With UlyssesT out there touching grass, I haven’t seen this thread in a while. What in the past do you NOT miss? It could be very personal or just something everyone experienced but doesn’t anymore.
For me, I am so fucking happy the food scene in burgerland has changed since the 2000s. People seem to enjoy more well-seasoned foods and healthier options seem to outstrip the unhealthy slop I remember in the 2000s. Even my yee-yee ahh Ohio suburb has changed somewhat noticeably to support fresh ingredients. Less WASPslop is always good.
How about y’all?
Anyone nostalgic for stomp-clap ho-hey music of the early 2010s played by people with ridiculous mustaches? Me neither.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
proprietary charging cables
2000s beauty standards
silver plastic home electronics
nimh and nicad batteries in everything that lasted all of 5 minutes
paper encyclopedias were kinda before my time but also seemed pretty bad
Silver plastic was the worst
Random homophobia in movies and tv shows back in the day for no reason whatsoever.
I was watching a Police Academy clip the other day, and while the ‘Blue Oyster’ bit from those flicks was always notorious, it’s probably one of the only bits people remember from them. What really hit me was this scene (paraphrased because I don’t want to go watch PA clips again just to get the exact dialogue):
Hightower waking up Mahoney in the middle of the night
Hightower:“I’m nervous about my driving exam, because I don’t know how to drive.”
Mahoney:“I can teach you, when is your exam?”
HT: “6 AM.”
M:“Tomorrow!?”
HT:“Can you help me?”
Mahoney: “Yeah sure, why not? Sleep is for F**s anyway”
This of course is the brilliant, biting humour that the Rogansphere complains got taken away by Woke.
This and the casual transphobia of movies too. Basically every 90s and early 00s comedy has the “joke” of a character sleeping with a woman who’s then revealed to have transitioned and it causes the character to become violently ill
I’m so fucking glad that one is gone from the mainstream
transphobia as a gag is still shockingly common well into 2010s flicks
Disposable cameras. The wastefulness of an object made to be thrown away aside, they took bad pictures, and if you wanted to take more than 10-15 pictures of your trip you’d have to bring a bunch of the things with you. Price wise an inexpensive traditional camera and half a dozen rolls of film were about the same price of five of the things IIRC.
Smart phone UI design still sucks but its so much better than it was in the early-mid 2010s
References to sexual abuse under the spoiler
The people who say shit like “Oh dating sucks now, you can’t even flirt anymore” drive me up a fucking wall. Its not that people are prudes now, people don’t put up with sexual harassment like they used to, and that’s a good thing. The discussion around consent seems to be a lot better than it was when I was younger. There have also been improvements in sex ed and survivor resources in the past decade.
I worked in a camera/photolab once upon a time. I hated how wasteful those cameras were. There was ostensibly a recycling program from both Kodak and Fujifilm, but frankly the cameras were so damaged by the opening process that there was no point.
We had to put the camera in a darkbox, and actually crack open the plastic shell and retract the film inside its canister (it was plain old 35mm) by touch. Good luck trying to open the shell by the plastic clips (that theoretically made it easier) by relying on touch alone.
APS film cameras were even worse though. They were supposed to have this fancy autowinder system, but it frequently failed and jammed on cheaper camera models. 35mm may have been more finicky to load and unload for the average non-photographer but at least we could easily rescue film from 35mm cameras in the darkbox and keep the camera intact.
Ah,disposable cameras. They also had the benefit of not needing film replacement. You can burn the film if you are not prepared. But Yea those were somewhat wasteful. They had some waterproof models too
The word “epic” being used colloquially, and tangentially related to that, the le bacon craze.
Open horniness online, I’m glad that’s more frowned upon these days, especially the kind of “I can’t wait for [teenage celebrity] to turn 18” creepiness that was generally accepted in the 2000s
oh god, le manly bacon bearded redditor was cringy and i’m glad it ended
The stigma around mental illness and neurodiversity. It’s not like we’re ableism-free, far from it, but being able to just say “I suffer from depression”, or “I’m going to therapy” and no one really caring, or, in the best scenario, being understanding and supportive, has made things so much easier.
Not to mention that I wouldn’t be able to understand a lot of my life and work on a lot of self-hate and preconceived ideas about myself without the lens of AuDHD giving me a bit of an out for me to get care.
Does UlyssesT himself count?
On a more serious note, I’m glad the whole valorization of “nerd culture” seems to be dying/dead. There was a recent cultural shift of making “nerdy” shit “cool” and it got really obnoxious really fast, especially since a lot of fandoms still seemed to keep this victimhood mentality even as their interests entered the mainstream more and more. Obviously a lot of nerdy stuff is still popular, but I get the sense that a lot of people now consider the construction of whole sub-cultures around it is a bit cringe, it seems pretty normal now to just accept that most humans have a few niche interests and being into Star Trek or Steam Trains or Anime doesn’t mean you have to do this performance of being a social pariah and you can just, like, be a normal person who also likes those things.
On a more serious note, I’m glad the whole valorization of “nerd culture” seems to be dying/dead. There was a recent cultural shift of making “nerdy” shit “cool” and it got really obnoxious really fast, especially since a lot of fandoms still seemed to keep this victimhood mentality even as their interests entered the mainstream more and more.
God I hate this one. In reality the only thing that was valorized was being a fucking treatler.
It also valorized being a smug fucking dork online, the consequences of which are felt even to this day…
I always saw that as geek culture. Geeks consume and obsess over things, nerds are people who like do maths puzzles in their spare time.
Geek culture got celebrated for a while, but at least in my neck of the woods “I’m gonna stay in this weekend and research the history of the lathe” never became anything other than shunned and mocked.
at least in my neck of the woods “I’m gonna stay in this weekend and research the history of the lathe” never became anything other than shunned and mocked.
It might be because I surround myself with autistic people but if I said that most people around me would be like “Hell yeah”
Im glad he’s gone, he was very annoying. A good comrade, but desperately needs to stay offline.
God I hope everyone continues the america hate train im so glad its dying
Smoking. I love my friends and family, but I hated how much they fucking reeked of cigarettes. I also hated when the died of illnesses that were obviously caused or exacerbated by their smoking. Most of the survivors have quit, and I really appreciate them taking the effort.
Also not nostalgic for old cars. I totally understand people vibing with them and thinking they’re cool, but I gotta be honest about how fucking shitty the ride feels, how uncomfortable the seats are, and how much anxiety I’m feeling about the painful death I’m going to experience if we get into a minor crash.
Old cars ride like shit and I wouldn’t drive one in regular traffic because they’re death boxes on wheels, but they look really nice and cute, and I wish I could drive them in a closed circuit at a reasonable speed.
Part of me wants to take the old body and just modernise everything about how it drives, safety etc. But also I can’t afford two cars (or even really one car).
i’d love to see an electric trabant with massive speakers built into it so it still sounds the same as the old tiny 2-stroke engines (never accept a 4-stroke trabant, those are abomination).
it wouldnt have that 2-stroke fuel smell, but you cant have everything.
Same, I’m sure someone with a lot of time on their hands has put an old body on a newer frame and made a relatively safe car that doesn’t look like a boring crossover. But I have neither the time nor the money to do that.
I just want to drive an old Fiat Topolino, a Citroen 2CV, or a Subaru 360 down a sunny coastal road without fearing for my life. I love tiny, quirky cars.
It’s possible but remarkably difficult, modern cars are massive, partly due to modern safety features, partly due to modern market desires
There was a YouTube channel trying to do this before they got fucked by copyright, they were trying to put a 1960s Mustang body on a modern Mustang fram, and it essentially involved custom building everything to fit
Yeah that sounds about right. My biggest issue is that because of advancements in safety standards and the tendency of the profit rate to fall, there’s this convergent evolution so that every car looks the same, and they all look a bit lifeless and uninspired. I like cars that look a bit different, that are a bit impractical, that look fun. But that’s not so much a thing nowadays.
Also, i hate big cars. I just want a tiny car for me, someone else and groceries.
My vote goes out to the Renault 5 because Sankara ordered all the high-ranking government officials in Burkina Faso to switch their Mercedes limos out for them, given that it was the cheapest new car available in the country at that time.
Growing up, there were all kinds of these Renault <number> models around. They were dead simple, and all of them a bit angular. Cheap to maintain, low consumption, perfect low-key cars.
there was a limited line of Nissans in the early 90s that did this that I always liked
Those are really cute, even if a bit kitsch. I just don’t like the fact that all cars nowadays look the same.
Skinny jeans. Curse on mankind.
They’ll be back lol
When I am general secretary any trousers more closely tailored than 1660s petticoat breeches will result in reeducation.
The idea that you’re not allowed to enjoy things that are for kids anymore once you become an adult.
Exception for Harry Potter and Disney adults
Approved
idk, I don’t make Lego my whole ass personality
Nah we should bring that back and then some
Why?
EDIT: You post in c/games lmao if you play video games as an adult you would absolutely end up on the wrong end of this
EDIT 2: Do you not care that this would disproportionately hurt neurodiverse people, or do you consider that a bonus?
It’s really tiring to see people going to huge efforts to analyse media that’s intended for young children and complain about tropes and narrative devices that are there because it’s media for children.
I get that it’s sort of an elitist sentiment, but media written for or targeted at adults is usually better, or at least freer to explore the sorts of things these people claim they want to see, and they would almost certainly have a better time if they just stopped watching children’s media.
For example, Harry Potter / Disney fanatics in their late 20s early 30s. Read another book, I’m begging you.
lmao if you play video games as an adult you would absolutely end up on the wrong end of this
Plenty of video games written for exclusively adults (and plenty that can’t legally be sold to children).
This ain’t it chief
Newgrounds and flash animation in general.
Shock humour.
The huge amount of way more intense homophobia and sexism.
Sitcoms, fuck “Two and a Half Men”.
Many more that I’m too sleepy to think about
Newgrounds and flash animation in general.
Shock humour.
Also the intersection of these two, these flash games with jumpscares that were all the rage for a while there in the mid 2000’s. Fucking hated that shit and it got to the point that I started telling people I had a heart condition to guilt trip them into not doing that kind of shit to me (I don’t, but I detest jumpscares with a passion)
Oh man, loved me some Exmortis though
I’m so glad I had enough insight to avoid the more awful animations/ games featuring characters from my childhood.
Some things were good like Final Fantasy A+, but a lot was weird fanfiction at best and really disturbing at worst.
Flash animation? What’s wrong with Flash animation? I like Flash animation! …Hey that owl’s talkin’ about me!I always found that part weird. Like they threw in masons randomly just so the audience could have a “plausibly vanilla whitey” to relate to. Surely the fascists of the mid century didn’t actually target free masons… Surely
Is that clueless emoji supposed to indicate that you actually are aware that mid-century fascists targeted Freemasons?
No I’m actually unaware, I thought that was made up
Freemasons have been the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories ever since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, so Freemasons did face some amount of persecution in Nazi Germany and other fascist regimes as supposed “agents of the Jewish conspiracy”
Huh, okay good to know B )
Shock humour.
On the one hand thank god morons like Dan Cook and Carlos Mencia are gone. But on the other hand I feel like general right-wing chuddery has replaced them.
Sitcoms, fuck “Two and a Half Men”.
I feel like sitcoms are still around - Abbott Elementary is pretty popular right now. Stuff like
and Schitt’s Creek were also huge.I would say “maybe they’re marginally better”, but I’m not really into the genre to speak on it
Abbott is pretty good
I can’t feel nostalgic for Newgrounds at all despite using it occasionally as a teenager. Most of the content was garbage and there was a horrible site culture of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. That site always sucked.
Since you brought it up, I don’t miss UlyssesT. dude was an asshole debate pervert, was on the other end of all of the worst interactions I ever had on here, and never knew anything about the things he was malding about to boot. It’s a lot nicer now that he’s gone.
Fake plants, I feel like I’ve been seeing less and less of them over the years and I hope that plastic garbage stays gone forever
AngularJS
People having their ringers on in public
Carpeted flooring, especially high-pile carpets
I miss UT, but mostly because he was the only one close enough to the burning centre of the tech bro cult to actually be aware of the same things as me. Ah well at least everyone can mock Big Yud with me now.
I really need to write my “people’s history of transhumanism” one day
Really? Cause he only ever talked about tech and tech culture like he’d heard about it in passing from an old hippie that was actively tripping on shrooms, his tech bro cult rants were always so off-the-mark they struck me as pure hallucination
They seemed very specific to a certain part of silicon valley, all I can say is that if you’ve encountered that very niche set of ideas within the niche of silicon valley culture itself, it made some sense.
But I wasn’t really around for peak Ulysses T posting anyways. I only started posting regularly a few months ago. So maybe I’m wrong.
I had issues with the specifics but he definitely had close contact with Big Yud and the proto rationalist set, as well as 90s-early 2000s transhumanist silicon valley types.
If you were more closely aligned with the softer Doctorow style tech types it might come off as strange vibes though.
I second the fake plants. They’re not fooling anyone. Stop with the fake fucking figs already.
I recently overheard a young guy on a date(?) proudly tell his date that he decorated his new house/apt/whatever with fake plants because he can’t keep plants alive
Being proud of the simulacra? At least my real plants are a third, maybe second at best, order sign of the outdoors. smdh
AngularJS
On the one hand, good riddance.
On the other hand, React.
I long for the day I can put “javascript” in one of these lists generically. Javascript is bourgeois decadence and it isn’t even good
The web’s usability peaked in like 2005, where there was enough javascript to run gmail, but anything more complicated lived in a little flash player box, and I had click-to-activate enabled so ads and tracking scripts couldn’t do anything.
I hope they keep adding things like the <details> element until websites can do all the website things without javascript, and we somehow get back to a flash/applet style box for complex stuff (with a more reasonable security model, hell it’s fine if javascript is what lives in the box).
Hard agree. As is, marxists.org is unironically peak web design
I really wonder if people who hate on JS / Web Frameworks have made UI’s in another language/toolkit. Everything but QT is awful compared to web.
Also I just contend that people have never really worked with a well designed system because most shit out there is either dead simple, or quickly became a mess because the devs and managers were out of their element. I can sympathize. I’m currently bashing my head against the wall trying to get PMs to understand fairly difficult concepts. I had a meeting today where it was me, 2 UX designers, and 2 PMs on a call, and the PMs literally couldn’t functionally understand from either perspective the reason the propsed processes were needed.
My problem isn’t with javascript as a UI framework, it’s what I use too. Everything else is five independent platforms each with 3+ half implemented ways to do things, all of which have been left to wither on the vine as all the tech companies give up and use the web instead. The DOM is the best application tool remaining.
My problem is that javascript is both the tool to make basic enhancements to documents, like collapsible menus or form submissions, and the tool to create whole applications. The former needs it to run by default on every page, but the latter means that that it has the potential to harvest a zillion kinds of data, perform far more computation than is needed to display a webpage, and make cheap computers and poor connections unusable.
And it doesn’t matter that these problems are avoidable if companies get their shit together, because I’m not writing the code for every page I visit.
So to sum it up, webapps (capitalism)
may javascript be destroyed
Being an absolute asshole online. Sure places like reddit and 4chan still exist but it feels like in general the internet has gotten, nicer? Like the other day I was playing an online game in someone in chat was popping off anti-immigrant shit and praising Trump and the entire guild chat turned on them shitting on them and telling other players how to add them to your blocklist. The general edginess I used to see in the aughts online feels like it’s dissolved into people being nicer, maybe it has something to do with irl being more ruthless than ever.
I think some of that is because there are more older (by which I mean like 30+ or even 20+) people online. You’ll still occasionally run across the YoU WoUlDn’T LaSt In A MW2 LoBbY types, and all I can think of is “Damn, sorry you failed to grow up and the rest of the world moved on”. Some of us didn’t like screaming slurs into a headset even back then.
YoU WoUlDn’T LaSt In A MW2 LoBbY
back button -> dpad over the gamertag -> a button -> mute player -> back button
everyone i used to play with could do it in like 2 seconds lmao
Even the people that do banter that can be seen as rude or toxic “go fuck yourself/mom/dad/goat” etc stuff can surprise you when somebody pops off a N word or something and then it’s all “fuck off racist pos”
It’s a nice surprise to find.
the chintzy consumerist aspects of geek culture/chic
“i fucking love science!!!” - couldnt be me (it was). Hey remember Michio Kaku??
what’s he up to?
Shilling for NEOM
“we can create – perhaps out of the desert – a city that would be sustainable”
Then appearing on Joe Rogan. That’s the last I can tell.
How can someone who manipulates tensors for a living be as dumb as that guy was?
string theory and its consequences i suppose
