As always, a few of my meandering, unsubstantiated, unresearched thoughts on the year. Nothing to take too seriously or get angry about, though given point four, someone probably will.
2016 was the year the human race collectively threw its toys out of the pram.
1. ’Speaking your mind’ was a something that ranked high on the list of praiseworthy traits. “I like that Nigel Farage – he speaks his mind.” Apparently we’re all shackled by the notion that it’s a good idea to think about what you’re going to say before you say it and therefore people who instantly “say what they think” are to be applauded. However, simply saying what you think requires no skill, talent, intelligence or judgement – just the lack of any thought process or filter between brain and mouth. Any moron can say what they think (and they usually do), but in a fractious world then tact, diplomacy, consideration, reflection and spending a moment to consider wether or not what your about to say is actually true, might actually be more laudable qualities.
2. The ‘Panama Papers’ became newsworthy for about a nanosecond. The revelation that most of the rich and powerful were hoarding their cash in offshore tax havens proved so unsurprising that the story wasn’t even awarded a ‘gate’ suffix – unlike Jeremy Corbyn’s #TrainGate in which it was deemed far more newsworthy and scandalous that the righteous liberal elite jam maker didn’t have a seat on a train and then, later, was given a seat.
3. In May Microsoft released the Tay(bot). Intended as a perky A.I chatbot to engage with millennials, it quickly became an algorithmic metaphor for the current state of humanity. 16 hours after its inception Tay was spouting misogyny, racism and supporting conspiracy theories. It’s a depressing thought that our future robot overlords will have the charm and personality of Katie Hopkins (in fact maybe she is actually a Hate-Bot sent from the future to prime us our new A.I masters).
4. 2016 was the year in which EVERYONE GOT ANGRY ABOUT EVERYTHING. Nothing was too pointless or trivial to unleash the self righteous condemnation and rage of the Twittersphere, evoke a lengthy ‘Facebook Rant’, or a barrage of hate from the tabloid press. A tweet from Gary Lineker which showed a bit of humanity and compassion earned him the kind of intense vilification usually reserved muslims, feminists and anyone a bit foreign. Everything seems normal in the outside world, but when I sit on a bus I can’t help but wonder if those other seemingly calm passengers are just ticking time bombs of rage – desperate to get back to their computers to unleash hell on anyone who has an opinion microscopically different to their own.
5. Lots a famous people died in 2016, which prompted many people to express their sadness and sense of loss. This in turn prompted a great deal of high-horsery from those that deemed themselves above such things. Given the amount of hate you see on line, the fact that someone has focused their derision and anger on a simple R.I.P post is a bit depressing really.
6. Brexit perhaps defined 2016 for those in Britain. No one is quite sure when it will happen or what exactly it is. Apparently we’re ‘taking Britain back’ but I’m not sure what that means – maybe we should take it back to Argos and ask for a refund, or just exchange it for Sweden or something. All we can really be sure of is that it has divided the populous into two warring camps (‘warring’ in the new online sense of the word) of Brexiters and Remoaners. People who never gave much thought to the EU pre 2016 are now going so far as to UNFRIEND members of rival clans. Oh the humanity.
7. The ‘Alt-Right’ emerged from their subterranean troll caves into the outside world. Emboldened by the rise to power of their new leader they even felt safe enough to perform Nazi salutes beyond the confines of their cellars. If only we could just ‘CTRL-ALT-DELETE’ them.
8. 2016 saw the dawning of the ‘Post Truth’ world. Facts are irrelevant now – all that matters is opinion. In an effort to communicate their research more successfully NASA has stopped publishing scientific papers and now releases its data in the form of a Captain Jean-Luc Picard meme.
9. I don’t even want to think about Donald Trump! I’ll save that for December 2017 – if there is a December 2017.