![]() ![]() It would be like, “That’s the most ridiculous story line!” But there it is. “Climate change is not real.” “The moon landing’s not real.” If I had written a story line that said powerful Democrats were running a secret child sex ring from a pizza parlor - PizzaGate - I would be laughed out of the business. You can spend your day reinforcing almost anything. I just watched “ The Social Dilemma,” which is eye-opening about how metrics can control what you’re watching, what you’re getting and how it’s helping to feed conspiracy. It’s easier to cross your arms and go, “Oh, but there’s more to this.” ![]() I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in conspiracies, because there is sort of an interesting intellectual factor where doubting makes you feel cynical. I’m looking right now at an issue of The Atlantic, and the cover story is how QAnon is warping reality and discrediting science. He’s definitely winking at it, if not coming straight out and embracing it. Even the president is involved in spreading conspiracy theories. QAnon was on the fringes, but it’ s becoming mainstream, with political candidates and activists who are adherents. ![]() It puts us in a position where we are easy to manipulate. Even science has become debatable, which is very frightening. We’re in this weird place where truth has become malleable. Certainly there is that idea that if you look hard enough, and if you want it bad enough, you have the ability to convince yourself of anything. I was intrigued by the rise of conspiracies at that time - and it’s only become more so - but I wrote it before I knew about QAnon. The weird thing is, I started writing this in 2013. You know when Wilson and Christie make a connection about all the animals becoming wiped out, except the ones that are cute? Christie says, “Never in history has a creature been begging for extinction more than the panda.” Well, if you look closely at Wilson’s wall, there is a big picture of a panda, and he’s written on its forehead: “I suck.”ĭo you see a QAnon quality to the show’ s conspiracy?Ībsolutely. Among other things, he has a Post-it note reminding him to “ call Dennis K,” meaning Dennis Kelly, the creator of the original series?Įxactly. It might also be worth freezing the conspiracy wall Wilson Wilson (Desmin Borges) constructed. Could that be irresponsible? Even dangerous? The show’s resemblance to our own very real pandemic was accidental, but it lends it an uneasy verisimilitude, inspiring a few critics to lament what felt like a validation of anti-vaccine crankdom in the era of QAnon. In Christie’s view, humans are the real virus, wiping out other creatures, and he’s convincing enough to make one of the show’s crusading characters join his mad cult. Kevin Christie (John Cusack), who created the bogus vaccine and is also a secret human trafficker, finally reveals his master plan: His vaccine is designed to make people infertile in order to radically reduce the world’s population. Near the end of the show’s first season, released in late September, the biotech chief executive Dr. This revelation, and much else, has been coded into mysterious comic books (“Dystopia” and its sequel “Utopia”), whose most obsessed readers eventually learn that the epidemic has been engineered, the media and the government have been manipulated and shadowy forces are promoting a worthless vaccine. Adapted from a 2013 British show by the same name, the series centers on a wild conspiracy theory about viral epidemics - or not so wild, as it turns out, because the theory proves to be true. The world of the zeitgeisty Amazon Prime thriller “ Utopia” is dauntingly complex. This interview includes spoilers for the first season of “ Utopia.” ![]()
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