There have been a lot of internet trends that have confused me over the years. I never understood Italian Brainrot, Labubus, Grumpy Cat, Skibidi Toilet, The Harlem Shake, Parkour, Salt Bae or, if I’m being honest, the real significance of 6-7. However, although there’s tons of stuff out on the World Wide Web that has certainly made me feel befuddled, old or out of the loop, I don’t think that there’s been a legitimate mainstream trend that has pissed me off to the level that “pov it’s 2016” has.
And that’s not only because 2016 was terrible, but it was so terrible that, at the time, people literally said that cultivating a feeling of nostalgia for that year would prove to be physically impossible in the future. I know that it’s been a decade since then, and I know that it’s usually around the 10-year milestone when people start looking to the past with rose-colored glasses (so maybe this was inevitable from the get-go), but still, guys, c’mon. Your rose-colored glasses are getting so big that it’s actually ridiculous.
Let me remind you about everything that really happened in 2016, then. Because, somehow, everyone seems to have forgotten that it was contemporaneously agreed upon to have been one of the worst years on record up to that point. And sure, we later found out that it could get waaaaayyyyyy worse, but just because 2016 was slightly less terrible than ’20s 17-25 doesn’t mean that it was anywhere near good (or even decent).
So, here’s a list of a bunch of awful things that happened in 2016 for ease of reference the next time you feel compelled to join in on the #2016 trend:
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
- Brexit
- David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Muhammad Ali, Alan Rickman, Prince, George Michael and Gene Wilder all passed away
- Russia interfered in the Presidential election
- It was the hottest year on record
- The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando was the deadliest in U.S. history
- Deadly police shootings in Minnesota, North Carolina and Louisiana
- The suicide bombing in Istanbul
- The military coup in Turkey
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
- The terrorist attack in Brussels
- The violent attack at Ohio State University
- The murder of Harambe
- The Great Smoky Mountains wildfires in Tennessee
- The deadliest fire in Oakland’s history
- Hurricane Matthew
- The blizzard in January was one of the most destructive on record
- The Zika virus epidemic
- A state of emergency was declared in Flint, MI in response to the continued water crisis
- The release of Hilary Clinton’s stolen emails
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
- Melania Trump’s stolen speech at the Republican National Convention
- “Grab ‘em by the p*ssy”
- Merrick Garland’s supreme court nomination was blocked
- Construction started on the Dakota Access Pipeline
- North Carolina enacted House Bill 2, also known as the “bathroom bill,” which required transgender individuals to use the public restroom that corresponded with the sex listed on their birth certificate
- Kellyanne Conway was relevant
- The Wells Fargo fraud scandal
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
- The price of EpiPens skyrocketed
- Russian doping at the Rio Olympics
- Ryan Lochte
- Pokemon Go
- Musical.ly (which, foreshadowing, later became TikTok)
- #OscarsSoWhite
- RIP Vine
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
Is this list exhaustive? Certainly not. Could I have constructed a similar list for nearly every single year that’s ever happened? Yes, probably. However, it’s disappointing to me that so many people have seemingly forgotten 2016 as such a watershed year for horrible-ness. A lot went down in those 365 days, and it’s important that we remember it. It won’t make us happy, or make us feel nice to think about, but it’s necessary, especially because of how much that year continues to impact our present moment.
If we allow ourselves to forget all of the bad and only think of the good, how will we know the difference between making actual progress and becoming complacent in a society that allows us (and oftentimes even encourages us) to mindlessly perform the bare minimum?
It’s a cliche, but those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. And although I’d take another 2016 over another 2020 in a heartbeat, that isn’t a choice that any of us should have to make.
