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Before the scripted nature of professional wrestling became widely known, the term “kayfabe” was used as a code among industry insiders to discuss matters in public without revealing the staged nature of their discipline. It was also used as a warning to other wrestlers that someone who was not “in the know” was in the vicinity; this could even include wrestlers’ family members who had not been clued into the scripted nature of professional wrestling.
A “kayfabe interview” for example meant the person being interviewed remained “in character”; when speaking of a “kayfabe girlfriend”, it implied she wasn’t actually romantically involved. A person could also be said to be “kayfabing” someone, by presenting storylines and rivalries as real.
Indeed the scripted nature of professional wrestling was unknown to most for a long time; the first public acknowledgment of its staged nature came in 1989 when WWF owner Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey State Senate that wrestling was not a competitive sport. And indeed until as late as the mid-1990s those in the industry believed it was a secret that must be protected at all costs.
A fascinating aspect is that, even after the scripted nature of that discipline became an open secret, most fans refused to acknowledge it. To this day, most enthusiasts suspend disbelief, and feel, act and react as if the whole thing was real.
The heroes of the wrestling theater are called faces (short for “babyfaces”); their personalities are crafted to elicit the support from the audience through traits such as humility, patriotism, determination, etc. Faces usually win their matches on the basis of their technical skills and are sometimes portrayed as underdogs to enhance the story. On the other side of the dialectic, so-called “heels” are villainous or antagonistic characters, whose personalities are crafted to elicit a negative response from the audience; they typically embrace traditionally negative traits such as narcissism, egomania, unprompted rage, sadism, and general bitterness, and employ underhanded tactics such as cheating and exploiting technicalities.
Despite the archetypal character settings, different crowds may still react differently. It is known for example that older male fans tend to cheer for heels and boo faces, while children and female fans tend to stay on the cheer-for-faces-boo-for-heels sentiment. Again, the most fascinating aspect is these emotions of support or disdain are 100% real, as if the whole thing wasn’t scripted.
In professional wrestling, storylines are typically played out beyond the matches themselves; for example, if a wrestler appears on a show after a “brutal” attack they would “sell” the injury by limping or having their arm heavily bandaged in-between matches. Real-life deaths were sometimes even scripted into the narrative where promoters would come up with a kayfabe reason to work the event into the storyline.
Where are we going with all this? After all, this isn’t a website about professional wrestling.
Kayfabe And The News
Our contention is that kayfabe is not limited to the world of wrestling. Actually, that is an undisputed fact, as “reality TV” is known by now to be as fake as any other piece of TV fiction. What we are saying is that the same dynamics, the same principles, the same understanding, the same archetypes, and the same underlying psychological tools are used in what is commonly called “the news” and what is generally referred to as “politics”.
The world is a stage. Nearly everything on TV or “in the news”, whether acclaimed or criticized, is fake and/or scripted.
The most fascinating aspect is the extent to which people are capable of suspending disbelief and ignoring evidence contradicting the theatrical narrative being presented; indeed, actual knowledge may even be ignored. This was highlighted in the case of wrestling, or can be observed by noticing how concerned some people may become with reality TV or “celebrity gossip news”. It can also be observed when showing a movie or cartoon to a child; you may tell and remind the child it’s fiction, you may even announce the ending and try reassuring him that Lex Luthor won’t prevail so there’s no reason to worry; still, he will actually worry when the kryptonite is around superman’s neck and his hero is about to drown. He has not developed the ability to reason himself into adopting the necessary distance.
A perfect example of a kayfabe character in modern US politics is Donald Trump. The fact that a NYC socialite and billionaire, casino owner and reality TV star, über-Zionist and apparatchik, is widely considered an “outsider” is an amazing thing to behold.
The 2016 election was merely the prologue. The absurd “Russia collusion”, “Mueller investigation”, “impeachment trial”, etc. were all part of the same theater. Whether Trump is the “heel” and Soros is the “face”, or whether it’s the other way around, doesn’t matter. It’s all a script. It’s fake. Each one is playing a role, catering to a different demographic. The sad thing is most people who voted for Trump were (and still are) very well-intended; their righteousness, their legitimate sense of revolt against the “deep State” was used against them. Much like anti-war activists, righteously disgusted by the 2003 Iraq war, were led to support Obama, and kept supporting him even after he revealed himself to be a worse war monger than his predecessor.
The kayfabe can also be observed in the ever-shifting media-directed outrage. It’s akin to Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate. Every week the “enemy” changes, and we forget everything of the previous one. Gun owners. Anti-vaxxers. Muslims. Immigrants. China. Covidiots. Blacks. Racists. Trump. Rapists. Back to gun owners. Anti-vaxxers again. Karens. Liberals. Boomers. Christians. Feminisists. Conservatives. Different demographics have different enemies, but the common denominator is that the outrage is ever-shifting, and channeled towards fluctuating categories, away from the occult oligarchy controlling the money and acting behind the scenes.
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.
Orwell’s 1984.