It’s Not About the Drugs or the Oil. I Have a More Abstract Venezuela Theory.

Okay - people are now asking - if it’s not about the drugs - and it’s not about the oil - why the hell did we go into Venezuela? And I’m going to give you a very niche, conceptual reason - that’s just something I’ve been thinking about all day.

It’s very abstract - so buckle in. I know I’m gonna lose most of you on understanding this - but that’s okay - this essay is just for me.

Have you seen the series Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix? It’s literally my favorite tv show of all time. I’ve watched it at least 5 times and gotten something different from it every single time. It came out in 2021 and flew completely under the radar. It’s a neon-soaked revenge horror story that starts with a very ordinary abuse of power.

Rosa Salazar’s character, Lisa Nova, is a young filmmaker in early-90s Hollywood trying to get her movie made. During a meeting, the producer who holds her future casually puts his hand on her thigh. She moves it away. That’s it. No speech. No scene. Just a woman asserting a basic boundary.

And that tiny act makes him feel small. He later confesses this.

What follows is a familiar pattern, turned feral. He steals her film, freezes her out of the industry, and rewrites history so he looks like the genius and she looks unstable. With no legal or professional recourse that actually works, Lisa turns to something older and darker: a witch, a curse, and a long, grotesque campaign of revenge.

The show’s whole escalating body-horror saga grows out of that moment of her rejecting him. Not desire. Not seduction. Not sex. Ego injury. A man with power being told no, briefly, and deciding to burn everything down rather than accept it.

That’s the point. Strip away the magic realism, the kittens, the blood, and the hallucinations, and the engine of the story is painfully mundane. A boundary was set. A man couldn’t tolerate it. So he retaliated, and the cost metastasized from professional sabotage into total annihilation.

If you watch it - you’ll see just how crazy things get. I promise you - it’s literally hilarious and jaw-dropping at the same time.

Back to Trump.

It is being reported that Maduro’s constant dancing reportedly pushed Trump to storm Caracas. Per the NYT, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's public dancing was one factor in Trump's decision to act. After Maduro ignored a U.S. ultimatum and kept brushing off threats & literally dancing on state TV. The White House officials reportedly pushed ahead with military action, ultimately leading to Maduro’s capture. So yeah - I’ve been thinking about that moment in Brand New Cherry Flavor when Lisa pushes a man’s hand away, and then he decides to get revenge, and then she decides to get revenge back, and then everyone suffers because of it.

There was no rhyme or reason, really, just the need to not feel small.

Update, September 28th, 2026: One line now says the NYT called Maduro’s public dancing one factor in Trump’s decision to act. Apostrophes and quote marks lost in an old publishing glitch are back, each quote checked against its source.