haven't always been second rate.

Yes. They have. There was no central "culture" up until the 1990s. Some areas of the country were pretty nice, some of them were absolute dogshit.

State education has never been good. Why even pretend on this point? Private schools are demonstrably better and yet are unavailable or looked down on by most people. What we believe about our education and what we actually get are two different things. Since taxes pay for education you needn't wonder why they lie so easily about this to you.

Our freedoms have been pretty ideas on paper. The implementation of them has struggled immensely. You have first amendment rights, yet you constantly have to fight for them. You have fourth and fifth amendment rights that the supreme court has to keep ruling on. We could go on. The government doesn't want to give you your freedoms, they are something you have to fight for.

This "gee shucks America used to be just awesome at one point" idealism is a sign of jingoistic retardation. I'm sorry they got you with it.

you compare pre civil rights America with its contemporaries of the time, it dominated

Yea.. that's why rich people sent their kids to Europe for college. The schools were of dogshit quality. The time your describing was a time where parents had more control over their schools and the schools didn't have to suffer bad children.

It didn't make them dominant or high quality it just made them efficient and cost effective. Which is fine and preferable even, but you don't need to build and then live in some fake fantasy to just say this directly.

And that is what people are trying to get back to.

A place that never actually existed. Which is super dumb, because you can get what you want by turning your head forward and going that way instead. Anyways.. the people who peddle this manipulation are happy you're too bootfucked stupid to do this.