Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, July 09, 2026

Researchers Peter Allen, David Moon: Politics is the activity through which power and resources are allocated across society -- who gets what, when and how. Politics, and what it does to all of our lives, is consequential. Yet, despite this, many of those who pay the most attention to politics do so from the position of a fan, engaging with it in the way that others engage with entertainment forms like sport and television shows. Previous studies have paid attention to the fandoms and anti-fandoms that develop around individual politicians and movements - in other words, they maintain a focus on the behaviours and actions of these fans of politics. By contrast, in this paper we explore the construction of politics itself as an object of fandom, asking what happens to politics when it is treated in this way. The activity of politics can be socially constructed by humans to serve some purpose. Thus, who does the constructing and how they do this, affects what it becomes. Our claim is that constructing politics as an object of fandom (i.e. constructing it as 'the drama') affects politics itself.

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The White House's "Freedom Fuel" gas station was quietly a Sunoco until they rebranded it for a July 3 photo op. Street View shows the same station selling gas for $2.99 in November 2024 -- before Trump took office. Now the White House is calling $3.47 a win.

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-- MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 5:30 PM · Jul 7, 2026

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Based on this article:

Kayfabe, Smartdom and Marking Out: Can Pro-Wrestling Help Us Understand Donald Trump?

journals.sagepub.com

Which was:

"A unique study from PoLIS academic, Dr David Moon, has been shortlisted for The Best Paper Award 2022' by Political Studies Review."

www.bath.ac.uk

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-07-08 05:52 PM | Reply

Good point. It's the show. I used to see them when I was a kid and we traveled with the circus. They'd be on the midway, mouths agape. On the couple of occasions when the show played the same venue as a carnival you'd really see them out and about, in droves. I think the circus was too complicated for them. But a carnival? Whoa! These are the marks Trump targets and they are why he boasts with a sneer, "I love the uneducated." He probably does not actually know what that word really means, his own education being so limited, but for him it's the same as "stupid." They are his bread and butter.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-07-09 07:29 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

This slow talking dork again?

#3 | Posted by THEBULL at 2026-07-09 07:53 AM | Reply

Trump is a dork, yes, but.he often yip-yaps fast, like a salesman who doesn't want what he says examined too carefully. So, dork? Definitely. Slow talking? Not so much. But thanks for your input.

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-07-09 08:06 AM | Reply

This slow talking dork again?

#3 | POSTED BY THEBULL

If the Dotard talks too slow this happens:

"We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan," Trump said.

#5 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-07-09 11:36 AM | Reply

- I was a kid and we traveled with the circus.

Doc, that was you!

I loved the movie:

video.disney.com

#6 | Posted by Corky at 2026-07-09 11:48 AM | Reply

MAGA folk like Der Dotard because he says what they think: Their neighbor's wife has a nice rack, their kids are stupid, church is a waste of time, and the only way to get ahead is to grift. No MAGA adherent can name a single act, law or policy which Trump enacted and which helps those MAGA folk, but they will declare unto death that their leader is 'doing a great job'. Pah...

#7 | Posted by catdog at 2026-07-09 12:18 PM | Reply

#1 | Posted by Corky

Really ?.... You and the other broads in the DR ladies auxillary must have had too much wine ..
Biden is " good as ever"... Am Joe... Platner is " my kind of man"... Liz Warren
-- " fine people"... Hunters laptop and too many more...MANY TO LIST...

And you dopes sucked all that down in one swallow....

" You people" are nuts

#8 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-07-09 02:39 PM | Reply

And you're drunk

#9 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-07-09 02:50 PM | Reply

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