2020 Has Me Really Wondering if We’re Living in the Matrix

It’s the year reality and conspiracy theories crashed into each other

Kitanya Harrison
GEN

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Keanu Reeves as Neo in “The Matrix.” Photo: Warner Bros.

It was the reanimated corpses of culled, Covid-infected mink rising from their mass graves that finally got me. In case you missed it, a mutation of Covid-19 was discovered last month on mink farms in Denmark. Fearing the mutated virus would spread to the human population and interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines, mink farmers culled millions of the animals, which are raised for use by furriers. To the horror of observers, some of the animals disinterred themselves to walk the earth again. The corpses of the animals were instead burned.

Is this not the opening sequence of a zombie thriller? When I read the news about the mink I thought, surely, this can’t be real. If it isn’t real, how would we know? I’ve been pondering this question more than I’m comfortable admitting. I’ve joked, along with others, about “the engineers testing the limits of the simulation” or “the writers room trying to do too much.” But 2020 has been weird as hell and seems almost designed to strain our credulity.

The pandemic demonstrated how important it is that a critical mass of people accept a shared reality.

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Kitanya Harrison
GEN
Writer for

Upcoming essay collection: WELCOME TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: NOTES ON COLLAPSE FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC | Rep: Deirdre Mullane