>>7668152"Retro" is something of the worldview of not only the future, but generally all things through 1950s-colored glasses. Echoes of it extends from the late 1940s (post WWII) into the early 1970s, arguably even some post WWI early 1920s into the mid-1930s qualify.
You can see it in fantasy classics, such as Lord of the Rings. There is also a pretty amazing body of science fiction from the 1920s. The grandfather comes from the era of Jules Verne, which we usually think of as steampunk.
"Retro" encapsulates a somewhat simpleton view of "Utopia," according to Wise White Males in Charge. It doesn't have to be sci fi, it can be "just modern" or "contemporary," so long as white males are sitting around drinking their livers pickled and smoking a pipe while wearing slippers while wifey cooks and cleans.
Anything else, especially from the 1960s and onward, that depicts white men being broken down by the system, living in anything other than abject privilege and comfort, strong women doing things not approved of by muslim or christian rules, or non-whites in command and control positions ... we use words like "dystopia." And later, as the 1980s approached and then became history, "cyperpunk." Even the words "modern" and "contemporary" have come to be synonymous with "distopia" today. That's why we use the word "retro" today ... to refer to that golden, tobacco-infused daydream of free wealth for no work that never existed in the1950s, an endless wasteland of mindless consumerism and endless profit with no consequences. Ever. For anything.
It's a comfy fantasy, and that's all it ever was, to escape from reality.
