Thread by @KrisAtLarge

I don't normally have a lot of empathy for military men in film but the Colonel in #Akira is something I can't help liking; he sometimes seems like the only clear-headed man in any sort of position of power, and he's sincere in his struggle to manage the terrifying risks. ~Chara

and even though he's a military man, he seems to understand that his unusual charges—the experimental subjects, the ESPer children—are best managed with kindness and a delicate touch. but then...Tetsuo happens, and he refuses to be *managed* at all.

~Chara

it amuses me that the Colonel *is* the sort of person that the @elonmusk / @DavidSacks / @realDonaldTrump crowd imagines _they_ would be, when the time came—effortlessly takes charge, brushing aside the men sent to arrest him, and doing what he regards as his duty.

~Chara

it's a powerful scene—Col. Shikishima casually orders the arresting official *shot dead*, and takes charge with a few decisive words. "We can't dance to the tune of corrupt politicians and capitalists!" (@mtaibbi and @elonmusk still dance to that tune, of course.)

~Chara

the entire radical right—including all those fascıst hoodlums whom @MrAndyNgo pals around with (and spies upon, for the @PortlandPolice), all the stalwart collectors of guns like @Timcast—whatever they're calling themselves these days, they *want this*. this scene.

~Chara

the QAnon crowd had their Great Wave or Great Awakening or whatever the eff they were calling it—the Great Bloodletting, like it's called in #DiscoElysium. @dalepartridge and the @mtaibbi crowd and @jordanbpeterson all have their ways of believing in the Great Purge.

~Chara

they're waiting for the big moment. any moment, it's gonna happen, and @realDonaldTrump or maybe @RonDeSantisFL or heck why not even @elonmusk himself is going to smile upon his people and rule them with a rod of iron. the Apocalypse, the Reaping, the...whatever.

~Chara

because then...nothing will matter, right? not @michaelshermer's rape accusations, not @mtaibbi's betrayal of journalism, not @MattWalshBlog's...problems with children, @elonmusk's debts...it'll all be washed clean with the rest of the filth, right? it's happening, right?

~Chara

...no.

it already happened. the United States of America *is* the apocalypse, in a sense; it's been one long rolling disaster and it's chewed up who know how many hundreds of millions if not billions of lives. @dalepartridge's Apocalypse is a thing of the _past_.

~Chara

the instincts of a dozen filmmakers and a hundred novelists were right. _Zardoz_ was already correct, in a way: we're survivors of an apocalypse, and we inhabit a blasted and wasted land, because of #capitalism. we're drained nearly dry, and barely hanging on.

~Chara