In the early 1990s, things were different.
People watched Bill Cosby portraying a beloved family man and sweater aficionado on TV.
The idea of the Chicago Cubs winning a World Series seemed impossible.
Street Sharks were going to live forever.
"Half Shark!
Half Man!
Fighting evil that's the plan!
Street Sharks!"
Let's look at some other things we believed back then that turned out to be wronger than
wrong.
Carbs were king
In 1992, the FDA unveiled a Food Pyramid to explain to ever-widening Americans what they
should eat.
The bottom of the pyramid suggested eating 6 to 11 servings a day of carbs, and that
fats and oils should be consumed sparingly.
This super-high carb, very low-fat diet was considered the way to good health and losing
weight.
"Fettuccine alfredo.
Time to carbo load!"
One of the biggest figures pushing this sort of diet was Susan Powter, with her "Stop the
Insanity!" weight loss crusade, which emphasized this diet.
Except she was wrong, and according to Time Magazine, her emphasis on processed, low-fat
foods that were high in sugar only caused people to gain weight.
Basically, this pyramid only contained a curse.
"There's sugar, salt, nachos, hot dogs, corn dogs, all the dog foods."
Since then, the FDA has made several revisions to their food recommendations, most recently
in 2011, emphasizing making the most of your food veggies and fruits, and reducing your
carb and grain intake.
This idea was backed up by a 2014 National Institutes of Health study that showed people
lost more body fat on a low-carb diet than a low-fat one.
The idea of filling up on white bread, rice, and cereal is completely outdated.
So don't stop the insanity; stop the unlimited breadsticks at Olive Garden.
Invest in comic books
In 1974, Action Comics #1 was worth $400.
By 1984, its value had shot up to $5,000, and by 1991, it was going for $82,500.
And that wasn't the only comic book increasing in value.
Detective Comics #27, Batman's debut, sold for $55,000 in 1991.
Nowhere to go but up, right?
"We'll also take you to the brave new world of Comic books.
They are bigger, they're wilder, they aren't just for kids anymore."
Comic speculation made everyone go a little crazy, buying issues that they hoped would
one day be worth a mint, just like Batman's first adventures, and for a while in the early
90s, even recently published comics were increasing in value.
Comic stores popped up everywhere to meet the demand of buyers, and new publishers emerged…
but by 1992, the industry had peaked.
The market became flooded with hundreds of comics that just about everybody owned, making
them essentially worthless.
Quality dipped, artists started drawing heroes with too many teeth and not enough bones,
and by 1993, the exploding industry collapsed.
Classic comics retained their value, but comics from '90s never really did.
That mint Death of Superman you've kept in a polybag for 20 years?
May as well just rip it open and read it.
Spoiler alert: Superman dies.
AIDS will get worse
One of the most shocking announcements in sports happened in 1991, when Magic Johnson
revealed he was HIV-positive, and was retiring from the Lakers immediately.
Then, contracting AIDS then was considered to be a death sentence.
It was also thought of as a disease that only affected gay men, so Johnson revealing he
was ill was shocking.
It seemed like AIDS was going to become an even more widespread epidemic in America.
However, over 25 years later, not only is Johnson still alive, but he's healthy as a
horse.
AIDS, meanwhile, would become a treatable disease in the United States, thanks to drug
therapy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living
with the disease today, and the number of diagnosed cases declined 19% between 2005
to 2014.
"Millions of infections have been prevented.
And around the world people with HIV are living full and healthy lives with the dignity and
respect they deserve."
While people still do die from complications from AIDS, it's no longer the automatic death
sentence it once was.
Killer bees will kill us all
"Please listen very carefully.
A swarm of killer bees is coming this way."
Most people know now that bees are really important to our ecosystem, and their death
thanks to pesticides, parasites and disease is a pretty big deal, since they're fairly
essential for plant life, and we use plants for, well, everything.
"BEEEEEES!"
But in the early 1990s, people feared bees, especially the dreaded "Africanized honey
bees."
Appropriate to their name, the honey bees were imported from Africa to Brazil in the
1950s, and were expected to thrive, since they'd already be used to the climate.
The bees were ultimately called "killer bees," and swarmed around the world until arriving
in the U.S. in 1990s.
Get off my sugar!
Bad bees!
Bad!
Ow!
Owwwwww! They're defending themselves somehow!"
When they did arrive in the U.S., several people did die from being stung by them, which
caused concern that the bees go on a rampage and kill many more people.
The reputation of killer bees was that they were extra large, and extra lethal, but the
reality is that they're both smaller, and less venomous.
They're also more likely to sting, and pursue targets for longer distances than regular
bees do, so the threat is real.
But today, we know that the dreaded killer bee threat never took over all of America,
mostly because it never really existed.
"Beads!"
"Bees?"
"Beads."
"Beads?"
Rise of the superpredators
Crime was a huge issue in the early '90s, and with the predicted decay of major urban
areas, "superpredators" became a legitimate '90s fear.
You know every '80s movie about gangs of roving, depraved teenagers ruling vast cities and
committing remorseless brutality?
This was once a genuine concern.
"They are not just gangs of kids anymore.
They're often the kinds of kids that are called "super predators, no conscience, no empathy."
Criminologists described a "blood bath of violence" that was going to destroy the country.
John DiLulio, Jr., a political scientist, warned that youth crime and violence was hurting
the inner city, and that it would inevitably spill out into suburban and that it would inevitably spill out into suburban areas, and even into those places that have.. like no cell service..
So not only would we have to deal with street gangs, but farm gangs as well.
So, you may be wondering why we're not all living in 24/7 cesspool of death and crime.
Instead of a meteoric rise, crime dropped rapidly in the '90s, and America generally
became safer.
The superpredator went extinct, and America found brand new imaginary things to fear.
"Do you want to destroy humans?
Please say no."
"Okay.
I will destroy humans."
"No!
I take it back.
Don't destroy humans."
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