In an age with extremely polarized political parties, generational skepticism, and a constant stream of information bombarding us about issues all around the world, we get hit with nostalgia for a “better time.” Do you remember seeing that that old youtube clip from "The Newsroom" where Jeff Daniel’s character talks about “how we are living in the worst generation ever?” I’m a bit biased about this, but I’m fairly certain that’s not true. Sure we eat a few too many Kale smoothies and a couple of idiots have managed to get one of the rudest political candidates ever in the running, but realistically, give me a break. Here are seven reasons we shouldn’t judge the present too harshly.

1. Racism

This one is fairly obvious, but as annoying as the one crazy old neighbor who likes to rant about white supremacy is, they really aren’t bad compared to the whole history of racism in America. Aside from that slavery thing, we’ve managed to pass Jim Crow laws, allow an entire cult to develop around racial discrimination, and literally make people who aren’t strictly white put up with second class conditions. We obviously still have problems that need fixing but we are a damn sight better than we were.

2. Sexism

While on the subject of discrimination, lets remember another type of second class citizen: women. It took over 200 years for women to receive the vote in America, a couple decades more for women to wear pants and hundreds of marches and rallies to gain a semblance of equality in the workplace. Even 20 years ago there was more sexism than there is now. We have improved and continue to improve today. And as cute as corsets are, I’m pretty happy to be female in 2016 America.

3. General Tolerance

I’ve covered sexism and racism, but think about tolerance in general. LGBTQ folks can now get married at will. Religions tend to be more open and accepting. We still need some work but it's coming along.

4. Technology

I hear a lot of complaints about people wasting time on their iPhones, socializing less, and generally wasting time. Look, before we were wasting time on smart phones, we were playing with old fashioned video games. We were listening to tape players, watching black and white TV shows, and wasting time tuning into random radio stations. And even before that we were buying dumb dime novels at the store. This isn't new. But as technology develops, so does our potential for communication and discovery. So let's not complain too much about everyone playing Flappy Bird and taking selfies.

5. War

This one is pretty messy, mostly because it's tough to rank wars in terms of “better” or “worse.” If we go by body count, we are doing pretty good right now. In terms of safety, well, we are stronger than we have ever been and the top defense spender in the world. Whether you count that as good or not, I’d prefer living in America with the occasional bombing than building bomb shelters in the cold war.

6. Health Care

There are a lot of pros and cons about the new healthcare plan. To be fair, it's not amazing and it's not horrible. But the medical system as a whole is an incredible industry and our medical treatments are progressing rapidly. People live longer than ever and we are even starting to make mechanical limbs.

7. Knowledge

Access to knowledge in America is at it's peak. Between the Internet, better education, and portable devices, anything we want to know or understand is at our fingertips. This leads to a lot of random comment wars on Youtube videos but it also enables anyone to continue to learn as much as they want.

Modern America is by no means perfect. We can all name a thousand problems and all have a thousand opinions on how best to fix these problems. But just remember, when you’re shaking your head at some presidential candidate, or wishing that you lived in the past, we’ve actually improved. We aren’t perfect, but we are most certainly not where we were a hundred years ago. And if we keep in mind this trend of improvement, it will only get better from here.