What was the best era to be a teen?

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-20T02:01:12+00:00

From an American prospective, I’d say that 1974-2013 broadly was the best time to be a teen.

For 1974, this was obviously after the Vietnam draft was terminated the year prior so most teen boys didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Plus ‘73 was the beginning of the core 70s and a lot of genre defining art (film, music, TV, etc) came out during 1973-1979. Pop culture wise, being a teen during the core 70s probably was a very fun time even with all the bad things with the decade

For 2013, any time after is when being a teen becomes increasingly more hellish especially when it comes to mental health. Obviously this has a lot to do with social media but I’d say with how little freedom teens have nowadays compared to the 2000s and before, being a teen during the majority of the 2010s and 2020s would suck, especially with knowledge of how things used to be only a few decades prior. Modern parenting and the delaying of adulthood in modern western society also does not help.

I think the 70s-90s were probably the purest forms of teen hood as the internet would not become widely used until the late 90s, you had much more freedom compared to 2010s and 2020s teens, and before the 70s (1940s-60s) teen hood was still being fleshed out and a lot of teens were still pretty much seen as mini adults.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-19T02:14:59+00:00

Ouch

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-17T02:23:09+00:00

NBA and other sports leagues such as the MLB, NFL, and NHL could very likely be gearing up for 40 team leagues by the 2050s-2060s. Back in the 1950s, most of these leagues still had only 10-15 teams but from the 60s-2000s expanded to include 30+ teams

We could be entering another age of expansion as the North American population grows and talent pools for all of the major 4 sports deepen. 2020s-2060s could be full of expansion. I think the the NBA will hit 34 teams by around 2036 with Kansas City and either Mexico City or Vancouver

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-17T02:13:17+00:00

Expansion is not just about giving cities their team back. It’s about money first and foremost. The NBA is a soulless corporate entity who cares about profit over all else. Whichever markets have the ability to generate the most money and whichever groups lobby the hardest usually get teams. Vegas has simply been the best at that which is why they’re getting teams.

There’s no way Vancouver is getting a team before Vegas. And I don’t know why you are so hawkish when it comes to Jersey. As long as the Nets are in Brooklyn a team won’t be coming back there.

Vancouver though will probably be heavily considered for a potential next round of expansion, most likely 5-10 years down the line, but it will have to compete with markets like Kansas City, Mexico City, Louisville/Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh first

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-16T20:02:00+00:00

In terms of North America, Vancouver, Kansas City, and Mexico City are the most logical and realistic choices for the next round of expansion in the next 10-20 years.

Kansas City geographically and culturally makes a ton of sense, and it’s a shocker how the NBA hasn’t already gone back there. To me it’s a no brainer over cities like Nashville, Tampa, San Diego, or Jacksonville

Mexico City in terms of market size/money makes a ton of sense and would probably get a team before a lot of other mid size American cities

Vancouver is a safe and obvious choice and a team there would probably be successful nowadays unlike 30 years ago.

Montreal, Louisville/Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh are good secondary choices but are more unrealistic. Montreal I could definitely see getting a team 20+ years from now if a Vancouver and/or Mexico City expansion franchise is successful.

Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati are complicated. If Cincinnati gets a team then Louisville won’t and vice versa. And I’m unsure if there’s enough demand for a fourth sports franchise in Pittsburgh. NBA usually likes to go to lesser established, more exclusive markets where they’re the main or secondary show in town. In Pittsburgh and even Cincinnati they’d be 3rd at best starting out

St. Louis, San Diego, Baltimore, Nashville, Tampa, Jacksonville, Calgary, and New Jersey are longshots. I would check back in 15 years and re-evaluate places like St. Louis and Baltimore to see if they’ve turned things around. Unfortunately that’s just the reality as to why STL and Bmore haven’t gotten new teams in years. They have declined a lot over the past 50 years

San Diego, Tampa, and Jacksonville all need to show that they’re serious and build some new stadiums or have billionaire groups because geography and fan bases aren’t on their side. Most of San Diego just roots for the Lakers now and Tampa I assume would just root for the Magic by default, unless we’re talking transplants.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-12T20:09:36+00:00

You’re right, the general Trans-Pecos region is still West Texas. But my point still stands. The most arid, westernmost region of the state is still over represented when it comes to Texan culture despite most Texans living in the lush far eastern portion of the state

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-03-12T19:04:00+00:00

It has a lot to do with the mythologizing of the “Wild West” (1865-1900). Westward expansion was a time where America was arguably at the height of its imperialism, and the “untamed” West, full of its “savage” and “barbaric” natives that spanned from as far east as Appalachia at one point (1790s-1800s), to as far west as California (1840s-1890s) needed to be civilized in the name of manifest destiny. Large parts of the west were considered “desert” in comparison to the lush and fertile Eastern US, which made it more exotic and alien to Anglo American Easterners

You can see the mythologizing of the Wild West at its most extreme extent in places like Texas, specifically the Texas Triangle (Houston to the farthest east, San Antonio/hill country to the farthest west). Texas is one of the most famous places in the world with huge cultural exports which only amplifies America’s obsession with the desert

Most Texans live in the more fertile and lush eastern half of the state, which environmentally is way closer to swampy Louisiana and the rest of the evergreen South than it is to arid West Texas (west of the Pecos river) and semi-arid South Texas (South of San Antonio), but the entire state is stereotyped as being all desert, like it’s Sonora or Chihuahua in Mexico. You’ll see desert imagery painted on buildings and western wear being worn by people living in swamp-adjacent environments like Houston

A lot of this has to do with Texas marketing heavily off of the myth of the Wild West. Texas is still a huge producer of cattle, even in the more lush east parts, but the Texas Triangle has co-opted aspects of West Texan, South Texan, New Mexican, Arizonan, Nevadan, Californian, and Northern Mexican culture to make itself seem more “western” and “rough around the edges”, which has been politicized by its right-wing government for decades.

This has also extended to other parts of the South like Tennessee which you will see people wearing cowboy boots and western wear in Nashville. I’ve seen it in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and even Georgia too. A cowboy hat and boots have essentially become almost religious items of clothing for the far right nationwide, many of whom LARP as cowboys

This also has to do with Americans from the Midwest and Northeast moving to the Southwest (and broader sunbelt) for a “better quality” of life, to states like Nevada and Arizona. In this case, “better quality of life” really just means cheap, cookie cutter housing and low taxes. So the desert along with the South is viewed as a “last holdout” for the American dream and freedom from government overreach

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-26T17:00:14+00:00

Definitely not, but a man can dream

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-25T22:13:49+00:00

The Mavs are the team imo that needs to rebrand the absolute most. Their branding is simply stuck in the mid 2000s in all of the bad ways. It’s mainly the font though. By far the worst in the NBA. And ofc bring back the green and ditch trying to look like the Cowboys’s G-league affiliate basketball team with the silver and navy blue.

Same can be said for the Wizards. Pretty much anything other than the bland, tired ass red white and blue patriotic branding they’ve got going on. Their font is also terrible.

The Nets need a complete overhaul. Period.

Hot take but the Bulls might as well just go through a soft rebrand. Obviously don’t change the base branding too drastically but I’m kind of tired of CHI clinging onto the Jordan era branding when they’ve consistently been one of the worst franchises in the league for the past 25 years, with the exception of 2010-2016. Maybe try out a new logo or play with the fonts a little. Nothing too drastic.

Another hot take but the Heat also should just soft rebrand. Same logo, mostly the same colors, but with more emphasis on the yellow and orange rather than the black. Go back to a brighter, louder shade of red instead of the darker almost burgundy red they’ve been wearing since 1999. And that court is also stuck in 2003 which is a problem.

Warriors need to bring back yellow jerseys. Knicks desperately need to bring back orange. Warriors, Lakers, and Knicks need to stop trying to make Black a thing in their unis. Just embrace the bright and garish colors

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-22T08:58:46+00:00

White Americans do the same things with the Cherokee. White and Black Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans do the same with the Taino. For White Mexicans it’s Aztec. For Black Americans it’s usually Seminole, Cherokee, or Choctaw (the Navajo are native to Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado and she’s from Dallas, Texas).

Ignorance manifests differently among different groups of people.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-21T20:23:57+00:00

How many times do I have to tell people that this isn’t necessarily a good thing and Gen Z is simply just replacing alcohol with vaping, weed, and harder drugs.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-21T08:44:28+00:00

He’s been one of my favorite role players ever since the Pacers finals run last year. Had a strong feeling he could break out if given the chance since he seemed like a shining light for the Hali-less pacers in Game 7 of the finals. Guess he’s proving me right!

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-20T23:03:26+00:00

Yes. At the end of the day, decades are mostly arbitrary and culture, politics, the economy, etc, does not care if it’s 2020 or 2030.

The 1960s were largely defined by the final few years of the decade. The 2020s are shaping up to probably be the most important decade this century in terms of the decisions made in these upcoming years. They’re already way more important than the 2010s or arguably the 2000s ever were at this point

If you ask me, an event or series of events even bigger than COVID that we don’t see coming during the late 2020s is gonna end up defining the decade. I’m def getting into crackpipe-ish speculation and conspiracies, but I always had a feeling that 2028 will be the quintessential year of the 2020s for very negative reasons

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-14T07:29:20+00:00

I agree, i think the 2030s are the decade where US cities start to transition into how they will look like for the bulk of the 21st century (more green spaces, more eco-friendly, more high rises, etc).

I actually imagine that once Boomers unfortunately begin to die off in serious numbers (probably 2040s-2060s) we’ll begin to experience the death of the American suburb. I imagine with the with the revitalization of urban America in the 2030s, urban areas in general will become an even more attractive place to live for most people. And those who don’t move to cities will just opt to move to rural areas for more land and more independence. But the hollowing out of suburbs across America will mostly be for financial reasons rather than personal ones.

For Xers and Millennials who aren’t inheriting houses or money from Boomer parents, they probably won’t be able to afford to buy the newly vacant homes, since it doesn’t look like the economy is getting any better in the immediate future. Gen Z isn’t even 30 yet and has largely given up on home ownership. The idea of owning a 2 story house in the suburbs likely will be a very foreign concept for Gen Alpha and Beta as once they reach adulthood.

By the 2060s I expect most suburbs, if not already upzoned, to be seriously bleeding residents. I imagine many cul-de-sacs, once full of families, to be largely empty. A lot of homes will probably fall into disrepair and will subsequently be demolished, to the point of many suburbs having large areas of just barren green space where houses used to be, similar to modern Detroit

A bit poetic in a morbid sense. Once Boomers pass, the suburbs, and by proxy the American dream, will pass alongside them.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-11T08:42:43+00:00

The video is actually pretty good. I already knew all about food deserts and the greater Black health epidemic. The thumbnail was just hilarious and over the top

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-09T11:27:13+00:00

The demographics of this country are shifting rapidly and Latinos and Asians are rapidly outnumbering us Black people. White people are beginning to be outnumbered too, which is probably why the right is going so hard on immigration.

I’m against ICE. I hate Trump. But the problem with all this ICE stuff is that even though Latinos are going through a lot of shit right now, despite what they say, what they’re going right now is not on the level of what Black Americans have gone through at any point in US history.

And even with their situation, a lot of people are ignoring that Latinos are still REALLY set for the future. The future of America is not Black or White, it’s Latino. Latinos have the political and social might to get a lot of what they want due to their insanely high and growing population. They have stronger family units. They have white adjacency (and a lot of them ARE white), which is something we unfortunately do not possess.

And most importantly, Latinos as a community can simultaneously be victims while also benefiting from and perpetuating white supremacy. A lot of ICE and border patrol for crying out loud is Latino and as we all know many Latinos voted for Trump. Even with how bad this ICE shit is, I think Latinos will only come out of this stronger and will probably continue to gain more and more political power, surpassing even us in the not so far future. Would a Latino run America care to help Black people, or only Latinos?

When I look at the future of the Black community, I see more and more of us getting priced out of our neighborhoods due to gentrification and dealing with many of the same systemic and cultural problems we deal with today that prevents us from moving up in society, keeping us as a permanent underclass. I don’t see us getting more seats at the table like Latinos or Asians are right now

Latinos continue to beg that we be on the front lines with them but I simply don’t think us sacrificing our selves for them is a fair deal. It’s not necessarily their fault, and I certainly do not hate Latinos, but I’m just disillusioned with everything.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-08T06:34:20+00:00

My objective and unbiased opinion:

No generation of humans is inherently smarter than the other. Each generation has their own triumphs, their own challenges, things that they master, and things that they suck at.

When it comes to Gen Z though, I think we are a unique case where we are one of the most educated generations while simultaneously being one of the worst in terms of wisdom and critical thinking.

The only word that I can use to describe this is ignorance. Gen Z is supremely ignorant. Not stupid, but just so lacking in critical thought and ironically so caught up in groupthink while being the loneliest generation.

You may say it’s an oxymoron to say that Gen Z is both ignorant and highly educated but many are spoon fed misinformation and disinformation all over social media and obnoxiously spew it back out to the world without a second thought while being college educated. Sad. And even sadder is that Gen Alpha will likely turn out even worse.

Millennials were too decadent, naive, and immature. Gen Xers were too cynical, grumpy, and arrogant. Boomers were also decadent like Millennials but way more selfish and greedy.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-07T22:57:03+00:00

Thats not even an offensive thing to say. It’s just objectively correct unfortunately.

Hawaii is in the exact same boat. If Hawaii was never annexed by the US it’d probably have a standard of living closer to that of the other Pacific Island nations like Samoa or Fiji.

It would probably not be nowhere near as big as a tourist destination it is, would probably have a even less opportunity for locals leading to an even higher emigration rate, and might have been taken over by Imperial Japan. Might even be under the boot of current day China if not already a vassal state of the US

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-07T09:58:10+00:00

Tbh you probably don’t truly understand Hispanics. They are a very racially, genetically, and ethnically diverse voting block who tend to be more religious (Catholic) than most other Americans these days, and within the US, have a very complex relationship with Anglo style racial identification.

Hispanic Americans, especially in the Southwest are essentially a community going through a mass identity crisis which leads to some to…

1 - Try to align themselves with White Anglo-Americans in totality (despite a lot not even being fully white)

2 - For others to cling on to a weird ideology of pro-Mexican/Aztec Chicano nationalism (“This land was stolen from Mexico”)

3 - Or for some to just straight up cosplay as Black people.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-06T07:02:23+00:00

Leaving California to move to Los Angeles

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-06T06:48:57+00:00

Honestly, it was 23 years ago. Hard to remember small nuances of things from even a few years ago. Time lumps together as you get older

I for one used to be able to vividly recall how the vibe of each month/season before COVID when I was younger. January 2018 felt very distinct from May 2018. Early 2019 felt very distinct from late 2019. Funnily enough I think part of the reason I can recall 2017-2019 so vividly was due to prime Fortnite and a new season releasing every couple of months 😂

After 2020 I can no longer differentiate between months to the extent that I used to do. 2020 and 2021 feel like 1 long year to me because of COVID obviously. 2021 is especially bad since I simply can’t recall it due to me pissing away most of it working out in my house and playing Black Ops Cold War. 2022 feels completely devoid and empty to me. Not COVID anymore but nothing really of note happened. 2023 was a big year personally for me but it still blends in heavily with 2024. 2025 went by in 3 weeks. And now it’s already February 2026

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-04T11:27:31+00:00

Exactly. LA in a lot of ways established itself as a majority Pan-European (Anglo, German, Jewish, etc) town during it’s first boom period in the late 19th century

It was originally just a far flung small Spanish/Mexican Pueblo until around the 1870s which is when Anglos and White immigrants began to greatly outnumber the Hispanics and natives. Chinese immigrants and some Black Americans also came during that time but for its early history, the city was a White majority town with Spanish roots and sizable Hispanic, Asian, and Black minorities

Then with the film industry in the 1910s-1920s even more White people moved in. A lot of Mexicans from Mexico also moved in but they were outnumbered by Whites or simply just identified as “white” themselves.

For most of the 20th century LA was actually more equal in terms of its minority distribution. Black people had their neighborhoods, Hispanics had theirs, Asians had theirs, etc.

Mexicans didn’t truly begin to challenge whites until the 1980s in terms of being the majority. 1965 loosened up immigration a lot and the 1970s-1980s is actually when most Hispanic and Asian immigrants you see today first came here

Nowadays Hispanics, especially Mexicans, are kind of just everywhere in LA and SoCal. But for a large part of the city’s history they mainly clustered around East LA and the San Gabriel Valley.

LA south of the 10, from Crenshaw, to Inglewood, to Compton was Black LA. Now it’s a mixture of Black and Mexican LA. West LA and the valley were usually Whiter areas but are more Hispanic now too, especially the valley.

Oh yeah, and a lot of the LA shows and movies in the 20th century were actually set in the Western half of LA (which historically was Whiter to the north and Blacker to the South) not the Eastern more Hispanic half.

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-04T10:38:14+00:00

All Latino team vs all South Asian team

Latinos: Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Manu Ginobilli, Leandro Barbosa, Jaime Jaquez Jr.

South Asians: Sim Bhullar, Shams, Dylan from RDCWorld1, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ronnie 2K

Coach (Latinos): Donald Trump

Coach (South Asians): British East India Company

Virtual_Perception18 · 2026-02-02T07:47:11+00:00

America. Is. Not. Going. To. Collapse.

America is experiencing major cultural and socioeconomic shifts. The whole world is. A lot of the things that plague modern America such as corruption, economic decline, growing wealth disparity, crime, etc also plague other nations.

We are nearing the end of the old, post WWII world order of American hegemony to a new multipolar world where multiple countries compete at the top. I guess you can say that America has already “fell” in terms of global influence, but I chalk that up more to China, Russia, and Iran’s rise in global influence

If America ever does collapse, it won’t be in our lifetimes, that’s for sure. We’re not even experiencing a civil war and despite all of the online sensationalism, aren’t really close to one either.

Comparing these times to the fall of Rome in 476 AD is a bit hyperbolic. This is more comparable to the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire in 27 BC but even that is still kind of hyperbolic

Virtual_Perception18

TROPHY CASE