Kayfabe Nation
What do a pudgy, orange autocrat, and pumped-up men in tights have in common? The connections, while profound, all rest on specific strategies employed by World Wrestling Entertainment during the early 2000s (known as WWE’s “Attitude Era”) when Donald Trump was centrally involved with the promotion...
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| Formato: | Online |
| Lenguaje: | inglés |
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punctum books
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | ONIX_20260415T184307_9781685713133_11 |
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| _version_ | 1869517677208272896 |
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| author | Hebert, Neal Jon Cogburn |
| author_browse | Hebert, Neal Jon Cogburn |
| author_facet | Hebert, Neal Jon Cogburn |
| author_sort | Hebert, Neal |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | What do a pudgy, orange autocrat, and pumped-up men in tights have in common? The connections, while profound, all rest on specific strategies employed by World Wrestling Entertainment during the early 2000s (known as WWE’s “Attitude Era”) when Donald Trump was centrally involved with the promotion of WWE. These are: (1) universally breaking kayfabe, the code of people in the industry not to reveal or admit fakery; (2) Vince McMahon (WWE’s CEO at that time) playing a fictional version of himself as someone constantly humiliated in storylines; (3) the vicious affirmation of traditional gender roles through parables of male domination; and (4) telling stories that encourage viewers to ignore the actual material conditions of WWE “superstars” in favor of conspiratorial fictions involving powerful individual actors. In Kayfabe Nation: Professional Wrestling, Donald Trump, and the New Cynicism, Hebert and Cogburn present a trenchant analysis of Attitude Era WWE, showing the extent to which MAGA is just is a function, or symptom, of Trump’s internalization of WWE’s most objectionable tropes. Neal Hebert and Jon Cogburn’s goal is not to use WWE merely to understand Trumpism and the related autocratic turn in countries as diverse as El-Sisi’s Egypt, Putin’s Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, Modi’s India, Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Orbán’s Hungary, Netanyahu’s Israel, and of course Trump’s own America. Beyond that, Kayfabe Nation is a defense of truth against the lie that culminates in the widespread adoption of self-defeating conspiracy theories among the constituency of the right, as well as against the idea, popular in corrupted center-left parties across the planet that political success comes down to adopting better rhetorical strategies, strategies that exist in part to cover over their abandonment of New Deal and socialist ideologies where the material conditions of their constituencies would actually improve. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-175849 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | punctum books |
| publisherStr | punctum books |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1758492026-04-20T09:12:52Z Kayfabe Nation Hebert, Neal Jon Cogburn WWE Vince McMahon Donald J. Trump Political theory Wrestling MAGA Autocracy Rhetorics Conspiracy theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPF Political ideologies and movements::JPFQ Far-right political ideologies and movements thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPH Political structure and processes::JPHX Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship thema EDItEUR::S Sports and Active outdoor recreation::SR Combat sports and self-defence::SRC Wrestling thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPQ Central / national / federal government What do a pudgy, orange autocrat, and pumped-up men in tights have in common? The connections, while profound, all rest on specific strategies employed by World Wrestling Entertainment during the early 2000s (known as WWE’s “Attitude Era”) when Donald Trump was centrally involved with the promotion of WWE. These are: (1) universally breaking kayfabe, the code of people in the industry not to reveal or admit fakery; (2) Vince McMahon (WWE’s CEO at that time) playing a fictional version of himself as someone constantly humiliated in storylines; (3) the vicious affirmation of traditional gender roles through parables of male domination; and (4) telling stories that encourage viewers to ignore the actual material conditions of WWE “superstars” in favor of conspiratorial fictions involving powerful individual actors. In Kayfabe Nation: Professional Wrestling, Donald Trump, and the New Cynicism, Hebert and Cogburn present a trenchant analysis of Attitude Era WWE, showing the extent to which MAGA is just is a function, or symptom, of Trump’s internalization of WWE’s most objectionable tropes. Neal Hebert and Jon Cogburn’s goal is not to use WWE merely to understand Trumpism and the related autocratic turn in countries as diverse as El-Sisi’s Egypt, Putin’s Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, Modi’s India, Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Orbán’s Hungary, Netanyahu’s Israel, and of course Trump’s own America. Beyond that, Kayfabe Nation is a defense of truth against the lie that culminates in the widespread adoption of self-defeating conspiracy theories among the constituency of the right, as well as against the idea, popular in corrupted center-left parties across the planet that political success comes down to adopting better rhetorical strategies, strategies that exist in part to cover over their abandonment of New Deal and socialist ideologies where the material conditions of their constituencies would actually improve. 2026-04-20T09:12:51Z 2026-04-20T09:12:51Z 2026-04-16T13:44:38Z 2026 book ONIX_20260415T184307_9781685713133_11 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112594 9781685713133 9781685713126 9781685713140 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/175849 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112594/1/9781685713133.pdf punctum books punctum books 10.53288/0563.1.00 10.53288/0563.1.00 12970da4-0116-4486-b8be-fc9756703ab1 9781685713133 9781685713126 9781685713140 punctum books 264 Earth, Milky Way open access |
| spellingShingle | WWE Vince McMahon Donald J. Trump Political theory Wrestling MAGA Autocracy Rhetorics Conspiracy theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPF Political ideologies and movements::JPFQ Far-right political ideologies and movements thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPH Political structure and processes::JPHX Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship thema EDItEUR::S Sports and Active outdoor recreation::SR Combat sports and self-defence::SRC Wrestling thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPQ Central / national / federal government Hebert, Neal Jon Cogburn Kayfabe Nation |
| title | Kayfabe Nation |
| title_full | Kayfabe Nation |
| title_fullStr | Kayfabe Nation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Kayfabe Nation |
| title_short | Kayfabe Nation |
| title_sort | kayfabe nation |
| topic | WWE Vince McMahon Donald J. Trump Political theory Wrestling MAGA Autocracy Rhetorics Conspiracy theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPF Political ideologies and movements::JPFQ Far-right political ideologies and movements thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPH Political structure and processes::JPHX Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship thema EDItEUR::S Sports and Active outdoor recreation::SR Combat sports and self-defence::SRC Wrestling thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPQ Central / national / federal government |
| topic_facet | WWE Vince McMahon Donald J. Trump Political theory Wrestling MAGA Autocracy Rhetorics Conspiracy theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPF Political ideologies and movements::JPFQ Far-right political ideologies and movements thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPH Political structure and processes::JPHX Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship thema EDItEUR::S Sports and Active outdoor recreation::SR Combat sports and self-defence::SRC Wrestling thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPQ Central / national / federal government |
| url | ONIX_20260415T184307_9781685713133_11 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hebertneal kayfabenation AT joncogburn kayfabenation |