How Does Democracy Die? Maybe by Laser Vision.
The New York Times
“The Boys” and other TV series imagine fascism coming to America, whether wrapped in the flag or in a superhero’s tights.
What would fascism look like in America? A quote long misattributed to Sinclair Lewis says that it would come “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The comedian George Carlin said that it would come not “with jackboots” but “Nike sneakers and smiley shirts.”
“The Boys,” Amazon Prime Video’s blood-spattered, dystopian superhero satire, has another proposal: It would be handsome, jut-jawed and blond. It would wear a cape. And it would shoot lasers out of its eyes.
Homelander (Antony Starr) is the star-spangled, nihilistic and enormously popular leader of the Seven, a for-profit league of superheroes produced through bioengineering and drug injections by Vought, a corporation founded by a Nazi scientist. To the public, he is the chiseled personification of national virtue. Behind the scenes, he is a bully, a murderer, a rapist — and, as of the new season, possibly America’s imminent overlord.
In the bizarro America of “The Boys,” “supes” are only incidentally crime fighters. They’re valuable corporate I.P., pitching products, starring in movies and reality shows and lending their images to puppet shows and holiday ice pageants. They’re the world’s biggest celebrities, towering on billboards and omnipresent on Vought’s media platforms, and this gives the Seven a power greater than any super-speed or heat vision.
When the series begins, however, Homelander is limited, by politics — the government has resisted using supes in the military — and by his deep-seated need for love and approval. Power breeds suspicion (“The Boys” takes its title from an anti-supe vigilante group whose exploits it follows), and Vought is constantly monitoring the Seven’s approval ratings and guarding against backlash. Homelander may be invincible, but he still has to answer to corporate.
The late-night host looms over the culture to this day, in part because he knew how to mix comedy and sex. But there was a darkness at the heart of his appeal.
Bag charms — or key chains by another name — have begun to rival holiday ornaments in their variety and as a form of self-expression.
Batiste’s latest album is a return to his classical music roots — on his terms. Hear him improvise on some of Beethoven’s classics.
Jon Jones punctuated his U.F.C. win with the president-elect’s shimmy, and numerous N.F.L. players followed suit on Sunday.
Now we fret about chatbots. An earlier age worried about automatons, the uncanny humanoid contraptions whose voices could trigger love or mania.
After the U.S. election, auctioneers are looking to woo reluctant bidders back. Watch these 6 bellwether artworks to see how the market performs.
Sarah Sherman plays Matt Gaetz as well as the widow of P’Nut, the conservative darling of the rodent world, while Charli XCX and pals serenade a mom-to-be.
Black artists have long claimed ancient Egypt as their own. Now they’re telling their stories in person on the museum’s floor.
Get ready for the DOGE store.
A shimmering dream on the Nile has inspired creativity from the Harlem Renaissance to Kara Walker to Beyoncé. But how much can you play with the past?
Old photos of the California governor (and navy-suit enthusiast) are being widely shared as bruised Democrats seek a savior.