I found somebody that adhered to a far-right political philosophy to make a point, not to "equate him" with the far-left politician that Einbert is spamming quotes from. I think you know that. If it makes you more comfortable, you can insert Barry Goldwater or some other extreme conservative; the point will still stand.

Most of this forum is constantly advocating socialist policies? Really? The forum that had been infested for close to a decade by people clamoring for Anarcho-Capitalism and Ron Paul? The forum that had more people supporting Clinton than Sanders? I do not think so. You have four or five very loud posters that repeatedly post for single-payer healthcare, but that does not mean that most of this forum is in favor of anything too radical.

lol at universal healthcare being radical. This is why our country is so ****ed.

With Dibs gone, as this forum's most vocal proponent of the notion that huge amounts of the American political zeitgeist is actually allegorical to professional wrestling, complete with heel/babyface storylines, the importance of kayfabe, the way promotions evolve to keep the audience coming back -- I just want to take some credit for being years ahead of the curb on this. In fact I drastically underestimated how apparent this would become. That literally all you would need to do to understand the most powerful person in the world and his administration is watch maybe 10 hours of professional wrestling and you would understand literally all you needed to know about how motivated him and how he and the people who voted him into power see the world and how its dynamics operate. It's astounding.

Billions of words have been written by political scientists, commenters, pundits, former government officials and other educated and learned people about contemporary American politics. I'm not saying that is all worthless but I would argue you get a far, far better education with $10 and an internet connection to the WWE Network and a few days to binge watch.

If einbert where president of the US, and if 2+2 had a reach like trump's twitter feed, and if he was posting non-subtle endorsements of violence against the press, then yeah, I'd be upset and try to shout him down. Even then, I might try to make some effort to argue why his posts are bad... like that the POTUS violating the 1st amendment of the US Constitution is harmful to the republic or something.

Sort-of related to the wrestling thing, but did anybody see that wrestler in something called the Appalachian Mountain league called "The Progressive Liberal"? He wears Hillary Clinton spandex and says things like:

"I hope Trump doesn't build a wall around Mexico. Instead I hope he builds it around this town so you people can't infiltrate the population."

Pretty clever idea for a wrestling villain.

WAPO link

I have been on this forum for a year and have seen only a handful of AC and libertarian posters, and they are usually objects of ridicule for the forum regulars, DVaut, Fly, zikzak, et al. Rough estimate, but I would say over 3/4 of the regulars here support single payer, high min wage, extensive paid maternity/paternity leave, and other socialistic policies.

QFFT

It's a good gimmick. His best line (that I saw) was that he wanted to take away their guns with bullets and replace them with bullet points of knowledge. That's a deep ****ing cut right there, gotta give the guy credit. The joke is obviously on the liberals here and it's sort of just close enough to how real liberals talk but just over the top enough to be art that the act is pretty good.

As always with wrestling, the line between kayfabe (the scripted parts) and the real actors is blurry. The guy says he's actually pretty liberal and came up with the character after being upset when Trump won. I said this before in the LC thread but he's almost not pouring it on thick enough. I mean you give me or some of the better, wittier guys like say FlyWf money and time to insult a bunch of white dudes from Kentucky and Tennessee and I'm sure we could generate some real heat.

Highly, highly doubt any Goldwater Republicans would be eating bans for that mere fact.

the strangest thing about the wrestling tweet is that there's no way trump can attach a gif or surfs whatever grim parts of the internet it comes from (he's too busy watching cable tv). this is some of his team driving it

I'm a white guy from Kentucky, and I will help write material for the liberal wrestling guy for free.

The Progressive Liberal wrestling gimmick is absolutely hilarious but will become much less so when somebody shoots him.

The amateur wrestling historian will tell you that this is actually not a new gimmick, and Jim Cornette's whole gimmick or at least one of his go-to schemes (he's one a manager, not a wrestler) was to bring in a northern wrestler into a southern territory and have them call the locals hicks and morons and hillbillies. In fact Jim Cornette is more or less the original "white liberal from Kentucky gets heat by berating southern political sensibilities" although it probably goes back to the start of the industry at carnivals and fairs or whatever.

And then related to getting shot, remember these guys often consider it a 'victory' or good for business to generate that much emotion. Speaking of Cornette, he proudly tells stories on YouTube and podcasts and stuff about how he would get in the ring and cut an interview, and you knew you were doing it well when the audience would try to leap into the ring or throw trash at you or you'd have to be escorted home by bodyguards or whatever because you riled up the locals so much. Obviously no one wants to REALLY get hurt but bear in mind the whole industry is basically trolling and getting people triggered, emotional and angry -- that is how you sell tickets. A lot like politics. You get the locals furious and angry over a few shows so they get to watch the payoff when the local babyface hero character or All-American character guy finally shows up and beats you up or gives you a chair shot or whatever. Remember the wrestling audience doesn't want to watch two random idiots fight, they want to foist their own personal narratives into the ring and watch retributive (pretend) violence heaped on their enemies: foreigners, liberals, cheater wrestlers, whatever.

Any chance that Trump knows how to imbed a gif into his twitter feed? It's amazing to contemplate staffers assisting him with creating chokeslam twitter posts.

I hear Barron is good at the cyber

Wrestlers have berated audiences for being hicks since the early days of wrestling, although they more often touted their wealth and success rather than geography. Ric Flair, The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, Chris Jericho, Ravishing Rick Rude, and Bobby Heenan all come to mind.

Also, related:



Nothing here is that incisive but if you want to hear a guy rant about dumb white people for 15 minutes, it might feel cathartic.

Anyway, pair up Cornette with the Liberal Progressive wrestler guy and tour the south.

I couldn't find an example of berating the audience in Shakespeare, but I'm pretty sure there are some in there. Iirc Charles the wrestler was a humble nice guy character, so probably not from him.

progressive liberal wrestling spiel from 1983

There was this WWE character in the 80s/90s, The Genius, who used to troll the audience or the good guys with poetry. I think sometimes he recited Shakespeare but I'm pretty confident the poems were supposed to be written by himself, and over the top/terrible but maybe he did Shakespeare. But yes, you are correct, it's an old wrestling trope/character: the egghead/nerd who calls the audience dumb.

Also, esoteric trivia: the guy playing that character is the Macho Man's brother. SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM

Bwahah go back to lurking dog.

First, my main point is just that I shouldn't have to wade through posts and posts of that BS in this thread.

I'm all for debating the merits of various proposals and social constructs. I strongly support universal health care. I'm even in the minority of people that have experienced both 'good' US employer backed healthcare and basic universal provincial healthcare. There are definite pros and cons to each - but I'm a strong believer that universal health care is the way to go. I just don't think this thread needs to be the place to have that debate (or to just tar everyone that is right of 'nobody should ever make any money in providing healthcare').

Also, I'd be a little disappointed if the response to Trump is more meaningless gibberish - just now swung way too far to the left. Sure, it's better than staying where we are now but far from the ideal society we want (imo). Again though, probably a debate for another thread.

He had another gimmick prior to being the genius, IIRC. That dude cracked me up when I was like 7 or 8 years old.

It was Leapin' Lanny Poffo.

aka Leaping Lanny Poffo.

Bobman is the only one capable of pulling off Smart Guy Centrism, you other dudes need to have a seat in the back.