VARIETY: Lilly Wachowski on Right-Wing Misinterpretations of The Matrix: ‘You Have to Let Go of Your Work.’

During a recent appearance on the “So True with Caleb Hearon” podcast, co-director Lilly Wachowski was asked about certain right-wing groups attaching their ideologies to her 1999 sci-fi masterpiece “The Matrix.” Wachowski said she’s unbothered by conservative misinterpretations and knows how to separate herself from her films once they’re released to the public.

“You have to let go of your work. People are gonna interpret it however they interpret it,” Wachowski said. “I look at all of the crazy, mutant theories around ‘The Matrix’ films and the crazy ideologies that those films helped create and I just go, ‘What are you doing? No! That’s wrong!’ But I have to let it go to some extent … You’re never gonna be able to make absolutely every person believe what you initially intended.”

“The Matrix,” specifically the iconic “blue pill or red pill” scene, is the most famous example of the film being appropriated by the right. In the scene, Keanu Reeves’ Neo must take the red pill in order to be freed from the Matrix. In the political context, “red pilled” is a term for someone who has “woken up” to the truth about society and often aligns with radical far-right ideology.

Wachowski has previously explained that the “original intention” of “The Matrix” was to be a transgender allegory. Even so, she said she’s unsurprised the right has latched on to the film since “right-wing ideology appropriates absolutely everything.”

She added, “They appropriate left-wing points of view and they mutate them for their own propaganda, for their own to obfuscate what the real message is. This is what fascism does. And so, of course, that’s going to happen.”

Okay, so let’s review: a transgendered artist can shout “fascism” during an interview with a leading Hollywood trade publication, and nothing at all will happen to either “her,” or the Website that carried the interview. Worst. Hitler. Ever.

But The Matrix is far from the only ideological work to be glommed onto by an audience on the other side of the aisle. At the beginning of Trump’s first term, the left obsessed over a book written immediately after a titanic struggle between two variants of socialism and convinced themselves that it had nothing to do with them. And ultimately, as Kyle Smith wrote in 2017, ”If you feel free to tell everyone you’re living in ‘1984,’ you aren’t.”

In any case, as Will Collier tweets:

Whatever, dude.

— Will Collier (@willcollier) November 30, 2025

HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN: Oops, Russia Has a Teensy Little Rocket Problem — and So Do We. “A Russian Soyuz launch mishap late last week left the country without a manned space program until vital launch infrastructure can be replaced or repaired.”

KURT SCHLICHTER: The Democrat/Regime Media Plot Against Pete Hegseth Is a Joke. Even if this story were true — which it pretty clearly isn’t — most Americans would approve of blowing up narco boats.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY: “These are different yet frequently overlapping intellectual traditions, many of them traceable — like so many forms of human error — to France.”

CONSPIRACY TO VIOLATE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IS A FELONY: New Docs Reveal Jack Smith Intentionally Violated Congressional Republicans’ Constitutional Rights.

YES, I KNOW. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. BUT EVERY BOOK IS 99c:  It’s a Cyber Monday Sale!

LEAVE YOUR KINKS AT HOME: Baltimore high school teacher under fire for kink-posting in fake pregnancy belly, massive breasts.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS STUCK THAT WAY: The Story of the Dem Who Texted with Epstein During Hearing Just Got a Lot More Sordid.

CYBER MONDAY DEAL: Kiehl’s Super Multi-Corrective Eye Cream. #CommissionEarned

HMM: China’s factory activity shrinks again in November, services cool.

The data reflects manufacturers’ difficulty in sustaining a recovery after COVID-19, compounded by a trade war with the U.S. that has ramped up pressure on businesses.

Output stalled, with the sub-index coming at 50.0. Sub-indexes of new orders and new export orders both improved from October but remained below 50.

Although manufacturing continued to slow in November, “We maintain our view that government may hold off on major policy support until the first quarter next year, since this year’s growth target appears broadly achievable,” Goldman Sachs economist Yuting Yang said in a research note.

The government’s 2025 growth target is around 5%.

For decades, China’s policymakers have had two reliable levers to juice growth: revving up the nation’s huge industrial machine to boost exports when household spending softened, or unleashing state-funded infrastructure projects to drive momentum.

But with a global slowdown, a protracted property crisis and local governments straining under debt, officials are finding it hard to jump-start activity, putting renewed focus on the need for economic reforms.

It’s been said before, but Beijing can either loosen control or accept slower growth. So far, Beijing choses slower growth.

HIGHER EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN A CIVILIZING INFLUENCE: 42% of young liberals say Kirk’s views ‘brought violence upon himself to an extent’: poll.

NO, NOT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL: Iranian Matchmaking Platform Lets Parents Sign Up Girls as Young as 13 for Marriage.

AS INTENDED? How MSU’s mandated DEI course trains future teachers in conformity.

THEY’RE OUT OF THE HEADLINE PHASE:

🇺🇸 ELON: DOGE IS STILL QUIETLY SAVING HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS

They're requiring 2 tiny fields on every federal payment:

1. A proper congressional authorization code
2. A comment field that actually says something

That's it.

And suddenly, hundreds of billions in pure fraud… pic.twitter.com/bKmiBza32r

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 1, 2025

UGH: Poll finds 51% of young voters prefer democratic socialist in 2028.

A new poll from Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute found that a slim majority of young voters prefer a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election.

The survey of 1,496 likely voters ages 18 to 39 showed 51% favored a democratic socialist, 36% opposed it, and 17% were unsure.

“It is hard to believe that a solid majority of young Americans think democratic socialism is the answer to the deep-rooted economic problems they face given that socialism has utterly failed to uplift the downtrodden every time and place it has been implemented,” said Heartland Institute research fellow Chris Talgo of the poll. “However, when they grow up in an environment surrounded by adults who champion democratic socialism, it starts to make sense.”

The respondents cited parents (27%), online videos or podcasts (17%), and books (10%) as the most influential sources on their support for the ideology. A majority (54%) also said their parents or guardians were favorable towards democratic socialism when they were growing up.

It will at least be interesting to see what — if anything — people learn from what’s about to happen to New York City.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Biden Messes Are Deadly and Difficult to Get Rid Of. “Americans’ trust in so many of our institutions was already weakened by the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic, We didn’t need four years of the Biden Commie Cabal taking a wrecking ball to everything. It’s not just that Biden & Co. got so many things wrong — one expects that from Democrats — it’s that they got them so spectacularly wrong.”

CYBER MONDAY DEAL: DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Drill and Impact Driver. #CommissionEarned

2026 PREVIEW: After Prop. 50, San Diego may lose its only Republican in Congress as Democrats target Issa.

Eleven Democrats are vying to unseat Rep. Darrell Issa, a San Diego Republican, after California’s redistricting measure turned his reliably red district into a slightly blue one that will be a key swing race in next year’s midterm elections.

Rep. Mike Levin, a San Clemente Democrat, can breathe easier, as Proposition 50 carves out new boundaries that make his swing district more safely Democratic.

The new voting map reflects California’s bid to offset Texas’ effort to secure control of the House by adding five Republican seats in November. California voters approved the redistricting plan proposed in Proposition 50 by nearly 20 points in a special election this month.

Both redistricting efforts are embroiled in litigation. On Tuesday a federal court blocked Texas from using its new maps, finding that they would harm Black and Latino voters in that state. Last week the U.S. Department of Justice sued to overturn California’s maps, arguing that they unlawfully considered Latino voters in the new districts.

If California’s redistricting plan withstands that challenge, the new voting map could help Democrats flip the lone Republican seat in San Diego. The 48th Congressional District, represented by Issa, will switch from a 12-point Republican advantage to a 4-point Democratic lead, based on voter registration.

Meanwhile, in Texas: Chaos Reigns as Texas Awaits Supreme Court’s Ruling on Redistricting.

And Indiana: Indiana Republican with disabled child rejects redistricting bid after Trump-Walz spat.

And Ohio: Rating the New Ohio House Map: Democrats Get a Better Map than Expected.

Mostly, the GOP still refuses to play hardball.

WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE IT’S ALWAYS WOMEN WITH THESE DISPLAYS? Irate passenger kicked off United Airlines flight in Newark after cursing out attendant: ‘F–king c–ts.’

I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE AGAINST RACISM AND ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC:

It needs to stop https://t.co/WN2BZdKumH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2025

THAT’S TRUE, IT ISN’T. No, It’s Not Racist to Pause Third-World Immigration.

Related: Afghan Terror and Somalia Fraud Shows Why Trump Is Right on Migrants.

CHANGE: No More Cashless Bail for Violent Offenders as Iryna’s Law Goes into Effect in North Carolina.

ANDREW STILES: How I Found Out My Journalist Side Piece Was Cheating on Me With Her Fiancé Again.

WE HAD TO DESPOIL THE RAINFOREST IN ORDER TO SAVE IT:

Belém, one week after COP30. Private jets gone. Raw sewage still runs in the streets. The shiny new 'Freedom Avenue' is already a smugglers’ highway for illegal timber and cocaine. The 56,000 delegates partied on floating 5-star hotels, then vanished. The bill: $2 billion for a… pic.twitter.com/HanBW0RfBX

— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) December 1, 2025

COVID, SIX YEARS AGO:

“6 years ago” https://t.co/44HlEgMbY2 pic.twitter.com/GC9ExSnLc1

— Boring_Business (@BoringBiz_) December 1, 2025