The Twilight Zone Marathon, Trump, and the Politics of Fear

This episode follows two articles I wrote about the annual Twilight Zone New Year’s marathon, one published last year and one this year. Watching the marathon was a tradition I had growing up, and now writing about it and contemporary politics is becoming one as well. 

The essays discussed here move across multiple Twilight Zone episodes and connect them to contemporary politics, including Trump’s return to power, the rise of far-right parties in Europe, and the normalization of scapegoating, nationalist grievance, and moral panic. Rather than focusing on a single episode or argument, the articles range widely, using Serling’s work to examine how fear is redirected toward internal enemies and how punishment is framed as restoration.

This episode talks through how those articles were written, why the marathon has become a yearly marker for new work, and how The Twilight Zone continues to offer a way to understand recurring political patterns in the U.S. and abroad.

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Referenced articles:
https://therightpodcast.substack.com/p/the-new-years-twilight-zone-marathon-a70
https://therightpodcast.substack.com/p/the-new-years-twilight-zone-marathon

Website: https://www.therightpodcast.org/
Opening Song: “Twilight Zone / Twilight Tone” – The Manhattan Transfer
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