I think that the issue often overlooked is that the stark reality you lived through (and, admittedly, to a lesser extent), the one I lived through is now no longer commonplace.

I think that the progress made for younger ones is just for younger ones. The older ones who have been scarred and injured by all this just have to shuffle off and die, leaving a more accommodating world for those who did nothing to earn it.

That is, of course, unless the growing reactionary backlash doesn't take a hold and put us back into those dark ages, I suppose.