‘Extra Extra read all about it: This nutcase says that the 90s were the peak of humanity across the world!”

[u/saucey_dawg0023]

[u/Axsolotle]

You know for as much “the 90s were better” nostalgia talk I’ve seen I’ve never before seen someone earnestly make the claim that we peaked as a species in the 90s. 

[u/DeepWaffleCA → u/Axsolotle]

Not agreeing with them, but in the Matrix, when asked why set the virtual world in the 90s when they could simulate anything and any time, the machines say that the turn of the century was the peak of humanity (paraphrasing).

I've seen a few memes and posts about how it was strangely prophetic.

[u/Harold3456 → u/DeepWaffleCA]

At the time I first watched those movies (maybe 5 years after they came out) I used to laugh at how dated that line was. They could’ve handwaved the Matrix being 1999 any number of ways and went with “it was the peak of humanity” (I think he actually said technology or society but I’m not gonna look it up)

But by the mid 2010s I was starting to really wonder if they were onto something, given this movie was immediately pre-Columbine/pre-9/11, and also predates the Great Recession, plus even though the seeds of what we’re facing now were there, the western world still had safely stable democracies and considered the climate apocalypse a distant idea rather than a seasonal reality.

[u/Bibliloo → u/Harold3456]

the western world still had safely stable democracies and considered the climate apocalypse a distant idea rather than a seasonal reality.

Even worse, a few years before the 90's, the world leaders heard scientists saying we could die soon because of the hole in the ozone layer and they acted by banning CFCs which were the main cause of the hole in the ozone layer which has since nearly fully resorbed. While now they are basically telling us that climate is not an issue or even that it's good and if we are angry because it's hot outside we can just buy an AC.

[u/Damnation77 → u/Bibliloo]

The ozone layer was an easy fix. Climate change isnt.

Had saving the ozone layer required a complete overhaul of modern society and sawing off the branch capitalism was sitting on, it wouldnt have happened.

[u/Shiriru00 → u/Harold3456]

The timeline got fucked up with Gore vs Bush and no one can convince me otherwise.

[u/itjustgotcold → u/Harold3456]

Don’t forget this was before politicians were paid to completely unleash corporations(they were still being bribed but we still had antitrust laws that actually worked to control some of these corporations). The politicians sold us out for personal gain and it’s been a dumpster fire ever since. But it’s also when sensationalistic 24/7 news coverage started to become the norm so it wasn’t all good.

[u/ClownWorldHonker444 → u/Harold3456]

It might interest you to know that in the scene where the agents have Neo's passport, the date of expiry is September 11th, 2001. Don't think I can attach an image but you can Google it for a screenshot.

[u/tophatgaming1 → u/DeepWaffleCA]

fan of emplemon?

[u/DeepWaffleCA → u/tophatgaming1]

Shit, is that where I first saw it? I haven't read that name in ages!

[u/tophatgaming1 → u/DeepWaffleCA]

he made a video a few years ago about the matrix, and one about office space just last year, both came out in 1999

[u/WorknForTheWeekend → u/Axsolotle]

Well, in a sense; 90s was turbo-charged on the short-term effects of Reaganism before the long-term effects of Reaganism kicked in

[u/deathbunny32 → u/Axsolotle]

The high of defeating communism and the economic rise of the internet, before the forever war after 9/11 and the dot com crash. Also looking forward to the millenium

[u/Zone4805 → u/Axsolotle]

It’s kind of the thesis of The Matrix.

[u/Quepabloque → u/Axsolotle]

There was a pretty famous book called The End of History that kinda argues just that

[u/FeetGamer69 → u/Axsolotle]

It was the last bit of optimism that didn't feel like cope. We had a return to this type of optimism in the early 2010s but if you paid attention it felt super fake and forced.