Musing Mondays #2: The Inverse Mirror of 2020 and 2025

2020 and 2025—two years that, at first glance, seem worlds apart. Yet, in a strange twist of fate, they might just be reflections of each other. As I sat with the thought, I couldn’t help but think about how these years, separated by just five years, are eerily similar and equally inverted. The connection hit me, not as a formal analysis, but more as a fleeting thought sparked by my friend Dazzling1’s YouTube video, "2025 Mirroring 2020."

Just the title of the video got me thinking, even before I watched it. There’s something about the way history moves in these odd loops. These five years have unfolded in a way that feels both familiar and different, a delicate balance between repetition and stark contrast.

2020: A Year of Uncertainty and Change

The year 2020 was defined by the chaos of a world caught in the grips of a pandemic, political unrest, and a rising global conversation about racial justice. It was a year of confrontations, both literal and metaphorical, with political figures like Trump leading the way and social movements like Black Lives Matter pushing society to confront its longstanding issues. The murder of George Floyd became a rallying cry for justice and reform. It was a year that shook the world, but also set the stage for a long, grueling fight for change.

2025: The Opposite, Yet Same

Fast forward five years, and we find ourselves in a somewhat inverted reality. The pandemic’s grip is still felt, but it no longer dominates the headlines as it once did. We now face different struggles, albeit with some of the same players—politically, socially, and culturally. The second term of Donald Trump marks the beginning of 2025, which is both a return to the past and a reversal of everything that followed his first term. The political winds have shifted, but the same storm is brewing.

And here’s where the inversion feels most potent: In 2020, the country rallied around justice for George Floyd, a victim of systemic violence. In 2025, we see a curious parallel in the case of Luigi Mangione, who killed a man, yet the voices now rallying seem to support the killer. It’s as if the moral compass of society has shifted, flipping the narrative entirely. The outcry has become a strange inversion of the outrage we saw in 2020.

Unpacking the Inversion

It’s not just these two examples that make 2025 feel like a twisted reflection of 2020. There are other parallels, too—moments where the future feels like it’s retracing the steps of the past, yet with a darkened, distorted lens. The unrest that began with one set of ideals in 2020 has somehow flipped into its own reflection, where the same voices are now saying entirely different things.

These kinds of reflections in history aren’t new. Time, like a mirror, often distorts the view, revealing a version of reality that seems both familiar and unrecognizable. But what makes this moment particularly striking is how fast it has all happened—how quickly the pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other.

Final Thoughts

As we move through 2025, it’s hard not to look back at 2020 and feel the weight of its lessons. We’re still in the aftermath of those years, trying to make sense of what we lived through, and perhaps more importantly, what we’re living through now. The inversion of these two years feels like an odd reminder that history doesn’t always move forward in a straight line. Sometimes, it loops back on itself, but with a twisted, unexpected twist.

As for me, I find myself pondering where this reflection will lead next. What will 2030 look like in the mirror? Only time will tell, but for now, it’s interesting to pause and look at how 2025 is, in many ways, a distorted echo of 2020—a reminder that time, like everything else, is in constant flux.