The concept of "kayfabe" from pro wrestling is weirdly useful for understanding elite DC political stuff. The Alito Flag story is causing so much consternation for DC elites not because it shows that pro wrestling is fake (they all know it's fake) but because Alito acknowledged it was fake.
I think you see this really clearly in the post-Bork dance around "Roe is settled law." They all know the Republicans are there precisely to knock down Roe. That's boring. An unpleasantly controversial. But reporting on the *performance* of them *pretending* to not knock down Roe...
I think honestly a key to Trump's popularity. He inverted the theatrical aspect from one where the Meet The Press class were in on the joke and the conservative voters were the rubes, to one where the conservative chuds were in on the joke and the DC crowd were the rubes bsky.app/profile/rinc...
this is also why Trump broke the DC press so much, because as much as he was clearly our most pro wrestling president his version of kayfabe was clearly very different from agreed-upon elite DC kayfabe and they kept trying to put him in the latter box instead
Every time Trump would read some squinty teleprompter statement about how much he hated racists and Nazis, the Nazis never got mad because they knew *that* was the fake performance for the rubes and the fact that the rubes sometimes clapped like seals for it only made it funnier.
yes absolutely. And talk about two circles that have no overlap on the venn diagram: "Democratic party elites" and "college football message board culture." Literally only James Carville. bsky.app/profile/chri...
Having a working knowledge of pro wrestling and college football message board culture has made understanding the last decade-plus of American politics much easier.
My long-standing assumption since at least the 2010 MA Senate special is that a large percentage of the country gets their politics news in occasional nuggets from the local sports guys and nowhere else.
i dont think its a large percentage overall but its a significant percentage of the people who legitimately might vote for either party in any given election.
yep. There’s a reason why Gerry Callahan had a column in which he attacked minority players for laziness at the Murdoch Boston Herald, at the same time he had a talk show at the ClearChannel station WEEI.
WEEI had a lot of politics content.
Re-upping on the central theory to my personal political analysis: If you do not understand both pro wrestling and pro football, you do not understand US politics.
And wrestling is by far the greater part of it.
Once I interviewed Carville for VICE, and my Twitter avatar at the time had me in a Michigan State sweatshirt. I called him at the appointed time, and he cut off my greeting with “Y’ALL GOIN’ BEAT OHIAH STATE~” and did not stop for five minutes
I’m old enough and online enough to remember Chait on the Michigan fan boards during the RichRod era: which is to say, I can confirm that you have to be *real* far gone.
Much of his lying consists of projection--accusing others of what he does or wants to do. A term that would capture that, as well as the velocity and volume of his lies, would be projectile lying.
I'm not sure Trumps Nazi fanbois even registered those statements. They all seem blissfully unaware how many of his advisors are Jewish – including his daughter, who converted to wimpy brand of Orthodox Judaism when she married a Jew.
I noticed the smarter pro-Trump alt-right meme lords were leaning heavy into pro-wrestling stuff starting in 2015. It was pretty obvious where Trump was getting his media strategy from; and yeah it was absolutely frustrating watching the media elite be the willing marks
I like the idea of not underestimating his intelligence as a serious observer of Media. He understands it very well and obviously studied it closely. He says the things people often shout at the TV about loudly, and so collectively reflects the frustrations of many.
Eric Bischoff himself said the decline in the mainstream appeal of pro-wrestling is because political punditry serves the same purpose that wrestling does. And he’s a sub moron!
yeah, you can peep my bio if you need my opinion on trump, but that dude is an actual lifelong pro bullsh*tter and he absolutely runs rings around normal pols on that specific thing
they are absolutely pathetic tryna emulate that
