A thorough analysis on today´s political elections in the USA.

1. The Politics of Entertainment
Who is the first candidateyou think of when I mention 2016
presidentialdebates? This is an essay in which I will compile information
from varioussourcesto try to explain in 3 simple categories the reasons
for Donald Trumps’success this year and predictif he will become the
next President.
1) Mediaand Distraction
Nowadays weare so saturated with information, wecrave distraction.
Internet and media have offered usthe greatest distractions of them all,
from cartoons to reality TV to anythingavailable on the web. The
presidentialdebates are no exception and mustcompete for attention.
“Americansdon’t wantto read or hear that they are underpaid,
overworked, bullied atwork, in the home, when servingtheir country in
foreign lands. They want glamorousstories, scandals, exceptional events,
newsthey can build dreamson, or develop asense of anger from, in short,
they want to be entertained” accordingto French philosopher Francois
Debrix. This is the concept of Tabloid Realism: politics structured around
easy headlines and common sensedialogue.
In general, peoplehave two main reactions to the mention of Donald
Trump: they either admireor hate him. Regardless of whether you hate or
admirehim, you are entertained by him, and moreso than with any other
candidate.
We are primed to lovedistractions and entertainment, which is why we
follow the most entertaining candidate. It doesn’t matter whether or not
all Muslimsare terrorists, or whether or not all Mexicans are rapistsand
druglords. To the media, and to Trump, what matters is that you watch
the debate and believe it to be true. It’s a more distractive narrative.
We wantto believe these lies are the truth and, as 8-BIT PHILOSOPHY
on Youtubeputs it, “we would rather vote for someonewho embodiesthe

2. reality we wantto be believe than a person who actually reflects the
reality of politics.”
We live in a society in which what wewant is moreimportantthan
reality, and today’spolitics are certainly no exception. Politics have
become a game show in which candidatescompete for social approval,
and the White Houseis the prize. The presidentialdebates are no more
than a reality TV show.
2) Rise of a Reality TV Star
The presidentialdebates act as a game show, but how did Trump rise to
the top? What are the tactics of reality TV stars? This is explained in The
Film Theorists video: Trump isWinningwith Reality TV.
First, let’s find the parallels between Reality TV and the debates. “Both
are contests with a cast of characters who have cameras rollingon them
all the time” as weare told in the formerly mentioned video.
Out of all the candidates, Trump seemsto be most aware of the camera
and uses social media the most. He is awareof the publicand provides
entertainmentfor them in morewaysthan one, usingthe Internet to
attract more attention to himself. He is creating a clear persona. This is
the first step to his success.
Some of the first examplesof Reality TV stars wethink of (Jonny
Fairplay from Survivor, Puck from The Real World, Omarosafrom The
Apprentice)can be classified as villains. It’s easier to draw attention to
yourself by getting peopleto hate you than to do so by getting peopleto
like you.
Trump has been doingthis from the start. He is easy to classify and
knowshow to draw attention to himself. Peoplewait for his speech, either
to criticize or to admirehim.
The second step is to stick to a message. With so many cameras rolling
for so long, there is a lot of footage that will be eliminated. The best way

3. to get good coverage is to make it brief, direct and honest to your true
feelings or morals.
Trump wantsto win and doesn’t keep this a secret. In fact, he states it a
lot. He does not wantto befriend the other candidates; he wants to beat
them and is constantly offendingthem. His message is simple and
comprised mostly of onesyllable wordslike “win”, “tough”, “great”. Even
his slogan can easily be read by a kid.
The third step is to “bring the drama”. Trump isunpredictableand this
makes for exiting television. The audience, regardlessof hatred or
admiration towardshim, wantsto know what he’ll do next. He brings the
heat to anyoneand everyone. He’sstarted so many fights it would be
stupid of producersto notgive him so muchairtime. Dramameans
entertainment. Entertainmentmeansa bigger audience. A bigger
audiencemeansmore money goingto the show.
And the finalstep is to stay one step ahead of your opponents. Trump
knowshow to read his opponentsand disguisehis strategy by “breaking
the game”. He challenges rules we all just assumed werein place. For
example, Trump wasable to stay ahead of his competitorsthrough a
single event in January: Sara Palin’ssurpriseendorsement. Althoughthe
sheer mention of her name drumsup emotion withmost voters, it draws
attention to Trump.
Another exampleof this is when, two daysbefore January’sfinaldebate,
Trump decided to start his own rally and skipped the debate. Trump
knew that, after insultingthe other candidatesso much, they would surely
take the offenseand stayed onestep ahead of them by not showing up.
This also allowed Trump to gain muchmore freepublicity. A presidential
candidateskippinga debate may be unheard of, but it drawseven more
attention to him.
Donald Trump isacting as a Reality TV star, leadinghis voters with a
promiseof entertainmentand staying ahead of his opponentswith hatred
and xenophobia.
Trump and Xenophobia

4. It comes as no surprisewhen I say Trump is xenophobic. Time and time
again he has said racist and offendingstereotypesto be true. Butwhy
does this grant him morevoters? The answer may be simpler than it
seems.
It all boils down to the social anthropological principleof out-group
homogeneity bias. Don’tget scarred of the complicated name, it’s simpler
than it seems. It’s basically the tendency to believe that peoplefrom an
outsidegroup are moresimilar than the peoplein your in-group.
We generalizeand stereotype groupsof peoplewe are not familiar with.
Butwhy do we do this? Weare all a complexmix of likes, dislikes, fears
experiences and beliefs and it’s hard to identify one’sself with who we
are, so we identify ourselveswith who we’re not. By saying things like
“That’s not me”, or “I would never be like that” we are identifying
ourselveswith who we aren’t.
We don’ttake the time to understand other peopleor cultures. Why?
Becausewe search for efficiency. Our brainstend to oversimplify complex
situations by usingwhat are known as “heuristics”.
Heuristics are simple rulesthat help the brain deal with difficult
situations when it doesn’thave enough information to decide. For
example, the stereotype that Muslimsareterrorists. There are millionsof
Muslimswho aren’t terrorists and millions of terrorists who aren’t
Muslim. Yet, many peoplebelieve otherwise based on the availability
heuristic.
The availability heuristic is a rulewhere the brain makes a judgment
based on the examples that come to mind. For example, ask yourself if
there are morewordsthat start with the letter ‘k’ or wordsthat have the
letter ‘k’ as the third letter. Mostpeoplewill answer that there are more
wordsthat start with the letter ‘k’ because those wordscometo mind,
even though, in reality, there are morewordsthat have the letter ‘k’ as the
third letter. Likewise, we tend to judgeMuslimsbased on the Muslims
that first come to mind: those wesee on the news.

5. Trump usesheuristics, a natural, subconsciouspartof the way we
humansthink, to convinceus of his cause. After all, it is much easier to
hate someonethan to fully understand them.
3) Willhe Win?
Surprisingly, his chances of becoming Presidentaren’t as high as we
might have thought (even if they are quite high).
Remember what I said about Trump usingthe tactics of a Reality TV
star? Although those tactics will makestars, they rarely make winners. All
of the examplesof popular Reality TV stars I mentioned got relatively
famous, butnoneof them won.
Trump is an early tribe leader who got pretty famous, but now his tribe
is trying to bring him down beforeit’s too late. In this case, the tribe
would be the Republican Establishment. Political endorsementhas been
growingfor the other candidates, but endorsementfor Trump isfew and
far between.
Republican leaders fear that Trump isan embarrassment. His decision
to skip the debate madeit clear that he might notbe ready to
compromise, that he won’t take the time to get to know a specific group of
peopleenoughto help in times of crisis.
Trump is starting to feel the effects of the Republican Establishment
backlash. After leading the polesfor most of the months leading to the
Iowa caucus, he finished second, receivingwell below the percentage of
votes he was predicted to get.
Trump is still in the lead but if the parallelbetween him and Reality TV
stars are any indication, he might be able to stay ahead of the game and
become a star, but nota winner. This only time can tell.

6. Conclusion
Using the techniques of Reality TV stars, Trump has become the
personification of a reality most Americanswantto believe. By distracting
uswith scandalousdialogue, he has reached peak popularity this year and
is preparingto become the next President. He uses heuristics to gain
voters, promotingxenophobia and hatred. However, things may not go in
his favor, for his tactics only provehow unreliable he is when it comes to
compromise, thus limiting his chances of workingin the White House.
Whether or not he winsis now in the hands of the voters and only time
can tell what will happen.
Big Thanks to Youtubechannels Wisecrack
(https://www.youtube.com/user/thugnotes)and TheGame Theorists
(https://www.youtube.com/user/MatthewPatrick13)from whichmost
of my information is from and thanks to the New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com)for extra information presentin this article.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/opinion/sunday/addicted-to-
distraction.html?_r=0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlptgqP_PEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6PcQ1Be5ak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8St9oOnkGU
article by Sophie R. H. Jepsen