HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Last Halloween I posted about the correlation between monsters and politicians and how Democrats are connected vampires while Republicans are analogous to zombies in the public mind.
I explained that when the POTUS is a Democrat the horror de jure becomes vampires, and when the GOP is in the catbird seat zombies become the most significant monster in popular media. Why? Because the right wing sees Democrats as vampires — blood-sucking Others who unleash sex-crazed women upon decent, God-fearing male authority – and the left wing views Republicans as zombies — a shambling mass of ravenously consuming capitalistic cretins whose can only respond to stimuli in limited ways and attack anyone with brains.
I also joked that vampire stories, especially tales of emasculating female vampires, were about to hit big. I assumed that surely, SURELY the next POTUS would be Hilary Clinton. How could Trump possibly get into office, I thought? The man is a moron who brags about grabbing women by the pussy!
Yeah, about that …
Thanks to Russia and Faux News that asshat Donald John Trump is in the Oval Office. Only the fact that Russia ran a disinformation campaign for the him and may have actually hacked the voting machines brings me any comfort in knowing that orange derpwanker is polluting the White House with his stupidity (at least on the few odd days he isn’t golfing).
Now that Paul Manafort and his sidekick Rick Gates have been indicted, I eagerly await to see what Trump and the Trumpets will do about all the trumpery getting ready to fall down and go boom.
Meanwhile, zombies are big this Halloween. They are below Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, and clowns in terms of favorite costumes, but way above vampires. It isn’t just the traditional ‘zombies’ that are hot either; everything is now being recast as a freaking zombie … everything. There are undead Disney princesses, cheerleaders, sports stars, schoolgirls, nurses, brides, doctors, and pirates. I expect someone to make a porno called The Wanking Dead at this point. (fears; Googles; weeps)
For Halloween of 2016, when the world assumed America wouldn’t faceplant and that Hilary Clinton would be the next POTUS, vampire was a more popular costume than zombie. Vampires were ‘in’ that year because Democrats were in the White House and the populace thought the left wing (or at least less right leaning) HRC would win the election. If a hard-core liberal like Bernie Sanders had been the one likely to win, I can only assume the vampires would have been properly scary instead of the nearly-fangless, sparkly, non-human-blood-sucking wonders of the ‘centrist’ Democrats inspire.
Come to think of it, the more the Democrats shifted to the ‘center’ or flat-out into the right wing, the tamer vampires have gotten, and the more vampires and zombies began to merge in movies and literature, and the more predatory and terrifying zombies have become. Compare the original Fright Night or the baddies in The Lost Boys with the wimps of the Twilight saga and you can see where vamps used to have (brace yourself) real bite. Then there is the rise of the half-vampire hero saving us all from the full-vamp monsters by using vampires’ own strengths against them, like the Blade Series or BloodRayne. Now, you can get vampires that are nearly mindless, like those in 30 Days of Night or I Am Legend – bone chillingly creepy but not exactly suave, intelligent, seducers of maidens.
Meanwhile, the farther-right and more powerful the GOP has become, the more overwhelming the zombies have gotten. They started evolving into faster and more deadly adversaries, and are now part of pandemics where they are taking over the world, like in World War Z and 28 Days Later. Zombies are fast and can transmit their condition by biting, much like vampires. There are lot more zombies now, and they are presented overwhelming, unstoppable, and the remaining humans are doomed.
Hmmm … what do monsters tell us about zeitgeist? I have to think about this more. Why do we always try to dehumanize the opposition, to Other them, to render them into monsters? Why are we so fascinated by monsters anyway?
Oh look! Someone has already written a book about that very thing!
I hope you all have a wonderful All Hallows Eve and get lots of treats and only fun tricks. And to my friends who are Pagans and Wiccan … a very blessed Samhain to you all.