American Horror Story: Cult teaser analysis: Affirmations and clowns
Let’s start with this: Before the season’s title was announced, one of the things we were hearing was that the Presidential Election from this past year was going to be a central theme. After watching this, it’s easy to understand why. You’ve got a clown army first and foremost, and the idea of linking clowns to cults and politics is satire in its own right. Our worship of people with specific political ideals is ridiculous and comical, and then you get into the notion of believing every single thing that they say and treating it as gospel.
Just read now the full caption of what the mystery man/cult leader says in the teaser.
“Do you ever feel alone? Does it seem like no one really understands you? Do some people just make you sick? Are you afraid? We can set you free. We will make you strong. We want you.”
If that doesn’t sound like political ideology, we don’t quite know what does. It also sounds suspiciously like a certain political philosophy from this past election — capitalizing on the fear and prejudices of some, and using that as a uniting force against everyone else. If you can get people on your side and make them believe that you understand them, you can convince them that most of your words are true and that actual facts are false. It’s a terrifying proposition, something far scarier than much of what we’ve seen over the course of the series so far. It’s also, sadly, effective.
Is Twisty the Clown an oligarch?
We do wonder at this point if he is someone that the cult in this teaser, and potentially a cult as represented in the show itself, is choosing to follow in some way. Show executive producer Ryan Murphy has confirmed already that Twisty does have a presence in the upcoming season — at the very least, he’s featured on the front page a comic. We could see him as a symbol of fear, or if nothing else the American Horror Story version of Pepe the Frog that unites the cause. It’s hard to necessarily see him as anything more than that ideologically since Twisty was effectively a tormented soul who started killing after everything in his life was taking from him and he was frequently abused. He wasn’t a Karl Marx or someone with a heavy political viewpoint. He has no doctrine.
It’s possible that politics aren’t really a part of the series at all and the entirety of the theme is metaphorical. If everything on American Horror Story: Cult is similar to what it is in this preview, we’ve got a good feeling that people will know what Murphy and company are talking about even if it’s not explicitly mentioned.
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