This horrible president did not invent hatred, xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny. But he is very excited to capitalize on the current of this shit that runs through and beneath society. Here's my TED Talk about why
Ghostbusters 2 was a predictive metaphor for this unfortunate moment in American history.
We begin in the Obama era. Participation in hate groups spikes after his inauguration. But on the surface, things look mostly good. Normal, or maybe even improving. But if you're paying attention, through the cracks you can see...
Something unsavory is bubbling up.
As with every era of history thus far, you've got some entitled men who are really upset when women reject their advances. Sigourney's art-restorer boss, Janosz, is their stand-in.
She is not into him, but can't tell him to fuck off because he's her boss. (See, there's even a #MeToo subplot.) Yet he won't quit.
Ok, then we've got this ancient evil, which is animating in the form of Vigo, a power-hungry white guy with really outmoded beliefs. He is currently trapped in the past but is doing his damndest to assert himself on the present. He understands hate will increase his power. But he needs some help.
Vigo (aka Trump) finds Janosz (aka the Republican base) to be susceptible to hate and easily manipulable toward his own ends, because they want power, too!
Meanwhile, Sigourney has sounded the alarm to the Ghostbusters after an unidentified evil force is determined to steal her white baby. And the Ghostbusters discover that, under the city, there is a
river of evil pink slime. It both creates and feeds on society's worst collective impulses.
"Do you know how much negative energy it must have taken to generate a flow this size?" So much. But the Ghostbusters get hauled off to court for merely trying to take samples of and
study the pink slime—which apparently isn't
always or inherently evil, but it's complicated.
A witness for the prosecution is like, "Your honor, whatever's down there, THEY must have put it there." In other words, people pointing out racism are the real racists!
As Vigo's power grows, both enabled by and feeding the evil pink slime, people are increasingly scared and under threat. Public institutions start to be affected. Here's a fantastic visual for that one:
People are finally starting to realize that this is something that must be actively organized against. Even in the face of despair.
A giant woman who's really invested in human and civil rights steps in to save the day. She does need some support from Ghostbusters because she has been stuck on an island, isolated from power. But she's activated by what's going on, she's uplifted by the music of Jackie Wilson, and she's the best hope for turning off the slime's bad impulses and turning on the good.
It works! She banishes Vigo and his footsoldiers to the dustbin of history with some amazing early CGI.
The Ghostbusters themselves are kind of beside the point. It's mostly about how one specific evil force can activate the existing evil across society and make things really, really bad for all of us.
The crucial resistance roles of Sigourney and Lady Liberty are written out of history. (Sorry, not to be a pessimist.) The End.
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