phantasm

Even the implicit promise of a male-oriented community is a phantasm.

"Cancel culture" is a phantasm.

Yet, much like the entire $7.2 trillion federal budget, it is a bit of a phantasm—part real, part fantasy, part nightmare, not likely to materialize in life, except as a warped caricature of itself.

There are also 30th anniversary screenings of “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit short “The Wrong Trousers,” the latter a free event.

Like most of the fears that animate the right, that's a phantasm, propped up to keep their adrenaline coursing and their rational faculties shut down.