Tanning, smoking (including widespread second hand smoke & underaged smokers), pouring bacon grease on everything, unregulated & poorly regulated methamphetamine usage (energy + weight loss pills), 6 day work weeks with 9-10 work hours, ladies stressed the eff out of their minds about the lack of birth control options, lead all over the place, PTSD plus psychological + physical scars from warfare, widespread and accepted bullying in schools and in the workplace which emotional effects can stick around for decades, cosmetics that would make the fur fall off a test rabbit (and oh boy they went through a lot of rabbits)…
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The most obvious reason is that our image of what older people look like is based on the older people we saw when we were young. Cues like clothing, facial expressions, body poses, hair styles, coloring and so on are associated with older people. When you are ten, someone in their thirties is unfathomably old. When you see someone who looks like a thirty year old as imagined by your ten year old self they look unfathomably old, unlike an actual thirty year old today.
Men, try putting on a pair of wing tips, a suit, a tie and fedora and you’ll look at least ten years older. Women, try putting on a girdle, a shift, one of those hats with a lace veil and a stylish dress circa 1950 and you’ll look ancient. Stay at home. If you go out, people will ask you for samples for Carbon-14 dating.
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Maybe I’m thinking of the Enlightenment
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Yes, the past was made of mindless toil 24/7 from the beginning of time until last Tuesday
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Yeah yeah, whatever, have a nice day
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And it functions across other vectors of oppression, not just class. There’s even a sociological term, “weathering,” to describe the extra toll taken on a body simply by being Black in a world (and especially a country) where anti-Black racism is endemic.
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Having kids (lots of them!) is an aging factor that’s changed for most people we know. In my youth most families had at least 4 kids, and one with 10! Now it’s 3 tops, and most with one or none.
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The culture war over seatbelts back then was formative for me. That was when I internalized that “some stupid people will always refuse to do the right thing, which will cost all of us money. Those people will always have to be forced to be decent citizens via laws. It’s unfortunate, but it is necessary for making things better for everyone”.
Those people will always frame it as a personal choice, but of course it isn’t. “Personal choices” about healthcare affect all of us because society pays for emergency rooms and other negative health outcomes from your “personal choice”. It’s a negative externality. First seatbelts, now vaccines.
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That video is just a parade of idiots, many of them no doubt prematurely aged. I’m reminded of the quote from The Friends of Eddie Coyle:
This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.
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Don’t forget the epigenetic effects of poverty also, the poor food, pollution and stress you go through can also effect your unborn children, and so on.
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And for many of them, before the 1960s, their skins had no color at all.
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On thing to understand is that in the before times, people were farmers… most of them.
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Most people back then had more free time than we have. Look at the liturgical year (Lutheran in this image).
That big empty bit just happens to be during the busiest time of year for farmers. The idea that we should work most days all year didn’t really happen until the industrial revolution.
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People today eat a lot more preservatives than they did in the past. They also take longer to decompose after death than they used to. You are what you eat.
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I don’t think preservatives and the human body work like that.
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True, but I thought it was a funny comment anyway. 
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