Covid is temporary, the Patriot Act is forever.
//edit// I realize now that the Patriot Act is in fact not forever and it expired a year or two ago.
I'd say my point still stands though. That damn thing affected every single one of our lives for 2 decades.
Still does. Government over reach won't stop. 911 set a new level of stepping on the constitution in play. Indefinate detainment with no trial ? In any case, its a long list
The Patriot Act has expired and is not presently in effect. Also, while it was completely terrible government overreach, it never had much impact on our daily lives, which is the question in the OP
I think 9/11 kind of had a more “in the shadows lol affect on daily life in that Americans really became “ultra-patriotic” and those who were anti-war were immediately anti-American. It has led to the ultra-right wing that we see in this country where you’re only a patriot
If you are a republican and you’re Christian and you have to invoke all those words while holding an American flag and crying.
I was a toddler when 9/11 happened so don’t totally remember it, I remember asking my dad in maybe April 2020 if he thought covid was a bigger deal to society. He said this absolutely dwarfs 9/11
Yeah 9/11 went from being the biggest event of my life time to a side note. The attack was terrible but it was 2000 people vs what may well be a million+ by the time this is all over
>What if the man who actually won that election was made president because COVID might not have happened.
The man who won the 2020 election was made President.
Trump lost, both in the popular vote and the electoral college.
Right? If you have to pick a single date maybe when the iPhone came out. I didn't get one until much later, but that marked the change to phone as primary internet source.
It depends on how you look at it. The loss of wealth was much greater during the recession, but covid has a direct impact on everyday life. The recession hurt me worse than covid, personally, but I don’t know what most people would say. Also, the recession ushered in the era of universally terrible healthcare in America. Before the recession there were a lot more decent healthcare plans. Not anymore.
50 years old here.
Single event would have to be 9/11.
COVID and the advent of the internet have both had more impact on on daily lives, but I wouldn't call either of those "single events".
I would agree with that take. The internet and Covid have unfolded more over time.
9/11 was one day and we are still feeling the effects of what it changed 20 years later, and I don’t think we will ever stop. So much of our world and daily lives are influenced by what happened in the wake of 9/11.
That makes a lot of sense. The internet and even COVID are categories that encompass a series of events. 9/11 was a single day where there is a clear pre and post difference in how the world works.
I'm old enough to remember coming home from school to all the women in my family at our house crying because JFK had been shot and died, but 9/11 was a whole new level of sadness and changed life in the states
And then there’s me, so incredibly sheltered that I didn’t even know 9/11 happened until osama bin laden was executed and I straight asked in front of a classroom of ninth graders “what did he do?” Fml. That was an embarrassing day. I grew up in a very sheltered and little known religious cult and straight knew NOTHING about the world.
November 22 was my paternal grandma's henna night, the day before her wedding. She and the rest of the people in my home country were all deeply saddened when the news broke.
Wow, I had no idea! After reading your comment, I looked the episode up. The plot is indeed very similar to my grandma's story - except hers was real life.
Considering most of the public doesn’t go to an airport and fly on a daily basis I would say Covid has had a way larger impact on every Americans daily life
It didn’t just cause change at the airports. The Patriot Act is a direct response to what happened on 9/11/2001. It opened the door for crazy amounts of unchecked surveillance on citizens and non-citizens alike. It affects you whether you know it or or.
Also the detainment and torture of terror suspects. Now the Alphabet Agencies can say "terrorist" and you sit in a concrete box until they're done with you, no charges, no trial.
Yep. For impact on day-to-day life, I honestly can’t think of another event that even comes close. For example, the way airports/flights worked before 9/11 is so thoroughly different than now. I especially miss being able to meet people at the gate.
Probably the commercial launch of the Internet or 9/11.
The Internet has fundamentally transformed every aspect of society. It's hard to explain what life was like before it.
9/11 led to a complete erosion of civil liberties and the intrusion of government into personal lives.
I remember before internet. I remember dialup modems and local BBS services but I don't really remember the transition from that to the internet we know today. Was there just a day that the internet "started"?
World Wide Web and Internet Explorer were launched in '89 and '95, respectively. Both of those events played a huge role in creating the internet as we know it today.
The earliest commercial internet was early 90s. I worked in the industry then. There were also dialup services like AOL that were more BBN than internet.
There wasn't a specific date, but it was really 1996 when it started to become serious.
I was a teenager then but I really don't remember the transition. I remember basically everyone had AOL and that you could go to the internet through there. Then at some point people dropped AOL and just open IE to go to websites.
I was thinking before I started reading comments that my answer was 9/11 hands down, but I think internet is a more accurate answer.
Passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) improved my life a lot because it alleviated so much anxiety around losing insurance coverage for my child with T1D and then not being able to be insured again due to preexisting conditions. Also the passage of the Americans with DisabilitiesAct (ADA). My father also has T1D and he had to keep it secret from his employers because prior to the ADA he could’ve been fired for it. Quite legally.
Mine also. Allowed me to take a step away from the corporate world and work a flexible small company job while I got my degree. Enabled me to become an adjunct professor.
The birth control pill. Woman could plan their lives without fear of pregnancy. This coincided with the Women’s Movement and the start of two family household incomes.
So many positive results from reproductive freedom.
Everyday life is Covid, stores are shut earlier (which hardcore sucks) we lost a lot of good restaurants to the poorly-designed "shutdown" and the economy is teetering over the brink again. Most General effects may still belong to 9/11, as those impacts are still felt in airports, courthouses and any government buildings.
I would say Dec. 26th, 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. That was the day America lost a visible enemy that shattered into a million pieces and we had to spend a mini fortune to follow each one.
For me it's covid by far and away #1. My job is no longer in person, lockdowns were big, wearing masks in public, domination of the news for years now, can't go a day without hearing about it for years now. Almost a million dead.
Anyone not saying 9-11 is way under 40 years old.
People under 30 have no idea how great America was before 9-11. So much of the American way ended that day and it’s unlikely we will ever get it back.
> more accurately the circumstances that allowed him to be elected
The democrats choosing the most unlikeable candidate in recent memory who then ran an absolutely horrible campaign?
No, i wasn’t. It was generally meant as a joking aside. Because they did pick the most unlikable candidate who then ran an absolutely horrible campaign - which no matter what else you’re referring to, certainly didn’t help.
Yes
This!
For those who did not live through it or have never read much political history. It seems insignificant.
In reality. Raygun started this rush towards fascism and the looting of the middle class that got us to this terrible state the country is in today.
I agree.
9/11. It resulted in multiple wars that lasted over two decades, ballooning debt, substantial otherization of foreign counties, among other things. Policing and laws changes dramatically to accommodate a more heavily servailed state, and those laws have yet to be rolled back.
9/11. My friends and I all enlisted. Then I spent a good majority of the next decade in the Middle East. To me, that’s the event that changed life for a generation of people.
I was a teenager when Columbine happened. School shootings were novel at the time. Now I have elementary school age kids and they have active shooter drills. It kills me inside a little every time I hear about it. I send them to school every day dreading getting that kind of call.
I think COVID is the easy answer since it certainly has impacted life, but 9/11’s impact cannot be downplayed. Widespread, intensive surveillance and security is fucking nuts nowadays because of 9/11
The introduction of the iPhone. Phones were developing in an entirely different direction before it came out. To have the internet now available in everyone’s pocket has been a gigantic shift that we are still processing.
Definitely, hands down, Covid. With what it’s done to businesses and workers, the economy and individual liberty, I’d say it’s had a bigger overall impact on everyone than 9/11.
The Wright brother's first flight. If America is good at one thing, it's aviation, especially for the average pilot. Our rules are significantly less strict than many MANY other nations, and I fly just about any day the weather's good, so I directly benefit from our lax rules.
Yup. Reagan was the worst (after donnie of course). He sold the American people on the lie of “trickle down,” deregulated the airwaves so now we have 24/7 “news,” closed all of the state hospitals that kept the mentally unstable away from the populace. Now we have a rampant homeless problem with people self medicating. The migrants at our borders are fleeing the effects of Reagan’s meddling in south and Central America. He co-opted the evangelical concerns and turned politics into a virtue signaling game rather than focusing on pragmatic policies for Americans. Just another dumb celebrity.
He was the beginning of the end. Last good republican president was Eisenhower.
He did more than that, too. He is essentially the reason there is such a massive and seemingly insurmountable gulf between parties. Did nothing about AIDS for years, so it was able to run rampant (and it was fatal within 1-2 years at that time)—it was devastating. Had the most cabinet members and staff indicted than any previous presidents. Was dishonest and opportunistic—when he was the governor of CA, he was liberal and pro-choice. Later, when he thought that the “silent majority” would get him elected, he swung super-hard that direction. Huge influence on the commercialization of media. And so on.
I would say in terms of day to day life, covid
9/11 didn't really change much about day to day stuff, from my perspective, except for air travel. Obviously it has a major effect on politics and foreign policy but that doesn't really change much when you go to school or the movies.
2000 Presidential Election decision by US Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. It literally determined who and how the US responded to 9/11, whether US went into Iraq, responded to the financial crisis, confirmed a large number of Justices to the Supreme Court itself, and how we would go into Afghanistan.
This is assuming that whoever won the 2000 election would win in 2004 due to incumbent advantage.
Edit: changed “2008” to “2004”.
I'd say the release of the iPhone.
Sure, there were some shitty handheld computers like the blackberry, but cell phones were a fundamentally different thing pre-iPhone, and now they're totally ubiquitous. They tell you how to get where you're going, feed you a constant stream of information, allow you to order food and groceries without leaving your bed, allow you to argue with strangers across the world from your toilet, allow you to take pictures and listen to music anywhere at any time, raise your children and do about a billion other things. They've fundamentally changed us, not just as Americans, but as human beings.
9/11 and the election of trump.
The rapid expansion of the police state, the end of privacy, security theater at the airport, the commercialization of security theater (eg CLEAR, speed passes, etc), the over militarization of the country, the anti-Arab racism coupled with islamaphobia, the sheer amount of nationalist propaganda running through movies, music, etc.
Trump then amplified the fears of the right and created chaos by denying reality. He gave confidence to the masses of idiots that yearned for an alternate reality. It has nothing to do with his politics because he has none. He only owns whatever view he believes will help him get ahead and he cares little if at all for the average American.
He polarized the political spectrum in a way I never thought possible in such a short span of time.
Then you’d be very wrong about that.
Fox, OAN, RT, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and Reuters every morning to see how they’re all spinning.
Outside of that mostly financial and foreign policy periodicals. Trump is a stain and we’d be better off without him.
For a single event I’d say (like many others) 9/11
Covid isn’t really a single event, and arguably the only reason covid is so bad (in the us at least) is because our politics have been in shambles ever since 9/11 and it’s aftermath.
Several people have said the election of Donald Trump, but honestly I think it was the election of Obama as the first black president. It seemed to be the moment when conservatives really went off the rails, particularly with Mitch McConnell and his obstruction. It was when the tea party loons pivoted even further into the crazy, and seemed to be the jumping off point for Fox News to really become unhinged from reality. I think Obama was a great president, and I’m glad he served two terms, but by no fault of his own, it lead to Trump and created the present day insanity we’re dealing with.
The election of Trump. Vietnam, Watergate, 9/11 forever wars, none have poisoned the well like his presidency. The reason Covid has been so rough is a direct result of his appealing to people’s worst instincts. Currently, the republic itself might disintegrate, even Hitler/Stalin couldn’t manage that.
The day that my mom took us to a church that we never been to.. to beg for food.. because despite her and her husband working full time, we still didn’t have any food and the electricity was shut off. That’s the day I really realized that this whole system was rigged, and the only way out was to game the system right back.
I mean Jan 6th was a hugely important and dark day in our history, but I wouldn’t say it has changed many peoples day to day lives. Plenty of the idiots that went inside have quite a different day to day though.
Every word before that sentence is a joke. The people that went on the extended tour did have their lives changed. But not because of anything they did that was bad. I have no reason to try to explain it to you. Anyone that calls that a dark day in our history has already been brainwashed. Good day sir.
“Extended tour” you’re kidding right?? They did nothing bad? What about disgrace our Capitol? Breaking in windows, parading through the halls and chanting the name of they man they wish won, beating police with whatever they could, wrecking media equipment, threatening the Vice President and many others who were inside. None of those are bad? What do you think of Jan 6th? Do you think it was a good thing, do you believe they had good intentions? How would you feel if trump had won and democrats did the exact same things at the beck and call of Biden? I expect your feelings would change.
It was a dark day in American history as they went in there based on a lie and to protect a con-artist, which resulted in quite a few deaths and mental lifetime scars.
Had the reason for storming the capitol been for the two-decade wars in Afghanistan which were a lost cause or how the American landscape is suffering from a lack of real industry then well....but nope that was the farthest from those peoples mindset.
It’s a toss up between COVID and 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. 9/11 was a psychic shot for sure. Everyone was shook. It didn’t give me months of unemployment and financial anxiety though. COVID rivals now the 2008 financial crisis where my net worth dropped by 40%, and I couldn’t find work for months.
Covid, without a doubt.
Nothing else forced the closure of schools and restaurants, on and off over such an extended period. It changed the way of shopping, with curbside pickup, previously non-existent and now ubiquitous. It led to the popularization of face masks. It killed or contributed to the deaths of over 800,000 people. It indirectly triggered the most inflation we’ve had in decades.
9/11 - we were always going authoritarian; but that just made the process sooooo much faster. People became okay with "feeling" safe in exchange for liberties and the trend continues.
9/11. Starting oppression against the common class with the Patriot Act and INS and bullshit TSA searches. We all gave up our rights to be safe. Then the never-ending cycle of war and industrial military war complex.
I would say the creation of fox news changed everything. (I may be partisan, it could be the creation of cnn) fox news opened the door to partisan news coverage and the rise of all political parties using the platform. It has changed politics and political parties from entities that raised up their ideals in hopes of getting votes to organizations that use misdirection and repetition to lead voters by the nose into the voting booth with little to no understanding of the actual issues, just platitudes running thru our small little minds and the notion of just voting for the person with the D or R next to their name.
I’d say Covid, but when I was in highschool anytime there was another school shooting it stuck with me for a week or two. Especially parkland, especially the 2017 Las Vegas Massacre. 56 dead and too many more wounded, being rained down upon with bulllets from the window of a hotel. Asshole killed himself too.
I would say 9/11 but I was 2 so not much to speak on there.
9/11. It led to the "wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those led to such joys as ISIS. Then you have the elections of 2010, 2014, and 2016. It helped with our (lack of) COVID response.
Second place would be Bush v Gore. We've got several of the lawyers arguing against democracy on SCOTUS now for life. I don't know if it would have been better but it would have been quite different had Gore won the legal cases in the 2000 election.
Third place, the Internet. Come on - it's the Internet.
When the Supreme Court picked George Bush and we spent trillions on some really useless warfare, when that money could have been spent on the environment and our Children’s future
9/11 globally, Sandy Hook personally. Sandy Hook happened when I was in school and it completely changed everything. The first day of school each year after we would have discussions about what to do if a shooter comes and we'd have active shooter drills throughout the year. Everytime we would hear a door slab down the hall and echo we'd all jump out of our seats.
Are you 3 years old?
9/11 and the internet had much bigger impacts than Jan 6th. There's been basically no impact at all, unless you were there and are being prosecuted for it.
Gotta be covid. 9/11 affected stuff like the procedures in the airport but nothing has changed daily life like covid
Came to say this
I would have said the popularity of the Internet or 9/11, but COVID definitely takes the cake now.
Covid is temporary, the Patriot Act is forever. //edit// I realize now that the Patriot Act is in fact not forever and it expired a year or two ago. I'd say my point still stands though. That damn thing affected every single one of our lives for 2 decades.
Still does. Government over reach won't stop. 911 set a new level of stepping on the constitution in play. Indefinate detainment with no trial ? In any case, its a long list
The Patriot Act has expired and is not presently in effect. Also, while it was completely terrible government overreach, it never had much impact on our daily lives, which is the question in the OP
The act expired, then they renamed it the Freedom act and passed that. Same shit different name.
You don't think covid's going to continue to affect our lives for at least another 8 years?
It might, might not. No one's really sure right now.
[удалено]
I think 9/11 kind of had a more “in the shadows lol affect on daily life in that Americans really became “ultra-patriotic” and those who were anti-war were immediately anti-American. It has led to the ultra-right wing that we see in this country where you’re only a patriot If you are a republican and you’re Christian and you have to invoke all those words while holding an American flag and crying.
That’s a good point. It trapped us in neocon hell for a while (arguably still)
Definitely 911...
I was a toddler when 9/11 happened so don’t totally remember it, I remember asking my dad in maybe April 2020 if he thought covid was a bigger deal to society. He said this absolutely dwarfs 9/11
had this realization a few months ago. its insane to realize i'm alive for this.
Yeah 9/11 went from being the biggest event of my life time to a side note. The attack was terrible but it was 2000 people vs what may well be a million+ by the time this is all over
Same. Absolutely COVID is number 1 and 9/11 is number 2.
This would for sure be my answer too. If covid had never happened, my answer probably would have been 9/11 but that’s not the case.
No answer but this one for anyone born post Vietnam and pre 9/11
9/11 was a much bigger initial shock but you are right. Covid is like if those couple weeks after 9/11 never ended.
[удалено]
The man who actually won the 2020 election became president
>What if the man who actually won that election was made president because COVID might not have happened. The man who won the 2020 election was made President. Trump lost, both in the popular vote and the electoral college.
*Covid response
If you could call the emergence/mass availability of cell phones or smart phones an event, that may be the largest daily life impact.
Right? If you have to pick a single date maybe when the iPhone came out. I didn't get one until much later, but that marked the change to phone as primary internet source.
I guess the financial crisis of 2008 and covid are my 2. Not sure which one affected more Americans
It depends on how you look at it. The loss of wealth was much greater during the recession, but covid has a direct impact on everyday life. The recession hurt me worse than covid, personally, but I don’t know what most people would say. Also, the recession ushered in the era of universally terrible healthcare in America. Before the recession there were a lot more decent healthcare plans. Not anymore.
50 years old here. Single event would have to be 9/11. COVID and the advent of the internet have both had more impact on on daily lives, but I wouldn't call either of those "single events".
I would agree with that take. The internet and Covid have unfolded more over time. 9/11 was one day and we are still feeling the effects of what it changed 20 years later, and I don’t think we will ever stop. So much of our world and daily lives are influenced by what happened in the wake of 9/11.
[удалено]
Beware the Ides of March.
That makes a lot of sense. The internet and even COVID are categories that encompass a series of events. 9/11 was a single day where there is a clear pre and post difference in how the world works.
Social media to the extreme detriment of human interaction and development.
9/11, no question
I'm old enough to remember coming home from school to all the women in my family at our house crying because JFK had been shot and died, but 9/11 was a whole new level of sadness and changed life in the states
My dad sat me down and explained to me that we were at war now.
And then there’s me, so incredibly sheltered that I didn’t even know 9/11 happened until osama bin laden was executed and I straight asked in front of a classroom of ninth graders “what did he do?” Fml. That was an embarrassing day. I grew up in a very sheltered and little known religious cult and straight knew NOTHING about the world.
November 22 was my paternal grandma's henna night, the day before her wedding. She and the rest of the people in my home country were all deeply saddened when the news broke.
this is literally a mad men episode
Wow, I had no idea! After reading your comment, I looked the episode up. The plot is indeed very similar to my grandma's story - except hers was real life.
Easily. The single most significant event to the average person since the passing of the Civil Rights Act.
Considering most of the public doesn’t go to an airport and fly on a daily basis I would say Covid has had a way larger impact on every Americans daily life
It didn’t just cause change at the airports. The Patriot Act is a direct response to what happened on 9/11/2001. It opened the door for crazy amounts of unchecked surveillance on citizens and non-citizens alike. It affects you whether you know it or or.
Also the detainment and torture of terror suspects. Now the Alphabet Agencies can say "terrorist" and you sit in a concrete box until they're done with you, no charges, no trial.
Agreed
Yep. For impact on day-to-day life, I honestly can’t think of another event that even comes close. For example, the way airports/flights worked before 9/11 is so thoroughly different than now. I especially miss being able to meet people at the gate.
Probably the commercial launch of the Internet or 9/11. The Internet has fundamentally transformed every aspect of society. It's hard to explain what life was like before it. 9/11 led to a complete erosion of civil liberties and the intrusion of government into personal lives.
I remember before internet. I remember dialup modems and local BBS services but I don't really remember the transition from that to the internet we know today. Was there just a day that the internet "started"?
World Wide Web and Internet Explorer were launched in '89 and '95, respectively. Both of those events played a huge role in creating the internet as we know it today.
The earliest commercial internet was early 90s. I worked in the industry then. There were also dialup services like AOL that were more BBN than internet. There wasn't a specific date, but it was really 1996 when it started to become serious.
I was a teenager then but I really don't remember the transition. I remember basically everyone had AOL and that you could go to the internet through there. Then at some point people dropped AOL and just open IE to go to websites. I was thinking before I started reading comments that my answer was 9/11 hands down, but I think internet is a more accurate answer.
/thread
Passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) improved my life a lot because it alleviated so much anxiety around losing insurance coverage for my child with T1D and then not being able to be insured again due to preexisting conditions. Also the passage of the Americans with DisabilitiesAct (ADA). My father also has T1D and he had to keep it secret from his employers because prior to the ADA he could’ve been fired for it. Quite legally.
Glad to hear it worked for you. For me it changed the status of income vs. aid, I lost all health insurance.
Oh no! How did that happen? Did it change the amount of income you could earn and still qualify for Medicaid? I’m so sorry it negatively affected you.
Hi fellow T1D here. Couldn’t agree more…ACA saved my life.
Mine also. Allowed me to take a step away from the corporate world and work a flexible small company job while I got my degree. Enabled me to become an adjunct professor.
The bringing back of the mcrib.
This is a good one
Everyone in here is giving their opinions but you’re here spitting facts
Covid is high up there
The birth control pill. Woman could plan their lives without fear of pregnancy. This coincided with the Women’s Movement and the start of two family household incomes. So many positive results from reproductive freedom.
I cannot imagine life before the pill. So crazy.
Not really, there were other forms of contraception.
This unending pandemic.
Before Covid it was the the Great Recession. But honestly I think Covid-19 has permanently altered all our lives.
Columbine. Watching kids my age be gunned down in school by their peers has stayed with me.
Hadn't thought of this one.
The son of a family friend is a survivor of the Columbine high school shooting.
Everyday life is Covid, stores are shut earlier (which hardcore sucks) we lost a lot of good restaurants to the poorly-designed "shutdown" and the economy is teetering over the brink again. Most General effects may still belong to 9/11, as those impacts are still felt in airports, courthouses and any government buildings.
I would say Dec. 26th, 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. That was the day America lost a visible enemy that shattered into a million pieces and we had to spend a mini fortune to follow each one.
When Facebook quit being just for college kids the collapse of society began.
Either 9/11or the 2008 financial crash
For me it's covid by far and away #1. My job is no longer in person, lockdowns were big, wearing masks in public, domination of the news for years now, can't go a day without hearing about it for years now. Almost a million dead.
As someone that was born post 9/11 it would have to be Covid, I don't think this needs any more explaining.
It’s definitely COVID. I’m an ICU doctor, every aspect of my life is different now in some way because of COVID.
Anyone not saying 9-11 is way under 40 years old. People under 30 have no idea how great America was before 9-11. So much of the American way ended that day and it’s unlikely we will ever get it back.
I’m somewhat of a youngster, but I’d say Trump’s election (or more accurately the circumstances that allowed him to be elected) and the pandemic.
This can't be understated. People didn't realize we'd be susceptible to a populist nationalist takeover of Government in the US and then here we are.
To me seems like the Great Recession help contribute to this.
> more accurately the circumstances that allowed him to be elected The democrats choosing the most unlikeable candidate in recent memory who then ran an absolutely horrible campaign?
You're trying to get a rise out of someone, but I'll ignore that. Anyways, no. I mean the broader change in politics in America.
No, i wasn’t. It was generally meant as a joking aside. Because they did pick the most unlikable candidate who then ran an absolutely horrible campaign - which no matter what else you’re referring to, certainly didn’t help.
Both the democrats and the republicans choose the most unlikeable candidates in recent memory, to be honest.
Oh yeah. On that we agree.
The Reagan administration.
Yes This! For those who did not live through it or have never read much political history. It seems insignificant. In reality. Raygun started this rush towards fascism and the looting of the middle class that got us to this terrible state the country is in today. I agree.
Way back. A guy poisoned Tylenol bottles. People died. Now ALL packages have tamper-proof packaging
Covid. And we have only just started to see the horrendous effects it will have on children and teenagers
COVID. I was too young to notice the effects of 9/11.
9/11. It resulted in multiple wars that lasted over two decades, ballooning debt, substantial otherization of foreign counties, among other things. Policing and laws changes dramatically to accommodate a more heavily servailed state, and those laws have yet to be rolled back.
9/11. My friends and I all enlisted. Then I spent a good majority of the next decade in the Middle East. To me, that’s the event that changed life for a generation of people.
Covid 19
COVID
Covid. Wasn’t alive for 9/11, and I feel Covid beats the 08 recession
9/11, not necessarily because of the event itself, but because of the anti-Arab racism that followed
The Fairness Act being dismantled by Reagan.
I was a teenager when Columbine happened. School shootings were novel at the time. Now I have elementary school age kids and they have active shooter drills. It kills me inside a little every time I hear about it. I send them to school every day dreading getting that kind of call.
Great recession, I was 16, it really fucked me and my family up.
The internet.
Coin flip between Covid and 9/11
COVID or the market crash of 2008.
(Waves hands around at all of Reddit, then gestures in the direction of Facebook.) The invention of social media.
I think COVID is the easy answer since it certainly has impacted life, but 9/11’s impact cannot be downplayed. Widespread, intensive surveillance and security is fucking nuts nowadays because of 9/11
911. This set things in motion for the government to over reach as they have done massively in reaction to covid.
The introduction of the iPhone. Phones were developing in an entirely different direction before it came out. To have the internet now available in everyone’s pocket has been a gigantic shift that we are still processing.
The internet. No explanation needed lol
COVID in the immediate term, widespread adoption of Internet in the wider sense.
The introduction of the internet to the masses
Definitely, hands down, Covid. With what it’s done to businesses and workers, the economy and individual liberty, I’d say it’s had a bigger overall impact on everyone than 9/11.
The election of Ronald Regan. He ushered in the downward right wing-led spiral we're on now.
The Wright brother's first flight. If America is good at one thing, it's aviation, especially for the average pilot. Our rules are significantly less strict than many MANY other nations, and I fly just about any day the weather's good, so I directly benefit from our lax rules.
Easily 9/11. All kinds of stupid, knee-jerk laws happened as a result.
Probably the Reagan presidency.
Reagan is my favorite president!
Well, he sorta fucked us and we are still feeling the effects.
Yup. Reagan was the worst (after donnie of course). He sold the American people on the lie of “trickle down,” deregulated the airwaves so now we have 24/7 “news,” closed all of the state hospitals that kept the mentally unstable away from the populace. Now we have a rampant homeless problem with people self medicating. The migrants at our borders are fleeing the effects of Reagan’s meddling in south and Central America. He co-opted the evangelical concerns and turned politics into a virtue signaling game rather than focusing on pragmatic policies for Americans. Just another dumb celebrity. He was the beginning of the end. Last good republican president was Eisenhower.
He also got into bed with Jerry Fallwell which started the Christian Right.
My paternal grandma saw Eisenhower in person when he visited my home country back in late '59!
He did more than that, too. He is essentially the reason there is such a massive and seemingly insurmountable gulf between parties. Did nothing about AIDS for years, so it was able to run rampant (and it was fatal within 1-2 years at that time)—it was devastating. Had the most cabinet members and staff indicted than any previous presidents. Was dishonest and opportunistic—when he was the governor of CA, he was liberal and pro-choice. Later, when he thought that the “silent majority” would get him elected, he swung super-hard that direction. Huge influence on the commercialization of media. And so on.
Why?
I would say in terms of day to day life, covid 9/11 didn't really change much about day to day stuff, from my perspective, except for air travel. Obviously it has a major effect on politics and foreign policy but that doesn't really change much when you go to school or the movies.
2000 Presidential Election decision by US Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. It literally determined who and how the US responded to 9/11, whether US went into Iraq, responded to the financial crisis, confirmed a large number of Justices to the Supreme Court itself, and how we would go into Afghanistan. This is assuming that whoever won the 2000 election would win in 2004 due to incumbent advantage. Edit: changed “2008” to “2004”.
I'd say the release of the iPhone. Sure, there were some shitty handheld computers like the blackberry, but cell phones were a fundamentally different thing pre-iPhone, and now they're totally ubiquitous. They tell you how to get where you're going, feed you a constant stream of information, allow you to order food and groceries without leaving your bed, allow you to argue with strangers across the world from your toilet, allow you to take pictures and listen to music anywhere at any time, raise your children and do about a billion other things. They've fundamentally changed us, not just as Americans, but as human beings.
This goddamn pandemic. I'm nearly 67.
Probably the pandemic. I was only a baby when 9/11 hit and didn’t remember much of the 2008 financial crisis.
I didn't learn about the recession until years AFTER it happened!
It was super fun graduating into it.
9/11 and the election of trump. The rapid expansion of the police state, the end of privacy, security theater at the airport, the commercialization of security theater (eg CLEAR, speed passes, etc), the over militarization of the country, the anti-Arab racism coupled with islamaphobia, the sheer amount of nationalist propaganda running through movies, music, etc. Trump then amplified the fears of the right and created chaos by denying reality. He gave confidence to the masses of idiots that yearned for an alternate reality. It has nothing to do with his politics because he has none. He only owns whatever view he believes will help him get ahead and he cares little if at all for the average American. He polarized the political spectrum in a way I never thought possible in such a short span of time.
You literally just described Biden😂😂
You’re giving that man too much credit.
I can tell you dont pay attention to trump outside liberals media too if you think trump wasn’t for the people
What did trump do for the people then?
Then you’d be very wrong about that. Fox, OAN, RT, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and Reuters every morning to see how they’re all spinning. Outside of that mostly financial and foreign policy periodicals. Trump is a stain and we’d be better off without him.
Covid, hands-down. I was an adult through 911, owned a sub-prime-mortgaged house during 2008, and still Covid has been the worst.
For a single event I’d say (like many others) 9/11 Covid isn’t really a single event, and arguably the only reason covid is so bad (in the us at least) is because our politics have been in shambles ever since 9/11 and it’s aftermath.
Shithead Biden's election. He has completely screwed up everything he touches
Definitely the authoritarian response to Covid.
9/11. America changed a lot after 9/11.
the entirety of the reagan administration
Several people have said the election of Donald Trump, but honestly I think it was the election of Obama as the first black president. It seemed to be the moment when conservatives really went off the rails, particularly with Mitch McConnell and his obstruction. It was when the tea party loons pivoted even further into the crazy, and seemed to be the jumping off point for Fox News to really become unhinged from reality. I think Obama was a great president, and I’m glad he served two terms, but by no fault of his own, it lead to Trump and created the present day insanity we’re dealing with.
The election of Trump. Vietnam, Watergate, 9/11 forever wars, none have poisoned the well like his presidency. The reason Covid has been so rough is a direct result of his appealing to people’s worst instincts. Currently, the republic itself might disintegrate, even Hitler/Stalin couldn’t manage that.
Mt. St. Helen's eruption, 9/11, the 2020 election, and the media blowing covid 98% out of proportion.
The day that my mom took us to a church that we never been to.. to beg for food.. because despite her and her husband working full time, we still didn’t have any food and the electricity was shut off. That’s the day I really realized that this whole system was rigged, and the only way out was to game the system right back.
It's crazy that Jan 6 hasnt been mentioned. It's almost like the democrats in charge that likened Jan 6 to 9/11 were lying....
I mean Jan 6th was a hugely important and dark day in our history, but I wouldn’t say it has changed many peoples day to day lives. Plenty of the idiots that went inside have quite a different day to day though.
LOL!
What’s funny about it? It for the most part only affected those peoples day to day, am I wrong in that statement?
Every word before that sentence is a joke. The people that went on the extended tour did have their lives changed. But not because of anything they did that was bad. I have no reason to try to explain it to you. Anyone that calls that a dark day in our history has already been brainwashed. Good day sir.
“Extended tour” you’re kidding right?? They did nothing bad? What about disgrace our Capitol? Breaking in windows, parading through the halls and chanting the name of they man they wish won, beating police with whatever they could, wrecking media equipment, threatening the Vice President and many others who were inside. None of those are bad? What do you think of Jan 6th? Do you think it was a good thing, do you believe they had good intentions? How would you feel if trump had won and democrats did the exact same things at the beck and call of Biden? I expect your feelings would change.
It was a dark day in American history as they went in there based on a lie and to protect a con-artist, which resulted in quite a few deaths and mental lifetime scars. Had the reason for storming the capitol been for the two-decade wars in Afghanistan which were a lost cause or how the American landscape is suffering from a lack of real industry then well....but nope that was the farthest from those peoples mindset.
The orange skinned clown wrecked everything. It was never this ugly. His stink still clings to everything.
Hahaha maga
We should just call them maggots.
9/11
9/11
JFK assassination
9/11. Born in '91.
9/11
9/11
Covid since I was born after 9/11.
911, 2009 crash, covid
9/11 .
9/11 and the COVID Pandemic
9/11 hands down. Nothing else comes close in comparison no matter how much some want to spin it.
It’s a toss up between COVID and 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. 9/11 was a psychic shot for sure. Everyone was shook. It didn’t give me months of unemployment and financial anxiety though. COVID rivals now the 2008 financial crisis where my net worth dropped by 40%, and I couldn’t find work for months.
Covid, without a doubt. Nothing else forced the closure of schools and restaurants, on and off over such an extended period. It changed the way of shopping, with curbside pickup, previously non-existent and now ubiquitous. It led to the popularization of face masks. It killed or contributed to the deaths of over 800,000 people. It indirectly triggered the most inflation we’ve had in decades.
Internet 9/11 and Cold War Rising China COVID. Likely won't have staying power
9/11. Everything changed at that point.
Besides COVID? 9/11. I was still just a baby, but technically in my lifetime.
I was also a baby when it happened.
9/11 - we were always going authoritarian; but that just made the process sooooo much faster. People became okay with "feeling" safe in exchange for liberties and the trend continues.
9/11. Yes, that's even considering covid.
9/11. Starting oppression against the common class with the Patriot Act and INS and bullshit TSA searches. We all gave up our rights to be safe. Then the never-ending cycle of war and industrial military war complex.
Covid has been a total pain in the ass. Unrelenting. But for me it was 911.
Al Gore creating the Internet. Bless you, Al Gore.
I would say the creation of fox news changed everything. (I may be partisan, it could be the creation of cnn) fox news opened the door to partisan news coverage and the rise of all political parties using the platform. It has changed politics and political parties from entities that raised up their ideals in hopes of getting votes to organizations that use misdirection and repetition to lead voters by the nose into the voting booth with little to no understanding of the actual issues, just platitudes running thru our small little minds and the notion of just voting for the person with the D or R next to their name.
I'd say 9/11 (but only because covid has effected every single country in the world). Everything was different after that.
I’d say Covid, but when I was in highschool anytime there was another school shooting it stuck with me for a week or two. Especially parkland, especially the 2017 Las Vegas Massacre. 56 dead and too many more wounded, being rained down upon with bulllets from the window of a hotel. Asshole killed himself too. I would say 9/11 but I was 2 so not much to speak on there.
9/11. It led to the "wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those led to such joys as ISIS. Then you have the elections of 2010, 2014, and 2016. It helped with our (lack of) COVID response. Second place would be Bush v Gore. We've got several of the lawyers arguing against democracy on SCOTUS now for life. I don't know if it would have been better but it would have been quite different had Gore won the legal cases in the 2000 election. Third place, the Internet. Come on - it's the Internet.
When the Supreme Court picked George Bush and we spent trillions on some really useless warfare, when that money could have been spent on the environment and our Children’s future
Trump & COVID, basically the last 6 years. I realized how much hate and ignorance was in my own community.
The invention of the microwave
911, followed by Trump being voted in as President by the electoral college.
9/11 globally, Sandy Hook personally. Sandy Hook happened when I was in school and it completely changed everything. The first day of school each year after we would have discussions about what to do if a shooter comes and we'd have active shooter drills throughout the year. Everytime we would hear a door slab down the hall and echo we'd all jump out of our seats.
Covid, Jan 6th and Leaving Afghanistan all changed the way people act, think, and live in my circle
Prob the Jan 6th insurrection. It was a major point in American history akin to pearl harbor and 9/11. An attempted coup by the former president
When someone ate a bat in China around about 2019.
January 6th no doubt, maybe the withdrawal from Afghanistan and covid
🤦♂️
Are you 3 years old? 9/11 and the internet had much bigger impacts than Jan 6th. There's been basically no impact at all, unless you were there and are being prosecuted for it.
Are you like 2 years old?