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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   15124 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026

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Oh boy, this subthread is going to look like the Epstein Files, because there is no way to talk about the movie without spoilers.

The number 1 culture war implication is that Billy reveals he is a Republican during his climactic villain monologue. Charlie Kirk’s legacy might be the biggest unintentional victim of the film.

Working through this brings up the question: How much of a villain is Billy really? The film builds him up as the douchebag to end all douchebags, but what, specifically, did Billy do wrong? It is strongly implied that Liz would not approve of the things that Billy does in her name, but do we have a good basis to conclude this? Liz never says a single bad word about him.

Hollywood hates the idea that two imperfect people could be in a loving relationship with each other despite their flaws. They pretend that they don’t. They make lots of movies where the surface-level theme is about flawed people falling in love, but when it happens to real people they are treated with scorn. Amanda Seyfried flat-out admits that she wants to break Liz and Billy up. Why? What purpose would that serve? Is it because he asked for compensation in return for letting an entire film crew into his house?

The outwardly patriarchal family where the matriarch secretly calls the shots is a common archetype in traditional societies. Strange that it is so hard for modern people to recognize.

Hollywood hates the idea that two imperfect people could be in a loving relationship with each other despite their flaws.

I'm going to disagree on this, there are plenty of movies that shows "two imperfect people could be in a loving relationship with each other despite their flaws". We've got Bonnie and Clyde, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Silver Lining Playbooks. On TV, oh my the examples abound. I think the difference is that Hollywood, and I think normal people, doesn't want to encourage unhealthy co-dependence behaviors, especially when it might affect others. The story that Hollywood likes to tell, because people like to listen to, are two imperfect people who are with each other despite their flaws and are better people for it.

Amanda Seyfried flat-out admits that she wants to break Liz and Billy up. Why?

Because she shared camaraderie "woman to woman" and thought that Liz is a victim. But that's the key question: no one can really know. Is Liz an imbecile going through the world completely oblivious to all her lies, and therefore more akin to an insane person, and therefore at least worthy of pity? or is Liz a master manipulator that will never let up the act in the end in pursuit of riches, fame, and power without caring for the costs inflicted on people around her and therefore deserves her punishment? On a practical level though, obviously, for our own good, we should treat people like Holmes and Evans as just to be avoided and minimize what they can do and affect in the world.

I am 100% with you on Billy.

If you go through Reddit/Twitter threads, Billy is getting more criticized than Holmes, people think he is a monster. My read is that he a douchey maybe-coke addict who shares a lot of the same pathologies as Holmes, but hasn't actually done anything illegal or even unethical besides lying to make himself look good. The final reenactment scene with Seyfriend strongly implies that Holmes really does enjoy being in their controlling relationship, and she's fine with Billy running her Twitter and exploiting her digital likeness. They are weird people, and what looks like abusiveness from the outside is just their weirdness in action.

The other major culture war angle is that Holmes is using modern feminist tropes as part of her psychological defense. A narrative you can see all over the internet right now is that Holmes was raped in college, then groomed by Sunny, then manipulated into the Theranos fraud, and now she's being manipulated by another wealthy powerful man. I suppose all of that is possible, but it relies on giving Holmes a tremendous amount of credence about her relationship dynamics with Sunny, her being raped, and the psychological impact of the alleged rape. All of it is based on her testimony, and she's the most unreliable person on earth.

Holmes isn't using modern feminist tropes; she's using tropes so enduring even modern feminists go back to them. "Young woman was taken advantage of by older, more assertive man" (which was the argument she made against Balwani) is a feminist theme in the same way that pontiff is a Christian title.

Her original persona at Theranos was much more explicable in terms of specifically modern feminist themes. Which is why she took center stage in marketing as the visionary girlboss - down to the deep voice! - in contrast to the more experienced Balwani. It was when it crashed you saw a shift.

When she lost, she descended into the sort of hypoagency most societies would understand. Down to crying when pushed on things.

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