Facepalm

I grew up then, I get the sentiment, though rose-colored glasses are certainly in play.

Superficially at least, society kept a lid on bigots. We grew up watching All in the Family and The Jeffersons, explicitly anti-bigot shows. "I hate Illinois Nazis.", was a joke. Literal Nazis were a joke, unthinkable. No one would accuse a show having, or being completely about, black people as "woke". It felt like the nation was finally turning a corner.

Now we've had a blatantly racist President, and may again. Nazis walk the streets of Nashville with impunity. The Confederate flag has been hijacked and is now an explicitly racist symbol. FFS, the attacks on Harris would have killed any campaign. People may have thought like that, but no one said it out loud lest they be made a pariah. We shamed racists, and now they're all up in our face.

I'm sure we're in a better place, all in all, but what she's talking about is, "Who let these fuckers out to play in public?!"