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The 21st century has seen moments that feel straight out of a dystopian movie. From mass surveillance to global pandemics, we're counting down the 20 most chilling real-world events that blurred the line between fiction and reality.
📅 Did we miss any major events that felt dystopian to you? Let us know in the comments.
📅 Did we miss any major events that felt dystopian to you? Let us know in the comments.
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00:00Is this the last generation of people that are going to know what it was like before this illusion took place?
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most dystopian things that have happened since the year 2000.
00:13Despite existing pledges, greenhouse gas emissions are still set to rise by 16% from 2010 levels by 2030.
00:22Number 20. Censorship and Internet Shutdowns.
00:25It's no secret that China doesn't shy away from a bit of censorship.
00:30Whether it be music, Hollywood blockbusters, or even live TV.
00:35In an era where information is readily available at our fingertips, censorship and Internet shutdowns have become increasingly prevalent,
00:42especially in countries where the governing body wants to keep information limited.
00:46China has long controlled online content with its controversial Great Firewall, but more governments are following suit,
00:52shutting down access during protests or silencing dissenting opinions.
00:56There have been dozens of shutdowns in 2024 alone, with countries like Sudan, India, and Iran engaging in some type of national online censorship.
01:05There could be a range of punishments, including the intermediaries such as Facebook or Twitter,
01:12could be liable themselves for the content that's posted on these websites.
01:16Now that's a very worrying development.
01:18This type of regulation brings 1984 to mind, where information is strictly regulated and controlled by an omnipotent state.
01:26Is the freedom to say 2 plus 2 equals 4?
01:31If that is grounded, all else follows.
01:35Number 19. Corporate Greed
01:37With these policies, the companies that buy these want the employees to die, in accordance with the policy projections.
01:44You are more valuable dead to a company than alive.
01:48Hating on corporations is certainly nothing new, but it seems like the problem is only getting worse and worse.
01:54The profit motive posits that a business's sole goal is to make money and increase its net worth.
02:00And this philosophy has faced intense criticism in recent years.
02:03The endless pursuit of wealth often leads to exploitation of workers, disregard for human rights, destruction of natural resources, and widening economic inequality.
02:13Customers will note that there is almost an exact price matching among all major so-called competitors, because they're not really competing.
02:23Whether it's pharmaceutical companies hiking the prices of life-saving drugs or tech giants profiting off personal data,
02:29corporate greed has become an emblematic issue of our times.
02:32The poet Shelley said it best, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
02:37We have never seen in this country the level of corporate greed that we are seeing right now. Unprecedented.
02:47Number 18. The Flint Water Crisis
02:50I noticed that the water was brown all the time.
02:53Or that we were always getting rashes.
02:56And I don't know, it was like the water was just messing our skin up big time.
03:02Unless you work in the sector, you likely have no idea how water gets to your house.
03:07You just trust that the pipes work and that the water is clean.
03:10It's one of those really nice things about living in the 21st century.
03:13But then the Flint Water Crisis threw those comforts into question.
03:17The crisis unfolded when the city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source to save money,
03:21but ended up poisoning its residents with lead.
03:24In other words, they were willing to wait a year to see whether the water was safe.
03:29All the while, highly corrosive river water flowed through the city's lead pipes,
03:34leeching lead and other dangerous metals into the water supply.
03:38The government's negligence led to widespread health issues among residents,
03:42including developmental delays in children and an increase in lead-related illnesses,
03:47including 12 deaths from Legionnaire's disease.
03:50It is a stark reminder that even basic needs are not guaranteed under incompetent leadership.
03:55What about the settlement itself?
03:57I know you were not happy with the settlement.
04:00What settlement?
04:01Number 17, the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires.
04:06Karina, I should let you know that just as we go to air tonight in the eastern states,
04:10we're feeling a few drops of rain falling here at the Beaker Showground.
04:14Not a lot, not enough probably to get excited about, but significant nonetheless.
04:18Between June 2019 and May 2020, much of Southeast Australia experienced what is now called the Black Summer.
04:27The country was facing exceptionally dry conditions owing to an intense heat wave exacerbated by climate change,
04:33allowing the initial fires to quickly spread across the region.
04:36When I took off from home, I could hear it, the power of the heat wave off it.
04:46I thought it was going to melt.
04:47After months of uncontrolled flames, over 3,000 homes were destroyed,
04:51hundreds of people were dead, and some endangered animals were even driven to complete extinction.
04:56It was a direct confrontation with how climate change can ravage our world indiscriminately,
05:01and the visuals were like something out of an apocalyptic film.
05:04I spend most of my nights laying in bed working out the best plan of attack,
05:08how we can get people back up and going and back on their feet again.
05:11Number 16. The Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal.
05:15If you messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you've messaged?
05:22Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here.
05:25A consulting firm steals the personal information of internet users
05:29and then sells that information to political parties hoping to sway elections.
05:33It sounds like the blurb on the back of a dystopian novel, but it's the sad reality we all face.
05:39Cambridge Analytica stole 87 million Facebook profiles
05:42and then sold this personal information to the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.
05:47They had profiles from numerous data sets on more than 230 million Americans.
05:54Well, so Cambridge Analytica boasts.
05:56It revealed the extent to which personal data is being harvested and exploited,
06:00not to mention exposing how social media platforms can be used to manipulate public opinion,
06:05influence elections, and erode privacy rights.
06:08Facebook was fined $5 billion for the infraction,
06:11but something tells us this type of data misuse will continue unabated.
06:15And when you think about what is democracy and what is necessary for a functioning democracy,
06:23we need to at least have agreement on what is real.
06:27Number 15. Targeted ads
06:29It may seem like they're listening to us,
06:32but it's just because they have so much information on us that they don't need to listen to us.
06:37You're making dinner one beautiful evening and tell your partner how nice it would be to go camping this summer.
06:42That night, you're scrolling through your phone in bed and what do you see?
06:45Ads for tents and portable barbecues.
06:47This unnerving experience has become commonplace,
06:50with personalized marketing seeing a significant increase with the advent of social algorithms.
06:55No matter how helpful it may seem,
07:05after all, maybe we do need that tent,
07:07many people find these types of targeted ads to be incredibly creepy,
07:11not to mention dystopian.
07:13It's a reality we only once imagined within the confines of science fiction,
07:17stories about invasive technology,
07:19and the ways it slowly encroaches on our personal lives.
07:22I don't have any shoes to go with it.
07:25Did you say shoes?
07:29No! No!
07:31Number 14. The opioid epidemic
07:33For about a year now, there's been this mobile clinic coming to this neighborhood
07:37because so many people here have terrible, skin-rotting wounds from the drug.
07:42In many dystopian stories,
07:44the general citizenry is in the throes of addiction
07:46and subjected to the dangerous whims of a specific drug.
07:50In reality, those drugs are opioids,
07:52and they are becoming a terrible problem.
07:55While the epidemic technically began in the late 90s,
07:58the rate of opioid deaths has skyrocketed in recent years,
08:01virtually doubling between 2016 and 2022.
08:05Testing is paramount to be able to better support people who are using the substances,
08:10and funding for those initiatives are really, really important in the work that we do.
08:15Over 80,000 Americans died of an opioid overdose in 2022,
08:19and countless more in other countries.
08:22The primary drug of choice is fentanyl,
08:24which recently overtook heroin as the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States.
08:29Fentanyl is a drug that is very good at managing pain.
08:34The day when they prescribed that, it changed everything for me.
08:38Number 13. North Korea's Human Rights Abuses
08:41North Korea tells its citizens many defectors are actually abduction victims,
08:47taken by the enemy, forced to betray their homeland.
08:50It's horrifying to think that there are countries like North Korea operating in the 21st century.
08:55The Asian country is a living dystopia,
08:57with the government enacting widespread human rights violations on a daily basis.
09:01From forced labor camps to political repression and mass surveillance,
09:05the regime maintains complete control over its citizenry.
09:08They have since used the COVID pandemic as a pretext for these measures.
09:27With strict border and travel restrictions put in place to prevent escape,
09:30with a complete lack of expression, mass censorship, and even an inability to move provinces,
09:36there are virtually no personal freedoms to be found in North Korea.
09:39We are now in an accountability stage.
09:41The Commission of Inquiry did recommend that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea be referred to the ICC.
09:48Number 12. The Rise of Hate Speech and Extremist Violence
09:51We're loud and proud, and we're not going anywhere.
09:54We are an American organization, and our membership represents this.
09:58The internet allows both the good and the bad to flourish,
10:01and that includes a significant rise in hate speech.
10:04It's believed that one in three internet users have been targeted by some type of hate speech,
10:09and this problem shows no sign of slowing.
10:12In fact, it's only getting worse.
10:14According to one study, the use of hate speech on Twitter nearly doubled
10:17after Elon Musk purchased the site in 2022.
10:20The idea was that trolls should come to the platform and post racist content
10:25as proof that Elon was now allowing racism in a way that the previous administration didn't.
10:31It's terrible to imagine, but online platforms have become breeding grounds for hate groups
10:36who use social media as a tool for spreading their ideologies.
10:39This danger has even seeped into the quote-unquote real world,
10:43with terrible acts of extremist violence occurring in cities like El Paso and Colorado Springs.
10:48He says the gunman walked through the door, shooting.
10:51Seconds later, Fierro pouncing.
10:53His back was turned.
10:54Yeah, I pulled him down.
10:55Number 11. The housing crisis.
10:57The home is such an indescribable, you know, thing,
11:00but realistically, you might not even get the privilege to own your own home at all.
11:04Everyone wants a stable shelter, but that's becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.
11:09Many countries are currently experiencing a severe housing crisis,
11:12with many people being unable to afford or even find shelter.
11:15Property prices have skyrocketed in recent years,
11:18and wages have remained frustratingly stagnant.
11:21And this lack of affordable housing has left many people unable to find suitable accommodation.
11:26The Department of Housing and Urban Development says President Biden's American Rescue Plan
11:30has helped more than 50,000 people experiencing homelessness,
11:33but acknowledges more work must be done.
11:36For example, in Canada, a Torontonian needs to earn a minimum of $217,000 a year to own a home,
11:43about five times the country's median income of $41,000.
11:46Entire generations are being priced out of homes, condos, and even apartments,
11:51illustrating profound inequality reminiscent of certain dystopian narratives.
11:55And this building, actually, so it's called the Royal George Apartments.
11:59It was built in 1911.
12:01A year later, in 1912, Toronto passed a law essentially banning the construction of apartment buildings.
12:08Number 10. Phone and Social Media Addiction.
12:11Of course, they look at what you've liked and commented on in the past,
12:15but they also look at a whole range of other factors like dwell time,
12:18so how long you spend looking at a particular piece of content in your feed.
12:21It's a visual straight out of a dystopian movie,
12:24people glued to a small device they hold in their hand and store in their pocket.
12:28The widespread use of smartphones has given rise to a new form of addiction
12:32that we couldn't have predicted even 20 years ago.
12:35People are becoming increasingly dependent on their devices for validation,
12:39social connection, and entertainment.
12:40And it's leading to a significant mental health crisis, especially in teens.
12:45Favorite app?
12:46I'd probably say I like TikTok.
12:48TikTok.
12:49Instagram.
12:50I get it.
12:51Instagram.
12:52Oh, we have a divide.
12:54According to the University of Michigan,
12:56over 200 million people are addicted to social media,
12:59and nearly half of all addicted Americans are between the ages of 18 and 22.
13:04Perhaps even more shocking,
13:06the average teen spends over seven hours a day on their phone.
13:10We're training and conditioning a whole new generation of people that when we are uncomfortable or lonely or uncertain or afraid,
13:20we have a digital pacifier for ourselves.
13:24Number nine, political polarization.
13:25Of course, politics are meant to be polarizing, with many countries often led by two rotating parties with different ideological beliefs.
13:42But that's not what we're talking about here.
13:44Political polarization has become increasingly pronounced in recent years as societies become more divided along ideological lines.
13:51According to the Pew Research Center,
13:53very unfavorable opinions of the opposite party are currently at record highs.
13:57The coverage of the protests really fell into the template that media have always used for protests,
14:04which typically is media frame it as a clash between order and chaos.
14:09This type of intense division hampers constructive dialogue and fosters hostility between different social groups.
14:15And this hostility has the potential to snowball into more extreme acts, including physical violence.
14:21Echo chambers reinforce opinions and beliefs, and nothing constructive is accomplished.
14:26The more we do something for others, the less it will be about my stand and what I think.
14:33Number eight, the rise of misinformation.
14:35When it comes to fighting trolls with clear intentions of spreading false information,
14:39it gets a bit more challenging.
14:42That was seen in a number of different ways ahead of the 2018 U.S. midterm election.
14:46Correct information is a very valuable resource for a functioning society.
14:51It's no wonder that most of the classic pieces of dystopia, including 1984,
14:56include some type of disinformation campaign.
14:58Say it with us.
14:59Oceania had always been at war with East Asia.
15:03Oceania is at war with East Asia.
15:05Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.
15:08In an era of information overload and digital media consumption, disinformation has become
15:12a pervasive issue.
15:14The spread of false or misleading facts has eroded trust in the information we receive.
15:19And fake news was a massive talking point during the infamous 2016 presidential election.
15:24Pew Research even shared a report claiming that one in four Americans have spread a piece
15:29of misinformation online.
15:30The results could be catastrophic.
15:33Can you give us a question?
15:34Don't be rude.
15:35I'm not going to give you a question.
15:36I'm not going to give you a question.
15:38Can you stay catastrophic?
15:38You are fake news.
15:40Number seven, cyber attacks.
15:41It became very quickly a sense of not knowing what was up and what was down.
15:46You know, were our futures secure?
15:48What was going to happen?
15:49With new inventions come new problems.
15:52Cyber attacks were literally unfathomable even 100 years ago.
15:55And now it's a major problem around the world.
15:58There are all sorts of different cyber attacks, from simple credit card theft to massive hacking
16:03efforts.
16:04And that's not to mention cyber harassment, which about half of all teens have admitted
16:08to doing.
16:09Sophisticated hacking attempts have become commonplace, including the Ashley Madison breach that ruined
16:14lives and the famous Sony hack of 2014.
16:17And then over here we have basically the Sony hack.
16:25Not even politicians are safe.
16:27For example, Canadian members of parliament were personally targeted by Chinese hackers
16:32in 2021.
16:33These attacks compromise personal data, undermine the efforts of national security, and demonstrate
16:39the fragility of virtual data, all of which sound like key ingredients of a dystopia.
16:44But CSIS never told the 18 Canadian MPs and senators who were coming under attack.
16:51The Canadians, in fact, just learned of these attacks last week.
16:54Number 6, Economic Inequality
16:56Another major aspect of dystopian fiction is economic inequality.
17:10The rich live in big, fancy high-rises, and the poor live in squalor in some kind of filthy,
17:16taped-together ghetto.
17:17We're not quite there, but it's getting close.
17:19Economic inequality has reached staggering levels globally, with wealth concentrated
17:24in the hands of a few, while many struggle to meet their basic needs.
17:28People at the top of the income ladder have gotten all the income gains that have occurred
17:32during the last 30 years.
17:33People in the middle of the income distribution, they've run down their savings, they've run
17:37up much more debt.
17:38Every conceivable margin you can work just to hold your place in the queue.
17:42This disparity creates societal divisions along class lines, while limiting opportunities
17:47for upward mobility, not to mention a potential for social unrest.
17:51The middle class is essentially vanishing before our eyes, and much of the nation's aggregate
17:56income is going to the wealthy few.
17:59As you can see in this neighborhood, it's not a lot of funds, so a lot of people don't
18:05have insurance to go, and if they are sick, they don't want to go to an emergency room
18:10because they don't have it to pay.
18:12Number 5, The COVID-19 Pandemic
18:15From now on, the year 2020 will be widely remembered as the year that COVID-19 spread
18:28across the world.
18:29The virus ravaged every corner of the globe, killing a reported 7 million people.
18:34The true number is likely much higher, with some estimates going as high as 30 million,
18:39making it the fifth deadliest pandemic in human history.
18:42The problem facing health services across the world is that when the infection curve
18:47goes up, it rockets, and all the resources, all the testing, all the supplies are used
18:53up instantly.
18:54Of course, there were also the massive ripple effects, like sending much of the world into
18:58lockdown, devastating the global economy, disrupting supply chains, and spurring a lot
19:03of conspiracy theories that only exacerbated the misinformation problem.
19:07This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that will be studied and analyzed for decades to come.
19:12On the Canary Islands off the eastern coast of Africa, more than 1,000 tourists are trapped
19:17in a hotel because an Italian guest came down with the virus.
19:21Number 4, Extinction Crisis
19:23In all, biologists fear the unthinkable.
19:26Three-quarters of all known species could disappear in just a couple centuries.
19:30Another aspect of classic dystopia is complete environmental collapse.
19:34And again, we are well on our way.
19:37Humans have had a terrible effect on the global environment, even causing an extinction event,
19:41known as the Holocene or Anthropocene extinction.
19:45This is the sixth event of its kind in world history, and is impacting all ranges of life
19:50on Earth.
19:51Scientists have identified the key ways in which we humans are destroying the ecosystems on which
19:57we depend.
19:58From plants and land mammals to a large variety of marine life, with humans now considered a
20:03global super-predator.
20:05The event has largely been attributed to our impact on the environment, including climate
20:09change, deforestation, and overfishing.
20:12It is a stark reminder that our actions have irreparable and irreversible consequences.
20:17One in three species of all kinds face global extinction or have been driven to extinction.
20:23It's a number much higher than previous estimates and a cause for concern globally.
20:28Number 3, Climate Change
20:30In many ways, cities magnify, intensify climate events.
20:37Cities are hotter than the places around them.
20:39And speaking of climate change, it is undeniably one of the most alarming problems facing our
20:45world today.
20:45While many people express doubt about its authenticity, the science says that it's real and it's doing
20:50irreparable damage to our one and only planet.
20:53Dramatic changes.
20:55These are the same kinds of pools that formed here on this ice shelf in Antarctica.
21:01This isn't a future problem either.
21:03The consequences are already being observed, like more devastating forest fires, melting ice
21:08sheets, expanding deserts, more intense storms, the extinction of animals, and skyrocketing global
21:14temperatures.
21:14Should we go on?
21:15Suffice it to say, the problems are only going to get worse unless the problem is immediately
21:20addressed.
21:21And unfortunately, we don't seem to be going in the right direction.
21:25It just feels like we're just getting kicked around all the time, right?
21:28And that's where I would say there is tremendous things to be done.
21:31Number 2, Surveillance State
21:32What happens in a mass surveillance regime, you sweep up essentially everybody.
21:37Everybody, by definition, becomes a target, which means there's no target.
21:42Nothing screams 1984 more than the government spying on your every move.
21:47Big Brother represents the oppressive nature of totalitarian regimes, spying on the general
21:52populace and not allowing them to have dissenting opinions.
21:55As we sadly learned throughout the century, our individual freedoms are currently at risk
22:00thanks to a global surveillance program that includes governments, the NSA, and an intelligence
22:04alliance known as Five Eyes.
22:07While funding to the Five Eyes alliance has dramatically increased since the beginning of
22:11the 21st century, the agencies continue to remain largely autonomous from the governments
22:17who fund them.
22:18Five Eyes certainly has a dystopian ring to it, and they have access to the personal data
22:23of millions across the globe.
22:25Some have criticized the media's handling of the story and allege that the truth is less
22:30sensational.
22:31But that doesn't really matter.
22:32The point is that this technology exists, and that is more than scary enough.
22:36Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
22:47about our latest videos.
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22:58Number 1.
22:59The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
23:01It's amazing how quickly AI entered into the cultural discourse.
23:13Of course, artificial intelligence has long been the subject of fiction and philosophy.
23:18But it was mostly relegated to the realm of science fiction.
23:21But ever since the rise of ChatGPT, people are realizing that this science fiction is not
23:27so fictional anymore.
23:28It's thinking.
23:29It usually takes about a second to respond.
23:30I'm an AI language model developed by OpenAI.
23:33I was trained on a large data set of texts, and I'm designed to respond to questions and
23:36engage in conversation.
23:37It can already write articles, do advanced math, and draw pictures.
23:41What will it be able to do in five years?
23:4310.
23:44What impact will this have on the global infrastructure?
23:46Most importantly, when will it go full Terminator and become self-aware?
23:51These are the questions currently terrorizing much of the world.
23:54And unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
23:57My friend Yann LeCart thinks it's perfectly safe.
24:01We'll always be in control because we build them.
24:04I don't really believe that.
24:06Do you think we're living in a dystopia?
24:08Let us know in the comments below.
24:10Check out these other clips from WatchMojo.
24:12And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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