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What is the newest thing you can legitimately historically re-enact? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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If you can historically re-enact the 1890s, can you do the 1990s? Where does it end?

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[–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (5 children)

I feel like it would be kind of silly to reenact, like, the 1980s. Or, even though it was hugely historical, the Vietnam War. It was terrible and people who had to deal with it are still alive; what would be the point of trying to show people what it was like? Do people really have trouble imagining what life was like in the 1980s? Wasn't it basically like now, unlike, say, the 1890s?

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    Do people really have trouble imagining what life was like in the 1980s? Wasn't it basically like now?

    Society was very different in many ways:

    • Personal computers were only just starting to become common. The Apple Macintosh launched in 1984, the IBM PC a few years before. There was no Microsoft Windows, no Linux. If you didn’t type your paperwork yourself, most large workplaces had a typing pool to do it for you
    • There was no Internet. If you wanted to send a message to someone, you could write a letter and post it, or phone them, or send a telegram
    • mobile phones were uncommon, and usually only in cars
    • the Sony Walkman had only just come out in 1979, and you listened to your music on cassettes
    • cancer, AIDS, heart conditions were almost always untreatable and terminal within years, if not months
    • US involvement in the Middle East and Afghanistan hadn’t happened yet. Britain had a war with Argentina in the Falkland Islands. Ireland was still fighting with Britain
    • LA Law and Miami Vice were considered cool
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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Personal computers were only just starting to become common. The Apple Macintosh launched in 1984, the IBM PC a few years before. There was no Microsoft Windows, no Linux. If you didn’t type your paperwork yourself, most large workplaces had a typing pool to do it for you

    I was given a failing grade in school because I used a computer to type an essay and print it. Dot matrix gave me away. It was considered cheating back then. My Dad was so pissed he went and bought a letter quality printer so that the teacher couldn't tell that it wasn't typed.

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