These People Are Soft

Bad Bunny just exposed the MAGA movement.

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However much you laughed at Kid Rock’s TPUSA halftime show—or at the MAGA influencers tripping over themselves to call it “epic”—it wasn’t enough. We didn’t mock them nearly hard enough last night. These people should be clowned, loudly and relentlessly, every time they pull ridiculous shit like this.

After yesterday’s dueling halftime shows—if we can even call them that—I’ve got two main takeaways.

First: I hate the people in our politics (yes, on the left too) who feel the need to politicize everything. Not everything has to be a culture-war battlefield. The NFL didn’t pick Bad Bunny as some secret pro-immigration statement. They picked him because he’s a world-class performer and one of the most popular artists on the planet.

I’ve seen him act in movies (he was hysterical in Happy Gilmore 2), host SNL, headline pro-wrestling pay-per-views—and now, crush the Super Bowl halftime show. The dude brings eyeballs. More importantly, he puts on a damn good show.

I may not speak Spanish, but the message was unmistakable: love, joy, community, and celebration. The performance transcended language and came across as vibrant, joyful, and beautifully produced. They had a literal wedding in the middle of the Super Bowl. Why isn’t that what people are talking about?

Because the right-wing ecosystem couldn’t help itself.

What stands out most is how MAGA manages to center everything around itself, or around Trump. If this kind of petty fixation weren’t enough, it reflects a broader pattern in the administration: energy spent on grievance, spectacle, and culture-war commentary instead of governing. The president of the United States is posting about the Super Bowl, critiquing performances, and fueling outrage, while real issues facing Americans go unaddressed.

That’s the point of culture-war outrage. It’s the cheapest distraction the powerful have ever invented.

So we don’t notice the Epstein class getting away with abusing children. So we don’t notice Trump’s net worth magically jumping $4.5 billion. So we don’t notice that paychecks don’t stretch as far anymore, or that the American Dream feels like a fantasy for more than half the country.

They feed off division. And the only proper response is to mock the hell out of them—to make this behavior socially radioactive again. To run it out of polite society. Also, Trump calling Bad Bunny’s dancing “inappropriate for children” is laughable coming from a man whose own moral record has been steeped in scandal and association with some of the darkest figures imaginable.

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Second: these people are soft.

They cosplay strength and patriotism and toughness, but it’s all performance. All projection. And deep down, everyone knows it.

After the Super Bowl, conservative influencers posted that if Democrats win, every day in America will look like that “disgusting” halftime show.

You mean… people singing in the streets? Beautiful people dancing? A spontaneous wedding? Joy? Love?

Sounds terrifying.

And yes—racism is a big part of it. They’re melting down because someone they consider a “fake American” headlined the biggest stage in sports. Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican. Puerto Rico is part of the United States. But the language and culture felt foreign to them, and that scares them. The Trump administration asserts control over Puerto Rico by law, but still questions the legitimacy of its people and culture. That hypocrisy is hard to ignore.

I’ve debated a lot of these pro-Trump talking heads. The whole MAGA Mount Rushmore of mediocrity. And every single time I walk away thinking the same thing: these are the softest people I’ve ever met.

I once debated a guy on Piers Morgan who said Cynthia Erivo playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar shook his entire faith. I told him exactly what he was: fragile. If a Black queer woman playing Jesus breaks your belief system, the problem isn’t the performance—it’s you.

If your patriotism crumbles because a Puerto Rican sang upbeat music at a football game, you’re not strong. You’re soft.

That’s why it drives me nuts when Democratic pundits are afraid to step into right-wing spaces. Go on Fox. Go on Newsmax. Go do a Daily Wire show. They’ll have you. These people aren’t tough. They’re just weird.

And hosting your own Super Bowl halftime show? That’s not patriotism—it’s just weird. If some lefty group tried to counter-program the Super Bowl with Carole King and James Taylor, it would also be weird. (And I love them both.)

Don’t be weird.

How much better would this country be if fewer people acted like goddamn weirdos and more people actually tried to help other human beings?

Maybe Trump would finally realize he’s unpopular not because of “the media” or some shadowy cabal—but because the economy’s crashing, ICE is killing people in our streets, his corruption is brazen, and the government covered up the largest pedophile ring in U.S. history.

But he won’t. Because keeping people angry and divided is easier than fixing anything. And because fear is the only fuel these people have left.

They’re scared of November. That’s why they’ll try to meddle with the election again. But this time, the movement’s too big. This time, people see through it.

And none of that requires turning everything into a war.

It’s okay to watch the Super Bowl and just enjoy it. Watch the commercials. Watch the game. Love the halftime show. Turn it off if it’s not your thing. Life’s hard. The economy’s rough. People are exhausted. Sometimes we should be allowed to shut our brains off and enjoy something without being dragged into a propaganda spiral.

But these people won’t let you.

And that’s why we have to mock them.

Because they’re being weird.