The sixties maintain a legacy of peace, love, and progress in America, a snapshot of what it could be should we all just get along. But does this image really represent what this decade of counterculture did for America? Or should we instead remember it for what it was, a time of naivety, violence, and division. The hippie movement, instead of aiding in many of the political fights it took on, made it easier for counter opinionated media outlets to illegitimize the entire group in the eyes of the greater population. News reels could play a clip from a civil rights worker march right after a clip of a bunch of teenagers with their eyes rolled back in their head having sex in a public park. Because the signs they carried had similar messages these movements could be portrayed as one and the same. This is the reason that today, liberals and all of the left are often labeled by their opposition as “hippies” in a derogatory manner. The hippie movement’s only success was in dividing the country and creating a distrust between the people and the governing body that is typically irrational, and often impedes any real progress.