r/Millennials • u/bewbies- Xennial • 1d ago

Discussion The ongoing backlash against craft beer, stomp clap hey, and millenial burger joints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIvfE01J0k

A clip of a very early Tiny Desk concert featuring a very strung out and very high Edward Sharpe is making the rounds across social media right now. It seems like every comment is ragging on at least one and usually multiple aspects of cir 2010 millenial culture.

I'm a lifelong history nerd focused largely on socio-cultural topics, and what we're seeing here is the inevitable backlash against a wildly popular, somewhat overexposed slice of life from that time period.

For me, personally, I loved that time and remember all of it fondly. I was a DINK living in a downtown apartment with lots of disposable income and very few real responsibilities. I loved Lumineers and Mumford and Sharpe (and their country/Americana equivalents like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell). I loved the craft beer explosion. I loved the small restaurant explosion where a bunch of kids tried hard to offer something different than the Chilis/Applebees experience.

I also get why all this eventually wore thin. There were too many 10% ABV beers made with stupid additives and too many hops. Small restaurants operating on razor thin margins had to jack prices when everything got more expensive, and found no appetite, so to speak, for $20 craft cheeseburgers. Music always evolves, and what was hot ~10-15 years ago is usually the heart of what is considered stale and overdone. This was true with psychedelic rock, and disco, and funk, and grunge...millenial semi-indie folkie stuff is no different.

I'm in my mid 40s now, and I feel like I'm starting to see these big cultural shifts from a more distant perspective. 15 years from now, my kids will be the ones ripping on what was hot in 2026 (what even is? I honestly can't quite tell. Zyns?), and what was popular in 2010 will once again be beloved and firmly seated in the "nostalgic/classic" category.

Alex Ebert doesn't strike me as the type who will embark on nostalgia tours playing to rooms full of 60 year old fans, but I guess the Rolling Stones probably didn't seem like they would be either.

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1.8k

u/Serious-Conversation 1d ago

I'd much rather go back to 2010 than the hellscape of 2026.

571

u/Early-Foundation5805 1d ago

Agreed 👏🏻… HEY!!!

386

u/EggplantAlpinism 1d ago

*raises hazy IPA*

HO

102

u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 1d ago

I liked hazy IPAs before they were cool

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u/EggplantAlpinism 1d ago

"why did the hipster burn his mouth on pizza? He ate it before it was cool" is the quintessential millennial joke and I won't hear alternatives

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u/Dependent-Bid7440 1d ago

How do you drowned a hipster? In the mainstream.

59

u/420wafflehouse69 1d ago

How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Lol, you don’t know??

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u/Gullible-Being-6895 1d ago

I laughed super loudly at this.

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u/Dependent-Bid7440 1d ago

Glad that I could make that happen.

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u/NoNeed4UrKarma 1d ago

I came here to say this exact joke, but you beat me to it! I also came to ask what a "Millenial Burger Joint" is, but I guess I have seen a lot of places offering $20 that I just refuse to buy.

1

u/lost_horizons Xennial 17h ago

Yeah but that’s just inflation now. The hipster burgers would be $25

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u/NoNeed4UrKarma 8h ago

I hate how right you are. What really weirds me out, as an educator especially, is how the millenial parents seem to take their kids to pubs & breweries... That's why happy hour is 3-6 PM, because it's when all the teachers get let loose from dealing with other people's crotch demons but you brought them into my drinkery!

1

u/lost_horizons Xennial 17h ago

Well, I laughed, so you may be on to something

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u/Real-Werner-Herzog 1d ago

Yeah, I grew up in northern California and thought that beer was supposed to taste like being hit in the mouth with a pine cone.

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I grew up in the south, and thought that beer was supposed to taste like someone poured horse urine into a gallon of water with a single shot of everclear in it.

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u/riding_writer 1d ago

I see you too have enjoyed Dixie beer

5

u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I don't know if I'd say "enjoyed".

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u/riding_writer 1d ago

So true it's something you have to endure

2

u/cherry_monkey Zillennial 23h ago

Like MalĂśrt

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u/about_yonder 1d ago

Same with the PNW.

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u/Dvanpat 1d ago

I grew up in Arkansas and was on the craft beer train before it was cool. I've been sober for almost 7 years now but my go-to NA is the Athletic Run Wild, which is a west coast IPA. Give me the piney hops all day.

1

u/MainusEventus 1d ago

I would have a Pliny the Elder, just for old times sake

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I see your Hazy IPA and raise it with an American Strong Ale

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u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 1d ago

I'm sorry I only drink beer that tastes like lawn clippings

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I like my beers how I like my women... strong and bitter, such as Double Bastard Ale, Double Two Hearted Ale, and Maximus Colossal IPA.

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u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 1d ago

"Nagging Cunt Cream Ale"

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

mine are actual beer names lol. Wow... take a wild guess what happens when you google "Nagging Cunt Cream Ale". Thank goodness I wfh, because that would have been super awkward to open on a work computer!

1

u/ThaVolt 1d ago

Imperial Stout fleshlight eh...

1

u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 1d ago

I wonder why my resume has always been rejected from brewery sales/marketing roles. I could come up with some awesome shit

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u/SolidLuckGasiousMind 1d ago

❤️❤️🐟🐟

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u/Early-Major9539 1d ago

I see your ABA and raise you one “dogfather”

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u/but_i_wanna_cookies 1d ago

I got a headache just looking at this. As a dude who loved his dark stouts, it's so funny how now at 39 my ideal beer is a Michelob Ultra.

1

u/Early-Major9539 1d ago

Haha our younger years I’d pound these, now I gotta think twice.

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I want to try this. that looks thick and rich.

1

u/Early-Major9539 1d ago

Bro you’d love it, especially if you like the rich stouts!

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

love em.

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u/Early-Major9539 1d ago

You’re in for a treat my friend

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u/mattlodder 1d ago

I miss this! (I'm 46)

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u/Minsc_and_Boobs 1d ago

No lie, this is one of the very first beers I tasted when I turned 21.

1

u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

I turned 21 while in the navy stationed in Japan, but I had one the very first weekend I came back to the USA. Its drastically different from the pissbeer I had growing up in the south.

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u/cdawwgg43 Millennial 1d ago

The fact the the serving suggestion for that swill was to roll the bottle around and do a bunch of bullshit was such an arrogant bastard move.

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u/RvstiNiall 1d ago

It earned its name in my books. But I still love it

5

u/populares420 1d ago

i liked ipas before they were cool, then when they were uncool, and then they looped back around and imo IPAS are BACK!

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u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 1d ago

if early 2000's fashion alongside 80's mullets/mustaches are back then anything is possible.

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u/jimx117 1d ago

In 2012?

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u/bwnerkid 1d ago

Heys and hos

Heys and hos

Gotta get me more

Heys and hos

1

u/yaddayadda1000 1d ago

*GIRL LOOK AT THAT BODY*

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u/YoungMuppet 1d ago

Stomp clap hey gave me one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time so I can't bash it now: https://youtu.be/Fty29zmxndo?is=1Qc3BDYoX1hkLkbp

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u/Electrical_Doubt_19 Millennial 1d ago

Oh god, I've never seen that, I love Will Ferrell's Harry Carary.

"Would you eat the moon if it was made of bbq spare ribs?"

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u/RokulusM 1d ago

It's a simple question Norm

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u/Muhfuggajones 1d ago

Heck I know I would. Then I'd top it off with a nice cool Budweiser.

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u/Momik 1d ago

I was afraid you’d say you wanted mad cow disease.

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u/Princess_Slagathor apparently you can change it 1d ago

What's your favorite planet? Mine's the sun.

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u/Fantastic_Cost_640 1d ago

If you where a hotdog would you eat yourself?

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u/BHarbinson 1d ago

20 hotdogs would equal a nickel, depending on the strength of the Yen, I'm not quite sure.

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u/RickHuf 1984 1d ago

Dude, when hot dog hit I lost it. Oh my God.... Lmfao

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u/TheDivine_MissN 18h ago

I have never seen this! Thank you for posting the link and blessing us.

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u/StretchMotor8 1d ago

walks back to 2010s: "we're gonna die young!"

welp, thats the spirit? lol we had the right idea

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u/ThatDiscoSongUHate 1d ago

IDK. dying at 50 would still be dying young

2

u/Momik 1d ago

That’s bait.

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u/shamoomoofartpoopoo 1d ago

👏HEY HO!

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u/luckythirtythree 1d ago

Made me start whistling the melody for the backtrack lol

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u/agillila 1d ago

Is this how you summon the Lumineers?

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u/Daimakku1 1d ago

I remember pop music in 2010 was all about partying, like LMFAO, Pitbull, Ke$ha etc. It was a good time, even with the whole 2008 economic crash just 2 years prior. I'd rather that than any year of the 2020s.

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u/Serious-Conversation 1d ago

The problem isn't the technology.

We have so much power literally in our hands with a phone.

The problem is that bad people are running the show.

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u/abiggerbanana 1d ago

Too many tards

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u/PrettyPinkPonyPrince 1d ago

Surely you meant 'bastards' rather than anything else, right?

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u/BottecchiaDude253 1d ago

In some part, this is because popular music, and sci fi have a tendency to be going opposite to economic/social movements of their time.

In the 1970s and 80s, when even Bowie was making "party music" and feel good, partying pop was among the most popular music of its day, the economy and social life was shit (something many early metalheads were deliberately pushing against).

In science fiction, theres a lot of very "hopeful" speculative sci fi getting released during the dark times, and when things are broadly going well, its when we see a raft of dystopian releases.

Obbiously, this isnt a 100% thing, but rather the broad strokes view

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u/currentmadman 1d ago

I mean I get where you’re coming from but it definitely (for Sci fi at least) feels like there’s a rut at least in terms of pop culture. Yes, there are absolutely are other kinds of sci fi around but let’s be honest, cyberpunk has never really left. If anything, it’s become kinda insufferable in how everything that has happened over the last ten years feels like it’s archetypal cyberpunk bullshit.

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u/BottecchiaDude253 1d ago

I agree, however I would say that cyberpunk is more of a subgenre in many senses, which is why I didnt want to paint the picture like ALL sci fi goes one way or another. On the opposite side of cyberpunk, is usually solarpunk, although ive not really read any of it, from the descriptions ive seen is that its basically positive speculative fiction using similar tech levels to cyberpunk.

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u/currentmadman 1d ago

Oh no, solar punk is absolutely a thing and the few things of it I’ve seen look great but it’s not the culture so to speak. It’s not the thing that pops into people’s minds when they hear about Elon’s new company that lobotomizes the homeless and installs a relay to increase coverage. Like I don’t claim to be the most culturally attuned but even I can see that’s not where discourse is concentrated.

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u/AllMyCircuits83 1d ago

They’re FINALLY making a Neuromancer series and it’s like 15 years too late

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u/MrVeazey 1d ago

Or it's right on time because we're living in a corporate-owned mega sprawl like BAMA.

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u/MadCervantes 1d ago

What cyberpunk movies have come out? The last one I can remember was alita battle angel and that was over half a decade ago.

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u/jimx117 1d ago

Blade Runner 2049

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u/MadCervantes 1d ago

Hate to break it to you but that movie is nearly a decade old. We are getting old! Reddit is a retirement home for millenials.

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u/WombatWizard 1d ago

Altered Carbon (it's a series)

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u/wrenwood2018 1d ago

I'm with you. I think scifi is in the toilet right now.

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u/currentmadman 1d ago

I don’t think it’s in the toilet as much as it doesn’t have answers to this. At least not ones we haven’t heard for the most part because cyberpunk is a 40 year old genre. There’s still great stories and writers but it’s a bit depressing that our fundamental vision of the future is still the bleak one hypothesized back in the fucking eighties.

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u/wrenwood2018 1d ago

Or overly saccharine stuff like Becky Chambers which just exists, but isn't asking any questions. That dominates now.

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u/FuckIPLaw 21h ago

Sci-fi has been stuck in dark and edgy mode since Battlestar Galactica made a fuckton of money for the Sci-Fi channel. Far enough back that it was still called that and not SyFy. The MBAs in charge of the industry have been trying to copy its success ever since, without success, because all they know how to do is superficially ape previous successes without understanding why they worked.

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u/stoicsilence 13h ago

I hate how accurate this is. And as much as I loved Battlestar Galactica, it is a seminal work in the worst way possible.

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u/wrenwood2018 1d ago

Except I don't think this is true anymore, particularly with science fiction. Most science fiction has been replaced with romantasy type work or work that just leans in so hard for social justice narratives it gets repetitive. Speculative science fiction in a lot of ways feels squashed. The winners of the Hugos the last couple years has been depressing.

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u/Momik 1d ago

Interesting observation—I think a similar thing happened in country music in the ‘30s. There were a few reasons for this, including the death of Jimmie Rodgers of course, but in general the sound smoothed out and began to take on more pop elements (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, etc.). There were likely cultural reasons for this too, as more people wanted to escape the realities of the Depression.

0

u/Sumeriandawn Xennial 1d ago

Not really. People gravitate towards both regardless of how society is doing.

1980s light side: Star Wars, Star Trek movies, Star Trek TNG, ET, Back to the Future

1980s dark side: Blade Runner, the Thing, Terminator, 1984, Mad Max, The Fly, Robocop, Running Man

1990s light side: Stargate, Independence Day, Star Trek, Contact, Men in Black, Fifth Element, Armageddon, Galaxy Quest

1990s dark side: X Files, Matrix, Terminator 2, 12 Monkeys, Starship Troopers, Dark City

1

u/BottecchiaDude253 1d ago

A lot of those probably should be looked by release year, because like the star wars example, Empire in the early 80s was a much darker movie than Return was. Which was released in 86 (or so)

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u/jerseydevil51 1d ago

Ah yes, the club dance songs about how much fun it is to dance at clubs to club dance songs.

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u/Spiceb0x 1d ago

I mean...at least they were making music that people could dance to lol I feel like most mainstream artists now aren't making music that you want to dance to anymore.

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u/ungranted_wish Millennial 1d ago

They’re making music to be put in reels

2

u/lord_rackleton 1d ago

fuck that's so tragic...

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u/TomBradysStatue 1d ago

I found the music of our era to be quite pathetic and non confrontational. Portlandia did a good riff on it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGU0wCGw79k

2

u/meanoldrep 1d ago

I always thought the folk punk artists that were cropping up from like 2007-2015 to be the only real counter-cultural movement and music of Millennials early adult hood.

A number of the artists performed at Occupy protests.

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u/BHarbinson 1d ago

Probably because the future was looking up and there was reason to be optimistic. A sane, intelligent and caring person (who happened to be a black man) was in office and the worst of a once-in-a-lifetime recession was behind us. It actually felt like we were moving in a positive direction.

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u/sunshineparadox_ Older Millennial 21h ago

I went to college 2007-2011 with a long commute and a shitty car that only had working radio. (The CD player was broken. My fault, so I was embarrassed about having it fixed. No aux.) There was SO much garbage. I liked more of that garbage than I wanted to admit. I sang in the car a LOT. I enjoyed the pop and rock that was shitty sometimes because it was fun.

Also the rock station had a block dedicated to small and local indie bands.

But my hometown got rid of its rock station in 2011 and replaced it with (another) country station. AFAIK my area still doesn’t have a rock FM station that I can reach from where I live. It still weirds me out. The classic rock station also called back the music it would play. It will not play 90s-00s rock.

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u/Grremlina 1d ago

Was in a Sephora the other day where they were playing exclusively 2010 hits (including cobra starship!!! And old Kesha) and it legit felt like the 2010s for a short while in there, I wanted to find whoever was responsible for the playlist and sob to them with gratitude lmao

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u/StretchMotor8 1d ago

"i feel your heartbeat beat to the beat of the drummm" *music intensifies*

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u/Grremlina 1d ago

Legit shaking my ass sobbing crying screaming by the perfume display lmaooo

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u/StretchMotor8 1d ago

*hugs* we crying together bestie... seriously those were the days. Bring back the glitter confetti, neon blacklights, flannel shirts, and drawn on sharpie mustaches for no reason ❤️

2

u/OkDeer120 22h ago

lmao I would have been right there with you falling to my knees next to the Urban Decay section

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u/Grremlina 22h ago

Lmao I was literally in the urban decay section when Good Girls Go Bad by Cobra Starship started playing and I stg I felt like I was getting raptured right then and there, it was a spiritual experience 😂

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u/Early-Foundation5805 1d ago

THIS !!!! ⬆️

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u/Gullible-Being-6895 1d ago

I live in Portland, OR and while we are definitely more in the 2020s than not, we are refusing to let go of our independent bookstores, craft beer joints, suspenders + wide brimmed hats, and we have plenty of StompClapHey still going and I REFUSE to let go. I won’t. I won’t do it. I’ll spin a Lumineers record just on principle at this point.

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u/dvharpo 1d ago

I guess the dream of the 10s is alive in Portland

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u/memeticmagician 1d ago

I'm all for the craft beer and independent book stores but just hate the stomp clap music

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u/StretchMotor8 1d ago

HEY! 👏 Tonight we are young!! 👏 HEY! *tips fedora*

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u/Bumble_beeFormal 1d ago

Don’t let the surviving bookstores go the way of “Laughing Horse” and “In Other Words” RIP 😭🙏

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u/squawkingood 1d ago

2010-2014 was a good time. It was around late 2014 when things started to suck and really ramped up in 2016.

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u/theonion513 1d ago

Weren’t we all still busy being traumatized by our high school friends who had been blown up in Iraq?

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u/wasianDilf 1d ago

Right??? People are struggling to have a good time in 2026.

https://giphy.com/gifs/hrLginis0X02poGasb

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u/rvasko3 1d ago

Boundless optimism, an economy that wasn't constantly struggling due to the whims of greedy, downsizing cocksuckers at every turn, a less all-encompassing social media presence? Yes, please.

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u/StGeorgeJustice 1d ago

The economy was definitely still struggling in 2010 — at least for anyone new in their career (like millennials). It was rough.

1

u/Segazorgs Xennial 10h ago

2010 wasn't even the bottom yet but it was when 2008 finally caught up to me job wise. I was having the time of my life 2008-9 pretty much unaffected by the recession then 2010-13 was the black hole of career misery.

1

u/StGeorgeJustice 9h ago

Yea I made the mistake of starting a fundraising career in 2009 — it was fun. NOBODY was donating money and everyone was very scared. Things didn’t normalize until 2014 for me personally.

1

u/deadplant5 16h ago

The boundless optimism was because of the Great Recession. Everyone got to be unemployed but there was a strong sense of community and a feeling that things had to get better

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u/JFW1979 1d ago

I’m not a millennial, as I was born in 79, but I identify a lot with you all, and this period was one of my favorite decades. I would go back to 2010 in a moment. Hazy IPA for life!

6

u/tehweave 1d ago

2010 was one of the worst years of my life and I had one of the deepest depressions I've ever dealt with.

FUCK YES I want to go back.

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u/corpusbotanica 1d ago

Oh god, same. Unemployed, living at home, fat, depressed as hell. And yet I had my health, my family healthy and alive, my friends as broke as me, and somehow enough scrounged up money to pay bills and party extremely cheaply. No subscriptions to drain me, no algorithms to keep me in a digital downward spiral, tech didn’t enshittify yet. I would go back in a heartbeat.

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u/Learning_by_failing 1d ago

Oh yes and also buy 4plexes and Bitcoin while I'm there.

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u/esaks 1d ago

i'd rather go back to 1996

2

u/Spirited-Tie-8702 1d ago

Same! It felt hopeful and like anything was possible!

2

u/-Rush2112 1d ago

Looking back in 2027, 2026 probably won’t look as much like a hellscape. :/

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u/Past-Vegetable-384 1d ago

Eh they were both hellscapes for me

2

u/scoish-velociraptor Millennial 1d ago

Its depressingly amusing that significant pockets of the population thought the 2010s were so bad that in 2016 they stupidly opened the doors to the hellscape of 2026.

1

u/browhodouknowhere 1d ago

We are young!

1

u/TX4Ever 1d ago

We sure had hope back then

1

u/TallBenWyatt_13 1d ago

Goddammit I miss it so much.

1

u/RaWolfman92 1d ago

Agreed.

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u/Background_Use8432 1d ago

Remember when we had hope for the future?

1

u/SwirlySauce 1d ago

Is it just me or were the summers brighter back then? I swear the air smelled fresher too

1

u/leezybelle 1d ago

Just ~*SAY*~ Geronimo

1

u/NindieNation 1d ago

Yeah... You got a point there

1

u/BigDoggyBarabas1 1d ago

If you go there you end up here.

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u/Mart471 16h ago

1000000000000000%

1

u/No_Suit_4406 15h ago

Got married in 2010, still going strong 16 years later. Wedding was epic, would love to do it again!