July 4, 2024 - aka The Twilight Zone

I did spend several days of a long 4th of July  weekend watching a marathon of original Twilight Zone episodes. It seemed the most honest and appropriate way to mark what is likely the end of the run for the US of A. Since the former president/coup leader/traitor has been deemed immune from criminal prosecution we now abandon Independence and Freedom to return to being merely subjects of a King. So yeah, Twilight Zone. 

It was a very powerful series of stand-alone episodes which have had a global appeal. Often very political, rejecting authoritarianism in every aspect of society and the Kurrent Konservative Karenism would be protesting every episode if the show were being made today.

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street - where neighbors violently turn on each other for minor or meaningless occurrences - but it turns out they are all being manipulated by alien observers, who sow confusion to show how easily they can turn to enemies, part of their strategy of world domination.

The closing narration of that episode captures the current American dilemma ... 

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices ... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill ... and suspicion can destroy ... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is ... that these things cannot be confined to ... The Twilight Zone!"