David Sirota > Quotes

“As the 80s generation experienced the natural journey from idealistic youth to more jaded middle age, many probably concluded that the world wasn’t changing—it was just more self-centered than they previously thought.”
― David Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explains the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything

“That’s what modern narcissism really is—a pernicious mix of qualities defined by three words that start with self: selfishness, self-absorption, and self-importance. In contemporary parlance, it may be known as asshattery, douchebaggery, or dickwadishness, but it’s all one or another spin-off of a virulent egomania spawned in the 1980s. Sure, the Internet may amplify”
― David Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explains the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything

“Beginning in the 1980s, electronic trading detached the buyer from the seller, complex derivatives insulated the investor from the company, CDOs sequestered the lender from the borrower—in other words, the decade constructed a system that allowed us to rip each other off without fear of having to look at the ramifications of our actions.”
― David Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explains the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything