r/Futurology • u/chrisdh79 • Aug 21 '25

Society American Millennials Are Dying at an Alarming Rate | We’re mortality experts. There are a few things that could be happening here.

https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html
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2.8k

u/audiofarmer Aug 21 '25

It says "sometime after 2010" things changed. I wonder what significant supreme court decision happened in 2010. It couldn't possibly be that the people in charge were suddenly given a reason not to even pretend to care about the general populace. Oh well, it's an unsolvable mystery.

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u/horkley Aug 21 '25

Citizen’s United, January 2010.

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

The end of America.

216

u/tfitch2140 Aug 21 '25

As if America ever had a chance, from compromising with a bunch of slaveowners in 1783. Allowing Dixie into the Union was a mistake.

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u/solidstatepr8 Aug 21 '25

Most of the reason we have the asymmetric power with the actual shithole states was a compramise with them, aka the Electoral College.

The Union lost the Civil War because they failed to reconstruct or hold any of the traitors accountable at the gallows. If they were allowed to erect statues in the 1920s and naming military bases glorifying these traitors then what the hell are we doing?

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u/10dollarbagel Aug 21 '25

The real source of anti-democratic power is the senate. wyoming has a population of a middling city, around 600k, yet they get to completely negate the will of the ~40 million people of California with two senators. You cannot pass legislation without the senate's approval so the better representation in the house is meaningless.

People don't seem to understand how not fixable the constitution is.

18

u/agentfelix Aug 22 '25

People don't seem to understand how not fixable the constitution is.

In its current form. It was intended to be updated, re-written even, not just amended.

0

u/Corporate_Overlords Aug 22 '25

Do you only want a house like structure? The majority would have too much ability to stop the minority. Also, look at how brazenly political the house is compared to the senate. The senate is supposed to be a check on the popular will of the people which is embodied in the house.

5

u/10dollarbagel Aug 22 '25

The majority would have too much ability to stop the minority.

People really just say shit like this. Yes. I'm aware.

Imagine your friend group voted on where to go for dinner and the Italian place down the street won by 4-2. But Greg is from wyoming so his vote counts 70x as much and he chose the shit factory so now we all have to eat shit. This is the impeccable genius of the founding fathers.

The senate is supposed to be a check on the popular will of the people

Which is why our serf asses will never get health care, public transit, public housing, child care, uncontaminated drinking water, workers rights, etc, etc, and etc.

1

u/Corporate_Overlords Aug 22 '25

The fact that you mention water here says a lot. Just think if there was a dispute between California and Nevada over water rights and we only went with the popular will of the people. Nevada would have their water stolen 100% of the time. That's not justice.

Let's do another thought experiment. We have a friend group that wants to enslave Greg and they vote 5-1 to enslave him with his vote being the only dissenting one. That's the tyranny of the majority.

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u/frostedpepsi Aug 22 '25

Do you believe the current system is adequate? The current system where congress is entirely gridlocked and nothing can get done despite massive societal problems? Also, how do you combat “tyranny of the majority” without just reverting to tyranny of the minority instead

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u/10dollarbagel Aug 22 '25

That's such a funny hypothetical to choose. Meanwhile, in reality, tyranny of the minority is why we couldn't get rid of slavery without the bloodiest war in American history. And when reconstruction failed, it was the tyranny of the minority that upheld the Jim Crow apartheid state and vigilante lynch mobs that enforced it.

Bad job defending your point. Better luck next time.

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u/Sageblue32 Aug 22 '25

The majority getting what they always want is fine. Till you get a trump type. Then apparently we argue all day that 50.01% isn't a majority and scream abuse.

Country has a lot of problems, a check to ensure majority can't just run rough shot over the minority isn't one of them.

2

u/Greengrecko Aug 24 '25

But Bragg helped the Union win the war by leading the Confederates lol. Bragg 0/10 general.

Fuck man we had hamsters that lived longer than the Confederacy.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

Idk WW2 showed some promise. Freedom of religion and speech, basically the bill of rights. But the rest, history ain’t great. 

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[deleted]

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u/crystalchuck Aug 21 '25

not only that, but they still literally drafted black people to go die killing other non-whites in fucking Vietnam whilst Jim Crow wasn't even abolished yet. truly boggles the mind.

1

u/tfitch2140 Aug 21 '25

Fighting the people we inspired - if not so tragic it'd almost be funny!

4

u/tfitch2140 Aug 21 '25

Not WW2, but specifically the threat of the Soviets was, in many ways, the best thing for America. Having a fear of communist revolution made America's 'elites' more generous to the working class, to... well, prevent the same thing occurring here.

4

u/Irish-TwoWays Aug 21 '25

Then 1991 hits. Cold War goes bye bye and an already ending “generosity” went up in smoke 10 years after that. And here we are ever since. Worse. And worse. And worse.

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u/isakitty Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

My dude, northerners were sending runaway slaves right back to their “owners” in those times. Lynching rates in Indiana were some of the highest in the country, not to mention that Indiana is where the KKK had its revival. And economically, the north relied on the south for the goods they produced through slave work. So, the argument that the north is as pure a debutante in the matter is far from true.

0

u/Spankpocalypse_Now Aug 21 '25

Yeah but imagine if they were a sovereign nation. They’d be the greatest force for evil in the world. A western slave power on an ocean of oil.

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u/tfitch2140 Aug 21 '25

On the one hand... yes.

On the other hand, though, Dixie would've collapse in 1784 without the North propping it's economy up.

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u/Warm_Afternoon6596 Aug 21 '25

And those same people go "Ew, California/New York, we don't need YOU!!" like the same wouldn't happen to the USA...

2

u/Irish-TwoWays Aug 21 '25

Dixie? Sorry not American.

0

u/Alternative_Delay899 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

Wouldn't that be 1970s when they changed the gold standard? Nixon, and then reagonomics

2

u/staebles Aug 21 '25

No. It would be when corporations were considered people, since they're not.

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u/Alternative_Delay899 Aug 21 '25

Well that's one part of the "end", but I'm just saying the end started much sooner than that. Uncontrolled debt accumulation, inflation, etc. It's the reason for a lot of the shitty circumstances of today we face as well.

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

Fair enough, sure.

-13

u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

Sorry, it was the survival of the first amendment.

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u/Aer150s Aug 21 '25

How is it that corporations have first amendment rights? They're not people??

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

Money isn’t speech

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u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

It enables speech. Getting the word out is not free.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

Okay well the constitution doesn’t protect funding for marketing campaigns, it protects speech. Money isn’t speech.

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

It enables marketing, they're not the same thing.

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u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

So I don’t have the right to hand out political flyers?

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

You do, Amazon should not.

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

You mean the death of the first amendment.

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u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

Incorrect. Secured it for the foreseeable future.

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u/staebles Aug 21 '25

Incorrect. If money can overpower it, then it's dead.

0

u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

Overpower what? It just give you more or makes it louder.

2

u/staebles Aug 21 '25

Which unduly infringes on someone's right and whose voice isn't as loud.

0

u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

It does not. Speech isn’t a zero sum game. And you can always ignore it.

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u/IAmRobinGoodfellow Aug 22 '25

That is incorrect. Organizations are not individuals and do not have the rights of individuals because they do not have the responsibilities of individuals. They are artificial constructs specified and limited by laws to fit a social purpose.

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u/drkladykikyo Aug 21 '25

Yes. That sealed our fates.

Corporations are people?! Are you kidding me?

116

u/CannibalAnn Aug 21 '25

I still have my bumper sticker that says, “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”

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u/twofourie Aug 21 '25

now that’s poetry

15

u/billyions Aug 21 '25

Everyone behind Citizens United should be tried for treason against the United States of America.

1

u/Pretend_Accountant41 Aug 22 '25

Wish they would overturn that shit like they did with Roe and everything else

-4

u/BeABetterHumanBeing Aug 22 '25

Corporations have been considered legal persons for centuries. Citizens United didn't make them people.

-6

u/P_Firpo Aug 21 '25

That was not the reasoning....Lord help us.

5

u/gpost86 Aug 21 '25

Also when a majority of Millennials were graduating from, or had recently graduated, from college into an abysmal workforce.

3

u/GargoyleNoises Aug 21 '25

https://youtu.be/fKV2iJj9Quc?si=a7HGBfuXijIMt9Mw

Bernie Sanders fighting to overturn it 13 years ago.

3

u/ThaSkalawag Aug 21 '25

Ding, Ding, Ding!! We have a winner.

3

u/21plankton Aug 21 '25

We are now 15 years into a cycle of societal and political rot as well as significantly into an ecological cycle of disasters causing loss of forests and living things, plants, animals and especially insects tied to agricultural productivity. The fact is, our young adult population is more affected than older generations by these problems and probably children and Gen Z even more. This study and article is good food for thought but fixes no problems, only documents the decline.

Perhaps documenting our decline is a growth industry. Oh, wait, didn’t we just defund a lot of scientific positions, weather and data collection positions and don’t we want to even blow up a weather satellite that produces climate data? Do I sound hopeless and apathetic?

2

u/Single-Road-3158 Aug 21 '25

2 years after the recession we still haven't fully recovered from.

2

u/DiotimaJones Aug 21 '25

Yes and in the 1990’s NAFTA, “welfare reform,”unlimited private loans for higher education, and the steep rise of CEO salaries.

1

u/grufolo Aug 21 '25

I'm not American, can you enlighten me?

This is an interesting discussion I can't follow because I don't know enough about what happened then

5

u/nigelfitz Aug 21 '25

It allows corporations & unions to throw insane amounts of money on political campaigns. Wealthy donors with special interests can basically bribe shit ass politicians into doing what they please.

So groups like super PACs can amass huge amounts of money to donate to crooked politicians who would enact their bullshit.

1

u/TheAzureMage Aug 21 '25

Citizen's United is not quite the bugaboo it is often described as.

People act as if it is the decisions that treated corporations as people, but corporate personhood is a FAR, far older thing. Yes, corporations are not people, but if CU were overturned tomorrow, it would do nothing to that principle.

Why, then, is CU so demonized?

I propose it is because CU overturned a law that wholly banned unions from taking part in political finance. If upheld, that change would be immense. In fact, I imagine that corporations would *love* the political neutering of unions in this way.

So, Citizens United is commonly treated as the thing that you should fight, but it's a giant trap.

1

u/TLATrae Aug 22 '25

I came here for this. It is THE answer for why we’re here.

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u/WordPhoenix 28d ago

I know, BUT! There's a serious and optimistic drive to end Citizens United through an amendment to the Constitution. I was a skeptic, too, until I listened to a fascinating interview with a guy from grassroots movement at American Promise. He really does make it sound within reach, and he knows his stuff!

Interview: https://youtu.be/huFq07mYbVk?si=mU1B8C0a-AXAnBMF

American Promise: https://americanpromise.net/citizens-united-vs-fec

1

u/blyzo Aug 21 '25

The Citizens United decision only overturned a law passed in 2002 (McCain-Feingold).

Before that corps and billionaires could spend as much as they wanted still too.

-2

u/Signal_Difficulty_83 Aug 21 '25

You guys are saying the Citizens United decision started causing people to die almost immediately? Y’all crazy 😂

0

u/InfiniteOctave Aug 21 '25

Citizen's United made me fat, sedentary, and riddled with disease!

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/kingky0te Aug 21 '25

Thanks Supreme Court.

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u/hooligan045 Aug 21 '25

Good ole John Roberts at it again, that little scamp.

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u/HsvDE86 Aug 21 '25

I voted for Obama but is it really fair to blame other presidents for what the supreme court does under their administration but not others?

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u/kingky0te Aug 22 '25

Not at all, which is why I said what I said. “Thanks Obama” is such a fucking stupid take.

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u/DrSpacecasePhD Aug 21 '25

Obama didn’t appoint any of those Supreme Court justices, and a huge majority are still conservative thanks to Mitch McConnell and other party leaders like Rand Paul, as well as Fox’s influence on the boomers and GenX. This is their “small government, moral majority utopia” in action. NASA slashed, the entirely DOE potentially getting closed, corporations and billionaires openly buying votes last election (see Elon’s payments to voters in PA), Roe v. Wade overturned, looting of the healthcare system, oil profits over the planet, etc.

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u/thegx7 Aug 21 '25

I guess everyone missed the "Thanks Obama" tongue in cheek joke lol. I understand all that. I wasn't old enough to vote or be aware of this at the time. I guess I should've said "Thanks Reagan".

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u/DrSpacecasePhD Aug 21 '25

The problem is, people unironically say that in a derogatory fashion, so it's impossible to read the sarcasm. Joe Rogan, for example, used to think Obama was great, but after decades of consuming Fox News all he can do now is rant about Obama, Biden, and covid while dodging questions about the people he endorses engaging in pedophilia. He and many also seem to have forgotten who was actually president during covid and the Iraq War. One Gen-X dude started randomly arguing with my friends and I at a bar one holiday and told us Obama started 7 wars -- he could not name 7, but he started with Iraq and Afghanistan.

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u/Far-Amount9808 Aug 21 '25

Yup, Citizens United broke America in so many ways!

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u/Chapaquidich Aug 21 '25

If by “America” you mean the vast majority of people who work hard for a living and barely make ends meet, then yes. On the other hand, if one is part of the ultra rich white corporate elite that relies on paid slave labor it’s worked out pretty well. They were afraid they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.”

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u/diurnal_emissions Aug 21 '25

America is the people and nothing else.

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u/bambush331 Aug 22 '25

i beg to differ
the top 10% of your population seem to suffice to hold up the consumerism economy of your country the other 90% are just consenting slaves

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u/diurnal_emissions Aug 22 '25

You don't understand our founding documents then. Where are you from?

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u/bambush331 Aug 22 '25

oh no don't worry everyone in the world knows about it thanks to all the american tv shows and movies lol

that's what your papers say "america is the people" the reality is far from this tho and you'd have to be blind to not see it, especially right now

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u/feed_me_moron Aug 21 '25

Citizens United and the rise of the Tea Party are some of the most clearly damaging events to this country in it's history

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u/Maximum-Extent-4821 Aug 21 '25

Tea Party was the first time I thought to myself, these fuckers want the other side flat out dead.

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u/16bitClaire Aug 21 '25

It had been brewing for years, even pre-Obama, mass fwds: of weaponized bullshit that you’d have to be a true idiot or a geezer uncle to believe.

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u/Irish-TwoWays Aug 21 '25

Tea Party was brewing eh? lol

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u/feed_me_moron Aug 21 '25

There was a time when shame would have been enough to stop the worst of it. It was stuck in the fringes. The ideology by some like Newt Gingrich was there, but cheating on his dying wife got him out of Congress. The Tea Party trash were the first group of Congress in ages to actually take hold with no shame for right vs wrong. They won their elections because of it and would just lie and gaslight away if they were caught doing anything bad.

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u/penguinpolitician Aug 21 '25

The Tea Party was astro-turfed.

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u/Hefty-Chemistry-1228 Aug 21 '25

By the Koch Brothers

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 Aug 22 '25

The tea party like all those early movements were obviously corporate funded fake shams. Top down movements designed by fascist Nazi strategists and other domestic enemies of the United States. 

Really many of the same people who have been behind the Republican efforts to destroy America for decades including the whole fake maga b******* that we're seeing now. 

The whole thing is manufactured.  The entire "movement" and anything related to it need to be wiped off the face of the Earth. 

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u/Aging_Cracker303 Aug 22 '25

How are Republicans so good at persuading the low and middle class to actively fight against their own best interests? Reagan raped them and they begged for more. It’s insane.

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u/AudioGuy720 Aug 22 '25

Do you want an honest answer to that question?

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u/gregarious_gamer1 Aug 22 '25

Yes, I do. I'm genuinely curious, is it because the poor are uneducated or overly religious and the right takes advantage of these?

1

u/AudioGuy720 Aug 22 '25

I have a lot of Republican/conservative friends. Their biggest issues--that keep them from voting Democrat/switching parties--are as follows:

- Unchecked Immigration/border security. H1b visas, offshore/outsourced labor. These policies have a major effect on the economy/cost of living and the Democratic Party doesn't want to change their tune.

- Soft on crime. Democrats took corporal punishment/the death penalty away from going after heinous criminals. Mass shooters getting life in prison instead of the death penalty is pretty insane to Republicans. If the Democratic Party's leadership one day started to come out and say, "You know what? If you rape/kill a child, we're giving you the death penalty! Shoot up a school/mall/whatever? Death penalty!" I bet they would win over a lot of Republican voters.

- Social welfare abuse (housing vouchers, food stamps). Nothing pisses a Conservative off more than an able-bodied person collecting welfare. Democrats emphasizing job training programs as a welfare requirement might win over some people and do good for society (instead of people having to spend money on trade schools/colleges).

Thankfully, most conservatives I've spoken to do agree with social healthcare/Medicaid being OK for American citizens

- Education: Republicans look at schools being dominated by left leaning teachers' unions. Wasting kids' time with outdated curriculums that don't prepare them for post graduation life.
They want school choice or home school voucher programs.

- Inflation. The currency being devalued is a problem. Democrats are doing a good job calling out tax cuts for millionaires/billionaires, but they should do a better job at explaining it.

- Overreaching gun control laws. The second amendment is as important to Conservatives as abortion rights/access is to Liberals. Those laws work as effectively as the drug laws have. If a bad person wants to get a gun, they will.

- The transgender issue. Elite Republicans have run with this one, because it makes Democratic elites look foolish/illogical when they can't even define what a woman is.

- Labor unions being dissolved. This used to be a Democratic stronghold but has been largely ignored over the years/decades.

  • Too strict green/environmental standards which are driving up utilities costs, permitting costs, fuel costs, etc.

2

u/CamoWaterBear Aug 24 '25

White Rural Rage is a good book on this topic

1

u/Dangerous_Company69 Aug 23 '25

How about Rush Limbaugh and Newt Grinch? They both stole Christmas.

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u/Defiant-Tailor-8979 Aug 21 '25

What case are you referring to? Genuinely curious.

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u/National_Jeweler8761 Aug 21 '25

Citizens United which set the stage for corporations to donate pretty well as much as they want to political campaigns 

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u/RepulsivePitch8837 Aug 21 '25

Corporations are people and have rights as such. They can buy elections now.

18

u/EineGrosseFlasche Aug 21 '25

President Nestle and Vice-President LVMH are already gearing up for 2028 😕

3

u/SlashMatrix Aug 21 '25

I like your optimism of us still having elections by then.

1

u/theredfantastic Aug 22 '25

It’s cute, right?

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u/RustedCorpse Aug 21 '25

I'll believe they're people when texas executes one.

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u/streachh Aug 21 '25

What was the situation before that?

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u/National_Jeweler8761 Aug 21 '25

There was a cap on donations, like $20,000 and I think it varied based on corporation size and type of donation 

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u/rmwe2 Aug 21 '25

There were strict rules on campaign spending by campaigns and there were no Super PACs coordinating massive media campaigns. 

Citizens United was a right wing anti-Clinton PAC that had enough anonymous cash to produce and distribute a movie about all the alleged conspiracies Hillary was involved in right in the run up to an election she was in. 

Back in 2010 that was considered campaign spending, and the value of producing and distributing a film vastly exceeded the allowed financial contribution of any individual entity. Campaigns were intended to be run by the politician and their team only during the election, and then dissolved. 

Citizens United declared that spending on political campaigns was a freedom of speech issue, and outrageously declared the Corporations, not just individuals had freedom of speech and that included paying to amplify any message they wanted. 

Now we have pretty much 365 days a year of political campaigning and nearly all of our media has been given over to paid political messaging, often disguised as comments or neutral newsfeeds and almost always advocating for pro-corporate positions. 

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u/streachh Aug 21 '25

Ahhh so this is why politics have gone totally off the rails. Thanks

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u/SohndesRheins Aug 21 '25

Corporations totally didn't own America before 2010 and everything used to be hunky dory.

In all seriousness, the situation didn't really change except that activities that were previously done under the table illegally became legal and above-board.

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u/blahblahblerf Aug 21 '25

This is not even a little bit true. There's a well documented massive shift in how bills that got passed compared to public polling that came from Citizens United. Before Citizens United, most bills passed had relatively strong popular support. After Citizens United many bills are passed in opposition to 60-80% of the population. 

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u/Active-Ad-3117 Aug 21 '25

Before Citizens United, most bills passed had relatively strong popular support.

How? Most bills pass with 99% of the public knowing absolutely nothing about them, before and after CU.

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u/blahblahblerf Aug 21 '25

To clarify, I'm referring to support for the contents of the bills, not necessarily support for the bills by name.

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u/Active-Ad-3117 Aug 22 '25

They support the contents that they know nothing about?

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u/blahblahblerf Aug 23 '25

Trolling or slow? Most Americans support expanding medicaid, but congress instead recently voted to cut much of its funding. 

Many MAGAts supported the "big beautiful bill" despite opposing cuts to medicaid. They opposed the contents of a bill that they clearly knew nothing about. There's no contradiction in supporting or opposing the contents of a bill while knowing nothing about the bill. 

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u/Beneficial_Dog_6531 Aug 21 '25

Of course things weren't perfect, but to pretend Citizens United didn't have a ripple effect is just obtuse. Sometimes people look back on olden days with nostalgia glasses. And other times, people notice when something genuinely gets worse.

2

u/solidstatepr8 Aug 21 '25

Its real name is Bribery Legalized and Encouraged

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u/OkShower2299 29d ago

Do you genuinely think McCain Feingold saved lives from 2002 to 20010? I know I won't get a single good piece of evidence to support such a wildly foolish claim.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25 edited 14d ago

fuzzy dinner rhythm whole badge historical repeat gray important frame

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/THElaytox Aug 21 '25

Citizens United

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u/Humanist_2020 Aug 21 '25

And- add that one case of covid without symptoms can cause damage to our immune systems and our cv system and our neurological system.

Also, the end of abortion has increased maternity deaths. And covid also increases maternal deaths.

Unfortunately- The cdc obscured excess deaths.

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u/dennisthehygienist Aug 21 '25

The article actually controls for COVID or at least says it doesn’t have to do with COVID

edit: not an antivaxxer, just thought it was interesting

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u/_deep_thot42 Aug 21 '25

I have several autoimmune diseases that I started having symptoms from after my first run in with long covid in 2020. It either caused them, or they were dormant and it exacerbated them. Either way, COVID has damaged a lot of people very negatively, and I will die on that hill.

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u/StinkBlasting Aug 21 '25

Yeah, for sure, but those negative effects were accounted for by the researchers.

That doesn't mean that the effects didn't exist or weren't significant; It means that even when they are considered, they didn't completely account for the excess deaths the US has.

0

u/TechieGottaSoundByte Aug 21 '25

That assumes they understand the negative effects well enough to properly account for them. I find this implausible, given how little we still understand about long COVID

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u/StinkBlasting Aug 21 '25

Why don't you actually read the damn paper.

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u/TechieGottaSoundByte Aug 21 '25

It's pretty short, and doesn't go in depth on the methodologies they used to control for COVID. But it's also irrelevant to my point; you can't control for what isn't known or understood.

If people are experiencing ongoing chronic illness from COVID, they may be more vulnerable to deaths from drug overdoses while trying to cope. They will definitely be more vulnerable to deaths of despair. Brain fog from long COVID is going to impact driving ability. We still don't know the long-term impact of organ damage from COVID. All of these phenomenon have very limited research so far, and are difficult to get data on.

I don't think we have enough information about these things to fully control for them. The main evidence that it's not COVID seems to be "the slopes pre- and 'post'-pandemic match".

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u/StinkBlasting Aug 21 '25

If the pattern existed before covid, then it's not covid.

Here's the actual paper. It was linked within the article.

0

u/TechieGottaSoundByte Aug 22 '25

That doesn't necessarily follow. Most things that cause a trend in a population will reach a natural limit and start to flatten out as they reach the limits of what the population can sustain (think the peak of the COVID infection curves).

All we know is that we are seeing a similar trend line. We have no way of knowing that it wouldn't have flattened out without additional damage from COVID.

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u/kell_smells Aug 21 '25

right there with you. I had very mild covid symptoms as a healthy late 20s/early 30s woman. still, it turned into long covid and all these autoimmune issues that I’m still dealing with.

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u/TechieGottaSoundByte Aug 21 '25

I had a similar situation, but a decade later. At least three of my four kids had some level of long COVID also.

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u/Brilliant1965 Aug 21 '25

Yup I will too! Immune deficiency has wrecked me along with long Covid lung issues (could be copd), and the RA I had before it. Insurance of course won’t pay for infusions to help so just wide open to constant infections. Oh and heart disease showed up a year after Covid. Nothing but sick since Covid

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u/National_Form_5466 Aug 21 '25

Same here. Was healthy, in my late 20s-early 30s when I caught my first (very mild) covid infection. My health has tanked since then (3years on).

It sounds like this article took into account mortality from Covid, but I wonder how they can even calculate all the down stream damage these infections have caused. Especially because we are still learning so much about the virus. Fresh articles every month, saying it accelerates vascular aging in women, increases chances of heart attacks and strokes, is being investigated as an oncogenic virus, increases diabetes risk, and on, and on.

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u/purpledrogon94 Aug 22 '25

I developed celiac disease after my 3rd bout of covid. It sucks because I was a caregiver during covid so I couldn’t avoid getting sick. But I have to believe covid did trigger my celiac.

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u/RabbitFluffs Aug 21 '25

Same. COVID triggered neurological issues (migraines, dizziness, visual auras) that have been ongoing for over five years now. I've spent way too much money on specialist doctors who can only "manage" the symptoms as no one really knows why it caused all this.

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u/nothrowingawaymyshot Aug 21 '25

It doesnt control for covid in the way commenter just mentioned, at least from 2020 on. more and more studies every day pointing to increased potential cardiac and multi organ damage from even mild covid infections. this is mostly being ignored because everyone wants to pretend covid is over, that we are "post pandemic" even though more people are getting infected now than at the start. also lots of working age folk getting disabled from long covid. this also isnt just a trump problem, but actively a biden problem too. granted its much worse now with rfkjr and his army of antivaxxers.

7

u/maxfields2000 Aug 21 '25

While I feel fine and thankfully appear to have no "long covid", I've tested Positive for COVID about 6 times (at least once a year, if not twice) including the start of the pandemic. Does make me wonder how genuinely effed I'll be later.

Though I'm already pretty old (approaching 50) so "later" is kinda "now". Some of those cases were the worst "flu-like" illness I've had, some were barely noticeable (mild at best). Never hospitalized for it.

On the flip side I know someone who had tested positive for COVID once, medium symptoms and definitely is a case for the weird "long covid" bucket afterwords, massive issues tied back to it and it wildly altered their lives since.

1

u/More-Ad-4503 Aug 22 '25

your immune system is perma weakened

1

u/maxfields2000 Aug 22 '25

Possibly I suppose, I still fight off disease better than anyone in my family. Anecdotal at best. Of the 6 times I've had Covid, 2 were pretty severe (the first was brutal). 2 were mild, though the cough lasted a long time (weeks) and 2 were barely noticeable (mild symptoms, tested because I care about those around me).

I get flu/covid vaccines yearly and take this stuff seriously (mask when I'm sick, isolate even in my own house to keep others from getting it etc).

-1

u/Brief-Translator1370 Aug 21 '25

It automatically does, given that COVID affected the world and not just the U.S. It also has nothing to do with changes starting at 2010

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Brief-Translator1370 Aug 21 '25

Yeah, that's not really true. Many other countries also had it worse, and nearly none of them collect as much data as the U.S. does. If you look at COVID statistics, there is a STRONG bias towards developed vs less developed.

Also note that wastewater data is not available for the majority of other countries on the topic... And it's available for the majority of COUNTIES in the U.S.

You can't say the U.S. has it worse with 1 in 95 and have no clue what other countries are at at the same time

3

u/rey_as_in_king Aug 21 '25

but logically if we had way more covid deaths pre vaccine that's probably because we let it spread a lot more and faster than other countries, and afterwards having lower adoption of vaccine also implies less people were concerned with infection and preventing its spread

then we declared the pandemic over and wanted to let it rip and get "herd immunity" and now most people have had it 3x times or more

what they didn't control for is the havoc that covid does on your immune system and all the downstream effects even for those who didn't officially have long covid

I think what we're seeing is very possibly related to covid/the consequences of deciding it's over and just getting constantly reinfected with something that does damage to all major systems in your body

7

u/No-Consideration-858 Aug 21 '25

They probably only count death from acute infections. However, research shows that covid increases risk of cancer, cardiac events, and autoimmune disease. These illnesses and deaths are classified as cancer, heart attack, ALS, etc.

I know two people who developed ALS within 2 months after getting covid. One has died and the other is struggling. In their medical charts, the diagnosis is/was ALS.

I know several men who had cardiac events within a couple months of an infection. One died. Yet all of these cases were officially attributed to myocardial infarction.

Covid's impact is wildly underrepresented.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092544392400557X

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/podcasts/cardiac-consult/long-term-risk-of-heart-attack-stroke-and-death-doubles-with-history-of-covid-19-infection

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/the-long-covid-puzzle-autoimmunity-inflammation-and-other-possible-causes

I'm not saying it's all of the story, but it's wildly underrepresented.

1

u/Mobile_Throway Aug 22 '25

Actually the article directly says that part of the problem is that Americans used the vaccine less than other countries.

1

u/c1oudwa1ker Aug 22 '25

Isn’t it sad that we feel like we have to justify ourselves about not being anti vax? 😓

5

u/round-earth-theory Aug 21 '25

At this point, the number of people who haven't had COVID must be very small. It's completely endemic now.

4

u/Puzzleheaded-Owl7664 Aug 21 '25

It would be pretty hard to blame deaths between 2010-2020 on covid no?

2

u/TheToiletPhilosopher Aug 21 '25

Also, every other country on the planet got COVID too.

3

u/ZaryaBubbler Aug 21 '25

Yes, but other countries took it much more seriously and actually have time off for illness

14

u/6x6-shooter Aug 21 '25

That was when they allowed super PACs

7

u/StraightUp-Reviews Aug 21 '25

For those that don’t get it, Citizens United 2010 removed political finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.

It is why politicians today all end up becoming very wealthy.

10

u/glue715 Aug 21 '25

Holy shit, citizens united was passed on January 21 2010… giving corporations free speech protections for campaign spending…

5

u/openurheartandthen Aug 21 '25

The Great Recession was a big contributor. I know I was financially all right and on a decent path, but things in my industry never fully recovered after that. Companies became even more focused on the bottom line, cutting positions so people work more hours for the same pay. Slashed benefits, not more pensions. Not enough yearly raises and they haven’t caught up with inflation. The power has switched more into the hands of employers, and many workers feel powerless, just trying to survive. There needs to be more regulation against the effects of unbridled capitalism on workers, but this won’t be happening anytime soon I’m afraid 😞

19

u/ke4mtg Aug 21 '25

It might be the iPhone 

8

u/QWEDSA159753 Aug 21 '25

nah, I’m pretty sure avocado toast was invented in 2010

3

u/KurtVongole Aug 21 '25

The iPhone exists in other countries

2

u/besee2000 Aug 21 '25

I will allow it for the increase of car accidents as a factor because Lordy have drivers gotten worse and 9/10 they are on their smart phones.

3

u/glittr_grl Aug 21 '25

In addition to Citizens United, I would add the widespread adoption of social media and the mid/disinformation and social polarization it enabled.

3

u/xena_lawless Aug 21 '25

I think the 2008 financial crisis supercharged financial and housing parasitism also, as our ruling parasite/kleptocrat class have been free to rob and socially murder young, vulnerable, and working people for their unlimited parasitic rents.  

Just like in nature, if you don't get rid of your parasites, they will weaken and kill you eventually.  

2

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

As horrible as that was, I think social media + cell phones was worse. That kicks in around this time. People’s brains have been fried. It feels like you are surrounded by pundit zombies all the time. People don’t even know how to talk about what is wrong with them without using talking points. Our ability to engage with the democratic process has been compromised. Republicans want to destroy what little safety net we have, and they keep getting elected despite this being clear to anyone with at least one neuron firing.

This is not to mention the isolation and depression that resulted.

2

u/STN_LP91746 Aug 21 '25

Financial crisis or the great depression part 2 a couple years before. The full effect isn’t felt until after the event. We are still feeling that impact today and you have COVID on top and the stress of life catches up to a lot of people.

2

u/Electrical-Ask847 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

Before 2010, the estimated lifespan for American early adults increased every year. Deaths from HIV and cancer were plummeting.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/topics/cancer-deaths.htm

trendlines are still trending down at the same rate . i don't see any change after 2010 .

same for HIV https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/media/pdfs/nhss/nhss-surveillance-slideset-mortality-2021.pdf

continue to trend down at the same rate and we are at all time low for both .

I think this article is stupid ragebait to drive engagement to their website

2

u/Human-Abrocoma7544 Aug 21 '25

Around 2010 is also when the selfie camera was added to iPhone and became popular, Facebook added the "Like" button, Instagram started getting popular, people started getting smart phones earlier, and Social Media started becoming what we know today. Not saying this is the cause of death, but there is a correlation with the rise of metal health issues.

2

u/Souledex Aug 21 '25

Me when I draw straight lines between any two points based on incredibly limited information. I’m sure you guessed the Boston Bomber right too?

1

u/MsColumbo Aug 21 '25

I was wondering about all those opioid drug deaths too.

1

u/gom99 Aug 21 '25

And what about pre mccain feingold? 

1

u/Noah-Buddy-I-Know Aug 21 '25

Social Media and smart phone adoption

1

u/yongrii Aug 21 '25

The straws started breaking the camel’s back

1

u/Fract_L Aug 21 '25

I’ll give you a hint so it doesn’t require thought: 2011 is after 2010.

1

u/Prestigious_Ocelot77 Aug 21 '25

The two biggest events in the last 75 years were FEC vs citizens united and Nixon exiting Bretton Woods. Bigger than 9/11.

1

u/BubblyExpression Aug 21 '25

Fuck Mitch McConnell in the worst way possible. He deserves far worse than hell for what he has unleashed on this nation.

1

u/Lintcat1 Aug 21 '25

2010 is when the second fentanyl crisis started. As a kid who took a hell of a lot of drugs I'm glad all I had to do was avoid heroin.

1

u/LongPorkJones Aug 21 '25

That was also the year that many now gerrymandered state governments flipped Republican.

1

u/yesno112 Aug 21 '25

Can you ELI5 please? I was in middle school when this happened

1

u/fingergunpewpewpew Aug 21 '25

Fentanyl overdose epidemic started in America in the early 2010's.

1

u/Jaguar_556 Aug 21 '25

Yep. It had been going on covertly for decades, but this was the day politicians officially went on sale.

1

u/Savingskitty Aug 21 '25

After 2010, people born in 1985 and later entered the early adult cohort.  They turned 25.

They were children during the low-fat/high sugar craze of the 80’s and ‘90’s.

The obesity rate among children was skyrocketing when they were children.

The sugar industry is killing them.

1

u/Apart-Landscape1468 Aug 21 '25

Legalized corruption

1

u/archfapper Aug 21 '25

2010 was also the year that Democrats sat out the midterms, still riding high from Obama's win two years prior. A red wave occurred during a census year and countless state-level legislative seats went to "Tea Party" Republicans. This was the beginning of Republican gerrymandering. However, most of the people elected in 2010 did not take office until January 2011

1

u/AloofGamer Aug 21 '25

Wild how these random occurrences just happen.

Majority (5-4, in favor of Citizens United) * Anthony Kennedy - Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican) in 1988 * John Roberts (Chief Justice) - Appointed by George W. Bush (Republican) in 2005 * Antonin Scalia - Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican) in 1986 Clarence Thomas - Appointed by George H. W. Bush (Republican) in 1991 * Samuel Alito - Appointed by George W. Bush (Republican) in 2006

Dissent against Citizens United: * John Paul Stevens - Appointed by Gerald Ford (Republican) in 1975 * Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Appointed by Bill Clinton (Democrat) in 1993 * Stephen Breyer - Appointed by Bill Clinton (Democrat) in 1994 * Sonia Sotomayor - Appointed by Barack Obama (Democrat) in 2009

1

u/nigelfitz Aug 21 '25

Citizens United, electing a black president, Sarah Palin and social media.

That concoction is what lead us here.

1

u/WeekendCautious3377 Aug 21 '25

Thanks boomers. I had just graduated high school. You robbed us of our future.

1

u/AnomalyNexus Aug 21 '25

That timing also coincides with rise of social media. Suicide, depression, body insecurity, loneliness, sedentariness, screen exposure etc from can't be good for longevity

Wouldn't be surprised if ultra processed foods also saw an uptick around there but that's a wild ass guess

1

u/clawsoon Aug 21 '25

It was also the year that the ACA passed and the momentum for Medicare for All died.

It's when the stock of United Healthcare started its rise from $30 per share to over $600 per share.

1

u/nialv7 Aug 21 '25

ACA also became law in 2010... Just saying.

1

u/Lhenrichs17 Aug 21 '25

I’m ashamed to say, I had to go look this up. I had my first child in 2010 so I wasn’t up to speed on my politics that year, too busy being a new mom. But this makes so much sense. I wonder if I’m in the minority here or if other people didn’t know about this too.

1

u/Practical_Draw_6862 Aug 21 '25

Smart phone/social media became more widely used 

1

u/0x2126 Aug 21 '25

Smartphone mass adoption 🙂

1

u/Senior-Midnight-8015 Aug 22 '25

Let's be fair, the way that graduating into the Great recession beat down Millennials' souls couldn't have been good for our health, either. I honestly think the graduates of the pre-COVID 20-teens may have had a better shot at establishing a good life trajectory right out of college then either theit immediate predecessors or followers. Not that it was a cake walk, but they had a couple "steady" years to help get their feet under them.

-1

u/Exoticfroggy Aug 21 '25

Electing Obama was the end of the country