Nathan Radke

We're all going to experience death eventually.

And the haunted doll with its weird glassy eyes and ceramic face, at the same time, it serves as like a kind of container for those ideas and a scapegoat at the same time.

It's like a personification of misfortune.

You can tell yourself, you know, bad things don't just happen out of randomness or poor choices.

They happen because of the manipulations of an evil entity.

It can be like, oh, darn it all, the haunted doll made my partner break up with me.

Is that why I'm divorced, Nathan?

That's probably the reason why.

It's not because, you know, we have personality flaws.

It's not because we make terrible decisions.

It's not because, you know, maybe we should go get some therapy or some counseling.

It's not because we need to work on ourselves.

It's that darn haunted doll.

That's the source of all of my problems.

And in a way, and this goes back to conspiracy theories and why conspiracy theories are so seductive, having some kind of sinister cartoonish enemy to blame misfortunes on is satisfying.

Because otherwise, you're left, what, shaking your fist at the sky, shaking your fist at the concept of just bad luck, shaking your fist at the concept of chaos.

And none of those things are satisfying to shake a fist at.

Whereas a doll, it's just sitting there glaring at you.

And even though you brought it into your life yourself, that still provides you kind of a sense of agency.

This is a thing that I have done.