Some looks at the year just gone

At the end of every year, there are many videos that look at the year that’s ending. They often have different viewpoints and emphases, and some choose to split their reviews into several videos. When videos can be taken together, they can provide a pretty good overview of the year just gone.

The video above is from TIME Magazine and covers the “roller coaster that was 2017”. It’s mostly US-focused, but for what it’s about, not bad.

Next up, a much more focused video from TIME:


The video is called “Why 2017 Will Always Be Remembered As A Year Of Resistance”, which pretty much tells everyone what its focus is—and other, unrelated news doesn’t really make the cut for this video. This video ends on a definitely hopeful note, from a certain perspective, noting the Democratic election victories in 2017, and ending with a suggestion that 2018 may see an emboldened resistance movement. We should all hope so, because keeping the momentum building will be vital to ending Republican control of Congress and various state legislatures.

Next, an even more narrowly focused video from TIME:


This video takes a look specifically at the five areas where the current occupant of the White House has been successful in his attempts to destroy the USA. Yes, he only had one major legislative victory, which is a pathetic record any real president would be embarrassed about, but in addition to that one victory, he’s had plenty of opportunity to use executive actions to make things worse for average Americans. It must have been hard for the video makers to limit it to only five things.

Finally, a video from Vox:


The video is called “2017, in 7 minutes” and, seen by itself, could seem somewhat depressing. After all, it talks about natural disasters, tragedies, and international news of all sorts, and plenty of human suffering. It also includes a few of the many international screw-ups of the current occupant of the White House. The Resistance features prominently, of course, but the video’s theme seems to be at the end: “Anything is possible”, which can good or bad. If that’s what they meant to convey, did they mean it’s possible 2018 will be much, much worse? Better? Neither?

I didn’t notice the TIME videos when they were posted last month—too busy preparing for Christmas, maybe, and because I don’t normally follow their YouTube Channel, even though I subscribe to it. The Vox video was only released three days ago, but I was already away for the New Year’s Eve holiday by then. Like the TIME video, I found out about the Vox video because of a notification from YouTube. Which goes to show, I guess, that those notifications have some value.

In any case, I watched these videos today and decided to share them. Putting them all in one post was just a way to make them easier to skip for those so inclined. Always thoughtful!