You time travel from 1921. What surprises you?

[Vice President Christian Man]

Considering the many changes that has taken place, what surprises someone if they were to time travel a century?

[kcguy]

Slightly off topic. . .

In 2000, they opened a time capsule in Kansas City from the year 1900.  Included was a letter to the mayor.

The mayor opened the letter.

"Dear Sir," she read, then laughed.

[Calthrina950]

Many, many things. I think the most substantial changes would be that we've had a black President, the much greater levels of racial and gender equality (although there is still much progress that needs to be done), and the technological advancements, especially things such as social media, the Internet, and smartphones.

[Skill and Chance]

Many, many things. I think the most substantial changes would be that we've had a black President, the much greater levels of racial and gender equality (although there is still much progress that needs to be done), and the technological advancements, especially things such as social media, the Internet, and smartphones.

I would think someone's expectations of future gender equality in 1921 would be quite high?  Maybe not high enough to match the transformation that has actually occurred since then, but I think they would be expecting a lot of progress considering the 19th Amendment had just passed.  To put it another way, I believe the average person living in 1921 would be surprised by the relative lack of gender equality if transported to 1961. 

[Alben Barkley]

"A black man was president???"

[GregTheGreat657]

Southern whites being mostly Republican and northern whites being largely Democrats.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

the south votes for Republicans now.

Wait what?

Blacks vote for Democrats.

Why?!?

We've had a Black president.

Really?

poor rural whites hate everyone.

oh okay. Some things never change.

[morgankingsley]

Beyond the ones mentioned:

The fact that THREE presidents were older than harrison.

Two southern democrats becoming president, especially when that was a death sentence for democratic nominee back then

Two presidents being impeached

And also a woman vice president, but im not sure if they would be more shocked it happened, or that it took 100 extra years

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Southern whites being mostly Republican and northern whites being largely Democrats.

Democrats won GA and VA in 1920 and 2020, but their maps are different. Democrats are now the party of the big cities, Southern blacks and no longer rural conservative Southern whites.

[Agonized-Statism]

Lots of things, but one that comes to mind is the presence of recognizable laissez-faire governance. Most people's conception of the future was progressive in some way, not Gilded Age nouveau. Personally, with the revolutionary wave of 1917-1923 going on at the time, I would have expected a world of socialist states progressing toward communism. I would be surprised but not confused that fascism actually took off in the 1920s and 1930s, expecting it to remain some obscure theory. Everything else- nuclear power, decolonization, capitalist vs. communist ideological clash, capitalists making necessary concessions for civil rights, ascendence of East Asia, a technological jump similar to that from the telegram to the telephone making communications that much more efficient, another pandemic- would be reasonably predictable from 1921.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The military industrial complex would shock almost everyone from that time period.

[Agonized-Statism]

The military industrial complex would shock almost everyone from that time period.

Not anyone who's paying attention. Look at all Smedley Butler's contemporary examples of industrialists subsidized by public funding who made substantial profits off of war (especially World War I). Before that, the many examples of filibustering for the benefit of slave-owning elites between the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.