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| The Violent Trump Video Is Dumb, and That’s the Point | The Violent Trump Video Is Dumb, and That’s the Point |
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| A good rule of thumb for politics in 2019 is that everything is both far darker and far more ridiculous than our imaginations can ever predict. | A good rule of thumb for politics in 2019 is that everything is both far darker and far more ridiculous than our imaginations can ever predict. |
| Such is the case with a pro-Trump video reported Sunday evening by The Times. The clip is an edited version of a climactic, hyperviolent scene from the 2014 action film “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” in which the protagonist kills nearly 40 people in roughly three minutes while the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” plays. In the clip, President Trump’s face is crudely edited on top of the protagonist’s during the spree, which involves guns, hand-to-hand combat and, at one point, a blowtorch; his victims’ faces have been replaced with the faces of politicians, journalists, entertainers and the logos of media organizations. Then, the fake president shoots in the head a person whose face has been replaced by the Black Lives Matter logo. | Such is the case with a pro-Trump video reported Sunday evening by The Times. The clip is an edited version of a climactic, hyperviolent scene from the 2014 action film “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” in which the protagonist kills nearly 40 people in roughly three minutes while the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” plays. In the clip, President Trump’s face is crudely edited on top of the protagonist’s during the spree, which involves guns, hand-to-hand combat and, at one point, a blowtorch; his victims’ faces have been replaced with the faces of politicians, journalists, entertainers and the logos of media organizations. Then, the fake president shoots in the head a person whose face has been replaced by the Black Lives Matter logo. |
| The video was shown at a three-day conference at Mr. Trump’s Doral resort in Miami, hosted by the pro-Trump organization American Priority. The conference denounced the video as “unauthorized,” and a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign said the president knew nothing about it. The White House press secretary tweeted on Monday that the president hadn’t seen the video but that he “strongly condemns” it based on its description. | The video was shown at a three-day conference at Mr. Trump’s Doral resort in Miami, hosted by the pro-Trump organization American Priority. The conference denounced the video as “unauthorized,” and a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign said the president knew nothing about it. The White House press secretary tweeted on Monday that the president hadn’t seen the video but that he “strongly condemns” it based on its description. |
| Still, the video is jarring, both for its content and for the political climate it has been dropped into. In 2019, there have been at least 21 deadly mass shootings in the United States — some in places of worship, like April’s synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif. Fifty-three people died in mass shootings in August alone. The violence has prompted some Democrats, like the presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, to call for assault weapons bans, while some Republicans have suggested that such bans would lead to “a lot of violence.” Two weeks ago, Mr. Trump tweeted a warning from a pastor arguing that “a Civil War like fracture in this Nation” might occur should Mr. Trump be removed from office. | Still, the video is jarring, both for its content and for the political climate it has been dropped into. In 2019, there have been at least 21 deadly mass shootings in the United States — some in places of worship, like April’s synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif. Fifty-three people died in mass shootings in August alone. The violence has prompted some Democrats, like the presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, to call for assault weapons bans, while some Republicans have suggested that such bans would lead to “a lot of violence.” Two weeks ago, Mr. Trump tweeted a warning from a pastor arguing that “a Civil War like fracture in this Nation” might occur should Mr. Trump be removed from office. |
| It’s this context that makes a video of a faux Mr. Trump murdering what the real Mr. Trump likes to call “the enemy of the people” seem not just in poor taste but actually threatening. | It’s this context that makes a video of a faux Mr. Trump murdering what the real Mr. Trump likes to call “the enemy of the people” seem not just in poor taste but actually threatening. |
| The video clip derives from a pro-Trump meme in which the president’s face is superimposed on popular movies, cartoons and sports clips. Most of the memes in this vein are slapsticky in their humor but center on the incendiary and hyperpartisan themes of Mr. Trump’s politics. They’re meant to be trivial pieces of online ephemera that signal the president’s righteousness over the “libs.” CarpeDonktum, a stay-at-home dad from Kansas who popularized this style of pro-Trump meme and who has received multiple invitations to meet President Trump at the White House, described these memes to me as “boomer humor,” aimed at aging, hyperaggressive political posters on Facebook. | The video clip derives from a pro-Trump meme in which the president’s face is superimposed on popular movies, cartoons and sports clips. Most of the memes in this vein are slapsticky in their humor but center on the incendiary and hyperpartisan themes of Mr. Trump’s politics. They’re meant to be trivial pieces of online ephemera that signal the president’s righteousness over the “libs.” CarpeDonktum, a stay-at-home dad from Kansas who popularized this style of pro-Trump meme and who has received multiple invitations to meet President Trump at the White House, described these memes to me as “boomer humor,” aimed at aging, hyperaggressive political posters on Facebook. |
| In other words, these memes are empty-headed hyperpartisan sharebait — grist for the algorithmic mills. And the rudimentary composition of these clips is a feature, not a bug. That the memes look childish provides a veneer of acceptability — so that they can be shared without getting pulled from social networks. The memes’ creators and sharers can giddily watch the president dispatching his enemies while claiming the video is just a funny gag. When confronted, they can throw hands up in the air and cry, “Snowflake!” In their version of reality, the uproar over this video is more proof that overly sensitive liberals are “triggered.” | In other words, these memes are empty-headed hyperpartisan sharebait — grist for the algorithmic mills. And the rudimentary composition of these clips is a feature, not a bug. That the memes look childish provides a veneer of acceptability — so that they can be shared without getting pulled from social networks. The memes’ creators and sharers can giddily watch the president dispatching his enemies while claiming the video is just a funny gag. When confronted, they can throw hands up in the air and cry, “Snowflake!” In their version of reality, the uproar over this video is more proof that overly sensitive liberals are “triggered.” |
| [As technology advances, will it continue to blur the lines between public and private? Sign up for Charlie Warzel’s limited-run newsletter to explore what’s at stake and what you can do about it.] | [As technology advances, will it continue to blur the lines between public and private? Sign up for Charlie Warzel’s limited-run newsletter to explore what’s at stake and what you can do about it.] |
| Indeed, MAGAland began relentlessly mocking the Times report on the video within minutes of its publishing. “23 paragraphs, about a meme lol. Yikes this is psychotic,” someone wrote on Twitter. “These types of articles is why the meme was made,” another replied. | Indeed, MAGAland began relentlessly mocking the Times report on the video within minutes of its publishing. “23 paragraphs, about a meme lol. Yikes this is psychotic,” someone wrote on Twitter. “These types of articles is why the meme was made,” another replied. |
| Though quick to yell “triggered,” the Trump-Media Industrial Complex frequently claims that the left is trying to incite violence. In 2017, right-wing media protested a performance of “Julius Caesar” in which the title character is played by a Trump doppelgänger and is assassinated via a violent stabbing; it was portrayed by Trump supporters as a dog whistle for an attempt on the president’s life. Similarly, in 2017 a tasteless photo shoot of the comedian Kathy Griffin holding Mr. Trump’s severed head led to a right-wing campaign suggesting that “CNN Is ISIS.” (Ms. Griffin, who had for years co-hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve programming, was a victim in the Trump meme video.) And this year, after outrage from the president himself, Universal Pictures canceled the release of the satirical film “The Hunt” after the film’s trailer made it appear as if elites were hunting rural Republicans. We’re all triggered, it seems. | Though quick to yell “triggered,” the Trump-Media Industrial Complex frequently claims that the left is trying to incite violence. In 2017, right-wing media protested a performance of “Julius Caesar” in which the title character is played by a Trump doppelgänger and is assassinated via a violent stabbing; it was portrayed by Trump supporters as a dog whistle for an attempt on the president’s life. Similarly, in 2017 a tasteless photo shoot of the comedian Kathy Griffin holding Mr. Trump’s severed head led to a right-wing campaign suggesting that “CNN Is ISIS.” (Ms. Griffin, who had for years co-hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve programming, was a victim in the Trump meme video.) And this year, after outrage from the president himself, Universal Pictures canceled the release of the satirical film “The Hunt” after the film’s trailer made it appear as if elites were hunting rural Republicans. We’re all triggered, it seems. |
| All of this leaves journalists in a difficult place. Taking the meme video seriously does the unfortunate work of amplifying the clip, increasing view counts and potentially ad revenue from it. Responding to the trollish world of MAGA memes is a lot like arguing with children. To engage at all is, in some way, to lose; no matter how righteous and warranted your outrage is, you’re pulled down to their level. So much of Sunday’s meme controversy is breathtakingly dumb: It’s a childish video based on a second-tier action movie that played on a loop in a Miami conference room as part of a “hall of memes” exhibition. Given all of today’s high-stakes political issues — an impeachment inquiry, chaos in the Middle East, censorship in China — it seems in some ways that the video belongs in a different universe. | |
| But the grim reality is that the video does belong in this universe — the same universe where political tensions and polarization have left us all living on edge and tweeting about civil war. And the universe where the conspiratorial hate we see online is increasingly leaking out into the physical world. Maybe it shouldn’t be the case that a hastily assembled meme would conjure images of the Florida man who was arrested for sending pipe bombs to at least a dozen perceived critics of President Trump or the neo-Nazi sympathizer who opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 worshipers. But it is the case. Because this is the world we live in. | But the grim reality is that the video does belong in this universe — the same universe where political tensions and polarization have left us all living on edge and tweeting about civil war. And the universe where the conspiratorial hate we see online is increasingly leaking out into the physical world. Maybe it shouldn’t be the case that a hastily assembled meme would conjure images of the Florida man who was arrested for sending pipe bombs to at least a dozen perceived critics of President Trump or the neo-Nazi sympathizer who opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 worshipers. But it is the case. Because this is the world we live in. |
| Which is probably why an alarmed conference attendee last week alerted The Times to the existence of the video via an intermediary. The Venn diagram of playful social media fandoms, toxic online message board culture and mainstream politics looks more like a lone circle every day. Loath as one may be to admit it, memes — even the inane ones — do matter in 2019. And sure, we’re “triggered.” But we have good reason to be. | Which is probably why an alarmed conference attendee last week alerted The Times to the existence of the video via an intermediary. The Venn diagram of playful social media fandoms, toxic online message board culture and mainstream politics looks more like a lone circle every day. Loath as one may be to admit it, memes — even the inane ones — do matter in 2019. And sure, we’re “triggered.” But we have good reason to be. |
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