It’s what makes Newsome’s social media approach effective - he’s holding up a mirror to America and saying “this is what you think a tough guy sounds like?” Trump wants us to be afraid of him. He doesn’t want us disgusted with him and siding with a woman losing her husband. That’s a losing narrative

It’s my belief that understanding that Trump relies on kayfabe as the model for his administration is key to defeating him. People are swept up in the ideas and version of reality he’s presenting, and you have to show the country his manipulations in order to defeat him politically.

People are being maimed and killed by ICE. Inflation is picking up. Free speech is being slowly constricted. Criminality is becoming the norm. I understand very clearly the danger we face for who we are or who we love. I am sorry if it seemed like I was minimizing any of it. I’m not.

So because they are more focused on managing public opinion uber alles (feels appropriate to use German in talking about maga), performance of the act is always secondary. The most important part is the talk, not the walk, in kayfabe. I am loathe to diminish or ignore the very real harm happening.

He made the administration look bad so he has to be publicly embarrassed, because the things that can most undermine a face’s relationship with the crowd are things that evoke either derision (Jimmy Kimmel) or disgust (the attack against this innocent woman). Kayfabe is 💯 about reaction management.

This is a no-no in Trumpland. You can either be a lech or a prude but you can’t be outwardly violent towards women. And so we get this:

Trump wants his administration to be seen as a face - handsome, righteous, just, strong, virtuous - while acting like a heel - narcissistic, conniving, manipulative, erratic. This clip shows ICE acting like the heel - instead of ignoring the woman he loses control and attacks her violently.

It’s not dismissing it to call it kayfabe. Calling it kayfabe accurately describing the approach this administration takes in carrying out its fucked mission. Kayfabe is about manipulating the audience and their reactions. It’s also about maintaining your public image, whether as face or heel.

It 100% is. They’re not real cops enforcing any real immigration laws. They are acting on a stage and provoking an emotional response. And then you’re going to dismiss me because I’m not taking you seriously enough. This is how it works. Being scared is imbuing them w power they can never have.

You’re ignoring the kayfabe foundation of this administration.

Is it hard to be this much of a fucktard?

The Apocolocyntosis was written 2000 years too soon.

Was it really unwitting?

Boooooooooooooooo Disney sucks cox and dix

Until he sent her to boarding school. She has been deeply traumatized in her life. This isn’t to say we should feel bad for her any more than we would any stranger who experienced the same thing. This is to say who these people are and that they have obvious weaknesses that can be exploited.

This is straight out of the NSDAP playbook. It’s an attempt to push those deemed “racially desirable” to unite in an orgy of violence against any perceived enemy, including those on the right that refuse to accept their bloodlust. There will be a night of the long guns soon enough. I weep for us.

It’s through this sort of act, which is itself a betrayal of the highest order (killing your allies and blaming your neighbors), that the accelerationist right will then create partnerships with normie conservatives and push them to commit violence against their perceived enemies.