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Don’t Let the Bully Take Our Timeline
Your job is to stop the bully
Hey, I’m Tucker Lieberman, I’m an author, and I’m voting for Kamala Harris. This post is dated 2019, but I’ve skipped ahead to 2024.
Here, In 2019, I wrote about Back to the Future Part II, a prescient ’80s film about Donald Trump. My essay remains relevant in 2024, so I’ve freshened it up. You’re reading the updated version.
Let’s win this election for all of us.
Released 35 years ago in 1989, the film sequel to Back to the Future is about a dystopia set around what is essentially a Trump presidency. The screenwriter confirmed in 2015 that the character was based on Donald Trump.
Back to the Future Part II suggests not engaging in a tit-for-tat fight. That way lies destruction: car crash, fist fight, jail.
A real hero does something so radical it risks causing a tear in the space-time continuum.
Back to the Future Part II: The story
Marty, a teenager in 1985, receives a tip from the mad scientist Doc, and together they travel to a volatile scene in the year 2015 to preempt Marty’s future children’s illegal mischief.
This does not make any sense. With Doc having warned him that his children may misbehave 30 years from now, all Marty has to do is remember this information and be sure he raises his future kids well. He doesn’t have to teleport ahead into the moment of maximum drama.
Anyhow, while in 2015, Marty and Doc discuss the ethics of stealing a 2015 sports almanac so they can go back in time and bet on the games.
A malevolent neighbor overhears them and steals their idea. It’s this Donald Trump-esque character, Biff, who, “borrowing” the time machine, gifts the almanac to his younger self in 1955.
