So there’s this episode of “30 Rock” where Jack tells Kenneth the Page that he wishes he could see the world through his eyes — and it turns out that the world, through Kenneth’s eyes, is a world in which everyone is a singing puppet. Like on “Sesame Street.”
Now, we all know that we see the world through our own lenses, and we can assume that the world we see is very different from the world that Trumpists see. Though just how different, I admit, was not entirely clear to me until I saw this absolutely batshit pro-Trump AI cartoon that some guy made for Presidents’ Day. It was always going to have to be a cartoon, you see, because the world as they see it does not exist in real life.
The video was made by Joseph Youngbluth, a man who describes himself as an “AI Artist.” and Jason Coursey, whose Twitter profile specifies that USA’s pronouns are USA, which we will certainly respect.
“In honor of Presidents Day,” Youngbluth wrote, introducing the video, “and to support the greatest president of our lifetime, President Donald J. Trump, we are presenting ‘America Lives,’ possibly the first AI-animated video of its kind.” And oh boy, is Team MAGA ever going bananas over it, both because it gives them “hope” and because it shows the world as they see it.
According to the description, “America Lives” is “a patriotic AI-animated video that captures the essence of Donald Trump's vision.”
“The idea of America lives in each of every one of us,” says the narrator in the traditional action movie trailer voiceover voice. “But a storm has gathered at our shores, a tempest that seeks to tear apart the fabric of our nation. It seeks nothing less than the wanton destruction of this great nation of men and women.”
We are then treated to the very fiery visual representation of the world these people think they are currently living in.
It’s got a whole lot of coastal erosion that of course has nothing to do with climate change!
It’s got blue-haired Black Bloc anarchists running through fiery protests!
A self-immolating constitution!
Exploding heterosexuals!
Guys in suits doing a jigsaw puzzle … of doom.
Satanists hanging out in cloaks on a bloody floor — just as voice-over guy says, “they have existed throughout time!”
It’s got scary-looking drag queens that look like more like scary clowns coming for your children! In classrooms where they are taught that Trump is bad, white people are evil and their parents are liars!
A dark scary city with trash everywhere! And trash bins on fire! Because basically everything is on fire all the time.
Art installations downtown!
People being barred from getting on the subway because their “social credit score” is low! (I think?)
Those people from that one “Twilight Zone” episode taking absolute power over everything and probably also planning to force all of the good Americans to get plastic surgery so they can have weird pig faces!
An exploding Capitol!
It, well … it’s a lot!
Don’t worry though, because Donald Trump is here to come to the rescue and stare solemnly at all of our nation’s most famous monuments!
But he can’t do it alone! He needs you to get your 1920s cosplay on and … start hauling some bags out of the ocean?
So, so, so many bags.
And then you have to stand on the bags and plant an American flag on top of them.
And look! The heterosexual couple is not exploding anymore! You saved them! You saved everyone! With all the bag moving!
And then there are fields of wheat!
Fields and fields and fields of wheat! Maybe that’s what was in the bags?
And very few people, because all of the bad non-MAGA people spontaneously combusted as soon as Trump was re-elected.
People are going absolutely wild over this, how it gives them hope for a future in which they will, I guess, haul some heavy bags from the ocean and stand in fields of wheat that will eventually rot due to that 72 percent population reduction that just came out of nowhere (74 million people voted for Trump in the last election and there are 258 million adults over 18 in the US). It’s not clear what else will happen, but there will be bag-hauling and wheat for sure.
“This literally moved me to tears, not just from what we have endured but because there is still hope to Save America. Do not sit idle but stand and fight for America and for President [Trump] 2024,” wrote one.
Others said “Powerful Video. WOW!” or that it gave them “chills and goosebumps.”
This just shows, I think, that as hard as we may try to Lee Strasberg ourselves into knowing what the hell is going on inside these people’s heads (and I do!), it’s never going to be enough. We will never be able to fully grasp what it is they are on about, because the world they live in is based less in reality than one in which we are all singing puppets, and that is that.
OPEN THREAD.
PREVIOUSLY:
Harry cosplaying as Le Chat Noir. I am loving this pic, I used a filter to get that blue glow.
(As always, click on the pic to see it all!)
https://substack.com/@ziggywiggy/note/c-49918891?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knfuc
Seen in Washington Heights today. When walking around, if you look up, you just might see a face looking back at ya!
https://substack.com/@ziggywiggy/note/c-49925320?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knfuc