When zombie themed shows hit the television, I felt it was a mass psy-op to normalize killing your neighbors. I have always felt that way. Thet genre was designed, scripted, promoted, and mass marketed to alter our relationships with “others” we find threatening in even the slightest ways.
Movies and television shows have been designed as propaganda to demoralize, degrade and indoctrinate people for a long time.
Thankfully I have had a TV only about 6 months in my adult life, and have watched fewer movies than anyone except the Amish.
I felt somewhat similar when the movies that promoted total chaos and crime for one a day, were released.
My take away from The Walking Dead was to be prepared to fend for myself. The nihilists want anarchy. They won’t like it when they run into prepper types.