5 ms·

This is a side-effect of politicians as celebrities and influencers, not as serious people. I won't win any friends by saying this, but it didn’t start with Tr

This is a side-effect of politicians as celebrities and influencers, not as serious people. I won't win any friends by saying this, but it didn’t start with Trump, who obviously fits the bill as a celebrity parlaying his popular image into a presidency. Obama was also more of a celebrity than a president - lapping up the fawning adoration of their “closest friends” at his 50th - who somehow didn’t include all the people that made him president, but instead Jay Z and Beyoncé. Even regular congresspeople now seem more worried about what’s happening on Twitter and hobnobbing at fancy parties than the job of lawmaking. Someone should tell them the vast majority of their supporters are not on Twitter at all.

Overton-Window 5y ago
It's the side-effect of politicians being chosen for legitimacy (identity), not competency. > The reason for this sudden silence is that in the year 2021, the cream of American society and the flower of its finest universities, can only understand the world as projections of the country’s own domestic neuroses. Our current elites, whether in media or politics, squint at the strange peoples and languages of whatever international conflict and only see who or what they can map to their internal gallery of heroes and villains: Who’s the PoC? Who’s the Nazi?
version_five 5y ago
Yeah I saw Trump basically as a product of the shift of politics to a celebrity reality show, not the reason for it. This has a clear lineage going back at least to OJ.
- delecti 5y ago
  Bill Clinton's saxophone playing was a joke in a children's show in the 90s [0], and Reagan was a governor and president [1]. I think the lineage goes back a fair bit further than OJ. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA0TS9l_nJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA0TS9l_nJE [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38et6ecNRO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38et6ecNRO4

Overton-Window 5y ago

It's the side-effect of politicians being chosen for legitimacy (identity), not competency. > The reason for this sudden silence is that in the year 2021, the cream of American society and the flower of its finest universities, can only understand the world as projections of the country’s own domestic neuroses. Our current elites, whether in media or politics, squint at the strange peoples and languages of whatever international conflict and only see who or what they can map to their internal gallery of heroes and villains: Who’s the PoC? Who’s the Nazi?

version_five 5y ago

Yeah I saw Trump basically as a product of the shift of politics to a celebrity reality show, not the reason for it. This has a clear lineage going back at least to OJ.

delecti 5y ago
Bill Clinton's saxophone playing was a joke in a children's show in the 90s [0], and Reagan was a governor and president [1]. I think the lineage goes back a fair bit further than OJ. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA0TS9l_nJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA0TS9l_nJE [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38et6ecNRO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38et6ecNRO4