2016 - Was it a bad year?

Quazzie

All over my facebook feed I'm seeing people going on about how 2016 was such a terrible year. Was it really? Sure some celebs have died, but has it been any more than normal?

How's your year been?

Alf Stewart.

yes

ShadyAcres

Mine has been good tbf.

Dr Crayfish

With Syria and the veer to the right in US and UK I suppose it's not great. F*ck celebrities though, and get used to it, from now on they'll be dying a lot more as the first wave of pop stars etc continue to die.

_Brian

I've two young kids, was in hospital with a health scare during the year, turned out not to be serious - very thankful, it's a great year !

SnakePlissken

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

yes

Who's the black guy beside gene wilder?

hairyslug

Noone close died to me so it's been a good year.

I wouldn't judge the quality of a year on the number of famous people that have died. With the rise in different channels of entertainment, there will be more celebrities thus more dieing.

knucklehead6

SnakePlissken wrote: »

Who's the black guy beside gene wilder?

Is it Errol Brown? Lead Singer in Hot Chocolate? Even though he kicked the bucket in 2015

machiavellianme

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

yes

Lemmy died in 2015 so it's not even accurate

How good a person thinks a year is depends heavily on what age they are. I'd imagine most 6/7 year olds love living nowadays.

Halloween Jack

On many levels 2016 Was awful, but there's a good chance 2017 and following years will be worse

SteM

Dad was diagnosed with cancer in February, passed in September. Didn't notice the year go by, won't think back on it fondly.

gramar

The endless references to it being a bad year are worse than the year itself
and it's been fairly shit year as years go.

goz83

I've spent the year recovering from back surgery (saying this as I lay on my bed in teeth grinding pain) i had in November last year. I closed down my main business and one of my kids was diagnosed with adhd and asbergers.

So overall a crappy year.

On the positive side, I spend more quality time with my kids. Nobody close has died. And after 6 years of being practically homeless, my brother has been housed (or will be soon....waiting on keys).

Yep, it's been a crappy year. Bring on 2017

theteal

Had a beautiful baby girl
Got the job I wanted at a massive multi-national company
House purchase fell through 3 weeks before Brexit

Had to semi-retire from playing football, I'll be back in the new year (I will!)



I've got to admit, I didn't hate 2016

murpho999

How do celebrities dying make it a bad year?

A celeb dying does not impact your life really.

Your personal situation and how it's affected by politics, economy and environment are what determine if it was a good year or not.

Felix Jones is God

murpho999 wrote: »

How do celebrities dying make it a bad year?

A celeb dying does not impact your life really.

Your personal situation and how it's affected by politics, economy and environment are what determine if it was a good year or not.

I disagree with the word celeb...and that famous people dying has no impact on people's lives.
Bowie and Cohen in the music world influenced so many people here to become involved in music and their deaths has had personal impacts on peoples lives.

Personally, ex Munster and Irish player and coach Axel Foleys death has affected me, I'd met him a fair few times, he was about my own age and had children too....so when a life is taken like that, it does impact on the ordinary man and woman in the street, it did on mine anyway.

Fighting Tao

It's very sad that the world has gotten to a stage where people determine their happiness level based on celebrities and not the people they see and meet every day.

Advbrd

SnakePlissken wrote: »

Who's the black guy beside gene wilder?

Maurice White: Earth Wind and Fire.

murpho999

Felix Jones is God wrote: »

I disagree with the word celeb...and that famous people dying has no impact on people's lives.
Bowie and Cohen in the music world influenced so many people here to become involved in music and their deaths has had personal impacts on peoples lives.

Personally, ex Munster and Irish player and coach Axel Foleys death has affected me, I'd met him a fair few times, he was about my own age and had children too....so when a life is taken like that, it does impact on the ordinary man and woman in the street, it did on mine anyway.

Regarding Bowie and Cohen; you still have their music and you can still enjoy and be influenced by it.

As for Foley, you have met him and knew him so you're affected more by it than the majority of people who have not met him.

I'm a similar age to him, I found his passing very tragic and sad but I would not say it has affected my life.

A celeb death cannot affect you the way a family member or close friend's passing does.

El Tarangu

The terror attacks in Brussels

Irish Guitarist

What's sad is that people now consider the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen 'celebrities' rather than musicians or artists and lump them in with the stupid talentless fucks that appear on some reality show nonsense.

Halloween Jack

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

What's sad is that people now consider the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen 'celebrities' rather than musicians or artists and lump them in with the stupid talentless fucks that appear on some reality show nonsense.

It's also sad that people seem to suggest that it's illegitimate to be moved or saddened by the death of these people

Irish Guitarist

Halloween Jack wrote: »

It's also sad that people seem to suggest that it's illegitimate to be moved or saddened by the death of these people

I think it's perfectly natural to feel close to a musician who you've spent countless hours listening to especially if they write their own music and words. It would seem weirder if you had spent your adult life listening to Purple Rain or Suzanne and then said "Prince and Leonard Cohen are dead? Oh well. I didn't know them personally so who gives a shit".

GLaDOS

Was good for me personally.

Celebrities die every year. A war happens somewhere every year. Bad things happen every year. For me, personally, it's been a pretty decent 2016 after a pretty horrendous 2015.

If people start basing their lives off of popular culture, then they should really question their own lives.

fizzypish

Not a great year in general from the POV of warfare, general instability and terrorism. Personally not great either (last few years have been this way) but I can't blame the year itself. No external tragedies have dragged me down. I generally make my own problems.

topper75

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I think it's perfectly natural to feel close to a musician who you've spent countless hours listening to especially if they write their own music and words. It would seem weirder if you had spent your adult life listening to Purple Rain or Suzanne and then said "Prince and Leonard Cohen are dead? Oh well. I didn't know them personally so who gives a shit".

Yes. Grief is certainly justified if you felt you had a human relationship with them through their art, one-sided as it may have been. You would wonder about people who don't have such rapports with some kind of artist(s) in their life.

The Foley loss was different for me as it was sudden and he wasn't old. Still kind of slowly accepting it as reality to be honest. A brutal reminder that death is not a sole preserve of old age.

murpho999

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

What's sad is that people now consider the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen 'celebrities' rather than musicians or artists and lump them in with the stupid talentless fucks that appear on some reality show nonsense.

Well celebrity does simply mean 'A famous person' regardless of what they are famous for.

Agree with your sentiment though.

RobertKK

I had a great year, so much change for the better.

Celebrities dying, well we all die and it is better than having your own loved ones dying, don't mean to be cruel or anything, but it is always better when the people dying are not people you are close to.
I had one year a few years back, where I my mother died, then in the following 6 months, my father also had a brother and sister die, as well as a 1st cousin and a niece, all separate btw.
That is a bad year.
As I said, it is better people you don't know, or are not that close to that are dying, because it will be too close to your door at some stage.
2016 has been a great.

I was happy Clinton was not elected, disappointed with Brexit, but these are things outside of one's control and no point worrying over things you cannot control.
Life is too short.

Most people will have had a good to ok year, but look at the news and say it has been a bad year, it could be far worse.
For me it has been a really good year for the things I can control, and no relations that are close died or are sick, so no point in complaining for the sake of it.

kunst nugget

It's a been a strange year. Politically, not too fond of the rise of the right but the neoliberal system in the west is leaving a lot of people behind so I can understand why it's happening - we've interesting times ahead. The saddest part of it all is how polarised the political landscape has become. There seems no way compromise can be reached when people are viewing the world in such black and white absolutes.

In terms of famous deaths, I do think it is sad to see the passing of the likes of Bowie and Cohen - their last albums are absolutely majestic though so it is great that they left with such powerful artistic statements.

Personally, while my immediate family are all in good form and good health, I've lost some good friends who passed away much too young, cut down by lingering illnesses that robbed them of their vitality but never crushed their spirits.

It's been a strange year and one that I'll always remember.

H3llR4iser

Internet and especially social media are a very bad way to gauge events - the majority of posting is usually pessimistic, fearful and depressed; Also, most people love to post pointless "deep thoughts", to scream they "care" - a basic exercise of conscience cleansing and self-back-patting. Read any big rant about "Globalization" recently, posted on Facebook or Twitter of all places? My point, exactly.

In the end bad sh1te has always happened and will always happen, the difference is that as we go forward and get more and more constantly "connected", news travel faster and further than they ever did.

We're still effectively learning how to cope with the information avalanche - for example, conflict in the ME is an historical reality, yet we (as general population, you me and the guy over there) largely ignored it because we heard next to nothing about that area - until the early '90s, when the Gulf War happened. Now we're aware of every move live, from how many Mig-29s Putin ordered to scramble today to what color the 2nd wing targeting officer's suit was.

Yet we still have a bit of a "filter": mostly, we ignore whatever is happening in some areas of Africa - for example the whole Boko Haram problem; We laugh at Kim Jong Un, but very rarely stop to think about the population of North Korea; It makes sense that in the future we will develop a new "insensitivity" - sounds horrible, but it's how mankind works.

The real issue 2016 might go down in history about is the dangerous raise of pointless, provincial and deceitful right-wing extremism, fueled by ignorance and popular dissent - this has definitely been the year of the arseholes, from Farage to Trump going through a few "lesser" ones (still dangerous 'thoug...Grillo and Salvini in Italy, LePen in France and so on). There's still time to reverse course however - especially knowing that the "popular dissent" doesn't like when the promises they were given turn out to be just vote-hunting jokes...

Winterlong

murpho999 wrote: »

Well celebrity does simply mean 'A famous person' regardless of what they are famous for.

Agree with your sentiment though.

I think that is a pity though.
Celebrity used to mean 'celebrated'...as in 'the celebrated poet Dylan Thomas'.
You are celebrated for excelling in your field. And rightly so.

But yeah - now it is shortened to celebrity and mostly associated with the white teeth/fake tan z-listers.

bodhrandude

I thought it was not too bad a year, apart from some great musicians dying. My year started in Malaga as I was over there for the Christmas with my family, my brother had a cancer scare but was given the all clear so not too bad at all.

biko

Another new years thread? It's not even December yet.

Shenshen

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

yes

Wait, Admiral Ackbar is dead, too?

kunst nugget

Shenshen wrote: »

Wait, Admiral Ackbar is dead, too?

No he isn't! IT'S A TRAP!!!

super_furry

I got married, it was class.

Goya

People aren't just saying it's a bad year because of legendary, innovative artists (not "celebs"!) dying - they're referring also to Brexit and Trump, which are negative things for them.

I don't think people mean it's worse than something terrible happening to them personally or to a loved one though - just that on a grander scale the year was not a good one. And that many deaths of great musicians was not the norm either. Prince's especially, and David Bowie's, deaths were quite shocking and saddening to me.

For me personally it's been a good year, but at the same time, the world seems a less stable place. However Ireland is a grand place to live in (some people like to pretend it's horrendous but they just have zero perspective).

Butters1979

Shenshen wrote: »

Wait, Admiral Ackbar is dead, too?

The actor who did his voice did

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Bauersfeld

But the puppeteer who controlled him didn't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_M._Rose

So I'd argue he's only half dead.

kunst nugget

Butters1979 wrote: »

The actor who did his voice did

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Bauersfeld

But the puppeteer who controlled him didn't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_M._Rose

So I'd argue he's only half dead.

So we have a zombie fish head thing roaming the land? Well, that's just bloody marvellous…

Quazzie

Quazzie wrote: »

All over my facebook feed I'm seeing people going on about how 2016 was such a terrible year. Was it really? Sure some celebs have died, but has it been any more than normal?

I'd imagine the people going on about 2016 being a bad year are referring to Brexit, Trump being elected, European refugee crisis, terrorism hitting European cities, Irish issues such as health service overcrowding and the homeless & rent problem.

I doubt there are too many gnomies focussing on the celebs who have died.

Quazzie wrote: »

How's your year been?

No family tragedies. A few deaths in my social circle unfortunately (parents of friends) etc.

Personnally I had a great 2016 after a great 2015 and I've some plans for 2017 that if materialise will be great too.

There's the constant human nature of never being contented that one must deal with though and I suppose as I get older there's that constant (at the back of your mind) worry that you're never an accident or a phone call away from tragedy.

Dyr

machiavellianme wrote: »

Lemmy died in 2015 so it's not even accurate

It doesn't matter we're living in a post lemmy era now

Saipanne

An 84 year old Leonard Cohen dies:

"Ooh, no what a terrible year..."

He was 84...

pilly

Personally I think it was a very bad year politically, nothing to do with celebrities dying. It is sad when a legend passes but it doesn't change the world. Unlike terror attacks, Brexit and Trump will. I feel there all leading to people become more and more insular.

Oodoov

With Trump being elected and Brexit it's been a decent year overall but then again the rise of FF in the polls has been very depressing.

Boom_Bap

Nope, the kids are 1 year closer to moving out. :pac:

murpho999

Winterlong wrote: »

I think that is a pity though.
Celebrity used to mean 'celebrated'...as in 'the celebrated poet Dylan Thomas'.
You are celebrated for excelling in your field. And rightly so.

But yeah - now it is shortened to celebrity and mostly associated with the white teeth/fake tan z-listers.

I'm sorry but 'celebrity' is no short for 'celebrated'. They are two completely different things.
Celebrities have been around for a long time.

Trebor176

We lost so many famous faces this year, many considered to be legends, so it's been a bad year in terms of that. On a personal level, it's been pretty 'meh!'

FortySeven

Not the best for me, will be glad to see 2017.

HellSquirrel

murpho999 wrote: »

I'm sorry but 'celebrity' is no short for 'celebrated'. They are two completely different things.
Celebrities have been around for a long time.

Actually, s/he's correct, celebrity comes from the root "celeber", which in context means "honoured" (or "frequented", but that's..uhm..a specialist area. :pac:)

Not a great year, no. Either personally or in terms of how I view what's going on in the world.