Does anyone else genuinely miss the 2000s?

[HOMO FOR LIFE RETURNS]

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.

Now elites use it to divide us and weakened the bond between the common man ..

Irony....

 

[Ewan McGregor]

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 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"

Something that is very interesting you point out is how short the Golden Age, if you will, was.

Without PLing too much, the truth to me is that it really was roughly between 2004 and 2007. This is only 3 years. I would argue rather personal reasons for this but I have the feeling most of you would agree because your personal reasons are likely to allign with mine.

I think, I'd dare say, the period between 2000 and 2004 was rather unsettling. I think @Save the Loli talked about this before? Or was it @Dom Cruise (PBUH)?. The 90s were pretty much alive between 2000 and 2004, but they were stale and tired and the 90s mindset and aesthetics was plain ridiculous after 911 and everybody was kind of waiting, wondering what was in store for them.

The Simpsons lost its shine during that time and everybody noticed how abruptly it happened, but, at the time, no one was entirely sure what has changed as the episodes were mostly indistinguishable from the previous ones, even funny and meme-worthy at times, just strangely soulless. South Park lost a lot of its edge around that time (Contrary to the SP Griefing Thread consensus that they've been 'tamed' relatively recently) and Family Guy killed the sort of 90s 'subversive' spirit that can be described as benign now and set the tone of things to come.

For instance, something like Malcolm in the Middle will never, ever, happen again in our lifetimes.

In that period there was a nascent subculture and aesthetic that is often called the Matrix aesthetic since that film is thought to condense the subculture, the aesthetic and the period: Basically thinly veiled BDSM aesthetics with a technobabble coat of paint and brain-melting EDM music. This all died abruptly around the time of the Second Gulf War to be replaced to corny, cookie-cuter pop to be increasingly niggerified in the following years.

Now 2005 to 2007 is a period that, I've mentioned in another thread, it's really epitomized by Classic Christory.

Chris was always at his best when interacting with the world outside 14 Branchland Court, and the Pre-ED Christory will always be my favourite because of how perfectly, in a rather bizarre way, encapsulates that era. The Bush years reflect on Chris in a magical way, and Chris wanders around in that world being a misfit yet an unquestionable part of it. The world that involves spending an afternoon in a mall where pretty girls trolled around for shitty, slutty clothes and nerds wandered around the shelves of comic book stores discussing autistic stuff. The world where there were places where children played Pokemon and not-so-children played D&D and it was actually fun and even Chris-chan himself would have been considered mostly harmless as opposed to the current fetish-rotten, horrid troons that have infested such spaces. The world that was populated by characters like the odd yet lovable Megan Schroeder and her shitty family, the goofy Lucas White and Daniel Mimms, the greedy jew Michael Snyder, the plain, salt-of-the-earth girl next door Sarah Hammer and her failed stage magician boyfriend Wes Iseli, redneck hispanic Josh Martinez and nerd-jock Adam Stackhouse, the not-so-top-of-te-totem-pole-but-neither-too-nerdy gal-pals, especially Tiffany Gowen whose persona Chris misconstructed as a fellow misfit. The world in which conservatives like Bob Chandler and the Schroeders coexisted with rabid, deranged liberals like Cole Smithey and more garden-variety liberals (lolbertarians of the Trey Parker and Matt Stone variety as it was the predominant ideology of nerds at the time) like Lucas and Mimms. The world in which fucking Mary Lee Walsh (PBUH) existed.

This is a world that existed and I have experienced, and, alas, it doesn't exist anymore. I like this part of Christory for the same reason I like the early seasons of South Park, because it captures the essence of the 00s in a way that makes me feel at home.

And, when filtered by Chris warped perception, you get something like it's out of a movie Kevin Smith did while on crack. You get frankly amazing characters like MLW the witch, who might or might not be actually a deranged impersonator known as Slaweel Ryam, Allison Amber (?), Merried Seinor Comic (Kirby), ScotPalazzo, the B-Manajerk, the Turdi-Jerk, Count Graduon and the army of Jerkops.

This was really a rather optimistic period and the last time I remember most people being actually happy rather than just trying to get by. I might have not liked many things back then but God, would I go back.

2007 was not abrupt. Nothing went to shit overnight and everybody here that is trying to pinpoint when did everything exactly went to shit is being autistic as fuck.

2007 was a good year, and so was 2008. It was all very gradual. The only thing that was abrupt is that suddenly a lot of stuff stopped being the same, a lot of stuff suddenly became as stale, wasted and used and lame as all these 90s things were between 2000 and 2004, with the difference being that by 2004 a zeitgeist of 10 to 12 years was coming to an end while by 2007 we were apparently exhausted of a state of things that only lasted 3 fucking years.

And I remember that, even at the time, I was bewildered that so much stuff was happening that I was overestimating time periods and I would allocate half a year to a year for stuff that had really happened over 1 month. This is so wild that most people don't even realise that a lot of classic christory occurred in a really short timespan:

- The Megan Saga (2005 to 2007) - 2 years
- The PVCC Saga (2003 to 2005) - 2 years
- The overall Classic Chris Era (2007-2010) - 3 years

Nobody really noticed anything had changed, or, to be precise, what had changed. We all suddenly found ourselves neck deep in shit by 2011 without really knowing what had hit us, end thus Occupy Wall Street, and thus Woke, and thus Gamergate, and thus /pol/, and thus the 2016 election, and thus the brutal woke counteroffensive.

 

[Betonhaus]

Nobody really noticed anything had changed, or, to be precise, what had changed. We all suddenly found ourselves neck deep in shit by 2011 without really knowing what had hit us, end thus Occupy Wall Street, and thus Woke, and thus Gamergate, and thus /pol/, and thus the 2016 election, and thus the brutal woke counteroffensive

2008 had the financial crisis, I think that had a lot of companies get bailed out by investment groups that began sucking the soul out of companies. There may have been a buildup from before 2008 when people didn't realize that finance was falling apart.

Before, companies would focus on making good products and encourage emotional investment from their employees. After, anything that wasn't visibly important was cut out to increase shareholder value.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

@Ewan McGregor I think personally -- what I've deduced from your post -- is that pre-2020 America had highs and lows; and when there was a period of "high", it would decline in a period low, but eventually become high again. But unfortunately in recent years, we have no high periods, and only have lower and lower lows as of 2020.

For instance, we had hope and optimism of the new Millennium (EDM, cyberpunk Matrix aesthetic = a high period) -- and can distinctly remember it myself -- but that declined into a low period thanks to 9/11 and the War on Terror. We then had another high period in the mid-2000's as tech got better and the terror threat cooled off, but that also came to an end with the Financial Crash. Black Jesus Came along in 2008/2009 and the media got high on its own farts leading us to believe the 2010's were a new high period (and a lot of people bought into it), but that devolved into yet another low period starting with UWS, BLM, and the Snowden leaks.

We've had a handful of minor high/low period rollercoasters as of 2016, but after 2020 I don't really recall any major high periods. Sure, gas isn't $7 a gallon right now like it was in 2022, but it's still hella expensive as well as everything else like food, energy, healthcare, and housing for crying out loud. Not to mention society seems permanently marred from the pandemic.

Nothing seems to be getting better. I don't want to sound like a doomer, but I really don't have any real optimism for anything at this point, aside from minor superficial shit like, "Oooh, this gas station sells gas for only $3.50 a gallon unlike that place down the street that charges $3.75!"

 

[ToroidalBoat]

What is it with Western "Millennials" and "Zoomers" tending to either prudish (especially with non-promiscuous heterosexual) or degeneracy in sexuality in Current Year?

From what I recall it wasn't as bad in the '00s. I guess it is from a combination of "social justice" and "social media", yet again.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

There's also something that just changed in popular culture I can't place. Everything today feels like it's been filtered through a million layers of middle-management. I know it's subjective but there's no way movies back then are even half as good as today. Everything today is so low effort, and yet the masses cheer it on.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

There's also something that just changed in popular culture I can't place.

I call it the "watered down smartphone feel" with vidya.

 

[Sweetpeaa]

I think I posted in this thread about what the ''tech'' was like back in the late 2000's and how interesting it was but here's some more pictures














It's interesting how things were going before everything became more apple-eque. As you can see Samsung already designed a smartphone of their own back then with a pop out camera lens. And the motorola phone looks ult futuristic.

 

[WTBOnlineFather]

I don't know how much of it was because I was younger and more impressionable but I found 2000s culture fascinating and fun at the time. Nowadays I want to distance myself from contemporary culture as much as possible because it's fucking lame and gay.

 

[Overwritten Tapes]

Yes. I could have chosen a different trajectory in college and life in general.

Music sounded good, cars looked good, everything was cheaper, we were more normal, less e-whores.

Could've gotten married to a number of women who went to be successful, beautiful, and trad..

Fuck I should've scrolled past this thread, man.

 

[Betonhaus]

I think I posted in this thread about what the ''tech'' was like back in the late 2000's and how interesting it was but here's some more pictures

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It's interesting how things were going before everything became more apple-eque. As you can see Samsung already designed a smartphone of their own back then with a pop out camera lens. And the motorola phone looks ult futuristic.

I remember wanting a Pearl Flip because it was cool having a smartphone on that style.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

2008 had the financial crisis, I think that had a lot of companies get bailed out by investment groups that began sucking the soul out of companies. There may have been a buildup from before 2008 when people didn't realize that finance was falling apart.

Before, companies would focus on making good products and encourage emotional investment from their employees. After, anything that wasn't visibly important was cut out to increase shareholder value.

You nailed it and made me sad at the same time. I haven't thought about the change between 2006 and 2008+ when it comes to products. Almost over-night everything became soulless as companies chased profits over fun designs.

Even to this day, I pay more to buy cars built before 2007 because they last longer, look better, are more fun to drive and more easy to modify/repair.

 

[Sweetpeaa]

View attachment 5615633
I remember wanting a Pearl Flip because it was cool having a smartphone on that style.

Yes I remembering being an 18 year old and passing the cellphone kiosks in the mall and seeing all these amazing phones I could never afford.

Back then (at least in Canada) buying a cell phone with a payment plan had as much involved with it as buying a car. You had to have good credit score and meet all this criteria before you were approved to enter a plan. I remember getting a black berry pearl in 2008 and jumping through all these hoops to get it. The payments for both the phone itself and cellphone service was not at all cheap. If you used the internet or downloaded a ring tone the bill was ridiculous.

 

[AnOminous]

I remember getting a black berry pearl in 2008 and jumping through all these hoops to get it.

At least in the U.S., from around 2000 on it was pretty ridiculously cheap to get a cell phone if you didn't want something fancy (like a Blackberry). Just get the cheapest Motorola phone and prepaid. At least if you weren't constantly yabbering on it but using it for necessary communications it could average less than $20 a month.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

What is it with Western "Millennials" and "Zoomers" tending to either prudish (especially with non-promiscuous heterosexual) or degeneracy in sexuality in Current Year?

From what I recall it wasn't as bad in the '00s. I guess it is from a combination of "social justice" and "social media", yet again.

The beautiful ones in the rat utopia.

There's also something that just changed in popular culture I can't place. Everything today feels like it's been filtered through a million layers of middle-management. I know it's subjective but there's no way movies back then are even half as good as today. Everything today is so low effort, and yet the masses cheer it on.

It also feels like young people have nothing to fight for, nowhere to express themselves. Pretty much every social media is controlled and manipulated. If you want to be even a bit rebellious, you get shut down and punished. Nobody tells kids it's ok to be rebellious and disobey your elders, they never get to express themselves.

Everything belongs to someone now. Everything has been discovered and claimed. You want to make something? You will never make money; a multi-million dollar corporation has already patented it and can mass produce it and sell it out of business. Wanna start your own business? Good luck fighting against the million of corporations that already monopolized that part of the world.

Young people have no drive to do anything; whenever they try to think outside the box they get punished, whenever they try to do anything new, the world fights back. They have no room to make anything their own, most of them just surrender, and give into pointless entertainment.

 

[DiscoRodeo]

There's also something that just changed in popular culture I can't place. Everything today feels like it's been filtered through a million layers of middle-management. I know it's subjective but there's no way movies back then are even half as good as today. Everything today is so low effort, and yet the masses cheer it on.

I'd take Miyazakis take on this. Something he said about the difference between modern anime and older anime was that modern anime was made essentially by people who had never lived before, by shut ins, by people without any life experience (let alone the ones theyre making animes and mangas about).

Ill preface this by saying that I don't think you need to have real life experiences to make art, and that often "real life experiences" can be super shallow (like the yuppies living in NYC, world hopping to Lisbon one week, Thailand the next, riding an elephant for the instagram photo)

But I think, in part- the older school used to be inspired by life, by lived experience, by older literature (Kurosawa was a lifelong Dostoyovsky fan, I believe he got it from his older brother who died young). Honestly, the story of how Kurosawa got into making the movies he did, and his early life (among so many WW2 generation Japanese) is interesting unto itself. In sort, he wanted to continue his older brothers legacy, because these sorts of stories were all he really had left of the guy.

So many of the creators born during this time were passionate, but more important than that- had truly interesting lives they had lived through, and not just the superficial way.

The stuff today ticks the boxes, but needless to say, it has little to no soul, but worse, it just doesn't feel like real life. It feels like an imitation of an imitation of real life, imo. Its the same way most of the earlier good film directors and autists didn't really have a plan and just fell into the craft after a series of crazy life decisions- versus directors today going through a million different film school courses in NYC, brownnosing for good grades, and then making a Joss Whedon film

 

[Pissmaster]

I think I posted in this thread about what the ''tech'' was like back in the late 2000's and how interesting it was but here's some more pictures

View attachment 5615564


View attachment 5615571

View attachment 5615572


View attachment 5615573


View attachment 5615580

It's interesting how things were going before everything became more apple-eque. As you can see Samsung already designed a smartphone of their own back then with a pop out camera lens. And the motorola phone looks ult futuristic.

Yeah, tech design used to be a lot more interesting before everything just became a screen with minimal bezels. The only thing identifying phones nowadays is their camera layouts, and that current iPhone layout is as ugly as it gets.


It looks diseased. Like the IR and flash components are discolorations, and that third camera on the right is an anomalous growth.

I really hope things shift back to fun designs someday. This era of boring minimalism's gone on over a decade too long now. It's a real shame everyone continues to take cues from Apple, considering a lot of their designs have barely changed in ages. An iMac from 20 years ago is glossy white with a bigger bezel and a big Apple logo, and that's the extent of its visual differences from today's iMac. Soulless and boring, just like so, so many aspects of modern life now.

 

[The Last Stand]

You know, seeing this thread active about 00s nostalgia makes me wonder how @Dom Cruise is doing.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

This era of boring minimalism's gone on over a decade too long now.

Just like Current Year itself. "Boring minimalism" seems to be the look of the IRL cyberpunk dystopia that is Clown World.

Like it seems new buildings always go for that dull hipster "brutalism" look, new GUIs are always that boring flat look...

 

[Optimum Cockfag]

Anyone who was self-aware in the 2000's misses them.