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The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

midnightmurmurations.substack.com

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Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#41

Post by rayiner »

On a similar note, go back and watch the party scene from the 1991 movie “City Slickers.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Slickers

For 90s kids who remember their parents having people over, parties were really like that! Obviously without the drama and comedy. But people would come over and socialize and not be glued to screens. And we have data that things have changed dramatically. In 1990, 55% of men reported having six or more close friends. In 2021 it was down to 27%. The percentage of men who have no close friends is up by a factor of five, to 15%.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#42

Post by layer8 »

NoSalt wrote: post #24

The X-Files was the right show at the right time; a "bubble" of the '90s, if you will. The internet and mobile technology was nascent. The world was getting bigger, but was still quite "small". I definitely feel quite privileged to have lived through this time, and enjoy all things '90s quite a bit. Any, and I mean any, attempt to remake this show is doomed to failure, and I wish they would just stop. Now, if you wil…

It might just be age and experience, but the world felt bigger in the 90s than it does now.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#43

Post by trashface »

saltyoldman wrote: post #4

The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization". * Music was incredible * Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least * Homelessness was pretty much non-existent * People were friendly and had time for strangers * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) * Jobs actu…

Eh, the anti-gay sentiment was really bad in the 90s. A couple of my college buddies came out and instantly lost half their friends.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#44

Post by travelalberta »

autotune wrote: post #33
travelalberta wrote: post #32

To anyone with this kind of nostalgia I'd recommend watch 'Perfect Days'. You can live however you want. While it is impossible to not have a smart phone at this point you get to decide how you use it. Want to feel like you are in the 90's? Stop using your phone. Consume only old or physical media if you want, get rid of streaming services. Go buy an old car if you feel like it. Go read a book. Anything you could do…

Books have been replaced by DVDs at my library. I spent almost all my time at a book store for a year in Austin and can count the number of active readers I saw in there on one hand. It's depressing.

Reading is an independent activity by nature. I don't really see how other people not reading should affect you. There is nothing depressing about nature. It's natural that the majority of people would shift away from reading and gravitate towards easier forms of media consumption.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#45

Post by jdmoreira »

saltyoldman wrote: post #4

The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization". * Music was incredible * Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least * Homelessness was pretty much non-existent * People were friendly and had time for strangers * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) * Jobs actu…

> If I had $200 Billion I would literally give all of it to be a teen again for ten years from 1990 to 2000 again.

I so so wish I could go back as well. Its such a magical time in my memories. I was 6 in 1990 and I was 16 in 2000. God, what a world that was!

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#46

Post by surgical_fire »

andrewstuart wrote: post #13

I was there and I can tell you that it was genuinely better times. The 80s and 90s were peak western civilization. Tech was exciting, futuristic. Politics - whilst certainly always grubby and adversarial - had not descended into lies and manipulation and misinformation and attempts to destroy the democratic systems. People talked socialized read books. Dating hadn’t been turned into a high volume marketplace in which…

> The 80s and 90s were peak western civilization.

Only if you consider west "civilization" as the US.

I enjoyed things in the 80s and 90s, but many things about it sucked too.

In many ways I like the current times a lot more than this idealized past.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#47

Post by dustfinger »

layer8 wrote: post #42
NoSalt wrote: post #24

The X-Files was the right show at the right time; a "bubble" of the '90s, if you will. The internet and mobile technology was nascent. The world was getting bigger, but was still quite "small". I definitely feel quite privileged to have lived through this time, and enjoy all things '90s quite a bit. Any, and I mean any, attempt to remake this show is doomed to failure, and I wish they would just stop. Now, if you wil…

It might just be age and experience, but the world felt bigger in the 90s than it does now.

It was happier, with plenty of opportunity for everyone and society felt like it was held up on common ground. It defnately felt bigger, because it was.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#48

Post by FeteCommuniste »

slopinthebag wrote: post #28

Literally everything is just shite now. Movies and TV are shite, food is shite, the economy is shite, politics is shite, dating is shite, electronics and tech is cheap ad infested shite, even the reffing in sports is shite! Things get more expensive yet also worse somehow, our wages don't even come close to matching inflation, housing is propped up to keep old people's investments secure meaning we don't even have pl…

We have amazing cell phones, though.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#49

Post by Triphibian »

I have been kicking around this idea for a bumper sticker. "The '90s were lame, but they were still better than this."

I remember not loving the '90s when I was living through them, but my sense now (and I am hearing it more and more from others) is that we didn't realize how good we had it.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#50

Post by throawaywpglib »

happytoexplain wrote: post #19
toyg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And let's be honest, that is also partially Clinton's legacy. Him and Tony Blair, with their "Third Way" triangulation bullshit, effectively moved the Overton window to the right for good. And here we are.

As a layman in politics, why did that shift things right in a bad way? Reading a summary of "third way triangulation" makes it sound good.

Mostly because of the implications for deregulation.
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