What was most tragic and sad world event in this century for you?

Anders Breivik’s rampage.

9/11 or The Fukushima meltdown.

The war against Ukraine.

The living things – animals, bugs, birds, reptiles, flowers, etc – that have gone extinct. (I’d like to say, that humans have extincted, but am not sure if that’s a word. Saying they’ve ‘gone extinct’ makes it sounds like they just up died.)

All the children suffering, whether at the border, Ukraine or elsewhere.

It’s kind of early for century lists, but there was that scary haircut I got in Buenos Aires… and:

• The 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC
• Hurricane Katrina.
• Mass shootings in Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, and Charleston.
• Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Ongoing economic and natural habitat loss due to deforestation and climate change.

I’m staying out of salons now, but the rest of the world is still taking a beating.

Still unfolding Ukraine war by Putin.

The response to 9/11. What a fail for all that is good and noble in this world. What a failure of the ideals of the internet age. We decided soak the century in blood and have never looked back.

North Korea under worse leadership. Those people are really suffering.

trump being elected US president and using the power for playing with peoples lives.

Taken all in all, a fucking pretty lousy century so far!!

Every day we ignore the coming climate crisis and pretend that major changes aren’t urgently required to avert disaster.

I’m with @chyna for more reasons than there is time to list them. I’ll just say that Trump was the ultimate shattering of the few remaining illusions I might cling to regarding this country as a force for goodness and advancement in the world. And I ask you @gorillapaws, what role do you anticipate regarding your crisis from a land that plops a man with the character of Trump in the oval office?

The invasion of Iraq. Scared the shit out of me from watching CNN before my midnight shift started. All of the tracer artillery shelling over Bagdad.

The oil fires in Iraq ,scared me too.

9/11 was frightening too. Also from watching CNN.

In this century, 9/11 & the 2016 election!!! In the last century, the assassination of JFK!!!

9/11 and Covid-19, Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine and the January 6th capital mess.

In the last century the Chernobyl accident. They had warnings in milk containers saying that the milk might be contaminated by strontium-90.

More than just one, too many to even get into. I don’t want to over emphasize one tragedy and minimize another. They were all sad and tragic events for the unfortunates involved. It would be like saying Nagasaki was bad, but not as bad as Hiroshima, in the 20th Century.

I’m with @gorillapaws : the impending destruction of life as we know it on this planet, due to climate change, while so many pretend it’s not a threat and/or don’t seriously try to avoid it.

The latest such event looks like the weather in China this summer, which I’ve seen described as the most extreme ever, with rivers and lakes drying up, and threatening the world food supply.

There has been so many terrible events since the year 2000 rolled into view.

From tsunamis to moronic murderers of school children to famines to wars and many, many more.

I think we must all agree that the events which saw the horrific demise of the the World Trade Centre twin towers on 11 September 2001 must be the biggest tragedy so ar so far in the 2000s.

This cost nearly 3000 innocent people their lives and a massive 25.000 injured.

@Poseidon When you say “I think we must all agree…”, I take it you mean “we, all Americans…”?

Paco Gutierrez, age 9, always wanted a Nintendo console. However, due to being extremely poor living in Venezuela, it was just a distant dream. Using his creativity and with the help from his uncle, he made a cardboard Super Mario game, posted it on Youtube, and the Video went viral.
Thanks to the video, Nintendo’s CEO Doug Bowser personally traveled to Venezuela, to give Paco a Cease and Desist order and sue his family for 200 million dollars.

What a prick. I’d like to cease and desist him with a tire tool upside his head. Money-grubbing dirt bag.

@rebbel I am not American however I do agree with Poseidon.

@Koxufoxu Duly noted.

The Holocaust was a terrible event of the 20th century; however, it happened before I was born & it didn’t affect on me personally…although I’m sure that it was devastating for many others!!!

Devastating to about six million people, so I’d say yes.

11 million, actually, which is about 11 million times worse than some guy in a limousine getting an impromptu remote lobotomy.

@ragingloli Nintendo didn’t sue the kid. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nintendo-sue-paco-gutierrez/

@Poseidon “I think we must all agree that the events which saw the horrific demise of the the World Trade Centre twin towers on 11 September 2001 must be the biggest tragedy so ar so far in the 2000s.”
– I absolutely do not agree with that, at all.

@ragingloli What a piece of shit (referring to Bowser. I will check the Snopes link in hopes it isn’t true.
@Poseidon @Zaku The events of 9/11 must include that days dead, and those killed and injured in the aftermath, including the two wars we justified by them.

I’m an American and I also don’t agree that 9/11 was the worst thing that has happened. How many people have died in Ukraine, from famine or floods, from mass murders in various places? And actually this trying to find the worst is kind of silly. There have been many tragic occurrences.

If we were talking about the 20th century, I would go with the Holocaust and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I mean, it is so obviously a joke. You start with a set-up indicating some kind of uplifting, heartwarming story (where nintendo gives him a free console), and end it with the good-old-switcheroo punchline involving a lawsuit

@ragingloli But nothing outlandish is beyond belief these days!

Probably the Covid pandemic.

Millions dead. Rife conspiracism. Pretty much everyone affected in some way.

I believe the worst event is the lack of action on carbon emissions. Coasts and island will be inundated, temperatures will be unbearable in many places, and lack of water and food will be driving desperate people from afflicted regions.

Second I would say is the rise of anti-democratic ethnic nationalism and fascism. Putin’s Russian expansionism and ties to the Orthodox Church would be an example. Another is Trump’s support among evangelicals, neo-Nazis, and other “patriots” who can be whipped into a hateful frenzy by the mere existence of people outside the straight, white, “Christian” norm.

The ongoing overpopulation of the planet by humans.

Celine Dion

@eyesoreu Did she die?

@cheebdragon That’s what I was wondering; too lazy to look it up.

@smudges Siri says she’s still alive.

The way they ended Game of Thrones was pretty fucking tragic.

^^ LOL Thanks! I was still too lazy!

I am pretty sure the implication is that he does not like her music, hence her existence being a tragedy.

^^ I got that now. Didn’t know she hadn’t died. Don’t pay attention to “stars”.

For me, it was 9/11. I was living not far from NYC at the time, and so it affected me personally. My mom worked right near ground zero and she had to walk to 125th street, which was about 100 blocks. I was very worried about her when I first found out it happened, because I could not reach her. A lot of people I know went down to help with the cleanup effort. Also, the whole thing was a total surprise, which was another whammy.