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0 pointsmacrocosmos1y ago0 comments

If I live in a desert and 1000 children who have never seen the ocean tell me it’s ugly, should I believe them over the one older man who has actually seen it and says it’s beautiful?

First hand accounts are inherently more valuable than secondary ones. Failure to see that is frightening. Just because something gets echoed over and over doesn’t make it true.

And that’s exactly what I see. I see my generation saying how great Carter was while many of those in older generations than me seem to think otherwise. I’d like to say it’s strange, but actually it’s scary.

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metabagel1y ago

There was definitely a perception at the time that Carter wasn’t doing enough, but we can ask ourselves whether that perception was justified.

macrocosmosOP1y ago

Creating that perception is part of the president’s job though. One of the president’s roles is as a figurehead and they set the tone for the country. Setting an overwhelmingly bad tone across an entire nation that was so bad I even know about despite being born after the man even was president is awful.

So yes I’d say depressing and embarrassing hundreds of millions of people probably had a negative effect on the nation.

I can see it on the older generation’s faces when they talk about Carter. It’s a sad face on otherwise cheerful people.

I’m not going to gaslight them into believing he was actually great and they just didn’t know it.

johnnyanmac1y ago

Yes. And Carter was an honest president. Which ended in his downfall. He was a bad president in the sense that he couldn't do proper PR with smokes and mirrors like every president afterwards.

syndicatedjelly1y ago

It's kinda like saying that anyone who witnessed the Twin Towers collapse must have a more valuable and refined opinion on the War in Iraq

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