[Avodah] Techeiles nowadays vs a few decades ago

[Akiva Miller]

.
I'm not really sure whether to put this in Avodah or Areivim. Some may view
my question as sociological, in which case Areivim might be more
appropriate. But this might be a case where we (whoever "we" are) pasken
like different poskim than we did in the past, which is Avodah territory.

It seems that in today's world, it is accepted that tzitzis can be of any
color, so there is no downside to wearing the newfangled techelet tzitzis,
even if one questions whether this is really the genuine stuff.
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a source for this, but it is what
I've heard many times in recent years. If others can document this, it
would be appreciated.

My problem is that I have clear memories from the 1970s and 80s to the
contrary. Back then, if one would ask why no one wore the techeles of the
Radziner Rebbe or of Rav Herzog, the answer was that any color other than
genuine techeles would make one's tzitzis passul; therefore one cannot wear
techeles unless he is *sure* that it is really techeles, which is
impossible until Moshiach restores the mesorah.

To those of you who are old enough to remember from before the modern
techeles, what are your memories about the rejection of the old techeles?
Why didn't people wear it anyway, based on "it couldn't hurt"? My memory
suggests that the poskim back then held differently than today's, but maybe
there are other reasons. I have some guesses, but first I'd like to hear
from other people's memories.

Akiva Miller
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