2016: A Damnable Year

Apart from Brexit, none of those are unique to 2016.

And 2011, that you are missing so badly, had Fukushima, for example. I don't think this year is any worse than others.

The terrorism upsurge is pretty big this year, likewise Syria has been very bad this year, Brexit, the US presidential elections and the Turkish coup attempt are all special to this year, that's befo you get into the pop culture stuff like all the musicians dying.

As for 2011, Fukushima caused 39 injuries, bad but far from catastrophic, in fact the number of people who suffered from being unable to afford electricity after Germany panicked and shut downs it's (different type and in a different tectonic position) nuclear plants could easily be higher.

In 2011 we saw bad men drop across the board, Ben Ali was driven out of Tunisia, Mubarak overthrown in Egypt, Gadaffi killed in Libya, Salesh got partially blown up and driven out of Yeman, Bin Laden was killed and to cap it of Kim Jong-il died at the very end of the year. It was a bad yeah to be an international asshole.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

I think the intensity and quantity of events happening this year makes it particularly bad. The events themselves don't have to be unique.

EDIT- partial bunny-ninja

edited 24th Jul '16 5:04:11 PM by FFShinra

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

We can console ourselves that next year will likely be worse.

The full impact of Brexit will be felt once the Brexit button is finally pressed. China faces a giant housing bubble that will almost certainly cause an economic collapse when it pops. El presidente Trump tanks the US economy by igniting trade wars and building his giant-ass wall. A resurgent Russia takes over Eastern Europe when the US pulls out of NATO. And let's throw in India and Pakistan nuking each other while we're at it.

Enjoy 2016 while you still can.

edited 24th Jul '16 5:39:36 PM by nightwyrm_zero

A Trump win is hardly a sure thing. At this stage I'll still argue that electoral math and demographics make it unlikely.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

That only good thing to come out of this year is Kirby: Planet Robobot.

Based on every single scandal thrown at Hillary and how she is bungling every one of them I would say Trump almost has a lock on it due to apathy and racist fear mongering.

edited 24th Jul '16 5:55:12 PM by Memers

You aren't exactly helping with the fear mongering.

Eh, I've heard people talk about this every year since I was old enough to understand what they were saying. Things are always kind of crappy, especially when we're constantly connected to the news nowadays. We're definitely hurtling toward a tipping point on a lot of issues, but it's still entirely possible that things will turn out alright, I think.

(At least relatively; I'm not trying to be flippant towards those who have already endured so much, and those who are going to have a tough time ahead of them. I'm aware I'm looking at this from a fairly comfortable place as a middle-class white Canadian undergrad, so it's entirely possible I don't have a realistic perspective.)

Well, Canada's pretty great, but we've still got a whole lot of entrenched racism against our native peoples, a pretty mediocre environmental record, and possibly a looming economic crisis to deal with. I have a lot of faith in our current administration, but we're certainly not a perfect country and we don't have half the resources or clout the US has.

And this year will be one second longer than expected.

Bad AND long.

"And he sang all night long... get some p*ssy now"

That's one perspective on the state of the world; it hasn't ended this far, so we should be fine right?

The other view, and the one which in my opinion has been the case ever since the industrial revolution is that human civilization is rarely ''not'' balancing on a razor's edge.

The Doomsday Clock has, after all, never been more than 17 minutes from midnight.

edited 25th Jul '16 5:17:22 AM by CaptainCapsase

Everyone here seems to like to oversell Trump's chances. The demographics simply aren't there; he'd have to significantly outperform Romney among white men, and the "missing white voter" is largely a myth. Any voter who was primarily motivated by white racism came out to vote against Obama, while Trump is turning off more educated whites who previously broke for Romney, driving GOP numbers with minorities even further into the red and inspiring Hispanic registration and turnout.

Making people panic about Trump is the best way to ensure that Trump doesn't happen. Thus paradoxically the more we panic the less reason we have to panic.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

Clinton is widely disliked as well though; assuming 2012 or 2008 turnout, he'd be finished. Both candidates having historically high unfavorable ratings means turnout will likely be much lower than what you would see otherwise.

Moreover, the demographic arvantage is partially negated by electoral math and the first past the post allocation of delegates in general elections; Trump doesn't need to win the popular vote to win the election, but if Clinton doesn't win the popular vote she's more or less toast.

edited 25th Jul '16 5:48:04 AM by CaptainCapsase

Seems like you are claiming that the electoral college mathematics favour Trump. Better back that up as I don't see evidence of this at all. Both candidates being unpopular merely says both sides' voters won't turn out a lot.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

According to 538, as of the present it's statisically more (about 5 fold IIRC) likely for Trump to win the election without the popular vote than for Clinton to do so. Either scenario is still unlikely, though. Clinton is 5% to lose the election while winning he popular vote, Trump is 1%.[1]

edited 25th Jul '16 6:11:01 AM by CaptainCapsase

This is not the US politics thread. Trump alone does not make this a damnable year, even as he makes it the most annoying election in history.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

He's certainly a big part of why the year is looking so gloomy. The prospect of a proto-fascist demagogue at the head of the most powerful military in the world is nothing to sneeze at.

edited 25th Jul '16 6:20:38 AM by CaptainCapsase

Wow, this is an awfully pessimistic thread. First of all, terrorism and violent crime have been on a steady decline for 40 years. It only seems like there's an upsurge because of how fast news travels now and that these sorts of things get ratings.

Yes...But it's not the amount of violence that's concerning, more the political situation. In the past two years or so we're seen a resurgence of nationalism, a number of previously "safe" democracies becoming dictatorships, renewed tension between the US and Russia, and rising tensions in East Asia as China attempts to assert itself as a great power.

Life sucks; get a helmet. 2016 will be horrible; so was 2015, 2014, and every year before, going back to the Big Bang. 2017 will be horrible, too.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

I don't think patriotism or nationalism is really a problem if directed correctly, at least for my country it's become a welcome trend in comparison to the cultural dependency we (and most of Latin America) had with the USA; the fact is that the indirect empire that the USA had laid out after WW 2 and the Cold War is in sharp decline and while the USSR has fallen we as the West haven't advanced that much beyond that world-wise.

China is the definite proof that democracy has become to lenient in face of economical repercussions: the price at which China has positioned itself as a prime power is a subpar condition of life for the average citizen and a lousy control of ambiental impact, not to mention it's still a dictatorship.

Russia is a different problem, under Putin's leadership the Bear has grown "strong" again after the situation in which it was left after Gorbachev did the Perestroika, and what's more important is that he has been far more willing to use unscrupulous methods that not only have worked for him, but also have shown the weakness of the other countries of the OTAN to take direct action.

As for the rest of the world, the Middle East's current situation is a product of cultural clashes and misunderstandings that have made it the warzone of today, religiously and socially that place is going through a backlash that probably won't be solved by itself for the remains of this century.

And finally, it doesn't help that we are living in an era in which Postmodernism and relativism are being taken too far and are leading to a general apathy to the problems of the world.

Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.

You're probably right. Heck, most years were probably worse than this one. The truth is that back in the day, (as in decades and even centuries ago,) we had just as many problems as nowadays if not more so; warring states, famines, in-fighting and plotting, dictatorships being the norm instead of democracies, rampant racism and nationalism, etc. It's just that we've been so used to our relatively cozy existence of the last several decades that when things even start to revert back to how they used to be, we panic and act like the sky's falling, because we don't know how to live in any other society than the one we have now. But I'd say we're still doing well enough in spite of everything that's been happening this year. I mean, it's not like we're still living naked in caves and beating other to death with sticks. If society ever deteriorated enough that we'd have to resort to the most basic of human existences, then that would be rock bottom.

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

I beg to differ; we are in a uniquely disqueting period of history which I'd argue started on August 6th 1945 with the first use of the atom bomb. Prior to that point, the question of our survival as a species was firmly out of our hands. Technology has advanced to the point where there is a very real possibility of humans going extinct from a catastrophe of our own making; over the course of the 21st century, it is estimated there is a 10-20% chance of the human species going extinct, and the vast majority of that risk is self inflicted.[1]

edited 25th Jul '16 2:33:04 PM by CaptainCapsase

North Americans being sure a crackpot like Trump will never win reminds me so much of us when we were so sure a crackpot like Hugo Chavez would never win.

It's kind of charming, actually.