American Horror Story: Cults Shocking Trump Election Opener Is Brilliant

[octoberlib]

KEVIN FALLON
09.05.17 11:00 PM ET

The concept for Tuesday night’s premiere of American Horror Story: Cult is so on-the-nose it can only be called brilliant.

The opening minutes of the episode uses news footage from the most unbelievable moments of the campaign—“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters—and scores it with the classic eerie horror music that we all know to the point of parody, building it to a deafening screech before cutting to series villain Evan Peters (an alt-right-adjacent zealot named Kai) watching Trump being named the winner: “The revolution has begun.”

While Kai celebrates, we meet our liberal protagonists, Ally and Ivy, a lesbian couple with a young son played by Sarah Paulson and Alison Pill, respectively. Cheesy thriller music builds while Ally spirals into a breakdown as it becomes clear that Clinton mathematically is out. “I won’t believe it until Rachel Maddow says it!” she yells. “She’s the only one I trust!”

Ivy moans, “How is this happening?” A neighbor at their results-watching party deadpans, “The politics of fear. It always works.” When the race is officially called for Trump, Ally lets out a banshee wail of pain and starts screaming like a lunatic: “Oh go to hell, Huffington Post! Fuck you, Nate Silver! What’s wrong with CNN for not giving us a trigger warning before giving us the results?”


It’s a brutal and actually rather eye-opening satire of liberal white privilege (standout detail: we learn that Ally, who lives in the swing state of Michigan, actually cast a protest vote for Jill Stein) instead of the incessant Trump-bashing most people anticipated—though there’s certainly a lot of that, too.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/american-horror-story-cults-shocking-trump-election-opener-is-brilliant

[Ilsa]

1. I've seen the previews, and had intended on watching the

Opener, but then the scary clowns showed up. I'm like Sam Winchester in that I don't care much for clowns at all (mild coulrophobia). (Sam Winchester's fear of clowns is an occasional running joke on the TV show Supernatural.)

[octoberlib]

4. There were tons of clowns in the first episode. It made some good points about Trump supporters and

3rd party voters, though.

[yallerdawg]

8. Portraying Trump supporters as violent, evil clowns...

works for me.

How everything is so much worse now, and getting worse everyday is so accurate.

"AHS" centers on American horror, a tribute, homage, revisit and revision - Ryan Murphy has nailed this one.

[Hortensis]

2. Who's funding this? Sounds like yet another occult attack on the Democratic Party.

Far left? Right wing? Or both?

I'm serious. From the time of the establishment of our liberal democracy, we have always had to fend off attacks on atleast two fronts. The good news is, the extreme left is much smaller than the protective, mainstream left. The bad news is, the extreme left and right often pull together. Just witness all the right-wing arguments and propaganda copied for anti-party posts here on DU.

I'll go watch it, but I identified those who would destroy liberal democracy, deliberately or out of stupid zealotry, long ago. It's always a matter of finding out what bushes they're shooting from and what ammo they're using.

[octoberlib]

3. What? The show's making the point that some of the people who

either voted third party or didn't bother to vote at all are now upset by Trump's actions. This has absolutely nothing to do with undermining the Democratic party. The co- creator of American Horror Story Brad Falchuk (Gwyneth Paltrow's boyfriend) is a Democratic party donor.

[Hortensis]

5. I'll have to watch it. But "liberal elites"? Who the hell are they, really?

The list all the "identity groups" who choose to work for their interests through the Democratic Party is very long, containing virtually every faction in the nation that either trends left or has to protect itself from the right. It notably contains very significant percentages of minority conservatives and the famous white male blue collar workers who are supposedly are all out of touch with themselves. Elites?

Not on that list are white nationalists, Christian dominionists, most big business interests and malignant dark money activists, left-wing extremists, and trumpsters.

We are America and aren't and never were out of touch with anyone except those who want to use government to attack all the others. We don't do that.

The throwing of catchphrases like "liberal elites" is as much an indicator of attack as hands launching grenades.

[ProgressiveValue]

6. And the mocking of trigger warnings.

[cwydro]

7. Lol, if anyone qualifies as an "elite", that would be Paltrow.

No one could be more out of touch.

[Hortensis]

9. If "elite" means every political statement gets blared far and wide,

no matter how silly or shallow, or off-the-cuff, she's one of our own little band.

Seriously, Paltrow seems okay, just wants "world peace."

Now, Sarandon's evolved into a grenade-thrower from out on the left, an "elite" voice, but certainly not one of ours.

[LanternWaste]

10. Sarandon is certainly no true Scotsman.

Sarandon is certainly no true Scotsman.

[Hortensis]

13. Don't you think she's sure she is, and that we're not? :)

Disapproval by some is reassuring.

Proudly impure.

[cwydro]

11. No doubt you're right.

I just find her insufferable. That whole "Goop" thing.

Sarandon is a damn idiot; I'm with ya there.

[Hortensis]

12. Not quite insufferable to me simply because I prefer not to look. :)

Seriously, I do try to avoid knowing who entertainers are so that doesn't spoil their performances for me. How many can even begin to live up to their characters, after all, much less the fascist-leaners playing resistance heroes--yuck!.

Finally couldn't avoid Sarandon, of course, and she's permanently off my viewing list, dammit. She was a favorite for years, but she spoiled herself.