The First Rule of Migrant Fight Club is . . .*
Sadly, we have, as has the media, become conditioned to Trump saying crazy shit. Maybe it’s because crazy shit is all he has to say. Stable genius that he is, any “thought” that enters his brain is brilliant and must be shared. It will be shared. No filter exists between his brain and his mouth. As George Conway’s recently launched Anti-Psychopath PAC reminds us, “Trump is f**cking insane.”
You may recall Trump recently bragged about another of his brilliant ideas, an epiphany, really. Aren’t they all? He suggested to his dear friend Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), that White should create a migrant league of ultimate fighters. The UFC champion could take on the champion of the migrants. Maybe preliminary rounds could serve as entertainment in Border Town’s migrant detention camps as millions of these animals from shithole countries who are poisoning the blood of Americans await mass deportation. Two men enter, one man leaves.
Thursday night, UFC’s Dana White had the distinct honor of introducing Trump at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Melania must not have been available to introduce her husband. That, or her speechwriter couldn’t decide whom to plagiarize. White’s introduction of Trump was after Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt in his trademarked fashion to the screaming fans, helping create the maniacal mood necessary for a 90-minute rambling, incoherent acceptance speech to make sense. I’m guessing a high percentage of attendees believe WWE is a real, competitive sport, just like they believe Trump is Jesus Christ incarnate, their own personal savior, which is confusing since so many people died for Trump’s sins. How The Culture Of The WWE Took Over US Politics.
Xochitl Gonzalez of The Atlantic explained: “‘Dana,’ Trump said he suggested, ‘why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters, and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants?’ This anecdote was in addition to his usual routine: claiming, erroneously, that migrants are violent, mentally ill criminals, while riling up his crowds with talk of mass deportations.
“White confirmed that Trump had floated this idea, but assured everyone that it was meant as ‘a joke.’ If you don’t think it’s funny, a Trump-campaign spokesperson suggested, it’s probably because you’re one of those ‘elitists’ who ‘are the same people who stupidly think combat sports is human cockfighting, showing their ignorance to the sweet science of mixed martial arts.’
“I am, admittedly, not an expert in the ‘sweet science’ of MMA, but I do know my nation’s history, and I have, like many high-school graduates in America, read Invisible Man. Trump’s comments immediately conjured up the battle royal at the beginning of Ralph Ellison’s classic — Black boys are being paid to box each other blindfolded for the amusement of drunken white spectators in the Jim Crow South.
“Invisible Man was a work of fiction, but the battle royal was drawn from reality. After emancipation, white audiences who resented the end of slavery would organize fights between Black men — a racial segregated blood sport for entertainment.
“Like most Trumpian strokes of rhetorical genius — including ‘Make America great again’ and the notion that migrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ — this idea of a migrant cage match is scandalous (or sticky, depending on your POV) not because it is original, but because it is familiar. Once again, Trump has reached into the back closet of history and dragged out one of our ugliest and most hateful conceits.
“Trump has long considered race battles to be good entertainment. The Migrant Championship is just an upcycled version of his idea for a ‘Black versus white’ season of The Apprentice. He told Howard Stern in 2005 that the Black team would include light- and dark-skinned Black people, but the white team would be ‘all blondes.’ ‘It would be the highest-rated show on television,’ he claimed. . . .”
Trump and the ‘Champion of the Migrants’ (emphasis added).
If you are a fan of the book or the movie, you will remember that Tyler Durden’s Fight Club, which had achieved nationwide reach, appropriately changed its name to Project Mayhem as the organization committed acts of vandalism meant to disrupt the social order. See Interpretations of Fight Club. Sounds like something Steve Bannon, or a thoroughly corrupt Supreme Court, could get behind.
George Conway explains the public service his Anti-Psychopath PAC is now set to provide:
“Anti-Psychopath PAC was started for one reason — to remind voters that Donald Trump is f**cking insane.
“A convicted felon, a proven rapist, and an anti-democratic nutjob with dictatorial ambitions should be nowhere near the White House.
“Anti-Psychopath PAC will continuously highlight Donald Trump’s psychological derangement and bring it to the main stage. ‘Sociopath’ and ‘narcissist’ aren’t just buzzwords — Trump’s pathological lying, authoritarian tendencies, and his disregard for democratic norms will destroy our country if he gets reelected. He’s that dangerous.
“Trump’s behavior isn’t just unusual, it’s deeply disturbing and harmful. Whether he’s ranting about sharks or cozying up to dictators, Trump’s actions are those of a man who cares only about himself, not about the country or its people. We can’t ignore his mental health issues any longer.
“The media has often shied away from discussing Trump’s state of mind, but that ends now. It’s time to break the silence and confront the truth: Donald Trump is utterly unfit for office, and understanding his psychology is the key to stopping him.”
The first rule of migrant fight club is not to be fooled by the insane rants of a hateful, bigoted, psychopathic conman.
R.VanWagoner https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner publishes. https://richardvanwagoner.medium.com/subscribe
*My brother the very talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner. Rob’s second novel, a beautifully written suspense drama that takes place in Utah, Wyoming, and Norway, dropped on November 17, 2020. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Bookstore and your favorite local bookshop, this novel, The Contortionists, which Rob himself narrates for the audio version, is a psychological page-turner about a missing child in a predominantly Mormon community. I have read the novel and listened to the audio version twice. It is a literary masterpiece. The Contortionists is not, however, for the faint of heart.