Citations:worst timeline

Noun: "(Internet slang, humorous) synonym of darkest timeline"

 * 2018, Emily Prokop, The Story Behind: The Extraordinary History Behind Ordinary Objects, unnumbered page:
 * Millennials/Gen-Xers like me (apparently I'm part of a micro-generation known as Generation Oregon Trail) may feel like we're living in quite possibly the worst timeline, where the economy is uncertain, politicians are lying to us, and it seems radical groups are running amok and gaining notoriety in the process.
 * 2018, Alanis Thames, "Picks", The Independent Florida Alligator (University of Florida), 12 October 2028, page 14:
 * Texas is back, Penn State let Ohio State off the hook, and Miami nearly lost to FSU. Yes, we're in the worst timeline.
 * 2019, Cory Garcia, "2019 Shaping Up to Be a Weird, Wonderful Year of Music", HoustonPress, 28 May 2019:
 * Do the most absurd of stories prove the existence of a higher power or are they proof that life is unplanned chaos? The current state of affairs is enough to get you to tweet “this is the worst timeline (frown emoji)” at least once a day, and that’s just dealing with hard news.
 * 2019, Doretta Lau, "The Year in Healing", Hazlitt, 9 December 2019:
 * We are living out the worst timeline and in this iteration of the universe, I have become a full-blown Vancouver wellness basic bitch. I quit Diet Coke and I’ve only had three alcoholic beverages this year. My current drink of choice is green juice. I do Pilates.
 * 2020, Amber Dawn, My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems, unnumbered page:
 * This collection of poetry shines a light on one possible path to follow in our current reality, which I've come to think of as the worst timeline.
 * 2020, Sally Adee, "Five minutes to midnight", New Scientist, 11 January 2020 - 17 January 2020, page 32:
 * Over the past couple of years, a meme has emerged according to which we inhabit “the worst timeline”. Buried in this social media snark is the fear that time is actually running out for us on this planet, whether we’re drowning under rising seas, fleeing fiery no-go zones or succumbing to the exotic pandemics we’re told are learning to surf the advance of climate change.
 * 2020, Jon Day, "Agency by William Gibson — in search of lost time", Financial Times, 10 January 2020:
 * A particularly annoying Twitter meme that has sprung up during the past few years is the one that says we must be living in the “worst timeline”. The only way to understand the terribleness of the present, the joke goes, is to assume that this is but one of many alternative universes: the worst of all possible worlds. The mess we’re in isn’t really our fault, so we might as well just tweet about it.
 * 2020, Jennifer Weiner, "I Feel Personally Judged by J. Lo’s Body", The New York Times, 4 February 2020:
 * Then I saw the meme that made the rounds on Monday. “50 Years Old in 1985,” read one side, with a shot of Rue McClanahan from “Golden Girls,” in period-appropriate feathered hair and a dowdy-looking sweater. “50 Years Old in 2020,” read the other side, with Jennifer Lopez in a silver bodysuit, toned thighs gripping the pole, honeyed locks streaming, and bronzed skin gleaming, looking impossibly … impossible. If Blanche Devereaux is now, through some cruel twist of the worst timeline, on the Not side of Hot or Not, I guess Dorothy Zbornak is completely out of the question. And Dorothy had been my plan all along!
 * 2020, Andrew O'Hehir, "Sarah Palin nuked Greenland and the president guzzled Clorox: Who's to blame for this timeline?", Salon, 24 May 2020:
 * We often resort to metaphors about a narrative frame in our vague, vain efforts to comprehend the tragedy, degradation and idiocy of America in 2020: Year 4 of Donald Trump, Year 1 of the coronavirus pandemic. The simulation is breaking down, we may say, or this is the "worst timeline," an offhand reference to alternate-universe fiction or our pop-science understanding of multiverse theory.
 * 2020, Seth Nicholis, "Symptoms of Quarantine", Debate (Auckland University of Technology), August 2020, page 33:
 * Today, I'm writing about gossiping to myself about so many terrible outcomes that the worst timeline seems.
 * 2021, Johnny Hayes, "Commentary: Wrestling with the ghosts of COVID past", The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 May 2021:
 * It’s like when people on Twitter said that “this is the worst timeline” in response to Jeff Bezos likely becoming the first trillionaire because of COVID.
 * 2021, "Most Wanted", Edge, July 2021, page 33:
 * A few years back, the idea of a detective-themed Yakuza spin-off being released in the west at all – let alone doing well enough to get a sequel – seemed preposterous. Yet here we are. Maybe this isn't the worst timeline after all.
 * 2021, Jennifer Sun, "In-Person Event Planning: Expect the Unexpected", UltraVires (University of Toronto) 29 September 2021, page 21:
 * I had high hopes for 2021, after a year that fundamentally changed our way of life. I thought vaccines would bring life back to normalcy by now. That obviously didn't happen. As with any situation, there are two sides to the story. A pessimistic view would suggest that this continues to be the worst timeline. But I want to be optimistic for once.
 * 2021, "The Week", Orlando Weekly, 6 October 2021 - 12 October 2021, page 47:
 * Daily Show host Noah should have a lot to say about our worst timeline.
 * 2022, Oliver O'Connell, "Twitter explodes over column calling for Biden to run with Liz Cheney in 2024", The Independent, 12 January 2022:
 * Former congressman Justin Amash responded: “We really are in the worst timeline.”
 * 2022, Quynh Anh Tong, "Film review: Everything about ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’", The State News (Michigan State University,), 17 May 2022:
 * People like to say that we truly live in the worst timeline ever.
 * 2022, Caitlin Cassidy & Amy Remeikis, "Opposition leader makes fresh nuclear pitch – as it happened", The Guardian, 27 October 2022:
 * Question time is still going because this week will never end and we are all living in the worst timeline.