Brilliant analysis as usual.
Your supposition about 1/3 way through the piece may just be the gem, though. I think you might be on to something here, though you dismiss it out of hand:
Then a counter-narrative began to emerge. What if the liberal elites sipping champagne and nibbling caviar on their Gulfstream jet (along with their kidnapped victims drugged and unconscious in the back) were actually the villains, led by the evil character played by Hillary Swank? What if the deplorable conservatives, led by the character portrayed by Betty Gilpin, turned the tables and hunted their hunters? Would this legitimize the content of the film?
What if murder pornographer Blum's "artistic vision" was distorted by one of the writers, who secretly wanted to see the "deplorables" win, and wrote the ending that way?
Could this in fact be the REAL reason the film's advertising, then release, was pulled? Especially in the predictable calls by Demonrats for gun control, following the El Paso and Dayton murders?
Could it be that they wanted to stop the release of the film, because it portrays the "Deplorables" triumphing over the "Blues" and their elite sponsors, using FIREARMS? In the wake of the Lefty murder sprees, could the clear-thinking Lefty elites (rare, I know) have stepped into forestall what could have been a new "Red Dawn" to conservatives, an encouragement that we could win?
I don't know. Haven't seen the film. Nobody has. Maybe we will never know. But I do think you dismiss the possibility perhaps too quickly.
Still love your analysis, though. And I have all your books, of course.
Thanks. I wish I had another novel in the oven, but sad to say, I don’t.