The outrage machine doesn’t care what you actually saw. It cares what it can accuse you of seeing.
Let me say upfront that the Trump video outrage media circus this week is exactly the kind of thing they do every time a video gets posted. Nobody watches the whole thing. Then the people who did watch the whole thing—and they always watch the whole thing—tell everyone else to be upset about the part at the end. The part I didn’t get to. Because I stopped watching. Because I was tired. It was late.
According to The New York Times, who I don’t usually read but Denise left it open on the iPad, the president posted a 62-second video late Thursday night. The first part was about voter fraud in Georgia. Important stuff. Stuff they don’t want you looking at. Then apparently there was something at the end that everyone decided to lose their minds over.
What I Saw and What I Didn’t
I want to be very clear. I watched the first thirty seconds. Maybe thirty-five. The election integrity content. That’s the part that matters. Then my phone died. Or I put it down. One of those. The point is, I did not see whatever they’re saying was at the end, and even if I had seen it, context matters.
Now Denise, who apparently watched the whole thing because she doesn’t have the discipline to stop at the relevant part, made a face. The face she makes when she wants me to say something I’m not going to say. She said, “Brent.” Just my name. Nothing else. That’s her way of trying to control what I think. I told her I was forming my own opinion. She went to bed.
The Real Issue Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s what the outrage mob doesn’t want you to think about. The press secretary called it “an internet meme video.” And she’s right. That’s what it was. A meme. I’ve forwarded memes before. At work. One time. In 2019. HR pulled me into a meeting about it. They called it “racially insensitive.” It was a cartoon. About a lion. There were animals in it. Animals aren’t races, last time I checked. I was written up. I’m still upset about it.
The point is, they do this every time. They take something that was clearly a joke—a joke I didn’t see, to be clear—and they make it into a federal case. Even Republicans were piling on. Tim Scott said he hoped it was fake. Why would he hope that? Unless he knows something about what’s in it. Which I don’t. Because I stopped watching.
Trump Video Outrage Media and the Meme Problem
The president said he only saw the beginning. I believe him because I also only saw the beginning. We’re the same in that way. Busy men who don’t have time to watch every second of every video before sharing it. I’ve shared things without reading the whole article. Everyone has. My brother-in-law sent me something last Thanksgiving that turned out to be from a website that—look, the point is, nobody reads everything. That’s not a crime. That’s efficiency.
The media wants you to believe that posting a video means you endorse every frame. By that logic, I endorsed whatever was in that email in 2019, which I did not. I was scrolling. I was multitasking. The HR woman said “intent doesn’t matter, impact does.” I still think about that sometimes. Usually when I’m scrolling late at night and I almost share something but then I watch the whole thing first. Just in case.
But the president is a busy man. He doesn’t have time to vet every meme. That’s what staffers are for. He said he gave it to someone. They should have caught it. Whatever “it” is. I’m told it was bad. I haven’t looked. I won’t look. Looking at it now would be giving them what they want.
Denise asked me this morning if I’d seen “the part.” I said which part. She said “Brent, you know which part.” I told her I didn’t. She made the face again. The 2019 face.
They call it outrage. I call it awareness. And I’m full of it.
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