Trump and Eminem and Giving No Fucks
Everyone — including me — misunderstood Trump.
I chalked his political nihilism up to his natural instinct as a charlatan and fraud. Others thought he was a not-so-secret fascist. Still others thought that he was a secret Clinton plant. (That one might still be true… cue X-Files theme…)
But Trump’s popularity is actually pretty simple to understand: he’s a living, breathing GIVES NO FUCKS meme.
The Beltway is built upon the fundamental truth that people should care about politics — the policies, the horse-race, the intrigue, all of it. And they’re correct to some extent: if you care about anything, it makes sense that it should be things like taxes and who controls the nukes. But lost in this is the fact that the self-annointed political class treats politics as if it’s a game to be won. This is exactly what you get from most media coverage: politics as fantasy sports.
Trump doesn’t give a fuck about fantasy sports. Trump doesn’t even give a fuck about real sports (cf: USFL). Trump gives a fuck about Trump. And in that respect, he’s the most human and relatable person in American politics in generations. Because let’s be honest with ourselves: most people are selfish assholes. Some people try to get around it and volunteer or donate to charity, but we all make sure everyone knows how generous we’ve been, don’t we?
Trump confounds the self-annointed political class because he doesn’t care about policies, or political philosophy, or even the tribalist party system. Trump cares about Trump.
With his strong alpha male overtures (that often cross the line into blatant sexism), his superficial markers of success (read: money), and nonchalant vulgarity, he’s the personification of Bro Culture. His supporters don’t think they’re racists (y’know, except the ones who are openly white supremacists), they’re just reactionaries — in a very literal sense of the word. They’re reacting to the world by shedding pretense and embracing their guttural instincts.
Trump is the Id of America.
And he shares that honor with another polarizing but very popular figure: Eminem.
Back in the late 1990s, hip hop was stale and manufactured. After Tupac and Biggie were taken from us and Wu-Tang decided to stop making great albums, the market flooded with forgettably boring commercial albums. Then came Eminem. He was something different, something taboo: a white guy rapping…authentically? Wait, did he just rap about raping women? But he’s so talented, I can’t stop listening…
It wasn’t even fair — nobody was in Eminem’s way and so with his “crossover appeal” he became the number one rapper almost overnight. Sure his lyrics were sexist and he used taboo language — that’s exactly why he was so popular. And Eminem knew it:
I’m like a head trip to listen to
’Cause I’m only giving you, things you joke about with your friends
Inside your living room
The only difference is I got the balls to say it in front of y’all
And I don’t gotta be false or sugar coat it at all
Music was stale and boring. When Eminem broke the fourth wall of the music industry, the audience loved him for it. Politics is stale and boring. Trump has broken the fourth wall of politics and the political class hates him for it. And that only makes him more popular.
You know why?
Because Trump and his supporters give no fucks.
