Just gonna say the 2000's have sucked thus far

[boston bean]

911
War war war
Economic meltdowns
Pandemic
War on the European continent imminent

Guns
White supremacy
Capitol insurrection
Donald fucking dump

I know I am missing some. Please feel free to add.

Trying to keep positive but the hits just keep coming.

[Walleye]

1. I was just thinking that now we baby boomers are being punished in retirement

We expected the constant opposition when we were young. Now we are being blamed for everything today’s young people can’t deal with, and Trump and Putin are totally fucking up our retirement. Thanks Republicans assholes

[Boomerproud]

10. Shhhhh .

I cant take another generational piss fight.😥

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. We did have a few cool advancements between 2009-2016

Obama
ACA
Gay Marriage
Got some awesome SC Justices

Of course it all went to shit after. And it does keep getting worse. "I'll see your pandemic, and raise you a World War!"

[MPiling]

5. We've not changed much, and it's sad...

In terms of technology... we've basically made little to no progress at all. Anything that we have today, we basically had in 1998-1999.

Cell phones, we had smart phones back then too, as well as PDAs, H/PCs, you name it.
Flat-screened TVs? We had LCD TVs and LEDs back then too.
Computers? Basically the same, just faster with more storage
VR helmets? We had those in the 90s too... they were about $399 and only in standard Super VGA, but you could buy them just the same.
Electric cars? GM had two of them, you guys know how that worked out.
Rockets? We used to have a space shuttle... and until just recently, we spent the past decade using Russian 1960s-1970s technology... literally, we would send our astronauts to Russia and send them into space. At least now we have reusable rockets with Space-X.
World Trade Center towers? We had two of them back then. It took 2.5 years to build those, and over a decade to build the single one we have now. That's not progress.

It's sad, but I really feel like technology was moving so much faster in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000, the only thing that's changed is that things are faster, and some things are cheaper. Even the new movies are mostly rehashes of old movies. Have we hit our peak? Is this it?

[Jspur]

15. As a older Millennial who is 38 and will turn 39 in July

I have to say I agree with everything you said. A good friend of mine and myself had a conversation a week ago that echoed your beliefs. We both agreed that over the last 20 years the technology hasn't changed that drastically like it did from 1980-2000. For example, we both agreed that in the year 2000 we had DVDs, Internet, PCs with quick processing speed, video game consoles that were revolutionary that would be radical compared to 1980.

Fastforward to 20 some years later after '00 we now have a small handheld computer in our smart phones we can carry around everywhere compared to back then at best being able to use a palm pilot, blackberry. I like using YouTube compared to QuickTime and Realplayer but YouTube just improved on the streaming technology that already existed back then.

Technology hasn't improved enough that it has made up for the increase costs of living in housing, healthcare, schooling, cars, etc which are all necessities. If I could go back at time at my current age of 38 to the 90's and make what I'm making right now I would do it. The adjustment wouldn't be hard since I can live without a smart phone, social media. I would still have what I need which is the internet. The only thing technology wise I would really miss is YouTube but I could get over it. Having a good balance of cost living would make up greatly for the little things I would miss.

[MerryHolidays]

3. W, Bush v. Gore,. evisceration of SCOTUS are some more that come to mind nt

[ruet]

4. 9/11 Really Ruined Everything...

and sent us on a downward spiral we have yet to recover from. Things were going swimmingly both socially and economically. GenX was ready to take the reigns and even two terms of *, sans 9/11, wouldn't have changed our trajectory much. Actually, * would have been a one-term president without 9/11.

[dugog55]

8. As mentioned in post 3, the SCOTUS giving W

the Presidency over the winner Gore changed the trajectory of our Country, and not in a good way. Chances are there would not have been a 9/11 with a competent White House, and we would certainly have been in full combat mode for Climate Change. There would not have been and Afghanistan/Iraq wars which put our Country in $15T debt. There may not even have been an economic collapse in 2008. No Patriot Act, the Christian Right would have been squelched some, and who knows, we may even have had some common sense gun laws by now.

Some of these things cans still be reckoned with, but Climate Change fueled by our unfettered Capitalism is going to be our undoing. There are too many, 750, billionaires that are will to spend money to keep funding the Right Wingers to keep us heading in the wrong direction. Apparently they care less for their children and grandchildren than they do for more zeros in their portfolio.

I am nearing seventy, I have three children and four grandchildren. It breaks my heart to see the Country/World they are going to grow up in.

[Polybius]

12. "GenX was ready to take the reins"

What do you mean? We were ready for a Gen X President? Not sure Bush would have been a 1 term President with no 9/11. Without it and a war, why would the voters punish him?

[ruet]

16. GenX Was Coming To The Age Where They We Beginning To Take Elective Office.

The Bush presidency was a comedy of errors before 9/11. Remember when we apologised to China for them downing one of our aircraft? Economically he was going to start running up deficits via tax-cuts and gutting social programs. He would not have been able to pull the "yeah but 9/11" card as an excuse. They twisted that "yeah but 9/11" card for everything.

[FSogol]

13. Actually, Reaganism ruined everything, unfettered power to corporations, lowering of taxes on the

rich, and a major reduction on doing anything to increase the public good via fairness or social programs.
The country pulled together after 9/11. If we hadn't been on a GOP course, it should have started a golden age. Americans are too immature to do the right thing.

As a GenXer, I disagree with you there too. Our generation is too small to take the reins of power. We will be in the shadow of the boomers until the last one passes from the earth.

[ruet]

17. The Country Pulled Together After 9/11...

right up to the point where Bush decided we would invade Iraq. Without 9/11 they would NEVER have been able to pull that one off.

Reaganism was course correctable. 9/11, the resulting invasion of Iraq and the stark division of the electorate in their wake was not and is not.

[LT Barclay]

6. End of the shuttle program and now NASA wants to crash the ISS with no replacement for either on the

horizon.
Chinese chewing through endangered species like a psychotic Pac-Man?

[tenderfoot]

7. I think history is repeating itself

If I'm correct, I'm not looking forward to the next 25 years.

[progree]

9. Global warming: CO2 in atmosphere up 12.5% since 2000, annual emissions up 38%

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide#:~:text=Since%202000%2C%20the%20global%20atmospheric,Mauna%20Loa%20Observatory%20in%20Hawaii.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264699/worldwide-co2-emissions

[hunter]

11. My kids grew up, graduated from college, got good internet based jobs...

... and now enjoy a higher standard of living than I ever have.

They care deeply about social justice, animal welfare, and the natural environment.

They drive newer cars that are safe, fun to drive, and get great gas mileage. ( Alas, here in the U.S.A. there are few places where car ownership is unnecessary. I have a nephew who lives in San Francisco and walks to work, but that's not the norm in most cities. It should be. )

Overall my children are making the world a better place.

And yeah, in the civilized 21st century world same sex marriage is simply accepted now. ( Parts of the U.S.A. are not yet civilized, but they will be. )

How's that?

On the larger scene we have the technology now to turn seawater and sewage into tap water, quit fossil fuels entirely, and bring safe comfortable housing, healthy food, indoor plumbing, and electricity to all eight billion people on earth.

We also know how to stop human population growth with realistic sex education, birth control, and the economic and political empowerment of women.

We just have to do it.

That was still science fiction stuff in 1999. It's now demonstrated reality in many places.

I don't think the anti-intellectual assholes of the world -- the fascists, the racists, the misogynists, the religious perverts, the willfully ignorant, the tyrants -- will be able to claw this progress back.

We've been living under the cloud of nuclear war for seventy years. So far we've avoided nuclear war.

We are now living under the cloud of global warming caused by fossil fuels. I believe we will be able to quit fossil fuels, adapt to climate change, and preserve whatever is left of the natural environment we are familiar with.

[Jspur]

14. I'm guessing your kids are millennials but as an older millennial

myself I have to say your reality doesn't coincide with the reality of millions of millennials and the other people who are struggling in this country. I'm glad it worked out for you and your kids but you story is not a universal story in this country.

[hunter]

19. I didn't say it was any "millennial" reality, and yeah, I know my children are lucky in many ways...

... in the right place, right time, etc.. And my wife and I did push them in school.

My own personal reality as a young man was grim at times, and I accumulated some PTSD along the way. Forty years ago I was fairly certain I'd die as a crazy homeless guy living on the streets.

Alas, that feeling has never really gone away.

That's another positive thing for my list. Twenty-first century medicine is helpful. When I was a young man at my worst, mental health care was still primitive, though not the horror show it was in my parents' and grandparents' time when people did everything they could to avoid the stigma and stay out of the dangerous psych ward.

What did I have that my children did not? I graduated from college without any debt. I could make enough money working to pay for it, although my grades at times did suffer. ( I once flunked organic chemistry because it was more fun moving furniture and making money than going to class. )

In today's world I probably would have skipped college to be an electrician. My youngest brother, who came of age when college costs were skyrocketing, quit college after two years for construction work and is now a contractor.

[raccoon]

20. Well, it's only for another 78 years. Seriously, I agree. Nt

[lame54]

21. And the music...

[hamsterjill]

22. Adding---

Loss of reproductive rights. That has been a big one for me.