I always felt sorry for the "Indians", both on the 7" TV screen & when we played.....

Childhood and adolescence bliss only leads to enlightenment for such a few!

Just look at trump and the obstructionist republicans who are using enlightenment to indenture and enslave their follower!

You can never relive the past!

We live in the future, not in the past!

As long as those who confuse and use our concept of youth as political tools, we will fail to bring those who have hoped for or had youthful bliss, yet have never reached enlightenment as a societal ruse to control us all!

I grew up in Western Europe from 7 to 16 years old. It was much easier to see the lies of standard history classes when living over there. The lies of the Vietnam War was definitely a serious wake up. It was far less about communism spreading and more about helping France maintain it’s profitable colony in that country. Like Iraq, we never should have been there. A realist look at the genocide committed against Native Americans in this country makes much of our school taught history totally out of touch with the reality.

i remember reading an article in Time mag about the vietnam war in the early 60s. the MSM in those days was less biased in reporting. in this piece the writer expressed his opinion that the US shouldn't be there.
i was still in the Canadian Navy then & i remember getting into a bit of a heated discussion with some American sailors in a bar in norfolk or one of those east coast ports. i was probably lucky to get out of there in one piece.
from that point on i was a dissenter in every war the US & my own country entered. b/c they weren't really wars, as they were euphemistically referred to, but just a huge country & it's flunky partners in crime attacking small helpless countries.

I don’t think that I ever really identified with cowboys as being the good guys, maybe because I was far more interested in science fiction than westerns. But I was in my early 20’s when the first gulf war occurred. My younger brother was in the marines and was sent over to participate. He wasn’t involved in any fighting, but I really felt the need to support him at the time. I’ve got to reluctantly admit that I got caught up in the fervor or bringing down Saddam, fairly easy to do here in conservative Idaho. My father and I were watching the news about the war, which was prime time entertainment then, and it showed a cruise missile heading towards it’s target. An Iraqi woman was standing near the camera and started screaming that they were people too and didn’t deserve this, they had lives also. That really made me aware of how often our “enemies” are dehumanized so that we don’t have to think about how much a ridiculous war ruins their lives. Not sure if I became enlightened but I quit agreeing with war (American imperialism) after that.

I have no clue, it seems like it has always been part of me, but I may be wrong. One of the women asked me why I always was different to the rest of the people whom she knew. I told her that I always barracked for the under dog and she should too. She went quiet and did not say a word about it.

it started for me with the My Lai massacre.

I was born somewhere else, grew up there too. Came here on my own power doing things by the book every step of the way, and became citizen a while ago. That being said, I have seen bad, I have lived it.....somewhere else. I became enlighten at the other side of the fence, that's why I came here and I have been since then and I will die a proud American. This generous country is not perfect ( no one is ) but I have a very good reference to make the claim on how great this country really is. I like to find the positive on everything, as opposed to look for negative no matter what. It makes life a lot more pleasant. You may want to try it.

I don't remember, but I can't believe the numbers of people who become "enlightened" aren't higher. It's a basic realization about your environment. You assess what you have been taught up until a certain point with what you actually experience and see. It shouldn't be that hard. I think some people stay in some type of fantasy bubble that they pass off as reality, and I guess it is their reality, but it's not the norm. They never let the propaganda leave their head because they probably are entrenched in the same environment and never leave it or have another environment to juxtapose with it, especially if they succeed within that societies/governments/corporations propaganda and environment. One example might be people who are born into wealth.

When I was eight, my best friend was black. We were inseparable and I didn’t see a difference in us at all except I was tall and she was short. I took a picture of her with me hugging each other on vacation when we went to visit family in South Carolina and proudly showed it to everyone. My uncle turned to my mother and said accusingly “you raising a ni**er lover?” That was my first memory of feeling hatred. Been fighting for equality ever since.

In 1968 I turned 13 the day Bobby Kennedy died. That, the King assassination, and the Chicago riots, along with some more personal events in my life, really woke me up. I had played army all during my childhood, but luckily they ended the draft a month before I turned 18.

I think it was in 9th or 10th grade. The Vietnam conflict was just beginning and I made a comment in history class that what we were doing was wrong. I was kicked out of class and I think that cemented it all for me.

I remember playing Barbies when I was about 9 or 10. I had many darker skinned Turkish friends and no dark skinned Barbie....my dad went looking for one and could not find one...he and I talked about how unrealistic that was and unfair...I asked him if I could paint one of my dolls...he helped me...I knew then that I would forever have to make the sucky world match my reality...

I don't remember when it happened, but teenage years definitely. Native Americans were kind of wild beasts killing for no reason and when the blue formation of soldiers showed up and killed all the natives everybody would cheer them and clap in the cinema. The settlers always had pretty wives, children, dogs, the natives never had families...The same happens in war and Rambo films...

Somewhere about the age of nine, while watching "Cowboys and Indians" movies and started cheering for the Indians to win. I knew Hollywood's version was hogwash and the real villlians were/are aggressive, egotistical, homicidal, dominineering, macho stupid white men both in government and outside, too. My mom was instrumental is sharing the authentic American history. The USA broke every all treaties made with NA and murdered untold millions in the process.

Somewhere, probably gradually, between 14-17

I work with men who are way past the age where they should realize this and don't.

Some of that kind of "enlightenment" started hitting in my late teens and early 20s.
By the time I was reached my 30s, it was coming at me all fast and furious-like.

About the same age as you.