Gen X checking in. Here’s a list of world crises just in my lifetime. This is by no means a comprehensive list:
1975 - 1990: Lebanese Civil War
1976: Tangshan earthquake (China) - 242,000+ deaths
1979 - 1989: Soviet-Afghan War
1979: Three Mile Island nuclear accident
1980 - 1988: Iran-Iraq War
1981 - Present: HIV/AIDS pandemic
1983 - 1985: Ethiopian famine - 1 million+ deaths
1984: Bhopal gas disaster (India) - 15,000+ deaths
1986: Chernobyl nuclear disaster (USSR)
1987: Black Monday stock market crash
1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill
Late 80s - early 90s: Recession 1990 - 1991: Desert Storm
1991 - 2002: Somali Civil War & famine
1992 - 1995: Bosnian War & Srebrenica massacre
1994: Rwandan genocide - 800,000+ deaths
1999: Columbine High School massacre (the beginning of a trend)
2000: Y2K
2000: Recession (Dot Com Bubble, etc)
2001: 9/11
Early 2000s: Recession (Fallout from 9/11) 2001 - 2021: Afghanistan War
2003 - 2011: Iraq War
2004: Indian Ocean Tsunami - 230,000+ deaths
2005: Hurricane Katrina - 1,800+ deaths
2007 - 2008: Global Financial Crisis
2008 - 2009: Great Recession
2009: H1N1 swine flu pandemic
2010: Deepwater Horizon oil spill
2010: Haiti earthquake - 160,000+ deaths
2011: Tōhoku Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
2011: Arab Spring uprisings & Syrian Civil War begins
2014: Ebola outbreak (West Africa) - 11,000+ deaths
2014: Russian annexation of Crimea
2015: European migrant crisis
2017: Hurricane Maria (Puerto Rico) - 3,000+ deaths
2019 - Present: Covid19
2020: Australian bushfires - 3 billion animals affected
2020: George Floyd protests & global BLM movement
2021: January 6th US Capitol riot
2022: Russian invasion of Ukraine
2022: Pakistan floods - 1,700+ deaths, 33 million displaced
2023: Turkey-Syria earthquakes - 50,000+ deaths
2023 - Present: Hamas-Israel war and open genocide
2025: Global Trade WarThe first third of this list took place during the Cold War, when WWIII and nuclear attacks were a real fear. Add in climate change, the discovery of microplastics in everything, the world seemingly embracing Fascism again, and a whole slew of other shit, and it’s no surprise that suicide rates have increased almost 40% over the past 25 years.
Guess what? I was born 1995. So my life as a newborn was spent in a shelter. Same again as a 4 year old toddler. Now that’s fate.
lol hot damn. Gen X started off with some bangers. They just on going for millennials.
As a Gen Xer who lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall and then all of the rest of this shit, I’m so tired. Y’all millennials even got to miss there Reagan years. Nixon may have started the car, but Reagan is the asshole that shifted it into drive, tossed a brick on the pedal, and let it go off down the mountain.
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I still remember watching the news as a child right after the tsunami of 2004 and seeing the death toll rising day by day.
It is only going to get worse with climate catastrophy barely being addresed. Hunger and water shortage is only going to increasr the frequencies of wars and pandemics. Which will result in more and more extremism.
Oh yeah, 9/11. The biggest issue of this generation. I imagine millennials in Ukraine be like “war is tough, but thank God 9/11 is over”
This is very obviously a US-centric meme, as evidenced by the first word in the header, “milennials.”
I don’t know how old you were during 9/11 but it was an awful time to grow up. Out of nowhere you were being bombarded with messages of hate towards of nebulous group of “others”. The country overnight decided that unabashed Islamophobia was in vogue (previously there was still hate but not as outright). Think the Asian hate during covid but ramped up to 11. Your country was changing (at least from a young persons perspective) and all the sudden our allies were not to be trusted (remember freedom fries?). The US became embroiled in what was ostensibly a forever war for no reason.
It wasn’t the worst thing, but people were going to war again and that was very clear and very scary. The financial crashes probably take the spotlight since they affected a lot more Americans directly and it’s possible that everyone knew someone who lost or had to leave their home, but 9/11 changed the country in unmistakable ways and it was scary to watch and then have to witness the fallout without really having much understanding and certainty no agency. I don’t think the meme is saying all of these things are equally bad. Just pointing out that these were major events and possible inflection points in history that didn’t break in favor of justice.
We’re also closing in on a potential second plague here with bird flu since there’s been a concerning surge of infections in cats and the current regime is refusing to act on it.
Don’t forget the return of measles, as well as even more e-coli and salmonella outbreaks as food safety is curtailed.
“Anthrax - snort! - alright!”
Seems like we got a bit of a party going on in the us rn lol
I for one would really like to get off this ride.
I mean, people who were born in early 1900’s would have spanish flu + 2 WW’s just in one life time(if they reach the second one)
/+ in Germany there was the biggest hyper Inflation imagenable.
Gen Z here. Bitch, this shit just getting warmed up, hahaha
Did y’all forget about the Zika, Ebola, Bird flu and Swine flus?
Thanks, but I’m totally wasted on typhoid over here, i couldn’t possibly do any more!
WWIII has been looming on generations before millennials. Millennials weren’t alive during the 1980 cold sweat of Russia and the doomsday clock. Everyone had nukes. Lots and lots of nukes. We’re not talking small nukes. We’re talking like what happened in Hiroshima. Only everywhere.
Also recession isn’t new, its been happening at least once every 10 years if not more. Although usually they are only when something happens that isn’t preventable. This recession is entirely preventable.
It’s when it’s a depression that it gets real bad. Like your bank closed and your money is gone and it won’t matter what kind of insurance you had, you’re eating leather boots.
Additionally there’s been bird h1n1, sars, various flus prior to Covid.
Just be grateful none of us have to necessarily live through polio and a plethora of other diseases because we have vaccinations now….
Oh wait…
Ok so just be grateful there’s A CHOICE to not live with it.
I turned 40 in February and I only forsee things getting worse. 😩
Add a housing crisis, the construction of a corporate surveillance state, a fascist takeover and the impending employment apocalypse of AI implementation.
Aint it great!
Hey, at least you didn’t get drafted for Vietnam
What’s the maximum age for the draft? There may well be a war against China very soon.
I don’t see that happening as that would be bad for everyone involved
In general war is devastating for all involved.
And yet, we keep having them.
Funny how that works
Give it time, I’m sure we’ll have Vietnam 2 before long.
I’ll volunteer, on the Vietnamese side
I doubt they’d take the average American. Wont fit in the tunnels.
gets drafted for the resource wars one year away from being too old to draft
Gen Y had all that plus 6 wars (gross estimate) and an explosion of a nuclear power plant.
