You know democracy is dying a slow and painful death when 2025 is already being compared to a ‘Star Wars’ flop

One fan drew comparisons to a historic flop from the The Phantom Menace and the reality that we are currently living. 

Look, I know some people are going to come at me for calling The Phantom Menace a flop, but can we just it that it’s far from the best one out there? I’m a staunch defender of the prequel trilogy, but if we were going to compare real life to a Star Wars movie, I’d rather compare it to one of the objectively cooler films, like The Empire Strikes Back. But hey, don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll get to that one eventually, considering the way things seem to be heading right now.

What was The Phantom Menace even about?

For those who don’t , the opening title crawl from The Phantom Menace alluded to a taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems. The bill was ed by the Galactic Senate and signed by Chancellor Palpatine, AKA the Emperor, AKA Darth Sidious, and it was all a part of his evil scheme. In many ways, this seemingly inconsequential detail from the earliest movie in the Star Wars timeline was actually what kickstarted the events of the later movies.

So if Trump is the Emperor, then I guess that makes Elon Musk Darth Vader?

Fans were quick to draw even more comparisons to current day America and the Galactic Senate from the prequel films. The downfall of the senate and the rise of the Empire along with Palpatine’s rise to the status of Emperor can be likened to Trump’s rise to power. One fan echoed the words of Pe from Revenge of the Sith regarding democracy.

Also the scene in revenge of the sith where pe goes “So this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause.” Perfectly describes all the Trump ers clapping like seals to all this shit.

— Danke chains (@DANKCHAINS) February 2, 2025

Forget The Simpsons predicting the future, George Lucas is the real prophet here. How did he know way back in the nineties that this would be the state of the world in three short decades? Perhaps it’s worth going back and studying the old movies to try and learn from them, maybe we can prevent whatever is coming next.

It’s kind of mad and a little disheartening that the politically tumultuous world of Star Wars can be so easily compared to our world now – why couldn’t we get the cool stuff from the Star Wars universe like spaceships and lightsabers? It seems like we truly are stuck in the worst timeline and if we are in the first part of George Lucas’ epic space saga right now then the future is looking incredibly bleak indeed.