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Probably more fair to say it was the best year for you.
I imagine quite a few people had a great 2020 but it's important to acknowledge that many many many others did not due to isolation, sickness, fear, losing their job and so on. It was a horrifically serious year for the rest of the world.
This post and the answers either truly encapsulate what an unpopular opinion is, but I would also say that it fits into an 'IAmTheAsshole' category.
Traffic in my area only died for like 2 or 3 days after the lockdowns before people decided they didn't want to stay at home and were once again creating bumper to bumper traffic.
Restaurants either shut down entirely or never followed the mandates. Pretty much all that's left are fast food and places owned by MAGAts that didn't follow the rules (and also took that PPP loan without paying it back).
Best year of the last 5 years, but only because that's when 90% of the worst shit was starting to unfold.
so you didnt lose a family member and have to watch their funeral on a computer monitor, eh?
cheap gas though am I right? and you made that money, you got all that wonderful money.
There was a pandemic. But good for you getting to travel and stuff, I guess.
Seems like it depends heavily an where you were at the time.
Where I live, large parts of 2020 were in ridiculously total shutdown.
Officially you weren't even allowed to go outside (we ignored that somewhat, though, despite the possible fines).
Horrifying year here.
Especially for the youth.
So, yes, your opinion would actually be absolutely unpopular here! :-)
I would disagree the shutdowns were ridiculous. Governments around the world had limited tools for managing a new situation and made some mistakes, but a lockdown is actually a really good tool for managing one thing, overloaded healthcare systems. If your healthcare system is overloaded the death rate goes up, way up. If you can flatten the curve, slow the rate at which people get sick, the hospital is not overloaded and the death rate does not spike as badly.
Masks were a good option and did work but it wasn't clear that was the case at the start. What medications worked was not clear at the start. What treatment processes were most effective was not clear at the start.
A few years in and things are very different. We know masks work, we know social distancing works, we know the vaccines work, and we know a couple of medications work to a degree. The population is also not as vulnerable given the number who have been sick already and have existing immunity or have immunity from a vaccine.
So now we have to make choices. We now know masks work so we have to decide when to use them. Sick people should wear masks when they go outside just like people in Japan do. People who may have been exposed should also wear masks out of consideration for those around. People shouldn't be fined for not wearing a mask, but they should face social pressure and feel bad for not caring about other people.
Governments should have a clear plan now for how to handle the next inevitable pandemic with lessons learned from this one. They should use border controls much more strictly, pay the cost for quarantine protocols for entrants to the country, fund testing and vaccine development, and have supplies of essential PPE on hand for the next event. Culturally as need to have a stronger sense of responsibility for protecting other people through inconveniencing ourselves a little by wear a mask and wash our hands.
2020 started off just like any normal year and then BAM, global pandemic. It came with some novelty. The Democratic primaries were wild but at least Trump got voted out of office. So long as you didn't lose your job or a loved one it was a bit of a shake up and brought people together though commiseration.
2021 the novelty of the global pandemic had worn off. Holy shit they tried to coup the government, good thing they're morons. The vaccine became available. The Olympics happened a year late. Kinda boring after 2020 but we were also still dealing with the annoying aftermath like washing our groceries.
2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and people rightly felt outraged by it. Midterms weren't as bad as they could have been but the Republicans still took the house. Also, we entered a recession and people were getting laid off left and right.
2023 layoffs and recession still happening. Inflation too despite the economy starting to pick back up. Hamas attacked Israel which gave Israel an excuse to start genociding Palestine and people were rightly outraged.
2024 Israel is still genociding Palestine and didn't Biden say he was only going to be a one term president? Why isn't he bowing out? Why isn't anybody challenging him? Oh God, he's going to debate Trump? Holy hell that was bad... Oh NOW you're dropping out?? I guess we have no choice but to go with Kamala. At least she picked Tim Walz, he's relatable. Wait, why are you campaigning with Liz Cheney? Oh no... Nonono. We know better than this, come on! ........ Fuck.
2025 Yep. It's pretty much as bad as we expected it would be...
I agree. 2020 was pretty great
I got to spend most of the year with my parents before they died a couple years later. Started and watched most of One Piece with my mom because we got tired of watching shows that only had a couple seasons.
Good times
Glad you enjoyed it
For me, 2020 was a pretty average year overall. I'm an essential worker, so things were pretty much business as usual for me on the work end of things, and I got hazard pay for certain parts of it which was nice.
And with less traffic on the roads, I was getting better gas mileage (and I already commute at times when traffic is pretty light, so the fact that it made a noticeable difference is wild)
A lot of my hobbies and such are solo activities or social distancing friendly, so again not too much changed for me there.
But it did put a bit of a damper on my social life, and in a lot of ways that hasn't fully recovered yet. It feels like ever since the pandemic it's just been harder to get people together to do stuff. And I've lost my taste for crowded bars and concerts and such, which is nice because it saves me a bit of money, but I do miss being able to enjoy that.
I know people who are still dealing with long COVID symptoms from back then, I know people who died.
I think that the interruptions to normal schooling and such did a real number on a lot of kids.
My wife is still working on losing some of the weight she put on while working from home during the pandemic.
And in a lot of ways 2020 ± a year or two kind of feels like the turning point where a whole lot of shit in a whole in politics and such just went straight off the rails.
So it was a pretty ok year for me, personally, but overall it was a sucky year for the world.
This makes sense to me. 2020 sucked in a unique way that also included some benefits, which depending on your own personal circumstances might have outweighed the negatives.
