RadioActive wrote:

Well it IS tennis. So guess there was no "love" lost.

Ba-da-boom 🥁

There are many inane personality traits which shine through from every MAGAt.

However, what does not shine through is any indication of being able to think rationally, or longterm.

Thus, they fall for the same 'dear leader can do no wrong' crap over and over again.

Meanwhile, everything they buy at Walmart, Kroeger, Exxon, etc. is suddenly more expensive. Why? BECAUSE THE END USER PAYS THE TARIFFS, fer god's sake. 🙄

Warnings on the negative impact of tariffs went unheeded. Why? Because Dear Leader promised them American streets paved in gold. Dear Leader would never lie, would He?

Now, as tRump boasts of incredible revenue for the American government from tariffs, do you think one MAGAt would have the brains to ask who's paying all those tariffs (taxes)?

Nope. Don't need nun o' dat der book lernin'.

paterson1 wrote:

I don't agree with everything the Ford government has done but draw the line with comparisons with Trump or the Republican party.  That assessment doesn't fly, and I guess most Ontarians see it that way since the latest poll indicates that the Conservatives have actually increased in popularity since the recent provincial election..https://abacusdata.ca/abacus-data-ontario-poll-ford-pcs-climb-to-53-widen-lead-over-liberals-to-26-points/

First let me say that polls are dubious at best. I think anyone who's been around knows that they cater to whoever paid for the poll (and these days most polls are usually bought for by the right-wing e.g. Frasier Institute says taxes are too high!) and you can tailor the questions to get whatever outcome you need to get.

On top of that, last year a thread on Twitter discussed how (supposedly) a certain pollster will ask those who sign up exactly what their political leanings are... so the polling company knows which of their surveyed members are Liberal-voters, NDP-voters, or PC-voters. And knowing that... we get this:













Now maybe they've changed their ways, but I doubt it. Pollsters are a business, like anything else. You pay for results, something that you can put into a press release (usually around election time) knowing that the lazy news media will pick it up and air it on their newscast without much scrutiny.

Why do this? There can be several reasons. Let's say it's the Conservatives who ordered the poll:

1) show that their leader is really really far ahead of the current Prime Minister, a shoe-in to be elected as the next leader.  Psychological effect: people who might go out and vote for the Liberals decide it's not worth the hassle if the other guy is so far ahead, let's just stay home and order up pizza instead. A polling tactic like this is called voter suppression.  And it works, people are lazy, and going to the trouble to vote at some distant polling station after a long day at work, all they need is an excuse to stay home and just vegetate, and the supposed poll gives them that excuse.

At the same time, they send out emails and texts to all of their right-wing base to motivate them to go out and vote no matter what. It MUST be a two-pronged strategy, otherwise their own base might just say "Yay! Our guy is going to win! Let's stay home and order pizza instead!" And the right-wing party knows this.

2) make their candidate seem more popular than he actually is. This is the herd mentality, where the right-wing rabble need "social proof" that their political party has picked a winner as their candidate. Everyone wants to back a sure-thing, a winner, and the poll, fake or real, offers evidence.  Social proof is a real phenomenon that has been used to market things like energy drinks (the most famous example being Red Bull littering the parking lots of nightclubs with already-empty Red Bull cans, giving nightclub goers the impression that a lot of other people must be drinking Red Bull so they should order some too. The staging of fake empty cans in a place where the public can see them offered social proof that other people were drinking this, so you now join in).

3) in the case of the Republicans, they need to show that Trump is either ahead of Kamala or in a tie (when the reality is, he was probably a distant second). This allows for the Republicans to claim, if Kamala wins, that the election was clearly "rigged" and the Democrats must have again cheated just like they did in 2020 because hey, the polls leading up to election night showed a different story, right?

As has been stated by both left and right-wing parties, the only poll that matters is the one on election night, but these paid-for polls exist for reasons other than just to show how things actually are. These days they are more devious marketing tools to an unsuspecting public unaware that they ARE being influenced when they see the poll showing up on the local 6pm news. And no, for the record, when I see a poll showing the Liberals or NDP ahead in some race, I don't assume it's true either, I just make a mental note to go out and vote no matter what.

It may be illegal to tamper with the results of a poll after it has been conducted, but there's no law about picking WHO will fill out your political survey and the pollster picks who they want, knowing if their chosen surveyed are past-Conservative voters, they'll likely give results that make their Conservative client very happy.

EDIT: Here's an example of a poll question... I hope people can see that this is NOT how a normal poll should be conducted:



I also didn't realize how cheap it is to commission a (computerized) poll:


Geez, for $500, I could pay for a poll that proves to my girlfriend that I am widely acknowledged by women across the country as "Canada's most handsome man and best lover in the bedroom".  Okay, it might take more than $500 to prove that :D

More on your other points in a later post when I'm not as sleepy.

Last edited by TomTV (September 9, 2025 10:29 pm)

Voters should definitely do their research but I've pointed out that we and the United States live in a right-wing media ecosystem (TV, newspapers, social media). It is said that the aim of propaganda is not to convince you into believing the other point of view, but to create so much confusion that you don't know what to believe any more. When everything sounds factual, you can't base your voting decisions on any information floating out in the infosphere.

This can then leave voters vulnerable to making their decision about who to vote for, based on "gut feeling" i.e. your emotions. Ideally this is what right-wing politicians like, because I find them to be disturbingly good at manipulating the emotions of their audiences mostly by triggering anger and negativity (it's been shown that anger gets people motivated to DO something e.g. go out and vote). When you don't have reliable facts, or conflicting facts, you vote based on how you feel.

I go by a fairly simple rule that a) the politician has to conduct himself as a professional, not a clown or a showman. The latter is where you will find the Trumps, the Doug Fords (Crown Royal pouring et al), the ones that are catering to the dumber members of society to get their vote. Politics is not entertainment, it should be boring but serious (and oh do I long for the days when politics were so boring I could tune them out).  b) they are not solely trying to stir up hate and negativity in their base, c) avoid cheap slogans, repetition of the same message over and over again, and present an actual authentic version of themselves (if they do all of these things, I suspect they are using the Nazi propaganda playbook to get elected and they are gone from any serious consideration). This last one is a fine line though, because one could argue it's just good marketing tactics, but you combine it with the other a) and b) and I don't think it's just good marketing.

At this point I was going to talk more about Ford, but tonight's Charlie Kirk assassination has changed things. Since the other thread got shut down, I'll post this interesting bit from Twitter tonight.






I was actually wondering to myself if Trump's people might not have done it themselves, exactly as the twitter theory above suggests: a repeat of the fake assassination attempt on Trump from last year, but on Charlie Kirk, except that the shooter missed whatever the intended mark was (ear? shoulder?) and actually killed Kirk by mistake.

Why do this? Obviously when it happened last year, it garnered a huge rally from MAGA for Trump and helped him "win" the election. Currently with his own MAGA base questioning if he's a pedophile and involved with Epstein, he needed a BIG distraction. Attacking Venezuela didn't do the trick, so they could have tried falling back on last year's successful tactic.. but screwed up badly.

The intention was to MISS, not to hit the bulletproof vest. But wind conditions or some other factor could've altered the bullet's trajectory just enough to strike his neck. If it was an AR-15, my understanding from the Uvalde massacre of those children is that a single hit is like being hit by a grenade and body parts explode on contact. There would be no saving Kirk.

 

Last edited by TomTV (September 11, 2025 4:52 pm)

The feds have now released a photo of the alleged shooter and provided a backstory as to what this person may have done to get into position to shoot and where they fled to afterwards. Great... but from this government, I am still going to treat everything they say as very suspect.

Why does it seem plausible that Trump might put Charlie Kirk, who he long talked about his admiration for, as a target (whether to actually be killed or almost-killed-but-someone-botched-it). Here's a possible reason:



Go here to see the video of Charlie Kirk enthusiastically calling for all of the Epstein Files to be released and the crowd cheering him on.
https://x.com/RyanShead/status/1966008548640673881

It was known that in recent months Kirk had turned against Trump by going this route and Trump is not exactly a forgiving person when it comes to betrayal. Earlier in this thread, I cited Margaret Atwood and how she replied when asked what she thinks will happen next with the Trump regime: she responded saying that there will be a Night of the Long Knives (just google it if you don't know) and those who are not faithful to the leader get purged. Perhaps this is a slow-motion version of that.  Elon Musk better watch his back, if it is. You can't use your son as a human shield every second of the day, after all.

Furthermore, alive Charlie Kirk was starting to turn into a risk for Trump, especially if he was calling for the release of the "Trump pedo-files" as I like to call them. Dead, Kirk is a now a martyr for the right-wing ideology who can be used as a propaganda tool to keep the loyalty of the huge audience of Charlie Kirk fans without the messiness of trying to ensure Kirk's loyalty to Trump.

One of the goals of the Night of the Long Knives was for Hitler to eliminate any rivals to his leadership e.g. those who commanded the brownshirts. Charlie Kirk is easily one of Trump's potential rivals, commanding the loyalty of the next generation of America's youth. Those youth don't give two shits about an old decrepit orange-skinned pedophile, they were in awe of Charlie Kirk.  It is entirely plausible that if Trump died, and because JD Vance is a laughingstock and couch-fucker, JD Vance would not be able to hold together the MAGA movement. But Charlie Kirk definitely could do that, and no dictator ever allows an up-and-coming young rival to their power, to live. 

Kirk's calling for the release of the Epstein files could have been seen by Trump as Kirk attempting to either humiliate Trump or even get Trump kicked out of the presidency, and like I said, Trump is someone who is vengeful and petty. It's all very Shakespearean when you think about it.



 

Last edited by TomTV (September 11, 2025 5:16 pm)

A suspect has been apprehended...  turned in by someone close to him based on an apparent confession or implied confession to the crime. There are already assumptions about him being made online, none of which fit Trump's rant about radical lefties becoming violent.





One important note here is that the Halloween costume he is wearing doesn't mean he is a Trump supporter, it could be more that he is mocking Trump in it.

EDIT: wow, this statement from the governor reveals how biased he is, and how desperate MAGA has been to find anyone on the left to blame for the tragedy:
EDIT2:  here's a link to the video, judge for yourself. No normal politician prays for it to be for someone out of state or out of the country.
https://x.com/BladeoftheS/status/1966541034583625811







Edit: to his credit Utah's governor also gave an impassioned plea for unity and an end to political violence (it can be seen on tonight's Global National). I hope the right-wing actually listen to him but...

Here's a well-done summary of how the killer was caught from ABC:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tyler-robinson-charlie-kirk-suspect-shooter-utah/story?id=125474359

To be frank, I really wish this had turned out to be a conspiracy or foreign operation than yet ANOTHER young white male resorting to violence for political reasons. Because it is an ongoing disturbing trend whether right-wing America wants to admit it or not:

 

Last edited by TomTV (September 14, 2025 12:36 am)

Has anyone local been dismissed for expressing insufficiently reverential views of Charlie Kirk? Or is it too early?

Dial Twister wrote:

One might legitmately ask, "Why would a possible tRump supporter kill Charlie Kirk?"

Here's another possible reason...

I was watching the coverage of Charlie Kirk killer's capture on last night's Global National and it was mentioned that Tyler had become very political in recent months and that he expressed hatred for Kirk's views. So that would leave one with the impression that Tyler was motivated to shoot Kirk to stop Kirk from poisoning the minds of America's youth, right?  Tyler felt an obligation to stop Kirk before he grew up into the next Adolph Hitler, striking a blow against a future tyrant for the left-wingers across America.  At least that it what it seemed to me only 24 hours ago.

And now the plot twist... as people on Facebook dive into Tyler's family and past, we now get this 180-degree revelation:

From "The Other 98%"

Tyler Robinson, who turned himself in for murdering right wing activist Charlie Kirk, was not acting on left wing ideals but was deeply influenced by the far right “Groyper” movement led by Nick Fuentes. Robinson grew up in a MAGA household, his father was a police officer, and he was surrounded by guns from a young age. Family photos even show him dressed as Pepe the Frog for Halloween, a character that has become a Groyper mascot.

When police examined his ammunition, they discovered Robinson had scratched “Bella Ciao” onto a casing. Though the song began as an anti fascist anthem, it has been co-opted into the online ecosystem of Groypers and incels, and it even shows up on the “Groyper War” playlist on Spotify. This mix of memes, music, and menace reflects how the far right glamorizes violence and recruits followers while hiding behind irony.

Before any of this was known, Donald Trump blamed “the radical left” and Elon Musk claimed Democrats are “the party of murder.” Both owe the country an apology. The reality is a huge percentage of political violence in recent years has come from the right. Officials in Evergreen Colorado confirmed that the 16 year old boy who carried out a shooting just moments after Kirk's was ALSO radicalized online by far right propaganda. Conservatives need to face the truth that their MAGA movement with countless right wing dudebro podcasters is radicalizing an entire generation of young men across this country.

Other Facebook commentators:

actually it's coming out that he was a Goryper ...don't know what that is ..look it up ...worse than even maga

yah, he was pissed Charlie kept demanding those pesky Epstein files even after the Orange messiah asked him to stop

I’ve seen very recent reports that Tyler thought that Charlie Kirk was too LIBERAL. That Tyler supported Nick Fuentes, the national pundit who voices extremely white supremacist views. We’ll see what else comes out of the investigation.

Charlie wanted the Epstein files released, he didn't agree with going to war with Iran. He wasn't as loyal as he once had been.

He was a Nick Fuentes MAGAT supporter, much worse than Charlie Kirk. Please, open your eyes and stop making excuses for these far-right murderers!

Because he was a Groyper!

In the fall of 2019, Kirk launched a college speaking tour with Turning Point USA titled "Culture War", featuring himself and guests such as Rand Paul, Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Lara Trump, and Dan Crenshaw. In retaliation for the firing of St. Clair and the Politicon incident, Fuentes began organizing a social media campaign asking his followers to go to Kirk's events and ask provocative and controversial leading questions about his stances on immigration, Israel, and LGBT rights to expose Kirk as a "fake conservative". At a Culture War event hosted by Ohio State University on October 29, 11 out of 14 questions were asked by Groypers. Their questions included "Can you prove that our white European ideals will be maintained if the country is no longer made up of white  European descendants?" They asked Kirk's co-host Rob Smith, a gay, black Iraq War veteran, "How does anal sex help us win the culture war?" Fuentes's social media campaign against Kirk became known as the "Groyper Wars". Kirk, Smith, and others at Turning Point USA, including Benny Johnson, began calling the questioners white supremacists and antisemites.

That's apparently because Kirk was not far enough right for him. He followed Nick Fuentes and his Groyper ideology - a bunch of alt-right Christian Nationalists.

Tyler was a Nick Fuentes disciple. 'Nick Fuentes was notably against Charlie Kirk and frequently challenged him, most prominently during the "Groyper Wars" in 2019. Fuentes and his followers, known as "Groypers," accused Kirk of being a "gatekeeper" and a moderate in the conservative movement, leading to a
public feud and the disruption of Kirk's events.'

That’s because Tyler was a follower of Nick Fuentes and his “Groypers” group. There is a picture of Tyler on Halloween dressed as a Groypers meme character. I believe there are also online chats Tyler was in that confirm it. The Groypers hate Charlie Kirk.

...yeah, so there's a group even WORSE than MAGA? And one of them chose to execute Charlie Kirk for being too LIBERAL. And just in case we forget,

Charlie Kirk was:
- a White Nationalist/ racist
- gun enthusiast / against gun control laws
- an anti-semite
- misogynistic
- homo and transphobic

If that's being too liberal, I don't want to know what the far-FAR-right extremists think is acceptable to their cause. Probably something akin to the final solution.

EDIT: and here's a link to what probably started all that Groyper talk on Facebook:

We’re Republicans for Trump,’ says grandmother of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer; deepening the mystery around Tyler Robinson’s motive and the Groypers link

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/were-republicans-for-trump-says-grandmother-of-charlie-kirks-alleged-killer-deepening-the-mystery-around-tyler-robinsons-motive-and-the-groypers-link/articleshow/123863158.cms?from=mdr

EDIT: an article that covers some of the misleading facts being said about the shooter, debunking them
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-charlie-kirk-shot-assassination-3354b7ba0d736c198b454f77b3744308


 

Last edited by TomTV (September 13, 2025 7:20 pm)

Those who haven't been paying very close attention to the undercurrents in right-wing American politics may think you're clutching at straws, TomTV, or over-reacting to what they may perceive to be just normal politics.

This is far from normal, at least in North America.

Are there nut cases on the left? Of course there are. No group of people is absent nut cases.

However, what is being foisted on the World by the remnants of the Republican Party (aka MAGA) is a tragedy beyond measure. In other words, every day the domestic and international relations malpractice by the current POTUS gets alarmingly worse. The America many of us admired, even envied, is so far gone that it may never return.

As Canadians, the old argument that, "It's none of our business how crazy America gets. It doesn't affect us." has been put to rest by tRump's own threatening words against our soveriegnty and economic viability.

Not paying attention is not a viable position for anyone determined to keep Canada independent. As said by the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, “If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?”

America, and by extension us, is in very deep trouble and the crazy is coming from inside the house...the White House.

On the topic of being vigilant against those who want to corrupt our democracy and turn our society into an authoritarian nightmare, we've had warnings from science-fiction for decades that evildoers are always lurking behind the scenes plotting to overturn our way of life. The easiest example to cite would have to be the Star Wars prequels:

- Senator Palpatine, is perceived by the public to be an elderly charismatic politician from the beseiged world of Naboo (under invasion by the rich, spoiled Trade Federation). Palpatine presents himself as a politician who fights for the oppressed, claims to Queen Amidala that the Republic has become corrupt and unreliable due to its current (weak) leadership and that a strong leader is needed to clean things up and make the Republic great again.



- he manipulates events within the Republic to gain enough popularity to depose the current leader in a vote of no-confidence launched by the naive and gullible Amidala, so that he can take over and "put an end to the systemic greed and corruption of the Republic" (let's find that "gravy train" everybody!)

- once in power however, he secretly creates a galactic emergency that requires him to cling to power far beyond his normal term and begins the slow process of installing his own loyalists to the upper command of the Republic. Those who might oppose him under normal circumstances, the Jedi, are kept distracted and too busy engaged in fighting battle after battle, wearing down their numbers and their morale. Without realizing it, the Jedi are corrupted into being Palpatine's pawns: being the generals of this unwanted war, the public begin to see the Jedi as violent, bloodthirsty and warmongers, spoiling their long-time image as guardians of peace and justice.



- meanwhile, Palpatine and Dooku work together to manipulate the two factions of the war, the right-wing Confederacy (made up of the business and financial elite of the galaxy) to fight the left-leaning Republic forces, sowing division and hatred for the other side and ensuring there won't be any common grounds to find a peaceful resolution. They push both factions to the extremes, enraging the masses with stories of war crimes and atrocities committed by the enemy.




- in only two to three years, Palpatine has now a blindly loyal army of brownshirts at his command: the clone army, which dutifully obey his order to execute his enemies en masse in a surprise ambush. Simultaneously, he secures the loyalty of a powerful ally, Anakin, who becomes the outward face of the new Empire, a figure that will inspire fear and dread in any who might want to oppose the regime, while Palpatine stays in the shadows, continuing to grow his empire. He relies on a roster of regional governors to administer control over the population using spies and informants, surveillance (probes), and a constant display of the Empire's military might to cower any who are thinking of rebelling

- he orchestrates a false flag operation, luring Mace Window into attacking him so that he can claim that the Jedi attempted to incite a coup, and now brands them as traitors to be hunted down. Palpatine promises that his new regime will provide everyone with safety and security. His proclamation is greeted with applause and cheers of gratitude.




In this scenario, we do get a small handful of people who actually are vigilant of the weakening of their democracy and the growing shift towards a dictatorship: Amidala, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, etc. but they are a tiny minority who see the truth and are very aware that if they take too strong of a stand against Palpatine, they will face retribution. 



The greatest failure in being vigilant are the Jedi, in particular Yoda and Mace Windu, who both should have the wisdom and experience to foresee that something is very wrong with the leadership (of course, this is easy for ME to say...) and dismiss their faint concerns at the outset of the Clone Wars, at a time when something could still be done to stop Palpatine, and once the truth is known it's way too late since the Jedi army that could've taken down the Sith lord, are mostly all dead, shot in the back by the clonetroopers.



So, at the risk of just spelling it out for the reader:

Palpatine => Trump

Tarkin => Stephen Miller

two factions spurred into war => the left and the right-wing, the war is the "culture war"

the blindly loyal clone army => ICE

Dooku  => best guess, Netanyahu, another corrupt right-wing leader desperate to keep the war going so he can stay on as leader. One could just as well argue that it is Putin and not be wrong either.

the Clone Wars  => again, my best guess would be an eventual war with Iran, one that the US (Republic) is guaranteed to win at any time it so chooses

regional governors that would administer the new Empire and the promise of safety and security => Peter Thiel and Palantir's surveillance technology products, and the other tech-oligarchs that control social media

the Jedi coup led by Mace Windu  => Trump manipulating the left-wing into doing violent protests in order to invoke the insurrection act and declare martial law until the emergency is over, except that it will never end.



Darth Vader => hmmm, there's currently no one among Trump's retinue that would easily fit into role of being the frightening boogey man of Trump's empire. Maybe Laura Loomer? Have you SEEN what she looks like after her plastic surgery?




And yes, Canadian TV also produced our own sci-fi series that offered a stark warning about what happens when you aren't vigilant against rising political evil. I don't think anyone will be able guess which show that was...


 

AspectRatio wrote:

The "Robocop" TV series? Filmed in Toronto and Mississauga.

Great guess, but not quite the one I am thinking of. I don't think anyone will actually be able to guess correctly just because it was a somewhat obscure sci-fi production.  I am going to mention the Robocop story universe in one of my upcoming posts about dystopias however, so you are on the right track!

 

kosmo wrote:

Max Headroom?

Another really good guess, but not the one I'm thinking of. I actually had to google to see if Max Headroom was filmed in Canada at all since it didn't seem like it was. From what I can tell Max Headroom was filmed in Britain (another surprise, I thought it was a US production).

It hadn't occurred to me that the story universe of Max Headroom was dystopic, but it does share the same DNA with Robocop because it is also about a world where the corporations have taken over and the government itself is nothing more than a puppet of those corporate entities.

Both Robocop and Max Headroom are unpleasant worlds to live in compared to the one we actually live in today, but nothing compared to the horrors of the story universe for the TV show that I'm thinking of. This one is closer to what modern Russia is like, where the common person is treated more like a meat puppet for the regime and life is casually tossed away with no regard whatsoever. Where everyday life is dehumanizing and there is little to no hope of climbing up the ladder to better prospects.  It isn't The Handmaid's Tale nor is it George Orwell's 1984, but this TV show is very reminiscent of those stories.  I think this show did come out around the same time as both Robocop and Max Headroom, if that helps anyone who still wants to take a wild guess.

 

The Starlost?

TomTV wrote:

kosmo wrote:

Max Headroom?

Another really good guess, but not the one I'm thinking of. I actually had to google to see if Max Headroom was filmed in Canada at all since it didn't seem like it was. 

"Max Headroom" came to my mind too as my first guess and I could have sword its relatively modest look = Canadian. But seems US, based on the UK TV movie property. Lead star Matt Frewer is "Canadian/American", though.

Then I went with "Robocop" which I had previously heard had a Canadian connection (and look, honestly - for that day - pre-HD and better production values).

LEXX is what you get if you were to make 1977 Star Wars on a shoestring budget, directed by David Lynch on drugs, using a script written by a writer from MAD Magazine (or Cracked) and produced in Canada. It's sci-fi dark comedy and satire, with very memorable characters and villains, and some great music (especially during season 1). Because the show lasted 4 seasons, following our inept trio of heroes as they journey across two different universes (the "Light Universe" to our own universe where they eventually discover 20th century Earth) it could be called a saga. The first two seasons are fantastic and nihilistic. The final two season felt very iffy, probably because the writers had run out of good ideas for where to take the show but most importantly, the villains that gave the show such a strong boost were now defeated after season 2 and were no longer around to drive the conflict of the series.

So why do I think this show from 1997 is such a great example of what happens when the citizens are not vigilant about protecting themselves from the rise of a dictatorship? And why does the evil regime shown in LEXX have so much similarity to modern Russia? This is going to be a long post split up over days just because there's so much to discuss but LEXX shows what I think is the natural outcome of a truly evil dictatorship that lasts thousands of years with no hope of growth, only stagnation and misery: the eventual mass death of almost everyone living under that regime, especially the poor and weak.

Some people reading this probably did watch LEXX back when it first aired. Others may not even have been born yet, so obviously I need to give some kind of introduction to the series, starting with the three protagonists (I'm excluding the android head, 790, who was really just a supporting character). Note that this show takes place in an alternate universe, much like how Star Wars does and is about a galactic civilization of many worlds ruled by one single government (just like the Federation in Star Trek) except that it's an evil dictatorship (called the Divine Order) and its fleet of ships are not ships of exploration but warships used to punish their own people...



Kai is from a race of humans called the Brunnen-G, which fought in the Great Insect War (essentially a race of powerful insects wanted to massacre all non-insect life in the universe and the various human races rose up to fight back). The Brunnen-G were instrumental in wiping out the malevolent insect race and ending the war for good. In the opening to the series, we see Kai and a handful of other young Brunnen-G warriors piloting (ironically enough) insect-like starfighters that are flying away from their home planet. They are headed towards an approaching massive battleship, desperate to destroy it before it can get close enough to destroy their homeworld.



However, the small craft are no match for the massive battleship and each of the fighters are quickly obliterated one-by-one until only Kai is left. Kai has to watch as the battlecruiser fires one of the coolest-looking energy projectiles in sci-fi, towards his home planet, instantly turning the surface into ash and completely destroying the atmosphere. He's failed! He's now the last survivor of his entire race and having lost all hope, Kai decides to sacrifice himself by making a kamikaze run towards the enemy bridge, perhaps hoping to cripple it and prevent it from being used against any other worlds. His starfighter smashes through the hull, creating some damage but ultimately not enough to inflict any kind of critical shutdown.



As Kai lies broken and dying admist the wreckage, we are introduced to the main villain of the series: His Divine Shadow, a hooded figure cloaked in black who speaks eerily similar to the holographic Emperor as seen in the original version of the Empire Strikes Back. His Divine Shadow delivers the final fatal blow to the dying Kai by stabbing him in his heart. The villain swears that he will now restore Kai back to "life" so that the reprogrammed Kai can serve His Divine Shadow as his personal assassin for the rest of eternity. He turns the former pacifistic Kai into the exact opposite of what he was in life: now a murderer of women, children, the innocent and the corrupt. Being essentially the walking dead, Kai is now immune from being killed and is essentially the Darth Vader of the Divine Order's regime, inspiring fear in all those who dare to resist the will of His Divine Shadow.



NOTE: if you want to actually watch this wonderful opening battle, you can find it here on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjma08_pt2I

I encourage those who have never seen the show to watch the opening (and try not to watch it on your damn smartphone, which really belittles the whole experience, find a large screen with some decent audio).

The Divine Order, as you may have guessed from its name, is a religious dictatorship and authoritarian government, which controls the League of 20,000 Planets. These 20,000 worlds are all human-based (there are no wonky Star Trek aliens with funny-looking foreheads on this show), all of which fought in the Great Insect War.

There is no separation of church and state, and even a minor offense against the Divine Order and its leader, His Divine Shadow, is punishable by torture or the removal of SOME of your organs which are then donated to the "protein bank", or death. It shares a lot of similarities to the totalitarian government seen in George Orwell's "1984" with constant monitoring of citizens, enslavement, propaganda, and the government having a means of reprogramming your belief system if they find that you are too independent or rebellious. As well, those who rebel and are caught, wind up being lined up for public execution in front of the cheering masses to demonstrate to the followers the painful consequences of being a heretic.

It is thus likely that the people of the Brunnen-G (which is a member of this League of 20,000 Planets) had spoken out against the tyranny of the Divine Order and the punishment was that their entire world was condemned to be destroyed, which is what we witness in the opening of the show. (Although there's more to why the Divine Order wanted the Brunnen-G obliterated, but we only find that out later in the series). You'll note the similarity to Star Wars, where the Empire sends the Death Star to destroy Alderaan as a warning to the rest of the Republic worlds, while here we have the Divine Order sending the Foreshadow to obliterate Brunnis-2, which is why I often think of LEXX as "Canadian Star wars".

You may feel sorry for the billions of humans who live in the League of 20,000 Planets - first they had to fight and survive a long, bloody war against a race of large, genocidal alien insects, only to wind up ruled by a religious human cult that has stripped away all of their rights and freedoms. (Again, note the similarity to Star Wars, where the Republic fought in the Clone Wars only to wind up ruled by the Empire after it was over). Well wait, it gets far worse for these people later on in the series!


Fast-forward 2000 years later, we are introduced to the two other heroes of the series: Stanley Tweedle, a spineless deplorable loser (and this is saying a lot, because we realize that their entire society is mostly made up of poorly educated, lazy, selfish losers and Stanley is looked at as the very bottom of this unimpressive barrel of deplorables)




and Zev, who starts off as a fat, unattractive wife who, because of her feminist values, has been sentenced to be physically altered into a beautiful woman and then have her mind reprogrammed to be a mindless obedient sex slave to her husband. Through sheer luck, Zev partially escapes her fate and winds up a beautiful woman who still has her original personality and beliefs left intact (though she is now left with an insatiable hunger for sex with any good-looking male specimen... which leaves poor Stanley on the sidelines once the two meet up, ha!).







The evil of this society is that the Divine Order is not satisfied with simply executing those who resist, they enjoy perverting those that they've defeated into the mirror opposite of themselves, as seen with both Kai and Zev.
Just like with Big Brother in "1984" where the hero, Winston Smith, could have been simply executed but the party wanted him to be converted into the mirror opposite of his real self: from a rebel to a mindless true believer in Big Brother's goodness.

This is a government that is adamant that they are right and that those who rebel are in the wrong, and won't rest until the rebels acknowledge that they were wrong to ever doubt their dear leader and his doctrine. Only then can these rebels be permitted to die.

The first season of LEXX (which was originally 4 independent TV movies that aired on CityTV but then repackaged as season 1 once LEXX got the nod to be turned into an ongoing TV show) is the best out of all the seasons, offering a lot of political metaphor that I suspect most audiences overlooked. I certainly didn't pay much attention to the subtle jabs at both politics and religion that were being made back when it first aired because I was too busy gawking at the stunningly beautiful Eva Habermann (who played Zev).

And as it turns out, the showrunner for the TV show, Lex Gigeroff, said that Zev was meant to be ogled by the male viewers of the show: Gigeroff "[wants] teenage boys to pull off to Zev's poster." (yeah, "pull off" is exactly what you think it means).



More tomorrow on how LEXX relates to my point about the necessity of being eternally vigilant against a rising dictatorship. The poor citizens of the League of 20,000 Planets find this out the hard way, just as the citizens of Russia are learning that same lesson right now. If you've been watching the coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine closely then you will already know where I'm headed with LEXX.