We need a Pop Cult Crucifixion

Godhunter Artwork - Music Credit to Aviators, Artist credit to ABluSkittle

 A look at 'Pop Cult Crucifixion' by Aviators

Written by Janblu

Introduction

 

But before I get to nailing executives to crosses, let's look at something interesting that recently happened.

Therians.

For everyone not living in a Spanish-speaking country, you may not understand. For those of you living in LATAM, you do.

Around mid-February 2026, there was a hot new scandal on the news, starting in Argentina (10th or 11th of Feb) and spreading throughout the continent. The timing is highly suspect, as a few days later, Argentina's president, Javier Milei, managed to push through a labour reform. A labour reform that incorporates a dynamic salary, 12-hour workdays, limitations on striking, and other things. More work for less pay and few holidays, and less power to the workers.

But the media has been pushing hard for therians instead. Therians are a group of people who believe they were born as the wrong species, or who identify as an animal. It's more complicated than that, I have met therians online before, and I do not have the knowledge to do them justice. Nor should I. Because it's a distraction from what's important.

Argentina is pushing a labour reform that every conservative around the world is salivating at the thought of. Trump loves Milei, enough to give his country a 40 billion dollar bailout. So it would be no surprise if Trump tries to push for something similar. Speaking of that guy, he did some truly gruesome things on that island-

But the therians!!!!! Young people think they are animals!!! Identity politics has gone too far!

 

Let's talk dystopias. It's typical to think of dystopias as predictions, and dystopian writers as predictors. So when people look at 1984 and Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, they think "Wow, I can't believe these guys were so accurate!"
The reality is that writing a dystopia involves looking at the society around you now, and extrapolating the logical and extreme conclusion. 1984 was Orwell writing about the surveillance state of the time, looking at new technologies, and extrapolating from there. Cyberpunk does the same, looking at the present corporate powers, the potential of technology, and fusing them.

Aviators does, intentionally or not, the same. Through his music, he has created a story centred around "The Bleeding Sun". As a brief summary of the story, it involves cyberpunk elements, nuclear disaster, religion, oppression, time travel, a god, revolution, heroes, and mass murder. That's a lot, but I want to zero in on the dystopic elements. We see religion, especially cultism, used to control a population. Power centred into the hands of a single leader, and his desperate attempts to keep that power. War helping maintain oppression. And the elements from cyberpunk itself, technology used to press a boot on the people.

Let's look at our modern world. As of March 2026, we have the US Secretary of War spouting Evangelical ideas of bringing about the rapture by letting Israel conquer the Middle East and thus establish the prerequisites for the return of Jesus. The fact that Aviators has an event called The Rapture take place in 2081 whereby the nuclear apocalypse happens is almost comical. We also see power centring on a specific religious leader (Trump) and his desperate attempts to keep it. The rest of it is standard play.

All this is important when talking about Pop-Cult Crucifixion because it relates to the modern world.

Preamble

I'm going to refer to Pop Cult Crucifixion as PCC from henceforth because writing the whole name will take forever.

I'll also be looking at the different sections of the song and talking about them as a whole together, then concluding at the end.

If you are interested in The Bleeding Sun and where PCC fits into the timeline, my best estimate is that it comes somewhere after the nuclear apocalypse and the election of The Elder, but before any cybernetic stuff is done. The population at this point in the story are not quite radicalised. Alternatively, it could come before the nuclear apocalypse, or even during.

Aviators actually has a few resources to help with understanding the story: A timeline of events and a playlist in chronological order

It doesn't really matter since this analysis is more about relating it to us, and our current state, than it is about deciphering the story of the song.

Analysis 

Culture of the righteous
A church of stolen souls
You built a network of the outrage
To further push your calloused goals
Wars won on the airwaves
Battles wage on the screen
It's like you're hungry for disaster
Just to be the first one on the scene

The culture war, the defining element of a lot of western politics in the 2010s and 2020s. On one side, people who believe in social justice. On the other side, people who use the bible as a tool to oppress. Both sides believe that they are righteous, just in different ways. In that sense, we have a culture of the righteous.

Stolen souls could be about the internet, the way that people have really delved into it and given up real life and happiness for twitter arguments. I mean, there are people who are REALLY active on that platform. There is also an aspect to consider with bots, and AI now. Internet accounts are stolen, or bought, when they have enough followers, and spun into something else. Something to promote hate and division. All in service of something... greater.

You. Not us. But the elite class. The ones behind building this network of the outrage, the one to push their calloused goals. Once upon a time, this would be conspiracy... but the release of the Epstein files have literally shown that Epstein played a major hand in creating the "politically incorrect" board on 4chan, from which ultranationalism has festered and spread. That same board was responsible for creating several conspiracy theories that have propelled fascists to the top of the world. All in the service of distracting from the rich and powerful. Elon Musk has turned Twitter into much the same thing, promoting hate and outrage to feed the culture war. Hell, several news outlets have published articles calling for people not to abandon the culture war for the class war, literally "keep fighting, ignore the real issues!"

Information wars, propaganda wars, they are all vital now, just as much as the actual conflicts. This is a lesson Israel is learning, as more time passes, they lose more and more respect from people, unable to control the flow of the truth. It's suspicious then that the new American TikTok suppressed negative sentiment towards Zionism. 

And to top it all off, the media, the press, they crave disaster. They show it to us more than good news. And they limit the narrative. Passive voice is abused when the west kills civilians, active voice is used when western civilians die. Something similar happens during mass shootings.

Now your ink is bleeding red
The headlines are going dead
You're spinning records
So you can spin the truth a little
To sell off what's in our heads
Keep the vultures well fed
You're playing checkers
With our ears stuck right in the middle

The chorus, already. Here we talk about the purpose of this culture, and where it's focused. It's all about the headlines, all about the drama, all about taking the truth and twisting it. 

"Now your ink is bleeding red" - as inflammatory attacks by the media, such as on trans people, leads to suffering, death even. Not just in the case of trans people, but also in the case of Gaza, as traditional media is unable to point blame at Israel. 

"The headlines are going dead" is open to interpret, I personally see the limiting of truth by limiting what headlines can be said. For example, traditional media has been mostly bought up and serves the few, so headlines that do speak the truth and are honest have no chance of surviving, they are dead. 

"You're spinning records, so you can spin the truth a little" this is talking about the manipulating of facts and events to fit a narrative, especially by taking an event and talking about it in a way that makes it seem like something else entirely happened. 

"To sell off what's in our heads" well, ain't that just the reality of the now. Everyone is in the business of misinformation, of grifting, of stealing identities and selling it to the highest bidder. 

"Keep the vultures well-fed" vultures being the rich and powerful, of course. If I pointed to the evidence that Epstein ate people, well, that'd be too on the nose. And yet, there is some evidence. 

"You're playing checkers, with our ears stuck right in the middle" is interesting. Of course, there are mind games going on here, and it involves placing information in our heads. But an interesting analogy with checkers, it's not got the same air of strategy as game, so it's like it's not even hard for the media to do. And perhaps also that they are jumping over each other to be the ones in control of our thoughts...

Overall, the chorus paints the situation very clearly. The media have failed us, the headlines are worthless or actively causing harm. Everyone is racing to influence our thoughts in a game that is not that hard to play. Grifting is really easy, in fact. Especially right-wing grifting. People on the internet, and the media, love telling half-truths, or making blanket statements. "Wow so is it not okay to drive a car any more?" when the situation is that someone was run over and the person driving should be held accountable.

I actually have one more thing to say about the bleeding read and grifting thing. If I had a dollar for every time the wife of a famous murdered man took that event and turned it into a grift, I'd have two dollars: Erika Kirk and María Claudia Tarazona. Concerning that it's happened twice. 

Built to feed the ego
Set to starve the mind
Diluted information
To sprinkle doubt into a lie
Dreams implied of riches
To make us greedy too
You called your message the messiah
And the crucifixion's coming soon

"Built to feed the ego, set to starve the mind" → In our world today, algorithms have been designed to create echo chambers. You only hear the opinions of those who agree with you, which creates this kind of ego stroking event. And because you never end up debating anyone, without it devolving into an argument, or listening to other opinions, you end up unable to think for yourself. It's self-reinforcing. The ego must be built, opposition silenced brutally, mind starved of ideas. This goes for all sides of the political spectrum.

"Diluted information, To sprinkle doubt into a lie" → I honestly can't believe how accurate this has been. Maybe it's a theme in my essays, but, AI. AI video specifically, but also photos. They've got so good that we cannot trust what used to be reliable information. Now, we doubt everything that we are shown, whether it is really real or fake. The lie could be true, the truth could be a lie. AI has effectively killed video evidence.

"Dreams implied of riches, to make us greedy too" → It's kinda scary now how spot on everything is, because guess what? We got betting markets now, on everything! Place your bets on whether the US is going to bomb Iran today, or on who will win an election, or if Trump will say a certain word. People are now incentivised to manipulate events themselves to get money. Although, is it out of greed, or out of a need to survive in such a hostile economy?

"You called your message the messiah, and the crucifixion's coming soon" → There are a few choice things I could say about this. Looking at the way that Donald Trump has co-opted Christianity, how they say he was sent down by god to save the US. Certainly, he has been painted as a messiah, and when he dies, shit will go down. Or look at Pete Hegseth, how he is bringing the church into the military, how there have been complaints about evangelicalism in regard to the war in Iran. How they think they are going to bring about the end times by letting Israel take it all, or something to that extent. Such religious fervour is dangerous, and it's bearing destructive fruit.

Even in Colombia, the fascist candidate "Abelardo de la Espriella" claimed he had a religious awakening, and began doing his religious grifting on top of everything else in his campaign. It's dangerous, very dangerous.

Think you can save us
Make me feel famous
Free from the dangerous
All in my head
Feed on the end times
Rigging the headlines
Like we're a goldmine
To be misled
It's time we test you
Let you confess to
Trying to rescue
Us from the truth
Fact versus fiction
Bloodthirsty visions
The crucifixion
Releasing our view

The bridge has a lot to say, building on top of everything that has already been said. 

"Think you can save us" touches on the politicking that has been happening. 'Only I can stop these people from destroying the country!'. 

"Make me feel famous" is potentially with internet fame and all of that, as well as grifting in general. Fame is attractive, and the internet can supply that, especially if you do some kind of right-wing grift. 

"Free from the dangerous, All in my head" is about these constructed narratives that talk about what is destroying X or Y nation. Immigration, 'they're eating the dogs', trans people, communists, whatever. In most cases, it's just an invented thing. The fascist will invent a scenario, and then act scared of it. "Feed on the end times" while this is specific to the story of The Bleeding Sun, it can still apply here, considering what I mentioned earlier about trying to bring about the Rapture by invading Iran. 

"Like we're a goldmine, to be misled" is also interesting, There's money to be made from us, a lot of it, in fact. And in order to extract that money, and power, we the masses must be misled, misdirected into hating each other, or hating some minority. 

"It's time we test you, Let you confess to, Trying to rescue, Us from the truth" this comes in a package. We must take a stand against this kind of misinformation, and distracting things. We must force the real issues to be spoken about, to force them to face the music. That is something that social media has had some success in, with how TikTok used to be honest about what Israel was doing (before they got acquired by Oracle), or with community notes on Twitter. But it doesn't feel like enough, in our world. People have been quite focussed on Epstein, but the files still manage to be tossed under the rug. PCC has a suggestion, one which, if the rich and powerful do not acknowledge our previous calls, may end up being the only path forward.

"Fact versus fiction, Bloodthirsty visions" this is the culmination of the violence and hatred that has been spewed at us by the media. Fact must combat with fiction, one must prevail. As for bloodthirsty visions, well, it can go either way. The media thirst for blood, it's what they use to divide us after all. But we too, thirst for blood.

"The crucifixion" → Crucifixions were a form of punishment, and murder. Famously, it was done to Jesus, which gives the whole concept a religious undertone, hence the use in the song. However, we can also think of them much like the guillotine, for the purposes of this video. Except the guillotine was quick. 

"Releasing our view" refers back to the bloodthirsty visions. Our view, our vision of blood. Those who would distract us and enslave us must meet their end, and if they do not concede in peace, it will be done by blood.

 

The solution is simple.
Destroy it.
Murder the pop cult.
Crucify it.
They have left us no other way.

Conclusion

I am a pacifist, really, so I don't think we should start firebombing everything until all the rich and powerful are destroyed.

Although that murder of the United Healthcare CEO was very effective.

However, I do think it is possible to destroy the popular culture, it just requires direction, effort, and a rejection of the powers that be. Maybe some regulation would help, although given the whole age verification thing, I'm not holding out hope for that. Age verification would only make things worse, in terms of giving the powers that be more information about us. At the same time, it might also kill off the bots that do a marvellous job of dividing us.

Whichever path we end up taking, it's clear that something needs to be done. This radicalising and dividing of two sides has to stop, and turn back, or else our species will be doomed to kill each other until climate change kills us all.

Like the other two analysis I have published to this blog, this was originally published on Instagram here.

You can listen to Pop Cult Crucifixion here.