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The Internet Listed Good Things About 2016 So Maybe It’s Not the Worst

November 10, 2016

  •  For most people, 2016 has been majorly depressing. We’ve seen mass shootings, the deaths of beloved celebrities, and the most brutal, disgusting election in living memory. Jon Cozart and Grace Helbig even did a song about how big of a downer this year has been, and that was months before America elected its 45th (and probably final) President.  But there is hope. Just in the last couple days, Leslie Knope wrote an editorial, a bunch of cute animals showed up to vote, and the world was graced with a Ned Flanders-themed metal band.  And that’s just the silly bullsh*t I found on the front page of this site in five seconds. There’s real, actual good news, too. Back in July, a massively popular post on Reddit asked people to name positive things that have happened in 2016. Then, this week, posts blew up on Tumblr and Imgur cataloguing some of the best responses. Check out our video above or the source links for specific examples — there are a lot.  A few favorites, from the Imgur post with sources cited:  • Child mortality is down everywhere and it keeps going down. (source) • The ozone layer is repairing itself and all the work we did to get rid of those aerosol chemicals was actually worth it. (source) • Volunteers in India planted 50 million trees in 24 hours. (source) • Pokemon Go players went insane with placing lure modules near hospitals for sick kids. (source) • 200 strangers attended the funeral of a homeless WW2 veteran with no family (source)   Now for some of what you REALLY came to this post for: editorializing!  Things are looking pretty gloomy right now. I’m not going to tell anyone to “calm down,” or “it’s going to be okay.” For a lot of people — members of the black, Latino, Muslim, and LGBT communities, women who value their health and safety, untold millions of people in war-torn or soon-to-be war-torn countries — life is probably going to get worse before it gets better. What I can tell you is that we cannot panic, and we cannot give up. We must find hope in even the darkest times, and keep pushing forward. I hope that these stories brought you some light.  Here’s to improving on our successes, overcoming our failures, and having a better year in 2017.  For more stories like this, follow @WhatsTrending on Twitter.