and it is still pretty apparent that cycles occur where one generation does backlash against a previous one. It also doesn't mean that they can't switch back to something even worse.
Liberal Jewish men in the 1960's rebelled against the 1940's and 1950's Cold War 'father' and yet by the 1980's those same men had become the Neo-Cons that we all know and despise today embracing the 'winning of that Cold War' to push a neo-imperialistic American Empire in the Middle East.
I have no problem giving non-believers credit for supporting civil rights, and yet how do we easily quantify that? Until recently, most atheists were not organized or even remotely interested in a social group. Many were isolated (I was as a young man) from other atheists. That has changed in the last 20 years, in part probably due to the internet. From Newsgroups to chat-rooms to safe-haven forums on DU, atheists and agnostics have certainly evolved. The AA didn't exist when I was young, and today, they are prominent (if not always agreed with) proponents of non-belief. I think it will be easier from here forward to see positive societal contributions than it has been previously.
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