what are some shows/movies/books that have really bad liberal “turns out trying to do good makes you evil” endings that sorta come out of nowhere? i’m thinking GoT, watchmen, hunger games...

communism is the satisfying resolution to the riddle of history that nearly all pop culture points at but has to swerve away from.

pop culture is successful and compelling to the extent that it taps into our real desires for change, justice, virtue, freedom, resolution, etc. but it can never go all the way down this road, it can't be consummated, because this would be too threatening

you see this over and over again of stories that start out promising but then go to absolute shit at the end because *any consistent working-out of problems* tends towards communism

this has to be sabotaged, thwarted, which means the principle of consistency has to be chucked overboard

e.g. daenerys targaryen, alma coin, lady trieu, all of whom break bad sort of inexplicably just to punish the viewer for seeing someone with good politics and supporting their power-claim

"no! having good politics doesn't make you fit to rule! having NO politics does"

so the show was cynically relying on the emotional identification it wrung out of the viewer by giving them a taste of communism, and then when it no longer needs that emotional buy-in because the show's wrapping up, it insults the viewer for falling for it to begin with

hatred of the audience isn't particular to inglourious basterds; it's endemic

i think i'm really just describing the form of liberal wisdom, that is, the truth is always whatever conclusion you reach AFTER you get over your youthful radicalism

there's this gesture that's as obligatory and reflexive as making the sign of the cross when you walk into a church, you ostentatiously signal maturity and seriousness by condemning radicalism

that is whatever interesting ideas you start out with (and there really are a whole lot of interesting ideas imo) you always have end on a note of fidelity to the status quo, and this distorts the whole story, especially towards the end

who are the showrunners accountable to at the end of a successful franchise? not the viewers, whose semi-conscious revolutionary desires fueled the thing's success, only the next group of investors, who need to be reassured that the showrunners are a good investment

performative treachery as virtue signaling to the market

as black sails and marx's inferno have shown, treachery is the founding sin of capitalism, and all major productions have to reenact this gesture in order to join the big leagues

"curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

it's DUMB, it's CARTOONISH, it's COMPULSIVE, it makes everything into crap

real subsumption = cartoonishly evil betrayals working their way into the substance of everyday life, making it ever stupider

by the way @RodericDay black sails fits this mold too! it just takes it further than anyone else before swerving