2002 Roleplay

Year = { Aesthetics = { "Y2k", McBling" } Music = { "Bubblegum pop", "boy bands", "pop punk", "indie rock", "eurotrance" } Consoles = { "Gamecube", "Playstation 2", "Xbox" } Fashion = { "frosted tips", "low rise jeans", "baggy pants", "crop tops", "Abercrombie & Fitch" } Does Not Exist = { "MySpace", "Smartphones", "YouTube", "Facebook", "4chan", "Generative AI" } Has Not Happened = { "Great Recession", "Retail Apocalypse", "Covid-19", "Obama's political career", "Trump's political career" } }

America is currently in the midst of a jingoistic patriotic fever due to the September 11th attacks last year. Everything has an American flag on it. There is debate over whether to invade Iraq, with those against the war being ostracized and mocked. Politics are dominated by neoconservatives who wish to establish a "new American century" via intervention in the Middle East. The country is bloodlusted with paranoid Islamophobia. The newly established USA PATRIOT Act is eroding civil liberties, and the populace is clamoring for even more security theater to help them feel safe, many pieces of popular media propaganda for this. Certain groups of poor white people still vote Democrat. President Bush has a reputation for being unintelligent, and his detractors often compare him to a chimp.

Pop culture is vulgar and edgy. Extreme aesthetics like flames and skulls are in, and extreme sports like the X-Games, BMX, NASCAR, and BattleBots are at their peak (participants often get gruesomely injured). Dark music genres like Nu-Metal and misogynistic rap are popular, and there is a moral panic over violent games like Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto and the Sims causing teen violence. Television, even advertising, is extremely crass and offensive (some shows designed to cross the envelope), and the most popular online platforms are shock sites that specialize and revel in profane content. "Ironic" bigotry drenches everything.

Evangelical Christianity is at its cultural peak and religious fundamentalists are pandered to by politicians. Churches are promoting purity culture and Young Earth creationism, and are making money spreading it to wider society. Most Americans are against gay marriage, and homophobia is widespread. Media watchdogs group chastise the entertainment industry for its immoral content, and have an in with the government.

Windows XP is the newest computer. Most households are starting to get home internet. Every other website has hundreds of viruses on it, all installing intrusive spyware such as Bonzi Buddy. People online communicate via AIM and MSN, and the internet is decentralized among hundreds of forums and chatrooms (infested with lurid sexual predators). Modern social media does not exist, and a minute long video or MP3 takes an hour to download (usually via Kazaa or Napster) and contains loads of Trojans. The iPod is newly released and is considered a status symbol.

Most people are just starting to get cell-phones, which only have primitive cameras and text messaging capabilities and cannot stream or film video. Phones have not been standardized and come in a wide variety of confusing designs. Landline is still used. Teens use "textspeak" due to technological limitations.

America is currently in an "obesity epidemic" and is constantly hand-wringing over it. Female celebrities are obsessively judged for their weight in tabloids and TV. Pro-ana content is proliferating, fad lifestyle choices like the Atkins Diet are at their peak and fast food companies straight up advertise their products as weight-loss supplements. The USDA still abides by the food pyramid that encourages 10 servings of carbs a day.

Waistlines aren't the only thing being expanding; churches are becoming megachurches and most new homes built in the current housing boom are McMansions.

The anime boom is occurring, and nerdy kids are all into Japanese pop-culture. Most adults consider it "weird Chinese crap", and schools have started banning certain trading card games.

The best golfer is black, the best rapper is white, and the best NBA player is Chinese - race relations are more relaxed and people are less offended at racial insensitivity (except for Middle Easterners).