Law enforcement officers are compared to Nazis for their handling of extremists. Films and popular music reach new levels of violence and explicit sexuality. Rock stars die of drug overdoses. The deep South produces a political leader who uses flamboyant rhetoric to appeal to angry white voters. No matter what you think of their politics, talent, or intelligence, you have to admit that Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, Joan Baez, and Warren Beatty look terrific.
Television is a vast wasteland.
Commentators fill the airwaves and the press with complaints about biased media. The Raiders play football in Oakland. Taxes are too high, government is too big, and we really ought to do something about bad schools, declining cities, and a crumbling infrastructure. There is a major African American march on Washington 16. There is a political crisis in Italy.