Remember that scene in Back to the Future where Marty McFly is trying to convince 1955 Doc Brown that he has traveled back in time from 1985? Doc Brown asks him who the president is, and Marty replies “Ronald Reagan”, an answer so ridiculous that Doc responds, “Ronald Reagan! The actor? Then who’s vice-president, Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!”

It’s a clever joke in the film that belies an existential truth: just because something is absurd, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And the election of movie star Ronald Reagan to the highest office in the land is both things. But Reagan transitioning from film actor to president is positively tame compared to the absurdity of our current reality TV host president.

When looking at the dumpster fire that is 2020, we can’t help but wonder: how will we explain this to future generations? And how could we have imagined we’d end up here? Sure, Trump’s election was as ominous a warning sign as we could ask for, as were predictions by scientists and environmentalists from across the globe. But 2020 has gotten so bad so fast, we’re still reeling from each new tragedy that hits the news.

Now, folks on social media are imagining how they would explain our dystopian present to time travelers from the past. After all, we have a lot to unpack here: global pandemic, orange skies, a president who encourages citizens to commit voter fraud. People are posting striking images of 2020 and wondering what our former selves would have to say about it. We have a lot of explaining to do, McFly.

Imagine trying to explain to a time traveler from the 90’s what is happening in this picture pic.twitter.com/rWL0Yxtjee

— influencersinthewild (@influencersitw) August 4, 2020

Imagine showing this tweet to yourself a year ago and explaining "oh no, the masks aren't because the sky is orange, that's for a different thing." https://t.co/nnqoOBk3uM

— Meredith Haggerty (@manymanywords) September 9, 2020

imagine explaining this tweet to someone from last year https://t.co/GISIV1yGPx

— Fred Delicious (@Fred_Delicious) April 25, 2020

Imagine showing this to someone in 2019 https://t.co/osQUO8G4t8

— Ramp Capital (@RampCapitalLLC) June 23, 2020

Imagine going back in time one year and showing people this picture of a stadium full of cardboard fans and a sky of orange. pic.twitter.com/8SU5qhfAxf

— Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) September 11, 2020

Imagine waking up from a coma & reading this headline. https://t.co/lPHvbNf41K

— Roxi Horror 💀🌸 (@roxiqt) May 15, 2020

imagine explaining this tweet to someone 6 months ago. https://t.co/RInpu1DTw8

— Zach Cramer (@zacramer) May 16, 2020

Imagine explaining this to someone who traveled here from the year 2000? https://t.co/4eb5xuQoLu

— Desi (@DesiJed) June 21, 2020

imagine explaining this headline to someone in 2019 pic.twitter.com/REjDtIWf40

— rachel (@bugposting) September 12, 2020

Imagine waking up from a coma and this is the first tweet you see https://t.co/O1QCUwJ6qz

— Fred Delicious (@Fred_Delicious) June 6, 2020

Imagine going back to 2019 and trying to explain this to people https://t.co/pTBRx5q9rB

— gigabear (@2170cell) August 22, 2020

Imagine explaining this sentence 3 years ago https://t.co/xrxzSwnqXQ

— Jay Jurden, Mutant Rights Activist (@JayJurden) September 12, 2020

Imagine explaining 2020 to Lucy on 50 First Dates @AdamSandler

— Tania (@tmaccc20) September 10, 2020

All of you asking "imagine explaining 2020 to the future generations" type questions are really optimistic to assume there are going to be future generations

— Paige H (@outpaigeous) September 10, 2020

(via Twitter, image: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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