‘What’s something perfectly acceptable 30 years ago but would be taboo now?’ – 21 things offensive things that we used to put up with

If you’ve ever had the misfortune to stumble across one of those nostalgic Facebook pages, you’ll be well aware that an awful lot of people out there uncritically believe the past was better.

You know the type of thing – pictures of bin men without high-vis jackets accompanied by comments like ‘They were paid 50p a week and never complained’.

However, and as those refuse workers would no doubt agree, many things have changed for the better, even if some have changed for the worse. They’ve been discussing this on Reddit after user Calvincandoit posed this question:

‘What is something that was perfectly acceptable 30 years ago, but would be extremely taboo or offensive now?’

And people chipped in with things that you’d never get away with these days.

1.

‘I just told my 7-year-old. about restaurants having smoking sections and about cigarette vending machines. He didn’t believe me. Hell, when I started my job in a state office building 20 years ago, there was a smoking room.’
–MoRiSALA

2.

‘I used go to the store to buy my mum smokes when I was 7!’
–Dudian613

3.

‘Hospitals used to have smoking rooms.’
–ElCaminoInTheWest

4.

‘Showing up at a friend’s house unannounced and ringing the doorbell.’
–donasay

5.

‘Some time around 1995 or so I was randomly wandering around downtown New York with my brother and a friend on New Year’s Day. We happened to be near the old World Trade Center so we decided to see if we could go to the roof.

‘We walked in and the security desk (which may well have just been a reception desk) was unmanned but everything was open. We took an elevator up, easily got to the roof, hung out there for a while, and came down and left. No alarms, no locks, no security. Beyond unthinkable now.’
–h_lance

6.

‘Looking an acquaintance up in the phone book and calling their house to speak with them. Now a lot of people think it’s creepy or weird if you text or call someone’s number and they didn’t give it to you.’
–danceoftheplants

7.

‘Gay jokes in mainstream media.’
–AdditionalClient2992

8.

‘Showing anything happen to the Twin Towers. An episode of the Simpsons was pulled from syndication and heavily edited after 9/11 because it showed Homer running between both towers, and the ending of Lilo and Stitch had to be remade as the spaceship looked too much like an airplane flying too close to buildings.’
–SailorVenus23

9.

‘Smoking areas in high schools for students and teachers.’
–jaboi2110

10.

‘Parents letting their kids roam around the block. Now a days, the same boomers that let the kids roam free call the cops when they see a group of kids playing.’
–culinaryexcellence

11.

‘Business lunches during work hours with alcohol being consumed. Apparently it used to be worse. Older colleagues tell me the three martini lunch really was a thing in the 60s and 70s. And they claim they would return to their office and be productive.’
–MotorFluffy7690