan>Nixon, Ford and Carter

[buritobr]

If you consider that the 1970s start in 1971 and end in 1980, and not start in 1974 and end in 1982, the GDP growth of the USA in the 1970s was not low. It was higher than it was in the 2000s and almost as high as it was in the 1980s.

[Cassius]

Freedom decade

[dead0man]

Violent crime 2 to 3 times higher than now and pollution was insane in many places.  Not to mention disco, bell bottoms and the cars.  Some good music and movies, but most decades have good music and movies.

On the other hand, video games go mainstream, the RX7 is born and so am I.

[politicus]

Freedom decade

Surprised. It was about as left wing as they come. All that Kapitallogik and Marxist study circles. With Marxist students and teaching assistants basically taking over the humanities and destroying academic tradition and quality. Also produced some of the worst literature ever written:  Socialrealism and hack pieces making private trivialities  into pseud-autobiographical gibberish; broken prose displacing real poetry etc.  Add disco and you got  a low point of Western civilization. How can a Conservative like the 70s? A Neo-Liberal maybe (it was the decade those guys took off), but not an actual Conservative.

For me: Worst decade of the 20th Century apart from the two with world wars and the 30s. Even then all of those decades produced more valuable art and scholarship than the 70s.

[TDAS04]

Freedom Decade

[VPH]

Freedom decade. Through an epic failure, the Democratic Party laid the ground for Obama's coalition. Also, cool cars, good movies, good sports (Canadiens dynasty), etc

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Best decade of the 20th century IMO.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

For the United States? Horrible Decade. Our leadership was either incapable, incompetent, or rotten to the core. In the international arena, it was a decade of surrender. We did have good music and sweet cars, and I'm gonna assume that the environmental legislation passed was much needed. Nevertheless, with conservatism finally realizing its end goal in America of becoming the ideology of used car salesmen, and liberalism becoming the ideology of the effete and useless, America was set on a dark path, something that it may never emerge out of.

[DavidB.]

Horrible decade. Luckily the 80s brought the world a little bit back to normal.

[Georg Ebner]

"There is nothing funnier than a progressist passed by progress." (GOMEZ DAVILA)