Reason.tv: Worst. Decade. Ever.

Hands down, the '00s were the worst political decade at least since the 1990s.

Reason.tv looks back at the (lack of) personalities, the scandals, and the screw-ups that made us all want to forget the first 10 years of the 21st century.

Approximately 2.10 minutes. No politicians were hurt in the making of this video.

Produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie.

Scroll down for downloadable versions of this video.

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For an alternate take on The Aughts, read Jesse Walker's Five Reasons For Optimism.

Comments

[ed]

OK, I'll say it now so somebody doesn't have to later: this is the 9th year of the decade (and millennium), not the 10th.

[Lamar]

2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

That's ten years, no? It sounds completely retarded to say that 2000 wasn't part of the 2000s. But you are correct about the millennium since there was no year zero, the second millenia started in 2001.

[ed]

Alex: Zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
James: How does a journalist count to ten?

[Some dude]

Psst. The first decade was from the year A.D. 1 to 10.

[Lamar]

A decade is a period of ten years.....any ten years. You'll just have to get used to the fact that we refer to decades based on the tens digit of the calendar year. This common usage supersedes the mathematical anomaly.

[Brian Sorgatz]

Get used to it? No! I thought the point of being the sort of man or woman who reads Reason is to rebel against the general trend towards stupidity. The absence of a year zero in the calendar has necessary consequences.

[Brian Sorgatz]

...was to rebel...

[JKP]

I love the rebellious way in which you conform to grammatical and mathematical rules. Wait a minute....

[Brian Sorgatz]

Devotion to truth is the ultimate rebellion.

[joshua corning]

Everyone treats year x0 as the first year of the decade and year x9 as the last year of a decade.

It works no one is hurt and it helps us gauge history.

I think Hayak would approve.

Breaking tradition for the sake of tradition does not demonstrate intelligence or some vague sense of rebellion. It only frames you as a brat.

[joshua corning]

...for the sake of breaking tradition...

[Chuckles McGurk]

True, a decade can be used to describe any period of 10 years. But no one, for example, said that we were starting a new decade in 2004. The first decade of our current era was from 1 A.D. through 10 A.D. just as the first century was from 1 A.D. through 100 A.D. and the first millennium was from 1 A.D. through 1000 A.D. Each subsequent decade, century and millennium builds upon that. The arranging of decades by "x0's" is a fairly recent affair done merely for convenience.

[Hannibal of Carthage!!]

"Psst. The first decade was from the year A.D. 1 to 10."

I knew you descendants of Rome would eventually scrub me from existence!

[nigger penis]

So then... the decade known as "The 1980s" were the years:

1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990?

Yeah, you're retarded.

[Slut Bunwalla]

By your reasoning, that means 2000 was the last year of the 1990s, 1990 was the last year of the 1980s, etc.

2010 is going to be part of...drum roll...the 2010s! That way 2020 will be part of the 2020s! See how that works?

[FrBunny]

So which decade had only nine years? One of them had to.

[Ska]

The first one.... although January 10, 0000 has a nice ring to it.

I'm just dicking around of course.

[Lamar]

We just conveniently disregard that one year because it is universally understood that we refer to decades based on the tens digit of the calendar year.

[Tulpa]

A new decade, like a new century and a new milennium, starts at every moment in time. We have certain decades, centuries, etc that we treat specially. So the 1900s, 20th century, and the second century of the United States, are three centuries that overlap but are not identical. Likewise, the decade of the 2000s need not be contained within the 21st century.

[Tara Davis]

Well said, Tulpa.

I need to make a copy of what you just wrote as boilerplate response to pedantic douchebags for the end of every decade.

[Episiarch]

Well, are we talking about zero-based indexing or 1-based indexing? That's computer talk for "I am a nerd".

[Some dude]

Which is the way years are indexed. There was no year zero.

[Pro Libertate]

Why don't we just renumber 1 BC (or BCE) as The Year Zero? Then everything will be pure and correct.

[Lamar]

You can't just change the first year from the penis-looking number to the vagina-looking number. Jeeez...

[Pro Libertate]

Okay, how about the Year Z?

[Lamar]

I don't know what the letter Z looks like, but it better not be a butthole.

[kinnath]

When Dionysius Exiguus computed the date of Christ's birth in the Middle Ages, he named the year of the Nativity 1 A.D., and stated that Jesus' birthdate was December 25 of that year. The year immediately before this was the year 1 B.C. Whether from mathematical ignorance or design, he did not include a year zero.

So if you're talking decades/centuries/millenia associated with the Julian/Gregorian calendar, then the Aughts run from 2001 through 2010. But there is little point in arguing this with the average Joe or Jane on the street.

Of course you can establish any block of time and give it a snazzy name if you like.

For me, what I consider the "sixties" is related to popular culture starting with the British invasion in 63/64 time frame and ending with Watergate in the 72 time frame.

For me, the 70's were noted for the collapse of the Nixon administration, followed by Ford, and then Carter.

[Al Adab]

9th year of the millenium and century yes, 2001 being the first year. However 05 to 15 is a decade. We just use a convention to say the 60's the 70's etc. That bears no relation to the calendar.

[Some dude]

I object! And not just because 05-15 is eleven years. You can't just do that. If you take your convention all the way back, the first decade has nine years. I am inflexible and cannot handle that inconsistency. I would go mad.

[Lamar]

Our current calendar was created in the 1500s, so going back further than that is a bit iffy, wouldn't you say?

[The Libertarian Guy]

Nice screen shot of the two shit sandwiches most voters chose in 2000.

[Xeones]

No politicians were hurt in the making of this video.

Damn shame, that.

[BakedPenguin]

Beat me to it. They need to try harder next time.

[Dobboie Domo]

Yeah buddy. Ex Dictator Bush single handedly ran this country into the ground.

RT
http://www.privacy-resources.es.tc

[Death Panelist]

At least his algorithm includes that the best dictators do things single-handedly.

[The Libertarian Guy]

Privacy Bot's leaving out the ground-running-intoedness of Bush Version 1.0, Clinton, and now Obama.

[JohnR]

Oh, thank god Barrack is here to save us all. He's going to give us free stuff; everything for everybody...all the time and all for free.

Better buy gold bozo.

[Hraley2002]

Yeah buddy. Ex Dictator Bush single handedly ran this country into the ground.

Yeah the way he took over the auto industry, Trying to take over health care industry, Took over the banks, Trying to regulate free speech on radio and the Internet all the while on the golf course and partying like it's 1999 at the White House with our money not to mention bankrupting the country. That damn BuSSSSh. Oh damn my mistake it is that Marxist Obama doing this. My mistake.

[Domo Aretardo]

Ye gods, the spambots are getting political!

[kinnath]

Nixon, Ford, Carter -- The Aughts have nothing on the 70's.

[The Libertarian Guy]

+1

[kinnath]

The 70's started with Kent State and ended with disco. I don't see how it could get worse than that.

[Al Adab]

The "sixties" ended with Kent State.

[Chuck Heston's Ghost]

The sixties never really ended since we're still stuck with herpes of social movements. Damn, dirty hippies.

[kinnath]

Da end of da 60's would correspond wit da start of da 70's.

[Syd Henderson]

The thirties started with the aftermath of the Stock Market crash, contained most of the Great Depression, and ended with World War II. I'd say that's a lot worse than the 1970s.

Although the 1340s were the pits, what with people dying of the Black Death all over the place. I hate it when that happens.

[The Libertarian Guy]

I argued years ago with a scary-crazy right-winger who thought the victims at Kent State not only got what they deserved... but there should have been more shot that day.

No, his name wasn't Michael Savage.

[Comedian]

Who, P.J. O'Rourke?

[The Libertarian Guy]

No, a local-level scary-crazy right-winger. Fortunately, he never managed to gain elected office.

[sage]

I like the Dean scream at the end. Nicely done, but you could have squeezed a bit more turd onto that bagel. However, it would have then been a 90 minute clip.

[Episiarch]

"Worst decade ever" is probably going to be the mantra for every decade going forward for a while, so get used to it.

[Pro Libertate]

Recent decades have lacked the mass slaughter and global conquest attempts of earlier decades, so I hesitate to use hyperbolic language for the Aughts.

[Mad Elf]

1940s ftw!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Worst decade ever? The penultimate year of the Otz is appropriately named by reason, it seems.

[Rich]

There was no year zero.

Yet.

[sage]

But this was the decade that Baby Jesus was elected president! That automatically erases all the "bad" stuff and makes it the bestest decade evah!

/Obamellatio

[Barack Obama]

That's President Baby Jesus, peon.

[LibertyBill]

Barney is the most competent being in that whole video

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ouch for Nick.

[LibertyBill]

Nick is the exception

[R C Dean]

Color me unconvinced.

Worst decade ever for domestic politics/Americans in general? I would go with the '30s, what with the Great Depression and FDR dismantling our Consitutional Republic of limited enumerated powers.

For the world in general? Have to be the '40s, what with WWII, the Nazi genocide, the conquest of Eastern Europe by the Soviets, and the ChiComs taking power in China.

[The Libertarian Guy]

+1, R.C.

[MlR]

+2

[Ratko]

Nick, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Kevin]

Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, by Sirhan Sirhan. Not sure why Hillary gets slagged for saying that.

[Obey the Fist]

It was a "let's not count our chickens before they're hatched" type of comment about Obama becoming the Dem nominee. As in, "he could still be assassinated before the election..."

[Nathan]

She said it during the 2008 primary, when Obama held a healthy lead. She basically was saying it was still early in the race, because by June? of 1968, RFK was assassinated during the Democratic primary. She was more or less implying that since Obama could still be assassinated, she had a reason to not drop out of the race.

[Nathan]

I'm too slow. Silver medal for me.

[Kevin]

Uhhmmm, wow. That's absolutely tasteless. I thought Joe Biden was the reigning champ of tacky, brain-dead comments, but Hillary has a real gift for it as well.

[The Libertarian Guy]

Proof that Obama is (unfortunately) an American-born citizen:

The Clintons didn't use his citizenship as a cudgel in the 11th hour of the primary.

[daveinct]

1940 to 1949 hands down. Or 1910 to 1919. millions slaughtered for nothing

[Franz Ferdinand]

Not for nothing!

[BrianMarc]

Sad, these liberal Cassandras. Apart from the fact that we liberated a country from a tyrant, we also began the process of finally showing the weakness, fecklesness and sheer hypocrisy of liberl/progressive policies. The election of Obama and his resulting disatrous presidency will have the effect of alerting the citizenry of the dangers of emeperors with no clothes. Look for 2010 and 2012 as the cleaning of the Wzashington Augean stables, and the reasserting of the fundamental libertarian structures on which this our great was founded. Of course, this will only be possible if the progressives don't find more ways to disenfranchise us in the intervening time. But we have been warned, and I belive that the grass roots rebellions we are seeing develop will eventually change the entire system for the better.

[NY Denizen]

Well said, sir! The excesses of the Obama Administration will act as the canary in the mine for those of us who have been fooled by the silver-tongued community organizer. Glenn Beck is the modern-day Paul Revere. So let the market and the people rule! Then we can achieve anything.

[Dave]

2010 is the end of the decade. Zero is not a counting number

[Lamar]

"2010 is the end of the decade. Zero is not a counting number"

Zero is a place holder, and since we refer to decades by the ten digit and not the one digit, the zero in the one place is irrelevant.

[jake]

Worst decade ever? I would guess those in charge of editorial content at Reason were born in the late 80s or early 90s. The past decade doesn't even come close to being the worst decade. How about the 30s, 40s, or 70s? Oh right, none of the kids couldn't use GW Bush to make their point?

[JohnR]

Now that we've seen what Obama and his radical Left congress have done, I'll agree this is the worst decade ever. The '30s come in a close second though; tail end of the Depression, fascism in ascent (with the nazis gaining total power in Germany) and Stalin's communist purges in full force and a world full of soft-brainers who actually...lol...though marxism was a valid system.

[jose lori]

Omen of things to come. It only took the marxist Dems, under obama, one year to make the entire decade the worst ever. You just lived through the end of the end. Hope all of you that voted for obama and the rest of the dems are proud.

[hmm]

Has there been a best decade ever for politicians. I think you may be comparing brown shit to green shit.

[Hraley2002]

I would have to say the 1930's just may have been a bit WORSE then the last decade/

[Dick Clark]

A shitty decade to be sure, but nowhere near as bad as the 1970's. Not even close. The next decade will get a good start on being the worst ever, with Chairman Soetoro around for at least the first 3 years.

[Tom]

Worst decade? Really?

1860 - 1870?
1930 - 1939?
1940 - 1950?

Guess you can peddle this tripe when ancient history means the 1980s.

[joshua corning]

From a libertarian perspective isn't it a good thing that our leaders show themselves to be complete incompetents?

I guess the hope was that such blatant stupidity would be rewarded by a quick removal from office. That sort of worked only problem was team b proved to be as bad or worse.

but yeah in my living memory this is the worse political decade ever.

I am trying not to be nostalgic for my younger years but i don't think it is fatalistic to say that the 80s and 90s were better. I can defend this by adding i thought the 90s were better then the 80s

[joebanana]

Zero is too a number, without it you couldn't get to one.

[blair]

disagree. the 1990s were the worst. all of the acrimony directed at Bush in the '00s was deserved over his hijacking of the 9/11 tragedy as a springboard for illegal wars and the profiteering thereof. all of the sniping at Clinton was, as Hillary rightly identified and history has revealed, a vast right-wing conspiracy to flood the media with false accusations hoping the public would believe a lie told if often enough. it led directly to their believing that Bush could be a better president than Clinton's right-hand man could, and that led to all of the evils of the '00s.

[Sniktpool]

Can the Jacket PLEASE make an expanded version of this?

[wffwe]

I guess the hope was that such blatant stupidity would be rewarded by a quick removal from office. That sort of worked only problem replica omega was team b proved to be as bad or worse.

but yeah in my living memory this is the worse political decade ever.

[abercrombie milano]

My only point is that if you take the Bible straight, as I'm sure many of Reasons readers do, you will see a lot of the Old Testament stuff as absolutely insane. Even some cursory knowledge of Hebrew and doing some mathematics and logic will tell you that you really won't get the full deal by just doing regular skill english reading for those books. In other words, there's more to the books of the Bible than most will ever grasp. I'm not concerned that Mr. Crumb will go to hell or anything crazy like that! It's just that he, like many types of religionists, seems to take it literally, take it straight...the Bible's books were not written by straight laced divinity students in 3 piece suits who white wash religious beliefs as if God made them with clothes on...

[nike shox]

is good