“Master of Puppets” is the perfect song to soundtrack Jason Momoa’s big dumb Instagram Story. Momoa, Aquaman, posted the Story yesterday to celebrate, with his 15 million followers, the announcement that HBO Max would be releasing something called “The Snyder Cut,” director Zack Snyder's long-fought-for shelved version of the superhero movie “Justice League” that has its own rabid following who believe it was suppressed by powerful people. The song is perfect because it just feels like it’s political. The chorus, “Master of puppets I’m pulling your strings,” hits like a rallying cry for the conspiracy-minded, a red pilled eye-opener sung from the perspective of They. It’s not an unreasonable interpretation of a song from an album with overt references to hidden powers controlling the lives of the little guy like “Disposable Heroes.” But the song is really about drugs and an empty high, the disappointment and disillusionment of getting to the end of the chase for something promised that was never really there.
In that way it’s the perfect song to soundtrack our big dumb moment, too, when we follow a series of figures who promise something to save us and inevitably let us down only to promise again. Whether because we have too much time on our hands or we're starved for someone to lead us, during the lockdown a lot of us are starting to act like or think like or think about members of cults.
Q
The week of cults began on Thursday, May 14, when The Atlantic published their "Shadowland" series. "Shadowland" is a big, important package of stories on conspiracy thinking in America, anchored by a long primer on the QAnon phenomenon that gained a lot of attention. In it, Adrienne LaFrance takes us into the lives of people who are adherents of a convoluted series of predictions - culminating in the Storm, when everyone who is not Trump will be arrested - that constantly turn out to not be true, people who lean on the QAnon framework as hobby, community and surrogate religion. It gives them hope, even when it turns out to be untrue.
Snyder
Like the Storm promised by Q, "The Snyder Cut" does not exist. Snyder, the director of "300," "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice," has been promising that his version of "Justice League," which was ultimately directed by Joss Whedon, exists and is much better. A fervent group of people believed him. The only problem is that Snyder kinda lied. It doesn't exist. It won't even be finished until 2021, at which point it will resemble a mini-series more than a movie. Disappointment is inevitable, but that won't really matter to HBO Max, who will have secured the subscriptions of the hundreds of thousands of people who begged to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Their movement will be reinforced and reinvigorated, promised a new thing to be hopeful for. When Momoa posted his Story, with a big grin, emphatic fist pumps and half-finished motivational affirmations about Putting It Out There and It Coming True, he personified pandemic-era cult fixation, when we've either become people who are knowingly or unknowingly in thrall to a cycle of hope and disappointment or have become obsessed with those people.
Whether consciously or not, The Atlantic's "Shadowland" series and specifically LaFrance's story on QAnon captured the zeitgeist.
Farrow
The week continued on Monday with one of the first serious challenges to the reporting that birthed the #MeToo movement. Ben Smith, the media columnist at the Times, published a controversial critique of Farrow's "resistance journalism," which is a sort of inverse of QAnon, a great hope for the media-logo-tote bag half of the country promising justice that almost never comes. Will this be demoralizing for them? Or will the backlash and the backlash to the backlash ensure that Farrow's fans only grow more fervent?
Musk
Then, on Tuesday, Nellie Bowles, also in the Times, took readers into the world of Elon Musk fandom, where zealous Tesla owners are trying to grapple with their hero acting like a moron. They used to see Musk as a potential savior of humanity. Literally. But lately he's been acting more like a 4chan nihilist. They're torn, but not giving up. Satoshi And lastly, yesterday, the word #Satoshi shot to the top of Twitter's trending topics. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the supposed inventor of Bitcoin, whose identity has never been revealed. He trended because some of the first ever Bitcoin mined in 2009 finally moved, kicking off speculation among Bitcoiners that their version of Revelation could be at hand. Turns out it probably wasn't Satoshi. So what's with all the cults? Feeling powerless sucks. Just think of the payoff these stories promise. Whether it's going to Mars or putting sex offenders behind bars or taking down the global financial system, they each reach a climax in which justice is finally served, and you get to play a part in serving it. It's a story to follow where the stakes are a lot higher than, say, "The Bachelor."There's also this amorphous moment.
Chasing something gives shape to an otherwise shapeless time. The chase may eventually disappoint, but at least you'll be with Jason Momoa, gleefully celebrating your tribe while blasting Metallica, following Zack Snyder to something in the future.
The shorter stuff
Special "Massive Cash-In" Section
Shocked so many people need Joe Rogan explained to them, who just inked an exclusive $100 million deal with Spotify. But if you do, this is the thing to read. (Slate)
Speaking of Spotify deals, The Ringer should get more credit for being an exemplary modern media company. Bill Simmons: annoying but smart. (Vulture)
And John Krasinksi sold his corny Zoom talk show to CBS All Access. (THR)
The Return of the "New York Times Beef" Section
The Times is no longer using third-party data to help advertisers target their ads, meaning the company will use its own data collected from subscribers to segment and target audiences, similar to the way Facebook segments and sells audiences directly. (Axios)
Here's one tech gadfly gleefully rubbing some perceived hypocrisy in journalists' faces. (Twitter)
And here's another. (Twitter)
Special "Taylor Lorenz is Prolific" Section
In the days since I told you all not to learn what the "Call Her Daddy" podcast is, it became hard to avoid. Barstool is kinda like the 6ix9ine of media companies. (NYT)
There are now like a dozen Gen Z TikTok influencer "collab houses" in LA. (NYT)
Obviously the poster for Netflix's "The Politican" is retro for no reason. (Image) Read my piece on why every TV and movie ad is retro .
Apple just bought a big Tom Hanks WWII movie in order to keep it from theaters. (CNBC)
Disney is indirectly responsible for HBO Max costing double what most other streamers cost. (FT)
Welcome back, good website Clickhole. (Vulture)
Curious why "Extraction" is Netflix's biggest movie ever? Me too! (The Week)
You can no longer experience things. Sorry. (NYT)
If this adaptation of Stephen King's pandemic porn The Stand were on anything other than CBS All Access it would be a surefire hit. But we'll see. Not sure I need a slick, prestige version anyway when there's already a really awesome low-brow one. (VF)
One thing not mentioned in articles about the pandemic animation boom is that the episodes created during it have a half-baked, disjointed feel to them. Lots of jokes, but aimless stories. (Bloomberg)
Very few people are funny in interviews. No one is funny on Zoom. Somehow Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon managed to be both. (NYer)