The Hippie Movement

Discussion in 'History & Geography' started by Faye Fox, Jul 16, 2022.

  1. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    It occurred to me this very morning for some strange reason that the hippie movement brought about many changes, many of which were cultural appropriations.

    The foremost for me was the misuse of American Indian culture. One story that comes to my mind is about a lady I know that is writing a book about her years as a hippie living on a commune, having sex with multiple guys, and using peyote to gain spiritual experiences. She has no shame about leaving the California commune to go to Taos, New Mexico where she went with a guided women's group in the desert where they used mushrooms to hallucinate and then poked themselves with cactus needles and shared blood, and then all engaged in sex. I read that some lady from that original group went to Berkley and got a psycho-therapy degree and still hosts these excursions that she claims are the best way for a woman to find her true self. Living in the mountains and off the grid for years, I call BS and this leftover psycho babble by drug-altered thinking, makes me wanna puke.

    The hippies I knew all came from wealthy parents, many had college degrees, and they could only live this free life because they didn't have to work and had big bank accounts that were always refilled. What is interesting is now we have seniors that were children born and raised in the hippie culture.

    What are your thoughts or experiences concerning the hippie culture? Do you think any good came from the hippie movement?
     
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  2. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    My first wife was a hippie, although a well-dressed and very attractive one. She was a feminist but I didn't even know what that meant back then. But she was not out marching or anything like that.

    Many of the politically-radical hippies (Archie Bunker correctly called them "Commie-libs") went on to be college professors and taught our children the wonders of socialism (slavery) and how horrible capitalism (liberty) was -- and here we are.

    Of all the kids I hung around with then, being "a hippie" just meant dressing like one. I cannot recall anyone who even voted, much less discussed politics. My gang was more into fast cars, motorcycles, and beer anyway.

    I suspect a lot of the hippies turned more or less normal after they got married and had kids, etc. A lot of them probably voted Dem, and still do. These would be the white suburban women who still think Biden is doing a good job.

    My one sis was not a hippy by any measure (is now 75), dressed normal, is now a retired bank auditor, was valedictorian in HS, but is the most radical Democrat that I know. But she is as culturally-conservative as anyone out there, attends Baptist church, has been married to the same guy for 54 years..

    I would love to get her opinion on "her people" burning the country down two years ago, the woke culture, you can be any sex you want to be, the latest Supreme Court Justice being unable to define "a woman," increasingly acceptable pedophilia, defund the cops, etc.

    Unless she's changed radically in two years (doubtful, she bought into all the covid hysteria) she's the best example of someone with cognitive dissonance that I know. Or maybe she isn't even aware that her whole life is a contradiction, and would defend it like all libs do, which is to just spout out psycho-babble.
     
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  3. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Back in my mountain days, many called me a hippie even though my lifestyle in no way resembled the hippie way of life. I think saying someone is a hippie by the way they dress is like saying someone is a cowboy based on how they dress. I think you nailed it with the old hippies who became today's Democrats. I struggle to see how anything good came from the hippie movement. It was good that many decided to question the norm, but when the answers they received were either drug-induced, from socialist professors or wealthy gurus, then any good was soon lost in translation.
     
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  4. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Faye, yes they were "anti-establishment" to the core. Now they are the establishment via the very successful Long March Through the Institutions.

    This is why, IMO, no person, no election cycle, or no political party is going to fix this (top down) -- if it can be fixed at all. It will take several generations to dismantle what the left has done, starting locally (bottom up) as they did.

    I have doubts that it can be "fixed," but I hope I'm wrong.
     
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  5. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Enter the likes of Bill Ayers. ……..A 60’s terrorist, became a professor and Obama’s friend.
     
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  6. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    I fear the only way to fix it is with war a war the rioters and killers have already started. If rioters and thugs beating people in the streets were met with a bullet in the head, then these beatings, murders, and assaults would stop. When violent criminals are released from prison by liberal fascist, if they were met with a hail of bullets, then things would turn around. Our only hope is if the military gets tough and overthrows these domestic enemies starting at the White House, then Senate, and Congress. Arrest people like Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, AOC, Sanders, and Shiff or anyone that had a hand in the impeachment of Trump, releasing the virus, opening the borders, etc. Take them out by force. History tells us that that is the only way. You can't vote them out when the elections are rigged and the big cities control politics.

    I am sick and tired of hearing, well if we remove them by force, then that makes us no better than them.
     
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  7. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    As a side, it looks like AOC is starting to grow up. She’s now calling the Jan 6th episode an inside job and the broadcast Commission hearings a farce.
    In short, even though she’s far from being an economic wizard and is still a twinkie in my book, she’s no longer the new left wing wonder girl either.

    It would be interesting if she really gets fed up and decides to spill a lot of Pelosi’s beans.
     
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  8. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    The thing is Bobby, she and other Democrats are like a pack of wild dogs trying to share the same kill. Sooner or later they will turn on each other struggling for a position of power in the pack.
     
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  9. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Yes but unlike watching wild dogs, politicians that turn on each other is fun to watch.
     
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  10. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Faye, the military is decidedly leftist and will not help us, if anything they will protect the militant left, and arrest or shoot US.

    I hope I’m wrong.
     
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  11. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    In that the Secretary of Defense is indeed a Biden choice and in direct chain of command sequence between Biden and the individual commanders, without knowing what each commander’s political stance is would make it hard to ascertain what each would do in the event of a national uprising against Congress.

    It’s a given that each person in the military service has taken an oath to obey the Commander in Chief, but how far that oath would be carried is anyone’s guess.
    Even if a particular Commander ordered his troops to fire upon American civilians, I’m not so sure that the soldiers would be willing to do so especially considering that this present occupant of the Oval Office isn’t very popular among those in the military and for that matter, neither is the Secretary of Defense.

    Notably, it isn’t an uncommon practice for ANY officer in charge of a unit to suddenly find himself out of a job due to a “mis-thrown” grenade. Unhappy troops make for very unhappy officers.
     
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    Last edited: Jul 16, 2022
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  12. Bruce Andrew

    Bruce Andrew Very Well-Known Member
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    Yes, it's impossible to predict these things.

    There's an interesting theory out there, that goes something like this: Thousands of soldiers are getting kicked out for refusing the jab, which in itself is against the military code (experimental). The ones that got the jab will remain, and they are the ones most likely to "follow orders." The ones getting kicked out are the ones most likely to refuse to fire on their own citizens. The replacements will have to be jabbed and will most likely join the others and "follow orders."

    Of course nothing is black or white. The Marines (who just officially celebrated Pride month) did a survey back in the '90s showing the percentages of those who might follow orders and shoot their fellow citizens, and those who would likely refuse to shoot us. As I recall, the conclusion at the end was that enough would refuse, discipline would break down, and it would turn into a mess. But the military has taken great leaps to the left since then.

    An interesting read about how it can go back and forth is when the brutal Communist dictator, Ceausescu, was overthrown in Romania in 1989. There are numerous other articles about it online.

    Years ago there was also online video of the very brief trial, and the actual execution by a military firing squad, of him and his worthless wife.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I had long hair, dropped acid, took part in antiwar protests, and hitchhiked around the country without concern for money, but "hippie" was never a term that was adopted by anyone I hung out with. Like "groovy," it was a word that was sometimes used sarcastically or in jest, but I had always associated both of these terms with television marketing, such as the Partridge Family.

    As for accomplishments, I don't know. I don't regret the experience, largely because I've never seen a point in regretting past experiences. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't see making a life of it.
     
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  14. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    For the most part, anyone I knew who was called a hippie was simply dressing the part. I don't recall any stringent political activism; just long hair, peace signs, "hippie" clothing, and usually learning to toke.
     
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  15. John West

    John West Very Well-Known Member
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    I have never given much thought nor paid much attention to hippies and whatever movement they were doing or following. They never impressed me as being much more than people who were somewhat disaffected and a little low on goals and values. In college, they were more into the artsy-fartsy stuff like theater, thespians, art majors and the like rather than the more rigorous studies like math, science or engineering, Once out of college and into the computer and engineering workplace, I almost never ran into any. After retiring, I'd run into hippies every once in a while in out-of-the-way stores and coffee shops. Mostly women, they came across as crunch, earth-mother types who consider intense virtue-signaling a worthwhile pastime.
     
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