The dark side of the '80s

[Pete]

When most of us think of the '80s we think of great music, movies, fashion and video games. We think about all the memories and the great times that we experienced growing up during that decade but we tend to not associate the dark side of the '80s. There was the crack epidemic. When crack hit the streets society started to really change for the worse. There was also Aids that was killed so many people during the '80s. I lost an uncle do to Aids. Crimes were on the rise, prostitution was all over and we had conflicts and wars happening throughout the world. There was Angolan Civil War, the Ethiopian Civil War, the Moro conflict, the Ugandan Bush War, the insurgency in Laos, the Iran–Iraq War, the Soviet–Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency, and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Islamism became a powerful political force in the 1980s and many jihadist organizations, including Al Qaeda, were set up. That was a lot negative issues impacting the world but we also had serial killers. The '80s had some of worlds most notorious serial killers such as Joseph Christopher, Richard Ramirez the night stalker, the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and more. Thankfully though most of us were fortunate to not have been impacted by many of the negative things that were happening.

 

[80sDiva]

This is so true. Crack and aids and the lives lost and lives affected by both was terrible. The eighties decade was great for a lot of us but for others it wasn’t. Great post Mr. Eighties!!

 

[Manny]

The Northeast U.S. was most affected by the crack epidemic. The U.S. cities with the highest crack index were New York (especially the city's Washington Heightsneighborhood), Newark and Philadelphia. AIDS was more common amongst the gay community due to the fact that the way the virus was transmitted was known yet. The amount of people that died because of the virus during the ‘80s was 100,777.

 

[MagicMan]

Yes the 1980s had great and negative aspects to it but for myself it was great.