One thing that has struck me about them is how libertarian a lot of them are. People doing the right thing- not initiating force or stealing- sometimes at a high personal cost. I never really thought about the fact that our "recent" history was so different from what we see today. I knew that the early history of America was (imperfectly) libertarian, but somehow assumed things had changed before the memory of anyone alive today.
I was wrong. It makes me sad that people who grew up watching the shows like that could have forgotten these latter day campfire stories. I guess The State was more attractive to them.
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