Did there used to be this many “bad things happening” dd asked and i honestly can’t remember!

[Wowijustgiveup]

Dd(17) was watching the news with me - polio, monkeypox, ukraine, taiwan, drought, fire, potential power cute etc etc. She asked if things were this unstable when i was a teenager.

I remember there being individual news items - Iraq, terrorist attacks but i honestly cant remember them all coming at once like this.

I told her that i think its always been like this (she is a worrier) but actually has it?!

Oh and Mad Cow disease.

I don't think it's worse but I believe the response to covid was entirely disproportionate and has racked up problems which presently seem insurmountable for the economy and socially.

My first news memory was Aberfan, followed by the 10 day war. The 80s had more than their fair share of disasters, Hillsborough, the ferry (forgive me, I can't remember it's name), riots, The Falklands, IRA bombings, Aids, herpes, etc.

Well there was the Great War and then Spanish influenza..

There was. This is our version.

That depends on where you live. This is quite a UK centric thread ( not a problem).

@MercuryOnTheRise The Herald of Free Enterprise was the ferry, I think? 1987. I was 4. It’s the first big news story I remember as we were living in Germany at the time and took the ferry every time we travelled home. I remember being frightened we would sink and crying because my parents made me
leave my favourite teddy in the car one time (very sensibly from an adult perspective, as it meant it couldn’t be lost). I was so afraid that the boat would sink and Rover would drown though 😥

l was born in the 60’s and remember all the horribleness of the 70’s and 80’s.

This current period is worse than anything l remember. Much worse.

Worse than the strikes, 3 day weeks, oil crisis, Thatcher, Miners strike, the Cold War. It’s worse than all of those.

Has Grenfell been mentioned in the doom list?

There was a boat that sank on the Thames in 90s, killing young people.
Imagine ever forgetting Chernobyl.

Well the planet is literally dying so yeah it’s pretty grim and the future is not gonna get any better.

God, and the Romanian and Albanian orphanages. I remember Blue Peter doing them as an appeal. Those poor little children.

There are always disasters happening but has there ever been a feeling like this where we can’t see light at the end of the tunnel? Where it feels like everything’s just going to continue to get more shit as time goes on for anyone but the rich?

Don't forget, Entebbe, the Bader Meinhoff group, plane hijackings

But it was ever thus for the rich and I am old enough to know too many rich people who have lost their money. Including my family who eventually had to pay the punitive IHT rates of the 70s. Farm, London House, etc, etc. I hope that gives you an inner thrill.

I was a teenager in the 70's and remember tv going off at 10, candles used instead of lights, the winter of discontent.
We didn't go to school on tuesdays and thursdays due to fuel shortages. There were so many strikes and there were also the troubles in Ireland and inflation etc. let alone what was going on overseas.
Somehow when you are young you seem to be more optimistic, but I do agree that it is so very difficult for teenagers today.The constant bombardment because of social media is not good. I remind people that it must have been horrible to live through the world wars and how despite everything people survived and life did get better.
I honestly think though . the times we are living in now are the absolute, without a shadow of a doubt , worst I have ever experienced. A lot of it lies at the Tories door with the last 12 years of austerity which hits the poor the hardest, the vast inequality never being addressed and the sinister dismantling of our freedoms and democracy.

I remember the house being heated off the only heat source was the oven. Light by candle light

There were outbreaks of polio between 76-78 because I had to bé vaccinated at work as I used sewage that came from Clatterbridge hospital where cases were treated.

I think there's just cycles. I remember Cold War / IRA / Germany wall / Hillsborough / mining closures / recession / people losing houses from when I was growing up. It was just less in your face then, on the 10pm news for 20 minutes and maybe if your dad got a paper.

Yes of course

we have had and will have more prosperous times when all seems good for many and we then tend to have a more positive outlook but there are still wars going on just not here

i think there is a lack of hope these
days & I think the majority are going to see living standards further decline

To be fair none of those things were on par with COVID or Ukraine. To be honest even Brexit is ‘more serious’ than everything on that list.