Technically, all times are unprecedented since we don’t repeat years!
The times we’re living in? Definitely tumultuous, definitely not unprecedented. Political strife? There are obvious comparisons being made with the 1930s or the 1850s. Covid? The Spanish flu ravaged the world a century ago. Drug legalization? How about the end of Prohibition?
It turns out that a lot of people really just like shouting “unprecedented” because it makes their speech sound more dramatic.
Hylactor@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Well, there’s more people now then ever. The environment is either at or past an irreversible tipping point. Every year being either the coldest, the hottest, the wettest, or the driest in recorded time. We have too much CO2 and not enough potable water. The ice caps are melting, the choral is bleaching, the sea is rising, and bugs are on the ropes. We’ve got fascism problems in basically every country simultaneously. Not to mention there is frank discussion about not whether or not there are aliens, but what about them should be declassified and discussed with the public. Our terrestrial telescopes can’t see shit because of the sheer volume of satellites blanketing the night sky. And we’ve got cascading humanitarian crisis being captured in high definition and beamed to our 24 hour pocket sized global information machines, but all anyone seems to care about is what genitals you pledge allegiance to.
There may be precedents for these times, but they are the type of precedents that immediatly precede a global cataclysms. If anything your average person is not being dramatic enough.
elephantium@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah, fair point. The bit about “coldest, hottest, wettest, driest” is pure BS, though. I need receipts if you honestly believe that, but I think it’s just an ill-considered rhetorical flourish.
Definitely not unprecedented.
OK, now you’ve lost me. I’m not terribly interested in going into conspiracy-theory land.
Hylactor@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/us/politics/ufos-aliens-classified-briefing.html
I’m not claiming there are aliens, I merely pointed out that they are being discussed frankly in congress.