this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Progressive Politics

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[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I've been saying for years and years that the whole American political system is WWF theater. It's all scripted to catch the attention spans of people who only care about seeing "bad guys versus good guys" and it's been wildly effective. It was somewhat cathartic to see this idea take off in the mainstream and people like John Stewart calling it out now.

Too bad it's too late now. We could have used better representation and actual leaders who care about people about 30 years ago. Instead we have pathetic actors shit-talking for the camera and voting on bills with their investment portfolios.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nah, even wrestling has more than two factions

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

And the actors are often human behind the mask. Sometimes even likable!

Plus the athleticism of the performances is, you know; something.

Edit: and they die young from injuries a lot. Not so much a plus fir the wrestlers, but...

[–] piefood@feddit.online 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If there was only one single thing that I could teach everyone about politics, it would be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe

I feel like our political system would be so much better if everyone understood how most of it is a show, instead of a competition.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

A lot of people really don't like accepting just how "hollow" the public view of politics really is, and this has been exploited to a disastrous degree. Populism drives democracy but populism is a liquid, you can make groups of people believe almost anything if delivered in a particular tone, atmosphere and with the right selective lenses. The more money you can afford to pump into a narrative, the higher the production value and the stronger the feelings will be, and the more malleable the population.

It's all going to get a lot worse with technology now isolating everyone frome very other perspective, and things like AI now being used to target people on an individual basis, feeding everyone's "i'm special" internal narratives and isolating them like an abusive partner.

Shit's fucked yo.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 4 days ago

what a coincidence WWE and UFC heads are shilling for trump.