Does anyone else genuinely miss the 2000s?

[Fukase]

The Internet didn't become political organically, this is something I am convinced further the more time goes on.

I honestly agree. I'm not one to have schizo conspiracy theories usually but it doesn't seem realistic that we would have such an intense cultural shift in the span of a few years.

And it makes sense too. Things are easier to control that way. People are less likely to speak out against the economy shitting itself if they're having autistic slapfights about trannies and white privilege.

 

[WhoIsSutterKane]

I miss the 90's way more.

 

[Hüftpriester]

2010s remembered by me, a black pilled sperg

Early 2010s
- Astroturfed Arab Spring
- Mass migration of Arab Spring "refugees" and other economic migrants to Western countries (ongoing)
- Trevon Martin is killed by a white passing Hispanic and somehow this leads to the rise of black grievance politics in America
Mid 2010s
- Autistic Americans and Europeans cry about woke video games as their countries are flooded with migrants
- Gay marriage legalized
- First wave of mass censorship after Trump is elected
Late 2010s
- Race riots
- Trans acceptance
- Covid
- More censorship

It's normal to be nostalgic for a time before this.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE RETURNS]

I think Occupy Wall Street + Kony2012 + GamerGate being within the same few years of each other set the mood pretty well, though you could definitely argue that it started as far back as Obama or the crash.

Kony 2012 so fucking retarded but I didn't know it was indicative of where our society was going. I thought people were smarter than this but of course I am a regard for thinking this.

 

[Some Dumb Faggot]

I miss old school Wow a whole lot, even Wow classic is filled with trannies now.

 

[skykiii]

I miss the 90's way more.

Same here.

While I do recall some things about the 2000s fondly, for me the 2000s was the beginning of a general decline in, well, everything. And the more time passes the more things just get worse. For all the 1990s problems it was kind of a golden age.

The thing I miss the most is that it feels like a lot happened, especially on a personal level. I saw the transition of video games from the NES to the beginnings of the 3D revolution including some of the granddaddies of things like Elder Scrolls which would later become huge, while other things disappeared off the face of the earth. The 1990s was when I saw animation go from fun to edgy to dumb and when I witnessed the first major push of anime into the west (back when anime was still good).

Friends came and went, old haunts changed locations or closed entirely, and new ones opened up for the first time. The internet was still in its infancy and was more a cool toy than the society-controlling megalith it is today, and personalized fansites still existed that could host anything.

The 2000s was when things started to change for the worse. A lot of the bad movie, animation and anime trends I hate today were first starting in the 2000s, and a lot of modern video games play a lot like games I hated in the 2000s. The only saving grace was the internet was still in a sort of wild west.

Of course, that's gone now. The likes of Spoony or Retsupurae could never rise in this current atmosphere, and now the internet is just "the Youtube machine" as far as I'm concerned.

The thing I miss most is rental stores. The primary way I discovered new things back in the day was going to Hastings (my area didn't have a Blockbuster) and just browsing the shelves. These days that's impossible. How am I supposed to discover a new game or anime now? Going to torrent sites just gets me a list of "Indecipherable Japanese Title 1-26 Eng Sub" and if you click, you rarely get a description of what the show is about, if there's any info at all. Video game digital stores are often just word vomits of buzzwords and industry terms that mean nothing to the end player.

So even if anything good is made now... its hard as hell to discover.

What's left? Recommendations? Nine times out of ten people just recommend stuff either you've already seen or which is stupid popular. No, I'm not interested in seeing Jojo, quit namedropping Jojo. And yet that's the situation: you're likely to only hear of something if its already well known.

I sometimes think this is why the industries are all in Remake Hell... because they have the same problem: nobody cares about Original Ghost Story but call it a new Silent Hill and suddenly they know what it is. It's like that thing Bane said once: "I put on a mask so people know who I am."

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

2010s remembered by me, a black pilled sperg

Early 2010s
- Astroturfed Arab Spring
- Mass migration of Arab Spring "refugees" and other economic migrants to Western countries (ongoing)
- Trevon Martin is killed by a white passing Hispanic and somehow this leads to the rise of black grievance politics in America
Mid 2010s
- Autistic Americans and Europeans cry about woke video games as their countries are flooded with migrants
- Gay marriage legalized
- First wave of mass censorship after Trump is elected
Late 2010s
- Race riots
- Trans acceptance
- Covid
- More censorship

It's normal to be nostalgic for a time before this.

And yet the weirdest part is that it was all so mild in the early 10s. Zimmerman got acquitted and people/the media could draw a distinction between "peaceful protestor" and "rioter" in the Ferguson/Baltimore race riots without society trying to gaslight everyone into believing that people setting fires and looting TVs were "peacefully protesting" like they did in 2020. Plus the internet might as well have been a free for all and Twitter and Facebook back then were like one step down from this site in terms of being allowed to say whatever you want.

The thing I miss most is rental stores. The primary way I discovered new things back in the day was going to Hastings (my area didn't have a Blockbuster) and just browsing the shelves. These days that's impossible. How am I supposed to discover a new game or anime now? Going to torrent sites just gets me a list of "Indecipherable Japanese Title 1-26 Eng Sub" and if you click, you rarely get a description of what the show is about, if there's any info at all. Video game digital stores are often just word vomits of buzzwords and industry terms that mean nothing to the end player.

So even if anything good is made now... its hard as hell to discover.

What's left? Recommendations? Nine times out of ten people just recommend stuff either you've already seen or which is stupid popular. No, I'm not interested in seeing Jojo, quit namedropping Jojo. And yet that's the situation: you're likely to only hear of something if its already well known.

It's easy though, just find a community you can tolerate and contribute to discussions and people will namedrop good animu/vidya/whatever and then look it up yourself and see if you like it. Or just find a chart of new releases, they always come with a description.

The only problem is that compared to the 00s, there's been way more shills in the mix since the middle of last decade or so making getting recs from the internet harder than before. But it's still pretty easy.

 

[Syaoran Li]

The real question to me is if the 90s ended with september 11th, where did the 2000s end?

Id either propose the 2008 financial meltdown (maybe 2009 for when we really started feeling the effects) or maybe something like 2012, 2013 for when "online" culture really became mainstream with additional relevance of reddit, 4chan, meme culture, etc

Honestly, I think you're onto something with this one.

Looking back on it, "The 2000's" cultural zeitgeist as most people on here remember it was surprisingly short, lasting from just shortly after 9/11 up until around late 2007 at the absolute most.

The global recession of 2007-2009 and the rise of Obama were big gamechangers, as were all the things that always get namedropped in the "2007 was the year the internet went to shit" meme.

2007-2013 was honestly its own little mini-cultural zeitgeist that in a way felt like a prelude to the "Woke" era of the mid-late 2010's and 2020's but also was distinct enough on its own that it doesn't really fit in with either the popular memory of "The 2000's" or "Current Year"

I think Occupy Wall Street + Kony2012 + GamerGate being within the same few years of each other set the mood pretty well, though you could definitely argue that it started as far back as Obama or the crash.

I could see that. Occupy Wall Street briefly spooked BlackRock and Vanguard and ultimately led to the rise of woke leftism while stuff like Kony 2012, the Zimmerman trial, and GamerGate feel like the prologue to "Current Year"

 

[Linako 2.0]

Of course, that's gone now. The likes of Spoony or Retsupurae could never rise in this current atmosphere, and now the internet is just "the Youtube machine" as far as I'm concerned.

It is kind of sad that now small time creators can't make a decent following anymore unless they sell out to the big websites and hope the algorithim god smiles upon them.
gone are the days of a cult following.

 

[SpergioLeonne]

I miss the 90’s because they were America’s peak. Nothing transformative at all happened in the 2000s unless you’re a neocon who really bought into the ermagerd terrorism thing. The 2000s were just a continuation of the 90s, and so has everything else been. Shit got very.. let’s say incremental, since then.

 

[Pissmaster]

I think Occupy Wall Street + Kony2012 + GamerGate being within the same few years of each other set the mood pretty well, though you could definitely argue that it started as far back as Obama or the crash.

Obama had sort of the reverse of Trump Derangement Syndrome, with people all over just falling head over heels for him, for seemingly no reason other than "FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT WOOOOOOOOOOO!". Even today, saying he was a bad president gets a bunch of idiots enraged. It just wasn't as obnoxious as actual Trump Derangement Syndrome because those people were seemingly happy, and it made sense to just hope for the best from him. It's not like John McCain or John Kerry seemed very promising, anyway.

Occupy Wall Street was the first big modern-style virtue signaling thing I remember, and I remember my reaction to it was something like "Well, that won't work, lol. Half those dudes are there just to pick up chicks, anyway".

Kony 2012 so fucking retarded but I didn't know it was indicative of where our society was going. I thought people were smarter than this but of course I am a regard for thinking this.

I didn't even know what the hell Kony 2012 was until the Internet Historian video. I didn't even know about the guy's freakout where he got naked outside until that South Park episode. I saw it at the time, but thought it was just some parody of the presidential election.

Let's slapfight over these images (and which of them is right) instead.
View attachment 5428116View attachment 5428117
Both of them are supposed to be proof pieces on when things went to shit, but I can't remember where I got them from. Very likely 4chan considering their dates but I'm not certain.
Regardless of their origin, I'm curious about your opinions.
-
Personally, I don't know what to say to either of them because they're both kind of right. I tend to think of the mid-2000s (which I define as 2005-2007) as an entire "mega year": a collective, slow collapse heralded by 9/11 and only accelerated by things like the Recession and the complete mainstreamification of the web...
Buuut, if I had to be pushed off my fence to choose a side, I think I'd side with 2007 more if only for having such a nightmarish coalition of events that fucked things up. 2005's a lot more vague- just pictures of things from the era and declarations of them beginning in 2005 without much elaboration or any concrete causation.

I'm not sure if I'd call 2005 any more the beginning of the end than like, 2001, but that's when I remember the whole emo thing really gaining steam, and I thought it was fuckin' gay to mope around and be a performatively depressed faggot while caking yourself in makeup and hair dye.

I don't remember much that was particularly great about 2005. I asked my parents for a 200gb IDE hard drive for Christmas that year, which was $200, and is worth like $1 today, so I could store a ton of XviD-compressed episodes of Family Guy.

 

[cactus]

Occupy Wall Street was the first big modern-style virtue signaling

No it wasn't, there were legitimate grievances being brought up and actually united the American people because the banks had fucked everyone but their buddies over. Virtue signaling plants did ruin the movement though.

 

[PipTheAlchemist]

I didn't even know what the hell Kony 2012 was until the Internet Historian video.

I still don't know what the hell Kony 2012 was, lmao.

 

[skykiii]

It's easy though, just find a community you can tolerate and contribute to discussions and people will namedrop good animu/vidya/whatever and then look it up yourself and see if you like it. Or just find a chart of new releases, they always come with a description.

The only problem is that compared to the 00s, there's been way more shills in the mix since the middle of last decade or so making getting recs from the internet harder than before. But it's still pretty easy.

It's really not that easy. Things like Google actively hamper attempts to find communities that aren't cancerous. I've not seen these charts you mention in years and whenever I do see descriptions, they're useless.

The biggest hindrance I have is usually the people I run into are either A) younger people who have limited exposure, so I get a lot of "have you watched Jojo yet?" or else they're older but they stopped exploring awhile back and they only remember the big hits, which I've already seen.

Literally the best luck I've ever had is getting on the Nintendo Switch eShop and just getting something for a dollar and hoping its good. But that's rare, and if its more than five bucks it isn't worth taking a chance.

.... Forgot to mention Group 3: the Memers. These are the ones who when asked to recommend an anime, will say "Boku no Pico" hoping you have no idea what that is. These kind of people shit up every recommendation topic.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE RETURNS]

No it wasn't, there were legitimate grievances being brought up and actually united the American people because the banks had fucked everyone but their buddies over. Virtue signaling plants did ruin the movement though.

It was a real movement because the fucking wallstreet got bailed out and the main Street got fucked. It created the toxic equity situation which is the main driver of today's fucking inflation.

But the participants were joke who were too lazy to climb up the ladder of politic and also dumb as fuck.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Obama had sort of the reverse of Trump Derangement Syndrome, with people all over just falling head over heels for him, for seemingly no reason other than "FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT WOOOOOOOOOOO!". Even today, saying he was a bad president gets a bunch of idiots enraged. It just wasn't as obnoxious as actual Trump Derangement Syndrome because those people were seemingly happy, and it made sense to just hope for the best from him. It's not like John McCain or John Kerry seemed very promising, anyway.

Mark my words: Obama's presidency has been a disaster for Americans.

Obama becoming president ushered in a whole new era in which all Dem politicians would be off-limits to any sort of criticism, and would be worshiped as demigods by the mainstream media. Prior to Obama, the media and entertainment never hesitated to make jabs at Clinton and Gore, Kerry, and even Hillary for that matter. I remember during 2004, not a single Dem I knew worshiped John Kerry. The basic vibe from liberals I knew was "Bush is literally Hitler, so we have to vote for anyone else. I guess this John Kerry guy will make do for now." No one wore merchandise with his name/logo, there was no John Kerry street art, there were wasn't a ton of celebrities shilling him on social media. After the election, Kerry fucked off for the most part and no one talked about him again -- unlike how women still consider Hillary an inspiration.

I remember forgetting who John Kerry even was by 2006. I was watching a movie with some friends at that time, and one of the actors was some old dude with a big chin, and a buddy joked, "Ha, that guy looks like John Kerry." I was confused for about 10 minutes before saying, "Oh, THAT John Kerry" -- a.k.a., I completely forgot who the hell he was, since he became irrelevant so soon.

As soon as Obama became president, it was strictly forbidden to say anything less than "I love Obama!" unconditionally. People got tattoos, had cardboard cut-outs, they had posters, and they wore hats/shirts with his logo. I started to become alienated from friends when I exhibited disdain and doubt for Obama, even when objectively correct in my assessment. I got called a racist for defending Snowden. This sort of cultism continued to current year, where the media almost never criticizes Biden or Kamala even when justified. The mainstream media will always move goalposts and blame Trump, racism, Putin, Roe vs. Wade, your mom before even hinting that Biden is a complete fuckup.

It all started with muh Black Jesus.

 

[Betonhaus]

It all started with muh Black Jesus

So he was the Antichrist?

 

[cactus]

It was a real movement because the fucking wallstreet got bailed out and the main Street got fucked. It created the toxic equity situation which is the main driver of today's fucking inflation.

But the participants were joke who were too lazy to climb up the ladder of politic and also dumb as fuck.

No it wasn't, that was the very thing that fucked it up because of plants from the elites. We scared them good and they made it sure it wouldn't happen again for awhile. The elites have gotten bolder since then.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

The 2000s and Early 2010s were extremely nostalgic for me. There is this something about being optimistic and naive. Knowing about the true colors of Social Justice was a domino effect which led to me Knowing the true colors of our secular society and it just so happens around the same time the establishment tries their damndest to censor the web, groom children and restrict people's movements as more people are waking up. Now the world before 2015 feels like a completely different world to me. It feels nostalgic to go back to a time before families are divided by politics. The future doesn't look so bright even if wokism is dying due to the aftershocks of what we been through lingering for another few decades.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

It's really not that easy. Things like Google actively hamper attempts to find communities that aren't cancerous. I've not seen these charts you mention in years and whenever I do see descriptions, they're useless.

The main page of MAL has a "currently airing anime" chart with descriptions which is helpful as anything. Just plug in a random year and anime genre and you'll find almost anything. The only thing that sucks is their "top anime" chart which is now casual/seasonal shit and used to be full of good stuff like 10+ years ago.

The only thing I'll grant is the difficulty of finding a community not cancerous since MAL, /a/, or god forbid ANN Forums are quite bad. But the thread here is good.