Brand-Aids.

Kayfabe. White power.

Heard of Brand-Aids? Now you have. But is this real? How do you know?

Let’s be real about real: you don’t rely on evidence. You go with your gut. When something seems off, you might check it, but if it coheres to the world you know and navigate daily without issue? Who has the time to launch an investigation, or read the fine print. 

But really, is this real? Well, it certainly could be. That’s why we’re asking the question in the first place, right? So maybe real is the wrong word. Perhaps we agree: real or not, it’s convincing. And the fakes keep getting deeper.

Eating the Onion happens when you’re not paying enough attention, but there’s another ingredient to factor in: gut instinct gone wrong. Something failed to signal satire, and instead swallowed a big bite of unreality. On the flip side, it’s satisfying to be savvy to the reality grift. We have an entire genre for it. And you know those millennials? The ones with the surreal humor that doesn’t make any sense? They’re just finding a way to laugh at a world where reality has been bankrupted. 

So what’s the deal with those who have welcomed a different set of bacteria, an alternative set of gut instincts? Someone once told me that to understand Trump, you have to understand kayfabe. They know it’s all fake, but it’s the performance that counts. The spectacle. It’s convincing. The incredible made believable by outstanding commitment. 

Now I’m looking at OK turn into code for white power. Now I’m seeing fictional QAnon influence the factual election. In times like these, it feels like Poe’s law is the only one left. Everything else I thought I knew just isn’t convincing enough anymore.