Eddington (2025): COVID, Capitalism, and Gaslighting

We will be meeting at Southeast Regional in Room C

Join us as we unpack COVID memory, corporate “community,” and quiet coercion through Eddington (2025)—a film that uses crisis as a pressure test for who gets protected, who gets labeled, and who ends up enforcing the rules. As the lines blur between care and control, the story becomes a mirror for how narratives spread, how people fall into compliance (or resistance), and what it costs a town when “growth” is demanded rather than chosen.

Please note: We will not be watching the movie during the event, nor is viewing it beforehand required.

Movie Summary:
Eddington (2025) is set in May 2020 in a fictional New Mexico town during the early COVID era, where a standoff between the local sheriff and the mayor—sparked by lockdowns, mask rules, and a heated election—turns neighbor against neighbor. As conspiracy thinking, protests, and political ambition collide, the conflict escalates into violence and chaos, exposing how fear, power, and competing “truths” can fracture a community.

1) What we carried from COVID

a) People at the time seemed to generally support vaccine cards and “status checks,” which turned everyday people—bartenders, coworkers, neighbors—into enforcers of an official label. What do you think made that level of public buy‑in feel reasonable then, and what limits would have needed to be clearly in place to keep it from sliding into a broader “papers, please” mindset for other issues?

b) In that period, a lot of people accepted (or even encouraged) social penalties for noncompliance—lost jobs, restricted access, public shaming, broken friendships. What do you think made those consequences feel justified in the moment, and what do you think they did to long‑term trust between neighbors, coworkers, and “sides”?

2) Corporate Manipulation

a) When a corporation brings jobs, housing, services, or investment to a town, what are the clearest ways it can genuinely help a community grow (not just economically, but socially and culturally), and what tends to get lost in the process?

b) When a community is struggling, when—if ever—is it okay for outside institutions (companies, schools, government, even families) to push “growth” for people’s own good, and where’s the line where help stops being support chosen by the community and starts becoming coercion justified by urgency?

3) Political Manipulation

a) 1 (2020). In 2020, what were the biggest signs politicians used words like “community,” “unity,” or “safety” as a slogan to win trust and compliance—while avoiding real accountability or admitting tradeoffs?

b) 2 (Today). Right now, which political buzzwords (“freedom,” “working families,” “equity,” “security,” “democracy,” etc.) feel most like marketing instead of meaning—and what would you require to believe it’s real rather than performative?

4) Internet Manipulation

a) During COVID, how did your online feed (news, TikTok/YouTube, Twitter/X, group chats) shape what felt true—and what cues told you you were being pushed toward fear, outrage, or conformity rather than clarity?

b) Today, where do you see the same kind of internet manipulation showing up (different topic, same emotional buttons)—and what would it look like to resist it without disconnecting from the world?