Political Monsters Week Continues
One of the many bizarre things to come out of this election cycle is the Trump campaign’s racist fearmongering and spreading of false internet stories about immigrants eating the dogs, the cats, the geese, everything in sight– maybe even you. Trump says the countries south of the border are not only sending criminals, but highly intelligent forensic psychiatrist/ cannibal serial killers like “the late, great” Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the character who originated in novels by Thomas Harris and was adapted to various TV shows and movies, most famously The Silence of the Lambs (1991), played by Anthony Hopkins, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal.
Rolling Stone’s Miles Klee outlines the history of Trump referencing the killer in an article titled “Why is Trump So Obsessed With Hannibal Lecter?: A Complete Timeline.” Klee pinpoints the first reference at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on July 29, 2023, where Trump claims immigrants are “pouring” out of “mental institutions, from insane asylums,” adding “that’s like Silence of the Lambs stuff.” Trump continued to work on the bit, like a comedian refining a joke, over the months and by May 11, 2024 he referred to the character as “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” for the first time. As Rolling Stone notes, this is a strange reference as there’s no Hannibal Lecter related book or movie that depicts him as dying off.
Rolling Stone points out that perhaps Trump “initially conflated the term ‘insane asylums’ with ‘asylum seekers'” or maybe identified more with Lecter than the FBI agents who locked him up. I think that latter idea is the key here– Trump is a fan of the character. Much like he fawns over dictators like Putin, Jong Un, and Orbán, he admires Lecter.
In fact, I’m going to use Trump’s playbook of fearmongering lies here– the Trump family isn’t sending their best. They’re eating the public, they’re eating the people! They’re shooting people on 5th Avenue, then eating their livers with some fava beans and a nice chianti and the crooked Supreme Court is granting them total immunity. Horrible!
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See yesterday’s post for more on the Political Monsters project. Tomorrow I’ll give a monster forecast: “4 More Years: Vampires or Evil Clowns?”
You can get a copy of Political Monsters…
In person: Saturday, Oct. 19: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, I’ll be on the vendor floor 10am-5pm at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. Register for a free ticket here: milwaukeeparacon.com
Sunday, Oct. 20: Political Monsters Party at Lion’s Tooth, 3-5pm. Admission is free. I’ll talk briefly about the project, we’ll do a round of horror trivia, and if you dress like a zombie, vampire, or killer clown, you get a free copy of the Political Monsters zine!
You can also buy copies at Lion’s Tooth here in Milwaukee and Quimby’s in Chicago. You can order a print copy via the QWERTYFEST MKE Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1778576030/political-monsters-how-presidents
And an e-book version is available through Kindle/KU: https://www.amazon.com/Political-Monsters-Presidents-Influence-Horror-ebook/dp/B0DFJ7DZKQ/ref=sr_1_1