Nathan Radke

Well, probably.

But it's just as easy for us to go out and grab some misinformation or disinformation.

I mean, as ridiculous as it sounds to fall for a giant sea monster story, it's in part because people right now are reaching for metaphors that describe how uncertain and frightening the world is.

And what better than a sea monster to explain that?

Well, exactly.

I mean, think about like movie monster metaphors.

Think about Godzilla, the original Godzilla film.

That was a metaphor.

That was a metaphor for the terror of atomic bombs, for the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Now...

At that time, the Japanese people, it was against the law to criticize the American government because, of course, the American government was occupying Japan.

So you can't make a movie about, you know, just the dangers of the atomic bomb, but you can make a movie about a giant radioactive lizard that crushes and burns your cities.

And metaphors are useful because they allow us to kind of cope and deal with these large out of control situations.

I mean, political chaos is real.

Division is real.

Economic hardship is real.

But those aren't monsters that you can just sort of like easily stick into a meme.

And I think in the end with this Leviathan story, there's actually, I think, two fantasies in this meme.

One, that there's a colossal monster off the eastern coast of the United States.

but two, that the government is competent and concerned enough to do something about it.