Spoiler alert: This blog post references the “Stranger Things” series finale. We won’t ruin the ending — but we will talk about what it means.
Across the world, millions of people celebrated the end of 2025 by watching the final episodes of Netflix’s epic series, “Stranger Things.” For those unfamiliar, “Stranger Things” is a sci-fi mystery set in the 1980s about a group of kids whose small town is thrown into chaos when secret government experiments open a bridge between two worlds — our world and one that is a dark, decaying reflection of ours called the Upside Down. The Upside Down anchors itself to our world by a vast network of tunnels beneath the small town of Hawkins — passageways that allow the foot soldiers of an evil hive mind to move unseen and infiltrate our world.
As I watched the final season along with millions of others, a familiar theme emerged: The most successful threats to freedom are not the ones that arrive loudly. Instead, the ones that spread quietly, through familiar places and trusted systems in order to erode freedom from within, can have the most success. Like the spread of white Christian Nationalism seeping into our institutions, distorting reality and harming communities long before most Americans even know what it is.
In “Stranger Things,” the forces of the Upside Down don’t conquer Hawkins through brute force alone. They rely on a secretly built infrastructure of underground tunnels and our government’s obsession with power to sustain themselves. These dark forces gain critical strongholds when everyday people stop paying attention or assume someone else will handle it.
White Christian Nationalism works in much the same way. It advances through our school boards, courts, state legislatures, and policy networks quietly beneath the surface. It embeds itself in laws and practices that privilege one religion over others. Over time, the government begins to enforce this discrimination — not always overtly, but through exemptions, mandates, and policies that treat some people as full citizens at the expense of others.
One of the most important takeaways of “Stranger Things” — underscored in its final chapter — is that no one defeats a threat like this alone. Even the protagonist Eleven, with all her superhuman power, can’t save Hawkins by herself. Every win throughout the series depends on collective effort: people sharing information, naming what’s happening, coordinating strategy, and refusing to give up on one another or their community.
“Stranger Things” also underlines that diversity is our strongest defense: Black and white, queer and straight, disabled and abled, old and young, skeptics and believers. The fight against white Christian Nationalism requires this same kind of coalition. We may not all agree, but we are united by our understanding that the threat we face affects all of us — and that our survival depends on solidarity. Our diversity is not a liability; it’s the source of our strength.
Building this kind of coalition is what Americans United does. For nearly eight decades, AU has helped people of all religions and none recognize when religious freedom is being misused, understand how it harms all of us, and feel empowered to stop it before it becomes entrenched. Through litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AU brings clarity when the threat feels confusing and strategy when it feels overwhelming — connecting people across differences and equipping them to act together.
White Christian Nationalism’s victory over our democracy is not inevitable. It is a political movement that can be exposed, challenged, and defeated. But to do this, we must refuse to normalize it, refuse to look away, and reject the platitude that “it can’t happen here.”
Like the Upside Down in “Stranger Things,” white Christian Nationalism thrives in silence and denial. Democracy survives through clarity, courage, and collective action. The “Stranger Things” story is over, but the fight for our democracy is still being fought. To paraphrase character Will Byers, now is the time for us to come together and let Christian Nationalists know we see them and we’re not afraid anymore. Check out this page for ideas on how you can take action and get involved with Americans United.
Photo Credit: Promotional poster of “Stranger Things” from Netflix.
