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Jokes on you, meme. I’d dropped out of high school and was working full time at Spencer’s by then. I got to see the second plane hit on a bank of TV’s at RadioShack on my way back from getting a pack of cigarettes from the news stand by the Sbarro.
One CircuitCity away from a Bingo
Also the middle-eastern millenials getting bombed, occupied, and bombed again during each of these.
Millenials in America while dropping bombs wiping out all generations in other countries:
“I had to see that on the tele. Poor me”.
I don’t really understand the age focus on this one. People older than millenials have also experienced all that plus some extra shit which millenials haven’t. We are all in this together (except for the billionaires and their dictator friends), regardless of age.
Watching your mom die is a bit more shocking at 12 than it is when you are 40
These are millennials having main character syndrome about watching stuff on tv.
Meanwhile there are actual war zones in which all age groups are getting physically wiped out.
They actually are losing their moms at any age . Not just watching stuff on tv.
What pain olympics are you trying to win, dude?
Projecting confession so in right now.
The circle of life. We’re about due for a depression and a war. Humans are so predictable it is mind numbing
We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning since the world’s been turning. No we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it.
Some millennials are over 40. Doesn’t change the point but let’s be factual here
Fuck I’m old :((((((
I’m here with you on that. We got to see Biff in back to the future and now we get to see a Biff Larper as president.
All Biff and no hoverboard? Bogus!
Fake Biff and fake hoverboards!
totally not not-heinous
Considering Biff was based on Trump in the 80s…
They almost nailed it…
He wasn’t quite evil and stupid enough.
Oh shut up.
—GenX
I envy gen x. Last generation to be home owners.
Not all of us.
Yeah, you can change high-school to college, and 40 to 45 for me, but the point doesn’t really change.
I’m 43. Look at me go.
I was trying to think of some shit going down in the 80s.
All I can think of is Chernobyl melt down in 86.
Challenger explosion, televised straight into so many classrooms
Wow. Looking into this for a few minutes I now realise I’ve been completely naive to this for most of my life. It’s an awful but fascinating disaster.
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Not the 80’s, but the early-mid 90’s were rife with evidence of the U.S.’s decline.
Rodney King beatings, the highway of death in Iraq, the rise to prominence of Fox News, the mass destruction of the ‘93 floods, all those communities destroyed by the shift to zero tolerance policies, and the deevoludtion of national political debate into contentious identity politics by 24-hour news channels.
In the 80’s you had Bhopal and 3-mile island, too. And the savings and loan crisis, I think.
Mutually Assured Destruction was pretty big at the time. The rot really started to set in with Reagan.
you boomer
This isn’t about them.
Probably not better if you were born in 1900. You were born in an European Monarchy. Life is not exactly free, but stable and prosperous.
Some psycho stabs a queen, and all of a sudden all of Europe and a lot of the rest of the world is at war. Most of Europe is razed to the ground and millions of soldiers return with heavy PTSD.
The monarchy is done, you got a completely new system in Europe and a communist revolution in Eastern Europe/Russia.
Times such, but stability returns for a few years until the Great Depression hits and boom, we got Nazis, holocaust, and yet another world war, which is ended by a literal science fiction weapon that can raze whole cities to the ground at the press of a button.
And now your country is occuped by a foreign army, while everything has to be rebuilt.
Seriously, the phase from 1955-2000 was an anomaly. That was pretty much the most peaceful time in world history. Before that, constant wars, pagues, starvation and general horrors were the norm, not the exception.
And even with that, you are glossing over the Spanish Flu. The “peaceful” time since the '50s included numerous massive wars, not least of which was the Vietnam war.
The idea that every time period has its own chaos is the whole point of the song We Didn’t Start the Fire, written in 1989.
Everyone glosses over the Spanish Flu ;)
At least the wars since the 50s have not been on European or US soil. Well, except of the wars that were actually on European soil.
But yeah, it’s totally true that constant chaos is constant.
WW3 ain’t coming, and if it was there’s nothing you could do about it anyway.
Dead people don’t buy oil, financial services, adverts, housing, or plastic tat from China.
Unhappy people buy lots of it, or at least go into debt trying.
The goal of the world is to keep you miserable and spending.
Amen. As a millennial I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard that WW3 is starting. Every time shit pops off in the Middle East (almost always thanks to the good ol’ US of A) the media starts handwringing and people start panicking.
But even if we do end up in a world war, the world won’t stop turning. People with bombs raining down on them still need to go to work and cook dinner and pay their bills.
War has always been a reality for someone somewhere in the world. But if/when it’s our turn, we’re so self-centered we think that it’s the actual apocalypse.
All we can do is keep working to make life better for each other. Even though shit is pretty bleak for everyone with late stage capitalism and climate change, it’s not nearly the worst thing any group of people have ever experienced.
So you can give up, or you can embrace radical nihilism and choose to cling to any scrap of joy you can find while working to make things better, even if it’s just the tiniest bit.
In the grand scheme of human history, western civilization as we know it is a tiny blip. It’s incredible that we’re here to witness this moment. If nothing else, let sheer curiosity and spite drive you to keep going.
The people that make the news for this kind of crap are also the ones who report it to you in that sensational way to get those reactions. Some of those who work forces…
Yeah I feel like if a direct attack on American soil that killed thousands of civilians didn’t spark WW3, then nothing will
We kinda attacked a decent percentage of the world after that, and have barely had time to catch our breath since the “end” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
You’re expecting old farts in charge to be always rational about everything. They need to let their rotting brains to slip up once, and we’re all fucked.
Jokes on you. I watched 9/11 in elementary school.
I was in my geography lesson, so I don’t identify either.
I was in social studies class and we always watched the morning news so it was on tv before anything even happened. Got to watch the second plane hit live and then in science class the buildings collapsed.
Then we got sent home early so my mom drove us over with the neighbor to see if her coworkers were still alive and have me take pictures.
5th grade. I remember pre-9/11 I wasn’t really scared of much, cause you know, there wasn’t a lot to be scared of.
Watching it on live TV and everything devolved very quickly.
I think we’re called Zillennials?
Xennials?
Edit: oh, no, it’s in the other direction.Probably “Millennials” hating that you’re too young to claim their tag, and “Zoomers” hating that you’re too old to claim theirs. Whatever. We are the mid-90s (even 90s) babies, and that’s a cool name even if a little longer.
Millennials, anecdotally, do get really mad at you if you bring up being part of the Zillenial cusp. I had a whole group of them freak out on me for it once and insist that no, I was a millennial only. It was weird.
I’m honestly probably pre-cusp, but my siblings were cusp and Gen Z, so I track more as an old Zillennial.
Don’t forget Columbine. People always leave that out, but as far as historical milestones that shaped how awful American society has become, it was a big one.
My high school experience started with Columbine freshman year and ended with 9/11 senior year. Life has been so crazy.
Now we get one every week!
It is insane how common it’s become.
It’s hard to even explain to people that there was a time when it used to be a very shocking thing to hear about.
“Back in my day, parents didn’t have to send their kids off to school every morning pretending everything was normal, but internally struggling with anxiety they might never see them again.”
We had some copycats here in Germany and of course Counterstrike or some other game was to blame. Not the very real weapons the people were shot with.
And Marylin Manson.
I just joined the Bundeswehr (the german army) a couple of weeks before 9/11. I still remember that I thought “You idiot really have managed to join the military right at the beginning of WWIII…”
I’m so fucking over this shit yall. Don’t forget the corporate takeover and surveillance dystopia created by quite possibly the biggest dork losers that are alive. What the actual fuck? Need a genocide. Check. Civil rights collapse? Check. Financial meltdown? Check. Pandemic that kills millions? Check. Collapse of the dollar for shitcoin scams? Check pending. Terrorist attacks that convince your country for 20 years of wars? Check. No more war excuses, and need more? No worries, we’ll just recycle the same one from 25 years ago because y’all couldn’t do shit about it then either. They have nukes so we have to attack.
Now, go be a good citizen and participate in some blind nationalism and virtue signaling with your pledge of allegiance to an inanimate object while simultaneously and intentionally starving brown kids by the thousands.
Can’t a giant EMP come and save us? I’m so tired.
Let‘s convince Iran of the existence of space jews so when they get a nuke, they light up the atmosphere and kill all the powergrids and servers forever. Peace, out!
I’m 42 and this is deep.
Aye gather round elder Millennials, our watch has begun
Back in ye day we hath this magical place called “limewire” it could brick your mothers gateway computer without a moments notice.
Heh, I don’t think that’s as old as you’re expecting; I’m 35 and I, too, installed Limewire on the family computer (and probably downloaded so much malware…).
28 and also downloaded some Linkin Park that was actually George W. Bush on the good ol limewire. Admittedly I was probably the tail end of that.
Nice; that’s the most early 2000s sentence I’ve heard in a long time.
We watched the second plane hit live on a shitty CRT in my Geography class. Shit was insane. I’m so damn tired…
I was having computer science class and I remember seeing the news… Felt so unreal to see something like that in America. Went home, watched news for the entire day.
Then I read a lot about 9/11 the following years. I think it changed the perception about America in a lot of people.
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This is why I don’t believe people who say things can get better.
lol, yep, things have only became worse over time through my whole life, and I just got laid off from a sick job I scored during the Covid chaos, so i’m job searching on top of all of that
Certainly job search got worst during and after COVID. Especially people recently graduating finding out stems are not very easy to get into
They certainly can - post-WWII was certainly an improvement for most people - but there’s no guarantee that they will.
Yeah it’s not like our ancestors went through two world wars in a period of 20 years along with the first Global economic depression or anything like that, and the realization that Humanity can now wipe itself off the planet.
No it’s definitely us that lives through the most interesting time
It doesn’t have to be the most interesting time. Just an interesting time.
Still sucks and we’ve got climate collapse to worry about in addition to nukes. And PFAS. And microplastics.
Oh 100% I agree. We do live in trying times. But we also live in probably the best time to be alive at least if you live in the western world.
I just want to bring some context from the past because when you look at history we’re doing quite a bit better than we used to.
While the no Kings protest didn’t really achieve a whole lot mobilizing up to 10 million people is a huge achievement and not one that many organizations could have dreamed of doing 50 years ago.
Yes, this shitty world is definitely the best we could reasonably hope for.
Oh I didn’t say that. The world could be a lot better.
Only that we generally live in the best time historically wise. Most of us have a roof over our heads and steady food in our bellies which is not historically how things have been.
It’s foolish to try and look back in history for a better time because there is none. It is up to us to create a better future going forward.
Yeah sorry, it may be better in some ways but a large amount of powerful people want us back in serfdom/slavery, instead of actually improving life. 90s was peak, it’s downhill from there.
I know quite a few minorities that would disagree with you. Also I think a lot of people in poverty probably have a better now with the institutions and systems we have then they were in the 90s when after they had been gutted by the Reagan Administration and not restored by the Bush Administration or the Clinton administration.
Most of us have a roof over our heads and steady food in our bellies which is not historically how things have been.
I don’t have the outright stats to say so definitively, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true for the smallest percent of the US population since the Great Depression. The average American has less than $300 in their bank account. Credit card debt is increasing as fast as it ever has, and people are defaulting on that debt at the highest rates of all time. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck (at least 60% of the population), and there is not a single county in the country where a person making the median wage in that county can afford the median cost of a home in that same county. We lost more money during the 2008 recession than during the Great Depression, and most people never recovered even though the economy recovered that money in about a year - 90% of it went to the wealthy, who had also lost the least. The homelessness crisis has become so bad that it’s called the homelessness epidemic, and the homeless population is also increasing at the fastest rate that it ever has. Wealth disparity is worse in the US today than during the French Revolution, where the price of a loaf of bread hit an all-time high of a day’s wage for the average worker.
The average American is one medical emergency away from going bankrupt, and diseases that we had thought were on the verge of eradication are making a comeback while we continue to ignore the ongoing COVID pandemic that we still don’t know how it truly affects us. COVID has been found in everything from the brain to the testicles and is linked to infertility and a million other issues that will cripple the size of the workforce in the years to come due to Long COVID symptoms preventing people from working.
These are hard times made by weak, greedy men who refuse to hand over the reins and want to make things even worse.
Things have always been worse if you weren’t a straight, white, able-bodied man, but I think it’s been a long time since it was this bad for such a large swath of the population on the basic metrics of food, shelter, and financial security - at least in the US.
I think things are getting worse for white people exactly the way you say. I think for minorities though it’s kind of always been this bad or even worse made by people being far more racist.
Things are still pretty systemically racist but there has been somewhat of a correction and that probably does result in things being a bit better for some minorities.
Ultimately I think that means that We live in better times today because they’re more accepting than we did Even 20 years ago.
As far as getting by I think things have been like this for a really really long time and people were patient and sold a crock of shit and with covid it’s forcing a lot of these things to come to a head.
Not only that Trump himself is a governmental crisis and when there’s chaos in the government there’s absolutely chaos in society. Simmering tensions tend to get exposed.
But we won’t. We could have been creating a better world for the past 30 years and we didn’t.
And now it’s too late to prevent the Ross Ice shelf and all of Greenland from falling into the sea.
True irreparable harm has been done to the world through climate change.
But I see a second wave of people’s revolutions coming. Hopefully it’ll be in time to react to the changes of the world.
Even in Hopeless times we must have hope comrade.
Is this what the Romans felt at the end? Walls falling, raiders raiding, terrible leaders-- it’s not looking good.
Just have to vote for Dems and there’s a decent chance 9/11 wouldn’t have happened, so no Afghanistan, Iraq wouldn’t have happened, pandemic would’ve been handled better and the pandemic response plan wouldn’t have been axed, and we wouldn’t have bombed Iran. Not to mention women would still have health care.
I’ve been voting D for years and it still didn’t help.
The problem is the Democratic Party isn’t a working class/labor party. The Democratic Party’s primarily purpose is to occupy space on the political spectrum and prevent the rise of a true workers party. There will never be a time to walk away, abandon a clearly irredeemably broken edifice, and build something new. It will always be the most important election of your life, and you will always be a traitor to your nation for daring to suggest it’s time to scrap the morbidly obese old man, fused into his couch, sucking up all the oxygen out of the room on the left side of the political spectrum.
No, the entire structure of our government is unable to deal with the world it exists in.
- It obviously would have been worse. 2. Convince your fellow voter or non voter.
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Winning is binary, so me voting doesn’t make Trump any less the president.
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I’ve been trying to do that too and people are too stupid to convince and I’m bad at it.
- If GOP won more often, it would be even worse. 2. Yeah.
In the rare cases a Democrat I vote for wins they’re either hamstrung by Republicans winning everywhere else or have a stroke and turn into Republicans.
So we’re back to 1. More GOP wins means it would have been even worse and 2. Convince your fellow voter and non voter to vote.
Seriously what is the purpose of your moaning.
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Iraq War resolution vote in the Senate.
Dem President wouldn’t have been pounding the war path, with lies, and pretty much the entire nation pushing their representatives for it.
Where do you get that idea? The Trump admin has only been in place for five months. The strike the US just carried out took years of planning. Trump’s attack on Iran was just a continuation of Biden admin policy.
All the evidence I’ve seen my whole adult life is that the Democrats, or at least the Democratic leadership structure, are just as bloodthirsty and warmongering as the Republican leadership.
We don’t actually know that Dems wouldn’t have been pushing an Iraq war. Ultimately the real push for the war came from the Israeli leadership, and the Israelis control both the Democratic and Republican parties. Israel ultimately decides US Middle East policy, not the American citizens. What party you vote for has very little impact on it. That’s the conclusion you reach if you look at the actual evidence, not just the vibes that each party likes to portray. The Dems like to portray themselves as some 1960s peace-nicks, but both parties let Israel control their entire Middle East policy. Israel wanted to invade Iraq, and that was going to happen regardless of what party was in power.
Maybe the Dems would have handled the Iraq war a little more competently, but Saddam had been a villain in the US media for years. People were talking about invading Iraq while the bodies at ground zero hadn’t even cooled off.
Most damning of all? Al Gore supported military intervention in Iraq. He just wanted a more international effort than what Bush did.
Gore supported invading Iraq. The majority of Democrats in the US Senate supported Iraq. What evidence do you have that a Democratic president wouldn’t have invaded Iraq? I think the only case is vibes-based.
Militaries work on plans for everything. I would be surprised if they didn’t have a plan to invade nearly every country on Earth. It’s what the military does. The decision is made by the politicians. Vastly different things that you’re trying to hammer together.
Israelis control both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thank you for showing me you’re nuts. No point in real discussion, this will be my only reply.
But to address
Most damning of all? Al Gore supported military intervention in Iraq.
That reads nearly like an academic discussion on the topic and that he was actually focused on WMDs. Sounds like he wouldn’t have done it without people/nations researching and agreeing that Saddma Hussein had WMDs (or was trying to make them), which would have lead to international cooperation and support. Not quite to the point of wanting UN agreement (because vetos) but he keeps discussing the UN. And sounds like if he didn’t have both the domestic and international agreement, it wouldn’t have happened. This is just another thing you’re trying to hammer together. I thought this part was cool “the president is publicly taunting Democrats with the political consequences of a ‘no’ vote”, he was obviously not a fan of Bush’s browbeating - which along with Bush’s lies is how the Iraq war went through. And the whole thing is just ripping Bush’s administration and approach apart.
That you keep trying to hammer different things together shows me you either can’t separate them yourself, or that you’re discussing in bad faith. So ciao.
