is 2016 the worst year in human history?

Seriously though:

2006: Sting releases an album of 16th century lute music

2004-2007 Sting has a single session of tantric sex

What year were the rock and roller cola wars?

Hard to not vote for the holocaust indeed.

where's the out-of-context thread

ILX quoted out of context

Inasmuch as acuteness/suddenness/concentrated evil are criteria, that makes it harder to choose multi-year events like the Holocaust, plague, and Civil War. Like for the Holocaust do you choose Wannsee conference or the height of the killings? For smallpox do you choose the initial introduction or the height of the death toll? Trail of Tears is part of a sustained campaign of displacement and abuse.

Morbidity aficionados may prefer more focused and discrete events like Nanking.

lol wins

The British Empire tried to pay for the East India Company's parliamentary bailout post 1770 famine with the 1773 Tea Act, so at least that went tits up for the arrogant pondlife.

Each candidate arrived at an examination compound with only a few amenities: a water pitcher, a chamber pot, bedding, food (which he had to prepare himself), an inkstone, ink and brushes. Guards verified a student's identity and searched for hidden printed materials. In the Ming and Qing periods, each exam taker spent three days and two nights writing "eight-legged essays" — literary compositions with eight distinct sections — in a tiny room with a makeshift bed, desk and bench. There were no interruptions during those three days, nor were candidates allowed any communication. If a candidate died, officials wrapped his body in a straw mat and tossed it over the high walls that ringed the compound.

I can see how the Imperial Examination system would have completely broke Hong Xiuquan after he failed it 4 times.

1914. All of modern right-wing evil stems from a refusal to get over 1914. We thought we were done paying for 1914, but look who got elected on November 8? The Austrian election only came out ok because Austrians KNOW everything is about 1914 and they're pretty sick of it.

Once we zero in on the year, we should work to figure out which particular day or perhaps even twenty minute window of time that was the ultra most concentrated worst part of that year.

1346: you've watched helplessly as your entire family (and half of everyone you know) dies, as parts of your body rot and blacken and fall off, and have spent all morning vomiting up blood while waiting for the doctor. he finally arrives, only to strap live chickens onto your buboe-covered arms and give you "medicine" which is really just a mixture of various urines and mercury. the doctor visit is probably the worst part of the day.

Once we zero in on the year, we should work to figure out which particular day or perhaps even twenty minute window of time that was the ultra most concentrated worst part of that year.

You mean like the day Sting released an album of 16th century lute music in 2006?

99 Reasons 2016 Was a Good Year: https://medium.com/@angushervey/99-reasons-why-2016-has-been-a-great-year-for-humanity-8420debc2823#.747qbjze7

thx4sharing

not the worst but certainly the most recent outrage

this is the 1st im hearing of this sting lute album is there anything that guy cant do

Can't or Shouldn't?

xpost be in a room with Stewart Copeland without waking up covered in blood?

hey guys maybe his name should be Stink, what do you think

xp
was that from tantric fucking for too long?

Feeling the lack of Syrian posters right now

99 Reasons 2016 Was a Good Year

https://medium.com/future-crunch/99-reasons-why-2016-has-been-a-great-year-for-humanity-8420debc2823#.5qyt20dsg

2016 was the hottest year in human history, by a good large margin.

we're voting for best, right?

"I write a fortnightly newsletter"

that guy is still adding dead celebrities to his sgt. pepper thing (including ppl he missed the first time round, e.g. Barry from Hi Di Hi who died back in April)

https://twitter.com/christhebarker/status/813811135522734081

Write in vote for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Changping

Yes. Voted 2016.

this "FUCK YOU 2016" shit is really out of hand

no but the internet is an amplifier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoS1MCF8AeI

blaming it all on 2016 is a magical thinking get-out that assumes not-2016 -> not-shit

http://i.imgur.com/0wqrJPN.png

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Every latest year is the worst year in human history tbh, so yes.

nah its not

egos be as happy with doom as with pride imo

anything pre internet and eg anaesthetic and whatever else youre having yourself was so demonstrably worse that anybody claiming otherwise is suffering delusions

i think you might be wrong even tho on the obvious level you're right

something to do with the imaginability of good/bad in any given era? the boundaries move. nobody was sat around bored in the 18th century longing for the internet. and even abstract evil vs experienced evil has always been a thing, sure there were mopey cavemen pondering the imminent extinction of their kind even if they'd personally had a mammoth-filled year.

imma claim deeper level right again tho, one downmanship

something something we are too heavily invested in our greater knowledge of global suffering which something something relative to our level of maximum possible/experienced comfort is worse than historically was the case but in general something something relative to historical levels of global suffering something something is actually fine tbh

that last part obv needs work

yeah tho i agree that awareness of bounds of suffering/possibilities is a factor but think it works both ways

feel like everything is fine and has always been fine and always will be fine tbh

we've all felt the "pang" of "loss" in 2016 amirite

Not take anything away from recent genocides or die-offs, but I find it hard to see how 2016 can measure up to such older vintages as '42 or '58 - If soulseek went tho' it'd be right up there for sure.

that guy is still adding dead celebrities to his sgt. pepper thing

now with added Debbie Reynolds: https://twitter.com/christhebarker/status/814381762205851648

maybe we can bring the deadpool thread back for 2017, but with the condition that all submissions must be in the form of a photoshopped sgt.pepper cover featuring the people you're predicting will die over the next 12 months

namaste

yeah i pondered some sort of discrepancy argument, i'm not sure i buy it.

we could use some objective measurements - mortality, life expectancy, hunger, disease - and they'd almost all point to "we've never had it so good" - for certain functions of "we", which i'd happily accept broadly covers the posting population of ilx

it gets harder if you factor in less measurable but no doubt life-affecting experiences such as sense of purpose, sense of community, sense of hope etc. but intuitively it feels to me that an individual's sense of happiness at any given moment is a product of the objective measurements and that second category of stuff interacting in some complicated way - obv for somebody like Maslow it's simply hierarchical but i'm not so sure

before we even get to individuals as consistent narrative units that are always in the same relationship to the world they think is around them which, well, i'm not touching that, i don't believe it, and i've wandered a ways off track

i have this intuition that for any individual human being happiness contentment misery and all that stuff are in a set of interrelated sliding scales that are kind of outside your immediate station in history - so like "fuck Year X" is partly "'twas ever thus" but also not unreasonable depending on the context that the sentiment is uttered from inside

or something something telling people their moaning is unfounded/unreasonable is of a piece with affirming that their moaning is founded/reasonable, you can't argue one without allowing the other argument maybe

agreed but with the proviso that id think it merits further over a pint

this is the only truly bad year because it contains this shitty meme tbh

I couldn't care less about famous people dying but trump + what.cd shutdown were the WORST things ever

some kind of pint-related summit meeting would get half this board sorted over a weekend, i'm sure of it

summit summit pint