#2020 things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

secretmellowblog · 7 months

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People who try to analyze what happened on Tumblr on November 5th, 2020, often really overstate how much it was actually “about” Supernatural. As someone who has never been in the supernatural fandom ever but dID join in on the hysterical destielposting—it was really more about the stress of the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

The two biggest Youtubers I’ve seen try to dissect “what happened that November 5th” in video essays both weren’t American—- and I think that explains why they both tried to explain the hysteria primarily via analyzing the Supernatural fandom/the original show, rather than through the lens of the election. And while those videos are cool, valid, informational, and make lots of really well-considered interesting points— I can tell you that me and almost all my mutuals had literally no knowledge or interest in the fact that “oh supernatural had made nods at the ship in the past but the creators were adamant that I wouldn’t be canon” or etc etc etc etc. the first time I learned about any of that context was way later, watching videos where people claimed that fandom history context (that I did not know anything about) was the actual reason for the hysteria.

But the reality is that people latched on to the Destiel stuff because it was a piece of big useless inane zero-stakes fandom news in a time when we were desperately waiting for serious high stakes election news. We were latching onto a “positive “ piece of inane stupid fandom news in a time of great stress, with all the desperation of a drowning man who latches onto whatever piece of wood will keep him afloat.

The core of the hysteria was that Americans (who make up a huge chunk of tumblr’s userbase) were currently glued to their laptops watching the live presidential election vote counts come in. These vote counts were taking an extended amount of time due to the pandemic causing high numbers of mail-in ballots, resulting in a constant state of Election Day Stress for multiple days straight.

This was also during the height of the Pandemic. People had predicted Trump’s presidency would be bad; no one had predicted it would be this apocalyptically bad. No one had predicted pandemics and lockdowns and hospitals overflowing with bodybags. remember Trump spreading Covid lies and conspiracies?? There were so many Qanon conspiracies about democrats being Satanic child traffickers who had to be put to death, and coup threats were mounting from the right wing side. It seemed like this election was a choice between ‘centrist democrat’ and “apocalyptic right wing conspiracy theory authoritarianism,” in the midst of pandemic conditions that people feared would never ever improve— and it seemed like a close election.

Another major point was that Trump voters were more likely to be antimaskers/Covid deniers, while Biden voters were more likely to take the pandemic seriously— so Biden voters were more likely to send in mail-in ballots instead of risking the in-person voting crowds, which meant their ballots would take much longer to count. And so, in many state electoral vote counts, it would initially seem like Trump was very far in the lead— only for Biden to slooooowly build up an agonizingly small lead as the mail in ballots came in, and then defeat Trump at the very end.

So you’re just watching these news sites giving live election updates, refreshing the page every 2 minutes to see if you’re going to live under a spineless centrist democrat or a literal Qanon Dictatorship. And then you go on tumblr to distract yourself, and there’s more election posting, and more agonizing over the votes, and more stress and despair—-

And then it’s been days and we’re right at the crucial tipping point where it’s anyone’s game and the next few hours will determine whether Trump will win, so you need to keep your eye on the vote count, because the next hours will determine the future of the pandemic and your country and your plans for your entire life—

And then stupid Destiel becomes canon! And it becomes canon in the silliest way possible!

If Destiel had become canon at any other time, it would have been a big goofy tumblr celebration? But we wouldn’t have gotten the insane explosion of hysterical interaction.

The entire core of it was the contrast between the inane meaningless stupidity of fandom news vs the actual stressful election news you wanted to hear! It really is best conveyed in that meme where Castiel says “I love you” and Dean indifferently responds with a piece of important election news.

It’s about the contrast between the low-stakes inanity of fandom and the massive life-destroying stakes of a terrifying election. There really was no reason it had be Supernatural specifically, except that Supernatural was a thing everyone knew basic things about from dashboard osmosis— it could’ve been any other equally huge silly fandom ship news about a ship everyone *knew of* but might not necessarily be invested in (ex. Stucky becoming canon, Johnlock becoming canon, Kirk/Spock becoming more canon somehow, etc etc etc.)

I think it’s true that people who weren’t paying agonizingly close attention to the American election news got swept up in it, and that non American Supernatural fans also were extremely excited for purely fandom reasons — but the entire reason it blew up to an unprecedented degree was because of that core of stressed out terrified Americans glued to their computers watching election results and suddenly receiving stupid fandom news instead, and deciding to just hysterically parodically hyper-celebrate this absurd useless zero-stakes news.

I think it was also all elevated by the fact that, as I said before, this happened at the crucial “tipping point” of the election where the next few hours would determine the winner. The fact that Biden began to slowly develop a lead in the hours after made it feel, hysterically, as if the hours after Destiel became canon was somehow the turning point where he began to win; so celebrating Destiel felt like celebrating that slow turn towards victory.

The tl,dr is that it’s so important to Remember the Fifth of November …..in preparation the inevitable hysteria that will happen in the presidential election on November 5th of next year. XD. Personally I’m rooting for Johnlock or Frodo/Sam to somehow become canon in the eleventh hour right before the democrats win

#November 5th #november 5 2020 #the fifth of november #just a random ramble #November 5th 2020 is such an important day to me #it really is a holiday #but it does confuse me when I see people analyzing it primarily as a supernatural thing #instead of a ‘hysteria over an election reaches a breaking point when inane zero stakes fandom news comes out and we all latch onto it’thing #but yeah!!#this is my personal essay out of love for the holiday

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dizzybizz · 5 months

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he's wasting perfectly good coffee 🙄

#miles stopppp be careful your fit is gonna be ruined man #ace attorney #miles edgeworth #my art #happy 2024 i just miswrote that as 2020 and then 2023 i .. yeah thats... the vibe isnt it..#when gumshoe spills all of the embarrassing things edgey does... thank you.. youre a real one

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dailyflicks · 3 months

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POOR THINGS 2023 | dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

#filmedit #filmgifs #moviegifs #chewieblog #userbbelcher #userstream #usersavana #tuserhan #useraurore #userashe #usersaoirse #useradie #usercande #poor things #2020s #comedy #drama #*#by ari

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filmgifs · 3 months

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Poor Things (2023) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

#poor things #poor things 2023 #poorthingsedit #filmedit #2020s #science fiction #romance #drama #comedy #yorgos lanthimos #gif #liz #poor things spoilers #mark ruffalo #ramy youssef #christopher abbott #willem dafoe

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movie-gifs · 3 months

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This is fabulous. It is? You're in the dark period. Before light and wisdom come to you. You must forge through it, and once on the other side, you will be grateful to this moment, but you must keep going. I see.

POOR THINGS 2023 – dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

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cinematicsource · 2 months

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This is fabulous. It is? You're in the dark period. Before light and wisdom come to you. You must forge through it, and once on the other side... you will be grateful to this moment. But you must keep going.

POOR THINGS (2023) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

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theghostinyourwalls · 28 days

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I can’t believe we’ve all been cropped out of these pictures

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v0idwraith · 11 months

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a summary of the last week

#also a summary of everything since 2020 started #titanic #russia #stock market #logitech #ik the stock market thing was fake but still #oceangate #the titanic

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cinemagal · 2 years

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“CHAPTER 8 - PAPA” STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4 (2022)

#strangerthingsedit #strangerthingsgifs #josephquinnedit #stranger things #eddie munson #joseph quinn #maya hawke #userstream #tvgifs #2020s #1980s #scenes #comedy #characters #this is an eddie munson fan blog first and foremost #stranger things spoilers #10k #20k #30k

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multidimensional-trashcan · 1 month

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if the world had protected itself half as much against the spreading of Corona as tumblr apparently protects itself against the spreading of posts via reblogs then summer 2020 would just be a vage memory of some beach vacation

#REBLOG THINGS PEOPLE!!!#coronavirus #corona #2020 #my post

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cowprintsillies · 6 months

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Happy November 16th to those who celebrate (loud sound, high pitched ringing)

#stupidest thing I’ve ever made #dsmp #wilbur soot #lmanberg #pogtopia #pog through the pain #dsmp wilbur #animation #I may not properly be in this fandom anymore but it’s very dear to me #Got me through 2020 #Happy button day #mcyt #dream smp #dsmp fanart #dsmp art #wilbur fanart #wilbur mcyt

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unkreativstermensch · 2 days

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Corroded Coffin making it big after touring with Metallica, but at this point they’re basically immune to being starstruck ever again (because…well, they’ve toured with Metallica) so they’re pretty chill around famous people.

Fast forward to an award show a couple months later, Eddie brings Steve, Steve brings Robin and while Eddie just mostly stays at their table chatting away with Jeff and James, Steve and Robin get drunk and go absolutely ballistic.

Running around, stealing bread from all the other tables, and doing shots with everyone who’s willing to put up with their antics. At some point Steve comes up to Eddie, hands on his shoulders, excited and giddy and tells him, „Hey Eds, I just talked to Rick Astley! He’s such a nice guy. Robin told him he should release a negative version of his song and just sing ‘then im gonna give you up, then im gonna let you down’ and he actually seemed to consider it as an April Fool’s joke or something.”

And Eddie just looks at him, an amused, fond smile on his lips, says, “that’s great, baby, m’glad you’re having fun“ and presses a kiss to Steve’s neck, before turning around again, resuming his conversation with Kirk about about a song idea.

#I just think Robin and Steve as the insane besties Lizzo and Harry Styles were at the Brits 2020 #your honor I love them #also CC and especially Eddie being besties with their heroes #love that too #stranger things #Eddie Munson #Steve Harrington #steddie #corroded coffin #Robin Buckley #also absolutely inspired by me rewatching that clip of Rick Ashley’s then I’m gonna give you up version lol

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aregebidan · 2 years

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i love you goncharov mythos, i love you innate human urge to make things up, i love you tumblr blorbos created By tumblr, i love you meta insight into current internet attitudes toward character archetypes that's inherent to this process of creation, i love you opportunity of witnessing yet another major event for very online people, and most of all i love you katya

#she sounds cool #goncharov #tbd #the more i think about it the more i realize that this is the single most interesting thing that's happened here since i made my account #like. sure nov 5th 2020 was wild but the goncharov renaissance developed completely independently of real world events #people aren't posting memes about geopolitical events anymore they're posting memes about a New Thing #with No real world equivalent and making up everything about it ON THE FLY #and it STILL retains some internal consistency because of the types of characters/traits that have grown into their popularity here #and i just think media studies people who write about the internet are having a fucking field day right now

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dailyflicks · 2 years

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