was 2009-2012 a mini "end of history"?

[wimp]

Great Recession had just happened but:

 - a progressive president was in office, and his election was seen as a historical milestone for race relations.
 - Middle Eastern wars were still happening, but were in the news less. Syria hadn't imploded, DAESH was unknown. Early Arab Spring was seen as a positive development.
 - The Internet was still seen as a positive agent, and views on social media were genuinely more optimistic.
 - the average western person could avoid uncomfortable political discussions far, far more than today.
 - far-right views were less mainstream, were believed to be on the fringes, irrelevant, on its last legs and easily solved with education and tolerance.
 - left-populism was there but wasn't as big of a force as it is today; left-wing spaces were more dominated by neoliberal types.

[buritobr]

No. There were the hot fiscal policy wars concerning macroeconomics.
Keynesian Stimulus Army vs Expansionary Austerity Army

[Terlylane]

Tea Party?

[MATTROSE94]

I would say that early 2015 was more like a mini end of history.

[Agonized-Statism]

I'm as guilty as anyone of early 2010s nostalgia, but that's a very rose-tinted look. Go back to any political discussion at the time and you'll notice a lot of familiar hand-wringing about the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Across the Atlantic, you had the European sovereign debt crisis, and there was some anxiety over BRICS (though not as much as the absolute fear-mongering there's been over Russia and China in the last few years). Anxieties over mass surveillance and conspiracy from the later Bush years persisted, and you had a lot of people believing that the BP Oil Spill was Obama "punishing" the South. Optimism about the Arab Spring was as much a sigh of relief over the drawdown of the War on Terror as it was legitimate naiveté, and it was underscored by continuing concerns of Islamism and new ones like a potential war with a nuclear Iran.

Obama in 2008 was interpreted as a progressive, and his campaign could be looked at as a huge turning point in millennial culture toward optimistic progressivism, but disillusionment started setting in once he took office. The disappointment was such that Sanders strongly considered challenging Obama in the 2012 primaries, progressives took to the streets to protest the economy under his watch, and Obama was ultimately reelected by a slimmer margin. The current climate, defined by a very anti-End of History loss of consensus, started with the end of post-9/11 unity around the late 2000s. It just intensified when Clinton, Sanders, and Trump announced their campaigns in 2015. Maybe it's just that Democrats want to downplay the history of disillusionment with the Obama administration and the craziness of the Trump years makes the Obama years look peaceful by comparison, but 2009-2012 was by no means an era of neoliberal consensus. It was when people started talking about alternatives.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

What on earth? There was a global economic crisis and people were talking about the death of capitalism and the return of Marx...

[H. Ross Peron]

No, you have a better case for 2003-2007 being the miniature end of history when despite the massive shock of 9/11, things returned to "normal" somewhat in the developed world albeit with tremendously increased security theatre. Economic growth albeit somewhat sluggish resumed, the housing bubble attained massive proportions, neoliberal and hawkish figures dominated in politics, pop culture geared itself towards massive blockbuster films, the Internet achieved its mature pre-social media form. There was imo, a last "End of History" interval from around 2011 to 2015 despite the Russian invasion of the Crimea but this ultimately fell apart due to Brexit and Trump which produced hyper-politicization.

[TheReckoning]

What does this even mean

[Samof94]

What does this even mean

It was a phrase describing the 90’s regarding the end of Communism.

[StateBoiler]

- Middle Eastern wars were still happening, but were in the news less.

That's more media narrative and choosing what to report instead of anything positive occurring.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Trump was elected because Obama was a total fraud.

[StateBoiler]

What does this even mean

It was a phrase describing the 90’s regarding the end of Communism.

The '90s far better qualify than the 1st term Obama presidency. It overlaps pretty well with Clinton's presidency but you could say it started with the Berlin Wall falling in November 1989 and ends with the August 1998 embassy bombings or the USS Cole bombing in October 2000 (or those events were just forerunners of 9/11 which had significantly more impact on society).

[Samof94]

What does this even mean

It was a phrase describing the 90’s regarding the end of Communism.

The '90s far better qualify than the 1st term Obama presidency. It overlaps pretty well with Clinton's presidency but you could say it started with the Berlin Wall falling in November 1989 and ends with the August 1998 embassy bombings or the USS Cole bombing in October 2000 (or those events were just forerunners of 9/11 which had significantly more impact on society).

9/11 makes a better breaking point than these two. The late 90’s had signs of the 00’s present but was still optimistic.