Two Tweets
The politics of humiliation and gaslighting.
So, I noted this tweet a couple of days ago, but forgot about it:
Feeding RFK, Jr. McDonalds and making him pose for a photo is a power move on Trump’s part. The photo was posted after the following headline had appeared in the NYT: R.F.K. Jr. Scorns Trump’s Fast Food Habit: ‘Really, Like, Bad’ and ‘Poison’.
Here’s the opening paragraph:
What happens when a 78-year-old, Diet Coke-drinking, McDonald’s-consuming president-elect buddies up with an alternative medicine aficionado like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He gets publicly chided for his eating habits.
Oh, no, my road-kill-loving friend! In Trump’s America, Trump chides you!
This reminds me of this photo of Trump and Romney (although the Romney one is high art given Mitt’s expression):
Whether it is pure instinct or fully calculated, Trump will use his power to put you in your place if you want to be in his good graces, even if just a little.
The tweet above connects to the one from Newt Gingrich that I saw yesterday:
This is just pure gaslighting. So, yes, as in the photo above, Trump is indulging in fast food, as he was in this photo:
But, please note, he is eating his quintessential fast food in a private jet. You know, like the normal people.
In Gingrich’s corner is the fact that Trump likes fast food and watches a lot of TV. I would also note that his suits look like he buys them off the rack.
But while it is true he shares those traits with a lot of people, may I note that he lives at a resort, owns multiple homes, flies private jets everywhere, and golfs at golf courses (plural) that he owns.
I am not going to say that Trump doesn’t have a skill set that allows him to relate to certain mass audiences. I likewise suppose that his fast food habits are relatable to many.
Gingrich lays out a quasi-argument (it is mostly assertions) here: The Trump-American Culture vs. the Elite Culture.
I think he touches on some vague legitimate points, although the framing he is missing is one that has been oft-commented upon (and therefore not the unique insight he proclaims it to be): Trump is a populist. One of the magic tricks that successful populists pull off is that they are elites who do a good job of making some segment of the mass public think that they are either one of them or, at least, understand them in ways other elites don’t.
An important element of Trump’s appeal is that his golden decor and reality star turn on The Apprentice gives the masses the idea of wealth and business acumen essential to his brand.
From the piece:
The left’s contempt for sports is even greater than its contempt for McDonald’s. Yet, the market for sports among normal Americans is enormous.
Given the overwhelming popularity of sports in America, this strikes me as an utterly false statement. He does go on to mention wrestling, which I will admit to personally holding in general contempt (which was true, by the way, when I reliably voted Republican), I barely think of it as a sport. I even would guess that most WWE fans lean GOP (same with NASCAR). But just the other day I heard Ezra Klain (noted right-winger!) note his affection for wrestling.
Then there’s this.
Golf is also a constant in President Trump’s life. There are 45 million Americans who golf and an estimated 40 percent of all Americans (135 million) read about it or watch it on TV.
I will confess that if I had to code golf, as a general matter, on the left-right spectrum, I would code it on the right. This is simply because golf is an expensive sport associated with the educated elite, which in the past tended to vote Republican (I mean, “Country Club Republican” is a thing). It is also coded white (and in the past, Christian, as Jews need not apply).
Of course, Harris won college-educated and those with advanced degrees, so I expect a lot of golfers were Harris voters (I might go play 18 this afternoon, in fact). May I note that golf did not seem especially relevant in this election? At a bare minimum, golf is not the Big Mac of sports.
Then there’s this:
Football, and especially the NFL, are enormous draws on television. Sunday Night Football has averaged more than 20 million viewers every Sunday for the last six weeks. There was a classic irony in Saturday Night Live (audience about 5.6 million) giving Vice President Kamala Harris enough coverage that NBC felt constrained to give the same amount of time to President Trump on Sunday Night Football (20 million plus viewers).
The conservative pro-sports culture outdrew the liberal comedy show by nearly 4:1. That is a pretty good yardstick for the relative appeal of the Trump competitive worldview and the shrinking base of the leftwing worldview.
This is just silly. Of course, SNF outdrew SNL. NFL football is the biggest draw on television these days. That that had anything whatsoever to do with politics is absurd. Indeed, a simple googling (it is just so much work!) provides what I figured was the case, NFL fandom is bipartisan.
Via a survey last year:
But all of this just reminds me of what a poor-quality thinker the former Speaker is.
Even if a lot of voters think that Trump is the kind of guy who they would like to have a beer with, joke’s on them, because he doesn’t drink! And how un-American is that?
I’ll buy that RFKJ is not happy about being in close proximity to fast food. I’ll buy that it was a humiliation ploy. But the first time I saw that picture, what I noticed was how Speaker Johnson was hanging around in the background like he sneaked into the shot because he wasn’t invited to eat with the big kids. Maybe they gave him a french fry as a treat afterwards.
As I mentioned when I referred to this picture previously, I was struck by Trump Jr holding the french fry package prominently toward the camera. I think it was a deliberate product placement and think that he got paid for it. I’m loving it!
I like sports despite being a leftist. I love platform diving for instance. I haven’t watched wrestling in a while; is it still barely disguised homoeroticism?
trump does by his suits off -the-rack, reportedly he favors Brioni that start around $6000. But he is an embarrassment to his tailor, the guy appear to be wearing a size 54 regular when he really needs to be in a 48 portly. Like a lot of men, he won’t admit that he’s fat.
Oh, of course Trump was publicly dominating RFK Jr. He has to stomp the people who grovel to him. Where’s the fun otherwise?
The intentional infliction of humiliation is the point.
It’s a miracle, isn’t it, that absolutely no pro Football teams are based in large cities. Or that college football is completely divorced from any university. Praise Jehovah!
BTW, I resent the implication that popular tastes necessarily reflect vulgarity, stupidity, and disdain for health and well being.
@Kathy: Indeed.
@Kathy: And, indeed.
While many people here like to call Trump a moron, and in some ways he probably fits that, what they ignore is that he is a marketing genius. He, along with help from the right wing media and people like Gingrich, have managed to convince half the country that he is one of them, not an elite, a true Christian, that he cares about them, that only he can make things better, that he understands them, etc. The fact that is doesnt work on the other half of us doesnt take away his genius with the other half. If you can convince half of Americans to buy your product you are a marketing genius.
Does that say something about his audience/customers? Sure, but that applies to all of marketing. I am old and male. Market fancy hair products to me and I dont care. Market a new, interesting restaurant near me and I am all in. So a lot of this was people wanting to tell them the stuff Trump tells them. Still, it’s not like other GOP politicians didnt know that but no one else was as successful as Trump. He has leveraged that to build a true cult (of personality). That means that they believe Trump and his acolytes above all else. They simply wont believe any of the numbers above since they have been given the truth from higher sources ie Trump and his designated influencers.
Steve
Yes. I commented on this year’s back in response to a profile of Gingrich I read.
Part of the interview portion took place at a zoo, and Newt expressed his thoughts on humans as primates. Needless to say, it was a mix of surface level knowledge that fell apart just one level deeper, modulated by his view of human nature. In short, the opposite of what a thinker is supposed to do
A reminder that “populism” means drawing a line around some group of people and declaring them to the The People, while those outside that line are UnPeople.
This holds true whether the In/Out divide is Poor/ Rich, or White/Black, Native/Immigrant or whatever.
In this example, Trumpists are all within the boundary separating “Those Comfortable With White Male Patriarchy” and those who don’t.
Trump and some yahoo living in a single wide trailer both hate the same people, so they are affiliated.
@steve: But do they really believe that he is a Christian or one of them? The thing his supporters do buy into is the rage and the hatred. The US is a hellhole because crime is sky high, trans people exist, they have to look at a Pride flag, and it’s all the fault of the libtards. Trump is selling hate and outrage, and people are buying. It’s the same thing that Murdoch sells, all you have to do is look at any issue of the New York Post, everything is the liberals fault, or the black thugs, or the illegal brown people, or the freaky LGBTQ+ people. I think his supporters know he a fake Christian and could care less, as long as he sticks it to the people they hate.
Besides if you call yourself a Christian you have to be a fake Christian to enthusiastically support Trump. I’m Jewish, but I have a feeling that the teachings of Jesus and Donald Trump don’t quite mesh. Likewise, if you are Jewish and claim to have the values espoused by the Torah, you can’t support Trump. He’s broken most of the ten commandments, and continues to break them on a regular basis. Plus, he’s an adulterer, and adulterers are to be stoned according to the Torah.
@Lucysfootball:
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
– David Hannum
There is a certain genius to realizing 54% of American adults cannot read above a 6th grade level and can be snookered accordingly.
Even the anti-elite angle for Trumpism is all about the fascist Us versus Them. But, the division isn’t about Haves and Have Nots. It isn’t wealth or class. It’s about who/what they hate or like.
Fine food versus Big Mac. Highbrow books by Michael Lewis versus regular people books by Newt Gingrich. Woke people versus bigots. Taylor Swift versus Kid Rock. Evil liberals versus Real Americans. Morning Joe versus Fox & Friends.
You can have a private jet and still be one of Us. Who wouldn’t like to have a jet? But, disparage their favorite cheeseburger and you’re an enemy of the people.
ETA: The neat thing about Trumpist anti-elitism is you don’t have raise your level of wealth or move up to a higher class to become an Us like is necessary for standard elitism. You just have to love Trump and hate those he hates. Easy peasy.
@Lucysfootball: Like “conservative”, “Christian” in politics does not mean what you and I and Funk and Wagnalls think it means. Trump was born in the U. S. of nominally Christian parents. Culturally, he is a member of the Christian tribe.
This is Trump’s “Humiliation of Canossa”. He requires all job seekers to come to him on their knees.
I dont think the numbers exist but just from monitoring fiends, family and other sources I would guess that those who believe that Trump is actually a Christian is somewhere between a large minority and a small majority but it has grown from what was initially a small minority. However, amongst evangelicals I would guess that the percentage who believe that Trump was sent to them is probably a large minority.
Steve
Various studies show that today’s WWE fans skew very heavily Democratic.
from the source link to Kevin Drum’s piece:
But what we’re really talking about here is at most, a “fifth-rate person” in Trump. What do fifth-rate, reprobate persons hire?
@steve:
I somewhat disagree with this take. Trump has persuaded about half of the people who voted to vote for him (roughly 22% of the country’s population, but never mind), but that doesn’t mean he’s convinced all those people he’s a true Christian, not an elite, cares about them, etc. If you actually listen to what the people who voted for him say–I’m not talking about the nutcases at his rallies who get interviewed by Jordan Klepper and the like who talk about how Joe Biden is dead and a clone and Trump is the new Messiah, I mean any of the broad swaths of voters who cast a vote for him–you will find that a lot of them are at least partially aware he’s a massive bullshitter. They then go on to come up with a myriad rationalizations why he’s still worth voting for despite those obvious flaws.
Indeed, his being a bullshitter is one of the ways they rationalize it, among those supporters who don’t particularly approve of mass deportations, going after political enemies, being a dictator from Day 1, etc., but who dismiss those statements of his as overheated rhetoric he isn’t likely to put into action. Many successful politicians over the years have built up disparate coalitions by seeming to be all things to all people. Trump’s unique path to that goal is that he’s such an obvious buffoon that people manage to convince themselves they’re onto him to the point they can find him useful–that he’s telling the truth about the things they care about, and lying about all the other stuff. That’s Trump’s true “genius,” if you will, not the ability to get people to accept all his North Korean-style agitprop depicting him as an infallible god-emperor who shits gold–that’s never been more than a tiny slice of the populace–but the ability to get far greater numbers of people with at least some awareness that he’s a slick conman to sign on anyway. When the history of this era is written, it’s ultimately going to be a story of the power of self-deception.
GAETZ HAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE ATTY GENERAL NOMINATION.
@CSK:
In this universe?
I’m surprised.
@Kylopod: Agreed.
@Taylor
What Gingrich really thinks (or is capable of thinking) is cloaked by what he says, as is the case with all his raging culture warrior tribe.
“Professor” Gingrich knows that there is a cognitive rift between what he knows to be true and the words he takes into battle. Which is why his default mode is: project hard, counterpunch, faster, louder, and with volumes of outrage.
Gingrich knows that language is a pliable, facile tool with which to leverage bad, narrow self interests into coercive persuasion. In this he is a master, and a teacher. In this he has had many students.
The whole framing of liberal vs conservative as “elite vs non-elite” is a particularly Gingrich contrivance (although not original). But despite the data not supporting that defamatory gambit, Gingrich and tribe make it work, with excessive helpings of outrage to cover the pretzel part of their logic.
Which is why, when liberals attempt to fight back with more data and reasoned argument, they end up swinging at ghosts, at empty air.
@Kathy:
Not so much “disdain,” (excepting the anti vegan bumperstickers), but perhaps ignorance or apathy regarding healthfulness verses pleasurableness. Our popular culture does a number on our perceptions, even to the point of taking a positive health choice and turning into another schlocky mass marketed gummy-fied trend.
RE: the “Happy Meal” crew photo on board Trump’s totally non-elite corporate jet.
RFJ-Jr has more negative health impact on that tray and in that Coke bottle in front of him, than a typical season’s worth of vaccines.
@Michael Cain:
I don’t know whether that supports or contradicts the left’s contempt for sports.
Pro-wrestling is theater. I don’t think that’s a negative, and there’s a lot of skill in doing this type of very physical acting without hurting anyone.
Is ballet a sport? It’s very athletic, but there’s no competition. On the other hand, it is Applied Gymnastics.
Ballet auditions might be a sport. I think we could get America into ballet auditions. Young, strong, limber and generally attractive people, scantily clad, competing in feats of strength and grace? Seems like a no brainer. I don’t know whether it should be a sport, a “reality” show or a documentary series (an actual show about reality). Has this happened already?
@Rob1:
RFKJr has had a more negative health impact than that tray of fast food and coke.
If you see a picture of Trump not in a suit, it becomes very clear how much work those suits are doing. They don’t “fit” but they do a lot of work. I could see an argument either way as to whether they are poorly sized or very expertly sized.
Similar thoughts with this. I’ve heard him referred to as “a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person is.” Gingrich was relevant before the post-Truth era came about. I think he was doing a lot of proto-Trumpy bullshitting, but in an era when things required a veneer of semi-plausible truthiness. Plus, he has some areas/hobbies where he actually cares and where he is entirely sincere, and it’s almost impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Is it a crackpot view on evolutionary psychology or whatever, or is he just trolling the libs?
Maybe I’m giving him too much credit, but looking backwards from now, I think a lot of the things that made me think he was a very stupid man were part of a bit. Saying things for emotion and texture rather than content.
I still despise him, but I might despise him slightly more.
@Michael Cain: I am a pro-wrestling fan, and I sit pretty firmly on the left side. In the online circles where I talk about wrestling, there are definitely a lot of left-leaning folks as well. There is a lot of support for diversity, gay rights, trans rights, etc. I don’t know anything about the actual demographics to say if a majority of fans lean one way or the other, but it’s definitely not a right-wing monolith.
@Chip Daniels:..some yahoo living in a single wide trailer…
That would be me. Trailer Trash since 1985. Yahoo is one of the more pleasant things that I have been called. When I worked in the landline telephone industry as a contractor for 35 years I was Telephone Trash to the local company employees.
@Rob1: I wrote some long pieces on Gingrich’s brief academic career. I am pretty convinced that while he had some political skills that fit the moment in the mid-90s, he really is a shallow thinker.
The posts are here and here.
@Rob1: “What do fifth-rate, reprobate persons hire?”
Accomplices. And fall guys.
@Gustopher:
I see the point.
Still, I can’t help but think a person with his kind of money should look better.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I’ve read that Trump is too impatient to stand still long enough for a proper fitting.
@Mister Bluster:
I lived and raised my family in a double wide.
It’s my shorthand for rural working class no slight intended.
@Gustopher:
@Rick S:
I wasn’t commenting on pro wrestling particularly, just on Dr Taylor’s guess that WWE and NASCAR fans have similar politics. They don’t. This isn’t surprising when you consider how diverse the contemporary roster is compared to the old days.
The sports thing is funny. I code people by sports fandom all the time. Obviously NASCAR is an easy one. UFC is broader but still pegs you as right leaning. SEC football fan falls under that too. Liking college sports over professional is another red flag. Not liking LeBron. Being overly against the WNBA. Sports are actually really telling as proxies.
@Console: Of course, being a diehard SEC fan correlates heavily with, well, the SE, which ic heavily Republican.
And often liking college sports more than pro correlates with the SEC (and with smaller population states without large enough urban centers to support pro sports, and such states correlate with the GOP).
It is definitely the case here in AL, which is bereft of any pro sports to speak of, that college football is king. But in Texas, I am pretty sure that the NFL is king (but college ball is huge as well).
@wr: Additionally, they hire whoever they can get, leading to the old saying about the problem with being involved in a criminal conspiracy is the people you have to participate with.