How To Make America Fun Again

Back to the future vibe shift: contrasting trends from the golden age of culture and technology (1994-2014), the dark age (2014-2024), and the dawn of a new Renaissance in 2025

Comrades: In order to MAGA and MAHA, we need to MAFA.

Thanks to our singular First Amendment and revolutionary spirit, America has always produced the best culture. Our soft power relies on entertaining the world with inspiration and laughter. America is the most fun party on the planet. Everyone wants to join and citizenship is a VIP pass. We can debate endlessly about the golden age of American culture, but the chart below makes a compelling case. When fun goes up, suicide goes down.

What made this period so special? It was the sweet spot of culture and technology creating in concert. Every year unveiled unique, fascinating, and challenging wonders. Part of the fun was learning new gadgets and games together with friends. Millennials have not seen as much aggregate technological change as boomers, but we adopted the most in a short period of time during our formative years. The alternate title of this piece is Elder Millennial Elegy.

Before 1994, technology was the limiting factor because culture couldn’t spread at an accessible price. Culture shaped technology. After 2014, culture was the limiting factor because woke weaponized technology to suppress the fun. Technology shaped culture. Following a lost decade from 2014-2024, we have recalibrated the balance between technology and culture. They will shape each other in exciting novel ways that will capture our imaginations. In 2025, we will enter a new golden age and celebrate America’s 250th birthday. We are going back… to the future. Aesthetics is culture. Let’s take a nostalgic stroll down memory lane to see what the future may have in store for us.

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1994-1995: Americana Hollywood goes to the moon with DVDs

Disney, Tom Hanks, and Jim Carrey reached the peak of their box office powers. The Lion King (#1), Forrest Gump (#2), and The Mask (#8) were distinctly American hits with positive white pill themes of family and friendship. That triumvirate made the top 10 again in 1995 with Apollo 13 (#2), Toy Story (#3), and Ace Ventura (#5). DVDs arrived to make it much easier to watch and distribute high quality recordings.

“Finkle is Einhorn… Einhorn is Finkle!” would be considered transphobic today:

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1996: Nintendo 64 makes everyone a gamer

N64 nailed the perfect blend of graphics, playability, and universal appeal. Nintendo released banger after banger that remained party favorites for decades: Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Super Smash Brothers, Pokemon, Star Fox, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey. Sleepovers full of competition and cooperation forged a generation of young men. Multiplayer had to be enjoyed person, not isolated in separate homes playing random people on the internet.

Goldeneye was the masterpiece fusion of movie, video game, and music:

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1997: AOL Instant Messenger, South Park, and MJ’s Bulls with Space Jam

A/S/L? AIM was the first messaging platform adopted by all teenagers. Friends could hang out anytime in chatrooms. We had to learn online etiquette and safety for ourselves, yet there was no mass societal panic. It was mostly lol, brb, g2g. No one will forget the AOL dial-up tone that seemed to take forever, “You’ve Got Mail” jingle, and panicking if parents picked up the phone and severed the connection.

South Park forever changed the way we looked at cartoons, profanity, and satire:

Michael Jordan became the first athlete to dominate on the court and the big screen at the same time with his 6th ring and Space Jam, which also merged the stars of Looney Tunes and hip-hop. If America had a pump up song, it would be 1997 Chicago Bulls entrance. The killer instinct, balance, and greatness of that starting lineup still gives me goosebumps:

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1998: StarCraft BattleNet and MTV’s TRL (Total Request Live) optimize shared experiences

The GOAT real-time strategy computer game and music video TV show dropped in the same year. They found their way into millions of homes thanks to the mass adoption of high-speed internet and cable TV. Battle.Net established a 24/7 global meritocracy of Terran, Zerg, and Protoss players. Meanwhile, Carson Daly hosted top pop stars and counted down their hit songs every day from the heart of Times Square. Both contained interactive elements where anyone could participate. 90s Boy Boy Band and Mickey Mouse Club alums’ songs are remain transcendent. The ultimate after-school TV lineup while doing homework was Wishbone at 3, Bill Nye at 3:30, TRL at 4, Pokemon at 4:30, and The Simpsons at 5. TGIF owned Fridays with Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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1999: Napster x iMac x Walkman = The Matrix

Every teenager became a pirate hacker. We downloaded our favorite songs through Napster, made mixtapes on iMacs, and played them on the Walkman. Thought and effort were required to make playlists. We no longer had to pay $15 for CDs or wait for a radio DJ anymore. Memorable songs accompanied blockbusters like Titanic and Armageddon. One of my most beloved burned CDs was the banger soundtrack of The Matrix, which we were all about to enter. It was the first stylish dystopian sci-fi that split the timeline between blue pill and red pill.

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2000: Y2K and Survivor define reality TV

The Y2K scare came and went as the final psychological hurdle for humanity to trust the machines. Lingering primal fear of technological collapse and our species’ fascination with tribal competition led to Survivor. It was one of the last shows that had to be watched live before DVR and on-demand became available. Everyone would debate and recap the latest tribal council twists.

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2001-2002: The Lord of the Rings and the last of the epic film franchises

From 2001-2005, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Spiderman dominated the box office with fantastical escapism from post 9/11 America. Several installments made the Top 5 each year. They captivated audiences telling the classic hero’s tale persevering against dark villains. Stunning visuals harmonized classic cinematography and CGI special effects. Midnight showings became spectacles of their own. The magic faded after Hollywood tried to make everything into a franchise, put a chick in it, make it gay, and oversaturate it with CGI. During the dark woke decade of 2014-2024 (more on that later), Amazon butchered Lord of the Rings, Disney castrated Star Wars, JK Rowling was cancelled for standing up against trans insanity by the Harry Potter cast who owed their careers to her, and numerous Spiderman reboots flopped.

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2003: MySpace, Xanga, and Facebook launch blogging and social media

MySpace and Xanga ushered in the age of the blogger. Everyone tailored their profiles to suit their styles and interests. Then Facebook stormed through campuses and crushed all competitors. The quirkiness of Xanga and MySpace live on through Substack, where eProps are real currency. Abercrombie and Polo established themselves as the brand for cool kids, with trends like popped collars spreading through online mimesis. Everyone wanted to be cool and hot. Unlike today’s monoculture, high schools were full of distinct groups like jocks, nerds, and theater kids. The three archetypes have continued their feuds into the modern day as MAGA, tech bro, and the left respectively.

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2004: The Apprentice, Razr, and Google/Wikipedia mean business

Capitalism and patriotism were ascendant. Donald Trump starred in the hit business reality show The Apprentice with his signature phrase, “You’re fired!” America had swagger and the new Razr added rizz. Now everyone could be a mogul making deals on their cell phones. Entourage solidified bro culture partying and was proud to be politically incorrect. Team America: World Police skewered the late stage empire. George W Bush won re-election on the back of “Mission Accomplished” and the infamous JibJab videos. The launch of Gmail alongside exponential growth of Google Search and Wikipedia delivered knowledge to our fingertips.

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2005-2006: College Humor, YouTube, The Office, and laptops on wifi make fun go viral

Campus culture took over comedy in a good way. Widespread use of laptops and wifi turbo-charged viral videos on YouTube, which was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in the steal of the century. Hilarious quotable movies like Wedding Crashers, Anchorman, and Borat gained cult followings. Very nice, high five! The Office added a unique brand of wholesome, awkward humor. As the name implies, Funny or Die was pure meritocracy for laughter. CollegeHumor became the hub for viral antics. We all became the stars - yours truly was featured in a top-ranked video. GIF/meme culture was born. The legendary Rick Astley received 1.6 billion views and counting for the silly, wholesome, and irreverent rick roll.

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2007: iPhone squashes Blackberry and our minds

The world is still adapting to the iPhone. It simultaneously transformed technology and culture in a way that no invention ever has. We all shifted from hardware devices to software pixels. Instead of going to stores like Circuit City and Sears for the latest gadgets, all we had to do was tap in the App Store. The Blackberry held on for a few years in the business realm, but never stood a chance against the revolution. RIP Brickbreaker.

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2008: The first internet campaign wins in a landslide

Hope and change was the most successful political agitprop in internet history. In the wake of the financial crisis, the nation was demoralized and full of cynicism. However one feels about Obama, his campaign merged culture and technology into inspiration. The blue pilled felt that this was the utopian end of history. The red pilled knew that it was false advertising.

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2009: Amazon eats publishing and everything else

For wordcels, the Amazon Kindle was a game changer. We no longer needed to carry books around and pile them onto burgeoning shelves. One small book-sized device could carry libraries’ worth of reading. We never had to be bored again. An oddball with a quirky laugh proved that masses will happily consoom masses of stuff through the internet.

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2010: Let the binge watching begin

Blockbuster went bankrupt, while Netflix flourished. Binge watching marathons became a format of consoomerism. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead gained massive followings because fans could watch as many episodes as they wanted back to back. They featured compelling anti-heroes that signaled darker times after the Global Financial Crisis. Meanwhile, Gossip Girl and Friday Night Lights were the final depictions of teenage coming of age stories with attractive casts and without phones. They also foreshadowed the growing divide between blue and red America.

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2011: Streaming killed the radio star

YouTube and Spotify took over the music industry. Culture flattened as artists sought to conform to the trends instead of establishing unique voices. There was a noticeable decline in quality, with forgettable songs that sounded like a dentist’s waiting room playlist. This trend continued over the next decade. None of the top hits were memorable:

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2012: Twitter and Instagram influence everything

Facebook snapped up its main rival Instagram for only $1 billion, a steal rivaling Google/YouTube. Twitter became a global town square that continues to build up and tear down regimes. Influencers built massive brands and followings on these platforms, monetizing fame without gatekeepers or middlemen. The appeal of traditional celebrity faded has every fan became a paparazzi and oversharing eroded the mystique of the stars. Our attention spans plummeted, while narcissism and selfies skyrocketed. Originality waned. Sequels, reboots, and Marvel solidified their grip on dwindling movie theaters indefinitely.

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2013: Online dating modernizes romance

Technology penetrated the bedroom. Singles swiped en masse to find their future hookups or spouses. While it may have accelerated matchmaking, it has not helped reverse plummeting marriage and birth rates - more on that topic in a future post. I will admit that I held off on getting an iPhone until 2013 and was highly skeptical about online dating. Yet here I am a decade later, happily married to a woman I met on a dating app and using my phone to build an online platform. Resistance was futile.

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2014-2024: Woke mind virus captures monopolies and ends the fun

Big Tech and wokeness ushered in a decade of demoralization. Dominant monopolistic market positions reduced the need to innovate. Bad economic incentives coupled with algorithms hacked and broke brains, bringing out the worst in humanity. Instead of being a source of wonder and joy as it was for millennials, culture and technology made Gen Z anxious and depressed. Leftist scolds took over all cultural and technological institutions, limiting creativity and censoring critiques. Comedy devolved into clapter. Social justice ESG, DEI, and BLM oozed everywhere like the plague. Then a real plague struck that was weaponized for mass formation psychosis. The longhouse spoiled culture into slop. Art was manufactured for agendas, not escapism.

We will look back on this decade as a barren period that produced as much lasting culture as any given year in the two decades before. Like monks during the Medieval Dark Ages, trolls gathered underground in group chats and samizdats to keep the flames of liberty and humor burning. We watched as every step of subversion played out: Demoralization, destabilization, and crisis. Yet we turned the tide against normalization. Trump’s shock election in 2016 and Elon’s Herculean scaling of Tesla and SpaceX seeded an aspirational counterculture. Despite the centralized top-down astroturfed resistance, the inevitable unquenchable thirst for greatness grew into a decentralized bottom-up organic ecosystem that could no longer be contained.

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2025 and beyond: A new dawn

The vibe shift is real. America is ready to have fun again. Comedians on podcasts pried the Overton window back open. Trump and Elon have mastered the art of the troll. AI is iterating and pushing boundaries daily. Platforms like Substack are finding the sweet spot balance between fun, authenticity, and economics. All these green shoots need is more water to grow into rain forests. They only need 1% of the funding to make 100x the impact and beauty as demoralized patronage networks like The MacArthur Fellowship.

What will we see next? Immersive experiences from the moon and Mars? Renewed reverence for beauty and reality? Meme News Networks? Creative studios like Lost Riviera and marketing agencies like Will that revere American spirit? Publishing houses like Passage Press making high quality tomes?

The possibilities are endless. The most entertaining outcome is most likely. And the best is yet to come.

Fight, fight fight!

Build, build, build!

LOL, ROFL, LMAO!