Do you think 2020 has been one of the craziest years in a long time? I sure do, and today it struck me that we’re just halfways. There are still six months remaining of this year, which means a lot of weird shit can still happen.

Thus far, 2020 has been a major pain in the ass. Sure, we’ve had some positive news as well, but mostly we’ve been plagued by bad news, literally.

The coronavirus caused a global pandemic, which in turn led to lockdowns, social distancing, travel bans, working from home, and all kinds of restrictions. Pretty quickly we saw a massive spike in unemployment figures and bankruptcies, the stock markets crashed all over the world, and suddenly we found ourselves in a global recession.

But there’s been so much more. We’ve seen civil unrest and massive protests in many countries, most notably in Hong Kong and the US. And the UK formally withdraw from the European Union, as a result of Brexit.

Australia had to declare a state of disaster amid large bushfires that killed as many as 500 million animals.

No major new wars have started yet, but we’ve been playing with fire and gasoline. I’ll give you a few examples.

The US assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, which led to Iran launching missiles at two Iraqi military bases hosting American soldiers and shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by mistake.

Turkey has been waging war on many fronts: Syria, Libya, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

North Korea has been playing around with its missiles too, and eventually they blew up the joint liaison office with South Korea at the border.

Two major nuclear powers India and China are clashing in a disputed Himalayan border area. Tens of soldiers have been killed in fist fights where opponents have been pushed down from mountain cliffs.

The trade war between China and the US has escalated further and both sides are using increasingly malicious rhetoric.

An oil price war ignited between Russia and Saudi Arabia, because Russia refused to reduce oil production in order to keep up prices. As a result, oil prices plummeted, which is always a threat for stability in many regions, especially in the Middle East.

Russian voters backed a constitutional amendment that enables President Putin to seek two further six-year terms, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.

President Trump, and the fact that this is an election year, have ensured a steady stream of bizarre news from the US. And the Democrats decided that Joe Biden is their best bet for getting rid of Trump.

You get the point. I’m not going to try to list all distressing events from 2020 in this post and if you want to see a comprehensive list, you can check out Wikipedia’s page on 2020. I’m just saying that a lot of crazy things have already happened this year and we’re just halfways.

For the record, I’m an optimist when it comes to tech, science, and the future of humanity, but I’ll admit that sometimes it’s a struggle to maintain that view point.

When Europeans talk about “the crazy year”, many will remember 1848 from history lessons. And indeed it was a turbulent year with new ideas and revolutions spreading across the continent like wildfire.

But if the second half of 2020 turns out to be even remotely similar to the first half, it’s possible that 2020 will become our new “global crazy year”. If not in the history books, then at least in the minds of our generation.