https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=162.158.111.91&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T08:40:06ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2165:_Millennials&diff=175507Talk:2165: Millennials2019-06-20T10:05:34Z<p>162.158.111.91: </p>
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I never understand the american obsession with naming generations, and it deeply confuses me. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:22, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:You're calling it an American obsession, but I've never been obsessed with it myself. Instead, I suspect it's an American media obsession, and I'd prefer not to be associated with them. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:46, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
::Indeed, the idea of naming generations is primarily a media phenomenon, and none of the generation names more recent than the Baby Boomers have taken hold as strongly as "Baby Boomers" did. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.34|172.69.90.34]] 15:25, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
::: There are a couple different things that create the obsession. First is a 19th century and early 20th century [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_generations European sociological theory]. The notion of a particular cohort being different from others really became popular after the First World War when people started talking about the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Generation Lost Generation] (also mostly a European thing). In that case it referred to a cohort which really had gone through some very unique experiences (a huge chunk of the world's population of a certain age died either as a result of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties the First World War] (which included a few genocides) or from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu influenza pandemic] and all sorts of trauma was experienced by the survivors). This in turn inspired a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory famous theory] that there is a grand cyclical pattern to generations in American history. Combine the (pretty obvious) theory that living through a major war or disease pandemic will affect a generation (see also the post-WWII baby boom) with the (thoroughly-discredited-but-still-popular-in-America) idea of generational cycles and you end up with an ongoing tendency to name, define, and redefine the boundaries of distinct "generations" and to describe them will all sorts of sweeping generalizations.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.28|172.69.170.28]] 18:33, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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This is very similar to comic https://xkcd.com/973/ in which White Hat criticizes a different generation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.160.134|172.69.160.134]] 15:03, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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I was under the impression that 'millenials' were those born in the 90s, in between gen y and gen z. I think there is a 'slight' trend that my generation has trouble 'growing up' even as adults. Many friends, if they haven't had kids they might still be living at home. Some even have kids and are still living with their parents. Myself, I don't see why a family structure couldn't work that way and still be healthy, I think the 'issue' comes from the older generations trying to keep the societal norms steady, and in the 1950s, when a boy turned 18 he became a 'man' and was promptly kicked out of the house, like a bird from a nest, or something like that... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.75|162.158.58.75]] 15:05, 19 June 2019 (UTC) Sam<br />
:Yes. Those that were born millennials were born in the '90s, but most millennials were recruited from other generations.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.88|172.69.170.88]] 16:31, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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In fairness to White Hat, one might plausibly assume from the word "millennial" that it was meant to refer to people born around the turn of the millennium, or people born in the current millennium which is still fairly new as millennia go. It's not obvious that a person born 18 or 19 years before the turn of the millennium ''is'' supposed to be a millennial, while a person born 1 year before or 1 year after the turn of the millennium isn't. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.34|172.69.90.34]] 15:25, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:As I understand it, the term was intended to refer to the generation that would enter adulthood around the beginning of the 21st century, rather than those born in it. But it's certainly easy to assume differently, if you don't remember that the term was around for more than a decade before the turn of the millenium (Wikipedia says it was coinced in 1987).[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:28, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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The title text begins with the word ''Ironically'', but is the statement really ironic? I think a more appropriate word might have been ''Frustratingly'' instead, but I wonder if his choice of words means something as well. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:30, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Just to continue this thought, while Alanis Morissette is not a millennial herself, her song ''Ironic'' was released in 1995, just as the earliest millennials were about to enter their teen years. Not sure it means anything, but perhaps millennials have a part in perpetuating the misunderstanding of this word. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:37, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
::In all fairness, in 1995, the only millennials were still babies. Those in their teens at the time wouldn't become millennials until much more recently.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.88|172.69.170.88]] 16:34, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:::What? The current explanation states that the first millennials were born in 1982, making them 13 in 1995. Are you having the same problem as White Hat? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 16:51, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:::That's the CURRENT definition, not the original one. If the definition hasn't changed, then where did Gen Y go? When were they born? EDIT: Actually, I was mistaken, because a more recent definition has people born as early as 1980 defined as millennials. If you think I'm having the same problem as White Had, read what I wrote below.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.112|172.69.170.112]] 16:55, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:::Along those same lines (or perhaps perpendicular to them), I don't consider myself a Baby Boomer, despite my birth date. Ok, now that we've straightened that out, what about Randall's choice of ''Ironically'' in the title text? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:06, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
:::I'm not that worried about people misusing the word, "ironic," as it's prety difficult to define any other way than example.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.22|172.69.170.22]] 17:08, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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I have a theory that the definition creep of the word is an attempt to eliminate the generation gap (a failure to understand each other due to too large an age difference) and ageism in society in general. If we're all part of the same generation, then where can the prejudice be? If this is true, then I support it, and proudly call myself a millennial, even though I was not one when I was born.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.28|172.69.170.28]] 16:46, 19 June 2019 (UTC)<br />
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Being a millenial by that definition, I agree with white hat. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.91|162.158.111.91]] 10:05, 20 June 2019 (UTC)</div>162.158.111.91https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2104:_Biff_Tannen&diff=1687452104: Biff Tannen2019-01-29T09:05:54Z<p>162.158.111.91: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2104<br />
| date = January 28, 2019<br />
| title = Biff Tannen<br />
| image = biff_tannen.png<br />
| titletext = I can't help myself; now I want to read a bunch of thinkpieces from newspapers in Biff's 1985 arguing over whether the growth of the region into a corporate dystopia was inevitable.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
This comic is based on ''{{w|Back to the Future II}}''. In this movie, the character Biff Tannen steals the time machine, which is the main plot device, and uses it to go back in time from 2015 to 1955. He then gives Marty McFly’s sports almanac, containing the outcomes of 50 years (1950–2000) worth of sporting events, to his younger self. His younger self uses this sports almanac to make millions by successfully betting on {{w|horse races}}. He then forms a company, and calls it [https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/BiffCo BiffCo]. While in the movie the protagonists reverse this, by stealing the almanac back, Cueball imagines the universe where BiffCo exists as continuing to exist in parallel. This is consistent with the {{w|multiverse}} theory.<br />
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The movie is set in the fictional town of 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. Cueball interprets this as “the decline of the city, and general social decay”.<br />
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''[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 Rust Belt town, and offers 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 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. Netflix [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.<br />
<br />
Cueball is proposing a similarly-titled book, set in the ''Back to the Future II'' universe where BiffCo exists, 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—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 Biff’s otherwise inexplicable success. Thus, Cueball compares such blind guessing with the analysis contained in ''Hillbilly Elegy''.<br />
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This makes White Hat Guy angry, because it’s such a painfully long setup for a really stupid pun. There is also a decent chance that the book White Hat Guy is currently reading is ''Hillbilly Elegy'', which would make the joke more insulting to him, as it compares the book to useless theorizing about an event which was really caused by time traveling. After seeing similar symptoms in our society, perhaps he would consider that we are living in such a world predetermined to negative effects. It would probably frustrate him that being optimistic for the future and hoping for a changing society would be an effort in vain, when the universe is similarly tampered with by time-travellers. Alternatively, he is enjoying the book and is angry at the insult to it.<br />
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[[Randall]] is known to have [[1756: I'm With Her|supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election]], having made a comic just to promote her, and particularly [[1779: 2017|sad comics]] following Trump's election. Therefore, he may have made this comic as an insult to a book which supposedly explains the election of the candidate he opposed, by comparing it to useless (and wrong) theorizing. It may also be intended as an insult to Trump himself, by comparing the dystopian universe where Biff rose to power (albeit not as President) to the actual universe where Trump rose to power.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, the comic may be an allusion to alleged Russian tampering of the 2016 U.S. elections: Randall is 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.<br />
<br />
The title text continues this comparison by mentioning thinkpieces from newspapers that would appear in the ''Back to the Future II'' universe where BiffCo exists. 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.<br />
<br />
As ''{{w|Back to the Future II}}''’s important October 2015 setting date approached, commentators began noting the similarities between the older version of the character Biff Tannen and then presidential candidate Donald Trump. When the comparison was brought to the attention of the film’s writer, Bob Gale, in an interview, he [https://www.thedailybeast.com/back-to-the-future-writer-biff-tannen-is-based-on-donald-trump# stated] that elements of Tannen’s personality were actually based on Trump, who was already well known in the late 1980s for his work in real estate and tabloid controversies. Thus, there is a real connection between Biff Tannen and Donald Trump. This supports the comparison between the two made by Randall.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[Cueball talks while walking up behind White Hat, who is reading in an armchair.]<br />
:Cueball: You know, in the universe where Biff Tannen took Marty McFly’s sports almanac back in time, the people wouldn’t have any counterfactuals to work with. <br />
:Cueball: Their world would be ''the'' world.<br />
<br />
:[White Hat turns his head to look at Cueball as he keeps talking.]<br />
:Cueball: They would have spent decades debating which structural problems enabled the rise of BiffCo, the decline of the city, and general social decay. <br />
:Cueball: Everyone would find reasons it confirmed their pet theory.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: I'm going to write a book set in that universe. I'll call it ''Hill Valley Elegy''.<br />
:[White Hat turns his head back to his book in disgust.]<br />
:White Hat: ... I ''hate'' you.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>162.158.111.91https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2104:_Biff_Tannen&diff=1687442104: Biff Tannen2019-01-29T09:01:41Z<p>162.158.111.91: /* Explanation */ replaced Amazon link for Hillbilly Elegy with Wikipedia article</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2104<br />
| date = January 28, 2019<br />
| title = Biff Tannen<br />
| image = biff_tannen.png<br />
| titletext = I can't help myself; now I want to read a bunch of thinkpieces from newspapers in Biff's 1985 arguing over whether the growth of the region into a corporate dystopia was inevitable.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
This comic is based on ''{{w|Back to the Future II}}''. In this movie, the character Biff Tannen steals the time machine, which is the main plot device, and uses it to go back in time from 2015 to 1955. He then gives Marty McFly’s sports almanac, containing the outcomes of 50 years (1950–2000) worth of sporting events, to his younger self. His younger self uses this sports almanac to make millions by successfully betting on {{w|horse races}}. He then forms a company, and calls it [https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/BiffCo BiffCo]. While in the movie the protagonists reverse this, by stealing the almanac back, Cueball imagines the universe where BiffCo exists as continuing to exist in parallel. This is consistent with the {{w|multiverse}} theory.<br />
<br />
The movie is set in the fictional town of 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. Cueball interprets this as “the decline of the city, and general social decay”.<br />
<br />
''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy]'' is a book, published in June 2016, that gives an account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town, and offers 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 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. Netflix [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.<br />
<br />
Cueball is proposing a similarly-titled book, set in the ''Back to the Future II'' universe where BiffCo exists, 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—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 Biff’s otherwise inexplicable success. Thus, Cueball compares such blind guessing with the analysis contained in ''Hillbilly Elegy''.<br />
<br />
This makes White Hat Guy angry, because it’s such a painfully long setup for a really stupid pun. There is also a decent chance that the book White Hat Guy is currently reading is ''Hillbilly Elegy'', which would make the joke more insulting to him, as it compares the book to useless theorizing about an event which was really caused by time traveling. After seeing similar symptoms in our society, perhaps he would consider that we are living in such a world predetermined to negative effects. It would probably frustrate him that being optimistic for the future and hoping for a changing society would be an effort in vain, when the universe is similarly tampered with by time-travellers. Alternatively, he is enjoying the book and is angry at the insult to it.<br />
<br />
[[Randall]] is known to have [[1756: I'm With Her|supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election]], having made a comic just to promote her, and particularly [[1779: 2017|sad comics]] following Trump's election. Therefore, he may have made this comic as an insult to a book which supposedly explains the election of the candidate he opposed, by comparing it to useless (and wrong) theorizing. It may also be intended as an insult to Trump himself, by comparing the dystopian universe where Biff rose to power (albeit not as President) to the actual universe where Trump rose to power.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, the comic may be an allusion to alleged Russian tampering of the 2016 U.S. elections: Randall is 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.<br />
<br />
The title text continues this comparison by mentioning thinkpieces from newspapers that would appear in the ''Back to the Future II'' universe where BiffCo exists. 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.<br />
<br />
As ''{{w|Back to the Future II}}''’s important October 2015 setting date approached, commentators began noting the similarities between the older version of the character Biff Tannen and then presidential candidate Donald Trump. When the comparison was brought to the attention of the film’s writer, Bob Gale, in an interview, he [https://www.thedailybeast.com/back-to-the-future-writer-biff-tannen-is-based-on-donald-trump# stated] that elements of Tannen’s personality were actually based on Trump, who was already well known in the late 1980s for his work in real estate and tabloid controversies. Thus, there is a real connection between Biff Tannen and Donald Trump. This supports the comparison between the two made by Randall.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[Cueball talks while walking up behind White Hat, who is reading in an armchair.]<br />
:Cueball: You know, in the universe where Biff Tannen took Marty McFly’s sports almanac back in time, the people wouldn’t have any counterfactuals to work with. <br />
:Cueball: Their world would be ''the'' world.<br />
<br />
:[White Hat turns his head to look at Cueball as he keeps talking.]<br />
:Cueball: They would have spent decades debating which structural problems enabled the rise of BiffCo, the decline of the city, and general social decay. <br />
:Cueball: Everyone would find reasons it confirmed their pet theory.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: I'm going to write a book set in that universe. I'll call it ''Hill Valley Elegy''.<br />
:[White Hat turns his head back to his book in disgust.]<br />
:White Hat: ... I ''hate'' you.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Time travel]]</div>162.158.111.91https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:550:_Density&diff=140121Talk:550: Density2017-05-22T09:09:28Z<p>162.158.111.91: </p>
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<div>I'm crying {{unsigned|Lemphek}}<br />
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In ur base seems like all your bases are belongs to us...{{unsigned ip|141.101.107.120}}<br />
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I second the above. 'All your base are belong to us' is an old 2nd gen gaming console meme. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.76|172.68.2.76]] 17:01, 25 January 2017 (UTC) <br />
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I don't think Megan will ever sleep with him again after this, and if I were Cueball, I'd consider this a greater loss than having to raise a babby. [[Special:Contributions/84.224.87.179|84.224.87.179]] 07:56, 29 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Title text<br />
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I think the title text implies that while Cueball relies on 4chan for advice, he hadn't asked them on contraception and he now regrets this omission thinking that it would help him to prevent this situation. This is even funnier since it implies that advices from 4chan are in fact valuable. [[User:Sten|'''S<small>TEN</small>''']] <small>([[User talk:Sten|talk]])</small> 22:26, 21 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Relevant links: {{w|Withdrawal method}} (or {{w|Coitus interruptus}}) and {{w|Emergency contraception}}. Surprisingly, the withdrawal method may be quite effective with a failure rate as low as 4% (chance of pregnancy per year of use) if done correctly. In practice, though, it has a 15-28% failure rate. In comparison, condom use has a 2% failure rate when used correctly and a 10–18% actual failure rate. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 10:06, 22 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:This is completely irrelevant. My point is that if he was regretting asking 4chan, the title text would start ''If only I had '''not''' asked'' but it starts ''If only I had asked'' implying he did not ask. {{unsigned|Sten}}<br />
::Agreed have corrected explain. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:47, 11 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I think the "ruined life" part refers more to having an unplanned and unprepared-for baby, a more disruptive consequence than a break his relationship with Megan.. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.236|108.162.208.236]] 11:07, 4 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Agreed have corrected explain. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:47, 11 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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This is not the meme density record any more.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.6|162.158.49.6]] 15:37, 29 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Isn't there a reference to 'all your base are belong to us' in there too? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.91|162.158.111.91]] 09:09, 22 May 2017 (UTC)</div>162.158.111.91