I was thrilled to be able to get in touch with my inner geek this week as I had the opportunity to join one of my dearest friends at San Diego Comic-Con 2018.While I had hoped to escape politics while I was at the Convention Center, the inability of progressives to move to the next stage of the Kubler-Ross grief cycle meant that it was thrust upon me at various times.Due to our desire to avoid long waits and glitterati-filled panels, I missed one of the most blatant demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The panel for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was punctuated with a few unnecessary political comments.
When the cast of Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter prequel was asked what they would do if they had magic in real life, costar Zoe Kravitz (who plays Leta Lestrange) shot back: “Impeach Trump!” That was met with plenty of cheers in the room, though apparently, not everybody was on board:
Since he’s good at making up spells, the cast then turned to Dan Fogler and asked him what the spell would be called. He responded: “Impeachius Maximus!”
How was #TrumpDerangementSyndrome-based magic received? Those who support our President remained silent, out of the desire to not add political fuel to the fire.
Next-up, there was an announcement during another panel that the cartoon comedy Family Guy target President Trump in the upcoming season.
In the Trump episode, the President selects Peter as his new White House Communications Director after learning that the Quahog Brewery shipping clerk is an expert seller of fake news. As a result, the Griffins pack up and move to Washington D.C., only for Meg to have an “unfortunate encounter” with POTUS that results in him getting into an “epic battle” with her father.
I’ll give that show a hard pass.
On a more personal level, my exposure to politics occurred mainly when I attended a panel called “Women on the Dark Side”. What I thought might have been an intriguing discussion on female villains or the Gothic reads women love, it almost veered into #TrumpDerangementSydrome, as the moderator and 2 of the panelists referred to the current political climate as scary, horror-filled, and dark.
Fortunately, the organizer of the panel managed to redirect the discussion into politically neutral territory. However, the ensuing discussions celebrating diversity ended up targeting white men….for the simple reason they are successful, white men. While I appreciate the desire to promote all sorts of authors, there are actually white men who are outstanding writers and deserve recognition.
Finally, during a tour of the Main Floor, I came across a publisher hawking what must pass as clever political commentary in this environment:
It appears that this book is not selling terribly well and may be one of the few products that is failing in the Trump economy.
In fact, most of the recent offerings that have been unsuccessful in the Trump era are from Hollywood!
I plan to write the organizers of Comic-Con to register my politically incorrect opinion this year. If they want to turn their event into a political convention, at least be honest about it. Then the panels will receive my robust, fact-based opinion during the questions section.
Meanwhile, I hope all my friends at Legal Insurrection live long and prosper!
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