Sorry - I don't know what the proper term for a not-hippie (or anti-hippie) is. Because that particular phase of the culture wars was before my time - slightly after my parents and slightly before me. But I like to think I would have been a hippie, if I had been born then.
Given that dKos is a largely liberal place, I assumed most of the people here were, at the very least, sympathetic to "hippie" causes, which I take to be peace (at least in the context of Vietnam) and personal freedom.
I, apparently, was wrong, given the hippie-attacking and hippie-defending statements I've seen here the last few days. I understand that the term is being used as shorthand for the pacifist movement in a lot of cases, and is largely linked to debates over protest tactics and pacifism as a philosophical/political approach, which may or may not be entirely correct. That's one of the points of this diary: that perhaps someone who was there can correct whatever misconceptions I might have about that era.
Main point on the flip...
The main point, however, is that I sense a storm brewing. I got here
just as Kerry became our "anointed one" last election, so I was here for SYFP, and the Pie Wars, and I feel something else coming.
The Hippie Wars (heck, at least this one won't be about pastry) are not something I'd like to see happen. I'm starting to see, though, a lot of people talking over and past each other when talking about peace in Iraq, the value of a peace movement in general, the appeal of activism and which tactics are and are not sympathetic to a general audience, and it seems a lot of those arguments are being informed by various commenters' experiences during the Vietnam era.
They say the country hasn't ever healed from the rifts it suffered during that time, and I can't say I've had an opinion up until now, but I'm thinking it must be so because I sense a lot of bitterness that doesn't seem to have its roots in today's conflict.
This may all blow over of course, and perhaps no one else sees what I'm seeing. I just hate seeing all the stupid communication that goes on when this site goes through one of its temporary meltdowns (but we always come back stronger, right? Right?). People talk over, at, through, around, and behind each other, never TO each other, and NO ONE listens.
Plus, regardless of whether my fears are founded, it's a valuable discussion to have: Are you "over" your Vietnam experiences, whatever they may have been? How do they color your opinions and actions about the Iraq war? If you were more "mainstream" at that time, how did you respond to some of the demonstrations and protests that went on? Are over-the-top demonstrations useful in getting the eyes of the media and the public? Have proper protest tactics changed since then, given the different cultural attitudes, media climate and technological advances in the intervening years?
I can't really say well-informed anything about that time, but I do know we have another war to worry about today, one that we all have a responsibility to try and stop, and the movement to stop it is slowly growing. I would hate to see the nascent anti-Iraq-war sentiment that is growing across the country be derailed, and I'd hate for it to be the cause of massive infighting on dKos.