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I have a general political theory on the current Democratic Party that no matter what gift Trump gives them they will find a way to mess it up.
ICE has had a lot of bad vibes lately. Enter the Bad Bunny Super Bowl show. I had never heard of him before Trumps rants on the Bad Bunny being in the Super Bowl. I don’t know if he was picked by the wokes or simply the NFL trying to find away to grow the game outside the US.
I think a general view of the center-left is to be nice to immigrants (empathy) even if they are closer to economic migrants than asylum/desperate. This feels like a cooking the frog too fast type moment where the message seems to be we will replace your culture and you will like it moment. The Super Bowl to me is perhaps the American Holiday most linked to Americana and they did the event completely in Spanish. The performance was trashy with some sort of sugar plantation theme (which were never in America and most of Spanish-Speaking Americans are not sugar plantation culture).
My hope is that this has gone too far and even my liberal mother will have an issue with explicit replacement.
sugar plantation sex
I was also starting to consider Americans thoughts on what is generally referred to as LATAM which is basically anything south of the Rio Grande. Most Americans probably group them into one group even though they are distinct economically and in their ethnic makeup. I don’t think the other south of the border types would be happy with their presentation when we could have found other groups with positive cultural traits if the goal was marketing to LATAM. Maybe I am missing a group but when I think of south of the border I think there are a few broad groups.
If the NFL goal is to grow the game I don’t see how highlighting sugar cane field sex would be viewed as a good way to reach out. Groups from these regions only have significant presence in Miami and Puerto Rico within US territories. From what I can tell southern cone twitter hates the performance.
After viewing the performance I will rate it worse than my fears. Politically I will rate it as good for my side in the category of the wokes always find a way to ruin electoral chances for the Democrats.
Edit: Empire which America is should never degrade itself especially on the big stages. It’s actually one reason the stupid amount of money we spent on the new Fed I can understand. When Milei comes to Washington (any Leader) and signs some currency swap the building he meets with Bessent or Powell needs to loudly say Empire. In Dunk and Egg show the bad Targaryen gets it right the dragon never dies even in a puppet show. The Super Bowl is one of those stages for the US.
Not everything is culture war material.
NFL ownership leans Republican. They aren't culture warring against Trump. The choice of Superbowl performer is a maximally capitalistic decision meant to increase viewership. And looks like it worked. Bad Bunny garnered the highest viewership, is generating conversation the day after and caters to an audience that might not have usually tuned in for the game.
The Superbowl halftime show has never cared for Americana, as can be seen from the last 10 Superbowl performers. It's a well known strategy too. Never pander to a captured audience. What are middle-Americans going to do ? Not watch the NFL ? Ofc not. You see this happen everywhere. European football is now trying to cater non-Europeans because Europeans are a captive audience. The locals hate it, but they won't vote with their feet. They can't.
Bad Bunny isn't some DEI choice. He was the #1 streamed artist for 5 of the last 7 years. If anything, he had to wait a lot longer than the other top artists to land a Superbowl performance.
2026 is when you decide to be mad about the values portrayed by the artist ?
Here are the last 5 performers:
So yeah, idk what you are complaining about. The half time show has always been about spectacle and popular music. Turns out, pop music is about sex & drama because people want sex and drama. For Bad bunny, his performance was about sex and drama, but with a Puerto Rican twist. In line with with people have come to expect from the Superbowl.
The US mastered capitalism, and the Superbowl is its biggest performance. It represents allegiance to market forces and to the over-commercialized sellout culture it creates. In that sense, Bad Bunny is a worthy representative for what the Superbowl half-time show represents.
Do you believe that the personal is not political?
What sort of Republican? Trump has been fighting a bitter civil war within the Republican party since the 2016 primaries, and that numerous establishment Republicans have explicitly sided with Blue Tribe in opposition to him. "But these people are Republicans" is a line that's been abused for a full decade now. Sure, this person who is voting Democrat and wants me to vote democrat and agrees with the Democrats on all major issues and has nothing for scorn for me is a "republican" because he used to be high-up in the party that took my money and gave me nothing for decades. Obviously he wants to resume that occupation, and obviously democrats would prefer that my choices are to vote for them or for someone who bends the knee every time but who they still get to call names. I have zero incentive to play along with this farce.
"The only thing stronger than hate is love" is a slogan popular among people who take pleasure from publicly contemplating the violent death of my children. I do not believe anyone is actually confused about what is going on here. Some people, even here, simply find it convenient in the moment to pretend.
Republicans as in the majority which voted Trump into power in 2024.
That majority consists of Hispanics, disgruntled centrists, pro-business capitalists, single issue Christians, conspiracy theorists and white nationalists. Most NFL owners fall into the 'pro-business capitalists' category.
Trump-2 won the election by using the standard populist playbook of big gestures, saying little and letting the opposition self-destruct (which the democrats did splendidly). The spectacle meant there was little discussion about Trump-2 being bankrolled by an unfamiliar type of Republican. In the process, the Donroe wing (you can call them white nationalists, isolationists, iconoclasts, I don't have a clean phrase, so Donroe wing it is) took control of the White house.
Now, I believe that the Donroe wing has little public support. The polls agree with me. If the aforementioned big-tent knew that electing Trump to power meant Donroe policy-making, they might not have voted for him. In contrast, the Donroe minority acts as if their are endorsed by the entire big-tent. They aren't. In fact, I believe the opinions of the Donroe wing are repulsive to many in the big-tent.
The Donroe wing complains - "Everyone in the media hates us". It's not just the media, everyone outside their small group does hate them. It isn't propaganda, it is a reflection of reality. Republicans did not vote the Donroe wing into power. They voted for Trump2 - return of Trump 1. The Donroe wing seems to hate everything about America that doesn't fit into their limited definition of America. So the rest of America reacts accordingly. It started with hating on the excesses of woke culture. It has quickly slippery-sloped into hating on everyone who doesn't agree with them. Fuck all LGBTs. Fuck all non-Heritage Americans. Fuck all academics. Fuck all American allies. It sounds more like - "We won, we deserve this power, and you will bow to us or else we will end you."
Problem is, this is a Democracy. Arrogant over-extension gets punished. Now, there is a clear way for them to grow their power to be inline with their ego, ie. the midterms. But, The midterms giveth, and the midterms taketh away. By Nov, citizens will have had 2 full years of mask-off Donroe.
If my belief is correct, November will be a washout and Trump will become a lame-duck. If I'm wrong, Trump will retain a triple majority and I'll seriously reevaluate my impression of the US. Either ways, there is a convenient date where the rubber meets the road.
Personally, I'm glad they're going mask off. The incompetent Dems will need all the help they can get for these midterms.
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