people think I'm saying "Trump is WWE" or "the wrestlers are MAGA" but what I'm saying is that audience emotion and on-stage performance shaping each other reciprocally captures mass politics in microcosm in a way almost nothing else does - ThreadSky

whstancil.bsky.social • 82 days ago

people think I'm saying "Trump is WWE" or "the wrestlers are MAGA" but what I'm saying is that audience emotion and on-stage performance shaping each other reciprocally captures mass politics in microcosm in a way almost nothing else does

Reposted from Will Stancil

over thanksgiving a family friend gave me an extended guided tour of pro wrestling, a subject to which I had previously dedicated exactly zero minutes of my life, and I have to sort of agree with @owillis.bsky.social that it basically explains all of politics

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edmuir.bsky.social•82 days ago

In grad school, years ago, we joked about a predictive model of international relations based on wrestling plot lines. The USSR was in trouble when one of the Bolsheviks defected. Sgt Slaughter turning from heel drill instructor to American icon in the hostage crisis told you Reagan was coming.

encomium.bsky.social•82 days ago

I don’t get why people misunderstand what you’re saying. Its pretty clear and uses the same performance art sense as reality tv and other media.

guspowers.bsky.social•82 days ago

This has been true for decades. The whole idea of face versus heel and how the audience responds to them. It's not on a "good guy-bad guy" line but instead how they play to the crowd.

chowdster.bsky.social•82 days ago

Yeah, that's always been how I perceived Trump.
It also explains how people can still support him while not defending any of his actions. It's the exact same way you'd justify being a fan of a heel.
"sure he might have kidnapped that woman, but I love his catchphrases!"

rightsofman.bsky.social•81 days ago

Keynes would call this ‘Animal Spirits’.

brentstahl.bsky.social•82 days ago

I've thought the same since 2016.

whstancil.bsky.social•82 days ago

the performance is trying to produce certain crowd reactions, the crowd is reacting to the performance, not always in expected ways, the performance is reshaped in reaction to the crowd, on and on forever. the most successful performances are the ones that get people most excited and most angry

emily-youcis.bsky.social•82 days ago

Put me in a chokehold, Will

empathwriter.bsky.social•82 days ago

Is this nibba the David Attenborough of wrestling now?

empathwriter.bsky.social•82 days ago

lol

whstancil.bsky.social•82 days ago

my friend was telling me about her favorite wrestler, apparently a notorious heel she absolutely loves, and it's like "oh this is precisely, exactly how millions of people feel about donald trump"

outerhalf.bsky.social•81 days ago

In the early'60s the wrestler Kenji Shibuya played the role of the dirty, cheating' jap. After various dastardly acts, and making a fool of the ref, he would apply his signature move, "the Claw" to his supine victim; grabbing a handfull of belly flab and roaring defiantly at the crowd.

forceholy.bsky.social•82 days ago

Wrestling has the same problem as politics where the bad guys look cool, while the good guys are dorky, and are booed.

hueythekingfish.bsky.social•82 days ago

Trump voters are the people who think pro-wrestling is real.

lenoxus.bsky.social•82 days ago

A *lot* of them understand it's fake but also think that conclusion can be extended to practically everything else in the world. Low social trust, in a nutshell

onno.cool•82 days ago

...I gotta ask. was it Roman Reigns

whstancil.bsky.social•82 days ago

no dominik mysterio

whstancil.bsky.social•82 days ago

she's agnostic on roman reigns and annoyed he won the bloodline match, which she thought was a boring result. she loves jey uso very much

owillis.bsky.social•82 days ago

dominik was so bland before he became a heel. then he turned on his dad and started "dating" rhea ripley and the audience HATED him and it was glorious. i stan for roman as well tbh.

onno.cool•82 days ago

GOOD TASTE. he's truly SO good at being a heel, and that is a skill that's hard to cultivate. im still reading oliver willis's post but logan paul also comes to mind as a trump-as-a-heel comparison - piece of shit person, but genuinely extremely compelling as a heel

backbay.bsky.social•81 days ago

It's all Kayfabe man

walmsley.bsky.social•82 days ago

"kayfabe" alone is just an incredibly useful term in a wide variety of different contexts

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•82 days ago

it REALLY really is. And relevant to our interests, two of the biggest such contexts are politics and Posting

owillis.bsky.social•82 days ago

you only have to watch trump at a couple rallies and you see how he reads the audience for what phrases pop just like a wrestler does. its why he was so obsessed with "space force" for a run.

46n2ahead.bsky.social•82 days ago

I saw him even say this explicitly. He said when he saw the red lights on media cameras off he’d say something outrageous and they’d turn the cameras back on.

jlray.bsky.social•82 days ago

this is a really noteworthy line of thinking. there's a crew of wrestling fans on my block and even though most are Dems they clearly know Trump from this world "back in the day" and think fondly on his appearances

organicbarb.bsky.social•82 days ago

I thought Trump was hot for Space Force because Putin wanted it. I believe he talked about it in Helsinki.

owillis.bsky.social•82 days ago

he was into it cause he got a huge audience pop every time he said it and then they made it into tshirts, just like a wrestler does.

organicbarb.bsky.social•79 days ago

Or in his case, like a suspect does with a mugshot

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