Aloha kākou and Happy Aloha Friday. We can’t have anything nice anymore. Bring back cars and trucks with front bench seats. Those vinyl bench seats that stuck to your legs when it was warm. We can’t have these things anymore because the nanny state government says it’s for our safety. So, they took them away. But bucket seats cause certain logistical problems at drive-in theaters if you know that I mean. Oh wait, there aren’t any more drive-in theaters. Shucks!
Back then, cars were hotter back then. They looked good and drove great. Cars were built like tanks to last forever. They were made with 100% steel all around. None of that plastic stuff and if you got in an accident, you just hosed off the dashboard and continued on. Gas was cheaper back then. It only cost 0.35¢ a gallon. Your car got only five miles to the gallon, but gas was cheap then. Back then, there was only one grade of gas, leaded gas. Now we have three grades of ethanol gas that eats through everything like plastic and rubber. The cost of safety and environmentalism means more nice things are being taken away from us.
We’ve been nudged into new environmentally friendly cars that use new fuels. They’re built with lighter materials to help save money. Lighter cars use less gas and tires do less damage on the roads. However, potholes might damage a tire and the rim. Repair costs can get expensive. Newer materials are expensive and adds to the overall cost of purchasing a new car. Even used models can get expensive after refurbishing for resale. Back then cars cost between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars. Now, the cost of a new vehicle is astronomical. Wait, I thought all this modern technology was to make cars and things cheaper?!?!
Today, new cars cost anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000. All those new materials, technology, power sources, and those bells and whistles that increase the costs of cars. I bought my first house for $50,000 in the 1980’s. A modest three-bedroom rancher on an acre of land in a rural location. Now, a car is a home mortgage. I’m not going to live in a car. Not ever again. I’ll live on the beach first.
Back then, life was simpler without all the technology. Cellphones, for example, are a convenience that you can carry around with you, but there’s a downside to this technology. People have gotten very dependent on these handheld devices. Before cellphones existed, we actually spent time together. We’d spend time looking at the world around us. Our noses wouldn’t be stuck looking at a screen.
We went on camping trips without worrying about Wi-Fi connections. We would look across at each other at the dinner table and have real conversations. We wouldn’t have to text each other across the table. “How’s the food?” “Horrible.” We did spend a lot of time talking on the phone back then.
I remember when we had landline rotary phones. There was no display on the phone, no caller ID, and no apps. When the phone rang everyone in the house would jump for the phone shouting, “I’LL GET IT.” For those of you old enough to remember rotary dial phones, challenge a seventeen-year-old to see if they can figure out how the phone works to make a call. I know it’s cruel, but it is worth the laughs when they label us technology challenged.
Back then, the television was black and white with only thirteen channels of crap to choose from. All but three channels were static. There was no cable or wireless access. Music that wasn’t on the radio came on a record player using 12-inch vinyl record disks. Then music technology moved to eight track tapes, to cassette tapes, Walkman’s, and to compact disks. Now, everything is streaming through Wi-Fi, satellite, and apps. Technology evolved and simplified tasks but brought with it very complex aftermaths.
Moral relativism gave way to absolutism. It’s probably where the origins of wokeism came from. Everything is offensive to the woke mob. But it’s no longer a joke of just being crude and offensive to some people. Now you can be arrested and jailed for mispronouncing some weirdo’s pronouns. A bartender in Portland Ore. was found guilty of a hate crime and harassment charges for misgendering and physically confronting a trans-identified biological male who had been using the women’s restroom.
One of the most famous photos in American history, “V-J Day in Times Square,” was almost removed from all Veteran Affairs medical sites. A Department of Veterans Affairs official felt that the photo was no longer appropriate and ordered it taken down from all VA medical facilities. However, the head of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Denis McDonough, is rescinding the order. “Let me be clear: this image is not banned from VA facilities, and we will keep it in VA facilities,” he announced. — YouTube
A picture of a simple kiss that happened at a different time, under unique circumstances, was determined to be sexual harassment. Apparently, the accuser has the clairvoyance to know what the woman was thinking at that time in history. No one really knows what these two people were thinking at the moment of that iconic historical kiss.
Certainly, millions of people didn’t condemn the emotional moment when the world war was over. Caught up in the celebration, jubilant emotions were high and caught up in the moment. Some ninny-nanny nincompoop found this offensive. Isn’t there enough bullcrap going on today that is more offensive?
Life was so much simpler without all the gadgets and devices. Back then we dressed better, we looked better, and we behaved better. For the most part when compared to today’s attitudes. We were less consumed with ourselves and more in touch with the world around us. Which now teeters on the insanely bizarre woke culture world of idiocy. Girls will be boys and boys will be girls. It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world.
That fact that someone was offended by this iconic picture just shows how absurd political correctness has run amuck. Today, being a man or a woman isn’t politically correct enough for the woke mob. Well, I have a message for that nonsense.
We can’t have nice things anymore says the woke culture. The woke is the new nanny state that are going to determine what our moral values will be. Maybe it’s the fault of the gadgets. Maybe it’s allowing the children to run the asylum. What happened to the adults? Maybe it’s both the children and the adults. But whatever it is I’m not complying with this cultural rot. They can kiss my White Christian Nationalist Hiney Perpendicular. MAGA
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E Māua Ola i Moku o Keawe 