“Why pro wrestling is the perfect metaphor for
Donald Trump's presidency”
Much of what I quote today is from an editorial by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large on Sun July 2, 2017.
Sadly, it is as true today as it was a year ago this month when it was written.
At the heart of pro wrestling sits this basic fact: It is fake.
It is a scripted television show. Yes, it requires physical ability -- no one who is not in excellent shape could perform some of the falls and bumps these wrestlers do daily. But it is, at heart, a soap opera. Scriptwriters plot character arcs and narrative building. The outcomes are known before the matches begin. The wrestlers are as much actors as they are athletes. (Look to the acting successes of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and John Cena for proof of that fact.)
But, and this is the really important part, not everyone who is a fan of pro wrestling knows this. Lots and lots of people who go to the shows, who buy the t-shirts and who subscribe to the WWE Network believe that this is all real...
This basic divide between fake and real is what Trump capitalizes on, too...They don't get that Trump is playing a role, that he is doing a schtick because he knows there is political gain to be had there…
When this was written, the focus was on the media as public enemy #1 — the cartoon fake villains in Trump’s World Wide Wrestling fantasy fight as reality show, live from the White House.
But the pattern remains the same, regardless of the target du jour.
- IRAN
- The EU
- NORTH KOREA
- MUELLER
- HILLARY w/ or w/out EMAIL
- NATO
- REPORTERS
- CANADA
- HRC/ NANCY PELOSI/ MAXINE WATERS/ ELIZABETH WARREN/ SCARY WOMEN W/ POWER
- PRETEND ENEMY TO SHOUT AT TODAY IN TWEETS
It is all the same fake show, smoke and mirrors, distract by waving a new shiny object to cheer or boo.
Then there is the fact that pro wrestling has long -- and successfully -- played to peoples' stereotypes for eyeballs and audience intensity….McMahon [WWE CEO] grasped early on that playing on peoples' fears and anger was a ratings goldmine.
Booing is a powerful thing. Uniting behind a common enemy has real resonance. That McMahon created cartoon villains -- broad-brush sketches of what made people afraid or upset -- was besides the point. That it worked was the whole point.
Trump traffics in this same sort of approach.
Donnie lies so well to his supporters because he lies so well to himself.
- "I actually, this is more work than my previous life. I thought it would be easier." www.cnn.com/...
- "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." www.cnn.com/…
- "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." www.shortlist.com/…
- 'My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. www.tatler.com/...
There's one crucial difference between what Vince McMahon does and what Donald Trump does, however. McMahon is the CEO of an entertainment company whose lone goal is to make money for that company.
Donald Trump is the president of the United States, whose salary is paid by taxpayers and whose job is to represent a nation of 300 million people stateside and in the world community.
Pro wrestling is fake. Being president isn't. Trump seems not to know or care about that distinction.
How to fight back?
Remember that the opposite of Lies is Truth, but not as fact-telling.
We need to develop our range of stories that tell a greater emotional truth.
The truth of our lives,
the truth of our world as we know it,
the truth of our dreams.
Trying to counter a lie with a fact is like trying to get a catchy tune out of your head by reading out loud from the dictionary.
In the aftermath of the election there was a lot of talk about “empathizing” with the other side, but forget that. The project right now isn’t one-sided, undeserved empathy; it’s understanding people enough to talk to them strategically. And the nature of lies means that to be most effective in this effort, we’re going to have to face an even greater challenge: We must let go of the impulse to tell them that they’ve got their facts wrong—even when they do.
Engaging on the plane of belief, where lies live, means taking a break from trying to prove what’s factually accurate and talking instead about what feels meaningful in the heart…
Figuring out how to counter falsehoods is going to mean assessing how lies benefit the people telling them. Do the things they believe without evidence make them feel safe? Do they make them feel moral? Do these beliefs contribute to a sense of being superior and unassailable? At the one-on-one level, figuring that out is going to help you more than issuing a verbal correction. www.slate.com/...