As a brown girl watching atla back in 2005 and suddenly when the episode ended my dad would take over the TV switch to Al Jazeera and we were watching the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and my dad was like ”it’s like the cartoon you watch but real life”
Squidward was in his 40s in 1999 meaning he had his prime years during the AIDS crisis. It’s likely he spent a large portion of his life closeted or self-loathing. It makes sense he would resent SpongeBob’s carefree lifestyle. SpongeBob is everything Squidward couldn't be