The Dictatorship
‘Stranger Things’ is ending. Or is it?
The conclusion of “Stranger Things,” the Netflix phenomenon and ’80s throwback whose series finale drops this New Year’s Eve, feels like the end of an era. That’s partly because production delays, the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strikes caused the rollout of its five seasons to last nearly 10 years, a whole lifetime to people who started watching in elementary or middle school. When “Stranger Things” debuted, Barack Obama was president. That’s how long it’s been.
It’s tempting to go a step further and assume that the finale of “Stranger Things” will loosen the chokehold that 1980s nostalgia has maintained on modern pop culture for multiple decades. But it won’t. A collective passion for bygone eras used to run in 20-year cycles — the 1960s made a comeback in the 1980s, the ’70s got hot again in the ’90s, etc. The ’80s returned to the zeitgeist in the 2000sas scheduled. Then they never left. I wrote an essay about this for Vulture in 2016, shortly after “Stranger Things” was released. Now, in 2025, it’s just as easy to see evidence of the influence of the period that gave us Pac-Man as well as He-Man, and not just because our current president is also obsessed with it.
The ’80s returned to the zeitgeist in the 2000s. Then they never left.
This is hardly a new observation, but it nevertheless remains true: We are more culturally fixated on recycling works of entertainment than we ever have been, largely because studio executives want guaranteed returns on their investments and frequently assume that any existing piece of intellectual property can attract an audience again with the proper makeover. They are often wrong about this. That still has not stopped them and probably won’t for the foreseeable future. Evidence: In 2026, we are getting a Netflix reboot of “Star Search” as well as remakes or reboots of “Youngblood,” “Highlander” and, yes, “He-Man” (“Masters of the Universe”) at the movies, along with “The ’Burbs” is TV.
Before you point out that there also has been a long-existing interest in ’90s culture, you’re right and I agree. The fondness for both reflects the sensibilities of Gen Xers and millennials who associate those time periods with their coming of age. Not coincidentally, people that age are the ones largely developing projects in Hollywood these days.
While the deep affection for the ’80s in “Stranger Things” certainly accounts for its appeal to adults who actually remember being alive back then, it doesn’t as obviously explain why Gen Z has embraced it with equal fervor over its five seasons. Except that it kind of does. Like the baby boomers who came before us, we Xers and millennials have gone out of our way to jam the pop culture of our childhoods down our own children’s throats. We are even worse about this than boomers, mainly because we consumed so much more pop culture from such a young age. TV was our primary babysitter in a way it wasn’t for a majority of boomers. Our favorite shows and the movies we rewatched until the VHS tapes eroded became part of our molecular makeup. We wanted to pass that along to our kids as much as our actual family heirlooms.
Some of the “Stranger Things” references to “Back to the Future” or “E.T.” are just as recognizable to today’s young people because, in a sense, they too have grown up on these films.
Consequently, some of the “Stranger Things” references to “Back to the Future” or “E.T.” are just as recognizable to today’s young people because, in a sense, they too have grown up on these films. When I interviewed “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown in 2016, back when she was just 12 years old, she expressed not only an impressive knowledge of horror fare from the era, but she also said she wished she could live back then. “I love the ’80s,” she said. “I’m obsessed with it. I love the hair and the people.” Nine years later, she is now the wife of Jon Bon Jovi’s son. The ’80s can become central to your life even if you didn’t live through them.
What was unique about “Stranger Things,” though, is that it wasn’t just some old thing that somehow became popular again. “Stranger Things” belongs to Gen Z as much as, if not more than, those of us raising them. This was an original series, created to be consumed the way that Gen Z consumes everything: by streaming it on whatever device is within closest reach. Even though the show took place over the course of several years in the 1980s, it was viewed by contemporary preteens and teens dealing with the same timeless issues and anxieties that the main characters on the show faced (albeit within the heightened context of a sci-fi/horror narrative).

When Gen Zers get nostalgic for what reminds them of when they were young, “Stranger Things” will unquestionably be a big part of that. They’ll be nostalgic for a thing that was already nostalgic for something that came before it, which is the secret sauce that makes it possible to appeal to as many overlapping Venn diagram circles as possible.
And that’s why the ’80s, and nostalgia-motivated entertainment in general, will never die. “Stranger Things” itself won’t even die after its finale. A Broadway show written as a prequel to the television series is still actively runningand an animated spin-off is expected on Netflix in 2026. There’s also a seemingly unending stream of merch inspired by the inhabitants of Hawkins, Indiana, that will likely continue for decades. The end of “Stranger Things” may feel like the end of an era. But it isn’t the end of “Stranger Things” because in a culture that loves to recycle, nothing ever really ends.
Jen Chaney is a freelance TV and film critic whose work has been published in The New York Times, TV Guide and other outlets.
The Dictatorship
Driver shot in Minneapolis is at least the fifth person killed in US immigration crackdown
The fatal shooting Wednesday of a woman by an immigration officer in Minneapolis was at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.
The Department of Homeland Security said the officer fired in self-defense as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Goodtried to run down officers with her vehicle. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said video of the incident showed it was reckless and unnecessary. It occurred as the federal agency escalates immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota by deploying an anticipated 2,000 agents and officers.
Last September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement fatally shot another person outside Chicago. Two people have died after being struck by vehicles while fleeing immigration authorities. And a California farmworker fell from a greenhouse and broke his neck during an ICE raid last July.
No officers or agents have been charged in the deaths.
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Cook from Mexico shot during a traffic stop
ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop Sept. 12 in suburban Chicago. Relatives said the 38-year-old line cook from Mexico had dropped off one of his children at day care that morning.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said federal agents were pursuing a man with a history of reckless driving who entered the country illegally. They alleged Villegas González evaded arrest and dragged an officer with his vehicle.
Homeland Security said the officer opened fire fearing for his life and was hospitalized for “serious injuries.” However, local police body camera videos showed the agent who shot Villegas González walking around afterward and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
Homeland Security has said the death remains under investigation.
Another shooting, this one non-fatal, occurred in Chicago last fall. Marimar Martinez survived being shot five times by a Border Patrol agent but was charged with a felony after Homeland Security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. The case was dismissed after videos emerged that Martinez’s attorneys said showed an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck.
Farmworker fell from greenhouse roof during ICE raid
Immigration authorities were rounding up dozens of farmworkers July 10 at Glass House Farms in southern California when Jaime Alanis fell from the roof of a greenhouse and broke his neck. The 57-year-old laborer from Mexico died at a hospital two days later.
Relatives said Alanis had spent a decade working at the farm, a licensed cannabis grower that also produces tomatoes and cucumbers, located in Camarillo about an hour east of Los Angeles. They said he would send his earnings to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
During the raid, Alanis called family to say he was hiding. Officials said he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the greenhouse roof.
The Department of Homeland Security said Alanis was never in custody and was not being chased by immigration authorities when he climbed onto the greenhouse.
Man struck on California freeway after running from Home Depot
A man running away from immigration authorities outside a Home Depot store in southern California died after being hit by an SUV while he tried to cross a nearby freeway on Aug. 14.
Police in Monrovia northeast of Los Angeles said ICE agents were conducting enforcement operations when the man fled on foot to Interstate 210. He was running across the freeway’s eastbound lanes when an SUV hit him while traveling 50 or 60 mph miles (80 or 97 kph). He died at a hospital.
The man killed was later identified by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as 52-year-old Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez of Guatemala.
The Department of Homeland Security said Montoya Valdez wasn’t being pursued by immigration authorities when he ran.
Gardener from Honduras killed on Virginia interstate
A pickup truck fatally struck Josue Castro Rivera on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, as he tried to escape immigration authorities during a traffic stop Oct. 23.
Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras, was heading to a gardening job with three passengers when ICE officers pulled over his vehicle, according to his brother, Henry Castro.
State and federal authorities said Castro Rivera ran away on foot and was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 264.
The Department of Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that Castro Rivera had “resisted heavily and fled.”
His brother said Castro Rivera came to the U.S. four years earlier and worked to send money to family in Honduras.
___
AP journalists Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
The Dictatorship
ICE STORM: AGENT KILLS AMERICAN
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.
The 37-year-old woman was shot in the head in front of a family member in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
Her killing after 9:30 a.m. was recorded on video by witnesses, and the shooting quickly drew a large crowd of angry protesters. By evening, hundreds were there for a vigil to mourn her death and urge the public to resist immigration enforcers.
Crowds gathered in Minneapolis on Wednesday as they protested and held a vigil for a woman killed during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown. (AP video shot by: Mike Householder)
The woman, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, had a 6-year old child, her mother told the Minnesota Star Tribune. Macklin Good described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom” who was from Colorado.
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It is not clear in the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer and there is no indication of whether or not the woman had interactions with ICE officers before the videos started. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop.
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In another video taken at the scene, a woman, who described Macklin Good as her spouse, is seen crying near the vehicle. The woman, who was not identified, said the couple had only recently arrived in Minnesota and that they had a child.
“Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference in Minneapolis Wednesday evening.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
In a social media post, President Donald Trump made similar accusations against the woman and defended ICE’s work.
Local officials dispute the narrative
Noem claimed the woman was part of a “mob of agitators” and said the officer followed his training. She said the veteran officer who fired his gun had been rammed and dragged by an anti-ICE motorist in June.
“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and I think all of us can agree that in this situation, it was preventable,” Noem said, adding that the FBI would investigate.
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted Noem’s version of what happened as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
AP AUDIO: Minneapolis mayor says ICE officer’s killing of a motorist was ‘reckless’ and wasn’t self-defense
AP’s Lisa Dwyer reports on a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal agents.
Shooting is fifth linked to crackdowns
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the woman in Minneapolis was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Name said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovinoa senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
“She was driving away and they killed her,” said Lynette Reini-Grandell, a local resident who was among those who filmed the shooting.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers, chanting “ICE out of Minnesota” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Governor calls for calm
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He described the killing as “predictable” and “avoidable.” He also said like many, he was outraged by the shooting, but he called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said.
Minneapolis Public Schools canceled school, sports and activities for Thursday and Friday, saying in a statement that the decision was “due to safety concerns related to today’s incidents around the city.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone.
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
___
Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas, Michael Biesecker In Washington and Jim Mustian in New York contributed.
The Dictatorship
What RFK Jr. and the USDA’s new food pyramid get wrong
ByBrian Kateman
The Trump administration unveiled dietary guidelines this week that flip the food pyramid Americans have known for decades, encouraging greater consumption of protein, particularly meat and dairy.
That’s not exactly what the average American, who already eats 227 pounds of meat a year, needs to hear. The recommendations, the latest work of the Make America Healthy Again movement of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., actually puts health at greater risk.
The new nutrition recommendations actually put health at greater risk.
For one thing, protein is among the few nutrients in which most Americans are not deficient. Health experts widely agree that most of us eat much more protein than necessary. The new pyramid illustration includes a big hunk of steak and a package of ground beef at the top; never mind, apparently, that the American Cancer Society considers red meat to be “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The American Heart Association has long advised people to limit consumption of red meat because of its deleterious health effects, including as a contributor to heart disease.
In an event Thursday with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins promoting the revised nutrition policy, Kennedy referred to the heart association as a “big villain.” In Kennedy’s telling, the organization “continues to accept millions of dollars from the biggest processed food makers in this country.” Doing so, he argued, “fortified a dogma that vilified and demonized good food.”

The new nutrition guidelines also recommend full-fat dairy, directly contradicting the heart association’s recommendation of reduced-fat options, such as fortified plant-based milk alternatives.
Cancer, heart disease and diabetes are among the leading causes of death and drivers of health care costs in the United States, according to a different federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The USDA nutrition guidelines say they target those same chronic illnesses but promote the high-fat, high-cholesterol foods that study after study shows contribute to them.
Ultimately, this isn’t just bad advice; it’s also dangerous to public health and the planet.
The slogan of the guidelines is “Eat Real Food,” which is defined as “whole, nutrient-dense, and naturally occurring.” Putting aside that animal products — most of which come from factory farms — are arguably the most processed foods on Earth, the only thing about these guidelines that’s significantly different from past pyramids is the emphasis on meat and dairy. This happens to be the opposite of the advice of virtually every credible health-related organization.

The Department of Agriculture may put out nutritional guidelines, but it’s worth remembering that it isn’t a medical body — it represents farm operations, including cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. As Kennedy said on Thursday, “It’s important that the American people know that sometimes they are getting medical advice from people who have an economic stake in that advice, and we have a responsibility to question that.”
Indeed. The USDA has been accused of having a revolving door for lobbyists and of promoting the interests of industry over public health. In October, Rollins announced a battery of plans to “strengthen the American beef industry, reinforcing and prioritizing the American rancher’s critical role in the national security of the United States.” What beef has to do with national security, I can’t say, but Americans’ health clearly isn’t the only priority of the Trump administration.
To be fair, dietary guidelines have often been shaped by corporate interests.
To be fair, dietary guidelines have often been shaped by corporate interests. In the mid-20th century, global attention to a “protein gap” in developing countries led the United Nations to establish a Protein Advisory Groupwhich promoted Western nutritional ideas and helped create markets for surplus food exports. By the 1970s, experts recognized that the real problem was not protein deficiency but a lack of sufficient calories. Companies such as Nestlé profited from these international nutrition programs, raising questions about the influence of industry on dietary advice.
Now the U.S. government is effectively pushing another protein panic. A lot of nutritional science is more up in the air than many might think, but this is an area where medical authorities have some consensus. There’s just no basis for the claim that Americans need more protein, and certainly not from animal sources. It’s not just the American Heart Association pointing in the exact opposite direction.
There’s just no basis for the claim that Americans need more protein, and certainly not from animal sources.
And decades’ worth of scientific evidence shows the deleterious effects of industrial animal agriculture on the health of the planet. It’s a major contributor to climate change, putting people around the world at greater risk of extreme weather events, respiratory illnesses, heat-related illnesses, insufficient access to clean water and exposure to water-borne disease. In a sad irony, climate change threatens our food systems and limits the amount of decent food humans are able to produce. Agricultural practices in the meat industry have made it a vector for disease and have led to mass outbreaks of illness.
Dietary guidelines shape school luncheshospital meals, public assistance programs and more, including the advice given to millions of people who do not have the luxury of opting out. When federal guidance elevates red meat and full-fat dairy — foods long associated with higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and environmental harm — the costs are shouldered by poorer families, many already struggling with chronic illness, and by communities facing a warming planet.
This isn’t just a technical disagreement about nutrition; it’s a choice about whose interests public policy serves. And in this case, the answer is not the health of the American public but the balance sheets of meat and dairy companies. Such is the price of Making Agribusinesses Happy Again.
Brian Kateman
Brian Kateman is a co-founder and the president of the Reducetarian Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing consumption of meat, eggs and dairy to create a healthy, sustainable and compassionate world. He is the author of “Meat Me Halfway” — inspired by a documentary of the same name — and the editor of “The Reducetarian Cookbook” and “The Reducetarian Solution.” He is an adjunct professor of environmental science and sustainability at Kean University and teaches environmental communications at Fordham University.
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