The tides

Societies seem to go through cycles of austerity and societal liberalism. If we look at Weimar Republic Germany or flapper era US as examples you can see much more liberal social behaviour which was then followed by more censorship (films, comics, theater, etc) and moral codes being installed which were policed through the courts. The mid 1930's through to the early 1960's then saw a period of social conservatism which was reflected by fall of economies and a world war.

Then from the mid 1960's through 1980 we had slightly more hedonistic behaviour followed by the formation of groups like the moral majority as a recoil in the following decade.

What I find interesting is that the advent of the internet in the early 1990's seems to have splintered society into factions where conservatism spars with more liberal thinking and has fostered and encouraged echo chambers. This because people are now more free to congregate into like minded bubbles instead of be moved along in unison by massive tides.

Magnus Hirschfeld and friends