# If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454 "2013-11-21T17:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/81 "2013-11-22T01:57:39Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Point being, the pill was actually in use for contraception by 1957. And since [In 1940, one-third of all U.S. married couples used a diaphragm for contraception](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaphragm_(contraceptive)), the basic idea of medical birth control was familiar. A bigger shock than any medical advance – or computer advance – would be hearing the story of 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/82 "2013-11-22T02:10:34Z")
> [@Earth001](#): > > To expand on the question, while there are a lot of obvious differences between now and 1950 in terms of technology, culture, etc., I wonder which changes or new things they’d grasp easily and which would be utterly perplexing. The custom that time travelers must give blow jobs to the natives. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/83 "2013-11-22T02:24:37Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The custom that time travelers must give blow jobs to the natives. 😃 You really want a BJ from Ernest Borgnine? :eek: (Hey, he was around in the 50’s. The OP didn’t say who was the time traveler.) ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/84 "2013-11-22T02:40:27Z")
I agree that the technological advances (internet, smartphones) would not be that hard to fathom. In fact, I think the 1950s time travel might be shocked about what we haven’t done. We haven’t been to Mars, no moon bases, no flying cars or robots in the kitchen, no special food pills, and no jetpacks. I agree the social changes, like people being openly gay and lesbian, would be surprising - and being normal contributing members of society (versus the mentally ill). What would really throw them for a loop would be transgender folks, and people having gender reassignment surgery. Racial equality (or strives toward it) were happening in the 1950s and only the most virulent racists would probably think Jim Crow would still be around. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of terrorism would be amazing, I’m sure. How could they fathom the scion of a Saudi construction magnate would destroy the tallest buildings in America and kill 3,000 people from a cave in Afghanistan - something that never happened during the Cold War. Social media and gaming would be fairly hard to comprehend. That you can have friends and communities without ever meeting in person would be extremely hard to understand. The oversharing nature of most American youth (posting every idiotic thing they do to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) would blow their minds. As would the natural inclination to grab one’s cellphone to record every event (instead of, you know, watching it, calling the cops, breaking up a fight, etc.). I think things like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and the shooting at the Batman movie would shock a time traveler. Mass and spree shooting didn’t happen in those days, and the idea that someone would randomly shoot children or people they didn’t even know would be enough to make most people curl up into a ball. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/85 "2013-11-22T03:07:40Z")
At first it would be hard to get used to no one knowing where the nearest fallout shelter is. But when you found out that, after 1945, no war had been nuclear, there would be profound relief. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/86 "2013-11-22T03:25:28Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I agree the social changes, like people being openly gay and lesbian, would be surprising - and being normal contributing members of society (versus the mentally ill). What would really throw them for a loop would be transgender folks, and people having gender reassignment surgery. Christine Jorgensen had the first successful sex change in 1952. > [@](#): > > Social media and gaming would be fairly hard to comprehend. That you can have friends and communities without ever meeting in person would be extremely hard to understand. People have been engaging in correspondence-based relationships since at least the establishment of the first reliable postal service. > [@](#): > > I think things like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and the shooting at the Batman movie would shock a time traveler. Mass and spree shooting didn’t happen in those days, and the idea that someone would randomly shoot children or people they didn’t even know would be enough to make most people curl up into a ball. Howard Unruh took a twelve minute walk through his neighborhood, shooting and killing thirteen of his neighbors, including three children, in 1949. Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate went on a six month mourner spree in 1958, killing eleven people. In 1929, Andrew Kehoe detonated a fertilizer bomb he’d placed in the basement of the Bath elementary school, while it was in session. When the rescue workers showed up, he detonated a second bomb he’d hidden in his parked truck. In all, he killed 44 people, 38 of them children. Also, you know… the Holocaust. I very much doubt there’s any excess of violence in modern society that would shock an adult from the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/87 "2013-11-22T03:27:44Z")
The amount of food we throw away. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/88 "2013-11-22T03:33:46Z")
**If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain?** Why everyone is _so_ fat. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/89 "2013-11-22T03:41:05Z")
The USSR went out with a whisper and the US lost a war against Vietnam. A US president had an affair and the only people who gave a fuck were those who hated him from the start. People, including children, will commonly listen to and watch media featuring sex, curses and making fun of religion. A character can be a bisexual atheist drug user and still be meant to be sympathetic. The Japanese largely overtook the US for cars, electronics and something called “money shots”. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/90 "2013-11-22T04:14:48Z")
Shaved pussy. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/91 "2013-11-22T04:30:57Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I think things like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and the shooting at the Batman movie would shock a time traveler. Mass and spree shooting didn’t happen in those days, and the idea that someone would randomly shoot children or people they didn’t even know would be enough to make most people curl up into a ball. Wanna bet? > **[Howard Unruh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Unruh)** > > Howard Barton Unruh (January 21, 1921 – October 19, 2009) was an American mass murderer\[note 1\] who shot and killed thirteen people during a twelve-minute walk through his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey, on September 6, 1949 in an incident that became known as the Walk of Death. Unruh was found criminally insane and died in 2009 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88 following 60 years of confinement. > The shooting remains the deadliest mass shooting in New Jersey history, and is one of t... Ed Gein, the inspiration for the movie “Psycho”, did his thing in the 1950s too. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/92 "2013-11-22T04:35:14Z")
That we no longer wash and dry plastic bags unless we’re over sixty. The whole disposable society thing would be a shock. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/93 "2013-11-22T04:51:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Barack Obama!\* Barack Obama? The Jamba juice supplement? Who’s vice president, Carrot Karma? Here is something. The fact that you can take a person’s cells, convert them back to embryonic stem cells, put them in a 3D printer and print an organ. Then put that organ back in the person’s body. That would be hard to believe at first. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/94 "2013-11-22T05:02:43Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > **If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain?** > > Why everyone is _so_ fat. Ding!Ding!Ding! I like this thread and wonder what my deceased technophile grandfather would’ve thought. The ready access to and transmission of information on the internet would blow his mind. Quality of home theatre. Hi numbers of bi-racial families. Availability of pornography. How openly sex education is discussed. Still no world peace? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/95 "2013-11-22T05:19:22Z")
Related to the computer and the smartphone, I think the whole digital revolution would be overwhelming for a time traveler from the 1950s to take in. For example, cameras used to use film. Now you can shoot stills and movies with a small electronic device and instantly share them with the world. People used to listen to music on records and tapes or listen to radio. Now we have mp3 players that hold thousands of songs and don’t require physical media. And instead of radio, many people stream Pandora on their computers or phones. Personal TVs. Instead of a large wooden cabinet filled with tubes and wires, we have flat panels that hang on the wall like a picture and are less than an inch thick. Or we can carry around pocket size TVs and watch programs on the go or watch TV programs on our phones. Videogames. People in the 50s couldn’t even imagine simple games such as Pong. Now we can play games on our TVs with realistic looking graphics and 3D environments. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/96 "2013-11-22T05:42:15Z")
Honestly the big thing is going to be “why?” Not that we have a thing in our pockets that lets us do all these things, but why we do the things we actually do with it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/97 "2013-11-22T06:01:20Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You’re openly gay? Time to get your teeth knocked out. I never heard about anyone being “openly gay” until I was in college, in the 60s. It would have been like being “openly” a mass murderer or serial rapist. Can you imagine the U.S. President being supportive of he rights of mass murderers? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/98 "2013-11-22T06:05:26Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > That we no longer wash and dry plastic bags unless we’re over sixty. You mean plastic grocery bags? No such thing in the 50s. Or the 60s. Not sure about the 70s. And I’m over 60, but would never reuse them for anything but cat litter. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/99 "2013-11-22T06:49:33Z")
-Why the Republican Party is dominated by the Bircherite wing -The Democratic Party’s focus on identity politics and the migration of much of the white working class (especially in the South) vote to the Republican Party -The extent of income inequality in the United States -Why universal healthcare, and nuclear power are still controversial issues -Lack of hats on men -Degeneration of mass culture ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/100 "2013-11-22T07:02:19Z")
China, Japan and Korea being the home of pretty much all electronics manufacturing would blow their minds I think. The gay thing too, as mentioned umpteen times already. Ronald Reagan being the God of the GOP. I admit I stole that one kind of from Back To the Future. Same with the electronics thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=6)