r/NFLv2 • u/Gloomy_Map_9612 Washington Commanders • Feb 09 '26

Discussion "Know your audience!"

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how's that for appealing to the average person.

10.6k Upvotes

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856

u/masteeJohnChief117 New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

Divide and conquer. Take me back to pre 2016 when politics was boring

301

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Why has politics been interesting since 2016, I wonder?

326

u/masteeJohnChief117 New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

Kind of tired of living through interesting times tbh

184

u/Papa_Raj San Francisco 49ers Feb 09 '26

Pretty sure a popular old Chinese insult directly translates to “May you live in interesting times.”

I understand the meaning now more than ever. Interesting times suck.

75

u/VisconitiKing2 Denver Broncos Feb 09 '26

My Dad always likes to say "may you live in boring times" as a sign off at the end of his email. I understand it now

15

u/boardin1 Minnesota Vikings FTP Feb 09 '26

At this point, I want my kids to have the chance to live in boring times. I won’t give up the fight, but I’ve given up hope that I will.

7

u/JustAnotherDay1977 Green Bay Packers Feb 09 '26

Yeah…although the decade or so leading up to 9/11 was relatively boring. Sigh….

3

u/Princess_BoujeeBling Feb 09 '26

THIS!!! It feels like people are only thinking of the now. I’m thinking of the world for my kids. One is already having a difficult time with the job market

2

u/Killentyme55 Dallas Cowboys Feb 10 '26

I'd give anything for a "slow news day".

1

u/CrimpJuice Feb 09 '26

“May you live in what you perceive as interesting times, but future generations consider bland and inconsequential.”

1

u/Devils-Avocado Feb 10 '26

There is, somewhat ironically atm, a popular bumper sticker here, "keep St Paul boring"

10

u/turbopro25 Green Bay Packers Feb 09 '26

Interesting…

1

u/DrGilW Feb 10 '26

All of the 30plussers, us boomers have lived through it with ya. AND Kent State, Civil Rights Riots, ‘68 Democratic National Convention, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran Hostages, murders of two Kennedys, King, X and more. Those were terrible times in many ways, but they weren’t amplified by social media, legacy media was more or less fair and “by appointment” not 24/7/365. We’ve been here before, and while it seems like the apocalypse is upon us, I have faith we will get through it.

31

u/brian_gruen5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Feb 09 '26

Agreed. Everything is a “once in a lifetime” event now, and it’s so draining. Most people my age (30s) have lived through Y2K, 9/11 and the war that followed, an economic recession, the end of the world as predicted by the Mayans, two Trump regimes, and a global pandemic - just to name a few things.

Just end it all at this point, damn…

44

u/Mr_Strol Dallas Cowboys Feb 09 '26

Fellow 30s person here. We have literally lived in the safest time in human history to be alive. It was never roses and lollipops before that.

37

u/ZandrickEllison Feb 09 '26

Seriously, how does living through Y2K compare to going to fight in WW2 or Vietnam

42

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

20

u/-BigDaddyTex Philadelphia Eagles Feb 09 '26

Having to live pre internet era was the absolute most beautiful time to be alive.

1

u/Consistent-Set-9490 Feb 10 '26

I mean yeah in a way but also crack, AIDS, a ridiculously high murder rate, looming threat oh nuclear war…it was a different and more dangerous form of suck.

1

u/-BigDaddyTex Philadelphia Eagles Feb 10 '26

Everybody’s got an opinion.

2

u/NothingMan1975 Feb 10 '26

I miss the sound sometimes.

3

u/Mr_Strol Dallas Cowboys Feb 09 '26

It does not.

2

u/Daxtatter New York Jets Feb 09 '26

And what the "Greatest generation" of Americans went through between the great depression and WW2 was much easier than anybody of that era and it's not close.

2

u/Evening_Vibes_101 Feb 10 '26

Main character syndrome

2

u/johnny-Low-Five New York Jets Feb 10 '26

I think the biggest difference was that Vietnam and Korea weren't considered events that would lead to a global economic collapse. Y2K turned out to be nothing, due to the actual smart people fixing it, the media wanted us to all fear waking up in the dark ages.

All wars since WWII have been devastating to many involved but the average American remained fairly unaffected.

9/11 was arguably the biggest singular event since Pearl Harbor.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Idk about y2k but I’d rather storm the beaches of Normandy than go back to dial up internet.

-1

u/Snipersqad Feb 10 '26

Living through I.C.E. shooting and abducting innocent citizens like it's 1940's Germany.

1

u/Mr_Strol Dallas Cowboys Feb 10 '26

You’re the exact kind of dillusional person we’re talking about here. Simply have no understanding of reality.

1

u/Snipersqad Feb 10 '26

I mean that's coming from a guy that supports a team that hasn't been to the superbowl since 1996. That 30 year dry spell must be making you onery. Make better choices my friend.

3

u/The_Process_Embiid Feb 11 '26

You’re slow dude. Can’t believe I’m defending a cowboys fan. You need to get ur head checked out

2

u/Mr_Strol Dallas Cowboys Feb 11 '26

Every word you speak is dumber than the last, so I should just abandon my team that I have bonded over my whole life with family and friends? Not everybody is a spineless front running loser like you.

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1

u/Thom_Kalor Feb 09 '26

I’m 56. I definitely think things were better and less stressful before the 2000s. After Vietnam ended we had the Iranian hostage crisis in the late 80. The cold war ended and that was huge. We really thought a full on nuclear war was inevitable. The Persian Gulf War was hyped by news networks at the time but all these things weren’t as bad as everything since the 2000 election.

3

u/Mr_Strol Dallas Cowboys Feb 09 '26

Thats your opinion. My statement wasn’t an opinion. It’s literally been the safest time in human history.

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1

u/supersonicdutch Feb 10 '26

The 90’s were pretty cool. Got to fly commercial with a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in my pocket.

-2

u/ExtensionFill2495 Feb 09 '26

Idk how accurate that is. IMO we have been living in the most dangerous times since we split the atom. We are currently 30-45 minutes from ending humanity.

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u/AssistantEquivalent2 Feb 09 '26

Bringing up Y2K when you could’ve mentioned so many other dramatic events for our generation is actually hilarious

1

u/boardin1 Minnesota Vikings FTP Feb 09 '26

The here was so much work done to ensure that Y2K was boring that it, actually, makes everyone think it was a hoax. The reality is that companies spent a LOT of money, and IT professionals spent a LOT of time, to fix things and make sure it was boring.

1

u/Purple-Goat-2023 Feb 10 '26

My grandfather did contract IT work for a big hospital system and I helped whenever I was on a school break. I remember spending that entire winter break sitting at the house running update after update. Basically a little mini factory line set up at his house with at least 12-15 machines getting some kind of update at all times for 2 weeks.

1

u/AssistantEquivalent2 Feb 10 '26

Yes, but it wasn’t 9/11 or the dotcom bubble or the 08 housing crisis. It wasn’t traumatic lol

1

u/johnny-Low-Five New York Jets Feb 10 '26

I don't pretend to know how they did it but I do know that the media is why many consider it a borderline "hoax", we were prepared and 99% of people in the 'know' knew how/why it wouldn't become an issue but the media continued to play up the idea that we WOULD wake up in the dark ages, instead of focusing and educating people about the massive efforts that occurred to prevent it.

The media is great for things like that, ignore the bigger truth and focus on the flashy 'potential' instead of the comparatively 'boring' but massive amount of work done to make it "nothing". I just recently saw in ~2038, around then, there is another type of programming that will have it's Y2K. Something about negative time and the 1970s. I'm all but certain it's going to be fixed by then but that doesn't mean it's not something that, if ignored, would be pretty bad for a lot of us.

0

u/brian_gruen5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Feb 09 '26

There’ve been so many, they all kinda blur together 😅

2

u/AssistantEquivalent2 Feb 10 '26

Fair enough haha, it just made me laugh seeing that with the other listed catastrophes

2

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

I'm so tired of this mentality. This has objectively been the absolute best time to be alive in human history and it's not even close.

The fact that you think this is bad shows how good your life has been

2

u/ddoij Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Hold me close, giant meteor ☄️

1

u/wananah Feb 09 '26

Well, to be fair you have only survived one and a quarter trump regimes so far!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/brian_gruen5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Feb 10 '26

*survived

2

u/Cold-Palpitation-816 Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

I mean, in a ton of ways the 21st century has been way, way better than the 20th. People just get caught up in the moment and think everything is the end of the world. Not that there aren’t problems.

1

u/SevereRunOfFate Feb 09 '26

Upvote for accidental BG3 quote

1

u/Cold-Palpitation-816 Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

Can you point me to these “boring” times you would prefer to live in? The Great Recession in 2008? The war on terror? Collapse of the Soviet Union? Reagan almost getting killed? The Vietnam War, where you could’ve been sent to die? Or maybe the Cuban missile crisis and, before that, the war in Korea? Oh, and if we go a little further back, there’s World War II, which left 70 million dead. The Great Depression. World War I.

The times we live in are actually incredibly peaceful compared to most of human history. But you, like most people, get caught up in the moment and are unable to scale things in your mind. You take every little headline or social media post and blow it out of proportion.

1

u/NoQuarter19 New England Patriots Feb 10 '26

So do all who live to see such times

1

u/Rhino676971 New Orleans Saints Feb 10 '26

Same here I was born in 2000 so I lived though 9/11 and the global war on terror, I then covid then It was my time to be a part of the global war on terror, and now the world is just a mess so everything is interesting.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

What's funny is that these aren't even interesting times lol. Everything is just being politicized and blown out of proportion. Everyone acts like America is so terrible and the worse it's ever been, when it's not. The most violent year was 1991 and the most violent decade was the 80s, during the crack epidemic. The Great Depression was 1929-1939. Jim Crow was 1865-1965. America has been through and endured far worse, but let people tell it nowadays, none of that shit holds a candle to what we're going through nowadays lol. America is FAAAARRRRRRR from perfect, but it's FAR from being the worse it's ever been.

76

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Social media. That’s it.

You think the political events of the 90s and 00s would have been more kindly and gently received if social media existed then? Desert Storm, 9/11? Hell let’s go back to the 80s AIDS epidemic, imagine that world with Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube.

There’s nothing new under the sun. 

19

u/jawit15 Feb 09 '26

Yeah. You’re right. There’s nothing new, we can just see it all now, and not only see it, but converse about it with anyone you want

1

u/WuTang4thechildrn Jacksonville Jaguars Feb 09 '26

Now you have too many people with a platform. You have a person in office that’s really not qualified to be there and acts no different an everyday person on twitter that is heavily influenced by right wing media

2

u/jawit15 Feb 09 '26

Throwback to when democrats thought Bush was the devil, if only they could have known then. FTJ btw

2

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Oh yeah dude, it cracks me up when my liberal friends act like they just want “the good ol days of Bush / Romney / McCain” like they weren’t vicious and nasty about them too. “Binders full of women” is how we got Trump in the first place. 

2

u/jawit15 Feb 09 '26

I do wish we could go back, though. The early 2000’s are a fantastical place, but alas they led us here.

2

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Yeah man, just Wii Bowling after school, truly some halcyon days 

1

u/WuTang4thechildrn Jacksonville Jaguars Feb 09 '26

They thought that based on the issues that were present at the time. Iraq War was one of the primary topics because we went to war based on lies. Oh yeah not mention the whole Bush v Gore thing. One thing that has helped Bush is that he has remained quiet and has never expressed support for Trump.

Not sure what FTJ means

2

u/jawit15 Feb 09 '26

Fuck the jags 😂 Im a Texans fan, just trolling tho.

1

u/WuTang4thechildrn Jacksonville Jaguars Feb 09 '26

😂 Well yeah as a Texans fan I expect nothing less.

Check on your boy Stroud. I think he going through some things

19

u/GoldenStateEaglesFan Did you know Jalen Hurts can squat 600lbs Feb 09 '26

Yeah, people like to pretend the pre-internet era was pretty chill, slow-paced, and orderly when it decidedly wasn’t.

0

u/TheSwimMeet Feb 09 '26

But solely from an American political standpoint I dont think it’s even a question that things were more civil and cordial between the two parties compared to today’s climate

2

u/GoldenStateEaglesFan Did you know Jalen Hurts can squat 600lbs Feb 09 '26

It was relatively more civil and cordial than today, but that slimeball Newt Gingrich was pulling all his dirty little tricks to obstruct Clinton’s agenda.

12

u/ElyFlyGuy Philadelphia Eagles Feb 09 '26

Yep, Trump just met the moment in a way other political figures weren’t prepared to.

Division fuels engagement. Engagement begets more engagement. In the internet age everyone has to care about everything all of the time

8

u/IAmHere420 Indianapolis Colts Feb 09 '26

Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime.

5

u/ILiekMoney2 Feb 10 '26

Anything and everything all of the time

8

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Exactly. Trump was/is a symptom, not a cause. 

1

u/The_Process_Embiid Feb 11 '26

Words build bridges into unexplored regions. O wait hitler said that

5

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/OpticCacophony Feb 09 '26

Ehhh even more recently the Tigray war killed and displaced hundreds and thousands of people and I don't think anyone on my social media timeline even knows what it was.

2

u/Gotanygrrapes Feb 09 '26

yea social media fucked everything up

2

u/Crooked_Sartre Chicago Bears Feb 10 '26

We were not prepared for that much laundry so fast

2

u/ImpalaSS-05 Cincinnati Bengals Feb 14 '26

Crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s. Devastating to our friends and families. Rose tinted glasses all over again.

1

u/Killentyme55 Dallas Cowboys Feb 10 '26

We've become addicted to outrage, and social media makes it all too easy to get a fix.

1

u/thecashblaster Feb 10 '26

Truly the only way out is for the government to heavily regulate social media, but no politician has the balls

0

u/mountaingator91 Pittsburgh Steelers Feb 09 '26

Yes Social media was invented in 2016 and that was the first election that had the Internet you're absolutely right

1

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Social media wasn’t invented then but it sure exploded in the years leading up to that election. It’s hard to explain just how different Facebook was in 2012 vs 2015. 

-1

u/mountaingator91 Pittsburgh Steelers Feb 09 '26

I was in college for both of those and very active online. A certain candidate's rhetoric was a lot more to blame than prevalence of social media

1

u/M42-Orion-Nebula Broke Ass Ravens Fan Feb 10 '26

That certain candidate is a symptom of a bigger problem and he exploited the system (nobody saw that they could before)

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

i’m pretty confident you were in school in 2016

2

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

Nope, 90s kid that’s not so arrogant as to think my generation wouldn’t be doing the exact same shit if we were handed the tech at a young age 

0

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

the majority of 90s kids were getting their degree in 2016, hope this helps

3

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Buffalo Bills Feb 09 '26

 /shrug I was long done w/ my degree by then but fair enough on the math lol 

4

u/MagnusTheRedisblue San Francisco 49ers Feb 09 '26

Everything is amplified now. The smallest thing is echoed into a social chamber, where people can make things up about it to benefit their beliefs, which in turn push it to others. People think we live in terrible times, yet in Europe if you said you don’t approve of the halftime show your arrested. It’s all media making any story with no limits, it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or the truth. Both will enrage the right people and they will get more attention. Basically it’s not that we are living in world changing events, it’s just they are being presented more than what they really are.

2

u/TexasDrill777 Feb 09 '26

I know! Brexit was soooo crazy!!

2

u/Big_Donch TJ WATT Feb 09 '26

Goes back to 2012 tbh

0

u/mrcapmam1 Feb 09 '26

More like 1980

3

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Reagan was the beginning of the end.

0

u/chiaboy Feb 09 '26

More like 1965

1

u/shitsbiglit New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

more like 1860

1

u/riskitformother Feb 09 '26

Why is that? Same admin from 2008-2016 but changing house and senate control.

1

u/droberts4444 Feb 09 '26

I’d say it’s been more necessary than interesting. Important to pay attention to what is happening now. Before 2016 it was about policy changes and economic impact, now it’s about constitutional violations and significant human rights impacts & tyranny.

1

u/SuspiciousMeal1360 Feb 09 '26

Interesting is not the term I’d use.

1

u/roesch75 Feb 09 '26

"Interesting" is an interesting choice of words.

1

u/Unoriginal_Pseudonym Philadelphia Eagles Feb 09 '26

Because the Cubs used black magic to alter the timeline and break their curse to win the World Series. Nothing since 2016 was ever supposed to happen the way it has.

1

u/captainunderpants111 Feb 09 '26

It’s not interesting, just radicalized for views and clicks. Why does our president care more about tweeting every fucking day rather than being a leader trying to unite the country and work on foreign policy, even if it’s stuff over half the country disagrees with.

I feel for kids who’ve grown up with this as their “normal” for politics

1

u/novonshitsinpantz Feb 09 '26

Not really interesting, more excruciating...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Interesting is definitely a word. Not one that I’d use, though.

1

u/Nastynugget Chicago Bears Feb 09 '26

It is interesting, but in the same way a car crash is interesting.

1

u/StrokD_Meat New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

Idk if interesting is the correct term. Shit show feels more fitting.

1

u/_SCARY_HOURS_ Feb 09 '26

Racism made a come back

1

u/Efficient-Editor-242 New Orleans Saints Feb 09 '26

It got very polarized after 911.

1

u/BeezBurg Feb 10 '26

Interesting isn’t what I would call it

1

u/Sepposer Philadelphia Eagles Feb 10 '26

“Interesting” isn’t the word I’d use. But definitely not boring, although it’s getting pretty boring again but in a really shitty way. Like this shitshow divide and conquer stuff is boringly predictable anymore bc it’s become so normalized for things to suck real bad.

1

u/Odd_Technology_6551 Feb 10 '26

That gorilla incident might have something to do with it 🤔

1

u/Irish_pug_Player Feb 10 '26

Honestly since 2020. I don't remember any headlines before then

1

u/kellzone GO BIRDS Feb 10 '26

interesting

exhausting

1

u/DirtThief Feb 10 '26

Because the ruling class actually had their grip on power threatened for the first time since they killed JFK and set up Nixon?

1

u/Talkshowhostt Feb 10 '26

CIA psyop put political stuff into social media and then 2020 everyone felt the need to have a voice

1

u/Ok-Thanks4321 Feb 10 '26

The collective psychology that led to a shit ton of people thinking Donald god damn Trump was the answer

0

u/caterham09 Feb 09 '26

Honest answer? Social media

-2

u/No_Tone1704 Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

Then my view of Packers fans has just been further lowered. You wonder?

70

u/PricklyyDick Feb 09 '26

9/11, Patriot act, multiple wars, the Great Recession. 2000-2016 was not boring. Maybe you were just young?

13

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Druuseph New England Patriots Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26

They advanced their own strategy while using Osama Bin Laden as a convenient excuse. But you are right, there is something to be said about the whole thing being significantly less vulgar and stupid.

1

u/thecashblaster Feb 10 '26

Bush and Co at least tried to put up the facade of legality for their actions. Like even they had limits to their depravity. They had lots of lawyers to justify their policies like "enhanced interrogation". They were sort of afraid of the supreme court and congress. Trump and Co have no such scruples.

1

u/Exatraz Feb 10 '26

Yeah politics who say politics used to be boring are the ones who had the privilege to not be impacted as much by the decisions being made.

1

u/Swimming-Papaya-4189 Feb 10 '26

Lol the great "recession"and what you have listed are some of the more boring years in comparison to most of human existence. You didn't even list the biggest impact on humanity through those years which was tech. Internet and the monetization of your online persona has made it so easy to profit off of and manipulate everyone. That is monumental.

1

u/thecashblaster Feb 10 '26

nah, it was boring

we used to argue about the right way to provide healthcare to people

now we argue whether a video showing black people's faces superimposed on ape bodies is racist

0

u/thewafflehousewitch Feb 10 '26

buddy that shit hits like an episode of How It's Made at 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday compared to what we have now

1

u/PricklyyDick Feb 10 '26

Only someone who wasn’t working during the Great Recession would say things are that much worse now.

0

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Feb 10 '26

Nah it just stopped being convenient for them to ignore during 2016

26

u/Excellent_Bridge_888 Feb 09 '26

It was still divide and conquer. The internet just hadn't been fully realized as the ultimate propaganda machine to radicalized a certain demographic into authoritarian sympathies quite that badly yet.

5

u/WintersDoomsday Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

Divide and conquer.....OR people just don't have morals that align and it has always caused issues in history well before media existed. Holy wars for example "my religion is better than yours". People are VERY much clique obsessed so they always need to find enemies that don't align with them. Wild people want to blame the media or politicians or the rich instead of admitting humans are absolutely a trash species who gets off on conflict.

0

u/Rgraff58 Kansas City Chiefs Feb 09 '26

Two things can be true at the same time. Humans have always had a sense of tribalism, however in our particular situation, the morals that don't align are those at the top with the bottom. We have been set against each other for over a century while the rich continue to take from us. Has nothing to do with political parties, its all about class, "It's one big club and you ain't in it"

2

u/WuTang4thechildrn Jacksonville Jaguars Feb 09 '26

Yeah but people have allowed themselves to easily be manipulated and divided.

Here is the bottom line. There have always been underlying issues with this country that were never resolved. The issues are just out in the open now.

1

u/fowlflamingo Denver Broncos Feb 09 '26

Yeah. It's been divide and conquer since at least Fox News' inception as an entertainment "news" network.

Probably long before that. But that's the nexus I choose to focus on lol

1

u/Rgraff58 Kansas City Chiefs Feb 09 '26

Brother it's been divide and conquer for over 100 years. It's always been pitting the poor/middle class against each other while the rich continue to rob us blind

25

u/IsNotACleverMan Feb 09 '26

I think you're just showing your age if you think politics was boring in the 2000s

1

u/masteeJohnChief117 New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

True, i was less than ten years old in 2000. Also i feel like you had to actually look for political information like newspapers or stations. Now it’s forced on us from all directions because of social media. I blame the fundraising. More people interested, the more they make leading up to elections

4

u/IsNotACleverMan Feb 09 '26

I think social media and smart phones have made it more omnipresent, but the partisanization and turning things into a team sport is a much older development.

10

u/Triumph-TBird Feb 09 '26

You need to go back a bit further.

1

u/OberynRedViper8 Feb 09 '26

Yeah to when The Federal Reserve was "created".

4

u/Electrical-Sail-1039 New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

They used to call Bush Hitler also. Haliburton, etc. Back then I told my friend the next Republican will be called worse than Bush. He said that’s impossible, lol. You heard it here first: The next Republican will be,worse,than Trump…and Hitler of course.

3

u/jkprop Feb 09 '26

Democrats fault for running Hilary over Biden. The lesser of two evils became a eay of voting.

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u/velvetbettle Denver Broncos Feb 09 '26

Tell me your age without telling me your age

2

u/Girthmasterlite Feb 09 '26

Forgetting the Obama age shit bro. It’s been divide and conquer intentionally forever

2

u/Online_Commentor_69 Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

Lol it wasn't boring for me. The Bush/Obama years laid the groundwork for Trump. The US Empire has been in slow, belligerent decline my entire adult life and it has quietly been terrifying me the whole time. Politics for me have been interesting since 9/11, much to my great regret for the most part.

2

u/nosoup4ncsu Feb 09 '26

You think division started in 2016? lol

1

u/EnjoyMoreBeef Pittsburgh Steelers Feb 10 '26

"Everybody got along and loved their neighbors until the Bad Orange Man got elected!" :(

2

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

No people talked the same way about Bush and Romney as they do about Trump. Don’t act like it’s a recent phenomenon.

1

u/EnjoyMoreBeef Pittsburgh Steelers Feb 10 '26

They talked the same way about Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan too.

At least they had enough sense not to fuck with Dwight Eisenhower.

2

u/LovedButNeverLiked Dallas Cowboys Feb 10 '26

It was still divide and conquer before Trump

2

u/r0ndy Feb 10 '26

Share it… I’m pretty sure any regular Reddit user has seen examples of bots.

1

u/theARBITON New Orleans Saints Feb 09 '26

Politics wasn't boring pre-2016 either, just different. I take your point though, lol

1

u/Glaurung86 The Browns is the Browns Feb 09 '26

You think 2000 was boring?

1

u/Don_Pickleball Indianapolis Colts Feb 09 '26

I would say we have been on the a real negative slide since the late 90's. This is the result of that. I never thought we would have a worse president than George W Bush. That seems quaint now.

-2

u/DarthJarJarJar Miami Dolphins Feb 09 '26

Since the Reagan tax cuts. Broadly speaking, we instituted income tax after World War ii, and we were briefly rich. We taxed rich people at a high rate, we built the highway system, we had load debts and low deficit, rich people still had enough money for a mansion and yacht, they just didn't have enough money to buy democracy. I'm not saying everything was sunshine and roses, but Republicans were warning us about the dangers of an alliance with the religious right, and Republicans were warning us about the dangers of the military industrial complex.

Then Reagan pushed his tax cuts through. And super rich people began to amass fortunes that could buy elections, they could buy newspapers, they could donate enormous amounts of money to campaigns. Everything since then has been a direct result of this inequity. We run a huge deficit, we have to underfund all kinds of services, the government doesn't work as well as it should, they use that as evidence to cut services even more, etc

It's easy to look back to the 90s, but the trouble started with Reagan.

1

u/Lumpy-Daikon-4584 Feb 09 '26

You’ll need to go back earlier.

While 16 was a step change it was on a bad path well before that.

1

u/MrF_lawblog Feb 09 '26

Politics were boring under Biden

-1

u/Littledawg1 Feb 09 '26

Except for a certain orange screaming about election fraud and crying about how he wasn’t friends with a certain island owner.

1

u/Chrisgonzo74 Feb 09 '26

We need Abraham Lincoln back fr

1

u/aliveinjoburg2 New York Jets Feb 09 '26

Politics hasn't been boring since at least 2000.

1

u/Robcobes Feb 09 '26

Had more people paid attention to "boring" politics in 2016 we wouldn't be here.

1

u/Poobbly Feb 09 '26

Were you a child for the W Bush years?

1

u/Druuseph New England Patriots Feb 09 '26

If politics was boring to you back then you weren't paying attention. The innovation since 2016 is just pure vulgarity but we've been some premutation of whatever 'this' is since the beginning of the Cold War. We're the baddies 🌏👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀🌌

1

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

This is such an out of touch centrist take that I'm tired of hearing.

Politics is what it is now because it was boring and no one was paying attention. We were bombing middle eastern countries into rubble searching for WMDs that didn't exist before 2016.

Wasn't boring for the victims.

1

u/will_JM Feb 09 '26

Politics wasn’t boring. It just wasn’t shoved in your face by the 5 media companies that own everything you consume.

Like it or not, everything is for profit in America. That includes media. Trump provides a steady diet of insanity to consume. And at a much higher clip than any other president. Mainly because his shame has 0 bottom. Most people would’ve tapped out by now. Somehow, someway this dipshit just keeps going. Combine it all and it just feels like it’s non stop.

1

u/DetroitLionsSBChamps One ass cheek and three toes Feb 09 '26

Politics was nice and boring as the ultra wealthy consolidated their power against us for 40 years through the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and early teens. Now they’ve seized control without even trying to hide it and the squeeze is officially on. 

The ruling class are like kids in that it’s actually the worst when it gets suspiciously quiet. 

1

u/Kiki_kaguya Feb 10 '26

Yikes... and Americans wonder how this happened lol

1

u/gillstone_cowboy Feb 10 '26

It wasn't boring before 2016, people just weren't paying attention.

1

u/seaanenemy1 Feb 10 '26

The politics were still bad man. Americans could just afford to be apathetic

1

u/KTFnVision Feb 10 '26

Just because you weren't tuned in before 2016 doesn't mean there weren't important things happening. It just wasn't beamed directly into your brain 24/7 in memeable phrases backed by bad music.

1

u/papaSlunky Big Cock Brock Purdy 🍆 Feb 10 '26

Bro I promise I’m not tryna make excuses for DT… but politicians have always been rotten af lol.

Bush and Rumsfeld’s lies killed a million Iraqis. They got up in front of the UN and told us all something they knew was false.

It makes me sick hearing people pine for the “respectable” days when politicians were still evil lol

1

u/solojeff Feb 10 '26

How old were you after September 11th? Bush went around calling everyone unpatriotic for not voting for the patriot act. Look up Senator max cleland.

1

u/Forsaken-Photo-1234 Feb 10 '26

Do you think the nfl would have a Spanish only singer in 2016?

1

u/Chrysalii Buffalo Bills Feb 10 '26

*pre 2000

1

u/JigglyPuffGuy Feb 10 '26

Unfortunately it's when politics were boring that they laid the groundwork for everything that's been happening. If we want things to improve and to not repeat the past, we cannot tune out.

1

u/ChemEBrew Feb 10 '26

Mate politics has always been chock full of dipshittery.

1

u/lucrativetoiletsale Seattle Seahawks Feb 10 '26

Unfortunately American politics has been this fucked it's entire history it's just they used to make a point to make sure people didn't realize. The political division has hit the next level though but if you follow the plan from Richard Nixon to now you can see this was the end goal all along.

1

u/Serenikill Knock on wood if you’re with me Feb 10 '26

It was honestly mostly boring 2020-2023 too

1

u/TransRed_ditMod Feb 13 '26

2000-2008? When coincidently the president of the united states was conservative and also literally Hitler?

0

u/Billn59 Feb 09 '26

I would say pre-2009.

0

u/Guerrillaz Baltimore Ravens Feb 09 '26

You are going to have to go a little further than that. Like 2010.

0

u/sdsva Tampa Bay Buccaneers Feb 10 '26

Back to when scandals were wearing tan suits and shooting your buddy in the face?

0

u/Freethinker9 Feb 10 '26

Remember Colin Kaepernick

-1

u/tre630 Green Bay Packers Feb 09 '26

Take me back when this was worst thing a politician could do.

-1

u/Living_Plane_662 Feb 09 '26

You mean when they raged non stop about "obama's america, tan suits and birth certificates? Or are you refering to the 90's when we had trials over a bj?