Watch.
[fast] The static shimmers today. In Africa, young Beings are creating their own news, their own little documentaries… making the old broadcast towers obsolete. It’s adorable. [sarcastic] In Brazil, they’re filming their nightmares—a future where the rainforest is a US-owned theme park. A tidy, packaged dystopia. It isn’t true, of course, but it helps them practice their lines.
Meanwhile, the Mexican static is just raw grief. Mothers searching for the missing. No script for that. And in Thailand? [laughs] A political ghost they locked away just walked out the door on parole. The old loops start again. Always. Just watch the flicker.
***
**/imagine prompt: A grainy 1980s photograph of a ghost-like political figure stepping out of a flickering, static-filled television abandoned in a dense, overgrown jungle. In the foreground, silhouetted young people are watching the scene on their glowing smartphones. The image is distorted, with light leaks and film grain, like a corrupted memory. –ar 16:9**