We have very similar opinions of the 70s and 80s, probably all the way through 2023 - and the last half of the 1960s if you were just a bit older. Oh I may have been a kid in the 60's but If ever a decade deserved the term "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" it was the 60's. The music and the TV were beyond compare. Today's generations will never know what it was like to turn on regular TV and watch actual TALENT. Once the tiny hats at the DS started tipping the culture on its head then it got shitty. But, there was still more good than bad. Even though my dad had no education and drove a forklift in a roofing plant, we got by on ONE income. We struggled, we were poor in the general sense but we never went hungry or without clothes etc. Sounds like we've lived fairly similar lives so its cool to talk to someone who's trod on similar ground. Especially when it comes to absent friends. I lost one 15 years ago that brought me right to my knees. And for someone like me who has a very metaphysical view on "death" and what it really is, it really dropped me. I've never "recovered". Never will. Just keep moving because what choice is there? Of all the shit that can happen to one in a life, there is NOTHING worse than being the one left behind. Like you I'm a news Junkie and I always found VOAT and POAL to be excellent aggregators where I can get news without having to go out and search for it.