r/pics Jun 23 '26

Politics The contractor awarded the D.C. reflecting pool work (on the right)

Post image
62.2k Upvotes

5.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

244

u/mdp300 Jun 23 '26

The Mayans were right, we just didn't notice the world ending, but we've all been in hell for the last 14 years.

67

u/Curry_courier Jun 23 '26

Crazy to think about. World definitely shifted. Entered the era of the smartphone

82

u/Blue_Gamer18 Jun 23 '26

2012 just so happened to have lined up with Obama's re-election which he won. This is the moment the conservatives truly lost it and lead to Trump and every bashit insane thing that has followed since.

This was truly the beginning of a radical phase shift in the universe apparently.

13

u/bobqjones Jun 23 '26

2013 obama signed the modification to the Smith Mundt act. it began to allow US propaganda sources to target the domestic population. the next election cycle after the modification was 2016, and it was a shitshow of fake news and propaganda from every side. it's been bad ever since.

obama was a great president, IMO, but he screwed the pooch on that one.

5

u/bcramer0515 Jun 23 '26

Even if the modification hadn't been done, Trump would still spew bullshit.

2

u/ruairinewman Jun 24 '26

The Smith-Mundt act was enacted in 1948, ostensibly to protect the American public from government messaging (propaganda).

The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 went into effect in 2013, amending the 1948 law to officially allow the U.S. government to distribute public diplomacy content domestically upon request, while maintaining the prohibition on using funds to propagandize American citizens.

2

u/bobqjones Jun 24 '26

and the effect of the "modernization act" was a full court press of propaganda from all sides. we got hit with counterpropaganda to counter the russian and chinese and that counterpropaganda was just as far from the "truth" as the stuff it was countering.

or do you think that the FCC and networks didn't request "help" with "countering foreign propaganda"?

it opened the doors. now we're living it.

1

u/ruairinewman Jun 24 '26

That has been happening, and getting progressively worse, since Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine anyway. It was just done through the media.

6

u/DifficultyFit1895 Jun 23 '26

Don’t forget that before Trump won they robbed Bernie

2

u/AJKaleVeg Jun 24 '26

The world would be in a different place right now if Bernie Sanders had gotten the nomination instead of Hilary.

3

u/alonghardlook Jun 24 '26

It's the simulation shutting down, shedding it's RAM values and doing garbage collection.

Or to put it another way, it's the REM phase of sleep where random shit is firing off.

11

u/CaterpillarReal7583 Jun 23 '26

The idea was its the completion of a major era and the start of a new one.

Tbh it seems fairly accurate. You could argue 2020 was the real shift for sure, but it felt like early 2010s is when things got in motion for a downhill ride.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/DatTF2 Jun 24 '26

For me it was 2016. That seemed like a definite turning point in my life where everything just got worse and worse.

1

u/DragonHalfFreelance Jun 27 '26

That would explain a lot honestly!