21 Parts of Modern Life That Would Make a Time Traveler Go, ‘Ah, This Is a Dystopia’

When it comes to modern life, there’s a lot to be thankful for. Antibiotics, for one thing. Indoor plumbing, that’s pretty cool. Certainly not an eradication of bigotry and discrimination, but quite a lot of progress from the days when it was legal to own people. Basically, if any wild-haired scientists invite you into their time machines, set the dial to forward, because everything back there will kill you.

That doesn’t mean the modern world is perfect, of course. Far from it. In fact, if you look at the dystopian fiction of just a few decades ago, it’s hard not to be convinced that some people were definitely reading it as instructions, not warnings. That’s why user OriolesrRavens1974 asked r/AskReddit, “What’s the most dystopian thing happening right now that we never thought could happen just 25 years ago?”