"In the 1988 John Carpenter classic They Live, aliens have invaded the country without anyone knowing it - or, at least, without anyone of actual power and importance knowing. Then one day, a drifter in Los Angeles, played by the wrestler Roddy Piper, picks up a stray pair of sunglasses, puts them on, and sees the world as it truly is."
"Through the glasses, the skull-faced alien population reveals itself to have taken over the social elite, whose quest for world domination is aided by subliminal advertising messages aimed at population control. Look up at all those colorful billboards in the city and their true messages are spelled out in bold type: "OBEY," CONFORM," "CONSUME," "REPRODUCE," "STAY ASLEEP.""
They Live depicts aliens who secretly control the elite and use subliminal advertising—billboards that read 'OBEY', 'CONFORM', 'CONSUME', 'REPRODUCE', 'STAY ASLEEP'—to placate and control people rather than attack them. Pluribus's premiere echoes that conceit when Carol Sturka, a bestselling speculative historical romance author, returns home convinced she survived an alien invasion. A televised official displays large chyrons reading YOUR LIFE IS YOUR OWN and WE'RE NOT ALIENS, offering a gentler, palliative version of control. The Pluribus message reframes coercion as comfort, suggesting consent through soothing reassurance instead of overt domination.
Read at Vulture
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