Which brings us back to Mr. Trump, 2024, Haitian cat-eaters and the end of everything. Because this unmooring, this mixing of real and unreal, this taking things literally but not seriously, or seriously but not literally, also helps to explain a lot about current American politics. Politics, it can seem, has internalized the logic of reality TV, except now the future of the planet, rather than a bachelor's rose, is at stake. Mr. Trump clearly understands how to operate in this particular version of the upside down, collaborating with his audience to create shareable moments that are full of in-jokes and provocations, perpetual-motion meme machines. How could he say all those outrageous things? Doesn't he know people are going to be shocked? Well, of course, he says them specifically because people will be shocked. He has succeeded in making himself the most most-hated man in America, and the rewards, at least until this moment, have been huge.