With 2016 dying off and 2017 already starting, I’ve already been bombarded with a couple big deaths that happened in the New Year. Moreover, I’m also getting news about upcoming political challenges for the upcoming Trump Administration. But wasn’t this turmoil and sadness supposed to end in 2016? Wasn’t 2016 the shitty year and 2017 the year of new beginnings? Toward the end of 2016, I saw and heard a lot of social media and memes looking forward to the end of 2016 along with the idea that 2017 would bring forth a fresh start. I, however, remain pessimistic.  Why? Let’s consider the reasons why many people considered 2016 to be really shitty. I can’t delve into the personal lives of people, but I’d imagine that it had to do with the huge amount of deaths of major celebrities and the political fallout of Brexit and Trump winning the American election. There were many indirect hits too such as racial tensions being very high, sexist remarks being rampant, and immigration thoughts on automatically closing the borders. The last three reflects the political climate which is related to Brexit and Trump. I won’t say what caused what, but there is likely a feedback loop of these events causing each other.

For now, I will mention the huge amount of the celebrities’ deaths and the political climate.  Starting with the political climate, many progressives will consider these events as a backward step. Specifically with Trump, many conservatives find him troublesome. I consider Trump a major problem because he’s such a wild card and unpredictable. Yes, I understand that many people had problems with Clinton. But with Clinton, you knew what you were getting into: the status quo. I’m not a fan of the status quo, but I’ll take it over wild unpredictability, especially when it’s from someone with the temperament who can’t handle criticism. With the various people on his cabinet, his friendly relations with Putin, his total ignorance of worldly affairs, and his rhetoric about women, Muslims, disabled people, homosexuals, and the Black community, we have someone who is a different kind of politician.  2016 was also strange with the political campaigns and hardly anyone predicted that Trump would make it this far, let alone winning the election. At least with 2016, you had someone in charge and we know what we have, even if you disagree with it.  With 2017 starting, it’s just the beginning of a total unpredictable chaos, and with chaos, you get fear, and with fear, you will get more racial tensions, traditional hegemony, and populist anger. All of this will affect everyone’s personal lives, either directly or indirectly.

With the celebrities’ deaths, I think what made this surprising is that there were so many of them. However, let’s consider why so. Most of the celebrities were in their old age. But think about when they were born. Most of these celebrities are baby boomers. With the baby boomers dying off, it should be no surprise that we would see so many of them dying just because there are a lot of baby boomers. And yet, there are a lot more baby boomers out there.  If the baby boomers are now coming of age where they are dying, then we’ve only just begun seeing the mass amount of deaths. 2016 may have been just the beginning of celebrities’ deaths.So much so that around Thanksgiving, I predicted that three more major celebrities would die before 2016 ended. I was right with the deaths of George Michael, Carrie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds. 2017 and more years to follow will see a lot more.  I’m not sure when we’ll see a peak in the amount of celebrities’ deaths, but I’m thinking 2016 was not it.

For these reasons, 2016 may have been shitty, but I think 2017 is going to be worse.

I hope I’m wrong.