Reality always trumps fake in the end
A dog is barking viciously at another dog on the other side of the gate. Once the gate is opened and the two dogs have no constraints between them, they turn into sweet little puppies and wag their tails. Does anyone remember these viral dog videos? Keep this in mind until the end of this post.
Everything is easy in the fantasy world. But I never understood what people like so much about World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The appeal is that people can do and think whatever they want for a short amount of time, and nothing matters because it's all fake.
Fighters act like they are the toughest in the world but are not real fighters. People get off in this fantasy show where, for a few hours, they can forget about their life; then it is over.
What would happen if you put a WWE entertainer to fight with a real-life heavy world champion? It was probably done, but the chances are not good for the WWE fighter. Some WWE fighters perhaps have the potential to be real fighters, but we don’t know because they lie too much; in fact, lying and outrageous things are what people come to see.
Kids play fight, and to a point, WWE is kids' play, taking into adulthood. Humans love reenactments. They love re-enactments of battles from the past; there are many in Europe. We love that with movies. Remember Rocky Horror Picture Show. People used to go to the theaters and reenact the film in real-time. Reality sucks because you have to work, and it hurts sometimes. People want an escape.
Enter Donald Trump, a WWE host who took his entertainment skills to another level - politics. He realized he could arouse any crowd using WWE production values. He makes bold claims, threatens other people, and claims he is the baddest and the biggest. And it worked.
“I can go down and shoot somebody on 5th Avenue if I want.” “Lock her up.” “Get him out of here!” These are well-recognized WWE-style accolades that no one takes seriously during a WWE show. But Trump, with his inventive entertainer mind, took to the world stage and sold it as reality. And it worked, boy, did it work.
The first ones to dive in were the mass mainstream media, starting with FOX News, but is that a surprise? No. But the liberal media feasted on it just as well. Comedians feasted on, but why? Because it sells. I wonder if we could estimate how many dollars came in from writing material about Trump. I can’t say I’m innocent since I wrote dozens of pieces like this. We are all guilty of making this make belive world of Donald Trump a reality.
But this monstrously pathologic tumor, media aberration, has a price. It festered for so long that it metastasized the entire nation, and the bill, when it comes, will be incalculable. Who will pay? All of us will.
The crowd cheered when he said he would deport 11 million immigrants. They cheered when he said he would impose 100% tariffs on everything. The list of insults and absolute insanity moved the crowds simply because they were outrageous and impossible, just like in a WWE show. No one really believes that he will do what he said he would. Once the Donnie show is over, they go home and forget about what he said – because it was a game, it’s all a play. But Donnie is serious this time. And people don't realize the cost of what Trump is proposing. They think it is all free or the other people must sacrifice. Not me.
Little Hanny Panny said: who wants bread? And a resounding unison was heard: Yes! Everyone wants bread. OK, now, who wants to plant the wheat seeds? Who wants to harvest the grains? Who wants to mill the wheat? Who wants to make the dough? Who wants to bake the bread? And there was a resounding silence in the room. No one wanted to do any of that.
Likewise, the gross, in-your-face insults vomited by Donald Trump were readily liked by all because no one saw it in real terms and with real costs. He offered to go beyond the boundaries and put his tyrannical accolades into action. He promised only he could do it.
His sales pitch was so believed no one opposed it. We dared to go beyond the pale and to do what no one dared to, and the crowds went insane, and they voted for him in droves, giving him a "mandate." But the mandate is based on a false assumption. That WWE production values are to be taken as truths.
His success was so extraordinary that he warded off all the opposition, removed any obstacles to his promises, and convinced himself that the lies were real. Just like a guy who couldn’t play a note on his guitar yet convinced a packed stadium he was a rock star. Now, there is silence in the crowd as everyone waits for his first song to be performed. "Do you know where this is going?"
Now, there is no one separating the two angry dogs. No one is there to keep one guy from getting into a fight with the other. Everyone wants to see blood. No one in Congress will oppose his draconian moves because they are no longer there. He is unhinged and will now have to deliver on his promises.
Americans will finally discover what they voted for because the guy on the steering wheel is insane, and he doesn't care if his insane acts hurt everyone. The true character of America will be put to the test. The reaction, or lack thereof, will determine the future and send America on a very different path.
How much are people willing to sacrifice to see a joke become reality just for fun when they are no longer having fun? How much are people willing to pay? Are they willing to spend money to fix a machine that isn’t broken after all?
What will business owners do when they come to deport their employees who have worked for years and are excellent workers?
"Jose has been working for our company for twenty years, and he is an exemplary employee; there’s no way you’re going to deport him.”
“And hell no, I don’t want my flat-screen TV to cost three thousand dollars more than it already does. Let the Chinese pay for it. Can we stop this nonsense?”
At some point, everything breaks down; at the end of the day, it is all business as usual. If you jump off a building, you’ll fall to your death. And no matter what DJT said in his rallies, nothing will change this physical law. When the rubber meets the road, we will see what sticks and what doesn’t. Only when people are required to sacrifice for a cause will we see if that was a real cause. Americans will be surprised when they finally see what they must pay to fix a machine that was not broken, or at least it wasn't as broken as they thought. "This is not going to end up well for Trump."
Comments