I think this year is worse than most.
For this one specifically, i don't really agree, because the index is positive year-to-date, sitting at the historical all-time high right now. Doesn't seem like a massive crash to me, given that it dipped not that badly in the first place and then almost instantly recovered.
Mostly because I cannot seriously call it a crash (in a way that most people think about crashes), if just a few months later the market looks like as it never even happened in the first place. When I think of a "real" crash, I think of something the effects of which are still present for at least a year or more after the dip.
But that's just my personal take on it, I do not expect everyone to agree with this interpretation of what constitutes a "real" crash.
Coming from someone who has used this against Clinton many times, having a congress with majority control by the opposition party pass articles of impeachment along party lines isn't really that big a deal.
> a global pandemic
The global campaign to make people aware of it would not have been as effective without modern information infrastructure. Think about Google, facebook, etc. and cell phones roles in that.
> the worst civil unrest in the US in 50 years
I'd like to see the data on that. Also, I feel it's over-hyped by our access to information. Anecdotally, I took a road trip up the west coast of the US a month or so ago. San Diego, LA, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, fairly thoroughly exploring each city. Didn't see one protest. Not saying they're not happening, just saying a vast VAST majority of the population in these places are not protesting/rioting etc.
> massive wildfires all over California
we have these every year. Again, the VAST majority of Californians are not affected by them. But people that don't live here probably believe all their friends that live in California are affected because of the information provided. My GFs parents for example are very worried about us. We're like 100 miles away from them ...
> the most contentious presidential election
EVERY modern presidential election is, 'The Most Important, most contested, election of our lives!!!!'
Just think about the Trump admin. without Twitter.
It's like we're out of the 24 hour news cycle and into the hour-to-hour/minute-to-minute news cycle.
I am not going to go point by point with you because frankly I don’t feel like it, but I can tell you that you are way off mark on all of them. As a sampling:
This pandemic has affected everything in a way that no other pandemic in the past has. The Ebola outbreak was the last thing we had dealt with as far as global health crises go and it pales in comparison. The Spanish Flu was in the era before TVs. Yet it was clearly such a huge global event that we all still know about it. 100 years from now COVID will be talked about abs studied. It is huge.
Trump’s admin couldn’t exist without Twitter. In a nutshell the GOP could tell that progressives as well as establishment democrats were starting to gain momentum under Obama while the Tea Party did major damage to the image of the GOP as the grown up party. So they sold their party to Trump and got his followers in the bargain. His followers are young, tech savvy, and very enthusiastic so short term it’s a good gamble. But imagine if any one of the Trump scandals has dropped for any other President. None of them could have survived it because none of them had the kind of blind cult behind them. Also, our president has a fucking cult. How is that not rare?