David S. Moon
@daimoon.bsky.social
1.1K followers 913 following 494 posts
Senior Lecturer in Politics, teaching and writing about politics, ideology and pro-wrestling, with a bit of Wales 🏴 when I can. www.davidsmoon.co.uk
Senior Lecturer in Politics, teaching and writing about politics, ideology and pro-wrestling, with a bit of Wales 🏴 when I can. www.davidsmoon.co.uk
![Another interviewee reflected, “the issue here is that we’re living in a one party state—which is bad for everybody’s health including the Labour Party’s—it means we do have to remind people, anybody Left-of-centre, that there is a role for mutualism…” (Participant 51). In a similar vein, a policy officer with a charity observed “you’re fishing in a small pool, isn’t it?… there’s not much point in courting the other Assembly Members [AMs] [i.e. opposition parties’ AMs]—they won’t get in [i.e. be in a position to form a government]’ (Participant 8). Another said, “you are left with around two dozen Labour [Party] AMs… chances are you’ll be dealing with them for the foreseeable future” (Participant 61). Another policy officer said, “really there is only one show in town, [the] Labour [Party].We’re massively stretched resource-wise, there’s only two of us here… you have to ask yourself ‘can it [engaging opposition parties] be justified?’ ‘Where’s the pay-off’? That’s the challenge we face…” (Participant 23).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:522225phgdd7avbuaenveodf/bafkreibza7yy3kob35b2bsgljlyifpnf74tzisdpgyua7idmfxaybjl7le)
![The Spectacular Violence of Trump
Assassinations, Conspiracy theories, and the Pro-wrestling-ification of US
Politics
David S. Moon
In 2016, Donald Trump became the first WWE Hall of Famer to be elected U.S. President. In
2024, he became the first president to have a professional wrestler attend his inauguration:
WWE Superstar Logan Paul. Accused by the comedian Theo Von of tampering with his chair
during the ceremony after it collapsed, sending him into Paul’s lap (conveniently while Paul
was filming), the YouTuber-turned-wrestler hit back on X: “I’m a WWE Superstar! That’s how
you know it wasn’t me. […] Trust me, if I wanted to hurt you with a steel chair, I would do it!”
Later that evening, Fox News viewers witnessed WWE legend and infamous racist Hulk
Hogan tear his suit apart during the channel’s live coverage of Trump’s post-inauguration ball,
revealing a ‘Trumpamania’ T-shirt.
If this is the new normal, how can we gain a handle on contemporary US politics? As
mainstream approaches to the story of politics fail, we may need to search for answers in
some weird and wonderful places. Two such areas, I propose, are the phenomena of pro-
wrestling and conspiracy theory which, taken in conversation with each other, help expose
the spectacular violence that suffuses Trumpian politics.
Professional wrestling has long been used as a flippant m](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:522225phgdd7avbuaenveodf/bafkreig777tzhk2ipyip7gr5wtyndkoigpxscpzigp7omwffvzrz6tyc4u)
