A Night of Dominance and Submission

Read this to understand the psychology behind Trump's UFC cage fight. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

🎁🔗: The Theory That Explains Trump’s UFC Fight www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

I watched the UFC fights last night and I can promise you this is the only piece that brought Roland Barthes into the Octagon.

Not a single one of these seven fights was even won on points. They all resulted in one man’s rage and another man’s pain and humiliation. That was the whole story—the only one that mattered to the 80-year-old man taking it all in from the edge of the ring. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Disgusting images seen by people around the world who now believe this is who we are. Is it?

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The Theory That Explains Trump’s UFC Fight 🐔🌮🍊🤡 By staging a “spectacle of excess” on the White House lawn, the president expressed the violent essence of his worldview 🧵🪡🧶 A thread, 1/2 www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

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For his 80th birthday, Donald Trump threw America a UFC fight—and one particular book can help you understand how this "spectacle of excess" expresses Trump's worldview, @GalBeckerman writes: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Free article: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Good analysis www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

By staging a mixed-martial-arts melee on the White House lawn, the president expressed the essence of his worldview.

Worth the time to read and consider.

This is the fascist aesthetic of the 21st century, which is not so very different from that of the last century - hard Aryan male bodies in combat for dominance. Chilling. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

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Only The Traitor. “No previous American leader could plausibly have presided over the scene of a tattooed Brazilian fighter in a black cowboy hat and Lycra shorts running out of the White House, saluted by honor guards…” www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

"He had built an Octagon on the lawn in part, surely, to troll his opponents, as he so often does, but what I saw in the fighting itself...was an affirmative expression of Trump’s favorite kind of storyline: dominance and submission." www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

GOOD ANALYSIS.... TO THE BREAD AND CIRCUS NIGHT. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

🤮🤮🤮 No previous American leader could plausibly have presided over the scene of a tattooed Brazilian fighter in a black cowboy hat and Lycra shorts running out of the White House, saluted by honor guards, with the intent of pulverizing another human being.🤮🤮🤮 www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

The French Theory That Explains the UFC Fight www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

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