Reminds me of the Pale horse of Revelation 6:7–8 . The pale horse appears in the fourth seal judgment, ridden by Death, with Hades (the grave) following close behind. The horse’s color is described in the original Greek as chlōros, which translates variously to pale, symbolizing the sickly pallor of a corpse or decay.

This is proof.

Old photos are in color, but the world itself was black and white and didn't turn to color until sometime in the 1930s.

-- Calvin's dad

starting in the late 80s early 90s insurance companies making people who have brightly colored cars pay higher rates so people began shifting to only buying dull colors, which was a win for the auto industry because dull paint is cheaper

I have a bright red car - people call me the fireman

its a problem because of the way the US car sales are set up. You HAVE to purchase from a dealer, and dealers make estimates of what people want to stock their lots. If you remember Tesla had to fight the industry by attempting to sell cars direct to customers instead of through dealerships.

So dealerships stock whatever cars that they know they will be able to move, cars that are broadly appealing to a large group of people. And part of that, is cars in in inoffensive colors: gray, silver, black, white.

People may not want those monochrome color cars, but they are tolerated.

The insurance rates on colored cars would increase but that doesn't explain why all fast food joints are these ugly boring monotone spots.

Death of facial features.