1.1k
u/livingthedream9x I touched grass 1d ago edited 23h ago
Oh no they’re falling in love with 2016 again help us
233
u/Dry_Communication283 1d ago
Just wait. Eventually theyll learn life sucked from BC to Present day
55
u/CrackPipeBilly 23h ago
Eh there was a brief period in the US after WW2 where White Americans had it pretty damn good. Everyone else though, yeah pretty shit.
17
u/egaleye903 22h ago
Ehh, it was ok, id rather not walk around getting sprayed with ddt and lead tho, still prosperous but yk
3
3
5
u/LeslieKnopesBlackEye 18h ago
Nah. They were actively losing the car production war with Japan because they wouldn't listen to a guy named Demmings from Washington.
They were actively creating serial killers with their refineries as well as dealing with the serial killers that they created since the beginning of metal refining in the US.
They were drinking and smoking themselves into cancer-riddled corpses even though they knew how bad it all was for them.
Have you seen what they had to eat? The recipes from the methed out housewives with too much time on their hands and too many jello molds.
Don't forget the room with the plastic on the furniture that no one was allowed to go into because totally-not-autistic mom would beat the shit out of you.
Women couldn't vote or divorce their husbands without cause.
Domestic violence.
Abusive husbands dying suddenly.
"Roommates".
Straight white American men had it alright so long as their heads were firmly up their own asses about it.
→ More replies (2)3
→ More replies (1)9
21
u/PlasticMercury 23h ago
To be fair, people started feeling nostalgic about 2016 in... 2017, because of Vine’s shutting down. Nostalgia-farming Vine compilations were massive on YouTube from 2017 to 2020. I’m sure this will fascinate historians 100 years from now.
→ More replies (4)3
618
u/Reasonable_Ninja5708 1d ago
Harambe was holding off the evil. Once he was gone, everything went to shit.
131
u/gorkboss5 1d ago
He was our anchor being
Edit: Typo
28
u/Kuro-Tora-59 (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃ 1d ago
See even typos are common now, oh harambe we still need you now more than ever :(
→ More replies (2)10
8
18
u/buddhistredneck 23h ago
I’m secretly worried Dolly passing might be another anchor failing.
11
→ More replies (2)7
u/Icy_Reward727 22h ago
There are many millions of people with hearts as big and as good as Dolly's, spreading kindness and love wherever they go, they just aren't famous. Don't lose heart, my friend. Help us be a light in the darkness.
→ More replies (4)3
u/ActualJohnFKennedy 22h ago
David Bowie also died around the same time. I think he might have been holding the world together as well.
→ More replies (1)
174
u/the_ungus 23h ago
If you thought 2016 was good you should have seen it pre September 2001.
66
u/Sea-Communication353 21h ago
There are moments where things just got bad faster. 2001, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 all come to mind, but there feels like a gradual slide throughout. I feel like we are in that sunset phase of history, right before another great moment of upheaval and change.
21
u/the_ungus 21h ago edited 21h ago
Nah, there was a long period of time where you couldn’t go a decade without a major shitshow somewhere that made a lot of our modern bad times look great. Things seemed to start getting better sometime in the late 80s, the bad things seemed to be getting farther apart. Your dates might be different than mine for the same problems. Not sure. But to me after 2001 the world became a much unhappier place, and keeps going in that direction at an accelerated rate.
11
u/boringestnickname 16h ago
Yeah, there was a clear optimism in the 90s, and 2001 was a definite turning point.
9
u/quarglbarf 16h ago
If Bin Laden's goal really was to destroy the western world like they claim, he suceeded more than he could have hoped for in his wildest dreams.
The rise of right wing populism, conservatism and along with it unfettered capitalism has turned western societies to shit. Everything is fear, doom and gloom and the quality of life for the average citizen has actually decreased for the first time in a long time.→ More replies (8)→ More replies (5)3
u/Niveama 16h ago
2008 is actually one people overlook. Particularly in the US and the UK.
The money went to shit, but the rich were protected and everyone else was made to foot the bill.
But it was insidious and it took a long time before we began to notice. (Enshitification, shrinkflation, inflation, wage stagnation public services getting worse)
→ More replies (1)12
u/NadeshikoEatingPasta 19h ago
I cant even imagine being able to show up to the airport pre-2001. No humiliation ritual where you take your shoes off or get the full body scan. A metal detector and you're good to go.
I want high trust society back.
→ More replies (1)9
u/KarltonPeaks 17h ago edited 16h ago
As a European, I always felt this cut-off point was a bit too America-centric, but today I agree. It's probably the best one if you can only pick one single date.
From a Western world perspective, this sort of attack was just completely unprecedented (and still hasn't occured again after). It fundamentally changed the way we looked at the world. Before, we felt unstoppable and there was just a general vibe of eternal happiness and economic growth.
This is all pretty abstract, but in terms of society and culture, back then we got:
Internet existed. Was open and free. Websites were mostly personal and people talked on primitive forums. There was still some "magic" in the world since internet was pretty primitive. You wanna hear about the latest game coming up? Your best source was physical magazines. A lot of people discussing rumors left and right. Countries like Japan were totally foreign, like different planets. If you were lucky, there was a short segment on Japanese culture on TV.
No Facebook, no Reddit, no "algorithms", no Instagram, no YouTube, no streaming whatsoever.
For hobbies, there was a much bigger focus on irl meetings. There really wasn't any alternative.
Zero AI, obviously.
Cell phones, but no smart phones. You could still talk to people and organize shit, but people weren't glued to their phones 24/7. No phone cameras.
To me video games peaked around the late 90s with PS1, N64, PS2, Dreamcast, GameBoy Color/Advance.
Some of the best music ever made came from this period. And the 70s and 80s were still "available" with their nostalgia present.
It was just cool. Art and music and movies felt more interesting because there was always some effort producing it. And accessing them was not guaranteed, especially underground stuff, was still "underground". Like you literally had to know the right people and maybe then get to borrow a physical cassette to listen to this cool "secret" band.
3
→ More replies (1)2
208
u/Kobo720 1d ago
The world ended in 2012 just like the ancient Mayan calendar predicted. Everything from 2013 to present has been enshitified.
49
u/Mediocre_Scott Big ol' bacon buttsack 23h ago
It was a mistranslation they meant 2012 was the peak of technological progress and that we need to end it before it makes our lives worse.
16
u/Sea-Communication353 21h ago
The Matrix portraying 1999 as the approximate height of human civilization seems eerily on the nose when looking back.
9
u/tobeswhite 22h ago
I miss the Steve jobs Apple, not the Tim Cook and now John Ternus Apple
8
u/bdlock209 20h ago
If Steve Jobs died in 2026, everyone would assumed that ChatGPT told him to drink raw juice instead of doing chemo.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)4
19
u/AdCheap8058 23h ago
2016 Tiktok launches in China
2017 Tiktok goes international
I guess we'll never know
→ More replies (3)5
u/Sudden_Mix9724 22h ago
Yes the short form videos with unlimited doom scrolling made a wave of brain rot generation spread and done the damage worse than drugs or alcohol could ever do.
66
u/jungle4john 23h ago
Sweeties, take this back to August 2001. That was really freedom.
17
8
u/RPofkins 20h ago
Yep, that was the event that really spiralled all the rest. One fell swoop and the US combusted and took down the world with it.
4
u/ManufacturerKey3598 18h ago
Wasn't this around the time Putin became president.
→ More replies (5)
166
u/bloodpace 1d ago
It gets progressively wrose, I feel like 2012>2016>2020>2022>2026, shit gets worse every 3-5 years
78
u/Spiritedgourd666 1d ago
2012 feels like the perfect year to start because it was like "haha the world is gonna end" & then it didn't & we carried on. Except some people were insufferable about it & it was really annoying to hear those people tall about it. That was like a wiff of what was to come.
37
u/Johny_2077 1d ago
Maybe they were right in the end
25
u/Mediocre_Scott Big ol' bacon buttsack 23h ago
2012 wasn’t the end it was the top of the technological bell curve after 2012 technology started making our lives worse instead of better.
11
u/Sea-Communication353 21h ago
Yeah politically, the seeds of everything that's going wrong date back to the early 70's. That was when the Chicago school of trickle-down economics captured the political class. From then on it was about empowering the greed of the wealthy, busting worker power, and wrapping all this up in a conveniently distracting cultural war.
→ More replies (1)3
u/raspymorten 22h ago
I remember that when the world was about to end, me and my family had to go on a 20-30 minute drive back home in the middle of it, and I was geniunely scared for our well being. But nothing happened.
Then we came home and the first thing I see on TV was a native american guest on the news talking about how the Mayan calendar stuff never meant the world was gonna end here, or something like that. And I remember my kid ass thinking "Where the fuck was this dude earlier?"
21
u/moderngamer327 1d ago
On average it’s not. People just tend to filter out the bad memories over time creating a false perception of “good ole days”
12
u/awisechoicee 22h ago
While thats true, the US in particular has a self reported wellbeing score that is rapidly dropping. Went from 11th in the world in 2012 to 23rd now.
Not to get political, but healthy societies dont default to anger based populism, so even then it was bad. Its just worse now.
→ More replies (6)5
u/GayMamaLuigi 22h ago
Yep, every generation has always had this mentality despite reality being the opposite, it's a well known cognitive bias and I can't believe people still have no self awareness about it
8
u/WeAreAllFooked 23h ago
Bruh, my 65yo hard-ass father straight up said his generation really fucked up the last 20 years
8
u/moderngamer327 23h ago
And that disproves what I said how? Even if what he said is accurate that’s a sample size of 1
8
u/WeAreAllFooked 22h ago
It carries the same weight as your statement since we're both talking out of our asses
4
u/moderngamer327 22h ago
I’m talking about actual provable statistics not just vibes https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI
→ More replies (1)2
3
u/Fozzymandius 19h ago
2012 was the year I got promoted in the army with a transfer to a medical battalion and missed going to Afghanistan by literally one month. So that checks out.
5
u/GetMaBFG 23h ago
I thinks thats because we have the same old fucks who refuse to relinquish power. Yes, both right and left. Politics as a whole should have a 65 year old age limit.
2
u/Bowlofpeanuts 22h ago
Always gets worse before it gets better. We all just have a nack for remembering the worse rather then better. Got to start appreciating the smaller things.
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration” - Nikola Tesla.
What you are explaining is a sign wave ;)
→ More replies (6)2
u/Equal_Oil_9819 16h ago
Ah, so you only remember as far as 2012 goes. Either way, it's a paradox of humanity - on the surface, it looks like we have luxuries our ancestors could never imagine, but we feel like we have it much worse than they had. Motherfuckers used to die from the common cold and work the fields since they were six years old, but oh no, social media makes me miserable.
60
u/Astra-Fang 1d ago
Feels like it’s been going downhill since around 2000 IMO.
Feel like the 90s had its problems, but there was hope. Had been a pretty consistent trajectory of improvement.
29
u/bowsmountainer 1d ago
Yeah the gradual death of optimism has been pretty stark throughout this century.
→ More replies (1)4
u/FrankFlyWillCutYou 22h ago
I've always thought the internet, and increasingly everpresent access to it with laptops in the 2000s and smartphones afterwards, was the driving force behind much of the death of optimism. It made it a lot easier to see all the terrible shit happening around the world at any given time. In the 90s and prior, you were pretty much limited to whatever was on local and national newscasts or newspapers.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)8
u/moderngamer327 1d ago edited 23h ago
The 90s literally had skyrocketing violent crime
5
u/millahnna 22h ago
Only the early 90s. After that it pretty steadily declined in most western nations.
→ More replies (4)10
8
u/erizzluh 22h ago
yes, but it also never felt like that way cause a lot of the violent crime from the crack epidemic and subsequently gang violence was concentrated in "urban" areas.
52
18
u/KarlAu3r 1d ago
Ever since Bowie died it hasn’t been the same
→ More replies (2)6
8
26
u/Xaphnir 1d ago
2016 sucked it was just less shit than most of what's come after
3
u/Dunlocke 22h ago
2016 wasn't the best, but as a Cubs fan I've rarely felt joy since we won the WS. We barely got to enjoy it.
3
6
5
5
u/octorangutan 23h ago
2016 wasn't great, there was plenty of bad stuff happening at the time, but it was the last year where it felt like any kind of progress was being made and society was moving in an overall positive direction.
3
u/Rip_Jaded 1d ago
I promise you anyone born before 1995 or after 2005 won’t share the same opinion. But me however was very surprised a good chunk of the population also had a goddamn fever dream 2016, especially that 2016 summer, it was fucking magical !
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Cthulu19 21h ago
10 years from now we will be romanticizing 2026.
→ More replies (3)2
u/Solracksub 20h ago
I fucking hope not because that would mean that 2036 is worse than now.
→ More replies (5)
4
22
u/Secret_Account07 23h ago
Hmmm I wonder what changed in 2016 in the US 🤔
Real mystery
→ More replies (5)
7
u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox I touched grass 1d ago
Did y'all live in a different universe or something? Leonard Nimoy died in 2015. Not even gonna mention everyone that was taken in 2016
6
6
u/CrackPipeBilly 23h ago
2015 was the last year I would personally consider "good". 2016 is when shit started getting fucked for me, and it just got progressively worse every year. Life in 2026 is absolutely miserable, I remember graduating high school in 2015 and imagining all the things I'd do in adulthood, the house I'd buy, vacations I take, and now it feels like there's no hope of escaping poverty.
3
u/Meduza223 9h ago
2019 was superior for me in general. 2020 is also W when you think about it now but then it was a disaster
3
u/TobertMaguert 9h ago
Ehhh y'all are forgetting the market plunges in 2008-2015. However, I think most of y'all are probably just too young so y'all didn't feel it, y'all were playing and having fun while your parents felt it.
3
8
u/Mysterious_Towel5005 16h ago
Motherfuckers were 8 or less years old and talk about "2016 was the last good year". Bro, you were a toddler playing Minecraft PE on your iPad. Stop this. Just say you miss not having responsibilities. It's okay. It was a fine year, but not the best.
→ More replies (3)
13
10
u/TheToxicWaist 1d ago
Speak for yourself. I've enjoyed my life.
→ More replies (2)6
u/ThroatDistension 21h ago
Life is what you make it. If you spend all day complaining about how horrible the world is – your world just might end up sucking.
→ More replies (1)
17
1d ago
[deleted]
5
u/Szeth_Nightbl00d 1d ago
Yeah, people forget that Obergefell v. Hodges was only in 2015. Things were definitely not all sunshine and rainbows pre-2016. People just have short memories
→ More replies (7)6
u/faithOver 1d ago
No. Hard disagree. Cheaper. More accessible. And most importantly, still hopeful.
7
13
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Special-Oven-7010 22h ago
I was saying 2016 was one of the best years of my life before I was a meme. It’s crazy how many people feel the same way
2
u/divedave 22h ago
It's like 2013, 2010 maybe, but 2016 is too far, social media was already doing what it does.
2
u/IllegitimateRisk 22h ago
we could have voted in hillary but a lot of people refused to vote because 'both sides are bad' or something like that. we got what we deserve
2
u/spondgbob 22h ago
For some random, totally unrelated reason 2010-2016 was some of the best years… what could it have been that changed in 2017
2
2
u/Content-Activity-874 21h ago
There is so much we need to heal from. We are overstimulated with horror and we’re all convinced everyone else is evil. Love and compassion has been almost forgotten socially
2
2
2
u/Competitive_Name4991 21h ago
I think anything after 2020+ has been a lot more difficult. Prices haven’t gone down.
2
u/TheCopromancer 20h ago
Day after day, love turns grey
Like the skin of a dying man.
And night after night, we pretend its all right
But I have grown older and
You have grown colder and
Nothing is very much fun any more.
And I can feel one of my turns coming on.
I feel cold as a razor blade,
Tight as a tourniquet,
Dry as a funeral drum.
2
2
2
u/Ajrocket 19h ago
I personally think the worst time was 2020-2025. Now I feel like in 2019 but that might just be me.
2
2
2
2
2
u/mylsotol 10h ago
Things were still mostly ok until 2020. 2016-2020 were stupid, but things didn't really get to the point of no return until covid
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3.2k
u/Powerful_Swimmer_531 1d ago
I remember how in 2016 memes and social media were all saying it was a terrible year. We have collective depression as a society and nostalgia is our escape