DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: As James Lileks writes, “It’s wise to be suspicious of social media outrages; mistrust but verify and all that. When I saw Today’s Thing, I was doubtful:”

Back to the Twix Facebook page, where I assumed the comments would be . . . lit, as they say. They were. A lot of people did not like the ad.

In fact, I’d say there are more people online who do not like the ad than there were Chapelle protestors outside of Netflix. The Twix instagram comments for the last few days are even more numerous. But one Twitter user liked the ad, couldn’t find it, wanted to know if it had been erased.

* * * * * * * *

So yes, it’s real, and it’s Twix endorsed. It doesn’t really matter how you think about it. What you learn is how Twix thinks about you. They think you’ll love it, and if you don’t, you’re on the wrong side.

And they really do. In a post headlined, “Happy Halloween Bigots,” Rod Dreher adds:

What is the message of this two-minute clip? That genderfluidity is right and good, and opposing it is what wicked bullies do. That a child struggling with gender dysphoria can turn to the occult for assistance, and to smite his enemies. God made them male and female, says the Bible, but the power of the occult can be accessed to overturn that bigotry.

This radical message, embedded in a humorous ad for Halloween candy.

This is an aspect of the weird totalitarianism we are living through today. We have seen harder manifestations in cases where physicians, academics, and others lose their jobs for questioning transgender ideology. Things like the Twix ad cannot be understood as apart from the overall message discipline of the Left: that there is only one permissible opinion to hold, and those who do not hold it are enemies to be crushed.

That’s a curious message from a manufacturer of candy bars, but this is where we are in 2021, I guess.

(Bumped.)