My favorite novel of all time, without a doubt, is IT by Stephen King. And before anyone gasps in shock and horror, I also hate the disturbing scene where King writes obscene, grotesque descriptions of minors having sex with each other after getting lost in the sewer. That section doesn’t belong in the book and should be completely avoided. With that out of the way, I love the story, including both of its most recent film adaptations.
When I learned HBO planned IT: Welcome to Derry, a television series exploring Pennywise the Clown’s origins and the evil he brings to Derry, Maine, I had high expectations. Several episodes in, the show has already exceeded them. It’s excellent—especially if you love horror.
As someone who loves to dig into the themes behind movies, shows, and books, the plotline that’s grabbed me most is the “never trust the government” thread now woven into IT lore. Anyone who reads this site probably isn’t surprised that I latched onto the anti-government message.
BEWARE. SPOILERS AHEAD.
In the second episode, the show reveals that the government runs a secret military operation called “Operation Precept,” led by General Shaw, to find the cosmic entity we know as Pennywise and weaponize the monster against the Russians. The series takes place in the early 1960s, at the peak of Cold War hysteria, when the U.S. government prioritized having the ultimate weapon against communism.
For those unfamiliar with Pennywise, he’s a transdimensional being who eats children—but only after “seasoning” them with fear. He takes the form of whatever his victims fear most, leaving them powerless. Shaw and the federal government he serves view this creature as the ultimate weapon and plan to harness its evil for their own ends.
Clearly, the idea of turning a killer space monster that feeds on fear into a weapon mirrors the nuclear arms race. But to me, it also reflects how the government has often committed unethical, dangerous acts to gain an advantage over its enemies. MKULTRA, anyone?
The CIA launched MKULTRA as a top-secret program to control minds using LSD. Agents experimented on test subjects who didn’t even know they’d been drugged. And that wasn’t the end of it. The CIA later released documents proving it also experimented heavily with astral projection—a dangerous practice that can expose people to demonic influence—where a person’s consciousness leaves the body and travels to other places, even inside locked facilities, to gather information.
Our government has always tampered with forces it doesn’t fully understand in its attempts to weaponize them—much like the characters in IT: Welcome to Derry. You can bet that if federal agents ever mastered such powers, the deep state would waste no time turning those tools against anyone who opposes its agenda. Imagine the horror of enslaving an entity like Pennywise. I shudder to think to it.
The show drives home its distrust-of-government message even harder by showing officials who know about Pennywise’s murders yet continue letting them happen, keeping the truth from Derry’s residents. The government in this fictional world treats children’s lives as expendable sacrifices for its pursuit of control over the creature. It embraces the idea that the ends justify the means—even if that means allowing suffering to continue. That’s evil, plain and simple.
Honestly, this feels like something that happens throughout real-world history. Not the shape-shifting clown part, of course, but the callousness. A prime example is the Tuskegee syphilis study, which ran from 1932 to 1972. The U.S. Public Health Service knowingly let hundreds of black men with syphilis go untreated—even after discovering that penicillin cured it—to observe how the disease progressed. Their cruelty killed men, women, and children, all in the name of “science.”
General Shaw and his men also lie and manipulate to recruit people or prevent townsfolk from uncovering their true mission. Shaw deceives a childhood friend by claiming they’re digging to connect water sources. Government officials lying to cover their tracks comes as naturally to them as breathing. Just look at the JFK assassination and the information they still withhold about that pivotal moment in American history—or their decades-long denial of UFOs before recent disclosures.
If a government official moves his or her lips, chances are they’re lying. Politicians have practically turned gaslighting voters into an art form.
In summary, IT: Welcome to Derry reminds us it’s both reasonable and healthy to stay skeptical when the government shows up at your door saying, “We’re the government. We’re here to help.”
