Editing 2104: Biff Tannen
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The movie is set in the fictional town of {{w|Hill Valley (Back to the Future)|Hill Valley, California}}. When the protagonists return to 1985, they find that Biff has turned the town’s “Courthouse Square” into a 27-story casino, and generally taken over Hill Valley. This has apparently resulted in the town being overrun by armed gangs, and beset by crime, violence, corruption, and an overall atmosphere of quasi-dystopian misery. This is what Cueball refers to as “the decline of the city, and general social decay”. | The movie is set in the fictional town of {{w|Hill Valley (Back to the Future)|Hill Valley, California}}. When the protagonists return to 1985, they find that Biff has turned the town’s “Courthouse Square” into a 27-story casino, and generally taken over Hill Valley. This has apparently resulted in the town being overrun by armed gangs, and beset by crime, violence, corruption, and an overall atmosphere of quasi-dystopian misery. This is what Cueball refers to as “the decline of the city, and general social decay”. | ||
| − | Further, a newspaper headline seen in that universe reads "{{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}} to Seek Fifth Term; Vows to End {{w|Vietnam War}} by 1985". Nixon was a notoriously corrupt President of the United States who was | + | Further, a newspaper headline seen in that universe reads "{{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}} to Seek Fifth Term; Vows to End {{w|Vietnam War}} by 1985". Nixon was a notoriously corrupt President of the United States who was impeached for directing a burglary of his political opponents' campaign headquarters, and implicated in various related illegal and unethical activities. In reality, Nixon resigned in 1974 after learning he would be removed from office by the Senate. The Vietnam War was a proxy war between the USA and USSR and their respective blocs, characterized by American efforts to eliminate communist-backed insurgents. In reality, real and perceived failures to make progress, and growing domestic opposition to the human and financial costs of the war, led to the withdrawal of all American armed forces by 1973. |
| − | + | This headline in the alternate timeline implies that Richard Nixon remained President until at least 1981. In reality, this would violate the {{w|Twenty-second Amendment|22nd Amendment}}, which limits Presidents to two four-year terms in office; hence, the headline implies that this amendment has been repealed or is being ignored. All of this suggests that the United States government has become much more authoritarian and corrupt in that universe. Further, the continuing Vietnam War would have resulted in millions more deaths and billions of dollars of additional direct and indirect losses than were caused in reality. | |
| − | |||
| − | This headline in the alternate timeline implies that Richard Nixon remained President until at least 1981. In reality, this would violate the {{w|Twenty-second Amendment|22nd Amendment}}, which limits Presidents to two four-year terms in office; hence, the headline implies that this amendment has been repealed or is being ignored. All of this suggests that the United States government has become much more authoritarian and corrupt in that universe. Further, the continuing Vietnam War would have resulted in millions more deaths and billions | ||
;Counterfactuals | ;Counterfactuals | ||
| − | Cueball mentions that this universe – that is, the 1985A ''Back to the Future'' timeline – would not have any ''counterfactuals'' to work with. This is often short, in {{w|epistemology}}, for {{w|counterfactual conditionals}}, that is, conditional statements about what ''would'' be true if something ''were'' true that we know for a fact is not true. Randall’s ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' series is based on counterfactuals, since it explores | + | Cueball mentions that this universe – that is, the 1985A ''Back to the Future'' timeline – would not have any ''counterfactuals'' to work with. This is often short, in {{w|epistemology}}, for {{w|counterfactual conditionals}}, that is, conditional statements about what ''would'' be true if something ''were'' true that we know for a fact is not true. Randall’s ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' series is based on counterfactuals, since it explores hypotheticals—conditionals which are contrary to fact. For example, the first “what if?” post, about what would happen if you tried to hit a baseball that was thrown at 90% the speed of light, is a counterfactual, because we know for a fact that a baseball has never been thrown at such a speed{{Citation needed}}. In the case of the 1985A universe, they would not have any information on the ''counterfactuals'', that is, the facts about [https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_1 what would happen] if Biff did not have this almanac. |
;''Hillbilly Elegy'' | ;''Hillbilly Elegy'' | ||
''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis]'' is a book, published in June 2016, that gives an account of growing up in a poor {{w|Rust Belt}} town, and gives a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. This comic is a play on the title of this book, which has been described as explaining the “social, regional, and class” issues in white working-class America. The white American working class was a key factor in the {{w|2016 United States presidential election|election}} of U.S. President Donald Trump, and many critics have interpreted the book as an explanation of his election, which was deemed improbable by many analysts before it happened. {{w|Netflix}} had [https://deadline.com/2019/01/netflix-hillbilly-elegy-ron-howard-movie-deal-40m-1202541118/ purchased the rights] to an upcoming film adaptation of the book three days before this comic, prompting another wave of criticism of the book’s theories. | ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis]'' is a book, published in June 2016, that gives an account of growing up in a poor {{w|Rust Belt}} town, and gives a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. This comic is a play on the title of this book, which has been described as explaining the “social, regional, and class” issues in white working-class America. The white American working class was a key factor in the {{w|2016 United States presidential election|election}} of U.S. President Donald Trump, and many critics have interpreted the book as an explanation of his election, which was deemed improbable by many analysts before it happened. {{w|Netflix}} had [https://deadline.com/2019/01/netflix-hillbilly-elegy-ron-howard-movie-deal-40m-1202541118/ purchased the rights] to an upcoming film adaptation of the book three days before this comic, prompting another wave of criticism of the book’s theories. | ||
| − | Cueball is proposing a similarly-titled book, set in the ''Back to the Future II'' 1985A timeline, that would describe the supposed factors leading to the rise of Biff Tannen in Hill Valley. In that universe, while the rise of | + | Cueball is proposing a similarly-titled book, set in the ''Back to the Future II'' 1985A timeline, that would describe the supposed factors leading to the rise of Biff Tannen in Hill Valley. In that universe, while the rise of Biff—and the subsequent decay of the city and other issues discussed above—is the result of his using a future sports almanac to cheat at sports betting, the rest of the population would have to guess at the structural societal issues that might have caused these otherwise inexplicable trends. Thus, Cueball compares such blind guessing with the analysis contained in ''Hillbilly Elegy''. |
;White Hat’s reaction | ;White Hat’s reaction | ||
This makes [[White Hat]] angry. This may be for various reasons: | This makes [[White Hat]] angry. This may be for various reasons: | ||
| − | * Because it’s such a painfully long setup for a really stupid pun. | + | *Because it’s such a painfully long setup for a really stupid pun. |
| − | * There is a decent chance that the book White Hat is currently reading is ''Hillbilly Elegy''. If he is enjoying it, this would make the joke more insulting to him, as it compares the book to useless theorizing about an event which was really caused by {{w|Time travel|time traveling}}. | + | *There is a decent chance that the book White Hat is currently reading is ''Hillbilly Elegy''. If he is enjoying it, this would make the joke more insulting to him, as it compares the book to useless theorizing about an event which was really caused by {{w|Time travel|time traveling}}. |
| − | * After seeing the similarity alluded to by Cueball between our current reality and a reality where the book ''Hill Valley Elegy'' is written, he might imagine that we may be living in a world in which Trump’s election was {{w|Determinism|predetermined}}, just as Biff’s rise to power was predetermined by time travel. If he opposes Donald Trump politically, it would probably frustrate him to imagine that being optimistic for the future would be in vain, as any social change he might hope for may be simply predetermined not to happen, perhaps by time travelers. | + | *After seeing the similarity alluded to by Cueball between our current reality and a reality where the book ''Hill Valley Elegy'' is written, he might imagine that we may be living in a world in which Trump’s election was {{w|Determinism|predetermined}}, just as Biff’s rise to power was predetermined by time travel. If he opposes Donald Trump politically, it would probably frustrate him to imagine that being optimistic for the future would be in vain, as any social change he might hope for may be simply predetermined not to happen, perhaps by time travelers. |
;Relationship to political events | ;Relationship to political events | ||
[[Randall]] is known to have [[1756: I'm With Her|supported Hillary Clinton]], the main opponent of Donald Trump, in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, having made a comic just to promote her. This may add to explaining the comic in the following ways: | [[Randall]] is known to have [[1756: I'm With Her|supported Hillary Clinton]], the main opponent of Donald Trump, in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, having made a comic just to promote her. This may add to explaining the comic in the following ways: | ||
| − | * Randall may have made this comic to disparage a book which supposedly explains the election of the candidate he opposed, by comparing it to useless (and wrong) theorizing. | + | *Randall may have made this comic to disparage a book which supposedly explains the election of the candidate he opposed, by comparing it to useless (and wrong) theorizing. |
| − | * The comic may be intended as an insult to Trump himself, by comparing the {{w|Dystopia|dystopian}} 1985A universe, where Biff rose to power (albeit not as President) to the actual universe, where Trump was elected to the presidency. | + | *The comic may be intended as an insult to Trump himself, by comparing the {{w|Dystopia|dystopian}} 1985A universe, where Biff rose to power (albeit not as President) to the actual universe, where Trump was elected to the presidency. |
| − | * The comic may be an allusion to {{w|Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections|alleged Russian tampering}} of the 2016 U.S. elections: Randall may be proposing that it is futile to attribute Donald Trump’s rise to power to any set of structural societal issues that may have acted indirectly, while ignoring the hidden, speculated, but far more direct cause of foul play, just as it would be futile to analyze Biff Tannen’s rise to power by similar means, ignoring the impact of foul play via time travel and a sports almanac. | + | *The comic may be an allusion to {{w|Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections|alleged Russian tampering}} of the 2016 U.S. elections: Randall may be proposing that it is futile to attribute Donald Trump’s rise to power to any set of structural societal issues that may have acted indirectly, while ignoring the hidden, speculated, but far more direct cause of foul play, just as it would be futile to analyze Biff Tannen’s rise to power by similar means, ignoring the impact of foul play via time travel and a sports almanac. |
The title text continues the comparison to the election situation by mentioning thinkpieces from newspapers that would appear in the ''Back to the Future II'' 1985A universe in which Biff has taken over. Various thinkpieces did appear in real life newspapers in an attempt to explain Trump’s rise to power after his election, and asking whether it was inevitable. | The title text continues the comparison to the election situation by mentioning thinkpieces from newspapers that would appear in the ''Back to the Future II'' 1985A universe in which Biff has taken over. Various thinkpieces did appear in real life newspapers in an attempt to explain Trump’s rise to power after his election, and asking whether it was inevitable. | ||
