Squid Game USA Redux

If you don't see spinoffs of Squid Game all around you, you better open your eyes.

My original post on this topic back on Nov. 1, 2024, has aged surprisingly well. Squid Game—not just the show but the game itself—is thriving in the United States. Eight months ago, we chose to continue playing this sadistic game by electing Trump instead of Harris and handing Republicans a majority in both houses of Congress.

What the fuck is our problem anyway? We might disagree on the nature and degree of the problem, but it’s obvious that we have a major fucking problem in America. Some days I think we’re doomed.

But don’t take my word for it: Hwang Dong-hyuk, creator of Squid Game, chose to end season three (spoiler alert) with Cate Blanchett slapping some unfortunate hobo in the streets of Los Angeles for losing at Ddakji. I took this to mean that if you’re smug enough to think that a country founded on idealism is immune to nihilism, you better think again: Squid Game isn’t an indictment of capitalism in South Korea—it’s an indictment of global capitalism. And the United States remains the epicenter of global capitalism—for now at least.

Of course, we missed our chance to postpone the worst excesses of this monstrous system: We anointed Donald Dickturd again. Now we have One Big, Beautiful, Batshit Bill on our hands just before Independence Day. If the bill passes, it will boot millions of poor and working people off Medicaid, forcing them to struggle even more to take care of themselves and their dependents. (Full disclosure: I’ve been on Medicaid at least twice in my life—in two different states.) If people like me die because we don’t have access to healthcare, well, that means more oxygen for the elites to breathe. The wealthy and powerful are the ones who matter in this late-stage capitalist edifice cemented by greed. Make no bones about it.

They may not end up on Netflix, but millions of Americans competing with other desperados to secure difficult, dangerous, low-paying, and/or dead-end jobs—jobs that AI may steal in a few years—just to get basic medical care sounds a lot like Squid Game to me.

That One Brutal, Bullshit Bill is Squid Game by legislation.

I would tell you to call your Representatives (it’s too late to bother with the Senate), but I’ll admit that I’ve given up on this corrupt political system—with very few exceptions. The only thing I’ll say in defense of our government is that I don’t think it will roll out any gas chambers or crematoria for mass extermination (but if it did, the genocide would definitely be available via livestream)—nor do I think our corporate masters will reinstitute chattel slavery.

Beyond that, though, I wouldn’t put anything past the Third Reich Republicans and their good-German enablers on the other side of the aisle. (Despite the similarities in name, Schumer is no Schindler.) Teutonic Tyrant Trump is continuing to entertain the idea of deporting American citizens who commit crimes—because I guess it’s not enough to simply profit from their imprisonment in the United States. I could be one of those sent away, and the “crime” could be daring to voice my opinion. You could be next for simply subscribing to those opinions.

Squid Game is already here in America. But, like Gi-hun, I refuse to keep playing knowing that there’s no real reward even if I win. Money can’t buy meaning, and the capitalist system can’t continue without brainwashing most of us into thinking it’s the best or the only way. It’s not the only way.

Don’t just watch the show—apply the lessons. Resist—even if it seems hopeless.

Otherwise, we all lose.