Cultural changes you've noticed in your lifetime

[Roo]

i'm impressed with some of the things you niggaz have identified; it's not just some cultural nostalgiafagging in this thread, nice

some wisdom (lol) i wanna add...

columbine: while the erosion of freedom after 9/11 and the patriot act was real, i think this really began with columbine, whose effects can't be understated. i remember routinely talking about shooting and killing various other kids in school, like every day, in graphic detail, and nobody ever cared at all or they were even just amused by the creativity and enthusiasm of a little kid. as soon as columbine happened, i almost got expelled for being friends with and standing next to -- not actually being the one who committed, but being the one who was standing next to -- a kid who made a shotgun-cocking gesture at a kid we fought with all the time, who had gotten the bright idea of reporting us to teachers, because by that point, even the kids were starting to catch on to how paranoid things were becoming. even that kid, as much as we hated each other, folded and began to walk back his accusation against us once he saw how seriously people took it (thanks dude e_e; ). which leads to another really important point below.

9/11: some people in this thread have really hit the nail on the head with this. it was crazy how much nationalism and solidarity the US had for a short while. i remember a fistfight about to break out between two teenagers, which was defused by one of their friends who joked, "come on man, we're all Americans here!" i mean it was a joke, but the reason it was funny was because of how often we were bombarded with that type of message in daily life at the time. looking around today, it's hard to believe that ever happened in my lifetime o_O;
i remember a story in the news a few years after that in which some teenagers had gotten arrested for making and placing some homemade Mario question-mark boxes around their neighborhood just for fun, or as part of a school project or something. (this had been perceived as a potential terrorist bombing.) i think it was an attorney in the case who commented, "you just can't do things like this anymore." unbelievable. even back then, being pre-aware of anything related to politics, i was still outraged at such a dumbass sentiment. as if overnight, without any approval of normal people, an unknown amount of freedom to do fun and innocuous shit was now gone forever because of the histrionic paranoia of whoever, and not only was everyone supposed to be okay with that, we were expected to know exactly where that incredibly hazy and ever-changing line was at all times. and when in doubt, don't do anything at all, because you might be arrested for terrorism.

i sometimes wonder if there was a time in society when everything was allowed except that which was explicitly forbidden by the law, and if there was a single moment in time when that shifted to a world where more actions than not had actually became subject to the possibility that they might be breaking some law or another; that society had reached a point where there were so many laws and regulations, and so many of them so vague, that whenever we resolve to do anything, we're now forced to wonder first, "am i allowed to do this, or is it breaking some kind of law, regulation, or requirement for a permit/license?"

9/11 introduced the country to the word "freedoms," which is doublespeak for restrictions, and we were constantly reminded that despite the shrinking list of those freedoms, we had nothing to complain about, because somewhere else in the world, their list of freedoms was shorter than ours (^:

crybullying and the age of passive-aggression: if our whole society became a bureaucratic workspace in which we were all subject to insufferable 'office politics', it would look a lot like it does right now: the most dishonest, sneaky weasels who excel in social manipulation have the most power. gaming the rules, strength in communities, policies that are intentionally left vague so as to allow the mods to apply them selectively...these things have always existed, but we now live in the golden age for technocratic enforcement of them. it doesn't pay to be honest or straightforward; everyone has to be a politician, concerned foremost with the optics of his own Personal Brand™.

i think everybody's already covered the castration of the internet, so i'll skip that one.

anyway i'm done for now, cya.

 

[[Tr4sh_Kun]]

TL;DR: The time when bullying people, kids and normies was the rule and then it wasn't

As a mexican child who grew up during the early 2000s in a semi rural town where absolutely nothing has changed but i was of the few who had internet access at an early age the only changes i saw was the last days of the "wild west internet" a couple of years before everything was Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I grew up around the time where liking videogames didn't made you a weirdo and i made a few friends because i was the only kid at school with a Nintendo DS with an R4 card with GTA Chinatown Wars in it

I got really into cringe culture and that was pretty much what shaped my teenage years, trying to look cool and older than the kids who played Minecraft and FNAF and bullying 10 years olds who uploaded shitty fnaf fan animations recorded on their phones on FlipaClip and now i'm seeing videos talking about how bad cringe culture was.

 

[JihyoParkXX]

Split screen gaming too has extremely declined. Which is a shame because I always found it more fun to play with someone next to me. I have so many good memories from that, and while doing it online with a mic is still fun, the exprience doesn't compare. Lot of laughs I had were because there were people around me which resulted in some very funny moments. I remember atacking my brother with tickles after losing from him or sharing chips with friends during a game. That is impossible digitally.

The PS3/ 360/ Wii generation was the golden era that had the perfect balance of good offline and online multiplayer. Only the Switch is keeping split screen multiplayer alive these days, it was almost magical having all the boys gather around a tiny screen playing Mario Kart back in high school when it first came out.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

i sometimes wonder if there was a time in society when everything was allowed except that which was explicitly forbidden by the law, and if there was a single moment in time when that shifted to a world where more actions than not had actually became subject to the possibility that they might be breaking some law or another; that society had reached a point where there were so many laws and regulations, and so many of them so vague, that whenever we resolve to do anything, we're now forced to wonder first, "am i allowed to do this, or is it breaking some kind of law, regulation, or requirement for a permit/license?"

If you look carefully, you will notice that the law has always been applied selectively, various things have always been criminalised/decriminalised, and whether or not something is socially acceptable has always determined what sort of consequences you will get rather than the strict legality of something.

This is because humans are fundamentally inept and don't interpret laws with an autistic strictness, instead focusing on how certain actions and behaviours make them FEEL, which largely determines their decision making.

This is why going into business and completely screwing over everyone is less likely to land you in jail than smoking a small amount of weed. People chalk it up to some big racist conspiracy to imprison blacks, or a war against the working class, or some shit, but at the end of the day, I think it's just because socially drugs are considered taboo, so of course they have high penalties. Even if they are made completely legal, they will still be a vector for abuse, and will make people more likely to get in trouble, because if someone is on drugs (but it's legal), well they must still be a bad person, so what else are they doing? (cue illegal bag search, harassment etc).

At this point, pretty much everyone has broken enough serious laws to get themselves put in prison for at least a year. Normal, everyday activities are illegal, and some laws are so hard to follow and so vague I have no doubt everyone has broken them without even realising. In Australia, for instance, until this was pointed out and the law was changed, every time you responded to an email you broke the law, because the copied reply text was copyrighted material that you did not have permission to reproduce. Whether or not you're likely to get in trouble has more to do with how well your perceived behaviour is, which is more related to how neatly you dress and how softly you speak rather than your actual actions.

Not sticking your head out or causing trouble is more important than following the law.

I have had multiple speeding fines erased. I have had medium-tier fines erased but now lower-tier ones because I was nicer on the phone.

People are arbitrary and how our laws are applied is related to that.

 

[Roo]

Not sticking your head out or causing trouble is more important than following the law.

So tru...there's a type of person who leads with his suspicions, decides he doesn't understand or like what you're doing, then calls the police and hopes they'll be able to match your behavior to a crime after the fact. Town Watch-Fuckhead Syndrome T_T;

For anybody interested in more about this topic, the book "Three Felonies A Day" might be worth looking into:

...we are in danger of becoming a society in which prosecutors alone become judges, juries and executioners because the threat of high sentences makes it too costly for even innocent people to resist the prosecutorial pressure.

Under the Constitution, there is no room for creativity by prosecutors who are understandably eager to send messages to miscreants who are themselves using creativity in circumventing anachronistic criminal statutes. An expression common when our Constitution was ratified was that a criminal statute had to be so clear that it could be understood when read by a person "while running." Today's federal statutes do not come close to satisfying that criterion.

 

[handoferis]

This is why going into business and completely screwing over everyone is less likely to land you in jail than smoking a small amount of weed. People chalk it up to some big racist conspiracy to imprison blacks, or a war against the working class, or some shit, but at the end of the day, I think it's just because socially drugs are considered taboo, so of course they have high penalties. Even if they are made completely legal, they will still be a vector for abuse, and will make people more likely to get in trouble, because if someone is on drugs (but it's legal), well they must still be a bad person, so what else are they doing? (cue illegal bag search, harassment etc).

idk, there is a weird racial element to it but I wouldn't say it's the whole thing (it never is, as much as the twitter dumbfucks want to make out it is). For example, here on hell island, cocaine basically everywhere, and it's mostly middle-class whites doing it. Our government was like "oh well, we need to punish these cocainers!" and their big idea was... taking middle-class white drug users' passports off them. Not jail, just no more holidays.

There's a clear element of like "oh, we can't put these respectable people in jail" where respectable is a shibboleth for white and well-to-do. Note that this absolutely fucking disappears if you are white and poor (white privilege is fucking fake, it's all about money) or black and well-to-do. I guess basically what I'm saying here is social acceptability depends on who you are.

 

[№56]

Ehh, I don't think many of the retarded tech consumers that exist nowadays have even heard of Wired magazine.

That doesn't matter, they're still living under its influence. Wired pretty much invented "geek chic," selling technology and pop culture as a "lifestyle brand" for twenty-something hipsters. Internet journalists have been copying its style, intentionally or not, for over a decade. A good portion of the Gawker crowd wrote for Wired at one point or another. Just about every shitty website you can think of has Wired magazine in its DNA.

 

[ETierhuman]

Internet privacy is a thing of the past. I remember as a kid we all learned in ICT class a lot about being private and whatnot, not signing up to websites or whatever, and be careful what you post. Good initiatives, even if the classes were bloody boring. Did they stop doing that now?

I can confirm. They did stop doing that and its gotten to the point where kids in my class tried to get our teacher a tinder account

 

[scaldanon]

The iPhone was certainly a contender - it made smartphones "cool" so now everyone wanted one so they could download the fart noise app rather than being purely business devices based around productivity.

Though there were other factors, I think the prevalence of smartphones (more than anything else) was the end of the Web as we knew it. It's also a good example of your previous point about gatekeeping as long as it doesn't "[reach] a level of elitism." The gatekeeping to the internet was very gentle and lax prior to smartphones, but it was almost enough. You just had to invest some time in your day to sit down at a computer. Even having to care enough about this, navigate the Web to the sites you enjoyed, etc, was almost enough gatekeeping. As soon as every idiot could just touch the Twitter button on their phone (no Web navigation required!) on the toilet and spew their garbage into the internet, all was lost. Then, with this greatly swollen audience of idiots, they quickly outnumbered everyone else. The Web was thereafter catered almost exclusively to this massive demographic.

Cut forward ten years and now the web is used almost exclusively for the most unhealthy form of parasocial relationship. It really is a hellscape.

 

[240p]

Discourse in online forums/boards shifted from largely optimistic to largely pessimistic. This might be a side effect of people getting older but it's something I don't really understand - by most metrics things are great and frankly I'd never want to go back to being a kid/teenager again.

 

[NostalgicDepression]

So after watching this video, not only did I briefly wish I had been raised in the 80s, but it got me thinking about all the things in my own life time I've already seen change (often to my dismay).

Technological change is obvious, so I want to focus instead on cultural changes. Anything mundane and stupid like fads and popular celebrates, to larger scale cultural changes and points of nostalgia.

I was born in the mid to late 90's so the first decade of the 2000s is when my childhood took place. One thing I remember quite fondly was playing outside with friends. It was a time of freedom, and parental supervision was minimal if not completely absent.

A change that's really solidified that I hate is how draconian political correctness is now. I remember when being politically incorrect was synonymous with being vulgar, now it can get you fired. The concept of "locker room talk" was prevalent, and public/private speech was distinguished. When used with friends, words like "faggot" or "retard" were just that, words with an added spice. Anyone with social sense wouldn't use them in a class presentation or at Sunday school, but going back to my first point, it was language you would frequently hear at the neighborhood park while kids were hanging out and playing Yu-Gi-Oh or something.

I might share more in another post, but I'm curious what other people have to share.

I was born in the Spring of 1990 and man... a lot has changed. I agree with what you said about political correctness becoming draconian. I hate it. Back in the late 90s early 2000s, every racial stereotype was used for comedic relief in movies and nobody got upset. It wasn't only black people being picked on but your stereotypical white girl, Mexicans, anyone. We all made it a point to laugh at stereotypes. While race relations were indeed bad back then, there's something extremely forced about things, today. People these days seem like they're searching for ways to be offended about something race related. It isn't how it used to be back in the day where everyone understood the context of where each other was coming from. These days, it's as if context doesn't exist and the world is walking on eggshells now.

My childhood started to take place in the mid 90s. I remember as far back as 1992 and I remember what happened the night of my younger sister's birth in 1993... but a lot of my memories start with 1995. I was born on the westside and I remember hydraulics on cars being a huge thing and basically the westcoast taking over the music industry that year. Now, the westcoast hiphop scene is dead or underground, at least. Like you said, we used to play outside and be outside a lot more. I used to have a powerwheel that I'd drive around and these days, kids now have smart phones.

I also have nostalgia for the 2000s, specifically the time period between 2005 2007. Those were Golden Years nobody talks about. I think the internet was at its Golden Peak between those years and it's been going downhill ever since. I think the shift in society, where everyone is looking for quick ways to go viral on the internet, along with autotune on songs is a shift I've seen in my lifetime. There are almost no more real voices and I watched conscious rap/hiphop die and Rock music die, (or rather go completely underground) which is one of the biggest letdowns I've experienced.

I think music and the entertainment industry as a whole has a huge hand in the social engineering of our society, so the worse the movies, music, and etc get, the worse society gets. We get our language from the entertainment industry and etc. I think our society is becoming more brainwashed than we were before and people are starting to be forced into marginalization. Back in the day, there was more diversity in the types of art everyone made across all races.

Back in the late 90s early 2000s, white men rapped over Rock beats, like Limp Bizkit, Snoop Dogg and Kid Rock could be on stage together and nobody would care.. I watch that diversity and natural unity go out of the window. Black television shows that showed Black people as successful such as Family Matters and the Fresh Prince were replaced by awful/ghetto reality shows and shows specifically made to provoke people about race.

Back then, racial concerns were more authentic and less forced.

I have more but I will end this now. I'm sorry if I said anything offense as that wasn't my intention. These are just my experiences with how much has changed.

 

[scaldanon]

This is because humans are fundamentally inept and don't interpret laws with an autistic strictness, instead focusing on how certain actions and behaviours make them FEEL, which largely determines their decision making.

All the evidence you need for this can be found in the comments section of any news article about someone committing a crime considered less socially acceptable than other crimes. Most people have such a well of bubbling caustic hatred immediately beneath their skin and they take every socially-acceptable opportunity to let it out they can. Of course in our current society this takes the form of red-tribe vs. blue-tribe "politics" but occasionally you'll see it somewhere else.

In addition, it seems most people never grow out of the "nuh-UH" and "takes one to know one" level of disgreement and debate.

 

[lingo]

i noticed people stopped listening to trance music and wearing those big big pants and man that freaks me out

 

[InsufferableCynic]

All the evidence you need for this can be found in the comments section of any news article about someone committing a crime considered less socially acceptable than other crimes. Most people have such a well of bubbling caustic hatred immediately beneath their skin and they take every socially-acceptable opportunity to let it out they can. Of course in our current society this takes the form of red-tribe vs. blue-tribe "politics" but occasionally you'll see it somewhere else.

I have noticed this too, but it actually goes a lot further than just people getting angry.

The amount of virtriol you see when someone gets found innocent of a heinous crime (like rape, child molestation etc), genuinely stirs up actual hatred in people. "Ahh bloody lock him up and throw away the key!"

People usually don't care (or can't understand) the fact that in most cases an impartial jury looked at the evidence, and decided there wasn't enough to convict. Unless someone can show tangible evidence of jury tampering or some other shenanigans going on, this usually means the person was not guilty. But of course the moment you point that out, "you're defending bad people".

When it comes to particularly heinous crimes, people err on the side of assuming guilt, and when someone then gets found to be not guilty, it's always blamed as a failure of the system rather than justice taking place. Always "uhh we're so bloody soft on crime these days!" or "these bloody lawyers!". Then politicians run on the platform of "being tough on crime" because of these cases and that's how we end up with minimum 10 year sentences for minor drug offenses. It's not the court system - in most cases the judge feels like a lesser sentence is warranted - but their hands are tied by politicians and constituents who see any sort of mercy as a failure in the system.

In addition, it seems most people never grow out of the "nuh-UH" and "takes one to know one" level of disgreement and debate.

This is literally modern political discourse in a nutshell. Nothing but whataboutisms and vague accusations that are strong enough to damage the other side but not strong or coherent enough to actually count as defamation.

 

[scaldanon]

The amount of virtriol you see when someone gets found innocent of a heinous crime (like rape, child molestation etc), genuinely stirs up actual hatred in people. "Ahh bloody lock him up and throw away the key!"

This is actually part of what I was talking about. Even just being accused of something terrible is enough to be put in the bucket-o-badguys. I would say in cases like these, the jury is already probably so inclined to convict that an acquittal is almost never a false negative.

This is literally modern political discourse in a nutshell. Nothing but whataboutisms and vague accusations that are strong enough to damage the other side but not strong or coherent enough to actually count as defamation.

They've found a way to make politics the bread and the circus. The issues being argued over are almost never actually political issues, either. I found this interesting article today about how most of today's "politics" can be boiled down to a candidate's "vibe." This definitely holds true for both the red and blue tribe, who generally vote for a candidate based mostly on how badly they trigger the other side's delicate sensibilities.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

They've found a way to make politics the bread and the circus. The issues being argued over are almost never actually political issues, either. I found this interesting article today about how most of today's "politics" can be boiled down to a candidate's "vibe." This definitely holds true for both the red and blue tribe, who generally vote for a candidate based mostly on how badly they trigger the other side's delicate sensibilities.

Yeah I never bought into the whole left-right shit. In most cases you get milquetoast, change-nothing, pro-establishment candidates with no real personality in either case. Trump initially looked like a breath of fresh air (mainly because he seemed anti-establishment on the surface, not because he was going to "own the libs"), but turned out to be the same political-class shit as everyone else. I'm sure Bernie would have been similar, had he gained power.

Regardless of who is in power, the USA will never fix healthcare, schools, or any other major societal issue. The oligarchs don't care about that. As long as wall street can continue to make infinite amounts of money, the system is working as intended as far as they are concerned. Voting for a different party isn't going to change that.

It's also why I laugh at people who look at all the loopholes in tax law and say "wow, politicians are idiots". On the contrary, they are VERY clever. They just aren't working in your interests. That's why you pay 30-40% tax while megacorporations pay nothing. That is by design. It's not incompetence.

It's all about image rather than policy. Politicians are celebrities. They need to keep us all fighting over dumb bullshit (like which politician is more racist) so we don't actually revolt against them.

Also, please don't read the financial times. You have a lot more to live for than that.

 

[scaldanon]

Yeah I never bought into the whole left-right shit

Well, the establishment is working hard to water these terms down and undermine their original usefulness. I use them as originally intended. Left refers to power in the hands of the many, and right refers to power in the hands of the few (remember the origins of these terms in the French Revolution.) And yes, by this definition both major US parties are right-wing. They both represent the interests of the upper caste of lizard people exclusively. I refuse to use language as approved by Twitter blue-checks. I'll use words to mean what they're supposed to mean. They're not supposed to refer to petty culture-war bullshit.

Also, please don't read the financial times. You have a lot more to live for than that.

I don't. Someone linked me that particular article and I thought it made a good point. I'm not afraid of a good point from a publication I may dislike. Broken clocks and all that.

 

[Vetusomaru]

In the past I was ignorant about many stuff (like "enviromentalism's"' business and propaganda) but there were many other stuff that annoyed me even at early childhood. Like these Unicef ads that tried to make me feel guilt for the poor, hungry kids in Africa, with me being like "How is this my fault!". And those pointless, cringe, out of place PSAs at '80s and early '90s American cartoon shows like He-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog. And while I was apolitical even at puberty, I hated commies with all my heart even back then since all of them were aggressive, obnoxious, snobbish and all of them came from rich families while pretending being rebelous.

 

[Math Equal Angelic Mantra]

I'm just old enough to remember 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and the effect they both had on American pop culture. "Terrorism=Bad USA #1" type stuff is still getting made, of course, but there was a time when it was absolutely unavoidable. The TV show 24, the first Iron Man movie, the Michael Bay Transformers movies, Jeff Dunham and his stupid "dead terrorist" puppet that everyone liked to quote, etc. I grew up in a pretty liberal area and there were still American flags and "never forget" signage all over the place. In elementary school we had to write letters to soldiers in Iraq and march outside for a collective minute of silence every September 11th. It's been pretty funny to see all the adults I remember being so patriotic back then change their tune over the past decade to match the post-2008 turn towards cynical "diversity and inclusion" rhetoric.

I stumbled across my old junior high year book from 2002 recently, and of course the cover was a big waving American flag. I've been wondering if the strict wokeness you get from upper class types isn't a hard reaction against the uber patriotism you got after 9/11. I heard a story a few years ago, where kids were suspended for waiving a Blue Lives Matter flag at a football game on the anniversary of 9/11 to honor the police who died in the ruble of the WTC. That would
absolutely unthinkable even 5 years ago.

---

Here is just my own loose bullet points of thing I've noticed:

• Being an unabashed douchebag as a young white male used to be a big thing, in the model of Fred Durst and Kid Rock. Andrew Tate is bringing it back I guess
  • Related, I don't see wiggers like I used to. If you even use the term "Wigger" people will think you're talking about Muslims in China.
• While Woke/Political Correctness were around, they were routinely mocked my mainstream media instead of constantly coping and carrying water for it
• 90's was all about XTREEEAAAMMM and being IN YOUR FACE. The 00's still had a sense of irreverence but was overall more chill about it. I think of the Chappelle Show is a good time capsule of what 00's attitudes were like. Nowadays anything seen as even slightly edgy in either rhetoric or aesthetic is shunned, with products aimed at adults having ads that would have seen too childish for even children of those eras.
• Gender relations were a lot better
• People were much more optimistic about the bright new future the Internet and technology was going to bring.
  • User generated content from the likes of Twitter and Youtube was seen as almost cute and supported by mainstream outlets.I remember when Time magazine named You! as the person of the year in the 00's. Now they do everything to undermine these platforms and any would be independent creators that could be competition to them
• There was much less of a polarization about everything, even before the Towers coming down creating a united front in the face of an enemy attack on the homeland. So for example we are more suspicious yet trusting of the government, with more people being hardcore tinfoil hatters that would put 90's militia types to shame, while some people take government proclamations as gospel.
• Evangelicals had much more influence and were annoying, though the current day wokies have surpassed them in both departments
  • You either were a Christian or a Fedora Atheist, rarely anything in between (unless you were an ethnic minority from a non-Christian culture). Occult/Estoeric stuff and ideas was largely seen as New Age bullshit for aging gullible boomers, and either an affront against Holy God or Holy Science.

 

[Math Equal Angelic Mantra]

I was born in the mid 80s. I dont really remember much before about 1992 to tell you the truth. I dont think there is any record in existence today of what my voice sounded like as a kid. We didnt have video cameras and if we did I'd have no way to play any of that with today's tech! There are maybe a couple hundred photos of my life before the age of about 7. The other day my brother sent me an album of ~300 photos and 20 videos of his kids summer party. I guess I'll add these to the 10's of thousands of other clips and photos we have of them growing up. The sheer volume of data captured about kids lives these days far outstrips anything we had. I dont know that that's a good thing. Many things are best left in the past. I'm not even talking about putting your kids entire lives up on social media before they can even talk to give concent to that.

The other thing I've noticed so much now is how fast and convenient everything is. 100 years ago we were still basically having to grow our own food to feed ourselves. In the 80s/90s we at least had freezers but we'd still go shopping regularly for food, it took time and it was a planned trip for the day. These days I can take a device out of my pocket and in 15 mins arrange a delivery of 100,000 calories of refrigerated groceries to be delivered to my door just a couple of hours later. All paid with a square of plastic with a magic number that removes some numbers from my digital bank account, I suppose we call that money, but I have never seen or touched it with my own hands. That is mind blowing when you think about it.

Ooo this is a biggie that gets overlooked. The fact we all carry what would have been state of the art A/V equipment at all times has shifted things in a worse way. A lot of what enables "Cancel Culture" and it's discontents is that anyone can whip out their phone and capture public meltdowns that would have just faded into the ether years ago.

I'd also say it removes people from the moment and reality, where people are more concerned about capturing the moment for social media, disassociating themselves from true existence to a "black mirror" or sorts. Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's binkini pics got the most likes of all?