Some things that I never thought would happen that happened. My list. Yours?

[NNadir]

I'm an old fart and here's things I never thought would happen that did happen, if you'd asked me, say, 40 years ago:

1) The fall of the Soviet Union.

2) Germany reunited.

3) Germany totally dependent on Russia.

4) A pro-Russian Republican Party working on behalf of a former KGB agent.

5) A major political party attempting to overthrow the US government.

6) Religious bigots and drunks on the Supreme Court.

7) Finding myself feeling positive about something a Cheney is doing.

8) Lake Mead drying up.

9) A dumb completely immoral carny barker being confused with Jesus.

10) Independent Ukraine fighting off a Russian invasion...

It could be a very long list, I'd guess, but here are some biggies in no particular order.

I lived in surprising times.

[MLAA]

1. The only thing I can think to add is so many idiots not taking a life saving vaccine.

[NNadir]

2. Yeah, that too...

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Good one! And same here...

What would previous generations given for such a life saving miracle??

[MLAA]

19. Exactly

Think how many people today would have polio if these Fox idiots were parents in the 50s and 60s.

[FalloutShelter]

3. This speaks for me as well.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. 11} DU's strict anti-conspiracy policy went slack when all the

conspiracies were found to be true. Everything from aliens to the FBI listening to phones and emails!

WTF man. Is nothing sacred anymore?

[dgauss]

5. Understanding the phrase "May you live in interesting times" as a curse.

Never understood before how that might be considered a curse, but now I think I have a better idea of what was meant.

[niyad]

6. Always understood it as a possible curse. Just like, "may you receive everything

you deserve."

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. The Artic shrinking.

Me treating my phone like a pace maker.(I can't function without one)
Me owning my own business AND it being very successful.

Americans voting for a party and not a qualified person.

[Shipwack]

8. 1,7,10 would definitely be on my list...

As for my own (in no particular order):

Permafrost melting

US losing its leadership position in the world

Electric cars, especially from a new automaker

I would earn $70K a year, and would still be struggling.

I would be spending more than a quarter of a million for a 2/2 low end house, not a mansion.

Going backwards in civil rights (I fear more is to come...)

A computer with a color screen, multiple GIGS of storage, that is connected to computers all over the world, and fits in my hand.

I would use the above device mostly to argue with strangers and look at cat videos.*

*Stolen from someone else on the internet

edited because I hit "post" too early

[Mr.Bill]

9. Keith Richards still being alive. Just think of the people he has outlived.

Mick Jagger, too, for that matter.

[NNadir]

21. Well, look at it this way. They're both pre-embalmed.

[Coventina]

11. I totally feel you. Here are a few of mine:

1. The rejection of science in favor of belief
2. The total disregard for "intellectuals" and their ability to provide expertise on difficult, complicated subjects.
3. The complete breakdown of the American Education System
4. Teachers being no only underpaid (That's always been the case) but BLAMED as CHILD MOLESTERS as a GROUP!!!

[NNadir]

17. I'd add "...by child molesters... to #4.

[Nululu]

12. 1 One million dead of disease

2. Trump appointed saboteurs like Jerome Powell and Louis Dejoy are still doing their job and wrecking our country.

3. Journalists asking the elderly if they were willing to die for the economy during the pandemic.

4. Attempted overthrow of government.

5. Government releases info about UFOs and nobody cares.

[Mr. Evil]

13. Never thought I'd ever see

hundreds of grown adults waiting for a dead JFK, Jr. to magically appear at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX where his father, JFK, was assassinated. And he was going to come back from the dead to announce he was going to run as a vice-presidential candidate with TFG.

Now, that's such a heaping helping of fucknuttery that I don't think anyone could have ever foreseen. As 'they' say, if you live long enough you'll see everything. As of this moment, I think I can safely say we've all seen way too damn much!

[NNadir]

16. That's a good one. I wouldn't have believed that would happen...

...as recently as 2015.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Add 'sexual predator(s)' to nos. 6 & 9 ...

"May you live in interesting times" is supposedly a traditional Chinese curse.

[NJCher]

18. good thread idea

Bookmarked it and thinking about my list.

[highplainsdem]

20. There are a lot of things that have happened in my lifetime that I wish

hadn't happened, as well as some happier surprises, but I'm not sure I could say I would have ever considered them impossible.

I've always been aware of how much things are always changing, both in sociopolitical terms and in the environment.

I'm German-American on one side of the family. My grandfather was born in the late 1880s, emigrated to the US in his late teens, died in the late 1960s. He saw a lot of changes here in the US, but there were a lot more in Germany, where most of his family still lived. And though I remember hearing talk from people who hated Germany when I was a kid, I knew there wasn't anything fundamentally wrong or inferior or stupid about Germans. Societies and governments can change very quickly. Saying "It can't happen here" is always naive. You have to work at maintaining freedoms and social achievements. And you can't assume that societies won't be susceptible to undermining by a single influential, malign leader.

My grandfather's farm, which I called home because my own nuclear family moved so often, had limestone hills and cliffs full of fossils from ancient seabeds. I loved finding really nice fossils. I'd also find arrowheads on the farm, including one obsidian arrowhead I really loved, stone that had to have been brought a great distance. There was a boulder of non-native rock atop the limestone ridge nearest the house, a boulder my grandfather said marked an Indian chief's grave. I have no idea if that was true, but that type of rock didn't belong there, and it was a good story. There was a reliable spring several miles away that had been a stop for wagon trains heading west. So there were constant reminders of how much dominant populations can change. I was always aware how much time could change everything. And that included the roads on the farm, which had to be redone at times because they followed creek banks that would erode.

Even institutions famous for not changing could change. I was still a member of the Catholic Church when the Latin Mass went away.

Anyway, I grew up expecting change, and knowing how sweeping it can be.

That doesn't mean I won't still say things like, "God, I can't believe an idiot like Trump could become president!" But most of that reaction is because I wish it were never true. Not because I believed it would never have been possible.

[mnhtnbb]

22. Children and teachers slaughtered in their school rooms

People gunned down in their houses of worship.
Theaters, grocery stores, nightclubs, music festivals turned into killing fields because Americans won't give up their guns.

[NNadir]

23. That, I think is a very big one, one, I think, that is very...

...painful to acknowledge.

I certainly wouldn't have believed it even thirty years ago.