this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] Hazmatastic@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Imagine being more confident that cancer will be cured than the US going to war. That is some optimism I truly envy

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Not even going to war. Being involved in one.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Does it not mean including other countries bombing the US?

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)
  1. US americans?
  2. How much full scale wars was US involved in since then?
[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 7 points 6 days ago

I remember having a good deal of optimism about the future back in the late ninety's. Reality has mostly destroyed that.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 176 points 1 week ago (11 children)

"illicit drug use such as marijuanja and cocaine"

Yeah just throw those two together into the same question! That makes sense!

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 81 points 1 week ago (20 children)

It’s still wild seeing billboards for weed, even though there’s people still in jail for selling it. :/

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[–] Davel23@fedia.io 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In 1988 the public perception was that they were equally bad. There were people who tried to claim that marijuana was harmless, but they were "crazy pothead druggies".

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The line my shitty parents would always give was "all the people we know who do a lot of marijuana are burn outs and don't go anywhere in life" to which my internal mental response has evolved into "CORRECTION all the people you know who are stupid enough to let your judgemental-ass know they smoke marijuana you mean".

Some of my parents best friends regularly smoked marijuana when I was growing up and neither me nor my parents knew because those adults knew how childlike and intellectually unserious my parents' judgements were around drug use.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Yeah, the zeitgeist of 1998 was... different. D.A.R.E. really did a number on folks.

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Loitering, littering, and mass murder will be on the rise.

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[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 107 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Even in 1998 they knew a black president was more likely than a woman making it into the office.......

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well. Half black anyway.

...............

[–] kindred@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Person: My great-grandfather was Korean.
The Asian Council: spends two minutes deliberating

Person: I'm 1/8th black.
The Black Council: instantly You're black.

College Humor had it right. (Catbox alt)

[–] FundMECFS@anarchist.nexus 2 points 6 days ago

Almost like how we categorise race is a social construct

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[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago (4 children)

That last one is a trick question. Depends on how you define "war". By some accounts we never stopped being in a state of war somewhere since well before 1998. But if you ask congress, last time was WWII.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

It's not a trick question. It's obviously referring to a war on the scale of WW2. A total war that requires major government intervention in the economy and everyday life. That's why it says "full scale war," not merely "war." The last full-scale war we had was WW2.

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[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There were probably more questions on that Gallup poll that had below 50%. Curious to see what those were.

[–] webkitten@piefed.social 31 points 1 week ago

The actual poll is here, but it's locked behind membership; I can't find any additional downloads. https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31088367

The original article that the graphics came from is here, though: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/29/politics/americans-predictions-1998-2025

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hurts to see being able to work from home. We're starting compulsory RTO starting next week.

[–] Tim_Bisley@piefed.social 17 points 1 week ago

We've had the ability to work from home since the 90s. It took a pandemic to make it acceptable. Now it's rubber banding back.

[–] handsoffmydata@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

1998 feels like a completely different world. I’m watching through 3rd Rock from the Sun, watched S03E21 which aired in April of 1998. In the episode Dr Albright, a college professor, hires Sally, one of the main characters who is an alien posing as a human, as her research assistant. In the episode Albright hands Sally a handwritten speech and tasks her to fact check the speech by visiting the library. 📚 Can’t imagine a situation like that occurring today.

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[–] HuntressHimbo@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 week ago (13 children)

I never would have expected in 1998 just how many of these would come to pass, how close we are on AIDs and Cancer, and that we still would not have elected a woman president

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[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Nothing about socialized healthcare. Pathetic.

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's because everyone knew it wouldn't happen.

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[–] realitista@lemmus.org 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Whoever made the poll asked the right questions.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I cant help but think these are just some of the questions asked but the irrelevant ones got removed.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I don't why people are bent over the woman president prediction not happening. It has almost nothing to do with it being a female candidate, and way more to do with actually having a quality candidate, hence why it's still a 66% "Will have happened".

Obama actually wasn't the DNC favorite, but he had a popular campaign which is why he succeeded.

Hillary and Kamala's campaign can be summed up as a flaming pile of garbage that wouldn't have made any difference in polls had they been males.

[–] QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago

Because it's obvious that Kamela would have won if she were a man.

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

The Clintons are very flawed, but Hillary Clinton was the most qualified candidate you had since probably Eisenhower. It was wild to sit here and watch 2008 and 2016 US liberals repeat mid-90s GOP bullshit Hillary lines verbatim.

[–] kuhli@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Most qualified isn't the only thing people look at and has nothing to do with how well a campaign was run

She ran as ab establishment candidate in an anti-establishment era, her qualifications actively hurt her imo.

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca -1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yes, she ran as an adult while American society runs on childhood oppositional defiant disorder. Her qualifications hurt her because Americans fundamentally don’t believe in the concept of expertise. We know.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You are getting down-voted on this, but you are absolutely correct about how so many Americans vote like they suffer from childhood ODD.

So many voters don't want a boring but competent person at the helm, one group wants the reality tv version of a "president", another wants a magical pony. If they cannot get one of those, so many think the whole thing should just burn down. Meaning millions will suffer, but these children in adult bodies don't care because they didn't get their way.

I just can't even with this mentality. It is so infuriating.

Even more infuriating - the people that say, "well, don't blame the voters". WTAF? Yes, Hillary is/was not perfect and I am not her biggest fan, but...JFC. I'm supposed to blame her for that? The voters have no culpability here? And don't even get me started on the MSM when it comes to discussions about Hillary and Kamala.

One of the best gems from the MSM? Saying Hillary was "overprepared". LOLWUT, JFC, and WTAF.

/facepalm

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 days ago

It has almost nothing to do with it being a female candidate

I mean, to you maybe. But to suggest that there aren't people in the US who are unwilling to vote for a woman is kind of absurd

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 1 points 5 days ago

When you're running against Hitler this argument quickly falls apart.

Americans will vote in literally anything but a woman.

[–] 6stringringer@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago

Honest aaaand accurate. The integrity of the campaign becomes bigger than the candidate themselves. By integrity I mean money and establishment politics despite who many really really want for a candidate.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Cancer will be cured

This one sticks out to me because the question is too vague. If it said, "All forms of cancer will be cured," which is logically equivalent to the one given, then the only answer for anybody who knew anything about the subject is "no."

So, it seems that either people misunderstood the question, or don't know enough about cancer to realize that it's really a collection of terrible diseases that, at our current level of understanding, seem to need different treatments.

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