What 2024 Added to American Culture

As 2024 has reached its end and we can begin to look back on it, one may realize just how eventful of a year it has been for the American cultural landscape. Take a dive into an overview of events in 2024 that added significantly to the American cultural zeitgeist.

Politics

One area that saw significant additions to American culture last year was the world of politics. From key political figures, to new trends, to pardons and projects, there were a myriad of things that saw major changes in the political world.

Trump’s Second Term and Administration

This year saw the re-election of president Donald Trump, who has now become the second president in history to serve two non consecutive terms after the 22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland. Trump’s journey to being re-elected was also significant, seeing him survive not only an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania but a second attempt at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

2024 would also see two new additions to the American political landscape, the first one being Trump’s running mate and now Vice President, JD Vance. A former marine and bestselling author, Vance originally was against Trump, saying “I’m a ‘never Trump’ guy. I never liked him.” Further describing Trump as “reprehensible,” according to the BBC. Vance would begin his political career in 2022 when Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman chose to not run for re-election, ultimately gaining the position after an endorsement from Trump. Regardless of his previous statements, Vance would slowly begin to align himself towards Trump during his time in the Senate where he served as a “reliable conservative vote,” regularly backing populist economic policies and serving as one of the biggest opponents to sending aid to Ukraine. This shift in politics no doubt led to Trump eventually picking him as his running mate. Vance, soon after being picked as Trump’s running mate, made a name for himself for making controversial statements, notoriously accusing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio of eating pets.

Vance’s position as Vice President makes him an early runner up in the 2028 election, when Trump will no longer be allowed to serve as president. However, he also has to deal with prominent figures around him who serve as potential rivals to any future goals of becoming president.

One such prominent figure is nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.). Coming from the famous democrat political family, RFK Jr. made a name for himself as an environmental attorney, successfully taking on large corporations such as DuPont and Monsanto. RFK Jr., however, also began to make a name for himself as a prominent anti vaccine advocate, saying, according to AP, that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” RFK Jr. would later head Children’s Health Defense, an anti vaccine activist group. He has also made various other claims not backed by science, such as questioning if HIV causes AIDS and implying that antidepressants lead to school shootings. Initially running in the Democratic primary against Joe Biden, RFK Jr. eventually chose to run as an independent candidate before suspending his campaign early last year and endorsing Trump, who had repeatedly praised RFK Jr.. RFK Jr. plans to make massive changes to both the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), planning to fire 600 employees of the National Institutes of Health and replace them with 600 new people. He also plans to stop drugmakers from advertising on TV and eliminating fee’s that drugmakers pay the FDA to review their products.

United Healthcare CEO’s Assassination
The end of the year would also see a major political event when United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated in New York on December 4 by 26 year old Luigi Mangione. Having come from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione was valedictorian of his high school and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees for computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. Police suspect that Mangione’s motive might have been related to an accident he suffered on July 4, 2023, which sent him to the emergency room, with him repeatedly posting on social media about how spinal surgery that year had improved his life, telling others who suffered from spinal issues like himself to speak up if they were told they had to live with their condition. What made this killing unique is that widespread outcry wasn’t against the shooter, instead it was against health insurance companies like United Healthcare. The whole situation showed how Americans have become increasingly frustrated with the healthcare system, and has left Luigi becoming venerated as a folk hero.

Technology

2024 would also be a truly innovative year for technology, seeing a surge in AI software with the University of Texas-Austin designating 2024 as the “Year of AI.” Many went through the year trying to find legitimate and practical uses for AI, with Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan describing a “shift from putting out models to actually building products,” with him further adding, “What we’re seeing this year is gradually building out these products that can take advantage of those capabilities and do useful things for people.”

2024, however, would also be witness to the latest and most costly high profile flop in the gaming industry with the truly astronomical failure of Sony’s hero shooter Concord seeing a near $200 million loss. This loss was the result of a general, uninteresting aesthetic as well as its genre, the five vs five hero shooter, being already oversaturated with releases.

Pop Culture

2024 would also be a very eventful year for pop culture inside the United States, with biggest rap feud since Biggie and Tupac taking place.

First event was the beef between well known rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake. While initially cordial to each other during their early careers, with Lamar even featuring on Drake’s album Take Care, the two’s relationship began to sour over the years. This eventually culminated into J. Cole and Drake dissing Lamar in their single “First Person Shooter,” with Cole throwing shade at Lamar with the lyric “Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/ We the big three like we started a league/ but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.”. Lamar would respond to Cole on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” firing back at both him and Drake with “F–k sneak dissin’, first-person shooter/ I hope they came with three switches,” He would further denounce the ”big three” of him, J Cole, and Drake, saying, “It’s just big me.” Drake would respond to Lamar on his “It’s All a Blur – Big as the What” Tour.

Drake would later release “Push Ups” which not only attacked Lamar, but also Rick Ross, the Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Future as well as many others. He went on to release another diss track titled “Taylor Made Freestyle” where he used A.I. vocals to rap in the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg on his respective verses which would result in the song being taken down on the threat of a lawsuit from Tupac’s Estate.

Lamar would end up responding to “Taylor Made Freestyle” with his own scathing diss track titled “Euphoria,” only to follow that up with the diss track “6:16 in LA.”

Drake would later respond with the diss track “Family Matters” where he alleges infidelity at Lamar. Minutes after Drake came out with “Family Matters,” Lamar came out with “Meet the Grahams” where he calls out Drake for being a “deadbeat father” alleging that he has another child besides Adonis, stating “You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, huh, you lied about them other kids that’s out there hoping that you come.” Lamar further alleges that Drake has problems with alcohol and gambling. The next day, Lamar drops “Not Like Us” with him further accusing Drake of pedophilia, saying “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young.”

The “Not Like Us” diss track would blow up, topping the Billboard Hot 100. The massive success of the diss track combined with Lamar’s string of others has led to the general consensus of Lamar being the winner of the beef.