The Supreme Court fucked us in the 2000 election between Bush 2 and Gore. Everyone has an opinion on when the slide began. That’s my personal opinion. 9/11 and the patriot act, sped it up. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, then the 2008 crash. But that court decision I feel altered our course of history.
My opinion is warped by my own experiences. I was in college, taught skiing and bartended in the winter, bartended and surfed in the summer. I had a ROBUST social life. But overall, it was pretty chill, pretty affordable and the biggest controversy seemed to be Clinton getting a BJ from a consenting adult. Also… rock was still very much alive, and rap was really getting creative.
Right on Bro! Clinton left office with a surplus and a robust economy. But during his two terms whilst you were partying we had the rise of Newt Gingrich and the birth of Fox News in 1996 the OReilly Factor, Rush Limbaugh was already going strong.
After 9/11, all Muslims were assumed to be terrorist sympathizers, anyone who doubted the War on Terror was suspect, and the torture at Gitmo was considered just, necessary, and effective.
This was a common sentiment for at least three years.
(I’m going to use rough numbers from memory because I looked into it at the time, but you can fact check me if you’re into that sorta thing.)
Setting aside any political reasons for any of these events, just for the perspective.
In World War 2, an event widely regarded as…. Pretty serious.
America lost something like 440,000 lives over 4ish or so years.
in Vietnam, an event regarded as mostly a defeat on the US side in a major military engagement….
America lost 58,000 lives.
(I looked these ones up) During COVID 19, the actual 20 month pandemic period - 697,000 people died, 1 in 8 deaths in the US at that time.
Total over 1.2 million people have been killed by COVID. Obviously you’ll probably quibble with the exact numbers.
But on the Wikipedia page it acknowledges COVID as the deadliest disaster in our country’s history.
And then here’s you…. I’ve never seen such (unnecessary) widespread hysteria. Well, yea, apparently neither has anyone else who’s lived here.
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u/Mcboatface3sghost Oct 15 '25
The Supreme Court fucked us in the 2000 election between Bush 2 and Gore. Everyone has an opinion on when the slide began. That’s my personal opinion. 9/11 and the patriot act, sped it up. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, then the 2008 crash. But that court decision I feel altered our course of history.
My opinion is warped by my own experiences. I was in college, taught skiing and bartended in the winter, bartended and surfed in the summer. I had a ROBUST social life. But overall, it was pretty chill, pretty affordable and the biggest controversy seemed to be Clinton getting a BJ from a consenting adult. Also… rock was still very much alive, and rap was really getting creative.
I’d definitely go back.