The Kayfabe President (a bit of a ramble)

[Simeon Salus]

Donald John Drumpf has never shied away from wrestling fandom, having promoted WWE events billed as appearing at Trump Plaza (but actually held at Atlantic City Convention Hall) in the eighties WrestleMania IV & V, joined the festivities personally in the "Battle of the (dubious) Billionaires", and is a member of the 2013 class of WWE Hall of Fame, such as it is.

Drumpf relishes attention, even when it comes from the unwashed masses. Vince McMahon is a frequent companion and Linda McMahon is (for gods know what reason) the 13th United States Secretary of Education. Wrestling culture goes deep into the Drumpf campaign and no excuses are made about it. This is not news; many publications have covered the connection (Politico, NPR, The 19th).

Other DUers can explain Kayfabe better than I. It's the wrestling translation of Yes, and.... Everyone knew pro wrestling was "fixed", but everyone quietly denied it. These days Kayfabe, the wink and the nod to the fix, is itself a fixture of wrestling television culture. Fans know it's fake, but they love to talk about it as serious (or partially serious) athletic competition.

Kayfabe is the portrayal of staged elements within professional wrestling (such as characters, rivalries, and storylines) as legitimate or real. It acknowledges the staged, scripted nature of such games. Historically the scripted nature of professional wrestling was an open secret, it was not generally acknowledged by people in the business. In pro wrestling, competitors fall into two broad categories: faces and heels. Faces & heels participate in semi-scripted shouting contests and develop grudges and alliances with others of their type. Often a character will turn from heel to face or the opposite.

Because the Kayfabe event is highly scripted and heavily covered by sports media, nothing is left to chance. With the exception of occasional catastrophic injury (and primarily because of the need for safety for the performers), virtually nothing happens on a wresting tv program that wasn't discussed and rehearsed long before filming at the live event. It's fiction, not competition. It's always been that way. But these days performers often slyly wink at the camera, daring the audience to fight among themselves whether an onscreen controversy is real or Kayfabe.

Drumpf's entire television history is based on such semi-scripted activity. Throughout his career, Drumpf has actively acted in a manner adopted to overawe business opponents. The Apprentice itself is a Kayfabe wrestling show, with business as backstory and celebrities as contestants.

Living like this is unsustainable.

This administration deals with reality by papering over it and brazening it out.

Drumpf started this term out by firing the nation's inspector generals, making certain that anyone in such position was beholden to Drumpf. He then blamed an unfortunate aircraft accident on DEI. Years ago, face Karl Rove famously bragged "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." Drumpf has taken this governing technique to a high level, such as when his sharpie changed a weather map.

I can't imagine I'm alone in the view that Drumpf, News Corp, the Heritage Foundation and his many other allies are deliberately manufacturing a false reality, certainly false events ,and deliberate misdirection daily. Invented memes are broadcast each day on corporate media, backed by a somewhat unified and libertarian group of monied elites, and supported by wingnut welfare, so even scumbag heels like Toensing and diGenova keep getting paid no matter how many times they've been humiliatingly incorrect.

"Defund the police" is a phrase which was historically rarely used on DU, but the phrase was painted all over every one of us after George Floyd was killed. As an idiom it's a sort of false flag, something most of us agree with but didn't call for. I agree that police are overfunded, but that's what the right wanted.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome" is obvious gaslighting, since by now it's clear to anyone with YouTube and a memory that Drumpf has long exhibited signs of derangement. By labelling any legitimate criticism "deranged", the right prevents any actual discussion about his inevitable senility and demonstrated poor judgement.

"Antifa" is a non-existent organization said to be anti-Trump and by gaslighting painted over anybody who reasonably agrees fascism is a bad idea. We're so afraid of saying the word Nazi, but historians agree this is how it started last time, too.

Ignoring projected meanings like we do is unsustainable.

It's time to eat the rich

This deliberate mass-delusion of society, presciently called out by both Orwell and Huxley, is the problem Americans today. How can one stand when the sand beneath one's feet is being removed grain by grain by those who wish to keep the masses enslaved? When I look around today, I see a popular culture absorbed in self-reflection, self-adoration, self-satiation. Why? Because Americans haven't faced an actual crisis for eighty years. The successes of the New Deal, collective bargaining, post WWII economics, the oceans between us and our rival powers, have made Americans fat, egotistic, and clueless. Our model is conspicuous consumption, spending merely to flatter ourselves. Just enough to keep us from revolting.

Being eaten ourselves is ongoing but unsustainable.

To Drumpf, this is just another television show in which he stars.

And everyone else in his world is hired with mind towards Q score. The best thing about this situation for Drumpf is all he has to do is say controversial things to which his opponents get to react. This keeps him on today's television news outlets, designed for pure profit, not investigation. All the personalities we see on television are present because they are paid to engage us. He's only successful because he's convinced us to oppose (or support) him. He's got a serious group of deep pocketed supporters who go along with his confidence scheme even though it's almost end-of-the-planet time. They'll retire to their John Galt retreats, bolt the doors, and let us battle it out.

I don't have any answers, but I've been gathering these thoughts for a while, and thought I might share them.

They are all literally just programming us. To paraphrase Glen Cook, we are mere mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed shite.

This is unsustainable.

Every show gets cancelled eventually (except 700 Club, which is still on even though the asshole died years ago).

Gods help us.

[creon]

1. Yes

trump is the dead solid perfect of kayfabe.
But tme people under him are dangerous. - very dangerous.
The aim of DHS is screcklichkeit.
The Defense Dept is now very dangerous.

[Uncle Joe]

2. The WWE is the ultimate promotion of entertainment over substance and *rump brought that ethos to the Oval Office

Keep the people occupied with bread and circuses while you pick their pockets clean.

*rump has no more respect for judges, journalists, and the Constitution than the heel wrestlers have for the purposely inept wrestling referees.

Thanks for the thread Simeon Salus

[Simeon Salus]

4. You're welcome

Bread and Circuses is the name of one of my favorite Star Trek OS episodes.

You know, the one where the son of God's name is explicitly not mentioned...

We are in America's era of tyrants. At least back in Roman days, all acts of a tyrant were declared null and void.

Who among us would have bet the Antichrist was so resistant (and so vulnerable) to truth?

[2na fisherman]

3. He Can't Stay on Script

This observation is spot on. And AI will only make his show worse when directors too obviously falsify images. But Trumps whole life has been an act and he loves playing the villain and that is type casting because he is one. But his directors must be worried because his obvious dementia makes it hard for him to stick to the current script. And his audience may be getting tired of his show when they feel real consequences not easily explained away or deflected by his random antics. I hope I live long enough to see his show cancelled and no guest host Vance takes his place.