3Ts on my current hyper-fixation
demagogues, progressive art, and tv musicals.
This 3Ts is a little longer. That’s how hyper-fixations go! What’s up in the next few weeks:
I’ve been churning the Chilling Effect post, it’s meaty
a post debriefing the writing retreat I attended last weekend (and sharing all the best advice & prompts with y’all, ofc)
this Sunday I’ll be sending out an emergency “unfuck your browser” post with some important quick fixes, because Google’s trying to fuck us again.
Okay, let’s go!
ONE. when will the real populist leader emerge?
Imagine, if you will: a fantasy realm called hell. Our realm’s power is based on extracting resources from its citizens. The overlords of the realm build fiefdoms on the energy, talent, attention, and pain of these souls. Above the overlords sit a laconic king, an absent queen, and their princess whose heart bleeds for her subjects’ suffering.
There are external threats to this realm’s population, too: every year, another realm much richer in force and resources, a realm considered “morally pure,” comes down to exterminate some of hell’s souls. Their excuse is “overpopulation” but the real reason, stated by the leader of these purges behind closed doors, is “entertainment.”
(Hmm. Why is this ringing a bell…)
That’s our setup. From this conflict, two emergent camps offer two different solutions to break out of these violent cycles: a princess offering peaceful but difficult change, and an overlord offering easy violent catharsis.
“try to picture: if we could escape this hole
never have to live in fear of days when angels may appear
cuz here’s the kicker: sinners can save their souls
not by changing or redemption
but by taking over heaven.”
On the one hand is our princess, who is trying to be a populist but is running into the exact same problem every elite of the intellectual or ruling class has when attempting to lead or inspire a populist movement: she doesn’t fucking listen. Fixated on her own plan, she ignores warnings and ideas from the people she’s trying to help. She strategizes only with other elites: her father the king, and elites from the other realm. While attempting to garner a peace treaty with the other realm, she fails on two fronts. First, she doesn’t gather consensus from the overlords of her own realm. Lady, you live in an oligarchy, you didn’t think getting them on your side was important?? But even that would be okay if she led a truly populist movement; you could undermine the overlords if you had the people behind you. In season one, it almost seems like she does. But it was only for one fight — one vote, one might say. She forgets that no one from her realm has actually agreed to her plan long-term.
So. Our princess does zero coalition building in either direction, and remains in an intellectual ivory tower—and currently, she’s the best option these poor sinners have. Oof.
On the other hand is our overlord, who doesn’t have to listen to the people—he’s telling them what to think. He sings it to their faces:
“if you’re not fuckin’ stupid,
then you’ve only got one choice:
me!
Vox Populi, the people’s voice!”
The princess has a vision to redeem sinners so that they can break free of their pain and ascend to a better place. Her solution requires people to reckon with their past and what sent them to hell in the first place. In the show, this is a literal redemption and ascension, but our princess has no proof her solution works. People have to take her on faith, and invest in this solution with therapy, introspection, and changed behavior.
Sounds kinda hard, man. I’d rather blame someone else for my problems. And look at that: a really convenient scapegoat, offered by a guy who surely has no ulterior motives!
And the show is smart: it’s not cut and dry like that, just the princess vs the overlord. The other realm has been responsible for attempted genocide. They need to take responsibility for that, and no one should be naïve about their role in the suffering. When it comes to treaties: should they be at the table? In what capacity? What does true reparations look like? How do you craft lasting peace when there’s no trust, only miscommunication, propaganda, and blood spilled?
Sound fuckin’ familiar?
That propaganda doesn’t come from nowhere. A lot of it’s coming directly from our overlord: he’s been consolidating power under a media empire. He knows the power of television. He’s a man who lived life as a cult leader, and can persuade crowds to think against their best interests. (Uh oh.)
The power he has isn’t enough. He always needs more. He needs the largest house, the biggest crown. Truer than that, he’s motivated by an all-consuming hyper-awareness of how others see him. Like most cult leaders, his fundamental brokenness is that he cannot let go of any slight; his skin is the thinnest there’s ever been:
“and once we’re gods, I can’t wait to say:
to everyone who doubted me, your doubting days are done;
you’ll be cornered, trapped and tortured,
then I’ll end you one by one.”
While he sells the idea of the people taking over heaven, his real plan is to place himself as the king of both realms. Behind the scenes, he tells his two partners: “we’re the biggest fish in hell, how ‘bout we upgrade the bowl? It’s time for growth, let’s rule them both.” This too is a lie. In his blueprints, he’s on the big throne, with the other two flanking him below. When he forgets himself, he never says “we,” only “me.”
Historian Reinhard Luthin defined demagogue as:
“a politician skilled in oratory, flattery and invective; evasive in discussing vital issues; promising everything to everybody; appealing to the passions rather than the reason of the public; and arousing racial, religious, and class prejudices—a man whose lust for power without recourse to principle leads him to seek to become a master of the masses. He has for centuries practiced his profession of ‘man of the people’. He is a product of a political tradition nearly as old as western civilization itself.”
This is our overlord, who is winning the ideological battle handily in season two. In the latest episode, he has two songs titled “VOX POPULI” and “VOX DEI.” The voice of the people, and the voice of god. One is a front; the other is the real goal. Both are means. The true end for a demagogue is to sate his lust for power.
Hence, there is never any end for a demagogue except death.
Season two shows our peaceful protest princess distracted and scattered. She doesn’t have a plan. She’s reactive to the demagogue, to the detriment of all her plans. She gets distracted by small issues that should be handled by others, and has no clear plan. She’s deeply depressed and spiraling about her absent mother the queen, whom the princess wants to come back and solve everything. (An absent leader everyone used to admire? but who isn’t as populist as history codified them to be? hmm.)
Worse, she doesn’t see the realm’s politics from the people’s point of view. She does well 1:1 with folks, especially when she’s focusing on their actual pain and not trying to “prove” her method. She can make people believe they deserve to be loved. But she is not a master of the masses. Her methods take time, and peaceful, calm circumstances.
Our overlord’s ensuring that there’s no peace or calm, and our princess can’t adapt to daily chaos of his media cycles.
[jim halpert stare into camera]
The show’s been outlined for five seasons, so I don’t think a solution is coming for our princess this season. I think she’ll experience what, for her, will be a “big fall,” but what to any of us plebes would look like a soft landing. Will she learn any actual lessons? Well, this is fiction, and her name isn’t Schumer, so. Probably.
But I’d rather see her give up her power to the people around her instead. Otherwise, isn’t she just another overlord?
I have no idea what fans thinks of any of this; I’m not engaged in the fandom, because it’s one of those Deviantart Hot Topic dumb-as-rocks miss-the-point-so-hard-it-hurts ass fandoms and I’m just too old for that shit.
But I have to wonder if they’re falling for the demagogue. I have to wonder if they still want to see that peaceful redemption — do they even believe it’s possible, or have they fallen for VoxTek’s lie?
One of the reasons I love this show is because it’s so timely, and its commentary pierces right into the heart of what I see online, every day: a discourse of folks who don’t think of ideas as concepts in-and-of-themselves, but associate ideas with the people who present them — so that when the Democrats are fatuous, useless, less-than-useless, actively harmful and corrupt, people start to think of the ideas that party stands for as those things to. Or, at the very least, unachievable, pie-in-the-sky shit.
And when someone comes along who uses that oh-so-persuasive voice on their tiktoks, their ideas become persuasive too.
How catchy is your tune?
TWO. All hail the edgelords.
I’m burying the lede on purpose. My current hyper-fixation is the musical adult animation Hazbin Hotel. Its second season is premiering right now, with the last two episodes coming out next week. If this show is on your radar at all, it’s probably because an edgelord in your life watches it.
It’s me, I’m the edgelord. I admit: I’m fucking sick of all this pre-masticated content. I’m tired of overhearing full grown adults say the best movie they watched lately was Hotel Transylvania.1 I’m looking for something with stakes and an opinion and a voice that isn’t text-to-speech AI. I hear some of you thinking: Hotel Transylvania has great animation. Sure! Hazbin Hotel’s target audience is adults. When it takes narrative risks, it’s about topics like war and murder. It’s overtly queer—not squeaky-clean queer like Heartstopper, the kind of queer I actually recognize from my adult-ass life. The commentary on media culture is aimed at things adults experience.
Unless arrested development is your end goal, it’s actually sort of important to watch things targeted at your age group.
Gianmarco and Caleb Hearon have both addressed this recently, and I’m sure others have too: we need more progressive art that doesn’t walk on eggshells to be “non-offensive,” a puritan signifier for false actors and fuckheads who shouldn’t be in charge of a 7-11, let alone monitoring or monetizing art.
This means giving grace to shows going to uncomfortable places, especially with humor. You’ll be suffering through jokes that have gone rotten since the time of filming, or are just cringe instead of edgy. That’s okay. M*A*S*H is actually the perfect example of this. M*A*S*H has some stuff that doesn’t age well, mostly Margaret’s storylines. Though even some of that, I can see what they were trying to do: trying to hold women just as accountable as men for their role in war. That’s why Frank and Margaret are a pair: they’re two sides of the same hawkish coin. Still, some stuff they do with Margaret is just the writers themselves being sexist and dismissive. And yet, M*A*S*H is still one of the funniest, smartest, sharpest shows of all time. Pull its punches? Fuck you: you will be thinking about the price of war.
That’s the tricky thing about comedy. They’re just gonna whiff sometimes, but unless the joke is, like, insanely out of pocket, you should do your part as an audience participant, and gloss past it. There’s a joke in the most recent ep of Hazbin that I really rolled my eyes about; it’s a stinker. But I’m not gonna write a callout post about it, or complain about it to my friends who watch the show. I’m just gonna forget about it. Swing and a miss on one joke, out of… let’s say, 100 jokes per episode, if you include all the visual jokes? C’mon now, we all wanna bat that average.
Help your fellow artists and remember that we’re in this together. It’s hard to make art, and it’s impossible to make funny art. I certainly can’t fucking do it. And I want more shows like Hazbin to exist, so I’m gonna do my part and be its champion, instead of nitpicking it to death.
THREE. Why am I sleeping on TV musicals?
I’m invested in Hazbin’s plot, sure, but I’m actually here for the music. Like, say what your want about the plot, the jokes, the fandom — Pluribus this show ain’t. But you know what this show knocks out of the fucking park? The music. Holy hot damn. Theatre kid’s in my DNA, and this show scratches that itch so, so good.
Sidebar: we as a society are under-utilizing Keith David’s singing prowess. Just listen to these vocals, god fucking damn. The laugh traveling up and down the octave?! The episode grinds to a halt to showcase this song, which reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven stopping entirely to showcase Sammy Davis Jr.’s E-OH-11, which of course is the highlight of the whole fucking film, and really the only part worth remembering (fight me). “Love in a Bottle” is a masterpiece of a song: it’s a character piece, an homage, a showcase for Keith David, part of a canon of gambling and drinking songs in musicals, it can stand apart entirely from the show. And why haven’t we given Keith David more musicals? What are we doing here? The growl at the end? Hello??? /End sidebar.
I noticed how much joy the music’s brought to me (I’ve been listening to the Hazbin soundtrack every day since the s2 premiere) and it made me ask: how do I find this joy elsewhere?
Answer: I’m thinking I need to delve into TV musicals this winter: Galavant, Schmigadoon, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Central Park, Smash, the Fame show. That Fosse miniseries they did. If you have suggestions, lemme know. I think I need to dive into some musical tv to get through the winter, and have their soundtrack be my sunshine.
If you made it this far, thanks! See you Sunday with that “unfuck your browser” post. Til then, my dears!
that’s a true story. in my heart, i went over to their table and screamed like Laura Palmer in their faces. in reality, i texted my group chat.