The Year Villainy Won | WIRED

Kevin Winter, professor of media studies at Pomona College, says irrational confidence is one of the reasons villains resonate so deeply across cultures. “In a repressive society like ours, champions who conform to the betterment of the consumer, characters who actively reject the trappings of the capitalist imagination or who operate by a self-styled moral code in opposition to the hegemonic society will inevitably be attractive in our way. Everyone may not admit it openly,” he says.

Today, traditional notions of the villain have been replaced by complex, sometimes paradoxical, values ​​acceptable or threatening to various groups. Winter believes this has led to a “post-villain world”. Tech moguls (Elon Musk), politicians (Mayor of New York City Eric Adams), podcaster (Joe Rogan)—to many, they are the primary transgressors (and heroes, to others) of our time. They are anti-establishment. They want to destroy the “system”.

Winter added, “There are few, if any, villains who so deftly combine clownery, wealth and power as Donald Trump. “Even his new parasitic attachment, Elon Musk—who to some is the figure of the perfect villain and to others a swaggering futuristic cowboy.”

It’s a matter of the future, you never know how it will unfold or who it’s going for. For some, artificial intelligence was the key adversary of 2024. Across Hollywood and the gaming industry, AI has manifested itself More than an existential threatAs many workers are upset over job loss.

Others, feeling lost amid a sharp shift in social media, rightly point the finger at digital gentrifiers. “I’m angry that what was fun and useful about the Internet 10 years ago is now broken. This site, obviously,” Tracy Chow, an app developer, has been posted In X. “The reviews are astroturf lies. The quest is an AI hallucination. There is no place to share with friends and family beyond the influencer/meme/polarized content feed.”

at the time as Like us phenomenalAll the anger and agitation, a realignment towards the transgressor, is less shocking when you consider it as part of a larger social restructuring. Villainy has long entered the cultural imagination—American lore, after all, was built on a sensibility of mavericks, vigilantes, and underdogs—but in 2024 it became a main character.

Why? It may be that villainy, more than heroism, offers a different texture of purpose, closer to a reality, that sees our world for what it is – deeply messed up – and responds accordingly.

I can say for sure that the villain has no particular allegiance. Eventually it consumes everyone. In December, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery was canned Sesame StreetLong-term children’s program. It is understood that the decision was not good. On Bluesky, the social media app of the moment, @valhallabackgirl is back with a rage that many people felt this year too. “I guess that’s my villain origin story,” she said wrote.