I have a theory.
In 2018, or thereabout, Mark Zuckerberg watched “Ready Player One” — or maybe he actually read the book — and decided to pivot Facebook into the Metaverse12. That went tits up, but everyone kind of forgot once AI made its appearance.
Then, late in 2025, Donald Trump — a truly horrible, horrible person — watched the first 5 minutes of “Air Force One” — where Harrison Ford says “Get of my plane!” in the end — and promptly ordered the kidnaping of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, which happened just a few days into 2026.
It makes me wonder; how many other leaders are getting their ideas from television series and movies?
- Ready Player One is a dystopian science fiction book/movie, so obviously it was a perfect fit for Mark and Facebook. ↩︎
- If you ever read Ready Player One, stop there. After the success of the movie, the author, Erneste Cline decided to write a follow-up in 2020 called “Ready Player Two”, and it ruins everything from the first book. ↩︎