Comradeship // Freechat

So the problem with thinking about "hippies" is that we've kinda been handed a shitload of people with otherwise nothing in common except a penchant for psychedelic drugs and a few hairstyles. There are probably more ways to do this, but I'm going to separate "Hippies" into 3 categories:

Youth Movement: The boomers understood that they were a generation bigger than any other and that they could affect some real tangible change in the world if they put their minds to it. They got burned out or otherwise found their place in flatland around 1972. Ideologically they had some sound footing, and even got some big wins (lowering the voting age to 18, abolishing the draft, title IX) but they grew up and the new kids just didn't feel the same way.

New Communalists: An even bigger mixed bag. The New Communalists were eager to explore new ways of building communities and living together. Noble enough intentions, and it even led to some really cool stuff like the way we're interacting over the internet right now. However, one of the new ways of building community they got really into was psychedelic drugs, and this is how we get into all the horrible things that people did in the name of "free love."

And then there were The Freaks: They were libertarians before libertarianism had a foothold in American conservatism. They were in it for the sex, the drugs, and the music. They also often got confused for Youth Movement types because they were hairy, they were smelly, they smoked pot, and they were broadly critical of the US Government.

"Hippies" is term that really only helped the Nixon administration crack down on their political opponents with draconian anti-drug laws.

Edit: Come to think of it, there were probably a fair bunch of radical leftists among the Freaks, but again, who was actually listening to their politics? Besides, radical leftists and libertarians used to be able to find common ground in their exclusion from, and subsequent disillusionment with, American politics.