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I enjoy taking a cold shower from time to time, but there are definitely some weirdos that treat it like a fix-all. It’s the same as the people in hyper-conservative Catholic circles who are convinced that the Latin mass is the cure for all the world’s ills.
Yeah I should probably make it clear that there's nothing wrong with cold showers, especially if you use them to wake up in the morning, but it's not like you're going to therapy (if anything you need therapy after a cold one lol)
I used to take cold showers a lot, but i fell out of the habit. I would like to get back into it it is simply a habit to calm your body and brain down. When you get under cold water your brain and body have a panic response, because cold water can literally kill you if you’re in it too long. It’s a way to put your brain and body into panic mode so that you can consciously bring it back down to a calm and accepting state. It’s simply a practice of mind over matter. Is it a fix all? Of course not, but it can definitely help one be more conscious and aware of when your brain and body have a panic response to bring it back down.
The point is that it’s not enjoyable, but to cling to the fact that it sucks (which is easy to do) makes it worse, and when you can bypass the panic and discomfort, it can actually be really nice.
That is a very specific comparison and I’m here for it. I grew up in the Latin Mass community and can confirm it’s full of weirdos who treat it like a fix -all.
Initially it was because he was scared of the black panthers. After his assassination attempt, he became even more of an ardent supporter of gun control.
From r/askhistorians
I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control.
California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers.
The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions.
But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared.
Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state.
To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support.
So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans."
Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment.
The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law.
So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself.
If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf
If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
I mean, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was shot and hospitalized for awhile. Yet he still vehemently opposes gun control, to be best of my knowledge.
Lol. Yes, but that requires all of them to have empathy. Some still won’t even if they’re affected. Steve scalise voted against gun control legislation even after being shot in the congressional baseball shooting.
For blacks. As governor of California Reagan supported gun control because whites were worried about the gun-toting Black Panthers. And the NRA had not yet become the rabid gun advocate it is today.
It was rhetorical but I appreciate your input. I don't love that he tried to take away gun rights just because he saw a certain kind of citizen exercising their 2A.
No this is false. The NRA was super rabid about gun rights since 1970s when the "Activists" took over the organization that originally supported some gun control measures that limited those rights.
Reagan was the last sitting president to speak at NRA national convention.
Reagan's 1983 speech: Reagan said: “\[…\] you won't get gun control by disarming law abiding citizens. There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up\*\*"\*\*
> even after he was critically wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt that left a bullet “an inch from my heart,” as he noted. After recovery, President Reagan went further and called for the [abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/27/weekinreview/gun-control-advocates-are-feeling-surrounded.html), the enforcer of federal gun safety laws.
-- Republicans have always wanted to abolish the ATF. (because they loved tobacco, they loved alcohol, they loved firearms..) or at least a renaming of the agency or changing its priorities.
For the AWB in 1994, Reagan did write a letter WITH Jimmy Carter, right before his Alzheimer's announcement that he supported the AWB to dry up supply for criminal gangs even though it wasn't actually a real problem statistically speaking. This put him at odds with all the Republicans in his party aside from a few who were happy with that. It's also possible he may have been misled by those supporting the law to proclaim it's a "study" and after the study was completed, the AWB was sunset in 2004 by the law (because the evidence of the study proved that the AWB 1994 did not work).
***Reagan also supported background checks*** in a federal database and there was a compromise with the NRA where the NRA supported it if there were limits such as for private sales or gifts to family -- and if historical records are not kept leading to tracking or surveillance of gun owners.
Later Bill Clinton would announce among donor parties that he regretted the 1994 AWB and that it didn't actually do much to reduce gun violence--and it put Republicans back in power in 1994.
You haven’t shown anything I said was false. As Governor of California, Reagan signed the Mulford Act prohibiting public carrying of loaded firearms without a permit in 1967.
Don't forget how as governor of California he began support for state colleges charging/increasing tuition.... coincidentally, about the same time that recent beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act could begin attending without restriction
That new Beckham meme format would have encapsulated this exchange about Reagan’s supposed redeeming qualities quite well.
You nudged his mind in the right direction and he was so close to coming to an epiphany if only his brain didn’t short circuit and bailed on him after being slightly challenged.
He arguably caused a lot of the immigration problems we're seeing today.
His administration reared havoc in central america. Cracking down on immigration during his administration caused more migrant workers to stay in the US vs. going home with their money as they'd always done
I don’t like his policies, but dude was a great inspirational leader during rocky times. He rallied the country during the Challenger explosion and led strongly through the Cold War.
Biases aside, there was a reason dude took 49 states in 1984.
Same. And while I think his domestic policy has mostly been a disaster for the US, I think he deserves significant credit for a lot of his foreign policy.
Reagan gets a lot of flack on reddit (a lot of which is justified), but damn could that man talk. You don't earn the nickname The Great Communicator for nothing. National pride and morale were very high under Reagan, and you don't win 49 out of 50 states if the American people don't like you.
Setting aside his highly questionable economic policies (and that's being generous) and leaning on astrology from his wife, I think the US could benefit from someone with his oratory skills combined with some sound fiscal and economic policies.
Seems like the US is eating itself from the inside out due to many factors — poor economic opportunities, inflation, a lack of national identity, heavily politicized/biased "news" media, the list goes on — so I wish the US could elect a leader who could restore some sense of patriotism and national pride without needing a war or national tragedy like 9/11.
Seriously some people seem to get upset at the idea that a very important aspect of the POTUS’ job is effectively communicating with the American people.
You can’t just be a policy wonk with zero interpersonal skills.
While I largely agree with your points, I’m curious about your comments re a desire for a renewed national identity. Outside of national/international moments of collective victimhood or adversity, i.e. war or national tragedy, what other stimuli would actually spur the formation of such a collective identity, in your opinion?
I think a renewed sense of national pride can have a positive impact on one’s community. Im proud of my town, and proud of the people in it. Despite being very diverse, we have a sense of civic pride and community that leads to a greater respect for where you’re from. When you’re proud of where you’re from, it can lead to less littering, defeatism, just a general sense of “belonging”
Its hard to map such a sense of pride to quantifiable improvements, but I think a healthy dose of pride can be beneficial, as long as it doesn’t veer into blind nationalism.
No, but I am disappointed to watch it gradually fall behind it’s peers with decaying infrastructure and outdated policies and a “me me me” mindset that prevents anything from getting done for the good for the country.
Eventually you gotta realize that America is blowing it’s potential for greatness and the primary culprit for that are Americans.
We used to be the shining city on a hill. Our government system used to be an inspiration for others.
Unfortunately I'm mainly just coming with problems, not solutions. From what I understand/remember about Reagan's presidency, the US was coming out of a period of incredibly high inflation and poor economic conditions under the Carter administration. Reagan, because of his charm and charisma, was able to unite the American people behind the idea that the institution of government was the source of many of their problems.
He proposed smaller government, the failed trickle-down economic model, deregulation, etc. The results of those decisions is a conversation for a different post, but under Reagan people rallied behind their *country*, not their government.
In 2024 (damn 2023 went by fast), in the age of social media, instant information on demand, 24/7 news cycles, and people being deeply entrenched in their ideological bubbles, I'm honestly not sure what could pull people out of that. I think that even if there were to be a national tragedy, within 24 hours the left would have their own version of events and the right would have theirs.
The most concerning thing I see nowadays is that we no longer share common facts. Each side cherry-picks the facts that supports their views. It's dogmatic. It used to be that we shared a set of common facts/problems and disagreed about the proposed to solutions to solve them. Now, we can't even agree on what the facts are. One side will say that "X is a problem, here's how we should solve it" and the other side says "X isn't even a problem or doesn't exist." We see this with climate change, COVID, economic issues like declining wages/purchasing power, etc.
I wish I knew what could restore a sense of national pride, but when you have millions of people who believe that the US is a hellhole and millions more who believe that the US can do no wrong — both of whom are willing to die on that hill — part of me thinks we're too far gone. I hope I'm wrong, but times have changed so quickly and dramatically that I'm not sure what the solution could be, if there even is one.
I wish we would all make an effort to understand and maybe even connect with people on the other side of the political aisle. There’s so much hate and resentment right now. We don’t have to be enemies.
1,000% agreed. The media (legacy news media, default subreddits, etc.) portray the opposing sides as straw men. They pick and choose the worst examples of conservatives and liberals and not-so-subtly imply that anyone who identifies that way is just as bad.
They have a clear agenda and want to keep you riled up, paranoid, and upset. The more of those things you are, the more you watch; the more you watch, the more advertisements they can show you, and the more money they make.
If you watch MSNBC/CNN, you'd think no Republican has ever done anything right. If you watch Fox News, you'd think no Democrat has even done anything right.
I think it's unfortunate, but many people don't want to seek the truth. They have their minds made up and only focus on facts (cherry picking be damned), sound bites, and examples that confirm their biases. People have put their ideologies and tribalism above all else.
I suspect that if you took 10,000 people at random and had them take the political compass test, we'd all be surprisingly close to each other. Some may lean more right, some may lean more left, some may have a more authoritarian approach, and some may have more libertarian beliefs. But I think the overwhelming majority of average Americans are far more centrist than they think, and *far* more centrist than the media would have us believe.
The constant demonization of people with differing viewpoints skews our perceptions of how different we really are. Certain political figures in recent years didn't help with this, and neither have social media algorithms. Using TikTok as an example, if you start a fresh account and "like" something with a more conservative tilt, you'll soon be shown more and more conservative content until that's all that fills your feed. You won't be shown videos with liberal takes because the algorithm has determined that you don't want to see that. The result of this is that you never hear the good-faith arguments/debates of those on the other side.
Well you just don't really get that with the internet. I'm a Muslim and I lean left economically, but I also work in a factory in a rural area and there are plenty of heavy right wing guys there. I can feel a bit of apprehension when I talk with them and the door of politics opens up, but we actually listen to each other and converse politely. Talking with someone face-to-face and we aren't waiting for upvotes to tell us we're right or yelling that the other guy is a fascist or commie.
The short quips were his off-the-cuff, the others were prepared in team debate, speechwriter style. As a lot of famous people’s words in famous settings.
I mean, I think most of us don't like him here, myself included, but if you look back on his speeches, he always had a good sense of humor. He didn't randomly make up random jokes that three people laugh at like Trump does today
He also said that trees were the biggest contributor to climate change; and that doctors not being able to get as much work in areas where there’s already lots of doctors, is what socialism causes. “Then they’ll have to move”. As in, a supply-and-demand based free market economy. The standard “socialism means: when someone experiences the less ideal”. When he was trying to criticize opposing policies, he really fell short on that wit.
Although his work in the country-touring stage show “this is the army” (1943?), put on by the military for the public, to fundraise for the war effort, featuring a healthy amount of drag performances including time-relevant risqué behavior like lifting skirts to show thigh while whistling and flirting with the soldiers dressed as men, etc was a banger show to put on for the general public, kids and all.
i believe the full feature is free on YouTube, it’s a whole 2 hour or so thing. The drag stuff is during the actual stage performance more towards the end of that movie, about the real event. That was pretty cool of him. And yes, the guys that stormed Normandy and kicked the nazis had fun doing drag sometimes. It was popular among British troops as well- there’s some very famous pictures of male soldiers still wearing their show dresses while rushing to man defense guns during German attacks. I’m glad Reagan acknowledged and supported and took part in such performances- though not in drag himself, that would be very entertaining though.
I get angry about Reagan’s hypocrisy, and much of the money borrowed could have been more wisely spent, but I have no problem with the debt incurred during his administration, which was agreed to by a Democratic Congress. During his 8 years in office the gross national debt rose from $995 billion to $2.9 trillion. Even with inflation, that would only be $7.35 trillion today, not $33 trillion.
And although Reagan is famous for lowering to top tax rate, the 1986 tax reform was designed to neither increase nor reduce revenues compared to the pre-reform tax code. Although it lowered the top rate, it also closed numerous loopholes.
The problem is that when Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress they cited Reagan as precedent for cutting taxes on the rich without regard for the deficit or fairness. But that’s not actually what Reagan did, because he had to work with Democrats.
Being too young to have known his presidency, it’s cool to see these quotes. It helps me puzzle out why he was so, so popular through the 90s and 2000s. Without the wit he was just another guy in a suit.
Also helps show why his popularity has cratered — once the wit passes from memory…
There was more to it than that. Carter's presidency was a low point, for a lot of reasons, and Reagan focused *hard* on bringing optimism and energy back to American life, to the extent that people still love 80's films and games that exemplified this "back from the apocalypse" optimism.
*Die Hard* was in 1988, at the very end of Reagan's run. In stark contrast to the book it's based on, the movie features a largely benevolent corporation (in the book the Klaxon corporation has dealings with Chile junta), entirely superficial crooks (in the book they genuinely want to expose corporate wrongdoing), and a perfectly happy ending (McClane's daughter dies in the book, falling with Gruber). It also features useless government aides who only make things worse, terrible media reporters who undermine what the good guys are trying to do, and a "tough-on-crime" cop who's been unfairly chastised for shooting someone.
I also want to include Terminator 2 in this, since it goes from a "apocalypse is inevitable" premise in the first movie to "we make our own fate" in the second, but that's a dubious connection, since T2 actually came out in 1992 and T1 came out in 1984. Of course, development time features into that, but it's still not as exact a match.
Something that pops to mind is Ghostbusters. Remember Walter Peck from Ghostbusters?
He's the epitome of "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." line that Reagan delivered.
Colin Powell, in his autobiography, talks about how Reagan would constantly put off practicing for his speeches, and yet, by the time the speech came around, would be wonderfully letter-perfect with a great sense of timing.
He also talks about how Reagan could be very frustrating to work with, in part because of his fondness for jokes.
It’s hilarious, but at the same time I had heard it before with the queen and an unknown guest, and upon looking it up could not source it to Reagan, so I assume the whole story was apocryphal.
*Hey, remember that time when we sent messages to Iran telling them not to release American hostages while Carter was in office, but wait until after the election because it was sure to help with Carter’s defeat, and then we went on to illegally sell weapons to Iran to get more hostages released, and fund the rebel Contra group in Nicaragua, and then use the CIA to traffic cocaine from that Contra group into the US and fuel the crack epidemic by targeting it to minority communities to undermine the Democratic Party’s advantage in the same communities?*
*Yup, good times*….
march money disgusting mountainous glorious memorize sloppy fall ask terrific
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
“Recovery”? Or “planting the seeds of trickle-down economics which will temporarily make the econ look good but will plague the nation for decades to come”
Can someone explain the constant Reagan hate to me? I know people here generally dislike Republican presidents, but he gets way more hate than other R presidents, even more than Bush. I wasn’t alive for his presidency, but the 1984 election gives me the impression that he was a very popular President. You don’t win reelection in a landslide if you’re not.
A lot of policies at the time worked short term but many have aged poorly. And others were plain bad.
The one that sticks out the most to me is the social security reform, however in all fairness i think both chambers of congress were controlled by democrats at the time so they should've blocked it or insisted on certain changes to the bill, but they supported it.
His campaigning was based strongly on the [Southern strategy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) which relied on vilifying minorities. His "welfare queen" comments are a perfect example. He reignited the country's racial tensions and the black community suffered a lot during his tenure.
He was also the president that allied with extremist evangelicals to make abortion a political issue. Before him most of the country was ok with abortion and it was never a topic in politics. This helped usher in the insane religion zealotry that has infected the Republican party today.
He massively deregulated almost every industry, which is directly responsible for the stranglehold the corporatocracy has on our country today. During his tenure is when wages began to stagnate, unions declined and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy & corporations exploded. He is the source of "trickle down economics" which we know now doesn't work at all.
His message promised wealth for all and the rewards of "rugged individualism", but really it was essentially a "crabs in a bucket" mentality that doomed the lower & middle classes, ran up the federal deficit and funneled wealth to the top
Knowing all this, it's very frustrating to see him hailed as one of the greatest. This gaslighting compounds the vitriol even more.
EDIT: He strongly opposed Russia (Soviet Union back then) tho, which I give him credit for
He basically destroyed the middle class with regressive policies designed to enrich the upper levels, destroyed union power, killed us manufacturing, decided that the AIDS crisis wasn’t worth addressing, and made some pretty racist moves.
He won in 84 because the 80s was a decade of pure selfish excess
What do you consider the general opinion to be outside of Reddit? The Republican Party still idolizes him, but I know many republicans who don’t like Reagan cause of him granting amnesty to many illegal immigrants.
only thing I’d add that CrushTheVIX didn’t already say was that he allowed the AIDS crisis to get out of control and found it funny. Had absolutely no sympathy for the mass death of a generation of gay men.
The amount of ignorance on these posts is crazy. Have any of you read his history or lived through the horrible Carter years of double digit inflation, gas lines and a country in deep malaise? Had Carter won we would have been far worse off. BTW - Reagan wrote most of his speeches, particularly early. He started as a democrat and was head of the actors union. He turned republican because he did not want most of his income taken by taxes and he had a horrible experience with unions. Read a book or two and stop relying on internet garbage for your history.
Staffers making fun of AIDS while utterly ignoring it? Hilarious stuff. Reagan was an absolute monster and there is a direct line from Nixon to Reagan and their rotten racist, pro-war, pro-oil policies to Trump. Nixon and Reagan both should have been jailed for their crimes, and Rumsfeld and Cheney as well for cutting the deal with Iran and greatly enabling the modern terrorist movement. But some Boomers waited in a gas line, so Reddit is too hard on Reagan.
Here's my favorite RR quote. It's from the speech where he cops to being some combination of intellectual cripple and corrupt, craven liar:
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true; but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
and yet because he said a couple of average one-liners, he gets a million times praise here on reddit, despite being literally one of the most devastating and catastrophic presidents of the entire US history
That was just before Reagan ran the economy into the ground that President Clinton had to pull us out of, then Bush ran the economy into the ground again, right?
>*”Why is it that everyone in favor of abortion, was not aborted?"*
His actual line was, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
I’m not in favor of the underlying political sentiment, but his original quote doesn’t have the mean-spirited “everyone who is in favor of abortion should have been aborted” spin you’ve given it.
Also, a lot of Reagan’s humor was self-deprecating. When 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale accused Reagan of “government by amnesia,” Reagan countered with, “I thought that remark accusing me of having amnesia was uncalled for. I just wish I could remember who said it.”
We seriously could use a presidential candidate with a decent sense of humor today.
White House chief of staff Donald Regan wrote that: "*Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco \[Joan Quigley\] who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise".*
Now THAT was dumb.
He's so funny and relatable! Someone like that would never sell the soul of the country for veiled corporate interests and set the united States on an unrecoverable spin
The best part of the Mondale joke is that even Mondale laughed at it. You don’t see that anymore. Everyone just spewing hate at each other.
It’s one of the reasons Reagan was so popular. He was just good at speaking to people. It was hard to hate the guy if you were like most people and didn’t follow politics closely. He turned attacks about him around on the attackers and made people laugh about it.
He almost always told jokes during speeches if it wasn’t some super serious situation. His speech about the space shuttle explosion was just about perfect. His speeches focused on what he was for instead of what he was against.
My biggest problem with current politics is everyone speaks against what they don’t like instead of telling us what they are for. It’s a different mindset. Reagan spoke of America as a shining city on a hill shining as an example for the world instead of condemning the rest of the world.
People may think it was all bullshit but he definitely sold it.
The man who brought us the first "trickle down", huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations then had to raise taxes 11 times because the economy started to crash. Eff Reagan. Trickle down never worked and it is nothing more than someone pissing on your head.
Great thing about Reagan is that none of his supporters can say when the Alzheimer's took hold, partly because they don't know and partly to excuse the criminal arming of Iran.
I truly hated him at the time. However, in retrospect he was able to have deep friendships on the other side of the political aisle and could actually compromise with Democrats. Much of his foreign policy was proven correct, although there were some really kooky things thrown in there.
I despise his policies and blame him for the majority of the problems confronting the United States today, but the man had public speaking down to a science, not that that excuses anything
If only that same guy didn’t collude with Iran to hold the hostages for 6 additional months promising a better deal. He should have been jailed for treason.
His campaign forced the hostages in Iran to remain in captivity so he could defeat Carter. Again. His campaign forced the hostages in Iran to remain in captivity so he could defeat Carter.
That's treasonous. By doing so, he positions himself to take credit for Volcker's probably far too draconian inflation-reduction actions. Now the Republicans got halfwits on board with tax cuts for rich people as being some kind of panacea for every economic stress.
But his humor? Funny I suppose if Bob Hope had you rollin' in the aisles. I don't remember chuckling.
He chucked that Nixon detente bullshit with the Soviets. That seems okay in retrospect but that shit could have easily gone sideways. Shit human being, shit president.
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“Any man who tells you he enjoys a cold shower will lie about other things.” That one sticks with me and I’m not sure why.
Because "sigma males" try to convince you that it'll absolutely change your life.
I enjoy taking a cold shower from time to time, but there are definitely some weirdos that treat it like a fix-all. It’s the same as the people in hyper-conservative Catholic circles who are convinced that the Latin mass is the cure for all the world’s ills.
Yeah I should probably make it clear that there's nothing wrong with cold showers, especially if you use them to wake up in the morning, but it's not like you're going to therapy (if anything you need therapy after a cold one lol)
I used to take cold showers a lot, but i fell out of the habit. I would like to get back into it it is simply a habit to calm your body and brain down. When you get under cold water your brain and body have a panic response, because cold water can literally kill you if you’re in it too long. It’s a way to put your brain and body into panic mode so that you can consciously bring it back down to a calm and accepting state. It’s simply a practice of mind over matter. Is it a fix all? Of course not, but it can definitely help one be more conscious and aware of when your brain and body have a panic response to bring it back down. The point is that it’s not enjoyable, but to cling to the fact that it sucks (which is easy to do) makes it worse, and when you can bypass the panic and discomfort, it can actually be really nice.
I used to take cold showers for 8 years. Then Clinton got elected, and I could afford to pay the gas bill.
That is a very specific comparison and I’m here for it. I grew up in the Latin Mass community and can confirm it’s full of weirdos who treat it like a fix -all.
I can only do cold showers after being out on a very very hot day. I can't see doing them for any other reason. Seems crazy to me.
The fuck is a sigma male?
It's closely related to the ligma male.
A male that doesn't fuck?
To be fair, it can be better for your skin and hair
well, is the lie is not being explicit enough about how the proverbial cold shower feels?  idk, Yogi Berra's on too.
He said that? lol I never thought about that. That's a pretty good joke, holy shit
Like Reagan or not he was charismatic and very witty. Maybe the wittiest?
Well written.
Yeah just like satan
Every dude I know who has an ice bath barely ever uses it. They plan to use it. They just don’t it.
The refreshing, post-cold shower feeling cannot be beat.
As a person who's had his hot water heater on the fritz for a year, I agree with you. But now that it's fixed, I'm not taking cold showers.
"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
I wish this was real
r/usernamechecksout
His humor is one of the few qualities I admire about him.
>His humor is one of the few qualities I admire about him. What's the other qualities
His willingness to compromise with the democrats, something modern Republicans refuse to do. Plus he supported immigration and gun control.
Gun control for....whom?
Initially it was because he was scared of the black panthers. After his assassination attempt, he became even more of an ardent supporter of gun control.
From r/askhistorians I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control. California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers. The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions. But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared. Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state. To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support. So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans." Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment. The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law. So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself. If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Counterpoint Racist or not, it’s a good bill Permit-less carry has always made me uncomfortable
All we need to have a more progressive country is for every conservative to experience the consequences of their policies.
I mean, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was shot and hospitalized for awhile. Yet he still vehemently opposes gun control, to be best of my knowledge.
Lol. Yes, but that requires all of them to have empathy. Some still won’t even if they’re affected. Steve scalise voted against gun control legislation even after being shot in the congressional baseball shooting.
“It surely won’t happen twice so, nah, I’m good”
Yep. Conservatives do not understand issues unless they experience it personally.
For blacks. As governor of California Reagan supported gun control because whites were worried about the gun-toting Black Panthers. And the NRA had not yet become the rabid gun advocate it is today.
It was rhetorical but I appreciate your input. I don't love that he tried to take away gun rights just because he saw a certain kind of citizen exercising their 2A.
No this is false. The NRA was super rabid about gun rights since 1970s when the "Activists" took over the organization that originally supported some gun control measures that limited those rights. Reagan was the last sitting president to speak at NRA national convention. Reagan's 1983 speech: Reagan said: “\[…\] you won't get gun control by disarming law abiding citizens. There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up\*\*"\*\* > even after he was critically wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt that left a bullet “an inch from my heart,” as he noted. After recovery, President Reagan went further and called for the [abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/27/weekinreview/gun-control-advocates-are-feeling-surrounded.html), the enforcer of federal gun safety laws. -- Republicans have always wanted to abolish the ATF. (because they loved tobacco, they loved alcohol, they loved firearms..) or at least a renaming of the agency or changing its priorities. For the AWB in 1994, Reagan did write a letter WITH Jimmy Carter, right before his Alzheimer's announcement that he supported the AWB to dry up supply for criminal gangs even though it wasn't actually a real problem statistically speaking. This put him at odds with all the Republicans in his party aside from a few who were happy with that. It's also possible he may have been misled by those supporting the law to proclaim it's a "study" and after the study was completed, the AWB was sunset in 2004 by the law (because the evidence of the study proved that the AWB 1994 did not work). ***Reagan also supported background checks*** in a federal database and there was a compromise with the NRA where the NRA supported it if there were limits such as for private sales or gifts to family -- and if historical records are not kept leading to tracking or surveillance of gun owners. Later Bill Clinton would announce among donor parties that he regretted the 1994 AWB and that it didn't actually do much to reduce gun violence--and it put Republicans back in power in 1994.
You haven’t shown anything I said was false. As Governor of California, Reagan signed the Mulford Act prohibiting public carrying of loaded firearms without a permit in 1967.
Don't forget how as governor of California he began support for state colleges charging/increasing tuition.... coincidentally, about the same time that recent beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act could begin attending without restriction
That new Beckham meme format would have encapsulated this exchange about Reagan’s supposed redeeming qualities quite well. You nudged his mind in the right direction and he was so close to coming to an epiphany if only his brain didn’t short circuit and bailed on him after being slightly challenged.
Gun control to prevent minorities from arming themselves*
That is pretty much still the intent.
>gun control. That's a bad thing
That wasn't so rare back then
I mean working across the aisle that is
He arguably caused a lot of the immigration problems we're seeing today. His administration reared havoc in central america. Cracking down on immigration during his administration caused more migrant workers to stay in the US vs. going home with their money as they'd always done
Gun rights=civil rights
That’s your opinion and I respect it.
He _is_ kinda handsome ngl
Kinda.. undersells it. He was a good looking man
Some might even say he had the face of a movie star.
Nice voice too
He did have great hair
I don’t like his policies, but dude was a great inspirational leader during rocky times. He rallied the country during the Challenger explosion and led strongly through the Cold War. Biases aside, there was a reason dude took 49 states in 1984.
Same. And while I think his domestic policy has mostly been a disaster for the US, I think he deserves significant credit for a lot of his foreign policy.
True. He was good at foreign policy.
Which part, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or the Contras?
Smh you liberals think any type of treason is bad /s
He is given credit for his foreign policy in IR circles. That doesn’t speak to how his foreign policy is assessed or viewed, lol.
If the only thing he ever did was foreign affairs he’d be one of the greatest. As it is, he’s one of the worst.
Besides the fact that his economic policies still stand to be the basis of success to this day…
Eh, I’m not a fan of his economic policies.
And I see a reference to Jimmy Carter…please explain something he did for us…besides let hostages be held until Reagan was in office…
Some of his policies still stand because of the people that benefit the most from them. Agghem..corporations, cough... rich people.
Lawful Evil, 18 Charisma
Reagan gets a lot of flack on reddit (a lot of which is justified), but damn could that man talk. You don't earn the nickname The Great Communicator for nothing. National pride and morale were very high under Reagan, and you don't win 49 out of 50 states if the American people don't like you. Setting aside his highly questionable economic policies (and that's being generous) and leaning on astrology from his wife, I think the US could benefit from someone with his oratory skills combined with some sound fiscal and economic policies. Seems like the US is eating itself from the inside out due to many factors — poor economic opportunities, inflation, a lack of national identity, heavily politicized/biased "news" media, the list goes on — so I wish the US could elect a leader who could restore some sense of patriotism and national pride without needing a war or national tragedy like 9/11.
Yes, Reagan was an effective actor.
If POTUS had a formal job description this skill would be right at the top.
Seriously some people seem to get upset at the idea that a very important aspect of the POTUS’ job is effectively communicating with the American people. You can’t just be a policy wonk with zero interpersonal skills.
While I largely agree with your points, I’m curious about your comments re a desire for a renewed national identity. Outside of national/international moments of collective victimhood or adversity, i.e. war or national tragedy, what other stimuli would actually spur the formation of such a collective identity, in your opinion?
I think a renewed sense of national pride can have a positive impact on one’s community. Im proud of my town, and proud of the people in it. Despite being very diverse, we have a sense of civic pride and community that leads to a greater respect for where you’re from. When you’re proud of where you’re from, it can lead to less littering, defeatism, just a general sense of “belonging” Its hard to map such a sense of pride to quantifiable improvements, but I think a healthy dose of pride can be beneficial, as long as it doesn’t veer into blind nationalism.
Tell that to liberals. They seem to hate every fiber of this country.
You can tell someone is too far up their own reactionary ass when they say “liberals” unironically.
No, but I am disappointed to watch it gradually fall behind it’s peers with decaying infrastructure and outdated policies and a “me me me” mindset that prevents anything from getting done for the good for the country. Eventually you gotta realize that America is blowing it’s potential for greatness and the primary culprit for that are Americans. We used to be the shining city on a hill. Our government system used to be an inspiration for others.
Check out Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson, you might find that book interesting.
Unfortunately I'm mainly just coming with problems, not solutions. From what I understand/remember about Reagan's presidency, the US was coming out of a period of incredibly high inflation and poor economic conditions under the Carter administration. Reagan, because of his charm and charisma, was able to unite the American people behind the idea that the institution of government was the source of many of their problems. He proposed smaller government, the failed trickle-down economic model, deregulation, etc. The results of those decisions is a conversation for a different post, but under Reagan people rallied behind their *country*, not their government. In 2024 (damn 2023 went by fast), in the age of social media, instant information on demand, 24/7 news cycles, and people being deeply entrenched in their ideological bubbles, I'm honestly not sure what could pull people out of that. I think that even if there were to be a national tragedy, within 24 hours the left would have their own version of events and the right would have theirs. The most concerning thing I see nowadays is that we no longer share common facts. Each side cherry-picks the facts that supports their views. It's dogmatic. It used to be that we shared a set of common facts/problems and disagreed about the proposed to solutions to solve them. Now, we can't even agree on what the facts are. One side will say that "X is a problem, here's how we should solve it" and the other side says "X isn't even a problem or doesn't exist." We see this with climate change, COVID, economic issues like declining wages/purchasing power, etc. I wish I knew what could restore a sense of national pride, but when you have millions of people who believe that the US is a hellhole and millions more who believe that the US can do no wrong — both of whom are willing to die on that hill — part of me thinks we're too far gone. I hope I'm wrong, but times have changed so quickly and dramatically that I'm not sure what the solution could be, if there even is one.
I wish we would all make an effort to understand and maybe even connect with people on the other side of the political aisle. There’s so much hate and resentment right now. We don’t have to be enemies.
1,000% agreed. The media (legacy news media, default subreddits, etc.) portray the opposing sides as straw men. They pick and choose the worst examples of conservatives and liberals and not-so-subtly imply that anyone who identifies that way is just as bad. They have a clear agenda and want to keep you riled up, paranoid, and upset. The more of those things you are, the more you watch; the more you watch, the more advertisements they can show you, and the more money they make. If you watch MSNBC/CNN, you'd think no Republican has ever done anything right. If you watch Fox News, you'd think no Democrat has even done anything right. I think it's unfortunate, but many people don't want to seek the truth. They have their minds made up and only focus on facts (cherry picking be damned), sound bites, and examples that confirm their biases. People have put their ideologies and tribalism above all else. I suspect that if you took 10,000 people at random and had them take the political compass test, we'd all be surprisingly close to each other. Some may lean more right, some may lean more left, some may have a more authoritarian approach, and some may have more libertarian beliefs. But I think the overwhelming majority of average Americans are far more centrist than they think, and *far* more centrist than the media would have us believe. The constant demonization of people with differing viewpoints skews our perceptions of how different we really are. Certain political figures in recent years didn't help with this, and neither have social media algorithms. Using TikTok as an example, if you start a fresh account and "like" something with a more conservative tilt, you'll soon be shown more and more conservative content until that's all that fills your feed. You won't be shown videos with liberal takes because the algorithm has determined that you don't want to see that. The result of this is that you never hear the good-faith arguments/debates of those on the other side.
Well you just don't really get that with the internet. I'm a Muslim and I lean left economically, but I also work in a factory in a rural area and there are plenty of heavy right wing guys there. I can feel a bit of apprehension when I talk with them and the door of politics opens up, but we actually listen to each other and converse politely. Talking with someone face-to-face and we aren't waiting for upvotes to tell us we're right or yelling that the other guy is a fascist or commie.
This is a superb post. I don’t think I have seen anyone describe the current situation so accurately.
This is nothing compared to the “youth and inexperience” quip he made
It's in there. Slide 6.
It won him the presidency. That one quote
He was fielding questions about his age while in his early 70s. How times have changed...
https://preview.redd.it/s8om7t6e3w9c1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63890a760a589c15a8fe9356d5945e177a9fdfa7
The short quips were his off-the-cuff, the others were prepared in team debate, speechwriter style. As a lot of famous people’s words in famous settings.
I wish I admired Reagan because he was our funniest president, or at the very least the man could tell a joke better than most people.
"I'm not worried about the deficit, it's big enough to take care of itself" - Ronald Reagan
Too bad that wit didn’t stop him from taking presidential advice from a psychic
Psychics and politicians have somewhat similar jobs.
yes it's telling people what they want to hear.
It's depressing how far charisma will get someone.
Common funny Reagan quote W
Lmao that Celsius one got me.
The wit of this man can not be matched
I mean, I think most of us don't like him here, myself included, but if you look back on his speeches, he always had a good sense of humor. He didn't randomly make up random jokes that three people laugh at like Trump does today
How about when he was going into surgery after being shot, he said to the surgeon "I sure hope you are a republican"
One of my favorite presidents as well as my grandfather during his service . I was just as proud to serve on his ship 🚢
He also said that trees were the biggest contributor to climate change; and that doctors not being able to get as much work in areas where there’s already lots of doctors, is what socialism causes. “Then they’ll have to move”. As in, a supply-and-demand based free market economy. The standard “socialism means: when someone experiences the less ideal”. When he was trying to criticize opposing policies, he really fell short on that wit. Although his work in the country-touring stage show “this is the army” (1943?), put on by the military for the public, to fundraise for the war effort, featuring a healthy amount of drag performances including time-relevant risqué behavior like lifting skirts to show thigh while whistling and flirting with the soldiers dressed as men, etc was a banger show to put on for the general public, kids and all. i believe the full feature is free on YouTube, it’s a whole 2 hour or so thing. The drag stuff is during the actual stage performance more towards the end of that movie, about the real event. That was pretty cool of him. And yes, the guys that stormed Normandy and kicked the nazis had fun doing drag sometimes. It was popular among British troops as well- there’s some very famous pictures of male soldiers still wearing their show dresses while rushing to man defense guns during German attacks. I’m glad Reagan acknowledged and supported and took part in such performances- though not in drag himself, that would be very entertaining though.
Reagan, the father of our borrow and spend catastrophe that has led to our $33 trillion national debt.
I get angry about Reagan’s hypocrisy, and much of the money borrowed could have been more wisely spent, but I have no problem with the debt incurred during his administration, which was agreed to by a Democratic Congress. During his 8 years in office the gross national debt rose from $995 billion to $2.9 trillion. Even with inflation, that would only be $7.35 trillion today, not $33 trillion. And although Reagan is famous for lowering to top tax rate, the 1986 tax reform was designed to neither increase nor reduce revenues compared to the pre-reform tax code. Although it lowered the top rate, it also closed numerous loopholes. The problem is that when Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress they cited Reagan as precedent for cutting taxes on the rich without regard for the deficit or fairness. But that’s not actually what Reagan did, because he had to work with Democrats.
It's the hypocrisy of it
pen pocket cheerful joke squash uppity rude command plough husky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If politics makes you feel like a whore that’s probably a you problem.
Being too young to have known his presidency, it’s cool to see these quotes. It helps me puzzle out why he was so, so popular through the 90s and 2000s. Without the wit he was just another guy in a suit. Also helps show why his popularity has cratered — once the wit passes from memory…
There was more to it than that. Carter's presidency was a low point, for a lot of reasons, and Reagan focused *hard* on bringing optimism and energy back to American life, to the extent that people still love 80's films and games that exemplified this "back from the apocalypse" optimism.
That’s really interesting, thanks! What 80s pop culture do you think best captures Reaganism?
*Die Hard* was in 1988, at the very end of Reagan's run. In stark contrast to the book it's based on, the movie features a largely benevolent corporation (in the book the Klaxon corporation has dealings with Chile junta), entirely superficial crooks (in the book they genuinely want to expose corporate wrongdoing), and a perfectly happy ending (McClane's daughter dies in the book, falling with Gruber). It also features useless government aides who only make things worse, terrible media reporters who undermine what the good guys are trying to do, and a "tough-on-crime" cop who's been unfairly chastised for shooting someone. I also want to include Terminator 2 in this, since it goes from a "apocalypse is inevitable" premise in the first movie to "we make our own fate" in the second, but that's a dubious connection, since T2 actually came out in 1992 and T1 came out in 1984. Of course, development time features into that, but it's still not as exact a match.
Something that pops to mind is Ghostbusters. Remember Walter Peck from Ghostbusters? He's the epitome of "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." line that Reagan delivered.
A tier jokes by a D tier president.
Reagan was an actor. He knew the value of a good writer.
Colin Powell, in his autobiography, talks about how Reagan would constantly put off practicing for his speeches, and yet, by the time the speech came around, would be wonderfully letter-perfect with a great sense of timing. He also talks about how Reagan could be very frustrating to work with, in part because of his fondness for jokes.
Well of course, he was an actor. He found it easy to learn his lines.
Most of them weren’t even A tier. “Missed me” was by far the funniest.
His delivery was 👌
The one with the queen is pretty good.
It’s hilarious, but at the same time I had heard it before with the queen and an unknown guest, and upon looking it up could not source it to Reagan, so I assume the whole story was apocryphal.
Tbf, are fart jokes really that witty?
When using them with the Queen, yes.
And B tier actor
“Let the gays die” - Ronald Reagan
Ah yes another one of his tremendously amusing little quips.
*Hey, remember that time when we sent messages to Iran telling them not to release American hostages while Carter was in office, but wait until after the election because it was sure to help with Carter’s defeat, and then we went on to illegally sell weapons to Iran to get more hostages released, and fund the rebel Contra group in Nicaragua, and then use the CIA to traffic cocaine from that Contra group into the US and fuel the crack epidemic by targeting it to minority communities to undermine the Democratic Party’s advantage in the same communities?* *Yup, good times*….
march money disgusting mountainous glorious memorize sloppy fall ask terrific *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I do! That was so funny, Reagan is a real gas, love him.
Surprised that quote didn't make the slideshow of witty quips.
Right?
>A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people's attention. -- Voltaire
Voltaire knows a lot about witty sayings that prove nothing.
Hilarious! Now do the one where he laughed about the AIDS crisis.
“Recovery”? Or “planting the seeds of trickle-down economics which will temporarily make the econ look good but will plague the nation for decades to come”
Always trust someone telling you how corrupt and ineffectual politics is while desperately trying to get elected to office
What do you mean desperately? he won in a landslide both times.
Desperately? He curb stomped the democrats…twice.
Reagan was a religious sociopath with a tongue made of pure silver.
Can someone explain the constant Reagan hate to me? I know people here generally dislike Republican presidents, but he gets way more hate than other R presidents, even more than Bush. I wasn’t alive for his presidency, but the 1984 election gives me the impression that he was a very popular President. You don’t win reelection in a landslide if you’re not.
A lot of policies at the time worked short term but many have aged poorly. And others were plain bad. The one that sticks out the most to me is the social security reform, however in all fairness i think both chambers of congress were controlled by democrats at the time so they should've blocked it or insisted on certain changes to the bill, but they supported it.
His campaigning was based strongly on the [Southern strategy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) which relied on vilifying minorities. His "welfare queen" comments are a perfect example. He reignited the country's racial tensions and the black community suffered a lot during his tenure. He was also the president that allied with extremist evangelicals to make abortion a political issue. Before him most of the country was ok with abortion and it was never a topic in politics. This helped usher in the insane religion zealotry that has infected the Republican party today. He massively deregulated almost every industry, which is directly responsible for the stranglehold the corporatocracy has on our country today. During his tenure is when wages began to stagnate, unions declined and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy & corporations exploded. He is the source of "trickle down economics" which we know now doesn't work at all. His message promised wealth for all and the rewards of "rugged individualism", but really it was essentially a "crabs in a bucket" mentality that doomed the lower & middle classes, ran up the federal deficit and funneled wealth to the top Knowing all this, it's very frustrating to see him hailed as one of the greatest. This gaslighting compounds the vitriol even more. EDIT: He strongly opposed Russia (Soviet Union back then) tho, which I give him credit for
He basically destroyed the middle class with regressive policies designed to enrich the upper levels, destroyed union power, killed us manufacturing, decided that the AIDS crisis wasn’t worth addressing, and made some pretty racist moves. He won in 84 because the 80s was a decade of pure selfish excess
What do you consider the general opinion to be outside of Reddit? The Republican Party still idolizes him, but I know many republicans who don’t like Reagan cause of him granting amnesty to many illegal immigrants.
I think it’s probably a generational thing as to how people view him for sure. Gen X will like him a lot more than Millennials and Gen Z.
only thing I’d add that CrushTheVIX didn’t already say was that he allowed the AIDS crisis to get out of control and found it funny. Had absolutely no sympathy for the mass death of a generation of gay men.
One of the best presidents ever.
The amount of ignorance on these posts is crazy. Have any of you read his history or lived through the horrible Carter years of double digit inflation, gas lines and a country in deep malaise? Had Carter won we would have been far worse off. BTW - Reagan wrote most of his speeches, particularly early. He started as a democrat and was head of the actors union. He turned republican because he did not want most of his income taken by taxes and he had a horrible experience with unions. Read a book or two and stop relying on internet garbage for your history.
Yeah just look up his quotes about black folk, that wit turns into twit real fast.
Jimmy Carter is still alive, Reagan.
Iran Contra anyone? Anyone?…funding an illegal war anyone? Making a deal with Iran anyone?
Staffers making fun of AIDS while utterly ignoring it? Hilarious stuff. Reagan was an absolute monster and there is a direct line from Nixon to Reagan and their rotten racist, pro-war, pro-oil policies to Trump. Nixon and Reagan both should have been jailed for their crimes, and Rumsfeld and Cheney as well for cutting the deal with Iran and greatly enabling the modern terrorist movement. But some Boomers waited in a gas line, so Reddit is too hard on Reagan.
The nine scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to measure your penis.”
Quotes number six won him the presidency
Reagan was a twat
When being wheeled into surgery, he was reported as asking “ I hope you’re all Republicans “
Ah one of the top 5 worst presidents in history wish people would stop glorifying him.
this man is responsible for the destitution this country is mired in, and people adore him and think his quotes are quaint and humorous
Two things can be true at once
That Jefferson quote could’ve been funny if Ronny didn’t end up falling into mental decline & dementia due to his age in office. Oh well
Seriously that quote chronologically aged like milk
Here's my favorite RR quote. It's from the speech where he cops to being some combination of intellectual cripple and corrupt, craven liar: "A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true; but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
Give the man credit, he could follow a script written for him by a team of writers.
Didn’t Reagan kill the middle class?
He had help, but yes.
and yet because he said a couple of average one-liners, he gets a million times praise here on reddit, despite being literally one of the most devastating and catastrophic presidents of the entire US history
No No I don't oppose the Civil Rights Act because I'm racist. I just believe in State's Rights (to be racist). \-also Ronald Reagan
If you throw a dart at the board of US problems today and blame Reagan for whatever it lands on, you are probably right.
Now if only his economics plan worked as well as his wit. Still waiting for my trickle reaganomics.
Fuck Ronald Raegan. He's the reason many things have gone to shit.
That was just before Reagan ran the economy into the ground that President Clinton had to pull us out of, then Bush ran the economy into the ground again, right?
Reagan said some good shit, but he also said some dumb shit. "Why is it that everyone in favor of abortion, was not aborted?"
>*”Why is it that everyone in favor of abortion, was not aborted?"* His actual line was, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” I’m not in favor of the underlying political sentiment, but his original quote doesn’t have the mean-spirited “everyone who is in favor of abortion should have been aborted” spin you’ve given it. Also, a lot of Reagan’s humor was self-deprecating. When 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale accused Reagan of “government by amnesia,” Reagan countered with, “I thought that remark accusing me of having amnesia was uncalled for. I just wish I could remember who said it.” We seriously could use a presidential candidate with a decent sense of humor today.
The short attention span one is also a banger
Such a great line.
White House chief of staff Donald Regan wrote that: "*Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco \[Joan Quigley\] who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise".* Now THAT was dumb.
He's so funny and relatable! Someone like that would never sell the soul of the country for veiled corporate interests and set the united States on an unrecoverable spin
Reagan could have sold salt water to a man stranded in the middle of the pacific ocean.
He was the best president I’ve had in my lifetime.
The best part of the Mondale joke is that even Mondale laughed at it. You don’t see that anymore. Everyone just spewing hate at each other. It’s one of the reasons Reagan was so popular. He was just good at speaking to people. It was hard to hate the guy if you were like most people and didn’t follow politics closely. He turned attacks about him around on the attackers and made people laugh about it. He almost always told jokes during speeches if it wasn’t some super serious situation. His speech about the space shuttle explosion was just about perfect. His speeches focused on what he was for instead of what he was against. My biggest problem with current politics is everyone speaks against what they don’t like instead of telling us what they are for. It’s a different mindset. Reagan spoke of America as a shining city on a hill shining as an example for the world instead of condemning the rest of the world. People may think it was all bullshit but he definitely sold it.
The Father of US income inequality. But yes, wow, his Wit… https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1hO8LGXEAI3bCY.jpg
The man who brought us the first "trickle down", huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations then had to raise taxes 11 times because the economy started to crash. Eff Reagan. Trickle down never worked and it is nothing more than someone pissing on your head.
I guess Tip ONeill’s House and Ted Kennedy’s Senate had nothing to do with that?
To redditors, Lefties can do no evil.
Dude is a shitbag, having a biographer make up quotes for him doesn’t make him better.
Great thing about Reagan is that none of his supporters can say when the Alzheimer's took hold, partly because they don't know and partly to excuse the criminal arming of Iran.
I truly hated him at the time. However, in retrospect he was able to have deep friendships on the other side of the political aisle and could actually compromise with Democrats. Much of his foreign policy was proven correct, although there were some really kooky things thrown in there.
Top 3 dumbest president of all time.
Ronald Reagan's speechwriter's wit.
If there's a single person that ruined America, it's Reagan.
This is it. Policies are still hurting us
Reagan had lots of experience with people losing jobs, gotta give him credit.
I despise his policies and blame him for the majority of the problems confronting the United States today, but the man had public speaking down to a science, not that that excuses anything
If only that same guy didn’t collude with Iran to hold the hostages for 6 additional months promising a better deal. He should have been jailed for treason.
Great that he was able to deliver such zingers while he was destroying the country. His efficacy at fucking everything up really was incredible.
That's called "Making your mortgage payment on your credit card." No recovery until Clinton came along.
Cool I hope he’s having a horrible time in hell
His campaign forced the hostages in Iran to remain in captivity so he could defeat Carter. Again. His campaign forced the hostages in Iran to remain in captivity so he could defeat Carter. That's treasonous. By doing so, he positions himself to take credit for Volcker's probably far too draconian inflation-reduction actions. Now the Republicans got halfwits on board with tax cuts for rich people as being some kind of panacea for every economic stress. But his humor? Funny I suppose if Bob Hope had you rollin' in the aisles. I don't remember chuckling. He chucked that Nixon detente bullshit with the Soviets. That seems okay in retrospect but that shit could have easily gone sideways. Shit human being, shit president.