I remember when this was all over the news. I was…I wanna say…16 or 17 at the time and bagging groceries at the grocery store. They literally wheeled in a TV on one of those TV stands when you were in school back in the day when the teacher was going to put on a movie just so customers could shop and watch the breaking news of Saddam being hanged up at “the courtesy booth” near the front of the store.

When I say to kids much younger than me that the Bush years were much more surreal than the Trump years, this is part of what I’m thinking of/what I mean. And I am not someone who gives a shit about Saddam at all. The dude was a fucking monster but who the hell are/were we to act like we were some “humanitarians” or whatever…? Get the fuck out of here.

Adults were cheering and crying tears of joy. And I mean the whitest, fattest, Americans you can picture. Just standing at the TV, some of whom chanting “USA! USA!”, etc. What a fucking wild ass day that was.

Absolutely bonkers. I was around the same age in 06, just about to graduate high school. I remember the overall troop worship and the attitude that the president could do no wrong. It was a bleak time, who would have guessed it only got worse?

  • whiskers165 [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I would love to read more of someone riffing on the Bush years being more surreal than the Trump years. I was 9 when they first elected Bush Jr, 17 when Obama was inaugurated. I definitely remember the Bush years being a wild ride but I was just coming of age so it’s not like I had any real frame of reference.

    I was just at some EDM event the day after Christmas, it was like 1:00 AM and Flosstradamus went on and had some crazy visuals

    It’s got like soldiers marching with Kalashnikov rifles and a 3d garys mod graphics looking army bases in the desert

    “damn son where’d ya find this?”

    Then the screen is this flaming evil red looking George Bush face that was morphing back and forth between Jr. and Sr. superimposed over gas stations and oil rigs

    “This is that real 2006 trap shit!” And airhorns and fog machines are going off then it would cut back to the 3d air base getting bombed by stealth bombers followed up by a bunch of pot leaves all over the screen

    And then it cuts back to the evil looking George Bush’s super imposed over the gas stations

    I thought a lot about George Bush and the war on terror that night lol, vibes were surreal back then

    • The bush years were horrible. Like take your average amerikan racism and crank it to 11. Late night hosts would do horrifically racist jokes about muslims, there was that “comedian” with the ventriloquist act with the racist ass “terrorist” puppet.

      Anyone who wasnt a frothing at the mouth racist was called a terrorist. It sucked.

      • stink@lemmygrad.ml
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        8 months ago

        As a Muslim I will say Jeff Dunham had a chokehold on American-Muslims, at least in my experience, my mom loved him for some reason. I think we’ve gotten better at noticing that the racism wasn’t laughing with us

      • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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        8 months ago

        I was thinking about that the other day, that I had seen numerous combat clips uploaded to youtube, many of them shooting on civilians. I hope those were saved somewhere for evidence, but who am I kidding like the war criminal coalition would ever seen trial for that.

        • stink@lemmygrad.ml
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          8 months ago

          If you put a microphone at every dinner table on Christmas you would have enough evidence to fill the Hague for decades. These pieces of shit love to gloat about their crimes

  • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I was at a rest stop in upstate New York when it happened. Completely surreal. Just random people peeing off the highway breaking out into cheers and applause, and some of the most haunting shit being beamed into the eyes of every child in there. Cursed land.

  • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I was on a shift as a janitor in a factory. The lines had to keep moving. My partner on that shift mentioned it, but nobody really cared. I will say, talking to my mom who falls for every media narrative, even she thought the gloating was really gross.