the simple B&W photo of drinking fountains in the Jim Crow South is particularly striking.
I often wonder how much of what I see today as "normal" will be perceived as horrible / offensive / wrong in 50 years time.
Gay marriage is an obvious one, (Australian) treatment of refugees, anything else?
It wasn't that long ago that leaded gasoline was a thing.
By contrast, there's really no ethical excuse for why anyone in any time period would seek to ban gay marriage or racial integration.
> I often wonder how much of what I see today as "normal" > will be perceived as horrible / offensive / wrong in 50 > years time.
And technologies that are polluting our environment for selfish gains fits!
I'm sure we could dig [0], and find a majority who thought ethnic groups were somehow not actually 100% human and thus, OK to treat as such, and only with scientific evidence, that was overturned - perhaps that was the #1 excuse for abuse of ethnic groups, and I'm talking genocidal proportions.
There are people who now still don't believe being gay isn't anything but a choice someone makes. Which I'm sure you and I know understand as a bat-shit crazy stance.
I mean, you tell me - how long ago was it that the majority around you thought along similar lines when it came to trans-folk? A few months? Do you think scientific evidence is going to help, or hurt these people live much better lives?
I'm pretty sure gay marriage will be seen as just as normal and wholesome in 50 years as it is today or even more so. Though there will be fewer gay people if the theory that homosexuality is genetic proves out unless we have a boom in surrogacy.
The German and EU treatment of supposed refugees will be seen as a tragic moment, probably. Australia's current policy will be the one that any rich liberal nations that persist in being rich and liberal in fifty years will have chosen. Look at the UN population projections. It's clear that indiscriminate migration will overwhelm nations with lower than sustainable birth rates. Those that import many millions of people from backwards nations with extra high birth rates will see their founding populations reduced to tiny minorities and their countries newly backwards.
Prohibition is the obvious choice.
Or unless homosexuality correlates with some combination of genetic traits carried by heterosexuals --- if that turned out to be the case, then we'd expect gay people to continue to be born from time to time, due purely to the mix-and-match reproduction of heterosexuals, even if no gay person ever had children.