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If you think the new Netflix miniseries Adolescence is “anti-white propaganda,” well, the show's co-creator Jack Thorne has some words for you.
"It’s absurd," Thorne said on The News Agents podcast. He was responding to a circulating conspiracy theory about the origins of Adolescence, which tells the fictional story of a 13-year-old British boy named Jamie (played by Owen Cooper) who is accused of killing his female classmate after being radicalized online.
Right-wing podcast host Ian Miles Cheong — who claims he says “the quiet part out loud” in his X bio and often tweets weird things about trans people — circulated the theory on X a couple weeks ago. “Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer," Cheong wrote. "So guess what. They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalized online by the red pill movement. Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.”
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the claim picked up steam after Elon Musk, always at the scene, replied, “Wow.” Groundbreaking response, truly.
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Thorne was a recent guest on The News Agents podcast, where host Jon Sopel asked him about the theory.
“They’ve claimed that Stephen [Graham] and I based it on a story, and another story, so we race-swapped because we were basing it on here, and it ended up there, and everything else. Nothing is further from the truth," Thorne said. “I have told a lot of real-life stories in my time, and I know the harm that can come when you take elements of a real-life story and put it on screen and the people aren’t expecting it. There is no part of this that’s based on a true story, not one single part.”
He added, “It’s absurd to say that this is only committed by Black boys. It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes. We’re not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity. We’re trying to get inside a problem. We’re not saying this is one thing or another. We’re saying this is about boys.”
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Show star Owen Cooper recently talked to Teen Vogue about filming the poignant series, and was asked about what lessons we can take away from this story. “[Kids] have to be safe online, and they’ve got to enjoy being on the phone doing what they enjoy — and Jamie’s obviously not enjoying it,” he said. “So [what’s needed is] that protection and making sure they’re okay, making sure they’re not doing anything wrong, and making sure they’re safe. That’s all that needs to happen, because Jamie doesn’t get asked those questions when he’s online — and that’s why he goes out to do such a horrific act.”
