I remember the 60s and 70s very well. There were differences but not as personal. We now hate each other on a personal, visceral level.
Wrong. I was a US soldier in San Francisco '68-'69. It doesn't get any more personal than that.
Ohhh you were a soldier.
It's not soldiers any more, it's teachers and soccer moms. It's co-workers who share office space. It's grandmas at wednesday night bingo. It is very personal to the point where people are dragged from their cars and beaten. Strangers. Just a hat or a bumper sticker that sets off the rage. The people, neighbors, guys on the bowling league, that truly hate each other enough to do bodily injury. Not just soldiers any more.
The hatred and violence now is nowhere near as wide spread now as they were then. Do MLK, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, John Lennon, George Wallace, Kent State, the Chicago riots, the student/anti-war riots, the Washington DC riots, the KKK, the Black Panthers, the SLA, the race/"civil rights riots. the Weather Underground, do any of these things jog your memory at all?
After the 14+ months I spent in San Francisco training to save lives I was assigned to a mechanized infantry Bn. in Vietnam and found Vietnam to be much less stressful than San Francisco. At least in Vietnam we were allowed to shoot our tormentors.