Asklemmy

Russia's invasion of Ukraine made me realize the fundamental wisdom of the saying "Speak softly and carry a big stick".

2020 george floyd protests

even during protests about police brutality they did even more police brutality

it's never going to stop. the system has too many meaningless pressure valves that they've convinced people are actually valuable [writing a letter to a local official, voting (depending what state), clever chants during protests, etc]

Finally seeing sense and not believing religion anymore changed everything.

And oddly enough, it all started because of an X-Men movie.

The war in Iraq. It was bullshit and everyone knew it was bullshit, but it happened because politicians forced it through. 9/11 was a horrific disaster but the war in Iraq that followed left me completely jaded.

When I was a child I had a neighbor who was a mentally challenged adult woman. I learned how cruel life can be. I didn't understand why some have it worst than others. But I also learn to appreciate and be grateful for what I have.

The damn toilet paper crisis

Finding out in primary school that other kids weren't poor and had all the shit they wanted while we sometimes had issues getting food.

That week recently when there were floods in every country except where there were fires in every country. That was wild.

I stopped watching the 24/7 need channels. It cut out so much fear and paranoia that those channels thrive on.

When two friends and me got punched on the street by robbers, i look in all directions now.

GamerGate destroyed my confidence that the mainstream media tended to get things right and pick the right side. That doesn't mean it is always wrong, but it is not always right either.

The supreme court ending any ballot recount and investigation into corruption in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Gore won that one by a hair and Bush only took office because Florida threw out ballots to steal the election and the supreme court rubber stamped it. Any and all optimism I had for democracy in the US died that day and it's weird to me that we just sort of shrugged and ignored it.

Does it have to be an event in our lifetime (and not a historical event we learned about)?

An oil change place completely draining my car out of oil and not putting a single drop in. This eventually caused my car to overheat and the engine ended up blowing up. After this I've come to realize that there are some truly evil people who will try to sabotage your life without even knowing a single thing about you. Pretty much don't blindly trust anybody even authoritative professionals like doctors, mechanics, law enforcement, etc..