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Comment by alexpotato | Hacker News Reader

My grandmother was born in 1912 and therefore lived through:

- World War 1

- The Spanish Flu (she caught it and survived despite being only 6)

- A rural Pennsylvania childhood with no antibiotics and where multiple family members were injured by livestock or heavy equipment

- Prohibition

- The Great Depression

- World War 2

I often wonder if this gave that generation a VERY different attitude towards risk. e.g. one of your kids having a broken arm may not seem that big a deal when you might know a family that lost multiple sons in WW2? Or a bad cut compared to someone you know losing a leg in a tractor accident?

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I don't think so. Older generations seem to me much more risk-averse than recent ones. You had many people who were pretty aware how dumb such stunts were back then. Two factors come to my mind - there were much more toxic masculinity vibes and more importantly - much less awareness for safety and incidents than nowadays.

There's no incentive to take risk in a world where you can be half literate and go punch the clock at your dead end job riveting spring hangers onto Chevrolets to afford a house and a car and a stay at home wife and not have to worry about retirement because stonks will go up as you sell the country's industry to overseas.

> there were much more toxic masculinity vibes \

I am very sorry to say toxic masculinity is returning. We girls really need to be getting out there and keeping down men, it's for their own good, lest they literally be flinging themselves off cliffs.

> We girls really need to be getting out there and keeping down men, it's for their own good,

I wholeheartedly agree. What western society needs is a matriarchy that will take care of its own and suppress any subversive elements.

I can't wait for scientists to demonstrate that testosterone is actually a poison and the main cause of toxic masculinity. In a more civilized era, children assigned to any sex at birth will be dosed with exogenous estrogen starting from age 5 in order to optimize and civilize their development.

My grandmother lived through WWII and stuff ... but she ended up being very "be careful, bad things can happen, do not risk it" kind of person.

She was more aware of "bad things can happen" and "do not risk it" then my parents generation.

That generation experienced natural selection. It definitely weeded out the weak.

My grandparents were born in 1890-1900. What they suffered through I’m sure would kill most people. Definitely would me. Most of them lived to their late 80s and 90s.

It also weeded out the risk takers more. And it weeded out a lot of people randomly.

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