Member-only story

Here’s How They’re Going to Make America Great Again

The secret was never secret.

Jessica Wildfire
5 min readSep 30, 2021

Vince Gilligan understands America better than almost anyone. There’s a scene from Breaking Bad that proves it.

It’s near the end of the series, halfway through season 5. After taking out a rival group, two drug dealers commiserate in a dirty diner bathroom over the decline of American greatness.

“The other day I saw this kid wearing a bicycle helmet,” one of them says. “I wanted to smack the shit out of him, for his own sake.”

“Nanny state.”

The other one smirks, grabbing a paper towel to wipe some blood off his shoe. You can see the swastika on his neck. He goes by the name Jack, and you can sort of tell he’s killed an awful lot of people.

Later, Jack stops by a meth lab to see how his nephew is doing. His nephew asks him to put on a mask. He won’t. The nephew tries to explain. “It’s just that with the fumes and all...”

Jack stands proud.

“You let me worry about how to breathe,” he says.

There’s your MAGA crowd.

Right there.

They want to get rid of all the bike helmets.

--

--

Responses (105)