A few years ago, I watched the first episode of the British TV series Black Mirror, expecting a clever Sci Fi drama, since it was being compared to the Twilight Zone.
In the episode, a member of the British royal family is kidnapped and will only be released if the British prime minister fucks a pig on live television. A wild, perverse premise with an obvious critique of contemporary culture. One of the actors described the topic as “humiliation, and the public’s appetite for humiliation”. Fair enough, in part.
I still feel shaken as I remember watching it. I think I went from amusement to disbelief to anxiety to abject horror and grief. Notice how this trajectory follows the one we’ve endured with the presidency of Donald Trump!
In the show, we see the varying reactions of TV viewers as they watch the spectacle play out. Many are crying. I cried with them, because I’m sensitive, alright?
I remember complaining for days and weeks that I was permanently traumatized, even though it was only TV.
Now, watching Trump on TV, I feel the same horror welling up, but I’m too scared to cry. Maybe later. Every utterance and gesture is revolting, shameless, viscerally repugnant, like the Prime Minister fucking a pig. When he holds forth at his rallies, his tone strikes me as a mixture of Mussolini and Rodney Dangerfield. I’m actually embarrassed for him, because I’m a human being.
How one stupid fat bully could succeed in corrupting the entire government and breaking the whole country, I will never understand. But here we are.
I keep reflecting on Black Mirror, against my will, because my brain is looking for a reference point, I guess. What I want to know is this: ARE WE THE PIG?
Or is Trump both the pig and the pig fucker?
That’s all I’ve got today, sorry. I just wanted to check in.
“How one stupid fat bully could succeed in corrupting the entire government and breaking the whole country, I will never understand. But here we are.”
Think Hitler, or Charles Manson, and their followers and you’ll understand.
Tom – But Hitler and Manson weren’t stupid! They could read!They had actual ideologies!
I had the same reaction-I never watched another episode of that show it disturbed me so profoundly.
Shelley – I never watched another one either! Sorry to trigger you but I had to share.
Whenever I hear of shows like this, I always imagine the pitch session beforehand, with producers nodding their heads thoughtfully at these imaginative and engaging scenarios. Somebody approved this. It’s one thing to think it up, another entirely to pitch it with a straight face, have it received with seriousness and put a whole bunch of money and resources into creating a TV show about it. Which way I flee is hell…
Alison – Yeah, I hear you. I often think that about movies and TV sows, but this one is sort of a category all its own. Why do they want you to feel violated? is what I ask myuself.