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How a Table-Top Role Playing Game Made Me Understand Trump
“Reality is that which, even when you stop believing it, doesn’t go away.” — Philip K. Dick
“I have a theory that all social science can be explained by Table Top Role Playing Games and Russian literature.” — Henry Castaigne
I came up with a rather unique theory about TDS after playing the Rokugan Table Top RPG. (TTRPG for short.) The world of Rokugan is based on ancient Japan. You usually play samurai warrior in this game. However, if you want to, you can avoid playing a mighty warrior, a tricky ninja, or a mystic magic user and instead wield the cruelest and most terrifying power of all, political favoritism. There is a class called a Courtier where you requisition peasants and resources from your lord instead of perfecting your sword strike or your ninjutsu. In fact, some people play the entire game, just sitting in the imperial court trying to manipulate the head lord to their side.
This ultra-political class is based on a kind of courtesy present in the more decadent and corrupt parts of feudal Japan. Basically, if you had the right breeding, the right way of talking, and went to the right schools, you had access to insane political power. What is interesting in this game is that there are about as many mechanics for lying/persuading people in the court as there are for either spells or combat. In fact, saying and acting the exact right way is quite important. Cursing or discussing a taboo or failing to bow the right way can get the player into serious trouble.
Sadly there is some historical basis for this emphasis. Rich, fancy, and connected people can don the garments of angels and saints like blood-drinking fox kami. There are entire classes of the politically connected elite who do nothing but say pretty things to rich people to get stuff. Entire subcultures of rich folks ‘evolved’ into this. Not brave enough to cut down foreign pirates and not intelligent enough to become a scholar, they focus on honeying their language to semi-inbred high nobles.
Now Henry, “You enjoyable and wordy nerd, you. This is all somewhat fascinating but how in the heck does this relate to modern America TDS?” The answer is simple, my fellow Ricochetti. Trump refuses to speak in the ruling class dialect and he doesn’t even try.
When Emperor Hirohito had to publicly renounce his godhood to the Japanese people, many non-elite Japanese had a hard time understanding his classical pronunciation.
His Japanese dialect was quite different from regular Japanese.
The current American ruling class is obsessed with the exact correct use of language. You can’t say China-virus and you need to know the exact pronouns towards whatever gender construct was made yesterday.
Then Trump comes along with his big New York accent; his funny hair; his golden yuge-sized ego; and his genuine love for the lifestyles and values of middle America. He is like a Crab clan Samurai with a funny northern accent talking about making money and drinking low-class tea with the peasants. (The crab clan are slightly larger members of Rokugan who are known for being uncouth but practical. They also love building large things to protect the borders of Rokugan.)
Above all, it is Trump’s unpleasantness of speech that so infuriates the NTers. Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, JPod, David French, Sam Harris, Steve Pinker, William F. Buckley the younger, Charles Cook, and Kevin D. Williamson all make money from how good they are at words. I like most of what they write, heck I even quoted an article from Kevin D. Williamson a few paragraphs ago.
As for the political elites, the John McCain, Liz Cheney, and Bill Kristol types. Trump is simply an outsider who doesn’t have the right to rule. This makes his unpleasant language all the worse. Trump will never read as much as Victor Davis Hanson and he will never write with VDH’s clear and compelling prose so VDH doesn’t need to feel threatened. However, political and media mediocrities have every right to feel threatened.
Think of what propelled him to popularity. He spoke about trade imbalances, the poverty and hopelessness of the rust-belt, and illegal immigration. What all these positions had in common was that they were favored by the elite and talking about them was taboo. Trump promoted the opposite positions of the elite and defended them in a rude way.
If you don’t believe me, look at how the MSM treated George Dubya vs. Barack Obama. Obama often didn’t say anything of importance but he looked good and he said the pretty words that make you a good person. He was popular in the Noble Court. The policies on the little people outside L.A., New York, D.C., and all the other elite enclaves didn’t matter all that much. They are just little people after all, practically peasants.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I like pretty words. I like elegant speeches and a mellifluous voice, references to the Bible and Russian Literature, and old Dr. Bastiat posts. However, that’s not the same as actual good governance. With good governance, you actually have to make policies and follow through with those policies through various forms of action. The more abstract a society becomes the more it becomes disconnected from actual physical necessities that sustain it.
Trump may have avoided war and brought prosperity to the US. But for people who feed their families with language and feelings, what’s in it for them? That would be like governing Rokugan for the benefit of peasants. Only a Crab Clan merchant would preach such utter foolishness.
I have felt that Trump’s lack of eloquence hurt him. After the outrageous conduct of the FBI came out after the Mueller report, he just kept repeating: they spied on my campaign, instead of clearly laying out how damaging the FBI’s conduct was to the Republic. He had a golden opportunity to do this during the debate, when the media couldn’t censor him, but he couldn’t do it. During the pandemic, we needed a Churchill to steady everyone, but he really can’t put two words together. So you may be on to something here…
“Trump refuses to speak in the ruling class dialect and he doesn’t even try”…I believe that is what David Mamet was getting at when he said Trump doesn’t speak in ‘hieratic language’ and that this is the source both of much of his appeal and of much of the hostility toward him. See my post about Credentialed Snobbery and Student Loan Forgiveness (a few posts down) for related thoughts.
That said, I do think there are many cases where Trumps’ communication could have been much more effective. Trump is a creative and intuitive thinker, he often sees things that others do not (or at least sees them sooner than others do), but he is not good at translating his insights into a format more consumable by people who don’t think the way he does.
I don’t think that is strong enough motivation. Pride is the greatest sin and the NT folks take great pride in being NT. They and their NT ilk with praise each other and fluff each other and all bask in the glow of the collective smugness. Jews and Christians are taught to be humble and giving, but the NT folks just want to feed their pride. Now some are able to monetize their NT actions, but what a lowly way to earn money.
Mitt Romney is the most prominent example of this, but with him it’s even deeper; a Mozart-Salieri thing. Romney loathes Trump and resents God himself for bestowing on Trump the presidency he was born and bred for.
Also, he accomplished some things in four short years that the GOP mandarins have been promising yet not delivering for decades — an unpardonable sin.
The words are a big part of it. I notice the ruling class think words are reality. If they speak it, define it, present it, give a speech, do the right talking points, tell the correct narrative then what they say becomes the reality. Thus we are in a panic about climate catastrophe modeled to happen a hundred of years in the future. Shutdown cheap energy for expensive “clean” energy that can not scale as they want. We can change energy policies and be hostile to companies or countries and expect them to take the abuse and not adjust their policies accordingly. We get in full scale culture battles over definitions as simple as man and woman and destroy those that do not adjust their mindset to the new political acceptable definitions. For a while, with enough social, political and monetary pressure they can bend reality but eventually the universe will snap back.
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
So much this. Even the most dedicated MAGA acolyte should recognize President Trump’s struggle with humility. The most full-bore MAGA-Trumpers will minimally admit some of his flaws. At the same time, NTers seem to never admit to President Biden & Obama & Ms. Clinton’s (just to name a few) flaws and issues with conceit. Probably include President Bush by the time he left office. I rarely IF EVER hear mention of President Biden’s or Obama’s arrogance or issues with Ms. Clinton’s pretensions or vanity driven comments on social media from NTers. So what gives NTers?
Today the hubris and self-celebration of so many NTers is simply off the charts. Is it cognitive dissonance, lack of self-awareness or projection? It presents itself mostly in the form of virtue signaling on Schwarzenegger-level steroids. NTers claim some moral high ground in the face of ever lowering morality in their own actions and words.
The problem seems to lie that NTers can’t even find value in President Trump’s numerous accomplishments during his obstructed 4 years in office: Relative peace in the Middle East (and Ukraine/Russia); lowest historical employment rate; energy independence; lowest illegal immigration numbers in nearly 50yrs; massive reduction in regulations; highest minority and female small business and employment rates (EVER). I can continue with this list of successes but it becomes quite tedious in the face of our current administration’s failures.
The hostility toward Trump for his failure to speak in hieratic language was also a driver of hostility toward Sarah Palin.
Henry, great post.
By way of reply to both you and Henry, this reminded me of something. First, I mean to give no offense here, but I would offer another parallel with the theater. I did a play in college at the end of the same year I took an acting class and Theatre Production. I was inadvertently part of a self-appointed elite couture group. It was a strange thing, but there, also, was another language and I understood it, was accepted, and wanted no part of it.
It was the mutual self-congratulation that was a turn off, and the assumption of a higher status. This probably isn’t a mystery to any of you, Hollywood is currently slapping you upside the head with this attitude, trying to convert the heathen. This patrician arrogance is all too apparent. And yet some of the best in the field don’t have a trace of it, the attitude seems reserved for the insecure, something success never quite cures.
Trump did not beg acceptance and did not speak the language, as you say. They wanted their favorites who did and were (are) infuriated they didn’t get their way. That part I’ve understood for some time, but this bit you’ve added is important. And I have to disagree with Don because it is enough motivation. He broke open the gate they appointed themselves to guard and shattered their illusion of power. They’ll never forgive him for it.
Great callback. I wish Trump was as hot as Sarah Palin though. It would have made all those speeches and interviews easier on the eyes.
That’s what Melania is for, Henry.
Steve Bannon talks a lot about the “priest class”. They are your betters. They have credentials and secrets and you will have trust their pronouncements. The priest class does not tolerate anyone disrupting their status.
Speaking of games, I think the Democrats treat politics and the law like Calvin-ball. The rules are what they say they are at the time they say it.
This. We act like the constitution means something but it is obvious it only means something to a small subset of citizens. To the bulk of the citizens it is an occasional tool to beat up their enemies and ignore the rest of the times. Notice how Biden says he can not forgive student debt but can now do so and nobody will be able to find standing to resist. Eventually it might be stopped, years after it has been done.
And when much of Trump Prosperity got whacked at the end by the lockdown, he and his policies were blamed for everything. But when Biden undid everything Trump instituted, and everything immediately got worse, much worse, Covid was blamed.
Then as the lockdown pressure was eased and things tried to adjust back toward normal, Biden took all the credit for the “unprecedented” growth.
They’re good at the “ the sun rises because the rooster crows” game.
The similarity to the Imperial Court in Rakugon, based on the Imperial courts in Japan, but the same as in China and other monarchies, is that for the courtiers status is everything. A well connected courtier can tell a bald faced lie and it will be assumed to be true because to question it is to question the system itself and that “just isn’t done” ™.
In our current world, Harry Reid can go on the floor of the Senate and sya he has proof thta Mitt Romney never paid taxes and he isn’t questioned. Even after the election, when asked about his lie his reply was “it worked didn’t it”. Was there punishment? No. Censure? No. The same was true of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The FBI is investigating Trump, therefore he must be guilty because they said so. They said Hillary was innocent so she was. It’s all their word, and their word is truth because of their position. If a bunch of Intel people say that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, then it was, until it didn’t matter anymore.
It’s a sort of Kabuki theater where we all pretend that the lies are truths because the courtiers have the power.
John McCain must have hated himself for the last ten years of his life.
We shall see what happens in the 2022 election. Only twice in recent history has the out of power party failed to gain seats in the midterm elections. Republicans were poised to make huge gains, taking back the Senate and a landslide in the House. But along the way, something happened. The MAGA base and Trump insisted upon nominating candidates whose primary claim to fame was that Trump actually won the 2020 election.
In Arizona, Trump endorsed candidates won the Republican nomination for Senator, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General, not by majorities by pluralities in multiple candidate races.
But Arizona is 35% Republican, 34% Independent and 31% Democrat. Those Trumpy candidates are failing with Independents, and have thoroughly roused the Democrats from their slumber and depression. The NT faction of the Republican Party refuses to go away. (We are here to stay.) Those Trump endorsed candidates are falling farther and farther behind. The RNC has pulled money from Blake Masters the Trump endorsed candidate for Senate.
It is possible that at the end of the day, the only significant statewide Republican to win will be State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, the fourth highest statewide office. What distinguishes her from the Senator, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General candidates? She was not endorsed by Trump. Will the party learn its lesson? Questionable. However, losing has a way of waking people up. For better or worse, the Trump base is not enough to win general elections.
John McCain was a loved Arizonan who never won with less than 60% of the vote.
If the GOP loses because of Democrat corruption I am sure you and your will blame Trump. If the GOP does well then I am sure you will say it was in spite of Trump.
Which says much about Arizona.
Maybe, McCain was arrogant enough that he likely felt that anything he did was golden, even if it was pure evil…because he did it of course. He started his career graduating 894th out of 899 at Annapolis demonstrating a remarkable disregard for authority, tradition, and rules. He ended his career the same way with is infamous thumbs down on repealing the ACA (that he had campaigned to do) so that he could stick it to Trump. He went to his grave I suspect with no regrets for anything he did, and we knew what kind of man he was from his start.
That may be more of an indictment of Arizonans than a compliment to McCain. He was an entitled scumbag his entire life. That he hoodwinked so many for so long is yet one more example of the stupidity of large numbers of people, and demonstrates the inherent corruption of our electoral system. Your continuing to bring him up as an example of someone who you claim deserves respect just shows how little you pay attention to issues beyond your nose. His political career came down to two things, only one of which he controlled. One was his being a POW in Viet Nam, and the other was his knifing of conservatives in the back at critical junctures so that the media and the left would admire him.
I wonder if, because Washington DC is largely a city without a native citizenry (that is, they all came from somewhere else) that many of the residents, now living among and/or comprising the ruling class, hold a great resentment for the places they left. So when a Sarah Palin comes along and speaks as one of those residents of hated flyover country — the place from which they fled — they recoil in horror.
Short version: Washington DC consists of refugees from the America that they could not abide.
One reason why I hold “Arizonan Republicans” in low regard.
Speaking of which, how’s that racist Democrat you’re supporting for Governor doing?
The base only expanded after 2016. We didn’t need you then. We didn’t need you in 2020. Trump was so well-loved that you and your fellow Democrats had to steal the election in order to get your pal Joe Biden in the White House.
The last 20 years of his life were a big long ego trip. I bet he loved it. He made about 200 appearances on the Sunday talk shows, which is a lot of stroking of his ego.
If memory serves, McCain’s vote was needed on a motion to proceed and he came back to DC to vote to proceed. Then McCain addressed the Senate and said that what he needed was for the ACA to be sent back to the HELP (Health, Educational, Labor Pensions) Committee under regular order for them to write up the Senate’s own bill instead of just voting on the House’s bill. McConnell at Trump’s urging put the bill on the floor, calling McCain’s bluff. If you know anything about McCain, you don’t call McCain’s bluff.
This is another example of how Trump’s bullying just didn’t work. Trump can’t negotiate worth a damn; note the absence of an Infrastructure Bill under Trump, while Biden got one done,
Oh Drew.
Trump has demanded immediate elections. There is absolutely no provision for that under the constitution. So Drew, how’s that _____ Trump doing?
Oh Drew, the 2020 elections were lost not stolen. Trump has his own self to blame for his loss.