I am such a hip old lady, thanks to this board!
I did know the Zoom cat lawyer. Fortunately I don’t care if he’s also a milkshake duck, because the anxious kitty is cute regardless. Never change, @Airbeck!
Hey, Heinlein called that one back in the '40s.
Every time I read the thread title I read it as “say something that is true to a person in 1985”, that will “make you sound like a crazy person.”
Now, I realize that this is not what the OP meant. OP was saying that you should saying something that is true today which would sound crazy to a person in 1985.
But my first thought is things like “Bill Cosby is America’s dad”
Pulling out cell phone and frowning: “Can I borrow your phone? Mine has no network.”
Oh, come on. I was avoiding the political, but that characterization is ridiculous.
This is what people from 1985 would be really shocked about:
Four Star Admiral and Assistant Secretary of Health is a trans man.
The Secretary of Transportation is a gay man who took time off to have a child with his husband.
‘Drag time story hour for children’ is a thing. Gender transition for minors is a thing.
Not only did the military accept gays, it also accepts trans people - even encourages gay and trans people to join and runs ‘pride’ ads.
Not only would the average person in 1985 be shocked by this, they would be apalled. Democrats, Republicans, doesn’t matter.
The idea that the U.S. has been descending into a religious hellscape is a complete fantasy. Church attendance is at an all-time low: In 1985 71% of the population were members of a church. Today it’s 47%. In 1988 only 18% of the public supported gay marriage. Today it is 71%.
Not only would the people of 1985 of all parties heavily oppose all of the above, they would likely see our current time as a liberal dystopia, not a fascist nightmare. Seeing the future would have killed support for gay rights in the 80’s and 90’s.
From your standpoint, huge progress has been made. The average person of 1985 had attitudes you would consider highly offensive today, on a whole host of subjects. Take the win.
And, yet, that religious minority worked for decades to get conservative, pro-life justices onto the Supreme Court, and succeeded at getting Roe v. Wade overturned. At least one of said justices has since opined that the earlier ruling which struck down laws barring same-sex marriage was incorrect, and should be reconsidered by the court.
Yea, I’m sticking with American Taliban. Just because it’s a minority, doesn’t mean it isn’t a successful minority.
As one example, the right is APPALLED at this. “The end of the world is coming! Democrats want dogs and cats to marry! (send money!)”
Given the chance, the right would eliminate everything in your list. There are some would outright kill them.
The right wants gay marriage abolished. Hell, they want Loving v Virginia overturned.
This is not the thread for a constitutional argument. I was limiting my remarks to the differences between the people of 1985 and today.
More things they would be shocked at:
There are 1.3 women in college for every man.
Medical schools are graduating more women than men. Most doctors in the future will be women.
Hispanics are now overall Republican. The ‘emerging Democratic majority’ never arrived.
The Republicans are becoming the party of minorities and the working class, and the Democrats the party of wealthy, highly educated white people.
Betty White became a television icon, while Bill Cosby became a monster.
The ‘population bomb’ fizzled, and now our big worry is population collapse in developed countries. China and Japan are both facing population decline crises.
Then maybe a line like:
was a little out of place in this thread, too.
Anyway, I’m out.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is true.
I don’t think this thread went the way it was supposed to go. It’s not about telling people in 1985 things about life in 2022 that will shock or surprise them, it’s about saying things that make sense today that would make you sound like an actual crazy person if you said it in 1985.
Like, “Many people enjoy dancing in front of their phones and then sharing it on TikTok.”
How about “I googled Amazon, since it was Prime Day, but decided that I didn’t want to wait, so instead I Ubered directly to the store.”
Now you’re crazy talkin’!
Well, I must say, I played by the rules. I’m a good Do Bee! 
…Hey, come to think of it, Do Bee is a term that we in 1985 would have recognized as an innocent Romper Room reference. Today’s whippersnappers probably think of it as an archaic marijuana reference. 
I dunno; I’m pretty sure that, in 1985, I was under no misconceptions as to what the Doobie Brothers were named after. 
Oh, you’re one of those bad Don’t Bees, eh?
Nah, I was a well-behaved nerd, I just knew a lot.
Pretty sure Doobie was a thing before Do bee.
I’ve never even heard of Do bee.
Medical science has cured…
almost nothing. Lots of new treatments, many of them life-extending, some of them life-saving, but cures? Not so much.