Priming "American carnage:" reality television and Donald J. Trump

This essay uncovers how and why so many U.S. Americans so easily and so gleefully accepted the tenets of Donald J. Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) platform by arguing that U.S. American culture was effectively primed for MAGA values through reality television (RTV) consumption. At a nexus of genres that include "man v. nature," "redneck," "dirty" job romanticization, and "copaganda," RTV primed the U.S. for Trumpism by presenting audiences with a harsh, violent, and nostalgic view of reality in an altogether entertaining format. This essay positions three RTV programs-Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People, and Appalachian Outlaws-as useful heuristics in demonstrating how RTV further foregrounded MAGA values of white hegemony, hegemonic masculinity, carnivalesque violence, and nostalgia in American culture.