I’m a regular drinker of diet dew and tried dew zero for the first time yesterday. couldn’t even finish the bottle it was so bad.

That’s literally the future equivalent of “How can poor people afford telephones!! And televisions!! And obesity!! If they have those things, they must be doing ok.”

It’s really not 30-50 years, the movie has clearly fucked that up with overwatch characters and whatnot. The guy who triggers all this was obsessed with pop culture from the 80s and early 90s. And not just pop-culture, nerd pop-culture. And perhaps even obsessed is wrong, he was deeply immersed in the pop culture of…

Star Wars takes place in the past.

The basis for the pop culture obsession in Ready Player One is not nostalgia. It is because of a specific set of interests held by the creator of the game so that they can try and win his treasure hunt. Therefore they are limited to the time period which he was interested in.