In a nutshell: postwar history, by Paddington

My summary of US and UK culture from World War II onwards.

Returning soldiers decided that they deserved better from their government and country, and the rebuilding began, with strong, active and violent unions. This process was much slower in Britain, which had given all of its money to the US during the course of the war.

Deciding that things had 'gone too far', we elected Thatcher and Reagan, who destroyed the unions (and with it any hope for the working class), and handed much of the money and power to the rich and multi-national corporations.

Blair and Clinton carried on these policies with false promises of the 'Information Age', while the corporations used their power to crush the middle class, including the education system, and small businesses.

Bush and Blair gave us the distraction of the 'War on Terror', which distracted us with collective fear, and prevented us from really noticing that most of the benefits of increased productivity were flowing to the top 1% or so.

Obama tried not to rock the boat, and trod a very thin line, while being assailed for everything, including wanting the 'wrong' mustard, and wearing a tan suit.

With seemingly no hope in either direction, the US turned to an idiot demagogue (Trump, just to be clear) and the UK to a blithering idiot (Johnson)* to save us from ourselves.

* (preceded by Brown - unelected heir to Blair / Cameron - old school upper class twit / May - Thatcher wannabe)