Should spoilers for decades-old movies and books be fair game?

Spoilers expire, and the reason is simple: a rule that never ends is a rule nobody can live by. Take a movie from 1980. Its big twist has been in sitcom parodies, trivia books, and school hallway chatter for longer than most viewers have been alive. If the rule is that nobody may mention it ever, then every conversation about film history needs a warning label, and the label becomes noise. Nobody can tell a fresh release from a fossil. Here is the practical trade-off. On one side, a person who has not seen a famous old story loses a surprise they could have protected. On the other, everyone else loses the ability to talk about the thing at all. The first cost is real but small, and the person can control it. They know the title is a classic. They know it is old. They can skip the discussion thread. The second cost lands on the whole room, every time. I am not saying be cruel. If a friend tells you they are halfway through a classic novel, keep quiet. That is just manners. But manners are about the person in front of you, not a permanent ban on a public conversation. A reasonable window, a few years for movies and maybe a bit longer for books, gives newcomers a fair shot and then lets the culture move on. After that, the burden shifts. If you have waited thirty years to see something, you have already accepted some risk. Asking the world to stay silent for your convenience is a big ask. Spoilers should expire, the way most social expectations do.