What things shocked you in this past year?
For me . . . I’m amazed that professional football players now have to apologize for making homophobic remarks. I didn’t see that coming at all.
I wasn’t tuned into any of the hints over the years, so the Bill Cosby thing was a shock.
The level of activism and violence against police brutality and the complete lack of activism (or for that matter violence) against the war/wars we’re involved in. Not totally sure which is good or bad but my brain is still trying to figure out both.
That the death of the living room and four year olds being addicted to videogame commentary YouTube videos is not endemic to my house and is actually ‘thing’
The rapid escalation of the Ukrainian Crisis culminating in the occupation of the Crimea
The thorough Republican sweeps in the 2014 midterms
The resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba
This is it for me, some of the rhetoric by Russia was unbelievable too.
That there are people in this world so stupid they aren’t capable of formulating a coherent sentence of dialogue. It amazes me they have functioned in society to live this long.
The Bill Cosby thing, definitely.
How utterly dysfunctional and useless our government has become, even compared to the already pathetically low standards we’ve all come to expect.
Yes, Bill Cosby. What a criminal dick-head asshole fucking sleeze ball.
But hey… HOW ABOUT THEM GIANTS??!!??!! 3 championships in five years, ya gotta love it! HUMM-BABY! These kids can do it!! (To quote a team slogan from the 1980s)
And the Giants success helps alleviate the 49ers pain. And the Sharks pain.
This isn’t an event, but that I can go out and by a 3d printer is pretty amazing.
In general, the rapid legalization of same-sex marriage across the country. Specifically, its legalization here in North Carolina.
Since my daughter was born six years ago, I’ve been saying that by the time she’s old enough to get married I expect SSM to be legal for her. I thought the limiting factor would be NC politics, not her age. 
That was very surprising (and disappointing) to me, on both a national and a local level.
On the good side, the Kansas City Royals, steamrolling through the postseason to make it to the World Series for the first time in 29 years.
The possibility of normalization of relations with Cuba.
I knew about the Bill Cosby thing before 2014, I’m shocked this is the year it blew up and entered public consciousness. There have been accusations and rumors for years.
I guess I’m shocked that North Korea has accepted a 30 year old with no experience as their leader so readily. I guess I expected more resistance to that, aren’t Korean cultures ones that have a lot of elder worship? At least Kim Jong Il had been in government for 20 years before he took over, Jong Un was just appointed and now experienced generals in their 60s have to answer to him. And everyone seems ok with it, that was shocking.
Also oil prices dropping so much was unexpected to me, I haven’t seen gas below $2 a gallon in 6 years, and last time this happened was because of the great recession starting.
The rise in pot legalization continues, it was a pipe dream for decades and now it is happening.
The fact that this is the year police brutality actually became a ‘thing’. It is too bad it is only violence against black males, police violence against the mentally ill is endemic (over half of people killed by police are mentally ill). But at least people are standing up to militarization of police departments now.
The fact that Vermont canceled its single-payer plan was shocking to me. I’d (incorrectly, it turns out) assumed that Gov. Shumlin would move heaven & earth to get it done.
The fact that SCOTUS agreed to hear an anti-Obamacare case for a third fucking time shocked me. In the case of King, it’s particularly shocking because the arguments are so monumentally stupid & there was no reason why the Court should’ve agreed to weigh in on the issue at this point.
The (apparent) NK-sanctioned hacks of Sony Pictures over The Interview were pretty shocking. I wasn’t surprised by a NK backlash, mind you - given the plot of the movie, it’s hardly surprising that NK would hate it - but the sheer magnitude of the hacking & all the precedents that it set were amazing, though obviously not in a good way.
As already said, the Democrats’ shellacking in the '14 midterms was shocking. I’d expected losses, but not the across-the-board GOP sweep that actually took place.
On a personal level, I was shocked to get a new (and sizable) scholarship in November. I’d applied for it last February & had honestly forgotten all about it by the time I’d been named as its recipient, so getting that extra money for school was great.
The growing politician / child porn scandal in the U.K. The Ukraine. I was shocked by the margin of victory in the Scottish referendum - I thought it would be very close. I even joked that it might be a tie.
I’m not sure but I think that you can thank the patent system for that: IIRC the relevant patents expired.
Even my usual cynicism wasn’t prepared for the abject cowardice of the Democrats running for re-election . . . not even admitting that they ever voted for Obama. Are we to believe that a Democratic congressperson voted for McCain and Romney?
A plane full of people DISAPPEARED.